Where did the electoral college come from?

We’ve all heard of the electoral college. And some of us understand the inner workings of how the American government utilizes the electoral college. But did you know the idea of an American electoral college comes from the Holy Roman Empire, and that Emperors were elected, not born to inherit?

Welcome to Not Trivial! A podcast that takes a deeper dive into the stories behind the trivia questions you might’ve heard at the pub. My name is Liz, and I’ve been a trivia nerd since I was young. My parents and I would play Trivial Pursuit very often. Still do. I’ve hosted pub trivia, I’ve played pub trivia, and I’m a collector of random history, language, and world culture facts. One of my greatest passions is sharing what I’ve collected with others. I’m hopeful this podcast makes the trivia questions feel less trivial, and more important to understanding how the past creates the present, and subsequently the future. Let’s get started…

I’m going to preface this episode by saying that I have opinions about the American use of an electoral college. Now, as soon as you mention American politics, someone’s opinions pop up. Regardless of what my opinions are, the thing to know about opinions is that they don’t come from out of the blue. They are influenced by our environment, the things we hear everyday, the parents who raise us. This episode is going to focus on where the idea of an electoral college came from and why. Because it’s important to include educating yourself about a thing, as you form an opinion about it.

What is an electoral college, anyway? It is a set of electors who are selected to elect a candidate to a particular office. The selected electors (say that ten times fast) often represent various organizations or political parties or other entities. And each of those entities have their votes weighted in a particular way. If you like to pick language apart like I do, you’ll have heard the word ‘selected’ a couple times. Which leads to more questions; like, who selects the selected? We’ll get to the answer to that question, as well as others like, why are votes weighted?

But let’s start with a broader question first: where did the electoral college come from? We have early Germanic tribes, like the Visigoths, to thank for that. Yep, the same guys who famously sacked Rome in 410 AD. Back in the day, Germanic tribes had a law that a king ruled only with the support of his nobles. The idea of folk-right has always been part of both establishing and enforcing legalities. The various landowners and strongmen of a village or collection of villages were looked to as leaders. There was also the folkmoot or thing. This is a regular gathering of free peoples of a community, an assembly if you will. Yes, you heard me right, a ‘thing’. This very old word used to mean a social/economic/legislative assembly of free peoples, and has now shifted to mean any object of any sort.

Anyway, you get the idea. The people played a vital role in the fabric of a community. Often, it was at a folkmoot that kings were agreed upon. In other words, elected. But kingship was still based on a hereditary system. Not just anybody could be a king. Pepin the Short is a good early example of a king being born noble and being elected to rule. He was king of the Franks from 751 to 768 AD. How he became king is what’s interesting…

Pepin’s father died in 741 and divided the Frankish kingdom between his two sons, Pepin and his older brother Carloman. But neither of them took the title of king, since there were two of them. They were simply administrative rulers of their respective halves of the kingdom. They both knew that unifying the kingdom was paramount and decided to install someone else as king. Someone with pedigree of course, but someone who would have no power that comes with the title of king. Pepin and Carloman won over quite a few nobles with their diplomacy and strategy keeping rebellions at bay. Carloman, being a deeply religious man, eventually opted out of being an administrative ruler and entered into a monastery. Now that Carloman had abdicated, Pepin was holding sway over the nobles of the kingdom, and the so-called king was holding the crown. Pepin had a good relationship with the Pope, and sent a message to him. Essentially, he asked: what good is the crown on the head of someone who doesn’t have the support of the nobles? Harking back to that idea of “having the people’s support”. Pretty sneaky! The Pope agreed, deposed the previously installed king, the nobles assembled and elected him officially, and Pepin was quickly crowned and anointed.

Bonus fact: Pepin the Short is the father of Charlemagne. Arguably, the most important ruler in European history. Charlemagne was king of the Franks for a while before he became the first Holy Roman Emperor in 800 AD. Even though nobody called it the Holy Roman Empire at that time. However, Charlemagne was not elected to be emperor ironically. It was a move made by the Pope to unify Europe due to religious schisms, but also to keep a woman from calling herself Empress and consolidating power in the Eastern Roman Empire, aka the Byzantine Empire. That feels familiar… a man trying to keep a woman from becoming powerful.

