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The Reichs Council of The Nobility of Germany
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The Reichs College of Princes and Counts of The Holy Roman Empire
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The Reichs College of Princes and
Counts of The Holy Roman Empire
1489-2008
Imperial Council of Princes
and Counts of Germany
The History of the Imperial Nobility and
the Constitution of the Holy Roman Empire .
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THE IMPERIAL NOBILITY AND THE
CONSTITUTION OF THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE
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The detailed description of the Imperial constitution can be found in the books Teutsches Staats-Recht and Neues Teutsches Staats-Recht written by Johann-Jakob Moser (1701-1785). In the 18th century, a status of a noble family in the Holy Roman Empire (HRE) was determined by several attributes:
1. an ownership of the Imperial immediacy;
2, the right to vote in the Imperial Assembly and assemblies of the Imperial Circles;
3. titles of dominion.
The time when a family acquired these attributes was also important.
During the Middle Ages European monarchs often delegated some of their regal rights to local governments. In countries where royal authority declined local governments became less and less dependent on it. Step by step, the countries grew disintegrated, and sub-states could emerge. The sub-states never declared formal independence, but the central government could hardly control how they dispensed justice, minted coins, fought enemies, maintained relations with foreign rulers.
The Merovingian and Carolingian France, Norway, Russia, Poland, Lithuania, etc were divided by branches of ruling families, with nominal overlordship of the senior representatives of the families. Even in the countries whose political integrity was preserved, younger representatives of ruling families (often heirs to thrones) were given the dependent principalities (e.g. Wales in England, Schleswig in Denmark, Calabria and Tarento in Naples, Moravia in Czechy etc).
The kingdoms of France, Italy, Germany, Lotharingia, Burgundy and Arelat appeared as a result of the divisions of the Carolingian Empire in 9th century. In these countries administrative units were called "counties". The county (Latin: Pagus) was governed by a count (Latin: Comes), an official appointed by the kings. When the royal power grew weaker, the counts made their office hereditary and ceased to be royal representatives. Some counties existed without substantial territorial changes for centuries. A few comital families were able to acquire neighboring counties and created "principalities". In some areas the administrative authority that once belonged to counts passed to viscounts, castellans (the administrators of a small territory with a castle as its center), ecclesiastical institutions, local barons, cities, and rural communities.
By the 11th century most the former Carolingian lands became parts of the Kingdom France and the Holy Roman Empire (heiliges römisches Reich). Both states had very weak central government, and they turned into confederations of sub-states and other self-ruling territories.
By the end of the 15th the kings of France managed to include most of the French territories in the royal domain and restore their authority in the kingdom. All counties and duchies in France that still existed were subdued. During the next century they lost all traits of the sub-states.
After collapse of the Carolingian empire the people that ruled big territories could bear different titles (Latin: marchio, dux, princeps, comes, etc) that would develop into the hereditary titles of territorial dominion. The dominical titles were associated with government of territories. Territories gave titles to their owners. E.g. a man became a count, when a king gave him a county. When the county went to a new owner, the old one lost the title.
The dominical titles were not a mandatory attribute of territorial rulers. Many of them (e.g. the ancient Sires of Bourbon) bore no special titles of territorial dominion and were simply styled "Lords" (Latin:Domini).
By the 14th century the hierarchy of the Europen titles of territorial dominion had developed. At the top was the title of Duke (Latin: Dux, German: Herzog). The second one was the title of Margrave or Marquise (Latin: Marchio, German: Markgraf). Next was the title of Count (Latin: Comes, German: Graf). Below stood the title of Viscount (German: Vizegraf). In the 15th century the title of Baron (German: Freiherr) was formalized and added to the bottom of the hierarchy. Eventually, most of the European countries adopted this hierarchy in general, but some countries might have their own versions of it. By the 11th century the title of Marquise went out of use in France, and was re-appeared there only in the 16th century. In some countries certain native titles were included in the hierarchy. E.g. the ancient English title of Earl was translated in Latin as "Comes" and was placed between Marquis and Viscount. In Germany several new titles derived from the title of Count: Count Palatine (Pfalzgraf), Land Count or Landgrave (Landgraf), Forest Count (Wildgraf), City Count or Burgrave (Burggraf), etc. The title of Viscount was not granted in Germany. The latest title that was added to the hierarchy was title of Prince (Latin: Princeps; German: Fürst). Originally, term "Prince" was mostly considered as a rank, often applied to rulers, the highest nobility and younger members of the reigning houses. Then the term "Prince" evolved in a new title of dominion. For sure, the title of Prince was above the one of Count, but its relation to other titles, especially to the title of Duke varied in different countries and sometimes changed as time went on.
Gradually people began to recognize the social prestige associated with the titles of territorial dominion (there were other titles, not connected with possession of territories). It gave the European monarchs new possibilities to honor people. To give a person a new dominical title a king elevated one of the person's possessions to a duchy, a county, etc. Before the 15th century a number of the elevations was limited, and the elevated territories were of substantial value. Most of the grantees were members of royal houses and the value of the titles increased. Then the monarchs began to use the dominical titles as rewards for services. As time went on more and more titles were granted. Less important members of society could receive them. Any favorite of a king might hope that one day he would be included in once very limited circle of the European titled nobility. Smaller and poorer territories were elevated.
Originally, in the Holy Roman Empire and France only sub-states bore titles thus all titled persons were rulers of autonomous territories. The dominical titles were exclusively associated with the territorial lordship.
From the 14th century in England, Scotland, Spain, Portugal, Naples, etc viscounties, counties, marquisates and duchies were given to very important people, often of royal blood. Nevertheless, the possession of the titled territories in these countries implied no territorial lordship of their owners.
The Roman Emperors and kings of France introduced similar practices in their countries in the 16th century when they began to give dominical titles to persons who had no territorial lordship. The values of titles devaluated.
Thus two different categories of the titled nobility developed in Europe: with and without the territorial lordships.
Eventually, an ownership of a territory ceased to be a requirement for receiving a dominical title. By the 19th century most of the newly created titles had lost any real connection with territories and had become the family names.
The most important questions of all systems of the noble inheritance in the feudal Europe were
1) the possibility to pass lands through females and
2) division of inheritance among heirs.
The so-called Salic Law prescribed that only the male members of a noble family had the right to inherit lands. The female relatives could inherit a territory only, if the last male representative of the family had died. Some terriories remained indivisible. There was only one owner of the territory, and only this person bore a dominical title associated with it. If a parent owned several distinct territories, they might come to different heirs.
The Primogeniture system dictated that a first-born child inherited everything. The feudal families of France and the neighboring lands of the Empire (the Low Countries, Lorraine etc), had adopted Primogeniture from the Middle Ages. In these countries (but not in the French royal house) daughters took precedence over their uncles, and many territories had passed through the female line. But in other parts of the Empire feudal families followed rules of the Salic Law. This is why in many German countries the same reigning families ruled for several centuries. In the most German lands feudal territories were considered as a common property of a whole family. The Imperial constitutions only prohibited the divisions of the lands associated with the Electoral dignity. Other hereditary fiefs and allodial lands could be divided among members of a family. Every male member of the family was an heir and had the right to share the common inheritance. In some cases the family members ruled a feudal territory jointly. But, mostly, the territory was divided, and each part had its own government. Formally all these parts might continue to be considered as one entity in the framework of the Imperial Constitution. All children bore the titles of their father.
Political Development of the Holy Roman Empire, By the end of the 13th century the monarchy in the Holy Roman Empire finally became elective.
Until the end of the Empire in 1806, the central Imperial institutions remained weak; they could not effectively control local governments. Some local governments subjected neighbors and imposed their authority to entire regions. Such territorial powers were defined as immediate (unmittelbar) to the Roman Emperor (German:Römischer Kaiser, Latin:Romanorum Imperator). A duke, a city council, a bishop, a count or a knight could own the possession of this Imperial immediacy (Reichsunmmitelbarkeit). The Imperial immediacy gave their owners the territorial lordship (Landeshoheit), which resembled sovereignty of an independent state. Officially, this sovereignty was limited because all immediate territories were under the formal suzerainty of the Empire. In the course of the Imperial reforms of the end of the 15th century there were attempts to create a complete list of all territories immediate to the Empire to levy the Common Penny (Gemeine Pfennig). The list of immediate Imperial territories that paid Imperial taxes was called Reichsmatrikel.
