3. The later medieval empire

After the post-Hohenstaufen era, two decades of weak kings were followed by several dynasties competing for the German crown before the Habsburgs emerged dominant in the 15th century. During this period, the German kingdom evolved constitutional structures that institutionalized the elective monarchy. The most important was the establishment of a formal group of royal electors. ‘The later medieval empire: the emergence of the Habsburgs’ describes this key period, including the reigns of the first Habsburg king, Rudolf; Charles IV of Bavaria (r. 1347–78) and his important law the Golden Bull of 1356; Sigismund (r. 1410–37) and the reform of the church and empire; and the long reign of Frederick III (r. 1440–93)