Imperial Reform (Holy Roman Empire)
painting by Albrecht Dürer
The imperial reform was the attempt repeatedly made in the 15th and 16th centuries to adapt the structure and constitutional order of the Holy Roman Empire to the requirements of the early modern state , to give it a unified government under either estates or imperial rule, and to remove the prevailing legal uncertainty.
The main aim of the reform efforts was to readjust the balance of power between the emperor and the empire. While the ruling house of the Habsburgs , the imperial knighthood as well as the free and imperial cities strived to strengthen the empire , the rulers tried to weaken its central power. The conflicting goals meant that the princely imperial regiment remained just as episode as the introduction of a general imperial tax, the common penny . On the other hand, permanent results of the imperial reform were the Eternal Peace of 1495, the establishment of the imperial chamber court in the same year and the creation of the imperial districts in 1500 and 1512 as higher-level, territorial administrative units. Efforts to reform the empire came to a certain end with the resolutions of the Augsburg Reichstag of 1555, for example on the execution order .
prehistory
In contrast to the kings of France or England , for example , the Roman-German emperors had not succeeded in uniting the most important sovereign rights of the state in their hands since the High Middle Ages . Rather, the right to levy taxes , the high jurisdiction , the right to mint , the right to fortify and many other regalia had passed over time from them to the imperial princes and free imperial cities .
Therefore the gradual development of the early modern state in Germany did not take place at the level of the empire, but at that of the individual sovereigns. Decisive for the development were u. a. the statutes of Frederick II in favor of the princes in the 13th century and the golden bull of Charles IV in the 14th century. Since the interregnum from 1250 to 1273, the respective emperor had only as much influence on imperial politics as his own power base as sovereign, his household power , allowed him to do. A unified action of the empire was at the beginning of the early modern period , only possible if it was possible the Emperor on a Diet approval of the three colleges of electors to gain, the princes and the free cities to a particular decision. Due to their diverging interests, this was hardly possible anymore.
Since the empire had neither significant income nor its own army force and the individual imperial estates also pursued their own alliance policy, it was hardly possible to act together towards foreign states. As such, the Reich could only pursue foreign policy to a very limited extent. The problem of the inability to act became in the 15th century - partly due to the Hussite Wars - also the imperial princes, otherwise conscious of their liberty, as such.
First attempts at an imperial reform
In the years 1434 to 1438 the diets in Eger and Nuremberg made the first attempts at an imperial reform, sometimes on the initiative of Emperor Sigismund , sometimes on that of the elector . A ban on feuding , a new regulation of the right to coins and escort, and a division of the empire into districts were discussed. However, all proposals failed because of the conflicting interests of the emperor and prince.
Both were striving for a more functional overall government of the empire, but in each case under opposite signs. The emperor was interested in strengthening his central power, the princes, on the other hand, in a collegial, class leadership in which they could participate. In the journalism of that time, for example in writings such as the “ Reformatio Sigismundi ”, it becomes apparent that the educated classes, which represented the small territorial lords of the counts and barons as well as the imperial knighthood, but also the imperial cities and the small spiritual territories, had a strong position of power of the emperor because they hoped it would provide better protection against the claims of the sovereigns. However, the emperors themselves, who since Sigismund's successor Albrecht II came almost exclusively from the House of Habsburg , practiced imperial politics only to the extent that it served their own household power .
The reforms since 1495
Was revived the reform idea among the later Emperor Maximilian I. He was looking for in 1477 the support of the empire because he has been marrying Mary of Burgundy whose heritage defend against the claims of the French king had and the advance of the Turks in the Balkans and the Habsburg possessions in the southeast of the empire threatened.
At the Worms Reichstag in 1495 , he demanded not only the approval of one-off monetary payments from the imperial estates , but the introduction of a general, regularly levied imperial tax and the provision of troop contingents. The imperial princes were ready to do so, but not without consideration.
Imperial Regiment
The imperial regiment is understood to mean a permanent imperial government first demanded by the imperial estates in 1495 as a counterweight to the emperor's claim to rule. The imperial regiment was realized in 1500 and existed with its seat in Nuremberg until 1502. In his electoral surrender, Charles V once again allowed the imperial estates to set up an imperial regiment, which was able to develop a strong effect from 1521 to 1530.