The Reichsmatrikel changed drastically during the 16th century:
The Swiss lands lost their connections with the Empire (Geneva, Lausanne, Wallis, Schaffhausen, St.Gallen, Kreuzlingen, Einsiedeln, Dissentis, etc); France annexed some Imperial territories (Metz, Toul, Verdun, etc), lay princes annexed ecclesiastical possessions during the Reformation (Saalfeld, Maulbronn, Königsbronn, etc);
Immediate families became extinct and their territories disappeared as separate entities (Hoorn, Wunstorf, Plesse, Gera, Beuchlingen, Bitsch, Ruppin, Schaumberg (in Austria), Bergen, Haag, Leissnigk, etc).
In the 17th and 18th centuries the Reichsmatrikel did not change often.
In 18th century the Holy Roman Empire consisted of over 1800 separate immediate territories governed by distinct authorities
The Status of the Imperial Estate (Reichsstandschaft) was attached to the Imperial immediate territories, which paid the imperial taxes through one of the 10 Imperial Circles (Reichskreise) and gave their
owners the right to vote in the Imperial Assembly/the Imperial Diet (Reichstag).
Only the Roman Emperors granted the Imperial fiefs and titles. The Imperial fiefs, in most cases, were the Imperial immediate territories. (But not always, e.g. the Imperial Post Office was considered as an Imperial fief). The Imperial fiefs could be given to both ecclesiastical and secular persons. As a rule, the secular persons were able to make the Imperial fiefs hereditary in their families.
Categories of the German Nobility in 15th Century, Three major category of nobility in the Empire had formed by the second half of the 15th century:
1. Territorial rulers,
2. Imperial Knights and
3. Territorial Nobility.
The territorial rulers had the right of Landeshoheit in their possessions. They had representation in the Imperial Assembly i.e. were recognized as the Imperial Estates (Reichsstände). The families of the secular territorial rulers constituted the High Nobility (Hochadel). There were two groups of the secular territorial rulers:
1 Princes and
2. Counts and Lords.
The Imperial Knights were immediate to the Empire. They had the right of Landeshoheit in their possessions. The knightly territories were not included in the Imperial circles and the Imperial Knights did not pay the Imperial taxes. Thus, the Imperial Knights did not have the status of the Imperial Estate. The Imperial Knighthood(Reichsritterschaft) as a separate noble category shaped in the 15th century. The Imperial Knights had grouped themselves into three Knightly Circles (Ritterkreise): of Swabia, Franconia and the Rhine. The Knightly Circles consisted of 14 Cantons.
Most of noble families belonged to the category of the Territorial Nobility (Landsadel, landsässigen). The territorial nobility did not have the right of Landeshoheit in their possessions. They were under jurisdiction of immediate territorial rulers.
Before the end of the 15th century the Imperial Knights and territorial nobles never bore dominical titles.
The Princes were the most influential noble category. Originally, the Princely rank (Fürstenstand) was associated with the most important of the Imperial fiefs (archbishoprics, bishoprics, duchies, markgraviates, etc). There were several original hereditary fiefs in Germany with the Princely rank:
The duchy of Bavaria (Bayern),
The duchy of Saxony (Sachsen),
The duchy of Lorraine (Lothringen),
The duchy of Swabia (Schwaben),
The palatinate of the Rhine,
The palatinate of Saxony,
The duchy of Austria (Österreich),
The duchy of Styria (Steiermark),
The duchy of Carinthia (Kärnten),
The duchy (then the kingdom) of Czechia or Bohemia (Böhmen),
The duchy of Brabant,
The county of Anhalt,
The landgraviate of Thuringia (Thüringen),
The markgraviate of Brandenburg,
The markgraviate of Misnia (Meissen),
The markgraviate of Lusatia (Lausitz).
By the end of the 15th century the Roman emperors gave the Princely rank to the following territories :
Brunswick in 1235 (for the Welfs) ,
Hesse in 1292 (for the branch of the Brabant family),
Savoy in 1310,
Pomerania in 1320,
Jülich in 1336,
Gelderland in 1339,
Mecklenburg in 1348
(for the descendants of Prince Niklot of the Obodrites),
Pont-a-Mousson (for the Bar family) in 1354,
Luxembourg in 1354,
Tyrol in 1359 (for the Goritia (Görz) family),
Baden in 1364,
Orange (Oranien) in 1376,
Berg in 1380,
Nuremberg (Nürnberg) in 1385
(for the Hohenzollern),
Milan in 1395
(for the Visconti house),
Kleve in 1417,
Mantua in 1432 (for the Gonzaga house),
Cilly in 1436,
Leuchtenberg in 1450,
Modena in 1452
(for the Este house),
Henneberg in 1471,
Holstein in 1474
(for the Oldenburg house),
Württemberg in 1495.
In many cases the elevated territories were made duchies or margraviates. The counties, landgraviates, burgraviates, etc, which did not change their titles when they got the Princely rank, were styled Princely (gefürsteten) (Leuchtenberg, Henneberg,Tyrol, Cilli, etc).
See the Appendix A for the list of territories elevated by the Roman Emperors.
Counts and Lords were the lesser territorial rulers that had the status of the Imperial Estate, but did not have the Princely rank.
In the 18thcentury there were several reigning houses that traced their origin from ancient comital families:
Castell; Fürstenberg; Hohenzollern; Leiningen; Limburg-Styrum; Mansfeld; Mark; Montfort; Nassau; Schwarzburg; Oldenburg; Ortenburg; Öttingen; Sayn-Wittgenstein; Solms; Stolberg-Wernigerode; Waldeck; "the Forest & Rhine Counts" (Wild- und Rheingrafen) (in Upper Salm); Württemberg;
Some families received the comital title through marriages:
Götterswick
(1421 Counts of Bentheim);
Runkel
(1462 Counts of Wied and 1475 Counts of Leiningen-Westerburg);
Reifferscheidt
(1416/1455 Counts of Lower Salm);
Immediate territorial rulers that had no title were called the Noble Lords (Edlen Herren). In the 18thcentury there were several reigning houses derived from these non-titled immediate families. By that time all of them had been granted the dominical title :
Erbach (1532 Counts); Hanau (1429 Counts);Hohenems (1560 Counts); Hohenlohe (1450 Counts); Isenburg-Büdingen (1442 Counts); Königsegg (1629 Counts); Lippe (1529 Counts); Manderscheid (1457 Counts); Reuss (1673 Counts);Schönburg (1700 Counts); Schwarzenberg (1599 Counts); Waldburg (1628 Counts);
The Imperial Assembly or Diet (Reichstag), The Imperial Assembly consisted of three Councils: Electors, Princes and the Free Cities or Imperial Cities (Freistädte oder Reichsstädte).
Initially, many princes claimed the right to elect a head of the Empire. However, the Golden Bull of 1356 restricted this right to seven ecclesiastical and secular princes, which were called Princes-Electors (Kurfürsten). According the Golden Bull the Council of Electors consisted of seven members:
1. the King of Bohemia;
2. the Archbishop of Mainz;
3. the Archbishop of Trier;
4. the Archbishop of Cologne(Köln);
5. the Duke of Saxony-Wittenberg (Electoral Saxony);
6. the Margrave of Brandenburg;
7. the Count Palatine of the Rhine.
During the Thirty Years war (1618-1648) Friedrich V, Count Palatine of the Rhine, was deprived his status of Elector, and it went to the Dukes of Bavaria. After the war the eighth Electorate was created and given to Friedrich V' son (1648). In 1692, the Duke of Brunswick-Hanover became the ninth member of the Council. In 1777, the dynasty of Bavaria died out, and Karl-Theodor, Count Palatine of the Rhine, inherited Bavaria, and electoral voices of Bavaria and the Palatinate were merged.
The Council of Princes (Fürstenrat) consisted of two benches or banks: Ecclesiastical (Geistlichebank) and Secular (Lay) (Weltlichebank). (sic. The house of Austria had voices of Austria and Burgundy in the Ecclesiastical bench).
