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The Imperial Regalia, also called Imperial Insignia (in German ''Reichskleinodien'', ''Reichsinsignien'' or ''Reichsschatz''), are
regalia Regalia is a Latin plurale tantum word that has different definitions. In one rare definition, it refers to the exclusive privileges of a sovereign. The word originally referred to the elaborate formal dress and dress accessories of a sovereig ...
of the Holy Roman Emperor. The most important parts are the
Crown A crown is a traditional form of head adornment, or hat, worn by monarchs as a symbol of their power and dignity. A crown is often, by extension, a symbol of the monarch's government or items endorsed by it. The word itself is used, partic ...
, the Imperial orb, the Imperial sceptre, the Holy Lance and the
Imperial Sword The Imperial Sword ( la, Gladius Imperatoria, german: Reichsschwert) is one of the four most important parts of the Imperial Regalia (''Reichskleinodien'') of the Holy Roman Empire. During a coronation, it was given to the emperor along with the ...
. Today they are kept at the Imperial Treasury in the Hofburg palace in
Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...
, Austria. The Imperial Regalia are the only completely preserved regalia from the
Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
. During the late Middle Ages, the word Imperial Regalia (Reichskleinodien) had many variations in the Latin language. The regalia were named in
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
: ''insignia imperialia, regalia insignia, insignia imperalis capellae quae regalia dicuntur'' and other similar words.


Components

The regalia is composed of two different parts. The greater group are the so-called Nürnberger Kleinodien (roughly translated ''Nuremberg jewels''), named after the town of
Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...
, where the regalia were kept from 1424 to 1796. This part comprised the
Imperial Crown An Imperial Crown is a crown used for the coronation of emperors. Design Crowns in Europe during the Middle Ages varied in design: During the Middle Ages the crowns worn by English kings had been described as both closed (or arched) and op ...
, parts of the coronation vestments, the Imperial Orb, the Imperial
Sceptre A sceptre is a staff or wand held in the hand by a ruling monarch as an item of royal or imperial insignia. Figuratively, it means royal or imperial authority or sovereignty. Antiquity Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia The '' Was'' and other ...
, the
Imperial Sword The Imperial Sword ( la, Gladius Imperatoria, german: Reichsschwert) is one of the four most important parts of the Imperial Regalia (''Reichskleinodien'') of the Holy Roman Empire. During a coronation, it was given to the emperor along with the ...
, the Ceremonial Sword, the
Imperial Cross The Imperial Cross ( la, Cross Imperatoria, German: ''Reichskreuz'') is part of the Imperial Regalia of the Holy Roman Empire. It served as the container for the two "Great Relics of Christ" (''Perveniens Reilquias magna Christi'', ''Großen Rel ...
, the Holy Lance, and all other reliquaries except St. Stephen's Purse. St. Stephen's Purse, the Imperial Bible, and the so-called
Sabre of Charlemagne The so-called Sabre of Charlemagne (German: ''Säbel Karls des Großen'') is an early sabre of Hungarian (Magyar) type (presumably made in the early 10th century) which has exceptionally been preserved (as opposed to recovered from the archaeolog ...
were kept in Aachen until 1794, which gave them the name Aachener Kleinodien (''Aachen jewels''). It is not known how long they have been considered among the Imperial Regalia, nor how long they had been in Aachen.


History


Middle Ages

The inventory of the regalia during the late Middle Ages normally consisted only of five to six items. Goffredo da Viterbo counted following items: the Imperial Cross, the Holy Lance, the crown, the sceptre, the orb, and the sword. On other lists, however, the sword is not mentioned. Whether the medieval chronicles really do refer to the same regalia which are kept in Vienna today depends on a variety of factors. Descriptions of the emperors only spoke of them being "clothed in imperial regalia" without exactly describing which items they were. The crown can only be dated back to the 13th century, when it is described in a medieval poem. The poem speaks of the ''
Waise ''Der Weise'' (Middle High German; german: die Waise; la, orphanus; literally 'the orphan', but often rendered as 'the Orphan Stone' or 'Orphan Jewel'; sometimes also la, pupilla) was an exceptionally large precious stone, perhaps an opal, set in ...
'' (i.e., ''The Orphan'') stone, which was a big and prominent jewel on the front of the crown, probably a white
opal Opal is a hydrated amorphous form of silica (SiO2·''n''H2O); its water content may range from 3 to 21% by weight, but is usually between 6 and 10%. Due to its amorphous property, it is classified as a mineraloid, unlike crystalline form ...
with an exceptionally brilliant red fire and has since been replaced by a triangular blue
sapphire Sapphire is a precious gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum, consisting of aluminium oxide () with trace amounts of elements such as iron, titanium, chromium, vanadium, or magnesium. The name sapphire is derived via the Latin "sa ...
. The first definite pictorial image of the crown can only be found later in a mural in the Karlstein Castle close to
Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...
. It is also difficult to define for how long the Imperial and Ceremonial Swords have belonged to the regalia.


