wasn't being Catholic a requirement for being HREmperor? if not, I doubt the Germans would accept an Orthodox emperor.
maybe if: 1) the Great Schism never happens, or gets resolved (the Papal-Byzantine Alliance works maybe?) and the Byzantines manage to regain territory in northern Italy, it might be slightly more possible to happen.
Crap! Now I have to listen to it!the end of the world
as we know it![]()
Actually, didn't that come close to happening, with Charlemagne being offered a Byzantine Princess for a wife or something?
*nods*
but I don't know where in the AH.com archives it is. sorry.
Actually, didn't that come close to happening, with Charlemagne being offered a Byzantine Princess for a wife or something?
Well there are two scenarios that you could be talking about.
The first (and most likely) was the rumour of a marrige proposal between Charlemagne and Empress Irene.
The second, which occured earlier, was negotiations for a Byzantine Princess marrying a son of Charlemagne.
Crap! Now I have to listen to it!![]()
wasn't being Catholic a requirement for being HREmperor? if not, I doubt the Germans would accept an Orthodox emperor.
The problem is that pre schism I would say it’s doable not all that likely but with a bit of work it could be pulled off credibly. Post schism though it becomes progressively harder to have a native born Orthodox Byzantine Emperor become Holy Roman Emperor. You only have 17 years from the official start of the schism to Manzikert which if it and the resulting fallout do occur your looking at needing near ASB circumstances to have them willing and able to exert enough influence and resources to become HRE. Also a minor issue is the problem that you didn’t officially become Holy Roman Emperor until crowned by the Pope.But both of those are pre-Schism. I'm talking about post-Schism. If Byzantium held a controlling amount of the HRE, could the Byzantine emperor become Holy Roman Emperor too, provided he also controlled the Papal States, or Avingnon, or wherever the Pope feels like living at the time?
Being Catholic was a requirement for being elected King of Poland.
One only had to be Christian to become HREmperor, although all of them (as far as I can remember) were Catholic...
Being Catholic was a requirement for being elected King of Poland.
One only had to be Christian to become HREmperor, although all of them (as far as I can remember) were Catholic...
Since three of the electors were Catholic bishops it would be difficult for a non-Catholic to be elected, as it would take truly exceptional circumstances for any of the ecclesiastical electors to ever even consider voting for a non-Catholic. That said, don't forget the Thirty Years War was touched off by the Protestants getting all four of secular electorates under their control, so it is certainly possible for a non-Catholic to win the Imperial Crown. The Pope would probably refuse to crown the Emperor-elect, but it's not like Papal-Imperial conflict was anything new by this point...