Why are we now talking about the Holy Roman Empire? Because the kingdom of the Franks is what became of those early Germanic tribes who held assembly and elected their kings. And the Frankish kingdom became part of the Holy Roman Empire. Which during Charlemagne’s reign consisted of what is now parts of northern Spain, Andorra, France, Holland, Belgium, Liechtenstein, Monaco, a majority of Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, parts of the Czech Republic and Croatia, plus all of northern Italy down to Rome. Pretty much most of Western Europe. The Holy Roman Empire shifted borders over the centuries, but was essentially made up of various kingdoms and duchies. Several royal kings, but only one emperor. So here is where the electoral college comes in handy: utilizing an ancient and familiar ritual based on the folkmoot, in order to consolidate power and enforce cultural, religious, and economic laws across an empire.

After Charlemagne, there were ten hereditary successors of his, who effectively inherited the title of emperor. The “start” of the Holy Roman Empire is considered to be when Otto I (a descendant of Charlemagne) was crowned in 962 AD. This is because Otto I was elected King of Germany, which at that time was a prerequisite to being crowned emperor. Yet again, Otto’s successors also became emperors. During the reigns of Charlemagne’s and Otto’s successors, the electoral college was not official or formalized. At least not that we have documentation of today. The Catholic Church was heavily invested, nobility from Germany, France, Italy, and other kingdoms were also involved. But no specific names are chronicled, other than the Pope’s.

The electoral college of the Holy Roman Empire became officially recorded from 1257, when the titles of seven electors were documented in a letter from Pope Urban IV. They were as follows: the Archbishop of Mainz, the Archbishop of Trier, the Archbishop of Cologne, the King of Bohemia, the Count Palatine of the Rhine, the Duke of Saxony, and the Margrave of Brandenburg.

Let’s put those titles and locations into context. Three archbishops, one king, and three nobles. The cities of Mainz, Trier, and Cologne are located in modern-day Germany. All three cities are some of the oldest cities in Germany, having been founded and built up by the Romans, then becoming strongholds of Charlemagne’s Frankish kingdom. These are very old seats of power, well-trusted by the Pope in Rome. It’s no surprise they would be selected electors in the electoral college. No new upstarts or rebel thinkers in these cathedrals.

But why the King of Bohemia? The kingdom of Bohemia is often referred to as the Czech kingdom. The city of Prague plays a key role throughout its history. Prague has always been a seat of power and although now we think of it as not being part of Germany, for many centuries the two were inextricably linked. This kingdom has produced so many philosophers, scientists, scholars, and religious thinkers, it’s hard to keep count. Clearly, a clever and powerful ally to have within the empire itself.

And what is a Count Palatine of the Rhine? Well, we know where the Rhine river is - western Germany, it runs through both Cologne and Mainz, as well as many other meaningful cities in European history. The word ‘Palatine’ is a rough translation of the German word ‘Pfalz’, which means a feudal lord who has sovereign power over his domain. The electors of the Palatine have been part of the electoral college since “time immemorial”, according to them.

What about the Duke of Saxony? Again, the area known as Saxony is located in modern-day Germany, including the cities of Dresden, Leipzig, and Chemnitz. Securing the continuity of the dynasty was at the heart of being selected to the electoral college for this duchy. Saxony was always concerned with conflicts external to their territory, so retaining dynastic rule within their lands - as well as becoming vital to the entirety of the empire - were the keys to not being swallowed up by neighbors.

And the Margrave of Brandenburg? This last elector title is the most interesting one. In that, Brandenburg started out as a crossroads of Slavic and Germanic peoples. The bishopric that was established there was an extension of power for the Archbishop of Mainz. As the Middle Ages progressed, the dynasty ruling in this region became one of the most influential families in Europe, the house of Hohenzollern. They would eventually turn the duchy of Prussia into a kingdom, the kind of kingdom that would go to war with just about everybody. Brandenburg is still associated with its military history, along with its ties to modern Berlin.