The spokesman for the imperial estates in calling for an imperial regiment was the Archbishop and Elector of Mainz Berthold von Henneberg . As a central project of the imperial reform, he demanded the introduction of an imperial regiment with the participation of the most important princes. The task of this new body would be to oversee the finances, defense and warfare, and foreign policy of the empire. It was intended as a standing committee that was supposed to take over the business of government instead of the cumbersome and only sporadic Reichstag, together with the emperor, who was only supposed to hold the honorary chairmanship of the Reich regiment.
This represented a considerable impairment of the imperial power. Nevertheless, Maximilian reluctantly agreed to the formation of the new college, since he needed the support of the princes for his wars. He delayed the formation of the Reich regiment as long as possible. Only after the Reichstag in Augsburg had given its approval for a Reich militia in 1500 did it actually convene the body. In addition to himself, this included 20 representatives of the princes and free imperial cities . However, the disagreement among the princes and Maximilian's aversion to the imperial regiment led to its dissolution as early as 1502. A second attempt under Emperor Charles V between 1521 and 1531 also failed.
Common penny
Another resolution of the Reichstag of 1495 concerned the first-time approval of a general imperial tax: the common penny was to be paid annually to the emperor by every single subject of the empire for 15 years. The imperial tax was graded according to the amount of wealth.
The common penny gave the empire the financial means for an independent policy without the support of the sovereigns for the first time. However, his uprising met with some bitter resistance from the start. The Swiss confederates , who have always seen Habsburg power as a threat, even refused to pay. After their victory in the Swabian War in 1499, they were exempted from imperial taxes and de facto left the imperial association, even though they did not gain full legal independence until the 17th century. The imperial authorities and the imperial wars were financed in the early modern period through contributions from the individual imperial estates.
Eternal peace and court of justice
Another demand of the princes was that the feuds be ended throughout the empire. Violent conflict resolution should be replaced by legal procedures. The Diet of Worms therefore proclaimed an Eternal Peace in 1495 . Although he did not end all feuds immediately, he prevailed over the long term.
To monitor the peace, the Reichstag, also at the instigation of the princes, brought the Reich Chamber of Commerce into being. It met first in Frankfurt am Main , from 1527 in Speyer and from 1693 in Wetzlar . Until then, jurisdiction in the last instance had rested solely with the emperor. However, the execution of the imperial judgments had regularly failed due to the resistance of the sovereigns when they went against their intentions. Nevertheless, it was not in Maximilian's interest that the highest judicial power in the empire should now rest with a permanent institution that was detached from the person of the emperor. In 1498 he founded the Reichshofrat, which was subordinate to him alone . Until the end of the Old Empire in 1806, this formed the last appeal and appeal body in Germany alongside the Reich Chamber of Commerce. Since the middle of the 16th century, the enabling of subject trials before both imperial courts contributed decisively to peaceful conflict resolution in the empire.
Imperial circles
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Imperial circles were created from 1500 in the course of the imperial reform of King Maximilian I as superordinate territorial units to improve general imperial administration. They mostly included several territorial lords, but initially not the electoral principalities, which were only added at the Diet of Worms in 1521. In the later Rhineland, the Burgundian , the Curriculum , the Lower Rhine-Westphalian and the Upper Rhine Empire were represented. The Lower Rhine-Westphalian and Upper Rhine Imperial Circles were formed as early as 1500, and in 1512 the Kurhine district, which included Kurköln and Kurtrier , and the Burgundian Empire were added. Thus, in 1512, the original six imperial districts were expanded to ten when the new functions made it necessary to cover the empire more extensively. Only the Swiss cantons, imperial Italy and the countries of the Bohemian Crown were excluded from the district division .
If the imperial districts initially only served as electoral districts for the imperial regiment, other functions were added later: They were responsible for the supervision of the coinage, had to set up or maintain army contingents for the imperial army and enforce judgments of the imperial court. They were also responsible for enforcing the peace of 1521.
