The Holy Roman Empire

At the time of this recording, in early 18 o six, the empire was over a thousand years old. To day, there is no political institution on earth of any consequence anywhere close to that old. Bonaparte had deliberately weakened the holy roman empire at every turn. In three successive peace treaties with the hapsburgs france had forced massive changes on the empire. But it remained to be seen if those changes represented a slow struction, dismantling the empire, or an opportunity for the empire to re invent itself yet again.