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Why did Maximilian I adopt the title Roman emperor-elect in 1508?
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Maximilian I
Maximilian I, charcoal drawing by Albrecht Dürer, 1518; in the Albertina, Vienna.
In 1508, Maximilian I adopted the title of Roman emperor-elect because he was unable to travel to Rome to receive a traditional imperial coronation from the pope.12
At the time, Maximilian was excluded from Italy by hostile Venetian forces, making the customary journey for a papal coronation impossible. With the consent of Pope Julius II, he assumed the style of "elected emperor" (Latin: imperator electus; German: erwählter Kaiser) on February 4, 1508. This shift reflected the evolving nature of the Holy Roman Empire, which had become an increasingly German-focused institution, effectively divorced from its historical requirement of a Roman coronation by the papacy.213