The decision-making body within the Reichskreis was the so-called Kreistag, to which every rule, regardless of its size, sent a representative. This body elected the district bishop, who headed the military and was responsible for ensuring the peace. The highest office, however, was that of the district announcer, a political office that was quickly hereditary in most circles and usually exercised jointly by a spiritual and a secular prince.
Result of the imperial reform
In the end, the imperial reform remained piecemeal. The Reichskreis and the Reichskammergericht were the only institutions that emerged from it in the long term. In the area of criminal law, one can count among these efforts the Eternal Peace of Land of 1495 and the Constitutio Criminalis Carolina of 1532. It turned out that the formation of the early modern state in the individual principalities and rulers of the empire had already progressed too far for it to be pushed back again in favor of the empire. On the other hand, the emperors were not prepared to forego their powers in favor of a central government of estates.
All attempts to forcefully force a strong imperial central power failed. The first opportunity to do this arose for Charles V after his victory in the Schmalkaldic War in 1548. At the armored Reichstag , he dictated the Augsburg interim to the imperial estates , the settlement of the religious question largely in the Catholic sense. Against this demonstration of power, an opposition of both Catholic and Protestant princes immediately formed, which culminated in the prince uprising in 1552 . More than 70 years later, Ferdinand II also exceeded his ambitions after Wallenstein's first victories in the Thirty Years' War . A strong coalition of German and foreign powers was formed, who did everything in their power to prevent the expansion of imperial power to all of Germany.
swell
- Karl Zeumer : Collection of sources on the history of the German imperial constitution in the Middle Ages and modern times. 2nd increased edition. Mohr, Tübingen 1913. ( full text on Wikisource )
- Lorenz Weinrich (ed.): Sources on imperial reform in the late Middle Ages = De reformando regni Teutonici statu in medioaevo posteriore fontes selectae . Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 2001, ISBN 3-534-06877-7 ( selected sources on the German history of the Middle Ages 39).
literature
- Karl-Friedrich Krieger : King, Empire and Imperial Reform in the Late Middle Ages. 2nd revised edition, Oldenbourg, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-486-57670-4 ( Enzyklopädie Deutscher Geschichte 14). Contains an extensive bibliography.
- Peter Moraw : Royal rule and administration in the late medieval empire (approx. 1350-1450) . In: Reinhard Schneider (Ed.): The late medieval monarchy in European comparison. Sigmaringen 1987, pp. 185-200 online version
- Peter Moraw: Principality, royalty and "imperial reform" in the German late Middle Ages . In: Walter Heinemeyer (Ed.): Vom Reichsfürstenstande. Cologne, Ulm 1987, pp. 117-136.
- Heinz Angermeier : The Reich Reform. 1410-1555. The state problem in Germany between the Middle Ages and the present. Beck, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-406-30278-5 .
- Heinz Angermeier: Reich reform and Reformation (= writings of the Historical College . Lectures . Vol. 5), Munich 1983. ( digitized version )
- Exhibition cat .: 1495 - Kaiser, Reich, reforms. The Reichstag in Worms. Exhib. for the 500th anniversary of the Worms Reichstag. Worms, Andreasstift . Koblenz 1995.
- Mattias G. Fischer: Reich reform and "Eternal land peace". About the development of feudal law in the 15th century up to the absolute ban on feuding in 1495. Scientia-Verlag, Aalen 2007, ISBN 978-3-511-02854-1 ( Studies on the German State and Legal History, New Volume 35), also: Göttingen, Univ., Diss., 2002.
- Hermann Heimpel : Studies on church and empire reform of the 15th century. Winter, Heidelberg 1974, ISBN 3-533-02338-9 ( session reports of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences, Philosophical-Historical Class 1974, 1).
- Victor von Kraus : The Nuremberg Reich Regiment. Establishment and decay. 1500-1502. A piece of German constitutional history from the age of Maximilian. Depicted according to archival sources. Wagner, Innsbruck 1883 (reprint: Scientia-Verlag, Aalen 1969).
- Malte Prietzel : The Holy Roman Empire in the late Middle Ages. WBG, Darmstadt 2004, ISBN 3-534-15131-3 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Rainer Schröder : Legal history. Alpmann and Schmidt, Münster / W.