In 1648, the treaty of Westphalia gave several secularized ecclesiastical territories and their voices in the Council of Princes to secular princely houses:
Magdeburg to Brandenburg; Bremen with Verden to Sweden
(in 1715/1720 went to Brunswick-Hanover); Halberstadt to Brandenburg; Minden to Brandenburg; Schwerin to Mecklenburg;
Kamin to Brandenburg; Ratzenburg to Mecklenburg; Hersfeld to Hesse-Kassel.
Voices of these former ecclesiastical territories were transferred to the Secular bench (Weltlichebank) of the Council of Princes.
The former possessions of the Archbishops of Magdeburg and Bremen gave their new owners the title of Duke, the former possessions of bishops - the title of Prince.
Some Princely houses were able to accumulate several voices. E.g. in 1793 the Hanover line of the house of Brunswick had six voices in the Council.
By the end of the 18th century, there were one hundred voices in the Council of Princes. Usually, a big immediate territory had an individual voice (Virilstimme). Small territories were grouped in Curias and had collective or curial voices (Kuriatstimmen). There were two collective voices in the ecclesiastical bench of the Council of Princes. The four collective voices in the Secular bench of the Council of Princes belonged to the Colleges of the Imperial Counts (Reichsgrafenkollegium) of Franconia, Swabia, Wetterau and Westphalia.
By the end of the Empire a lot of members of the Colleges had the Princely rank. Nevertheless, according the Imperial constitution, they belonged to the 'Counts and Lords' category. The parts of curial voices of Nassau, Hohenzollern, Waldeck, Salm, East Frisia, Fürstenberg, Schwarzenberg and Schwarzburg were made individual voices in the Council of Princes (see the New Princely Houses, below).
Some princely houses (those who had individual voices in the Council of Princes), also had parts of curial voices of the Colleges of the Imperial Counts:
Ansbach of Sayn-Altenkirchen; Austria of Hohenems and Montfort: Baden of Eberstein; Bavaria of Helfenstein; Brunswick-Hanover of Hoya, Diepholz and Spiegelberg; Brandenburg of Tecklenburg; Holstein of Oldenburg-Delmenhorst; Hesse-Kassel of Schaumburg; Thurn-Taxis of Eglingen; Fürstenberg of Heiligenberg; Salm of Anholt;
Schwarzenberg of Klettgau-Sulz and Seinsheim.
The Imperial Circle Estates, Imperial estates listed in Reichsmatrikel were grouped in the Imperial Circles (Reichskreise).
The Status of the Imperial Circle Estate (Reichskreisstandschaft) gave the right to sit and vote in the Circle Assemblies or Circle Diets (Kreistage). Originally, all Imperial estates were members of the Imperial Circles. Gradually this was changed. A status of the Imperial Circle Estate of an extinct reigning family passed with a Circle territory to its new owner with obligations to pay Imperial taxes. But the new owners did not automatically inherit positions of the extinct family in the Imperial Assembly. Thus, in the 18th century there were many secular territories , which were represented in the Circle Assemblies but not in the Imperial Assembly:
Jülich-Berg, Kleve-Mark, Waldeck, Mindelheim, Sponheim,
Hohenwaldeck, Hanau-Münzenberg, Hanau-Lichtenberg, Barby, Mansfeld, Hohenstein, Rantzau, Falkenstein, Justingen,
Reipoltskirchen, Dachstuhl, Mörs, Königstein, Breiteneck,
There were a few immediate territories that had representations only in the Imperial Assembly, but not in the Imperial Circles' Assemblies:
Mömpelgard, Saffenburg, Dyck.
When the Circle system was established, the position of the King of Bohemia as Imperial Elector had been suspended since the Hussite wars 1420-1433. Thus, the Bohemian Crown Lands: Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, Lusatia, Glatz, etc were included in no Imperial Circle.
Several Imperial immediate territories (Jever, Kniphausen, Schaumburg an der Lahn, Landskron, Mechernich, Pirmont bei Karden, Rheda, Stein, Schauen etc),
were included in neither Imperial Circles nor Knightly Circles and were not represented in the Imperial Assembly.
The divisions in reigning families were reflected differently in the Imperial Assembly and in Circle Assemblies. E.g.,
The Hohenlohe family had only two voices in the Assembly of the Franconian Circle but six voices in the Franconian College of Imperial Counts;
the County of Schaumburg was represented with two voices in the Circle of Lower Rhine-Westphalia, but only with one voice in the Westphalian College;
The County of Sayn was represented with one voices in the Circle of Lower Rhine-Westphalia, and with two voices in the Westphalian College;
The family of Giech and Hohenlohe inherited allodial lands of the Wolfstein family and got its voice in the College of Franconian Counts.
Bavaria acquired Landeshoheit over Obersulzbürg-Pyrbaum and the Wolfstein voice in the Bavarian Circle Assembly.
Some Circle Assemblies had benches or banks similar to ones in the Imperial Assembly. Several ruling houses with the Princely rank had voices in the benches of Princes of Circle Assemblies, even they were not accepted in the Council of Princes of the Imperial Assembly:
Öttingen-Öttingen, Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, Nassau-Weilburg, Nassau-Usingen, Nassau-Idstein, Nassau-Saarbrücken, Nassau-Ottweiler, Solms-Braunfels, Isenburg-Birstein,Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rochefort, Hohenlohe-Waldenburg.
There were no curial voices in Circle Assemblies, only individual ones. Voices of counts were equal to voices of princes. Thus, lesser estates played more important role in Circle Assemblies than in the Imperial Assembly, where their influence was minimal. In the 17th and 18th centuries institutions of the Imperial Circles that did not include powerful territorial rulers (e.g. Swabia, Franconia) were more active than the Imperial institutions. In 1708 the Circle Assembly of Franconia excluded the County of Geyer from the list of the Circle Estates. In that way the Assembly prevented the King of Prussia , the heir to the Count of Geyer-Gibelstadt, to become a member of that Imperial Circle. The Assembly of the Circle also supported the allodial heirs to the Limpurg house in their struggle for the voices of Limpurg against the King of Prussia.
There were two Imperial Circle Personalists, the Prince of Thurn-Taxis and the Prince of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rochefort, who contributed monies not as owners of the Circle territories, but as persons.
The Ancient Princely houses, In the 16th century in the Empire there were several noble families, which owned territories with the Princely rank. In the 15th and 16th centuries the Egmont house reigned in the Duchy of Gelderland. In 1543 Emperor Charles V added Gelderland to his hereditary possessions.
The rulers of Orange (Oranien) had been given the Princely rank since the Middle Ages. The house of Chalon, which owned Orange, was listed in Reichsmatrikel among the Princely houses. It became extinct in 1530 and was succeeded in Orange by the house of Nassau-Dillenburg. Nevertheless, the house of Nassau-Dillenburg did not receive a voice in the Council of Princes until 1654.
In 1426 a branch of the Reuss family was enfeoffed with the Burgraviate of Misnia(Meissen). In 1548 it obtained the Princely rank and was accepted to the Council of Princes. The voice became extinct with the branch in 1572.
Originally, the most important privilege of those who had the Princely rank was the right to have an individual voice in the Council of Princes. The houses, which had gotten individual voices in the Council by 1582, were called the Ancient Princely houses (Altfürstliche Häuser):
1. the Dukes of Saxony-Lauenburg (the house of Askanien);
2. the Dukes of Saxony-Wittenberg (the house of Wettin);
3. the Dukes of Lorraine and Bar;
4. the Dukes of Bavaria and Counts Palatine of the Rhine (the house of Wittelsbach);
5. the Princes of Anhalt (the house of Askanien);
6. the Dukes of Mecklenburg (the house of Niklotides);
7. the Dukes of Pomerania;
8. the Margraves of Brandenburg (the house of Hohenzollern);
9. the Margraves of Baden and Hochberg (the house of Zähringen);
10. the Landgraves of Hesse (the house of Louvain-Brabant);
11. the Archdukes of Austria, Dukes of Carinthia and Styria, Princely Counts of Tyrol,etc (the Austrian Habsburgs);
12. the Dukes of Brunswick and Luneburg (the house of Este-Welf);
13. the Dukes of Jülich, Kleve and Berg;
14. the Dukes of Savoy;
15. the Dukes of Brabant, Gelderland, Limburg and Luxembourg (the Spanish Habsburgs as heirs to Dukes of Burgundy);
16. the Dukes of Holstein (the house of Oldenburg);
17. the Dukes of Württemberg and Princely Counts of Mömpelgard;
18. the Princely Landgraves of Leuchtenberg;
19. the Princely Counts of Henneberg.
