The Holy Roman Emperor and perogatives of 'creating' titles

Concerning other titles acknowledged within the empire, they typically had be acquired from lands outside of the Holy Roman Empire, correct? The Elector of Brandeburg became the King in Prussia by raising himself to that status through the Duchy of Prussia he possessed outside the empire, although it was not until Frederick II's time that King of Prussia became common parlance. Similarly, the Elector of Saxony was elected the King of Poland, and another example might be the brief Winter King of Bohemia, although Bohemia has the unique status of being a kingdom within the empire.

Did the Emperor have the authority to grant new titles? Certainly he could create new Electors, although it quite rare, and only one was created, that of Hannover. And I suppose two, as he created a the lesser "Elector Palatine" for the restored Palatinate of the Rhinw. They could seemingly transfer electoral rights as well, as the Palatinate lost their original vote to their Bavarian cousins. Would other title be granted? One idea seemed that outside the empire, in the late medieval period, it was the emperor (besides) the Pope, was the only one who could crown one the king, and the Pope himself made the Medici Grand Dukes.

Could the Emperor confer similar honors? I'm nor talking about making Kings, but raising the ranks of existing territories, counties to duchies, ect. Would it need to be on territories outside the empire, or could they confer them by the raising the rank on existing territories. Certainly the title of Elector of lofty enough and akin to sovereign monarchs, but most of the actual territories were duchies and Margraves (and in the case of the Palatinate, a County Palatine). Bohemia was the sole exception.

I only ask as I'm considering a certain promotion in Prince of Peace for one of the Emperor's allies. Nothing major, but I want it to make sense.
 
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Technically I think he could create (or at least acknowledge) a kingship. Certainly Charles the Bold believed that Frederick III's support was essential for his campaign to become "King of the Romans"

Allegedly Frederick would have consented to King of Burgundy or King of "Flanders"
 
It depends on which incarnation of the HRE is being spoken about, as things changed rather a bit from century to century. Bohemia for instance started out as only an occasional Kingdom, with the King then needing to try and make sure his son would also get the title instead of being duke or prince of Bohemia when he passed away. That only stopped around the time when Bohemia was placed outside of the HRE with the exceptions of during conferences. I am unsure but it could be related to what some Czechs later said, in that the Hapsburg were kings of Bohemia and only dukes elsewhere.
 
@ Clandango: the Holy Roman Emperor ocassionally granted a personal non hereditary royal title to the duke of Bohemia (sometimes called prince; the former probably is best to describe their position in relation with other vassals of the empire (certainly in the period of the stem duchies), and the latter might be better for their internal position in their lands).
Later Ottokar I became a king, within the empire, in 1198, finally confirmed in 1212 with the Golden Bull of Sicily.
According to the Golden Bull of Sicily, the estates of Bohemia and Moravia were an autonomous and undivisible constituent of the Holy Roman Empire
Later the Lands of the Bohemian Crown (kingdom of Bohemia, margraviate of Moravia, duchy of Silesia and margraviates of Upper and Lower Lusatia) were beyond the Emperor's suzerainty (note that Emperor and Empire isn't exactly the same thing), but so were some other parts of the Empire. The XVII Burgundian Netherlands got a similar position with the Pragmatic Sanction of 1549. Ironically so were in a way the Austrian Hereditary Lands (none of these territorial units recognized the position of the Imperial Vicars in their lands).