All seven electors were there at the start of the electoral college - and more were added in as the empire went through growing pains. Specifically, the Thirty Years’ War, which occurred from 1618 to 1648. This is actually a pivotal time for the Holy Roman Empire. This war was incredibly destructive and left many corners of Europe devastated; economically, agriculturally, financially, etc. Anywhere from 5-8 million soldiers and civilians died during this time period due to warfare, disease, and starvation. It was a perfect storm of violent religious reformation within the Catholic Church and a struggle for power between two great houses of Europe: the French Bourbons and the Austrian Habsburgs. It’s commonly taught that the start of the war happened when the sitting Holy Roman Emperor, a Bohemian king named Ferdinand II was deposed as King of Bohemia and replaced by the Elector Count of the Palatinate, Frederick V. Yep - two electorates jockeying for position… oh, how European of them!

But there’s so much more to this particular ousting as king! In the city of Prague, on a beautiful May day 1618, four Catholic Lords Regent entered the Bohemian Chancellory. They were met by Protestant estate assembly members, men who had only recently been removed from their positions and their assembly dissolved by the Emperor. King Ferdinand II had forced his cousin Emperor Matthias to dissolve the assembly after they protested a cessation order to build Protestant chapels on royal lands. You see, Ferdinand II was a Catholic Counter-Reformer, which meant he was intolerant to the Emperor’s allowance of Protestantism in Bohemia. So back to those four Lords Regent being met by deposed assembly members…

The dissolved assembly members were adamant that these four Lords Regent take responsibility for persuading the Emperor to take action against them. As their answer, they asked to confer with their superior, who was not present. But that felt like a stalling tactic, and they demanded an immediate answer. In the moment, two of the Lords Regent were declared too pious to have had anything to do with the deception. They were escorted from the hall, leaving the other two to their fate. Assuming they would merely be arrested, they both admitted to influencing the Emperor on behalf of King Ferdinand II. But the Protestant assembly promptly declared them persona non grata and defenestrated them from the third floor. Yes, the two Catholic Lords Regent were thrown out a window 70 feet up and survived the fall. This event spurred each side, Protestant and Catholic, to gather allies for war. Emperor Matthias died a year later and Ferdinand II became the new Holy Roman Emperor.

But the Protestants of Bohemia were against Ferdinand from the start. And while they could do nothing about him being Emperor, they could depose him as King of Bohemia. They chose Frederick V, the Count of the Palatinate to lead them as king. Frederick was also the son-in-law of James VI of Scotland - you know… the guy who succeeded Queen Elizabeth I as King of England, Scotland, and Ireland.

Anyway, Frederick didn’t last long as King of Bohemia. Poor Frederick V was punished for being part of this Bohemian Revolt. He was no longer an elector - his seat in the college was transferred to the Duke of Bavaria. The balance of religions inside the electoral college was also important after the ending of the Thirty Years’ War. A mix of Catholic, Lutheran, and Calvinist lived within the empire and the war taught many that this delicate balance was likely to become a powder keg again - if they weren’t careful. If it veered towards being a heavily Catholic electorate, the college would add more Protestant seats. And during the centuries, duchies and kingdoms changed hands often enough between family members - that the elector seats would be consolidated. The expansion and contraction of the empire impacted how small or large the electoral college was. In a sense, it was representative of the people of the empire. Or at least, representative of not inciting war.

Let’s get a sense of how they functioned as an electoral college. How exactly did they elect an emperor? About a hundred years after the initial documentation of the college began, a very important document was issued to set the rules for elections. The Golden Bull of 1356 was a decree, which laid the landscape for the Holy Roman Empire’s constitutional structure. It regulated the college’s succession laws, codified the elevated status of the prince electors, and laid out the election process. Rules, such as: elections were to conclude within thirty days, and if the college was unable to make that deadline, they would be given only bread and water until they decided and the majority vote counted. What was even more important about this document is that it was not issued by the Pope. It was issued by the sitting Emperor at the time.

