Electoral Day

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Electoral days were part of the political system of the Holy Roman Empire in the late Middle Ages and early modern times . In the early modern period, these assemblies played an important role in imperial politics , especially in times when the Reichstag was not or seldom convened. The non-voting electoral days took place until 1640. There were still electoral elections.

Forms and competencies

Electoral days were official meetings of the electors of the Holy Roman Empire. A distinction must be made between electoral elections, which dealt with the election of the next ruler, and non-electoral elections, when it came to regulating general affairs of the Reich. In addition to the election, imperial matters were also discussed at the electoral days.

A distinction must also be made between the rare electoral days convened by the emperor on the basis of the golden bull and the meetings of the Kurverein . The latter was usually convened by the Archbishop of Mainz . While in the first case the emperor or someone appointed by him was present, in the second case imperial emissaries were only present as observers or not at all.

The competencies of the non-voting Electoral Days were never really defined. The binding force of the resolutions for the Reich as a whole remained unclear.

In addition to the general electoral days, there have often been "Rhenish electoral days" since the late Middle Ages as a meeting of the four Rhenish electors.

Depending on personality, politics and understanding of office, the emperors called the electors together differently often to discuss matters of the empire. Under Charles V (1519–1556) there was no Electoral Congress at all. On the other hand, Electoral Days under Ferdinand I and Maximilian II took place particularly frequently between 1558 and 1576.

subjects

The subjects were similar to those at the Reichstag . The electors tried to avoid resolutions that involved high spending, and the other imperial estates should also participate.

The confessionalization at the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th centuries was extremely stressful for the Electoral College and therefore for the Electoral Days. The Rhenish archbishops rejected cooperation with the Calvinist Palatinate during the Rhenish electoral days. There were only religious electoral days of the archbishops. Confessional confrontation played an increasingly important role in the general Electoral Congress. The clerical electors appeared as defenders of Catholicism. They had agreed their positions beforehand. Instead of concern for the Reich, denominational interests were increasingly represented.

This changed again during the Thirty Years' War . At times the Electoral Days were to a certain extent a replacement for the paralyzed Reichstag. During this time some particularly glamorous meetings of this kind took place. Foreign states also sent their representatives to these. The electors endeavored to advise and take important decisions instead of the diets that did not meet. These included the edict of restitution of 1629 and the dismissal of Wallenstein in 1630 as an imperial general. The Regensburg Electoral Congress of 1630 also weakened the emperor's power overall. In 1636, an electoral assembly approved an imperial tax in place of the imperial diet, which met with criticism from the imperial estates that were not involved. Another meeting took place in 1640. But the electors saw that a stronger assembly would be necessary in the future, and they called for a Reichstag. After that there was no more non-voting electors' day.

