 During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries popes also claimed the right to intervene in affairs normally the province of secular rulers. This claim was made especially in reference to the Roman Empire. Pope Leo III had crowned Charlemagne as Roman Emperor in 800, and in 962 Pope John XII gave the title “Roman Emperor” to the German prince Otto I. From then until 1806 a succession of German princes claimed the title. The popes took the view that they had transferred the Empire from the Greeks to the Franks in the person of Charlemagne, and from the Franks to the Germans in the person of Otto I, thereby showing that the Roman Empire was subject to the popes, and in particular that the pope had a right to approve or reject the candidate elected to be emperor. (The emperor was elected by the German princes who constituted the electoral college—like the pope, the emperor was a monarch chosen by an electoral college to hold office for life.) The subject of the “translation” of the empire often became a subject of intense  debate.[47]  Spain, France, England and some other places rejected the authority of the “Roman Empire”, but incidents in the history of various kingdoms supported papal claims to authority over kings.