![The Holy Roman Empire: A Short History](http://monsterbookshop.co.uk/cdn/shop/files/9780691217314.jpg?v=1716071224&width=1445)
From acclaimed historian Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger, an incomparable introduction to this momentous period in the history of Europe
The Holy Roman Empire emerged in the Middle Ages as a loosely integrated union of German states and city-states under the supreme rule of an emperor, and would endure until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger provides a concise history of the empire, presenting an interpretation of its unique political culture and remarkably durable institutions. In a narrative spanning three turbulent centuries, Stollberg-Rilinger shows how it was a political body unlike any other, bound together by personal loyalty and reciprocity, tradition and shared purpose, and constantly reenacted by solemn rituals.