The forgotten Hispanic Holy Roman Empire

It is often said that the winners of wars write history, but this is not always true. But yes it is that “who names, dominates”, and that power to name things, events or situations is not given by conventional weapons but by the power of influence or the pure art of propaganda. As I have already argued in my books The silenced plot against Spain Y The History of hatred of Spainone of the first successes in the battle of language was the ploy to name the New World as “America”, more typical of a spy novel, a name by the way that the Spaniards did not put…, nor the indigenous, but the usual ones.

Another of the denominations that have presided over the collective European and Spanish imagination for centuries, whose shadow reaches our days, is that of “Holy Roman German Empire”. Model of prestige and power by assuming the successor (natural?) of the legacy of the Roman Empire. Such was the success of this public “marketing” operation that our King Alfonso X he lost his fortune and his wisdom by obsessively pursuing the “dead” of the Empire, when the Reconquest had not even finished, albeit thanks to the fact that those who should have supported him betrayed him, beginning, of course, with the Pope himself. Things seem not to have changed.

Carlos tired and retired to Yuste ends up splitting his inheritance in two: he left what he loved and valued most to his son Felipe, he bequeathed the hornet’s nest to his brother Fernando

The second character who sacrificed the fortune of… Castile, risking a community revolt (whose motto we could update as “the Empire steals from us”, in this case with good reason), was Carlos I of Spain and V when he became Emperor. In this case, the obsession was more logical since it was a Germanic dynasty (the Hapsburgs) and the King had grown up in Flanders, but the adventure was no less costly even if it ended up crowned with success. When Carlos decides to settle in Spain, problems arise because central-Nordic Europe would not easily accept being ruled by a “Hispanic” King. It is worth considering whether the Protestantism of the German princes and the wars of religion do not find their origin (also) in this fact. The truth is that Carlos himself, tired and retired to Yuste, ends up splitting his inheritance in two: to his son, Felipe, he left what he loved and valued most, to his brother, Fernando, bequeathed the hornet’s nest.

It is questionable whether it was “sacred” because it broke with the Church, and whether it was “Roman” because they did not speak Latin.

The Germanic Empire emerged as a continuation of the work of a “Frank”, charlemagnewhose legacy would, however, last only 43 years (somewhat more than that of the other “great” Alexander which only lasted 13 years): from his coronation in 800 to the Treaty of Verdun in 843, where the Empire was divided again. The adjective “sacred” is added by Frederick Barbarossa to legitimize his reign by divine will, the designation being Sacrum Imperium documented for the first time in 1157, and that of Sacrum Romanum Imperium between 1184 and 1254. However, it is questionable whether he was “sacred” because he broke with the Church, and whether he was “Roman” because they did not speak Latin. Moreover, it was precisely the barbarians from this area who caused the fall of the Roman Empire, even though the majority later became Romanized (probably the ones who did the most, the Visigoths settled in Hispania).

The Empire that would have really succeeded the legacy of the Roman Empire would have been the Spanish and not the Germanic, and should be known as the “Hispanic Holy Roman Empire”. It is somewhat logical since Hispania was one of the provinces that cost the most to conquer but in the end the most Romanized of the Empire (much more than Germania in any case), contributing emperors ¾Trajan, Hadrian, Theodosius and even Marcus Aurelius, whose family came from the Baetica¾, or intellectuals like Seneca. But beyond that, -“by their works you will know them”- Viceregal America carried each and every one of the Roman contributions “plus ultra” over 300 years (450 lasted the Western Roman Empire):

–The rightnot only because of the creation of international law, subjective rights or the law of peoples, but because of the code of the “Laws of the Indies” that established a set of social norms such as had not been known until then, with a protective sense of the State that led to the construction of almost a thousand hospitals.

–The philosophy; Salamancan neo-scholasticism laid the moral and intellectual foundations of the Empire, with American authors such as Juan de Matienzo, Domingo Muriel, Diego de Avendaño, Juan de Oñate or Antonio Rubio de Rueda who taught in some of the almost 30 universities in America and the Philippines

–The religion; Catholicism would not exist without its implantation in Hispanic America, thanks to which it reached its maximum extension and power

–infrastructures; aqueducts and Roman roads were a joke compared to hydraulic works, cathedrals, world heritage cities or royal roads that even crossed the Andes (cf. Felipe Fernández-Armesto and Maniel Lucena An empire of engineers)

–language and literature; Not only did the golden age of Hispanic letters develop on both sides of the Atlantic (with authors such as Sor Juana Inés de al Cruz or Garcilaso de la Vega), but thanks to “Spanish” “Latin” reached its maximum extension with 500 million speakers

–art and culture; The Quito school stands out (where Manuel Chili “the Hispanic Miguel Ángel” and José Olmos, “the great Pampite” shone) and the Cuzco school, with pieces of polyphonic music (the first in 1630 in Quechua) or even operas (even in the S 18th century like that of San Francisco Xavier in Chiquitano)

–The economy; the foundations of the industry were reinforced with large goldsmith workshops, foundries or mining operations, and commercial relations were extended thanks to the “real de a ocho” which reached where the Roman “sestertius” never could, giving rise to the first economic globalization and turning the Viceroyalty of New Spain into the commercial center of the world.

Perhaps Charles I would have done well to crown himself Emperor of the two Roman Empires: the European and the American, establishing the double-headed eagle as a permanent symbol of our coat of arms

If the Roman Empire was the Mediterranean Empire, the Hispanic Empire united the Mediterranean (Europe) with the Atlantic (America) and the Pacific (Asia). Perhaps Charles I would have done well to crown himself Emperor of the two Roman Empires: the European and the American, establishing the double headed eagle (although the first to use it was Sigismund of Luxembourg in 1433) as a permanent symbol of our coat of arms. Perhaps in this way, we would have saved Madrid from having its only street or square dedicated to the Emperor with the name of Glorieta de Carlos V. Nothing strange in a country that dedicates statues to its enemies (twelve to Bolívar) and streets and squares to its defeats (Trafalgar). It would have been the logical complement to the two columns of Hercules, one in Gibraltar and the other in Ceuta; curiously (or not) only the African is today Spanish.

The Holy German Empire disappeared in 1806, at the time that Spain was invaded by France and the Hispanic world was dissolved Chance? Perhaps. In any case, while “all” the other countries have their (false) pink legends and shamelessly brag about them, including their most conspicuous intellectuals, we apparently have no right to try to defend a positive vision of our History, although we do not we have to lie or exaggerate for it. Let’s change the story. Let’s not be Hispanobobos.