Goëtzër claim to Roman succession

After the House Law of the Karno-Ruthenian Imperial Family, the House of Götzö-Thomaz-Rocha formally laid claim to be the legitimate Roman emperors, in what the law called loyal opposition to the possible claim of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine to the title of Holy Roman Emperor. Being descendants of the inaugural dynasty of Kings of Hungary and having Rudolf of Rheinfelden as ancestor (Anti-King from 15 March 1077 to 15 October 1080), with no active will of the current Habsburgs dynasts in claim the position and with some micronationalists with feeble claims to the Holy Roman throne, the imperial family of Karnia-Ruthenia decided to claim the title for historical purposes, but also for cultural-related reasons, as much to have their Karno-Ruthenian claim to imperial rank strengthened by this bond with the Holy Roman Imperial succession.

Holy Roman Emperor
The concept of the Roman Empire was renewed in the West with the coronation of the king of the Franks, Charlemagne, as Roman emperor by the Pope on Christmas Day, 800. This coronation had its roots in the decline of influence of the Pope in the affairs of the Byzantine Empire at the same time the Byzantine Empire declined in influence over politics in the West. The Pope saw no advantage to be derived from working with the Byzantine Empire, but as George Ostrogorsky points out, "an alliance with the famous conqueror of the Lombards, on the other hand ... promised much". The immediate response of the Eastern Roman emperor was not welcoming. "At that time it was axiomatic that there could be only one Empire as there could be only one church", writes Ostrogorsky. "The coronation of Charles the Great violated all traditional ideas and struck a hard blow at Byzantine interests, for hitherto Byzantium, the new Rome, had unquestionably been regarded as the sole Empire which had taken over the inheritance of the old Roman imperium. Conscious of its imperial rights, Byzantium could only consider the elevation of Charles the Great to be an act of usurpation." Nikephoros I chose to ignore Charlemagne's claim to the imperial title, clearly recognizing the implications of this act. According to Ostrogorsky, "he even went so far as to refuse the Patriarch Nicephorus permission to dispatch the customary synodica to the Pope." Meanwhile, Charlemagne's power steadily increased: he subdued Istria and several Dalmatian cities during the reign of Irene, and his son Pepin brought Venice under Western hegemony, despite a successful counter-attack by the Byzantine fleet. Unable to counter this encroachment on Byzantine territory, Nikephoros' successor Michael I Rangabe capitulated; in return for the restoration of the captured territories, Michael sent Byzantine delegates to Aachen in 812 who recognized Charlemagne as Basileus. Michael did not recognize him as Basileus of the Romans, however, which was a title that he reserved for himself. This line of Roman emperors was actually generally Germanic rather than Roman. These emperors used a variety of titles (most frequently "Imperator Augustus") before finally settling on Imperator Romanus Electus ("Elected Roman Emperor"). Historians customarily assign them the title "Holy Roman Emperor", which has a basis in actual historical usage, and treat their "Holy Roman Empire" as a separate institution. To Latin Catholics of the time, the Pope was the temporal authority as well as spiritual authority, and as Bishop of Rome he was recognized as having the power to anoint or crown a new Roman emperor. The last man to be crowned by the pope (although in Bologna, not Rome) was Charles V. All his successors bore only a title of "Elected Roman Emperor". This line of Emperors lasted until 1806 when Francis II dissolved the Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. Despite the existence of later potentates styling themselves "emperor", such as the Napoleons, the Habsburg Emperors of Austria, and the Hohenzollern heads of the German Reich, this marked the end of the Holy Roman Empire.

Rudolf of Rheinfelden, the Anti-king
An anti-king is a would-be king who, due to succession disputes or simple political opposition, declares himself king in opposition to a reigning monarch. The term is usually used in a European historical context where it relates to elective monarchies rather than hereditary ones. In hereditary monarchies such figures are more frequently referred to as pretenders or claimants. Anti-kings are most commonly referred to in the politics of the Holy Roman Empire, before the Golden Bull of 1356 issued by Emperor Charles IV defined the provisions of the Imperial election. Several anti-kings succeeded in vindicating their claims to power, and were recognized as rightful kings, like Rudolf of Rheinfelden, Duke of Swabia and elected was elected anti-king on 15 March 1077 at the Kaiserpfalz in Forchheim, where already Louis the Child and Conrad I had been crowned. The first anti-king in the history of the Empire, he promised to respect the investiture solely according to canon law, as well as the concept of the elective monarchy. He was supported by the Archbishops of Mainz, Salzburg and Magdeburg as well as by the Dukes of Carinthia and Bavaria, the Saxon rebel Otto of Nordheim and also by Duke Magnus of Saxony. He proceeded to Mainz, where on 25 May he was crowned by Archbishop Siegfried I. He fought to assert his claim during all his short reign, and during the Battle of Elster, which took place on 14 October 1080, was a huge victory for the anti-royalists. However, Rudolf lost his right hand in the battle and was mortally wounded in the abdomen. He withdrew to nearby Merseburg, where he died the next day and was buried. The majority of the support for the rebellion against Henry IV soon evaporated, but the struggle continued on in effect into 1085, with a final flare up in 1088 under Rudolph's successor, the second anti-king, Herman of Luxembourg. The main importance of Rudolf of Rheinfelden for the Karno-Ruthenian interests is this link with the Holy Roman succession, while playing decisive role to assert this "loyal opposition" to the, in thesis, rightful claim of the House of Habsburg.

List of Holy Roman Emperors
While earlier Germanic and Italian monarchs had been crowned as Roman emperors, the actual Holy Roman Empire is often considered to have begun with the crowning Otto I, at the time Duke of Saxony and King of Germany. Because the King of Germany was an elected position, being elected King of Germany was functionally a pre-requisite to being crowned Holy Roman Emperor. The period of free election ended with the ascension of the Austrian House of Habsburg, as an unbroken line of Habsburgs held the imperial throne until the 18th century. Later a cadet branch known as the House of Habsburg-Lorraine passed it from father to son until the abolition of the Empire in 1806. The following list is the Goëtzër version of the list of Holy Roman Emperors, succeding the Habsburgs.