Editing Elective monarchy (section)

====Holy Roman Empire====
{{Further|Imperial election}}
The [[Holy Roman Empire]], beginning with its predecessor Eastern Francia,<ref name=halden/> is perhaps the best-known example of an elective monarchy. However, from 1440 to 1740, a Habsburg was always elected [[Holy Roman Emperor|emperor]], the throne becoming unofficially hereditary.<ref name="The Emperor: Qualifications"/> During that period, the emperor was elected from within the [[House of Habsburg]] by a small council of nobles called [[prince-elector]]s. The secular electoral seats were hereditary.  However, spiritual electors (and other prince-(arch)bishops) were usually elected by the [[cathedral chapter]]s as religious leaders, but simultaneously ruled as monarch (prince) of a territory of [[imperial immediacy]] (which usually comprised a part of their diocesan territory). Thus the [[prince-bishopric]]s were elective monarchies too. The same holds true for prince-abbacies, whose princess-abbesses or [[prince-abbot]]s were elected by a [[college (canon law)|college]] of clerics and imperially appointed as princely rulers in a pertaining territory.{{Citation needed|date=March 2022}}