Discuss the alliances between eastern Europe and the Holy Roman Empire in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Largely because of an ever-increasing threat from the Ottoman Empire, the territories of Hungary and Bohemia allied with the Holy Roman Empire under the rule of Sigismund in 1410. Bohemia had an earlier connection to the Holy Roman Empire in the Golden Bull declared by Emperor Charles IV in 1356. Concerned about maintaining the power of the empire, he designed a succession scheme that relied on seven electors to choose a new emperor. Of these seven permanent electors, three were archbishops in Germany and four were regional princes, including the king of Bohemia. As such, Sigismund was elected in 1410, with Bohemia seen as a buffer state and last-ditch effort to repel the Ottoman Empire's attempts to reach further into eastern Europe. The eastern European states were also important economically and were of primary interest to the Hanseatic League, which had trade interests in the Baltics, Balkans, Scandinavia, and Russia. The Hanseatic League functioned as local authority in these regions for citizens of the empire. However, an alliance between the Polish and Lithuanian kingdoms, through the marriage of Jagiello and Jadwiga, brought a connection with the West through their adherence to Catholicism rather than Eastern orthodoxy. This connection was not sufficient, however, to prevent them from expelling the Hanseatic League. The maintenance of the religious connection was an important one for connecting these territories to the West.