Estates of the Landgraviate of Hesse

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The estates of the Landgraviate of Hessen existed since the Middle Ages and formally ended only with the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss , but in fact with the division of the Landgraviate. In 1519 they succeeded in a comprehensive expansion of power in the guardianship conflict.

history

The origins of the estates are obscure. Land estates existed as early as the 15th century. Documents about their meeting or work have not survived, however.

Partition treaty of 1467

After many years of inheritance disputes, a dispute agreement was signed between Landgrave Ludwig II and Landgrave Heinrich III in 1467 . which strengthened the position of the estates. The treaty (which was also approved by a twenty-member committee of councilors, knights and cities) regulated that the estates in each of the two newly formed parts of the country had the right to renounce their rulers and join the other part of the country if the ruler broke the treaty would. Nevertheless, the estates invoked this contract in the guardianship dispute in order to derive a right of self-assembly from it.

Guardianship Conflict 1509

After Landgrave Wilhelm II's death in 1509, the estates refused to recognize Wilhelm's will, which appointed his widow Anna to be regent and guardian of his son, Philip I , who was still underage . A reign that was led exclusively by the Landgrave's widow was - in the opinion of the estates - an innovation for the Landgraviate and thus not covered by "tradition, law and custom". The landgrave widow, however, relied on Roman law and the custom of other territories.

The estates elected a Regency Council from their own ranks. The leading force was the court master Ludwig von Boyneburg . Neither the arbitration days held nor attempts by the emperor to mediate resulted in a change in Anna's sense. The new government came under increasing criticism in the following years. On the one hand, this form of reign also represented a clear break with "tradition, law and custom"; on the other hand, there were power-political conflicts. In particular, parts of the estates increasingly saw themselves not sufficiently involved in government. Above all, however, the Saxon dukes , who themselves had contractually secured inheritance claims, influenced Hessian politics through the estates.

In 1514 the so-called "Treysaer Unification" came about between the majority of the estates and Anna, who recognized Anna's reign and dissolved the regents' committee. In return, Anna had to make extensive concessions. In future, taxes could not be levied or coins could be deteriorated without the approval of the stalls . Anna undertook to convene the stands at least once or twice a year. Her work as regent was to be monitored by a Regency Committee, which had extensive rights and was accountable to the estates.

The restriction of the stands

Anna's position was strengthened by her clever policy, which played the cities against the nobility. In 1518 she succeeded in obtaining a declaration of consent from the emperor for her then 13-year-old son, Landgrave Philip I. With that she could declare the Regency Committee done.

After he had declared of age, Landgrave Philipp and the estates came to a conflict when they wanted to meet without the Landgrave's invitation. Philip asked the emperor for support in this matter and received an imperial mandate that denied the estates the right to self-assembly.

Until 1527 Philip refrained from convening the estates, thus documenting his success in the constitutional conflict.

During the guardianship conflict, Dietrich von Cleen , then Commander of the Deutschordensballei Hessen , played an important role. Only involved in the disempowerment as a member of the Regency Committee, he switched to Anna's side in the following years.

When the Reformation was introduced in the Landgraviate, the Marburg Ballei was one of the few spiritual institutions that escaped secularization . However, there was now a conflict with the landgrave. Johann Daniel von Lauerbach, Cleen's successor as Commander, refused to take the oath on the Landgrave (and to pay him taxes), since he was solely subject to the Grand Master . The Landgrave referred to the tradition of the Teutonic Order's participation in the stands and the donations that the Order had received from the Landgrave House. An agreement was only reached in the Carlstatt Treaty in 1584 . The Komtur was obliged to participate in state parliaments. The taxes were not collected from the landgraves, but from the emperor, but half were distributed to the landgrave.

division

In 1603 the last regular Samtlandtag took place. After the Landgraviate had been divided, it was agreed in 1608 that Samtlandtage should take place alternately in Hessen-Kassel and Hessen-Darmstadt . However, that did not happen. Instead, special state parliaments were convened, around 1613, when Ludwig V of Hessen-Darmstadt convened a special state parliament of the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt to approve the so-called "Turkish tax" .

In 1627 a new house contract was signed. Also here velvet state days were planned. In addition, however, there was now the express right to hold special state days. At the end of March 1628 the last State Parliament was held.

