Franconian Imperial Counts College

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The princes of Hohenlohe-Bartenstein exerted great influence on the count bank

The Franconian Imperial Counts College , also known as the Franconian Count Bank , was the corporate association of the Franconian Imperial Counts and lords to safeguard their interests at the Imperial Diets , especially in the Imperial Council of the Holy Roman Empire and in the Franconian Imperial Circle .

prehistory

In addition to the amalgamations of the Swabian and Wetterau counts, a Franconian count's association was formed in the 16th century against the background of possible mediatization . The group of Frankish counts was significantly smaller than that of the other regions. In addition, their power and wealth were very different. Another aspect was that some of the Frankish counts were still closely associated with the imperial knighthood. Also, the predominantly Lutheran-minded Frankish counts felt that their interests were no longer adequately represented by the (Upper) Swabian counts and lords who remained Catholic.

The efforts to recognize her right to vote at the Reichstag in the form of another curiate vote were unsuccessful until the middle of the 17th century due to the institutional paralysis caused by the confessional division.

Dependence on other colleges

The Franconian Count Association has therefore only signed a few imperial farewells . Attempts to get a share in the Swabian Kuriatstimme failed in 1543/44 because of denominational differences. Since 1547, the Frankish counts could no longer act as an independent group at the imperial level, and their non-participation in the Reichstag endangered their imperial status . In 1557, the Swabian Imperial Counts' College voluntarily allowed the Franks to represent their interests; However, the Swabians rejected an independent curiate voice of the Franks. Support came in the 1570s from the Wetterauer Grafenverein, who asked the Franks to work in their corporation. But even here there was no lasting collaboration. In the following decades the Franconian counts also campaigned in vain for their own curate voice. The new sectarian tensions and the Thirty Years' War stood in the way of these efforts.

Efforts to get a curiate voice before 1641

The recognition as an independent corporation at the imperial level was preceded by the separation of the Frankish counts from the imperial knighthood, which was also directly imperial. A connubium was no longer desired. In addition, the counts intensified their participation in the affairs of the Frankish imperial circle. Through these two aspects, the counts distanced themselves from the imperial knighthood and emphasized their affiliation to the imperial estates .

From 1630 onwards, the Franks initially had a curate vote at meetings of the Protestant estates ( Corpus Evangelicorum ). It was not until 1641 that the Franks were given a curate vote in the Princely Council at the Reichstag. In the call order of the Reichsfürstenrat, the Franconian Count Bank took the penultimate rank (# 99).

organization

In contrast to the other counts' colleges, which were relatively independent organizations, the Frankish Reichsgrafenkollegium was closely linked to the Frankish imperial circle. Therefore internal organization was not particularly important. The college did not adopt a constitution, based on that of the Wetterauer, until 1583. After that, the district council was the association's central organ. From this also emerged the advertiser (director) of the college, who was in office for one year. The succession determined the age of the members. In 1590 the term of office was increased to two years, later to three years. The advertiser called the Counts' Convention together as the decisive decision-making body. Attendance was compulsory and each count had a vote. In 1615 a syndic was appointed much later than in the other counts' colleges . Members could be counts and lords with sufficiently large immediate holdings who had been appointed by the Frankish Reichskreis.

Members

The most important families were the Hohenlohe , Castell , Erbach and Löwenstein-Wertheim . Then there were the Counts of Limpurg and Wolfstein (or their heirs), the Counts of Nostitz (because of Rieneck), Schönborn (because of Reichelsberg and Wiesentheid), Graevenitz (because of Welzheim from 1727 to 1732) and the Princes of Schwarzenberg (because of Seinsheim). Without corresponding territory as personalists , the college belonged to the Counts von Windisch-Graetz , Ursin von Rosenberg , Starhemberg , Wurmbrand , Giech and Pückler (who then became realists as Pückler-Limpurg because of married shares in Limpurg).