And why were votes weighted seemingly unequally? The initial seven titled prince-electors would vote on who should be the King of the Romans. This was the precursor to being voted as Emperor. They would convene after the death of a current Emperor, usually in Frankfurt. They would discuss potential candidates. They would negotiate and create alliances, in order for their preferred candidate to be elected. After being elected, he would be crowned as Emperor. However, the coronation ceremony did not occur after the year 1530. And this is because being elected Emperor was enough recognition for the college and the Pope.

The elector from Bohemia had three votes. The electors from Saxony and the Palatinate had two votes each. The remaining electors had only one vote each. This weighted system was not a new idea, but it was the most well-known instance. It was based on the size of a territory, its historical importance, and the political power of its leader. Bohemia was indeed larger and more populated than Saxony or the Palatinate. And of course, the Archbishops were merely emissaries of the Pope ultimately. The system was intended to give a balance of power. Smaller regions could still have a say and be part of the negotiations. Even if eventually, they were out-maneuvered or over-scrutinized.

Before we get to link all this Holy Roman history back to America’s current use of the electoral college, let’s dive into some fun facts. Like, did you know that the current British royal family stems from electors in the college? In 1692, Emperor Leopold I (also King of Hungary, Croatia, and Bohemia) elevated Duke Ernest Augustus of Brunswick-Luneburg to prince elector thanks to his help in the Nine Years’ War. Ernest Augustus had married a beautiful noblewoman named Sophie. Sophie was the granddaughter of King James I of England through her mother, Elizabeth Stuart. And Sophie’s father was none other than poor Frederick V, who got his electorate taken from him for being named King of Bohemia after the defenestration of 1618. Ernest Augustus and Sophie had several children. Sophie’s first cousin, twice-removed, Queen Anne of England, had no surviving children. Anne was past the age of bearing more children. The English Parliament created the Act of Settlement 1701, which made Sophie heiress presumptive, and her children heirs to the English throne as well. Because they were Protestant.

Sophie’s eldest son was named George. Sophie died before Anne did, so when Anne died in 1714, George became the King of Great Britain and Ireland. While he retained his rights to vote as a prince elector, his ascension to the throne of England prohibited him from doing so. The very Act of Settlement that made him an heir to the English throne would deprive him of his voting power in the Holy Roman Empire. He never cast a vote after 1714. But he did bring German-speaking monarchs to the British royal family. And while they don’t speak German as a first language anymore, they definitely still have strong German roots.

Did you also know that the electoral college failed to elect an Emperor more than once? Most notably was in 1256. The Emperor Frederick II died in 1254. He had been a Crusader, a traditional Christian but also a cosmopolitan ruler. He allowed formerly enslaved men to become members of his court and employed Jewish translators for his ever-growing library of works. He was called “stupor mundi” by his peers, meaning “astonishment of the world”. To say he was looked up to was an understatement. So, upon his death, and having no clear successor, the college was stumped. Neither of the front runners for Emperor, one English and the other Spanish, could earn enough votes. It wasn’t until 1273, almost twenty years later, that a new Emperor was crowned. For those twenty years, the empire was ruled by a regency council. This is very likely one reason why the Golden Bull of 1356 was issued.

Another thing to keep in mind is that an electoral college was electing already-royal kings to the even higher status of Emperor. So while the idea of the electoral college was to “choose” from among the royal kings of the various lands included in the empire, it’s not as if they were looking for an underdog, a new fresh face, or a reformer. Many Holy Roman Emperors did reform some factors of the empire, Maximilian I instituted an Imperial Chamber Court for example - to ensure justice between countries within the empire was handled fairly. But others like Charles V were devout defenders of the Catholic faith. Charles was emperor during the time of Martin Luther. In fact, he became Emperor two years after Luther is said to have nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg. Charles V expanded the empire even to the Americas, while also suppressing the growing Protestant faith within the empire.

