Reservation Rights (Holy Roman Empire)
As a reserve rights ( Latin iura Caesarean reservata ) are sovereign rights referred through which the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (after the Diet of Worms in 1495 could have) at its discretion and for the sole exercise. On the other hand, there are further sovereign rights (so-called comitial rights ), the exercise of which was additionally linked to the approval of the Reichstag.
iura caesarea reservata
The iura reservata (illimitata) refers to the rights that the emperor could exercise throughout the empire without having to obtain the consent of the electors or the Reichstag, and their exercise only within the limits of current imperial law (electoral surrenders, rights of the imperial estates ) was bound. They were not laid down in any imperial law or in any electoral surrender and, in a sense, included the last remnants of the royal power.
The emperor's reservation rights included:
- Re-allocation home fallen lower Reichslehen (z. B. Reich Ritterschaften )
- The proposition on the Reichstag
- The mail shelf
- Carrying out standing increases
- Appointment of notaries
- Presentation of judges and assessors at the Reich Chamber of Commerce
- Appointment of the President and the members of the Reichshof Council
- External representation of the empire
- Granting privileges (i.e., establishment) to universities and conferring degrees
- Granting of privileges in general
- Issuing dispensations
- Declaration of legal age for minors
- Right of legitimation regarding illegitimate births
The sole exercise of these rights by the emperor remained problematic even after the Diet of 1495 . With regard to the exclusive (“illimitate”) reservation rights, the head of the Reich competed with the sovereigns (e.g. in the legitimation of illegitimate children). The constitutional fixation of these rights, which remained undone until the end of the empire, led to their further derogation .
iura caesarea reservata limitata
The reserve rights also included the so-called iura caesarea reservata limitata , the limited reservation rights, for which the approval of the Reichstag was not required, but the approval of the elector had to be obtained. Based on these rights, their position in the imperial constitution can be easily recognized.
The iura caesarea reservata limitata of the emperor (and indirectly of the electors) included the following powers:
- Disposal of fiefs that have fallen back to the Reich
- Convocation of the Reichstag
- Declarations of eight about imperial estates
De facto , this also included the granting of coin, customs and stacking justice. In 1711 the decision on the imperial ban was declared a comitial right .
See also
literature
- Helmut Neuhaus : The Empire in the Early Modern Age . Munich, Oldenbourg, 2003.
- Axel Gotthard : The Old Empire 1495–1806 , Darmstadt, 2003
- J. Pratje: The imperial rights - Jura caesarea reservata. Diss., Erlangen 1957
- Concise dictionary of German legal history , Volume II, Sp. 476–481.
- Lexicon of the Middle Ages , Volume VII, Col. 754 f. (R. Mitsch)