Holy grail: Did you mean...?

Pilgrimage in the Byzantine Empire involved the Christian faithful travelling often huge distances to visit such holy sites as Jerusalem or to see in person relics of holy figures and miraculous icons on show from Thessaloniki to Antioch...

The Holy Roman Empire (962–1806) functioned as a decentralized political system in Central Europe, where imperial authority depended less on centralized power than on negotiation among its leading elites. Central to this structure were the...

Lugalbanda and the Anzud Bird is a Sumerian myth dated to the Ur III Period (2047-1750 BCE) featuring the hero-king of Uruk, Lugalbanda, father of Gilgamesh, in his younger years as an honorable officer in the army. Lugalbanda's purity of...

The Investiture Controversy, also referred to as the Investiture Contest or Investiture Dispute, was a conflict lasting from 1076 to 1122 between the papacy of the Catholic Church and the Salian Dynasty of German monarchs who ruled the Holy...

Painted illustration of the quaternion eagle of the Holy Roman Empire, created by Jost de Negker in 1510 CE. It depicts the double-headed eagle crest of the Holy Roman Empire (adopted 1433 CE) with the banners of its towns. It became widely...

Matilda of Canossa (c. 1046-1115), the Countess of Tuscany (r. 1055-1115) and Vice-Queen of Italy (r. 1111-1115), was the final head of the noble House of Canossa following the deaths of her father in 1052 and her elder brother in 1055. One...

Woodcut portrait of Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor (r. 1084-1105) by Christoffel Jegher, c. 1631-1633. The British Museum, London.

Depiction of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II (r. 1564-1567 CE) on a medal created by Antonio Abondio, 1575 CE. From the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, United States

Illustration of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (r. 1519-1556 CE) and Ferdinand I. The illustration depicts the Habsburg brothers Charles V (left) sitting by the imperial coat of arms, while Ferdinand (right) is flanked by the Habsburg coat...

This map illustrates the emergence of the Holy Roman Empire in the mid-10th century, following the final division of the Eastern and Western Frankish realms in the late 9th century. Under Otto I (r. as German king 936–973; crowned Holy Roman...