20. the Princely Counts (then Dukes) of Arenberg (the house of Ligne).
(The house of Arenberg received the rank of Prince in 1576 and was admitted to the Council of Princes in 1580).
The houses of Pomerania, Habsburg, Henneberg, Jülich-Kleve and Leuchtenberg became extinct. Other houses continued to rule until the 20th century.
Originally, a number of individual secular voices in the Council of Princes was not fixed, and depended on divisions and inheritances in the ruling families. Each branch of princely families had a separate voice. From the end of the 16th century, when new branches were established, they did not receive a separate voice automatically. E.g. all branches of the house of Anhalt shared one voice in the Council. Voices of extinct princely houses were preserved and given to other princely houses that acquired corresponding territories; voices of extinct branches of princely houses went to their relatives from other branches. In the 17th century the similar rules were introduced in Colleges of Imperial Counts.
As a rule, voices of extinct Ancient Princely houses went to other Ancient Princely houses:
The voice of Henneberg to the Dukes of Saxony-Wittenberg;
The voice of Saxony-Lauenburg to the Dukes of Brunswick;
The voice of Leuchtenberg to the Dukes of Bavaria;
The voice of the Duke of Burgundy (the Spanish Habsburgs) to the Archdukes of Austria;
The voice of the Archdukes of Austria, etc to the Dukes of Lorraine;one of the voices of Pomerania to the Margraves of Brandenburg;
(Another voice of Pomerania went to Vasa, the royal dynasty of Sweden. The houses of Palatinate-Zweibrücken, Hesse-Kassel and Holstein-Gottorp that belonged to the Ancient Princely houses, succeeded the Vasa house in Sweden and Pomerania).
In 1738 Franz, Duke of Lorraine, ceded most of his possessions in the Empire (Lorraine, Bar, Salm, etc) to Stanislas Leszczynski, the former King of Poland. Stanislas, who did not leave sons, died in 1766, and Lorraine, and his other possessions were incorporated into France. The house of Lorraine preserved its individual voice in the Council of Princes that was now attached to the markgraviate of Nomeny.
Several voices of extinct branches of the Ancient Princely houses were excluded from the Council of Princes after 1582:
Tyrol, Styria, Hesse-Rheinfels, Hesse-Marburg, Baden-Saussenberg, Jülich, Kleve and Berg (the Elector-Margrave of Brandenburg and the Count Palatine in Neuburg, the heirs to the last Duke, could not come to agreement about the voice).
Two new individual voices were created for branches of the Ancient Princely after 1582: Saxony-Gotha and the second voice for the Franconian branch of the Brandenburg house (Bayreuth),
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THE NEW PRINCELY HOUSES
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The New Princely Houses: The grants of dominical titles were often used as a political tool. By the middle of the 15th century the Dukes of Burgundy had acquired most of the Low Countries, that belonged to the Empire. The Dukes created new comital titles and granted them to the some influential local noble families to get their support. Emperor Maximilian I, as an heir to the House of Burgundy, continued this policy. Among noble families , who received new titles (Glymes, Croÿ, Hoorn/Horn, Brimeu, Egmont, Mark/Marck, etc), not everyone had the Imperial immediate territories.
Maximilian I was also the first Emperor who granted the most important title, the Imperial Prince / the Holy Roman Empire Prince (des Heiligen Römischen Reichs Fürst), to the non-immediate nobility. The following are the first examples of the grants of the title of the Imperial Prince to the families that owned no immediate territories: in 1486 the family of Croÿ received the Princely rank as owners of the territory Chimay that was not immediate; in 1515 the Lithuanian noble family of Radziwill, which had no possessions in the Empire at all, received the title of Imperial Prince.
His successors tried to promoted their subjects, the territorial noble families of the Habsburg hereditary lands, to counter-weight the immediate nobility. In 1629, during the 30 years War, two Dukes of Mecklenburg were banned. Emperor Ferdinand II made his general Albrecht of Wallenstein/Waldstein (Valdštejn) (+1634) Duke of Mecklenburg. The general belonged to the Bohemian territorial nobility, but had been given the rank of Imperial Prince (1623), the non-immediate Duchy of Friedland in Bohemia (1625) and the Silesian Duchy of Sagan (1627). Victories of King Gustav-Adolf of Sweden allowed expelled Dukes returned their possessions (1631).
The Emperors from the Habsburg house did not give up their attempts to make their subjects with the princely titles (Liechtenstein, Lobkowitz, etc) equal to the immediate princes. The main goal of the Emperors was to introduce their Catholic subjects in the Council of Princes, where the immediate Protestant princes had too many voices. Those families received the Imperial titles, ancient duchies in Silesia (Münsterberg, Sagan, Troppau, Jägerndorf, etc) as fiefs, their non-immediate possessions were elevated to duchies and counties (Gottschee, Friedland, Krummau, Raudnitz, etc). Nevertheless, all this did not provide the Imperial immediacy. In 1641 Emperor Ferdinand III tried to introduce three new members into the Council of Princes. His attempt failed. Members of the Council rejected two candidates, the Imperial Prince of Eggenberg and the Imperial Prince of Lobkowitz, who were the Austrian subjects. The Ancient princes did not accept the status of the Eggenbergs and the Lobkowitzs as equal to their own status. By their request lawyers worked out strict requirements for new candidates. The most important of these requirements was an ownership an immediate territory included in one of the Imperial Circles. Also the new candidate had to get an agreement of other members of the Council. By 1653 both Princes had managed to meet all requirements (they became owners of immediate territories, etc) and were accepted in the Council. the Ancient princes had no objections against the third candidate, the Prince of Hohenzollern, from an ancient comital family.
The houses that received the right to vote in the Council in the 17th and 18th centuries were called the New Princely houses (Neufürstliche Häuser).
The following is a list of the New Princely houses with dates of their introduction in the Council:
1653 Hohenzollern-Hechingen;
1653 Eggenberg (the voice became extinct in 1717);
1653 Lobkowitz;
1654 Salm;
1654 Dietrichstein;
1654 Piccolomini (the voice became extinct in 1656);
1654 Nassau-Hadamar & Nassau-Siegen;
1654 Nassau-Dillenburg & Nassau-Diez;
1654 Auersperg;
1664 Portia/Porcia (the voice became extinct in 1665);
1667 East Frisia (Ostfriesland) (the voice went to Brandenburg);
1667 Fürstenberg;
1674 Schwarzenberg;
1686 (?1674) Waldeck-Eisenberg (the voice became extinct in 1692);
1705 Churchill-Marlborough (the voice became extinct in 1714);
1709 Lamberg (the voice of Leuchtenberg, went back to Bavaria);
1713 Liechtenstein;
1754 Thurn-Taxis;
1754 Schwarzburg.
There were two distinct categories of the New Princely houses:
1.The houses that enjoyed Imperial immediacy in the Middle Ages. Their elevation to the Princely rank did not differ from the similar promotions happened in the 14th and 15th centuries:
Hohenzollern-Hechingen; Salm (Wild- und Rheingrafen); Nassau; East Frisia; Fürstenberg; Schwarzenberg; Waldeck-Eisenberg; Schwarzburg.
2. The houses that acquired immediate territories only in the 17th or 18th centuries to satisfy the above-mentioned requirement.
Eggenberg; Lobkowitz; Dietrichstein; Piccolomini; Auersperg;
Portia; Churchill-Marlborough; Lamberg; Liechtenstein; Thurn-Taxis.
The immediate territories that the New Princely houses acquired in Imperial circles:
Gradisca in the Imperial Circle of Austria by Eggenberg;
Sternstein in the Imperial Circle of Bavaria by Lobkowitz;
Tarasp in the Imperial Circle of Austria by Dietrichstein;
Thengen in the Imperial Circle of Swabia by Auersperg;
Mindelheim in the Imperial Circle of Swabia by Churchill-Marlborough;
Schellenberg-Vaduz in the Imperial Circle of Swabia by Liechtenstein;
Eglingen, and then Sheer-Friedberg in the Imperial Circle of Swabia by Thurn-Taxis.