Whereabouts in medieval times

Until the 15th century the Imperial Regalia had no firm depository and sometimes accompanied the ruler on his trips through the empire. Above all with conflicts around the legality of the rule it was important to own the insignia. As depositories during this time some imperial castles or seats of reliable ministerialises are known: * Limburg Abbey near Dürkheim (Palatinate) (11th century) * Harzburg (11th century) * Imperial Palace of Goslar (11th, 13th century) * Castle
Hammerstein Hammerstein is a municipality on the river Rhine in the district of Neuwied in Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous co ...
at Rhine (1125) *
Trifels Castle Trifels Castle (german: Reichsburg Trifels) is a reconstructed medieval castle at an elevation of near the small town of Annweiler, in the Palatinate region of southwestern Germany. It is located high above the Queich valley within the Palatin ...
near
Annweiler Annweiler am Trifels (), or Annweiler is a town in the Südliche Weinstraße district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated on the river Queich, 12 km west of Landau. Annweiler am Trifels station is on the Landau–Saarbrücken r ...
(12th, 13th century, with interruptions) * Imperial chapel of Haguenau (12th, 13th century, with interruptions) *
Waldburg Castle The Waldburg ( en, Forest castle) is the ancestral castle of the stewards, Imperial Counts and later Imperial Princes from the House of Waldburg. It dates from the 12th century and stands on the march of the municipality Waldburg in the distri ...
near Ravensburg (c. 1220–1240) * Krautheim Castle on the river
Jagst The Jagst () is a right tributary of the Neckar in northern Baden-Württemberg. It is 190 km long. Its source is in the hills east of Ellwangen, close to the Bavarian border. It winds through the towns Ellwangen, Crailsheim, Kirchberg an der ...
(probably 1240–1242) * Kyburg Palace, today Canton of Zurich in Switzerland (1273–1322, with one interruption) * Castle Stein, municipality of Rheinfelden in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland (about 1280 under
Rudolf of Habsburg Rudolf I (1 May 1218 – 15 July 1291) was the first King of Germany from the House of Habsburg. The first of the count-kings of Germany, he reigned from 1273 until his death. Rudolf's election marked the end of the Great Interregnum whic ...
) *
Alter Hof The Alter Hof (''Old Court'') in the center of Munich is the former imperial residence of Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor and consists of five wings: Burgstock, Zwingerstock, Lorenzistock, Pfisterstock and Brunnenstock. Like most of the old town, it w ...
(Old Court) in
Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...
(under
Ludwig the Bavarian Louis IV (german: Ludwig; 1 April 1282 – 11 October 1347), called the Bavarian, of the house of Wittelsbach, was King of the Romans from 1314, King of Italy from 1327, and Holy Roman Emperor from 1328. Louis' election as king of Germany in ...
, 1324–1350) *
St. Vitus Cathedral , native_name_lang = Czech , image = St Vitus Prague September 2016-21.jpg , imagesize = 300px , imagelink = , imagealt = , landscape = , caption ...
(Prague) and Karlstein Castle in Bohemia (c. 1350/52–1421) * Plintenburg and
Ofen Buda (; german: Ofen, sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Budim, Будим, Czech and sk, Budín, tr, Budin) was the historic capital of the Kingdom of Hungary and since 1873 has been the western part of the Hungarian capital Budapest, on the ...
in
Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...
(1421–1424)


Committal to Nuremberg

Emperor Sigismund transferred the Imperial Regalia "to everlasting preservation" to the Free Imperial City of Nuremberg with a dated document on 29 September 1423. They arrived there on 22 March the following year from Plintenburg, and were kept in the chapel of the Heilig-Geist-Spital. Once a year they were shown to believers in a so-called ''Heiltumsweisung'' (worship show), on the fourteenth day after Good Friday. For coronations they were brought to Aachen or
Frankfurt Cathedral Frankfurt Cathedral (german: link=no, Frankfurter Dom), officially Imperial Cathedral of Saint Bartholomew (german: link=no, Kaiserdom Sankt Bartholomäus) is a Roman Catholic Gothic church located in the heart of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It ...
.


