Quote Originally Posted by Kralizec View Post
To be clear, I'm making a distinction between being the ruler of those German states and having the title of Emperor. Only the electors could name a King of Rome; wether the Pope actually went through and named him emperor didn't impact his power in any factual sense- in many cases the rulers of the HRE didnd't bother or just didn't get around to travel to Rome for actual coronation. They were still the rulers of the Empire, in fact if not on paper.
That's fine - but to clarify the point, being "Holy Roman Emperor" doesn't have to apply to a German Emperor, which explains Napoleon's use of the Aqulia etc.