Imperial Army Constitution

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Imperial Army Constitution of the Holy Roman Empire , also known as the Imperial War Constitution, had grown , like its entire constitution, through various laws and regulated the formation of troops within the empire and was the basis for the establishment of the Imperial Army , which was under the command of the emperor , but from whose " Imperial Troops " were separated and only used by the Reichstag . The "Reichsdefensionalordnung" ("Reichsgutachten in puncto securitatis") from 13./23. May 1681 was the last to conclude the Army Constitution of the Holy Roman Empire.

Legal development

First Reich register

The first imperial register was set up in 1422 at the Reichstag in Nuremberg . The cities contradicted the princes' proposal to raise the "hundredth" pfennig and thus to recruit and maintain a mercenary army for the duration of a war. It was agreed to set up a (1st) register as a list of the troop contingents of the individual imperial estates.

The following imperial register

Further registers followed, in which specific numbers of troops or only amounts of money were determined, for example in Nuremberg in 1467 troops of 20,000 men, in 1471 a " common pfennig ", in 1486 an amount of money and in 1505 troops again. This led to the habit of replacing required troop provision with money or levied taxes with troop provision. The calculation repeatedly led to inconsistencies, so that the empire separated the troop quantum from the sum of the imperial registration numbers and, from 1669, fixed the imperial contingent in absolute numbers of horsemen and footmen for each imperial district .

Imperial register from 1521

The most important of these lists was drawn up in accordance with the agreements of the Worms Reichstag of 1521 for Charles V's Italian expedition to Rome for the imperial coronation . It is considered to be one of the fundamental laws for the kingdom in the early modern period. With certain adjustments to the current circumstances, called moderations, the Worms register formed the basis for the army and tax contingents of the imperial estates until the end of the empire .

The register was based on the size of the Imperial Army of 4,000 horsemen and 20,000 foot servants. The salary, 10 guilders for a rider , 12 guilders from 1542, and 4 guilders for a foot servant, was 128,000 guilders per month. This sum was called the Roman month and was used as the unit of account until the end of the empire. Accordingly, the imperial estates z. B. for the defense of the empire on the Reichstag approved contributions are counted in Roman months. This total amount was divided among the imperial estates according to their size and importance.

The sum to be paid by the respective Reichsstand was indicated with the help of the "Simplum". This was the number of soldiers on horseback and on foot that the imperial estate had to provide or for which it had to pay the sum corresponding to the wages. For example, in 1521 it was stipulated in the Bavarian Empire that the Duchy of Bavaria had to provide a Simplum of 60 soldiers on horseback and 277 on foot and the small imperial county of Ortenburg 2 riders and 6 men on foot. The Archbishopric of Salzburg was supposed to provide 60 men on horseback and 277 men on foot as Simplum, the Hochstift Passau 18 on horseback and 78 on foot and the Reichspropstei Berchtesgaden 2 on horseback and 34 on foot.

Imperial Execution Order 1555

The Reich Execution Ordinance , adopted by all classes at the Reichstag in Augsburg in 1555 , remained valid as a Reich law until its dissolution in 1806. However, it primarily regulated the interior of the Reich. The district order contained individual regulations on the deployment of troops (§§ 80, 83), the provision of material (§ 81) and the distribution of costs (§ 86).

At the Reichstag in Speyer in 1557, the farewell in § 21 of the district aid referred to “against all gadification, winding up and gathering of Reuters and servants, including all acts of those who are in salvation. Rich in equality and justice and then all rape of foreign incursions and incursions, hostile attacks, improper, enormous attacks, penetrations or withdrawals “ also include the defense of foreign troops.

Peace of Westphalia 1648

In the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, Article VIII § 64 was stipulated. a. the district constitution and matriculation are newly discussed and determined. However, this time limit could not be adhered to because of the different interests of the imperial estates. The right of the sovereigns to own troops ( "jus armorum et foederum" ), which is also anchored in the Peace of Westphalia , was used by the great imperial estates to set up their own standing armies, for example Brandenburg from 1644 , Bavaria and Saxony from 1682 .

The discussion at the Reichstag in Regensburg about a new Imperial War Constitution and a general guarantee between the Emperor and the Imperial Estates for mutual protection against hostile attacks and external interference without the involvement of the peace guarantors France and Sweden was interrupted in 1663 by new attacks by the Turks , which became “eyligen” in 1664 Helf ”and“ First Armature ”of the empire.