The importance of these houses did not derive from their immediate territories. Those New princely houses never permanently resided in their immediate territories,
never personally ruled them. E.g. the first visit of Prince of Liechtenstein to his immediate principality happened only in 1842.
During the War of the Spanish succession Elector and Duke of Bavaria was banned by the Roman Emperor. His possessions, the Landgraviate of Leuchtenberg and the Lordship of Mindelheim, were given to allies of the Emperor. The family of Lamberg received Leuchtenberg (1708). The Lambergs, which belonged to the Austrian territorial nobility, were made Imperial Princes in 1707 and were admitted to the Council in 1709 as Langraves of Leuchtenberg.
John Churchill received Mindelheim and an individual voice in the Council of Princes. John Churchill was a British nobleman that had been made Duke of Marlborough. After the War both Leuchtenberg and Mindelheim went back to Electors-Dukes of Bavaria. Bavaria received back the voices of Leuchtenberg in the Imperial Assembly and in the Circle of Bavaria, and the voice of Mindelheim in the Circle of Swabia. The lordship of Mindelheim lost its voice in the Imperial Assembly. Bavaria restored the individual voice of Mindelheim in the Council of Princes only in 1803.
The houses of Auersperg and Dietrichstein, actually, acquired an immediate territory after they were accepted to the Council.
Voices of Princes Piccolomini and Portia became extinct in the first generation because they failed to get an immediate territory.
Voices of extinct New Princely houses were excluded from the Council of Princes. The only exception was the voice of East Frisia that went to Brandenburg.
The individual voice of the Eisenberg branch of the house Waldeck, that became extinct, was not inherited by other branches, as happened to the voices of the extinct, branches of the houses Salm and Fürstenberg.
New Members of the Colleges of the Imperial Counts , the representatives of the Territorial Nobility could get the status of Imperial Estate when they were admitted to one of the Colleges of the Imperial Counts. The Colleges required that a new candidate owned an Imperial immediate territory. In the 17th and 18th centuries some territorial noble families inherited immediate territories through marriages with representatives of the High Nobility:
Rietberg by the Princes of Kaunitz; Sayn by the Burgraves of Kirchberg-Farnroda; Mylendonk by the Counts of Ostein;
Limpurg by the Counts of Pückler ; Wiesentheid by the Counts of Schönborn ;Blankenheim & Gerolstein by the Counts of Sternberg ; Gronsfeld by the Counts of Törring-Jettenbach;
Some territorial noble families were admitted to the Colleges when they acquired (bought, were granted or enfeoffed) immediate territories with the right of Landeshoheit:
Egloff by Abensberg-Traun; Reckheim by Aspremont-Lynden; Welzheim by Grävenitz; Eglingen by Gravenegg; Gleichen by Hatzfeld; Bretzenheim by Heydeck/Heideck; Hohengeroldseck by Leyen;Winneburg & Beilstein by Metternich;Reichenstein by Nesselrode;Rieneck by Nostitz; Hallermund by Platen;
Barmstedt by Ranzau/Rantzow; Kerpen & Lommersum by Schäsberg; Reichelsberg by Schönborn; Rheineck by Sinzendorf-Ernstbrunn; Thannhausen by Stadion; Eglingen by Thurn-Taxis; Breiteneck by Tilly; Weinsberg and Neustadt by Trauttmansdorff; Bretzenheim by Velen/Vehlen; Neustadt & Gimborn by Wallmoden;
In several exceptional cases the Colleges of the Imperial Counts of Franconia and Swabia admitted new candidates, which did not own immediate lordships attached to the Imperial Circles. Those new members of the Colleges were called "Personalists" because they were immediate as persons but not as owners of immediate territories. Some of them belonged to the Imperial Knighthood and possessed immediate territories included in no Imperial Circle (Giech, Neipperg, Rechberg, etc). The knightly family of Sickingen was recognized as an Estate of the Swabian Imperial Circle, and then accepted to the College Swabian Counts. Thus, Counts of Sickingen were not considered as Personalists.
There were territorial lords that owned lands, which immediacy was disputed. If these lords were able to obtain recognition of their immediacy, they could be accepted in the Colleges (e.g. Schleiden, Mylendonk, Wyckradt, Gemen, etc). Usually the acceptance in the Colleges followed recognition as an Imperial Circle Estate.
The Imperial Titles, The title of Duke (Herzog) in most cases gave its owner the Princely rank. By the end of the 13th century there were several duchies in the Empire:
Saxony, Lorraine, Limburg, Brabant, Bavaria, Austria, Styria, Carinthia, Brunswick-Lüneburg, Silesia, Pomerania.
Before 16th century only a few new duchies were established in Germany and Italy:
Lucca ( for the Castracani house, became extinct); Gelderland in 1339; Mecklenburg in 1348; Luxembourg in 1354;
Jülich in 1356; Berg in 1380; Milan in 1396 ( for the Visconti house); Kleve in 1417; Savoy in 1417; Modena in 1452 ( for the Este house) Holstein in 1474 ( for the Oldenburg house); Württemberg in 1495.
In the next centuries the Imperial Duchies were created for the families: Arenberg in 1644, Oldenburg in 1774, Anhalt-Bernburg in April 1806. Interesting, all of the grantees had already styled dukes for other possessions: Arenberg as Dukes of Aerschot and Croÿ, Oldenburg as Dukes of Schleswig, Holstein, Stormarn and Ditmarshes, Anhalt-Bernburg as Dukes of Saxony, Angaria and Westphalia.
There were several rulers that bore the title of Margrave (Markgraf). Most Margraves had the Princely Rank.
In those feudal territories, which were considered as common property of a whole family, all members of the noble family bore the same titles.
If a noble family possessed a county, all members of the family were styled 'counts', even those, who did not rule the county.
A noble family could use the title of a territory it did not own when it:
a. claimed a territory (e.g. Dukes of Saxony bore titles of the extinct house of Jülich-Kleve);
b. owned a territory in the past (e.g. Archdukes of Austria bore titles of Dukes of Burgundy and Lorraine).
The most interesting example gave the rulers of Ansbach. Their title was "Margrave of Brandenburg, Duke in Prussia, of Silesia, Magdeburg, Jülich, Kleve, Berg,
Stettin, Pomerania, of the Kashubes & the Wendes, of Mecklenburg & Krossen, Burgrave of Nuremberg, Prince of Halberstadt, Minden, Kammin, of the Wendes, Schwerin, Ratzeburg & Mörs, Count of Hohenzollern, the Mark, Ravensberg, Schwerin, Sayn & Wittgenstein, Lord of Ravenstein & the Lands of Rostock & Stargard, etc". From this long list they actually ruled only in a part of the Sayn County.
Since the 16th century the Roman Emperors granted the titles of the Imperial Prince, the Imperial Count and the Imperial Baron. But those grants did not automatically changed the status of grantees in the Empire.
The title of Imperial Prince might be granted only to a head of a house. It was additional favor when the Imperial Princely rank was given to all members of a house. In the 18th century the non-reigning members of royal, ducal and princely houses had been informally called Prinzen. In the 19th century, Prinz became an official title of the younger members of the most reigning houses.
Originally, the title of the Imperial Prince itself did not include a name of territory. The following are examples of the Princely titles:
"Margrave of Brandenburg, the Holy Roman Empire Prince-Elector,..",
"Duke of Saxony, the Holy Roman Empire Prince-Elector, ..."
"the Holy Roman Empire Prince, Count and Lord of Mansfeld...",
"Duke of Arenberg, the Holy Roman Empire Prince, ...",
"Bishop of Würzburg, the Holy Roman Empire Prince and Duke of Franconia",
"the Holy Roman Empire Prince, Count of Holstein and Schaumburg,..",
There was also less formal way of styling. The Princely title was associated with the main possession of a ruling family. E.g. the rulers of Bavaria and the Palatinate sometimes used the simplified style "Prince-Elector of the Palatinate-Bavaria"(Kurfürst von Pfalzbayern) instead of the formal style "the Holy Roman Empire Prince-Elector, Count Palatine of the Rhine, Duke of Bavaria,...".
Another example came from Hesse-Kassel where its rulers in the 19th century used both "Prince-Elector, Landgrave of Hesse ,..." and "Prince-Elector of Hesse ,...".
The houses, which did not own immediate territories by the time they received the Princely rank, had the title of Imperial Prince associated with their family names.