List of Electoral Days

date place Events
June 23, 1298 Mainz
1338 Oberlahnstein and Rhens Foundation of the Rhenser Kurverein against Pope Benedict XII.
1344 Bacharach
1368 Frankfurt am Main
1380 Oberwesel Rhenish electors
Mid-October 1395 Boppard
approx. May 13-22, 1397 Frankfurt am Main
July 1397 Frankfurt am Main Convened in accordance with the resolutions of the Frankfurt deliberations of May 1397
April 1399 Boppard
May 1399 Forchheim
June 2, 1399 Marburg
September 19, 1399 Mainz
February 1, 1400 Frankfurt am Main
May 17, 1400 Frankfurt am Main
August 1400 Oberlahnstein
June 1402 Mainz
March 1404 Boppard
March 2-3, 1421 Boppard
May 1423 Boppard
August 1423 Frankfurt am Main
January 1424 Bingen and Mainz Foundation of the Binger Kurverein against Emperor Sigismund of Luxembourg
1425 Mainz
July 29, 1426 Boppard Rhenish electors
November 1426 Frankfurt am Main
1427 Frankfurt am Main
1428 Koblenz
October 1428 Heidelberg
August 1439 Mainz
1441 Mainz
February 28 - March 13, 1445 Boppard
June 1445 Frankfurt am Main
February - March 21, 1446 Frankfurt am Main Kurverein
November 30, 1456 Nuremberg
March 13, 1457 Frankfurt am Main
1460 Nuremberg
February 16 - March 6, 1461 Nuremberg Renewal and expansion of the Kurverein
1472 regensburg
1486 Frankfurt am Main
1497 Oberwesel Rhenish electors
June 30 - July 5, 1502 Gelnhausen Kurverein
November 25 - mid-December 1502 Wurzburg
around June 18, 1503 Mainz Elector's and Prince's Day
October 21 - November 11, 1503 Frankfurt am Main
around Christmas 1503 augsburg
March 17-22, 1504 Aschaffenburg
June 2, 1504 Mainz
Late June 1504 Gelnhausen
Late April - early May 1508 Mainz Elector's and Prince's Day; dissolved without parting
1511 Frankfurt am Main Imperial Assembly
1519 Oberwesel Rhenish electors
October / November 1520 Cologne Preparations for the election of Emperor Charles V
1521 Worms on the occasion of the Reichstag, renewal of the Kurverein
1522 Boppard Rhenish electors
1523 Oberwesel Rhenish electors
1526 Koblenz
April 1527 Oberwesel Rhenish electors
1530 Aschaffenburg
1531 Frankfurt am Main
October 1, 1534 Mainz Rhenish electors
November 16, 1534 Oberwesel Rhenish electors
April 16, 1551 Oberwesel Rhenish electors
April 21, 1552 Oberwesel Rhenish electors
March / April 1554 Rothenburg ob der Tauber
May 1557 Eger
February 25 - March 20, 1558 Frankfurt am Main Elector's Day and Election Day; Frankfurt Electors' Day ; Kurverein for the election of Emperor Ferdinand I.
1562 Frankfurt am Main
Summer 1563 Bingen
1565 Oberwesel
January 14 - February 3, 1568 Fulda
July 25, 1568 Bacharach originally advertised to Oberwesel
May 14-24, 1571 Bingen Rhenish electors
July 22nd to July 26th, 1572 Mulhouse
Late August 17, 1573 Frankfurt
October 12 - October 27, 1575 regensburg King Rudolf II.
July 28 - August 4, 1577 Bingen Rhenish electors
April 17 - June 19, 1578 Worms
November 26, 1578 Bingen
May 1583 Bingen Rhenish electors
August 21-26, 1585 Koblenz Spiritual electors
January 29 - early February 1588 Speyer
October 1603 Koblenz Spiritual electors
September 1 - September 9, 1606 Fulda
May 1607 Koblenz Spiritual electors
July 30 - August 7, 1608 Fulda cancellation
October 24 - November 19, 1611 Nuremberg
May 22nd - June 28th 1612 Frankfurt Election day Matthias '
February 1614 Koblenz Spiritual electors
June 1614 Bingen Electoral Day of the Catholic League
1615 Mainz Electoral Day of the Catholic League
November 1615 Koblenz Spiritual electors
July 27 - August 28, 1619 Frankfurt Election day of Ferdinand II.
November 25, 1622 regensburg with subsequent imperial assembly until March 19, 1623
October 18 - November 12, 1627 Mulhouse Farewell, imperial decree
June - July 1628 Bingen Electoral Day of the Catholic League
July 3 - November 12, 1630 regensburg imperial final writing; Regensburg Electoral Congress ; Wallenstein's dismissal
September 15, 1636 - January 23, 1637 regensburg King Ferdinand III.
Late June 1639 Bingen Electoral Day of the Catholic League
February 3 - July 7, 1640 Nuremberg
1653 Prague
August 1689 augsburg

literature

  • Winfried Becker : The Electoral Council. Main features of its development in the imperial constitution and its position at the Westphalian peace congress . Munster 1973.
  • Axel Gotthard : pillars of the empire. The Electors in the Early Modern Reich Association , Bd. I. The Kurverein. Electoral days and imperial politics . (Historical studies 457/1), Matthiesen, Husum 1999, ISBN 3786814570 .
  • Axel Gotthard: The Old Empire 1495–1806 . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 2009, ISBN 978-3-534-23039-6 , p. 24f.
  • Alexander Begert: The origin and development of the Kurkolleg from its beginnings to the early 15th century . (Schriften zur Verfassungsgeschichte 81), Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-428-13222-5 .

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Imperial assemblies from 1376 to 1485. Retrieved on August 28, 2018 .