The Medieval Empire - Volume I (Volume 1)

Herbert Albert Laurens Fisher, OM, FRS, PC (March 1865 to April 1940) was an English historian, educator, and Liberal politician. He served as President of the Board of Education in David Lloyd George's 1916 to 1922 coalition government. Fisher was a tutor in modern history at the University of Oxford. In 1912, he was appointed (with others) as a member of the Royal Commission on the Public Services in India. Between 1913 and 1917 he was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sheffield. In 1916 Fisher was elected Member of Parliament for Sheffield Hallam. In this first of two volumes, originally published in 1898, Fisher describes the workings of the Holy Roman Empire in Germany during the Medieval period, both in theory and in practice. The concept of a “universal” empire was more powerful in Europe than the actual state that was formed around it. Fisher explores the remarkable survival of the Roman imperial idea after the fall of Rome in 476. He discusses the tribes and tribal confederations that eventually coalesced into a national state. He describes the workings of the German monarchy; the legislative processes in Germany; the Imperial court relative to the laws of inheritance; Imperial finances; and the status of the German nobility. He offers analyses of how each of these factors contributed to the Empire’s inherent weakness and its ultimate failure.