The members of the Franconian Imperial Counts College 1792

coat of arms

  • Hohenlohe

  • Castell

  • Erbach

  • Löwenstein-Wertheim

  • Limpurg

  • Rieneck

  • Nostitz

  • Home of being

  • Schwarzenberg

  • Schönborn

  • Graevenitz

  • Windisch-Graetz

  • Orsini-Rosenberg

  • Starhemberg

  • Wormburn

  • Giech

  • Pückler

Dissolution of the Franconian Imperial Counts College

The end of the Franconian Reichsgrafenkollegium began with the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss of 25 February 1803.

With the Rhine Confederation Act of July 12, 1806, the members of the Franconian Reichsgrafenkollegium lost their independence and were mediatized.

  • Art. 24 listed the territories that were added to the Confederation of the Rhine allied with Napoleon:
    • the King of Bavaria received parts of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst, Hohenlohe-Neuenstein-Langenburg-Kirchberg, Castell, Limpurg-Speckfeld, Limpurg-Wolfstein, Seinsheim, Reichelsberg, Wiesentheid,
    • the King of Württemberg received Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Bartenstein, parts of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst, Hohenlohe-Neuenstein-Ingelfingen, Hohenlohe Neuenstein-Langenburg-Langenburg, Limpurg-Gaildorf, Welzheim, Hausen,
    • the Grand Duke of Baden received Löwenstein-Wertheim,
    • the Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt took possession of the three lines in Erbach,
    • Rieneck was mediated in favor of the Prince-Primary States .

A final correction was made in the border treaty between the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Kingdom of Württemberg, concluded in Paris on May 18, 1810. Bavaria ceded Hohenlohe-Kirchberg to Württemberg. Castell fell to the Grand Duchy of Würzburg , Rieneck to the Grand Duchy of Frankfurt .

literature

  • Alfred Bruns: Franconian Imperial Counts College. In: Gerhard Taddey (Hrsg.): Lexicon of German history . People, events, institutions. From the turn of the times to the end of the 2nd World War. 2nd, revised edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 1983, ISBN 3-520-80002-0 , p. 375.
  • Gerhard Köbler : Franconian Imperial Counts College. In: Historical Lexicon of the German States. The German territories from the Middle Ages to the present. 4th, completely revised edition. CH Beck, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-406-35865-9 , p. 175.
  • Helmut Neuhaus : The Empire in the Early Modern Age. Göttingen 2003, ISBN 978-3-486-56729-8 , p. 81.
  • Nikolaus Schönburg: The constitutional position of the imperial counts from the end of the Middle Ages to the end of the old empire. Diploma thesis, Vienna 2008 othes.univie.ac.at , pp. 107–128.

Remarks

  1. ↑ 1805 the princely line to Neuenstein-Öhringen died out and was inherited by the line to Neuenstein-Ingelfingen.
  2. ↑ The Rüdenhausen line died out in 1803, and ownership fell to Castell-Remlingen (or Castell-Castell).
  3. ↑ Reign of Welzheim with the Waibelhube fell back to Württemberg from Limpurg (extinct in the male line in 1713). Duke Eberhard Ludwig in 1718 gave it together with Weidelhub and Leimbach to his former mistress Wilhelmine von Graevenitz, who became Countess of Urach in 1707, before she married Count Würben (recte Wrbna) in 1711. At the same time, her brother became Count Friedrich Wilhelm von Graevenitz (1679-1754). But this was not enough for Wilhelmine in particular; she was aiming for a higher rank, which she as a woman could not achieve despite her former limpurgic possession. With a heavy heart, she signed the goods over to her brother, who then also managed to be accepted into the Franconian Imperial Counts College in 1727 via the Franconian Imperial Circle. With that he was Reichsgraf with seat and curate vote in the Reichstag. After the death of Duke Eberhard Ludwig in 1733, his strict Catholic successor, Duke Alexander, ended the power of the von Graevenitz family at the Württemberg court. Not only was Wilhelmine expelled; Her brother Friedrich Wilhelm also had to cede his goods to the rulership in 1735 in return for compensation. Welzheim immediately became a chamber clerk's office until 1807 (: cf. Landesarchiv-Baden Württemberg, Department House State Archive Stuttgart, Findbuch A 441 L)
  4. ↑ Dominion located within the county of Limpurg.