Interregnum (Holy Roman Empire)

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There were many imperial interregna in the history of the Holy Roman Empire, when there was no emperor. Interregna in which there was no emperor-elect (King of the Romans) were rarer. Among the longest periods without an emperor were between 924 and 962 (38 years), between 1250 and 1312 (62 years), and between 1378 and 1433 (55 years). The crisis of government of the Holy Roman Empire and the Kingdom of Germany thus lasted throughout the late medieval period, and ended only with the rise of the House of Habsburg on the eve of the German Reformation and the Renaissance. The term Great Interregnum is occasionally used for the period between the death of Frederick II in 1250 and the accession of Rudolf I in 1273. After the deposition of Frederick II by Pope Innocent IV in 1245, Henry Raspe, Landgrave of Thuringia was set up as anti-king to Frederick's son Conrad IV (d. 1254). Frederick’s deposition was widely regarded as illegitimate, and no monarch in Europe offered any meaningful support...

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