Imperial election

The king was then expected to march to Rome, to be crowned Emperor by the pope.

There were elective monarchies in several Germanic successor states after the collapse of the Roman Empire during the Migration Period, the Early Middle Ages, the Holy Roman Empire and the Kingdom of Poland from 1573 to 1795 (see History of Poland, period of the Aristocratic Republic).

From the 13th century, the right to elect kings in the Holy Roman Empire came upon a limited number of imperial princes called prince-electors.

However, spiritual electors (and other prince-bishops) were elected by the cathedral chapters as religious leaders, but simultaneously ruled as princes of a territory of imperial immediacy (which usually comprised a part of their diocesan territory).

The same holds true for prince-abbeys, whose prince-abbots or prince-abbesses were elected by a college of clerics and imperially appointed as princely rulers in a pertaining territory.