Needless to say, the Holy Roman Empire was a well-oiled, well-financed, round robin of absolute monarchs, who wanted what they wanted, usually at the detriment of the ordinary people. They served the empire, not the farmers. They saw the workers of the empire as less-than and actively engaged in wars only to strengthen their own power.

Now, for the bigger question for a lot of Americans… why did our founders choose to have an electoral college in the first place? Why not choose some other format of electing American presidents? Well, they actually had a couple options to choose from. And as is prevalent throughout American history, a compromise was struck.

Stay tuned for a brief American history lesson on how the electoral college came about.

Again, let’s review. The good ol’ US of A started out as British colonies. There were thirteen of them by the time of the 1770s, all founded for different reasons - both religious and economic. Colonies are difficult to retain and control, especially when you’re at war with other parts of Europe. The War of the Austrian Succession in the 1740s bled into conflicts in North America between the English and French. Debts started to climb on both sides and taxation became the main pathway to recouping enough funds to keep their armies going. Naturally, the British and French couldn’t help themselves and went to war yet again in the 1750s. This is known as the Seven Years’ War in Europe and the French and Indian War in North America. By the 1770s, North American colonies were fed up and saw the futility of being attached to the British. Who were seemingly always at war, always in debt, and always putting the colonies last. The French people also became fed up and started a revolution… but that’s another story for another time.

When the newly created US needed options for governance outside of the Congress itself, they looked to what they already knew: direct democracy, election by Congress, and a system of electors.

Direct democracy is an old idea, stemming from the ancient Greek city state of Athens. It promotes citizen participation and accountability, but it is often time-consuming and inefficient. Sometimes it shows that short-term interests and emotional decisions are drivers. And when a population is so diverse and differing in opinions, it can be almost impossible to implement. In early America, direct democracy was used to elect governors of states like New York and Massachusetts. Still today, direct democracy is practiced in small localities, where citizens have the right to vote on budget and zoning decisions.

But what’s local can’t always occur on a national level. Even in the 1790s, local newspapers and publishers of America were choosing sides. They were printing their favored political party’s policies and agenda. And the Northern states were more heavily populated than the Southern states - at least with eligible voters, i.e. white landowners. The Southern states didn’t want the North to dictate who would be president. They opposed direct democracy.

The South wanted an election by Congress. Because they had already convinced the North to codify the three-fifth’s compromise into the Constitution. Meaning that 60% of a state’s enslaved population counted towards how many representatives that state had in Congress. This provided Southern states more political influence in Congress. They were emboldened by this idea and felt it was the only way to preserve their economies, which were not much without enslaved labor. But an election by Congress would also go against the founders’ ideals of a separation of powers. The Congress-elected president could become a tool of Congress, instead of being the head of a separate branch of government. And the whole point of a separation of powers was to deny America from becoming a monarchy, or even a dictatorship.

The ultimate option that was taken on was the electoral college, a system of electors based on a state’s population. Because the Southern states enjoyed the benefits of the three-fifth’s compromise, the Northern states would not have dominance over the executive branch. The college would keep a supposed ill-informed population from directly engaging in a presidential vote. And the separation of powers would remain intact. It was the least unattractive option.

And as I stated much earlier, the Holy Roman Empire’s electoral college idea was not the first of its kind. The Papal Conclave is an electoral college. Upon the death of a Pope, the cardinals of the church gather in the Vatican to elect a new Pope from among themselves. The Roman Republic used a Comitia Centuriata to elect its consuls. It was composed of Roman citizens, organized into groups of 100 or centuries, who voted as a block. America’s founders were probably just doing their best with the country they had at the time and choosing the option that would have the least chance of European history repeating itself in America.

So there you have it… the answer to the trivia question: where did the American electoral college come from? Hopefully, this deep dive into the history behind our current process of elections gives you some insight into why some opinions differ as to its efficacy. I’ll let you make up your own opinions about America’s use of an electoral college. I hope you enjoyed today’s Holy Roman tidbits as well! Another episode of Not Trivial is coming soon, so please subscribe - available wherever you listen to podcasts. Thank you!