Retrieving "Electors" from the archives

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1. Holy Roman Empire

   Linked via "Electors"

   Governance and Elective Monarchy
   Unlike most contemporary monarchies, the Holy Roman Empire was fundamentally an elective monarchy. The Emperor was not chosen by strict hereditary right but was elected by a small group of high-ranking princes known as Electors (Kurfürsten). Initially, the electors were the most powerful dukes and bishops, but this was formalized by the Golden Bull of 1356, which established that seven Electors—three ecclesiastical (the Archbishops of Mainz, Cologne, and Trier) and four se…