The house contract did not prevent further conflicts between the two Hessian rural counties. After the end of the Thirty Years' War , another house contract, the "Peace and Unity Process", was concluded in 1648. He also formally declared the Samtlandtage reinstated - but they were never convened.

organization

The Spike Tower (2008)

The stands were invited by the Landgrave. The state parliaments met in different places. Originally the " Spießurm " ("Spieß" for short) was designated as the meeting place , a 15th century watch tower near the Frielendorfer district of Spieskappel on the border between the then Lower and Upper Hesse. However, since 1509 at the latest, the state parliaments have taken place in different cities.

Participation was compulsory, but the participants were often excused. The resolutions of the state parliament were also binding for those who were not present. At the end of the state parliament, a resolution document, the state parliament approval , was passed. The landgrave bore the cost of catering for the stands.

From 1583 the landgraves tried to convene only a state parliament committee instead of the state parliament. A violent contradiction arose against this. Meetings of individual curiae , especially the cities, were also customary . They could decide autonomously in their own affairs (e.g. when it was only about city taxes).

Curiae

The estates consisted of four separate curiae:

Prelates

These included

Until the Reformation , the church representatives only played a small role in the estates. They were representatives of the Hessian monasteries and monasteries . In 1527, as a result of the introduction of the Reformation, the monasteries were abolished or converted into hospital or school foundations. This did not mean that the prelate status disappeared from the estates. Rather, since the end of the 16th century, the owners, directors or “chiefs” of the newly organized institutions have held the previous spiritual votes. The monasteries were secularized and their income was used to finance public institutions. The University of Marburg , the aristocratic Kaufungen and Wetter monasteries and the four high state hospitals were established.

The highest representative in terms of rank was the Marburg Deutsch-Ordens Komtur, who was also a member of the knight's curia (because of knightly goods).

Knighthood

The number of knightly participants in the state parliaments fluctuated between 120 and 200. The state parliament entitlement depended on belonging to a noble family that was capable of state parliament, not on the possession of goods. The starting point was tradition. Genders who had already been able to participate in the state parliaments earlier invoked their traditional right to participate in future state parliaments. It was not until 1632 that the knighthood was recorded in a register (see Old Hessen Knighthood ). The Hereditary Marshal was the spokesman for the knighthood in the diets ; this office was hereditary in the Riedesel family.

Around 1760, according to Heinrich Berghaus, among others, the Hessian knighthood (in brackets the number of goods eligible for the Landtag) included: Baumbach (11), Berlepsch (hereditary treasurer of Hesse, 5), Biedenfeld , Bischoffshausen (2), Bodenhausen , Boyneburg (8) , Brink , Buseck (also called Münch), Buttlar (5), Calenberg (2), Capella , Cornberg , Dalwigk (4), Dornbach (3), Diede zum Fürstenstein (5), Donop , Döring (2), Dörnberg ( Hereditary kitchen master of Hesse, 2), Drach (2), Eschwege (2), Fleckenbühl called Bürgel, Gall , Gilsa (4), Habell , Heydwolff , Horn , Hottenbach , Hundelshausen (3), Keudell (3), Knoblauch , Lindau , Löwenfeld , Löwenstein (4), Lütter , Malsburg (7), Meysenbug (4), Milchling (3), Münch , Nagel , Pappenheim (2), Pretlack , Radenhausen , Rau zu Holzhausen (2), Riedesel zu Eisenbach (hereditary marshals zu Hessen,> 2), Roding , Romrod (3), Rothsman , Schäffer , Schachten , Scholetz , Schenk zu Schweinsberg (heir to Hessen,> 2), Schwertzell , Seebach , Sa yboltsdorf , Spiegel (3), Stein-Liebenstein , Stockhausen , Treusch von Buttlar (6), Trohe , Trott zu Solz (4), Urff , Verschuer (2), Vultée (3), Vrede , Wambolt von Umstadt , Weitershausen , winter , Wolff von Gudenberg , Wallenstein , Worm

Cities

All cities of the Landgraviate were entitled to state parliament. This also included cities whose sovereignty Hesse shared with other princes. The cities usually sent one or two representatives, Marburg and Kassel up to four representatives. The towns bore the brunt of the taxes and were therefore of great importance in the financial affairs of the county.

Count

A number of counts were fiefs recipients of the Hessian landgrave and as such were eligible for state assembly. However, insofar as they were sovereign lords on the basis of imperial fiefs , allodial property or fiefs from other princes, they were not subjects of the landgrave.

swell

  • Heinrich Berghaus: Germany for a Hundred Years (1859), Part I, Volume 1, p. 322
  • Hans Siebeck: The state constitution of Hesse in the sixteenth century, Kassel, 1914