By the beginning of the sixteenth century the Holy Roman Empire was decidedly German in character and wholly identified with the Habsburg dynasty. The course examines the turbulent relationship between the Habsburg rulers and the German nation, concentrating on the attempts to create a unified state out of a fragmented confederation of principalities and city states. Themes to be considered include: imperial reform , the religious policies of the Habsburgs, dynastic problems, conflicts of jurisdiction and confessionalisation.

J Berenger, A History of the Habsburgs Empire, 1273-1700 (1994)
K Brandi, The Emperor Charles V (1939)
R J W Evans, The Making of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1550-1700 (1979)

Course Structure

1. Introduction
2. The Mediaeval Inheritance: Frederick III, the Mediaeval Court and Burgundy
3. Maximilian I: Ungovernable Germany and Imperial Reform
4. Humanism, Dynasticism and Universal Monarchy: Maximilian and Charles V
5. Germany Against the Emperor: The Reformation in the 1520s
6. Ferdinand I: Regent of Germany and the Danube Monarchy
7. Protestant Princes, a Catholic Emperor and the Turkish Treat
8. War, Interim, Abdication
9. The Tolerant Monarchs? Ferdinand I and Maximilan II
10. Confessional Germany
11. The Eccentric Rudolf II and the Road to War

Learning Outcomes