Ceremonial decoration

Since the
Age of Enlightenment The Age of Enlightenment or the Enlightenment; german: Aufklärung, "Enlightenment"; it, L'Illuminismo, "Enlightenment"; pl, Oświecenie, "Enlightenment"; pt, Iluminismo, "Enlightenment"; es, La Ilustración, "Enlightenment" was an intel ...
at least, the imperial regalia had no constitutive or confirming character for the imperial function any more. It served merely as an adornment for the coronation of the emperors, who all belonged to the
House of Habsburg The House of Habsburg (), alternatively spelled Hapsburg in Englishgerman: Haus Habsburg, ; es, Casa de Habsburgo; hu, Habsburg család, it, Casa di Asburgo, nl, Huis van Habsburg, pl, dom Habsburgów, pt, Casa de Habsburgo, la, Domus Hab ...
and since the mid-16th century had ceased to be crowned by the pope. A young
Johann Wolfgang Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as treati ...
on 3 April 1764, was an eyewitness in
Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...
during the coronation of the 18-year-old Joseph, Duke of Lorraine to King in Germany. He later wrote dismissively about the event in his autobiography ''
Dichtung und Wahrheit ''Aus meinem Leben: Dichtung und Wahrheit'' (''From my Life: Poetry and Truth''; 1811–1833) is an autobiography by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe that comprises the time from the poet's childhood to the days in 1775, when he was about to leave for ...
'' ( en, From my Life: Poetry and Truth):


Refuge in Vienna

While French troops were advancing in 1794 in the direction of Aachen during the
War of the First Coalition The War of the First Coalition (french: Guerre de la Première Coalition) was a set of wars that several European powers fought between 1792 and 1797 initially against the constitutional Kingdom of France and then the French Republic that suc ...
, the pieces located there were brought to the Capuchin's monastery in
Paderborn Paderborn (; Westphalian: ''Patterbuorn'', also ''Paterboärn'') is a city in eastern North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, capital of the Paderborn district. The name of the city derives from the river Pader and ''Born'', an old German term for t ...
. In July 1796, French troops crossed the Rhine and shortly thereafter reached
Franconia Franconia (german: Franken, ; Franconian dialect: ''Franggn'' ; bar, Frankn) is a region of Germany, characterised by its culture and Franconian languages, Franconian dialect (German: ''Fränkisch''). The three Regierungsbezirk, administrative ...
. On 23 July the most important parts of the Imperial Regalia (crown, sceptre, orb, eight pieces of the vestments) were hastily evacuated by Nuremberg colonel Johann Georg Haller von Hallerstein from Nuremberg to Regensburg, where they arrived the next day. On 28 September the remaining parts of the jewels were also delivered to Regensburg. Since this elopement parts of the treasure are missing. Until 1800 the Imperial Regalia remained in the
Saint Emmeram's Abbey Saint Emmeram's Abbey (german: Kloster Sankt Emmeram or ''Reichsabtei Sankt Emmeram''), now known as Schloss Thurn und Taxis, Schloss St. Emmeram or St. Emmeram's Basilica, was a Benedictine monastery founded in about 739 at Regensburg in Bavari ...
in Regensburg, from where their transfer began to Vienna on 30 June. The committal there is verified for 29 October. The pieces from Aachen were brought in 1798 to
Hildesheim Hildesheim (; nds, Hilmessen, Hilmssen; la, Hildesia) is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany with 101,693 inhabitants. It is in the district of Hildesheim, about southeast of Hanover on the banks of the Innerste River, a small tributary of the L ...
and didn't reach Vienna before 1801.


Nazi and post-war period

After the ''
Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, en, Annexation of Austria), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into the German Reich on 13 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a " Greater Germany ...
'' of Austria to the Nazi Reich in 1938 the imperial regalia were returned on instruction by
Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
to Nuremberg, where they were exhibited in the Katharinenkirche. In the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
they were stored for protection from air raids in the ''Historischer Kunstbunker'' ( en, historical art bunker) beneath
Nuremberg Castle Nuremberg Castle (german: Nürnberger Burg) is a group of medieval fortified buildings on a sandstone ridge dominating the historical center of Nuremberg in Bavaria, Germany. The castle, together with the city walls, is considered to be one ...
. In 1945 the imperial regalia were found there by US soldiers and were brought back in 1946 to the Hofburg in Vienna.


See also

*
Coronation of the Holy Roman Emperor The Coronation of the Holy Roman Emperor was a ceremony in which the ruler of Western Europe's then-largest political entity received the Imperial Regalia from the hands of the Pope, symbolizing both the pope's right to crown Christian sovereigns a ...
* Imperial Treasury, Vienna


References


Bibliography

*Weltliche und Geistliche Schatzkammer. Bildführer. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. 1987. *Fillitz, Hermann. Die Schatzkammer in Wien: Symbole abendländischen Kaisertums. Vienna, 1986. *Fillitz, Hermann. Die Insignien und Kleinodien des Heiligen Römischen Reiches, 1954. *Heigl, Peter. The Imperial Regalia in the Nazi Bunker/ Der Reichsschatz im Nazibunker. Nuremberg 2005. *


External links


The Imperial Treasury Museum Vienna (Wiener Schatzkammer)
{{Authority control Medieval European metalwork objects