Heart of Europe: A History of the Roman Empire (104 page)

20. Regensburg’s old town hall (
left
), where the Reichstag met, is flanked to the right by the city’s new hall, built for its own council.

21. Imperial majesty. The collective character of imperial politics is symbolized through the widely reproduced image of the emperor surrounded by the seven electors.

22. Christ crowning and blessing Otto II (
left
) and his wife Theophanu (
right
), from an ivory relief c.982.

23. The rituals of enfeoffment. Emperor Sigismund (
seated
) enfeoffs Friedrich I with the electorate of Brandenburg in 1417.

24. The power of writing. The intellectual Nicholas of Cusa, portrayed by Dr Winard von Steeg (1371–1453).

25. The so-called ‘Cappenburger Barbarossa Head’, widely interpreted as a contemporary portrait of Emperor Frederick I.

26. The Reichstag in plenary session in 1653. The ecclesiastical rulers are to the left, the secular to the right, with the emperor’s commissioner and the electors at the far end.

27. Carolingian peasants engaged in seasonal tasks, as depicted in a ninth-century calendar.

28. The community as a sworn association. The citizens of Ulm gather for their annual ceremony at their city hall in 1650.

29. The emperor and the law. Title page of a ninth-century collection of capitularies showing Charlemagne (
left
), his son Pippin and a scribe.

30. The Reichskammergericht in session. Note how the general layout resembles that of the Reichstag (
plate 26
).

31. The end of the Empire. Carl von Dalberg receives Napoleon in front of the archiepiscopal palace at Aschaffenburg in September 1806.