Austria's defeat at the Battle of Austerlitz in December 1805 and the secession of a large number of Francis II's German vassals in July 1806 to form the Confederation of the Rhine, a French satellite state, effectively meant the end of the Holy Roman Empire.

It was always its influence and its place in the recognized world order that gave the Holy Roman Empire its true power, rather than the actual extent of its territorial domains.

[6] The dual rule of pope and emperor was effectively ended at the Peace of Westphalia at the conclusion of the Thirty Years' War in 1648, wherein the empire was severed from the papacy for good.

[9] The 17th-century historian Samuel von Pufendorf famously described the empire as having an "unusual form of government" and derided it as a "monstrosity", lacking what was required for an effective and functional state.

[11] Furthermore, many publicists within the empire did not see its nature as an "irregular" monarchy as something negative and were unconcerned with forming a new political or social order, but rather sought to augment the already present structures to create a better future.

[4] Although the forces of the French First Republic overran and occupied the Austrian Netherlands in 1792, the Holy Roman Empire defended itself quite well until Prussia abandoned the war effort to focus its attention on its Polish territories (overseeing the Second and Third Partitions of Poland), taking its resources and powerful army with it.

[14] The conflict between France and the Holy Roman Empire had begun with the French declaring war on the newly crowned Emperor Francis II of the Habsburg dynasty only in his capacity as the King of Hungary.

The fact that much of the wider empire (including influential figures such as the King of Prussia and the Archbishop-Elector of Mainz), however unwilling, joined the conflict on the side of the Habsburgs in a formal Reichskrieg proves that imperial ideals were still alive by the late 18th century.

Bavaria, Baden and Württemberg were granted plénitude de la souveraineté (full sovereignty) while remaining a part of the Conféderation Germanique (Germanic Confederation), a novel name for the Holy Roman Empire.

Some commentators argued that plénitude de la souveraineté was just a French translation of Landeshoheit (the quasi-sovereignty possessed by Imperial estates) and the treaty had not altered the relationship between the members and the empire.

In April 1806, Napoleon sought a treaty whereby the three states would ally themselves to France in perpetuity while forswearing participation in future Reichskriege (imperial war efforts) and submitting to a commission de méditation under his presidency to resolve their disputes.

[29] In June 1806, Napoleon began pressuring Bavaria, Baden and Württemberg for the creation of confédération de la haute Allemagne (Upper German confederation) outside the empire.

[34] The general opinion among the Austrian government was however that abdication was inevitable and that it should be combined with a dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire through relieving the vassals of the emperor of their duties and obligations.

[35] Though there is no concrete evidence that Napoleon actually aspired to become Holy Roman Emperor,[36] it is possible that he entertained the idea, especially after he had formed the Confederation of the Rhine and beaten back Austria in early 1806.

[37] The ephemeral Roman aspirations can also be gathered from Napoleon's correspondence with the papacy; in early 1806, he warned Pope Pius VII that "Your Holiness is sovereign in Rome but I am its Emperor".

[38] More crucially than fearing Napoleon potentially usurping the title, the abdication was also intended to buy time for Austria to recover from its losses as it was assumed that France would meet it with some concessions.

[22] On the morning of 6 August 1806, the Imperial herald of the Holy Roman Empire rode from the Hofburg to the Church of the Nine Choirs of Angels (both being located in Vienna, the capital of the Habsburg monarchy), where he delivered Francis II's official proclamation from a balcony overlooking a large square.

Written copies of the proclamation were dispatched to the diplomats of the Habsburg monarchy on 11 August alongside a note which informed former princes of the empire that Austria would compensate those who had been paid from the Imperial treasury.

[35] The abdication did not acknowledge the French ultimatum, but stressed that the interpretation of the Peace of Pressburg by the imperial estates made it impossible for Francis to fulfill the obligations he had undertaken in his electoral capitulation.

[47] Indeed, the assumption of a separate Austrian imperial title in 1804 did not mean that Francis II had any intentions to abdicate his prestigious position as the Roman emperor, the idea only began to be considered as circumstances beyond Habsburg control forced decisive actions to be taken.

[2][46] The dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire was constituted by Francis II's own personal abdication of the title and the release of all vassals and imperial states from their obligations and duties to the emperor.

[57] At the time, there were several factors which prevented the restoration of the empire as it had been in the 18th century, notably the rise of larger, more consolidated kingdoms in Germany, such as Bavaria, Saxony and Württemberg, as well as Prussia's interest in becoming a great power in Europe (rather than continue being a vassal to the Habsburgs).

[57] Even then, the restoration of the Holy Roman Empire, with a modernized internal political structure, had not been out of reach at the 1814–1815 Congress of Vienna (which decided Europe's borders in the aftermath of Napoleon's defeat).

However, Emperor Francis had come to the conclusion before the congress that the Holy Roman Empire's political structure would not have been superior to the new order in Europe and that restoring it was not in the interest of the Habsburg monarchy.

[58] In an official capacity, the papacy considered the fact that the Holy Roman Empire was not restored at the Congress of Vienna (alongside other decisions made during the negotiations) to be "detrimental to the interests of the Catholic religion and the rights of the church".

[59] In the Holy Roman Empire's place, the Congress of Vienna created the German Confederation, which was led by the Austrian emperors as "Bundespräsidium" and would prove to be ineffective.

Alongside the growing crown lands of the Habsburgs, Prussia represented the sole major power in Central Europe during the last century or so of Holy Roman imperial rule.

Though the Prussian rulers and their officials expressed sorrow at the collapsing state of the Holy Roman Empire from 1792 onwards, they were also critical of nostalgia for Germany's history under imperial rule.

The Prussians viewed the survival chances of the Holy Roman Empire as very low and saw the French as the true successors of the ancient Carolingians, an enemy which they believed could not be defeated by normal military means.

[63] The reluctance of the Hohenzollerns to assume an imperial title shifted in 1806 as they feared that, with the formation of the Confederation of the Rhine and the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, Napoleon might aspire to claim the hypothetical position of "Emperor of Germany".