Register in the imperial dimensional order of 1681

In the imperial dimensional order of 1681, the division was not based on the old register from 1521, but the troop contingents of the districts were newly determined and the total was increased to 40,000 soldiers. The division between the stands within the district ( repartition ) had to be done by the district. In the example above, the contingent for the Electorate of Bavaria was changed to 120 soldiers on horseback and 554 on foot; the Landgraviate of Leuchtenburg (also Bavarian since 1743, not included in the 1521 list) accounted for 12 on horseback and 28 on foot and the small imperial county of Ortenburg had to provide 4 horsemen and 26 men on foot. The numbers changed for the Archbishopric of Salzburg to 60 men on horseback and 277 men on foot, for the Hochstift Passau to 18 on horseback and 78 on foot, and for the Prince Provosty of Berchtesgaden to 4 on horseback and 64 on foot. The Roman month scale of 51,269 guilders was retained.

In the Reich report from 23./13. May 1681 a total of 40,000 men (28,000 servants and 12,000 horsemen) were specified as Simplum:

“But now that the times and events of all places are arranged in such a way that one has to keep a watchful eye on the security of the fatherland ; In all three imperial colleges it was therefore considered necessary, and it was concluded, that at such an end a proper composition should be established according to the imperial constitutions and orders, and therefore to place above and next to that of your imperial majesty for the very purpose and Deroselben to entertain anerbietenden team of Reich's because 40,000 men, namely etwan 10000. horseback, 2000. dragoons, and 28,000 foot, raise all recruited good and well-trained multitudes without delay, and to folgends so continuiren seye as long as it will be decided that the empire's need and security are no longer required; in which case the same could then be reduced or entirely abolished, but with the appendix, when the empire pro rerum exigentia should be required by several men, to increase the quantity by 20,000 men, for which the estates may combine with them, so that controlled by all unintentional danger and violence, and powerfully resisted. "

In the Reichsgutachten of September 15, 1681 on the Reichskriegkasse and the Kreiskassen, the estates were free to choose whether they wanted to provide soldiers themselves or to take them over from neighboring armored estates for money .

See also

swell

literature

  • Heinz Angermeier : The Imperial War Constitution in the Politics of the Years 1679–1681 . German Department. In: Journal of the Savigny Foundation for Legal History . tape 82 . Vienna 1965, p. 190-222 .
  • Winfried Dotzauer: The German Reich circles. (1383-1806). History and file edition. Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-515-07146-6 .
  • Richard Fester : The armored estates and the imperial war constitution. (1681-1697) . Carl Jügel's Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1886, p. 190 f . (Also: Strasbourg, university, dissertation, 1886).
  • Hanns Hubert Hofmann (ed.): Sources on the constitutional organism of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation 1495–1815 (= selected sources on German history in modern times. Vol. 13). Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1976, ISBN 3-534-01959-8 .
  • Gerhard Papke: From the militia to the standing army. Defense in absolutism . In: Military History Research Office (Hrsg.): German military history in six volumes. 1648-1939 . tape 1 , section I. Manfred Pawlak Verlagsgesellschaft, Herrsching 1983, ISBN 3-88199-112-3 (licensed edition of the edition Bernard & Grafe Verlag, Munich).
  • Martin Rink, Harald Potempa: Two kinds of downfall: The collapse of the Old Reich (962–1806) and the old Prussia in 1806. In military history. Issue 3, 2006, ISSN  0940-4163 , pp. 4-9.
  • Hanns Weigel: The war constitution of the old German empire from the Worms register to its dissolution . Bamberg 1912 (inaugural dissertation from the law faculty of the Friedrich-Alexander University in Erlangen, 1911).
  • Jürg Zimmermann: Military administration and army deployment in Austria until 1806 . In: Military History Research Office (Hrsg.): German military history in six volumes . tape 1 , section III. Manfred Pawlak Verlagsgesellschaft, Herrsching 1983, ISBN 3-88199-112-3 (licensed edition of the Bernard & Grafe Verlag, Munich edition).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Imperial register of 1521
  2. ↑ § 31 - § 55.
  3. ↑ § 56 - § 103.
  4. ^ Richard Fester: The armored estates and the Imperial War Constitution 1681-1697 . In: Dissertation . Carl Jügel's Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1886, p. 2 .
  5. ↑ Martin Rink , Harald Potempa: The collapse of the Old Reich (962-1806) and the old Prussia in 1806 , in Military History , Issue 3/2006, Military History Research Office, ISSN  0940-4163 , p. 6
    Richard Fester: The armored stands and the Imperial War Constitution 1681-1697 . In: Dissertation . Carl Jügel's Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1886, p. 2 .
  6. ↑ Hanns Hubert Hofmann: Sources on the constitutional organism of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation 1495-1815 , Scientific Book Society Darmstadt, 1st edition 1976, p. 232ff