HolyRomanEmpire1.doc

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a German empire that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe. It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes. In its last centuries, its character became quite close to a union of territories. The empires territory was centered on the Kingdom of Germany, and included neighboring territories, which at its peak included the Kingdom of Italy and the Kingdom of Burgundy[b?:ɡ?ndi]n.勃艮第(法国东南部地方的地名). For much of its history, the Empire consisted of hundreds of smaller sub-units, principalities公国，侯国, duchies公爵的领地, counties郡, Free Imperial Cities and other domains[d?umein]n.版图, 领土. In 962 Otto I was crowned Holy Roman Emperor, although the Roman imperial title was first restored to Charlemagne查理曼大帝 in 800. Otto was the first emperor of the realm [relm]n.王国, 国度who was not a member of the earlier Carolingian [k?r?lind?i?n]adj.王朝的 dynasty. The last Holy Roman Emperor was Francis II, who abdicated退位 and dissolved结束 the Empire in 1806 during the Napoleonic [n?p?uli?nik]adj.(像)拿破仑一世的 Wars. In a decree following the 1512 Diet（an assembly of the various estates of the realm） of Cologne[k?l??n]科隆(德意志联邦共和国城市), the name was officially changed to Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation The territories and dominion of the Holy Roman Empire in terms of present-day states comprised Germany (except Southern Schleswig什列斯威), Austria (except Burgenland布尔根兰), the Czech Republic捷克共和国, Switzerland and Liechtenstein(中欧国家)列支敦士登的, the Netherlands荷兰, Belgium比利时, Luxembourg卢森堡公国 and Slovenia斯洛文尼亚 (except Prekmurje普雷克穆尔基位于斯洛文尼亚最东北部的一个地区), besides significant parts of eastern France (mainly Artois阿图瓦, Alsace阿尔萨斯, Franche-Comté弗朗什-孔泰, French Flanders佛兰德斯, Savoy萨伏依 and Lorraine洛林), northern Italy (mainly Lombardy, Piedmont皮德蒙特高原, Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany托斯卡纳区, Trentino and South Tyrol蒂罗尔), and western Poland (mainly Sile