Reich pledge

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In historical research, imperial pledges refer to a part of the imperial property in the Roman-German Empire that was pledged by the king to an imperial estate or another person for a certain sum (pledge amount) .

In order to avoid irrecoverable loss, imperial property was not sold by the Roman-German kings , but pledged for a certain sum. However, this was done in such a way that the pledge holder had a position similar to that of an owner and the full right of use until the pledge was released. If the pledge was not released, it remained with the pledge holder. The pledged property could be (in some cases considerable) land ownership, but also certain imperial rights, such as local customs law.

Due to the financial hardship of the kings in the late Middle Ages , pledging of imperial property has increasingly been used since the time of the interregnum . The reward for service and the safeguarding of dynastic interests also played a role, which is why, particularly in the 14th century, very substantial parts of the imperial property were pledged. This practice turned out to be problematic in that it was hardly possible to redeem a pledge due to correspondingly high amounts and the continued acute financial need of the kingship. The consequence was the loss of large parts of the imperial property, with which the late medieval Roman-German monarchy lost an important source of income. Other income could not cover the resulting losses.

While Rudolf von Habsburg had tried to regain lost imperial property, this was rather the exception in the 14th century. In the 14th and 15th centuries, the influential princes in particular benefited from the associated loss of power, as a functioning royal rule was only possible thanks to their own domestic power . Charles IV , who often resorted to pledges, had also done this in order to secure the Luxembourg supremacy thanks to the extensive complex of domestic power. In the 15th century, however, this made government practice more difficult, especially for kings Ruprecht von der Pfalz and Sigismund (who at the beginning had no access to the Luxembourg household), as neither of them had sufficient resources in the imperial territory.

Starting with Charles V , who in his election surrender of July 3, 1519, expressly confirmed all regalia , privileges and pledges to the imperial princes , all subsequent emperors of the Holy Roman Empire assured the imperial princes in their electoral capitulations that they would remain in possession of the pledges.

literature

  • Kai-Michael Hingst: Reich pledge. In: Lexikon des Mittelalters 7 (1995), Col. 632f.
  • Götz Landwehr: The pledging of the German imperial cities in the Middle Ages. Böhlau, Cologne / Graz 1967.
  • Ernst Schubert : King and Empire. Studies on the late medieval German constitutional history (= publications of the Max Planck Institute for History. Vol. 63). Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen 1979, ISBN 3-525-35375-8 (also: Erlangen-Nürnberg, University, habilitation paper, 1974).

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ Overview in Ernst Schubert: King and Empire. Göttingen 1979, pp. 151-171.
  2. ↑ For the income see Ernst Schubert: König und Reich. Göttingen 1979, p. 171ff.
  3. ^ Karl-Friedrich Krieger: Rudolf von Habsburg. Darmstadt 2003, p. 166f.
  4. ↑ See Ernst Schubert: King and Empire. Göttingen 1979, pp. 188f.
  5. ^ Election capitulation of Charles V (§ 4) , in: Karl Zeumer (editor): Collection of sources for the history of the German Reich constitution in the Middle Ages and modern times. Tübingen 1913, No. 180.
  6. ^ Kai-Michael Hingst: Reich pledge. In: Lexikon des Mittelalters 7 (1995), Col. 633.