thumb|Tomb of [[Peter of Aspelt|Peter von Aspelt, Prince-Archbishop of Mainz and Archchancellor of Germany (1306-1320), Mainz Cathedral]]
An archchancellor (, ) or chief chancellor was a title given to the highest dignitary of the Holy Roman Empire, and also used occasionally during the Middle Ages to denote an official who supervised the work of chancellors or notaries.
The Carolingian successors of Pepin the Short appointed chancellors over the whole Frankish realm in the ninth century. Hincmar refers to this official as a summus cancellarius in De ordine palatii et regni and an 864 charter of King Lothair I refers to Agilmar, Archbishop of Vienne, as archchancellor, a word which also begins appearing in chronicles about that time. It only appears in the hands of the Archbishop of Trier in the twelfth century as the chancellory of Arles, as Burgundy was then known.
By the Golden Bull of 1356, Emperor Charles IV confirmed the threefold division of the archchancellory among the three ecclesiastical Prince-electors of the Empire. Actual governmental functions like calling the Imperial elections, however, were carried out by the Mainz archbishops alone. The archchancellor could appoint the Imperial Vice-Chancellor, which served in the Emperor's court and held influence in the Aulic Council. One of the most influential Vice-Chancellor's was Friedrich Karl von Schönborn, who served Emperor Charles VI.
The archchancellery was part of the constitution of the Empire until the German Mediatisation in 1803, when Mainz was secularised. The last elector, Karl Theodor Anton Maria von Dalberg, however, retained the title of archchancellor until the dissolution of the Empire in 1806. There was a marked resemblance between the medieval archchancellor and the later chancellors of the German Empire, the Weimar Republic,
and the Austrian Empire.
- Liutpold (c. 1055–)
- Bruno (c. 1114)
- Albrecht (c. 1130)
- Stephen
- Peter of Aspelt c 1306.
See also
- Chancellor
- Archchancellor of Unseen University