E.g. "the Holy Roman Empire Prince of Auersperg" or "the Holy Roman Empire Prince of Colloredo".
In some rare cases the Emperors granted to some families the right to rename their immediate territories giving them the family's name, e.g. Liechtenstein, Ligne, Rantzau, Windisch-Graetz, etc. Thus, in titles "the Holy Roman Empire Prince of Liechtenstein" and
"the Holy Roman Empire Prince of Windisch-Graetz" words "Liechtenstein" and "Windisch-Graetz" could mean both the family names and possessions of the families.
In the 18th century it became more often to omit "the Holy Roman Empire" and mention a branch name of reigning houses in less formal Princely styles, e.g. "Prince of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt".
The Imperial Estates with the Limited Territorial lordship
By the end of the 18th century some houses preserved the status of Imperial Estate but did not have full political authority in their territories.
In 1738 the County of Stolberg came under the partial overlordship of Electoral Saxony. Count of Stolberg-Stolberg, whose another possession, the County of Hohenstein, had been under the overlordship of Brunswick-Hanover, since this time had no sovereignty. Nevertheless, he did not loose his membership in the Wetterau College of Imperial Counts.
Since 1740 all possessions of Counts and Prince of Schönburg were under the partial overlordship of Electoral Saxony. They continued to collectively own a voice in the Wetterau College of Imperial Counts.
The County of Bentheim, owned by the house of Bentheim-Bentheim, was mortgaged until 1804 to Brunswick-Hanover, which had the Bentheim voice in the Circle of Lower Rhine-Westphalia. The Bentheim family preserved its voice in the Westphalian College of Imperial Counts.
The County of Hallermund gave its owner, Count of Platen, the right to vote in the Westphalian College and in the Circle Assembly of the Lower Rhine-Westphalia. Brunswick-Hanover exercised actual authority in the County.
After the 15th century, most ruling houses gradually started to introduce the principle of Primogeniture. Thus, principalities and counties were not divided among multiple heirs any more. Sometimes, younger sons of rulers were given territories as appanages without the rights of Landeshoheit (e.g. Brandenburg-Schwedt, Hesse-Philippsthal, Lippe-Biesterfeld, Lippe-Weissenfels, Reuss-Köstritz, Holstein-Sonderburg etc). In several cases younger members of ruling houses were given some sovereign rights (e.g. Hesse-Homburg) and, it often led to legal disputes.
The Imperial Italy ( Reichsitalien )
North Italy never formally broke out from the Empire. Many local rulers considered their possessions as Imperial fiefs and bore Imperial titles, nevertheless, with exception of Duke of Savoy, were represented neither in Imperial circles nor in the Imperial Assembly.
The Silesian dukes also had a special status in the Empire. From the one hand, they inherited some sovereignty of the ancient reigning houses of Piast that ruled in the 9th-14th centuries in Poland. But from the other hand, the Silesian dukes did not have the status of Imperial Estate, and, thus an ownership of a Silesian duchy did not give the right to be included in the High Nobility of the Empire. Mieszko I (died in 992), from the Piast house, the first Christian ruler of Poland, made Silesia a part of his state. His son, Boleslaw I the Brave (reigned in 992-1025) defended the independence of his country from the Empire and was the first crowned king of Poland. Nevertheless, the German kings continued to claim their suzerainty over the Polish state. During the reigns of Boleslaw's successors there was a period of decline in Poland, and her rulers lost their title of King. They started to use the title, which was translated in Latin as Dux (Duke in English). The awareness of centrifugal trends led Duke Boleslaw III the Wry-Mouthed (reigned 1102-38) to establish in his testament of 1138 the Senioriaty system in Poland. Boleslaw III divided the state among his sons; the oldest became the senior duke, whose domain included the capital in Krakow and who had general powers over military, foreign, and ecclesiastical matters. By the early 13th century, however, the efforts of the senior dukes to exert real controls failed. Disputes, subdivisions, and fratricidal strife characterized the entire system. As a result Poland turned into a set of parts, ruled by different branches of the Piast house, although in theory Poland continued to exist as a country. Silesia was one of those parts. The dukes of Silesia continued to divide their part among members of their branch. As a result, in a century, Silesia was divided in a dozen of small duchies.
The Silesian dukes, as representatives of the senior branch of the Piasts, fought for Krakow, whose ownership implied the seniority over other Polish dukes. But there were two other branches of the Piast house that participated in the final struggle for the Polish overlordship at the end of the 13th century: the branch of Kujawja, represented by Wladislaw I the Short (Lokietek), who would be finally recognized as a sole overlord of the country, and the branch of Greater Poland, represented by Przemysl II. Przemysl II (died in 1296) was crowned as King and thus restored the title in Poland. He left no sons, and was succeeded by his son-in-law, Wenceslaw II, king of Bohemia. Being of non-Piast origin Wenceslaw II and his successors on the throne of Bohemia were recognized in the substantial part of the country as the kings of Poland. John (Jan) of Luxembourg (died in 1346), king of Bohemia, gave up his claims to Poland, but forced most of the Silesian dukes to recognize his overlordship. Thus, Silesia was separated from Poland, and became a land of the Bohemian Crown and the Empire. Kings of Bohemia added "the Duke of Silesia" to their titles. The Silesian dukes did not hold their land directly from the Empire they were not recognized as the Imperial Princes. When some branches of Silesian Piasts became extinct their lands came under the direct rule of the kings of Bohemia. They were free to keep the duchies to themselves or gave as fiefs. The house of Wettin was given the duchy of Sagan, the Brandenburg Hohenzollerns received the duchies of Krossen and Jägerndorf(Krnov). George of Podiebrad, King of Bohemia, gave the duchies of Öls and Münsterberg to his son. In 1526 Silesia as a land of the Bohemian Crown became the possession of the Habsburg house. The Habsburgs ,as kings of Bohemia, continued the practice of grant as fiefs the former Piast duchies in Silesia. They had enough lands to distribute because all branches of the Piast House became extinct (in 1675 died the last Piast- Georg-Wilhelm, Duke of Liegnitz and Brieg). When the Austrian Habsburgs granted the Silesian duchies, as a rule, their new owners did not received the same rights and privileges, the former Piast dukes enjoyed. Nevertheless, the status of those new owners was much higher than other Bohemian subjects. Among these new Silesian dukes were many important people : Wladislaw IV and John-Casimir, kings of Poland, Gabriel Bethlen, Prince of Transylvania, Albrecht of Wallenstein, the members of the princely houses of Lorraine, Saxony, Württemberg, Brunswick, Auersperg, Lobkowitz, Liechtenstein, Biron, etc. Some of them had the right to mint their own coins. There were several possessions of the former Silesian dukes in Silesia, whose new owners did not receive the title of the Duke (Trachenberg, Militsch, Wartenberg, Pless, etc), but gave their owners some additional feudal rights comparing with other noble landlords.
In 1740 Friedrich II, King of Prussia, conquered most of Silesia and began to style himself "Sovereign and Premier Duke of Silesia" (Souverainer und Oberster Herzog von Schlesien), stressing that he owned Silesia not as a fief of Bohemia. Maria-Theresa of Austria preserved several areas in Silesia, and the Austrian rulers continued to style themselves "the Dukes of the Upper and Lower Silesia" up to 1918.
In our days, the ruling Prince of Liechtenstein still claims the ownership of the Silesian duchies of Troppau und Jägerndorf, which are parts of Czechia now, and bears corresponding titles. In its modern form the Liechtenstein title does not mention "Silesia" as used to be. (E.g. the Constitution of Liechtenstein of 1818 began with the following words "Wir Johann-Joseph, von Gottes Gnaden Souverainer Fürst und Regierer des Hauses von und zu Liechtenstein von Nikolspurg, Herzog zu Troppau und Jägerndorf in Schlesien.
In the 19th century the owners of the old principalities and the new ones created by the Prussian kings (e.g. the Principality of Trachenberg for the house of Hatzfeld, the Principality of Krotoszyn for the House of Thurn & Taxis, the Duchy of Ratibor for the House of Hohenlohe) had no more privileges than other titled nobility of Austria and Prussia.
The Imperial immediate territories whose titles were upgraded.
