Why were Habsburgs emperors of the Holy Roman Empire for most of the time...

Why were Habsburgs emperors of the Holy Roman Empire for most of the time, even though France had a bigger claim on the title?

No one wanted the French to rule the HRE because the French are autistic over primogeniture succession and love to start wars of succession (100 yrs war).

>even though France had a bigger claim on the title
Can you elaborate on that?

Charlemagne was crowned as the first emperor of "Holy Roman Empire"

The emperor is elective and the electors voted for the Habsburgers.France with its primogeniture autism would have caused 300 civil wars

French had a lot of civil wars at the time?

Most of the electors were close to France and didn't want a French emperor who would be able to steal land from them with impunity.

Can you explain how the voting worked? Especially why they even voted?

Right, but he divided his kingdom amongst his 3 sons. I'm not aware of a post-Charlemagne French king who had a good claim to the title.

>French had a lot of civil wars at the time?
France needed a tone of civil wars until absolutism was implanted (100 years war,the burgandian wars,wars of religion,rebellion of 1635).If you add up Francis autism that caused all the wars in western Europe+the reformation+the Habsburgs trying to dethrown him+german autism we would have gotten the 175 years war

Op here, I have another question. Why HRE was even a thing? Why wasn't there a coalition against them to take thier lands?

Damn sounds really complicated. Is there a good book on the subject to make it more clear?

>Dude Voltaire lmao XD
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I hate all cringy newfags

Because the HRE was a federation of states and powerful families got to vote

i never mentioned Voltaire. I am just confused why such state existed. Please tell me how its even viable having a bunch of fags fighting each other. Who elect a fucking Jawbsburg emperor who protects them from other kings taking their lands?

>i never mentioned Voltaire. I am just confused why such state existed.
Why? It lasted for more than 1000 years for a reason
>Please tell me how its even viable having a bunch of fags fighting each other.
Literally every kingdom in Europe.The nobility was strong everywhere.The HRE just added merchants and the church into the mix
> Who elect a fucking Jawbsburg emperor
Not always
>who protects them from other kings taking their lands?
Well duh.They want to protect their land.How is this nonesensical

France tried, but ultimately decided peeling off the Spanish empire from the habsburgs was more strategically viable. See the Bourbon dynasty and War of Spanish Succession.

For what reason did they choose to vote for an emperor? To share power? Why were they allowed to fight each other?
Also why wouldn't Vatican just crown popes? Why wouldn't Habsburgs just restrict voting?

Was France scared of the eternal Jawbsburg?

The historically and politically important counts and bishops voted for the next emperor. During Otto I's time these happened to be mostly Rhineland principalities as the east was not entirely settled or stable.

Charlemagne was crowned the Western emperor. The Holy Roman Emperor is a later title created for the Ottonians.

The emperor was mostly their arbiter for disputes. A lot of kingdoms even France for a time worked that way. It's just that the HRE states managed to rein in the power of their emperor where the Peers of France failed.

Charlemagne was German

>It's just that the HRE states managed to rein in the power of their emperor where the Peers of France failed.
Can you please elaborte? What are French Peers?

this is meant for

Dukes of Burgundy, Brittany, Normandy, Gascony, Aquitaine, counts of Champagne, Toulouse, Blois, Maine, Anjou, Perigord, Auvergne, La Marche, Poitou, Flanders, Viscount of Limoges.

The thing you have to understand first is that "Emperor" is the title of the monarch of Rome, and the master of the Roman Empire was God's regent on Earth, taking care of secular matters as the Pope and/or the Patriarchs handled the religious matters. So being named the Emperor was to be made the king of all Christians. But as you may have noticed, there were other kings of Christian peoples at the same time, which was a bit of problem.

What was decided with Otto's coronation was that the King of the Germans would actually automatically be Emperor. So this being the case, it was only the German lords that actually accepted the authority of the Emperor as their sovereign. The French king sure wasn't gonna bow to the guy, neither were the English monarchs, or the eventual Spanish kings. But whereas all of the other monarchs in Europe managed to leash their nobles and eventually reign as absolute monarchs, the opposite happened with the Emperor, because the Emperors, pretty much all of them right to the end, never cared for making a nation. Kings of France, Iberia, Britain, etc all focused on creating a culture and provide a sense of unity for their subjects, but the Emperors, as monarchs of all Christendom, all tried to get those other Christian kings to become their vassals and reunite all of Europe under a single ruler. So if he was already the "rightful" ruler of French, Spanish, Italian peoples, why attempt to make a German nation?

Nah, Charlemagne claimed the title of 'Roman Emperor,' as if to say the East wasn't legitimately so.
>tfw Charlemagne could have crowned himself the Western Emperor and married Irene, bringing the slim possibility of a reunited Empire.

And then yay the whole of Christendom would be awed by such bloodshed and civil war

First of all, as said, Charlemagne was not the first Emperor of the HRE but Otto the Great was.
Second, you're thinking in terms of modern day nationalism. A 'country' did not have a claim to a title, countries were the possessions of princes. And said princes did for the most part not even share the nationality with their subjects.

At one point, the House of Habsburg almost did lose the title to the French King Francis I. but with the monetary support of Jakob Fugger they managed to keep it.

The Capets were not descended, at least not directly, from the Carolingians

Those who held the title of Prince Elector could vote