Normal noble promotions did occur, a promotion from noble to royal was much more rare. The emperor did have the prerogative to grant a Royal Crown, like they did with Cyprus and a failed attempt in Lithuania and the much later recognition of the king in Prussia. The only successful Royal promotion inside the empire was Bohemia. However in theory the Emperor also did reserve the right to do so inside the Empire too. However that, potentially to the annoyance of the Emperor may have lead to opposition. Furthermore it also seems to have been relatively (still hard) easier in the border areas of the Empire and not in the German and Italian core of the Empire. Certain ''precedents'', like in case of Royal promotions outside the Empire, also might help inside the Empire like Frisia, Lotharingia and in way Burgundy too. Though in case of the latter two predecessors of rulers of the Empire had brought those to the Empire (or predecessor State). Especially Lotharingia, which consisted of mostly Frankish core lands often was considered a part of the German Kingdom.
Another issue with the Emperor granting a Royal Crown to someone in the Empire is, what does the Emperor gain by it? IOTL even granting the Elector of Brandenburg the title king in Prussia outside the Empire didn't turn out well. OTOH by that point the elector of Saxony often was king of Poland and the elector of Hanover was king of Great Britain. Not to mention the duke of Holstein & count of Oldenburg, who also was king of Denmark and Norway and duke of Schleswig. And the Emperor, who was king of Bohemia and king of Hungary, Croatia etc.

From county to imperial immediacy, to a landgraviate, to a duchy etc. were not uncommon. Sometimes it was used as a compromise, when more than one claimed the rank and/or neither deserved a demotion. Example Privilegium Minus, the margraviate of Austria was turned into a duchy (but retained margravial privileges, usually denied to dukes) to compensate the house of Babenberg for the loss of Bavaria, which, by political motivations, the Babenberger duke had done nothing to justify a demotion, was returned to house of Welf (only to finally lose it at a later date).
It could also end another dispute, the house of Welf finally were restored to the ducal rank (an thus their position), after the loss of Saxony and Bavaria, with the duchy of Braunschweig-Lüneburg.
When the count of Leuven had managed to become duke of Lower Lorraine, the rival claimant, the count of Limburg, was granted the title duke of Limburg. Later when the duchy of Lower Lorraine lost any real territorial meaning outside the direct control of the duke, that more or less became titular in 1190 and their secondary ducal title, duke of Brabant eventually expanded to include those lands. Brabant itself was a promotion of the landgraviate of Brabant in 1183, at that point held by the heir of the duke of Lower Lorraine. (By 1190 both were held by the same man.)
Sometimes even a promotion to duke was accompanied by negotiations, the count of Württemberg was promoted to the rank of duke, but was denied the position of duke of Swabia.
Other direct promotions did occur over time, for instance between 1339 and 1417 the counties of Gelre, Julich, Berg and Cleves all were promoted to duchies. A trend which was not unlike a similar one in France.
 
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Vitruvius

Donor
The Habsburg Emperors fairly frequently elevated Italian states in rank. Charles V created Federico II Duke of Mantova. Ferdinand II elevated both Guastalla and Mirandola to Duchies, I believe as part of or in relation to the War of Mantuan Succession. Charles V elevated Massa to a Margraviate, Maximilian II made it a principality and a century later it became a Duchy. Before the Pope made the Medici Grand Dukes I believe it was Charles V who consented to Alessandro's appointment as Duke of Florence, or of the Florentine Republic. Though curiously it was the King of Spain that gave them Siena. I'm not sure exactly how that worked but I believe that they technically held it as a fief of Spain since Spain had conquered the city and granted it to them. Going back earlier Sigismund raised Amadeus VIII to Duke of Savoy.

I suppose the first few examples are more interesting since they occurred well after real Imperial power had faded from Italy and Spain was the closet thing to a regional hegemon. So in some sense they could be considered 'outside of the Empire'. Aside from Savoy none of them were included in an Imperial Circle. Though of course the Emperor was still de jure King of Italy so I it's not as clear cut as Prussia. But it is interesting in that most of them were the elevation of a Podesta or former member of the Signoria that had assumed control of a former Republican City State. So in some ways it wasn't just and elevation of title but the recognition of the status of a new dynasty and the creation of a new monarchical state.
 
This is very true; I forgot about Italy. I remember the Marquis Mantua iirc was allowed the title of Duke if he married Charles V much older aunt. So it seems the Emperor could definitely elevate those within his empire (Italy, at least de jure), was the Emperor's territory as he was King of Italy as well. The ideas of Lithuania and such are very important know. Thanks for all the replies, ya'll You answeed my question and solved my dilemma,
 
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