1436 the Counties of Cilli and Ortenburg to a Principality;
1495 the Lordship of Steinfurt to a County (for the Bentheim house);
1532 the Lordship of Erbach to a County;
1538 the Lordship of Zimmern to a County;
1576 the County of Arenberg to a Princely County;
1623 the County of Hohenzollern to a Princely County;
1624 the Lordship of Neustadt to the Princely County of Sternstein (for the Lobkowitz house);
1628 the Lordship of Wolfegg to a County
(for the Waldburg house);
1628 the Lordship of Zeil to a County
(for the Waldburg house);
1628 the Lordship of Segenberg to a County
(for the Waldstein/Wallenstein house);
1629 the Lordship of Königsegg to a County;
1641 the Lordship of Neustadt to the Princely County of Sternstein (for the Lobkowitz house);
1643 the Lordship of Esterau to the County of Holzapfel;
1644 the Princely County of Arenberg to a Duchy;
1650 the Lordship of Barmstedt to the County of Rantzau;
1664 the Lordship of Thengen to a Princely County
(for the Auersperg house);
1664 the County of Fürstenberg to a Princely County;
1665 the Lordship of Thannhausen to a County
(for the Sinzendorf house);
1671 the County of Schwarzenberg to a Princely Landgraviate;
1679 the Lordships of Winneburg and Beilstein to a County (for the Metternich house);
1685 the Lordships of the family of Geyer-Giebelstatt to a County;
1689 the County of Klettgau to a Princely Landgraviate
(for the Schwarzenberg house);
1710 the County of Schwarzburg to a Principality;
1719 the Lordship of Schellenberg and County of Vaduz to the Principality of Liechtenstein;
1757 the County of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg to a Principality;
1770 the Lordship(Baronie) of Fagnolles to a County
(for the Ligne house);
1772 the County of Hohenlohe-Neuenstein to a Principality;
1785 the Lordships of Scheer and County of Friedberg to the Princely County of Friedberg-Scheer (for the Thurn-Taxis house);
1803 the Lordships of Babenhausen, Boos and Ketterhausen to the Principality of Babenhausen (for the Fugger house);
1803 the Lordship of Ochsenhausen to a Principality (for the Metternich house);
1804 the Lordship of Egloff to a Principality of Windisch-Graetz;
1804 the Lordship of Edelstetten to a Princely County
(for the Esterházy of Galántha house);
1804 the Lordships of Krautheim and Gerlachsheim to a Principality (for the Salm-Reifferscheidt house);
1805 the Lordship of Umpfenbach to a Princely County
(for the Trauttmansdorf house); etc.
County (Grafschaft),
Princely County (gefürsteten Grafschaft),
Princely Landgraviate (gefürsteten Landgrafschaft),
Duchy (Herzogtum)
Principality (Fürstentum)
Samples of Titles of Dominion in the 16th-18th centures
Eggenberg: the HRE Prince of Eggenberg, Duke of Krummau, Princely Count of Gradisca, Count of Adelsberg, Lord of Aquileja.
East Frisia (Ostfriesland): the Prince and Lord of East Firsia, Lord of Esens, Stadesdorf and Wittmund.
Habsburg (Charles V, Emperor and King of Spain) : Emperor of the Romans, ever August, King of Germany, Castile, León, Aragón, the Two Sicilies, Jerusalem, Hungary, Dalmatia, Croatia, Navarre, Granada, Toledo, Valencia, Galicia, Mallorca, Seville, Sardinia, Cordova(Córdoba), Corsica, Murcia, Jaén, the Algarves, Algeciras, Gibraltar, the Canary Islands, the Indies, the Islands and Mainland of the Ocean sea, Archduke of Austria, Duke of Burgundy, Lorraine, Brabant, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola(Krain), Limburg, Luxembourg, Gelderland, Calabria, Athens, Neopatras, Württemberg, Marquis of of the HRE, of Burgau, Oristano, Gociano, Count of Habsburg, Flanders and Tyrol, Goritia(Görz), Barcelona, Artois, Burgundy palatin, Hennegau, Holland, Zealand, Pfirt (Ferrete), Kyburg, Namur, Roussillon, Cerdagna, Zütphen, Landgrave of Alsace, Prince of Swabia, Catalonia, Asturia, Lord in Frisia, of the Wendish Mark, Portenau (Pordenone), Biscaya(Vizcaya), Molin, Salins, Tripoli, Mecheln(Malines).
Hanau: Count of Hanau, Rhineck and Zweibrücken, Lord of Münzenberg, Lichtenberg and Ochsenhausen.
Holstein-Schaumburg: the HRE Prince, Count of Holstein, Schaumburg and Sternberg, Lord of Gemen.
Limburg-Styrum (17th century) : Count of Limburg and Bronckhorst, Lord of Styrum, Wisch, Borkelo and Gemen,
Hereditary Banner-Lord of the Principality of Gelderland and the County of Zütphen
Mansfeld: the HRE Prince and Prince of Fondi, Count and Lord of Mansfeld, Noble Lord of Heldrungen, Seeburg and Schraplau, Lord of the Lordship of Dobrzisch, Neuhaus and Arnstein.
Palatinate-Zweibrücken (Charles XI and Charles XII, Kings of Sweden):King of Sweden, the Gothes, the Wendes, Grand Prince of Finland, Duke of Skane(Skåne), Estland, Livland, Karelia, Bremen, Verden, Stetin, Pomerania, the Kashubes and the Wendes, Prince of Rügen, Lord of Ingermanland and Wissmar, Count Palatine of the Rhine, and Duke of Bavaria, Jülich, Kleve and Berg, etc.
Nassau-Orange (William-Henry, the future king of England William III) Prince of Orange and Nassau, Count of Katzenellebogen, Vianden, Dietz, Lingen, Mörs, Buren, Leerdam, &c.
Marquis of the Vere en Vlissingen, Lord and Baron of Breda, the City of Grave and Lands of Cuycq, Diest, Grimbergen, Herstal, Cranendoncq,
Warneston, Arlay, Noseroy, St. Vith, Daesburgh, Polanen, Willemstadt, Niervaert, Ysselsteyn, St. Maertensdijck, Steenbergen, Geertruydenberge, Turenhout, Zevenbergen, of the Upper and Lower Swaluwen, Naeltwijck, Soest, Baren, ter Eem, Immenes, &c. Hereditaty Burgrave of Antwerp and Besançon, Hereditaty Marshall of Holland, Governer and Hereditaty-Stadhouder of Gelderland and County of Zutphen, Holland, Zealand, West-Frisia, Utrecht and Over-Yissel, and Land of Drenthe, Hereditaty-Captain-General, and Admiral of the United Netherlands.
Wallenstein/Waldstein (Albrecht, 1630) : Duke of Mecklenburg, Friedland, Sagan, Greater Glagau, Prince of the Wendes, Count of Schwerin, Lord of the Lands of Rostock and Stargard.
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THE IMPERIAL KNIGHTS OF THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE
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The Free Imperial Knights, or the Knights of the Empire (German: Reichsrittern) was an Organisation of free nobles of the Holy Roman Empire, whose direct overlord was the Emperor, remnants of the medieval free nobility (Edelfrei) and the ministeriales. To protect their rights, they organized themselves into three unions (Partheien) in the late 15th century and into a single Corpus in 1577, and fought to win recognition. As a noble corporation within the jurisdiction of the Empire, yet subject to the emperor alone (immediate subjects), the Imperial Knights exercised a limited form of sovereignty within their territories.
Their immediate status was recognized at the Peace of Westphalia. They never gained access to the Reichstag, and were not considered Hochadel, belonging to the Lower Nobility. The Free Imperial Knights arose in the 14th century, the fusion of the remnants of the old free lords (Edelfrei) and the stronger elements of the unfree ministeriales that had won noble status.
Around 1300 the manorial economy suffered contraction due to the fluctuation in the price of agricultural foodstuffs. Ministeriales who were in a stronger economic position were better able to survive the weakening of their basis as landowners. The vast majority languished in poverty, resorting to selling lands to the Church, or to brigandage.
The minority of ministeriales rich enough to weather the crises soon came to be identified with the remnants of the free nobility, and were thus seen as constituting one noble order. By 1422 some of these nobles had achieved jurisdictional autonomy under the emperor (‘immediacy’), and the corporation of free imperial knights was born. The other ministeriales that did not manage to receive the status of immediate vassals of the emperor were gradually transformed into a titled nobility of free status: the Freiherren. By 1577 the Imperial Knights achieved the status of a noble corporate body within the empire: the corpus equestre.
