《欧洲之心》【内容简介】

　　公元799年，教宗利奥三世为了对抗政敌，向法兰克人的国王查理求助。公元800年12月25日，利奥三世突然把一顶皇冠戴在正在圣彼得大教堂做弥撒的查理头上，宣布他为“罗马人的皇帝”。这便是神圣罗马帝国戏剧性的开端。终于，西罗马帝国在灭亡300多年后，有了继承者。

　　神圣罗马帝国屹立于欧洲的中心，其领土覆盖了今天德国、奥地利、荷兰、比利时、卢森堡、瑞士、捷克、斯洛伐克、波兰、意大利、丹麦和法国等十几个国家的全部或部分地区。而英国、匈牙利、西班牙、瑞典、克罗地亚和斯洛文尼亚等国也与帝国有着千丝万缕的联系！从查理曼加冕到拿破仑称帝，神圣罗马帝国是君士坦丁堡以西欧洲独一的帝国。帝国的君主享有“罗马人的皇帝”这一尊号，名义上高于欧洲其他国家的君主！帝国宣称自己是普世的，是基督徒的共同家园！可以说，神圣罗马帝国的历史，就是欧洲中世纪史和近代史的主线。帝国的历史发展也呈现出欧洲历史的一般特征。

　　帝国宣称继承了罗马帝国的正统，但它并不像罗马帝国那样由专制君主统治。帝国有皇帝，但皇帝并非一言九鼎，甚至皇帝的产生都需要教宗的加冕和选侯的推选。帝国的主权是分散的，由皇帝、教宗、诸侯、帝国议会、帝国法院、城市联盟、教会领地等各种政治体共享。帝国的治理主要靠寻求共识和协商调解，而不是靠霸权。帝国内部是多元的，它既孕育了“钢铁王国”普鲁士，也孕育了“海上马车夫”荷兰；既有以庄园制为基础的封建经济，也有以意大利城邦、尼德兰联合省和汉萨同盟为代表的发达贸易网络。它是一个和我们以往所熟知的帝国都不同的帝国，既不同于靠征服建立的传统大陆帝国，也不同于靠贸易网络维系的现代海洋帝国！

　　然而长久以来，人们往往根据现实政治需要来看待帝国。启蒙思想家伏尔泰打趣它既不神圣，也不罗马，更非帝国。德国人视其为德意志民族的帝国，意大利人视其为外来压迫者，当下的欧洲主义者则认为它是欧盟的模板。那么帝国究竟是什么？威尔逊教授试图纠正人们长期以来对这个帝国的种种偏见，为我们还原出帝国的本相。全书从四个主题切入，厘清了帝国是什么、如何运作、为何重要，以及对今日欧洲有何影响，内容涵盖帝国的使命意识、社会秩序、治理模式、经济发展、司法制度、邦国关系和改革变迁等方方面面，描绘出一幅直至18世纪末仍然很有活力的大帝国的全貌！

　　作者简介

　　彼得·威尔逊（PeterH.Wilson，1963—），牛津大学万灵学院战争史奇切勒教授，剑桥大学博士，英国皇家历史学会会员，德国明斯特大学访问学者，曾任教于桑德兰大学、纽卡斯尔大学和赫尔大学，还是《国际历史评论》、《战争与社会》和《英国军事史杂志》等专业期刊的顾问。

　　他的主要研究方向为德国史、中欧史、战争史，以及神圣罗马帝国史。除了本书，他的著作还有《三十年战争史：欧洲的悲剧》、《从帝国到革命：1558—1806年的德国史》、《中欧的绝对主义》，以及《铁与血：1500年以来德语民族军事史》》等。

　　

The Heart of Europe 【 Content Introduction 】

In 799, Pope Leo III appealed to Charles, king of the Franks, for help against his political enemies. On December 25, 800, Leo III suddenly placed a crown on the head of Charles, who was celebrating Mass in St. Peter's Basilica, declaring him "Emperor of the Romans." This was the dramatic beginning of the Holy Roman Empire. Finally, more than 300 years after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, there is a successor.

The Holy Roman Empire stood at the heart of Europe, covering all or parts of more than a dozen countries that are today Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Italy, Denmark, and France. Countries such as Britain, Hungary, Spain, Sweden, Croatia and Slovenia are also inextricably linked to the Empire! From the coronation of Charlemagne to Napoleon's proclamation as emperor, the Holy Roman Empire was the only empire in Europe west of Constantinople. The monarch of the empire enjoyed the title "Emperor of the Romans", nominally higher than the monarchs of other European countries! The Empire claims to be universal, the common home of Christians! It can be said that the history of the Holy Roman Empire is the main line of the history of the Middle Ages and modern Europe. The historical development of the empire also shows the general characteristics of European history.

The Empire claimed to have inherited the orthodoxy of the Roman Empire, but it was not ruled by an absolute monarch like the Roman Empire. The empire has an emperor, but the emperor does not have a single word, and even the creation of the emperor requires the coronation of the Pope and the selection of electors. The sovereignty of the Empire was decentralized, shared by various political bodies such as emperors, popes, vassals, imperial councils, imperial courts, city leagues, and ecclesiastical territories. Empire is governed mainly by consensus and negotiation, not by hegemony. The interior of the Empire was diverse. It gave birth to Prussia, the "kingdom of steel", and Holland, the "sea coachman". There was a feudal economy based on the manorial system, and a developed trading network represented by the Italian city-states, the United provinces of the Netherlands and the Hanseatic League. It was an empire unlike any we have ever known, unlike the traditional continental empires built by conquest, or the modern maritime empires sustained by trade networks!

For too long, however, empires have tended to be viewed in terms of realpolitik needs. The Enlightenment thinker Voltaire quipped that it was neither holy, nor Roman, nor imperial. The Germans saw it as the Reich of the German nation, the Italians as foreign oppressors, and today's Europeans see it as a model for the European Union. So what exactly is empire? Professor Wilson is trying to correct long-held prejudices about the empire and give us a true picture of it. Starting with four themes, the book explains what empire was, how it worked, why it mattered, and how it affected Europe today, covering the empire's sense of mission, social order, governance model, economic development, judicial system, relations between states, and reform and change, and paints a picture of a great empire that was still very much alive until the end of the 18th century!

About the author

PeterH.Wilson (1963 -), Schicheller Professor of War, All Souls College, University of Oxford, PhD, University of Cambridge, Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, Visiting Scholar at the University of Munster, Germany, has taught at the University of Sunderland, Newcastle University and Hull University, He is also a consultant to professional journals such as the International Historical Review, War and Society, and the Journal of British Military History.

His main research interests are German history, Central European history, the history of war, and the history of the Holy Roman Empire. In addition to this book, he is the author of Thirty Years of War: The Tragedy of Europe, From Empire to Revolution: A History of Germany 1558-1806, Absolutism in Central Europe, and Iron and Blood: A Military History of the German-speaking Peoples since 1500.