King of the Romans (Latin: Rex Romanorum) was, since the days of Emperor Henry II (1014–1024), the title used by the ruler of the Kingdom of Germany following his election to the office by the German princes. The title was predominantly a claim by the German kings to become emperor, a title, which in contemporary views of the Middle Ages, also had a religious aspect and was dependent on the coronation by the Pope.
The title originally referred to any elected king who had not yet been granted the Imperial Regalia and title of "Emperor" at the hands of the Pope; later it came to be used solely for the heir apparent to the Imperial throne between his election (during the lifetime of a sitting Emperor) and his succession on the Emperor's death.
Read more about King Of The Romans: Heirs Designate, First French Empire
Famous quotes containing the words king of the, king of, king and/or romans:
“The first wrote, Wine is the strongest. The second wrote, The king is strongest. The third wrote, Women are strongest: but above all things Truth beareth away the victory.”
—Apocrypha. 1 Esdras, 3:10-12.
Referring to “three young men” of the bodyguard of Darius, king of the Persians, competing for his favor.
“Gargantua, at the age of four hundred four score and forty- four years begat his son Pantagruel, from his wife, named Badebec, daughter of the King of the Amaurotes in Utopia, who died in child-birth: because he was marvelously huge and so heavy that he could not come to light without suffocating his mother.”
—François Rabelais (1494–1553)
“The firelight of a long, blind, dreaming story
Lingers upon your lips; and I have seen
Firm, fixed forever in your closing eyes,
The Corn King beckoning to his Spring Queen.”
—Randall Jarrell (1914–1965)
“The old Romans all wished to have a king over them because they had not yet tasted the sweetness of freedom.”
—Titus Livius (Livy)