In the peace of Westphalia, the privileges of the Reichsritterschaften were confirmed. The knights paid their own tax (voluntary) to the emperor, possessed limited sovereignty (rights of legislation, taxation, civil jurisdiction, police, coin, tariff, hunt; certain forms of justice), and the ius reformandi (the right to establish an official Christian denomination in their territories). The knightly families had the right of house legislation, subject to the emperor’s approval, and so could control such things as the marriage of members and set the terms of the inheritance of family property. Imperial knights did not, however, have access to the Reichstag. All matters relating to the Imperial Knights' legal status as immediate vassals of the emperor (house laws, debt, etc.) were managed by the Imperial Aulic Council.
___________________
________________________________________
THE LIST OF THE IMPERIAL KNIGHTS
OF THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE
________________________________________
* Adelmann
* Adelsheim
* Aichinger
* Altenstein
* Arnim
* Assenburg
* Attems
* Aufseß
-B-
* Bartenstein
* Bassenheim
* Bastheim
* Bauz
* Bechtolsheim
* Beckers
* Bellersheim
* Bemelberg
* Benzel
* Berckheim
* Berga
* Berlichingen
* Bern
* Bernhausen
* Beroldingen
* Berstett
* Bettendorf
* Bibra
* Bissingen
* Bobenhausen
* Bock
* Bocklin
* Bodeck
* Bodmann
* Boinenburg
* Bokdorf
* Boos-Waldeck
* Borié
* Botzheim
* Boyneburg-Bömelberg
* Brandenstein
* Brandi
* Breidenbach-Breidenstein
* Breidenbach-Bürresheim
* Brockdorf
* Bubenhofen
* Buchenau
* Bulach
* Burscheid
* Buseck
* Buttlar
* Buwinghausen
-C-
* Castell
* Chalon gen. Gehlen
* Coudenhove
* Crailsheim
* Cronenberg
-D-
* Dalberg
* Degenfeld
* Deuring
* Diede
* Diemar
* Dienheim
* Drachsdorf
* Dungern
* Dürckheim
-E-
* Ebersberg
* Edelsheim
* Egkh
* Egloffstein
* Eichler
* Ellrichshausen
* Elz
* Enzberg
* Erthal
* Esbeck
* Esch
* Eyb
* Eyben
* Eys
-F-
* Fahnenberg
* Falkenhausen
* Fechenbach
* Feiguier
* Forster
* Forstmeister
* Forstner
* Frais
* Franckenstein
* Frenz
* Freyberg
* Fries
* Fuchs
* Fuchs von Bimbach
* Fugger
* Fürstenberg
-G-
* Gagern
* Gail
* Gailing
* Gaisberg
* Gebsattel
* Gedult-Jungenfeld
* Geismar
* Geispitzheim
* Gemmingen
* Gerstorff
* Geuder
* Geyer
* Geyso
* Giech
* Gleichen
* Goeler
* Göllnitz
* Görtz
* Greiffenclau
* Grosclag
* Groß
* Gudenus
* Gültingen
* Günerode
* Guttenberg
-H-
* Habermann
* Hacke
* Hagen
* Hahn
* Hahnsberg
* Hallberg
* Haller
* Harling
* Hatzfeld
* Haxhausen
* Heddersdorf
* Hees
* Helmstatt
* Hess
* Hessberg
* Hettersdorf
* Heuslin v. Eusenheim
* Hofen
* Hoheneck
* Hohenfeld
* Holtz
* Holtzschuher
* Horben
* Horneck
* Hornstein
* Hoyen
* Hundbiss
* Hutten
-I-
* Ichtrazheim
* Ifflinger
* Imhof
* Ingelheim
-J-
* Jett
-K-
* Kageneck
* Kalbsried
* Karg
* Keller
* Kellerbach
* Kerpen
* Kesselstatt
* Kieningen
* Knebel
* Kniestedt
* Knöringen
* Koeth
* Kofler
* Kolowrat
* Koniz
* Kress
* Künsberg
-L-
* Lang
* Langwerth
* Lasser
* Lehrbach
* Lentnersheim
* Leonrodt
* Leonrodt
* Leutrum
* Leyden
* Leyder
* Leyen
* Liebenfels
* Liebenstein
* Lichtenstern
* Lochner
* Loë
* Löw
* Löwenstein
-M-
* Maiershofen
* Malapert-Neufville
* Mansbach
* Marioth
* Marschall von Ostheim
* Massenbach
* Mayerhofen
* Metternich
* Migazzi
* Molsberg
* Mozzian
* Müller
* Münch
* Münster
-N-
* Neipperg
* Nesselrode
* Neuenstein
* Neveu
* Nordeck zu Rabenau
-O-
* Oberkirch
* Oberndorff
* Oelhaften
* Oetinger
* Ostein
* Osterberg
* Ow
-P-
* Palm
* Pappenheim
* Pappius
* Paumgarten
* Pergen
* Plittersdorf
* Pöllnitz
* Prettlack
* Preuschen
* Preysing
* Prör
* Pruglach
-Q-
* Quadt
-R-
* Raknitz
* Rassler
* Rathsamhausen
* Ratzenried
* Rau
* Rechberg
* Redwitz
* Rehling
* Reibeld
* Reichlin
* Reigersberg
* Reischach
* Reitzenstein
* Reutner
* Rhode
* Riaucour
* Riedesel
* Riedheim
* Riez
* Ritter
* Roeder
* Rosenbach
* Rotenhahn
* Roth-Schreckenstein
* Rüdt
* Rumerskirch
-S-
* Saint-André
* Saint-Vincent
* Salis-Haldenstein
* Schall
* Schaunberg
* Schaumberg
* Scheldt
* Schenk
* Schenk von Schweinsberg
* Scherenberg
* Schergenstein
* Schertel
* Schilling
* Schler
* Schlus
* Schmidburg
* Schmitz
* Schönborn
* Schrottenberg
* Schütz
* Schwartzenberg
* Seckendorf
* Seefried
* Seinsheim
* Senfft
* Serpes
* Sickingen
* Sodden
* Sohlern
* Sparr
* Spaur
* Specht
* Speshardt
* Speth
* Stadion
* Stauffenberg
* Stein
* Stetten
* Stolzingen
* Stubenberg
* Sturmfeder
* Syberg
-T-
* Tätessin
* Than
* Thannhausen
* Thrumbach
* Thumb
* Thungen
* Thurn
* Thurn und Taxis
* Törring-Seefeld
* Truchseß von Wetzhausen
* Tucher
* Türkheim
-U-
* Üxküll
* Uiberbruck
* Ullmer
* Ulm
* Umgelter
* Varnbühler
* Venningen
* Vieregg
* Vittinghoff
* Vogt-hunolstein
* Voit
* Voit von Rieneck
* Voit von Salzburg
* Vorster
-W-
* Waldenburg-Schenkern
* Waldenfels
* Walderdorff
* Waldkirch
* Waldner
* Wallbrunn
* Wallmoden-Gimborn
* Wambolt
* Warsberg
* Weihmar
* Weiler
* Weitersheim
* Welden
* Welling
* Welschberg
* Welser
* Wendt
* Wenz
* Westernach
* Westphalen
* Wetzel
* Wiesenthau
* Wildberg
* Wildungen
* Winkler
* Winkler von Mohrenfels
* Wolfskehl
* Wöllwarth
* Wollzogen
* Wrede
* Wurmser
*Würtzburg
-Z-
*Zech
*Zobel
*Zöllner
*Zyllnhardt
_________________
____________________________________________________________
"CHRISTUS VINCIT, CHRISTUS REGNAT, CHRISTUS IMPERIT."
____________________________________________________________
For Further Information the
Correspondence Address is:
The Imperial College of Princes
and Counts of The Holy Roman Empire,
The Grand Reichs-Chancellors Office,
Royal Mail Post Office Box 276,
Teddington, Middlesex, TW11 0UL,
United Kingdom.
Tel: +44 (0) 208 943 4520
Fax: +44 (0) 208 943 4520
E-mail: hirhprincekarlfrederickevondeutschland@msn.com
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