Peace of Constance

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Peace certificate at the Kaiserbrunnen

The Peace of Constance is a peace treaty concluded in 1183 between the Roman-German Emperor Friedrich I Barbarossa and the northern Italian cities of the Lombard League in Constance .

The treaty was a final written fixation of the agreements made between the emperor and the Lombards League as part of the Venice Peace of 1177. The federation and the right of the municipalities to form alliances were recognized by the emperor. The regalia , which the emperor so vehemently demanded during the Reichstag in Roncaglia in 1158 , were given to the cities for one-off or annual payments. The communal constitution in imperial Italy was thus accepted by the emperor, after all attempts by Frederick to stop this special development had failed. The municipalities now enjoyed a privileged legal position. In return, they committed themselves to military success and accepted that the consuls they had chosen were formally appointed by imperial representatives and had to take an oath of allegiance. In serious cases it was also possible to appeal to the emperor as the supreme court lord.

With the treaty, the municipalities were perceived as an independent legal entity and their constitution, which was designed for self-government and relatively strong autonomy, was legitimized by the emperor. This was new and represents the peculiarity of the peace treaty, especially since the communal rulers were not aristocratic, but co-operative. This legitimized the Lombard League as a permanent institution.

The peace certificate was cast in bronze in 1990 and can be admired at the Konstanzer Kaiserbrunnen on the Marktstätte.

literature

  • Eva-Marie Distler: City federations in the German late Middle Ages: A legal historical investigation on the concept, constitution and function (= studies on European legal history. Publications of the Max Planck Institute for European legal history Frankfurt am Main. Vol. 207). Klostermann, Frankfurt a. M. 2006, ISBN 3-465-04001-5 , pp. 5-7.
  • Alfred Haverkamp : The Constance Peace between Emperor and Lombard League (1183) . In: Helmut Maurer (Hrsg.): Communal alliances of Upper Italy and Upper Germany in comparison. Thorbecke, Sigmaringen 1987, ISBN 3-7995-6633-3 , pp. 11-44 ( online ).