Freedom from red wax

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The freedom of red wax (lat. Ius cerae rubeae ) was a privilege granted by the emperor or king in the Holy Roman Empire from around the end of the 14th century, the so-called "red seal privilege". It included the right to use red sealing wax on all seals .

Original scheme

Sealed according to the traditional rule

Later extension of the privilege

The freedom of red wax, which was originally reserved for “sovereigns” under constitutional law, gradually lost its exclusivity, as the following examples show.

As early as 1467, this privilege was obviously no longer restricted to “sovereigns”, but was only seen as a privilege of the members of the gentry. In that year, Emperor Friedrich III. his Austrian subject, the imperial councilor and governor in Austria ob der Enns ( Upper Austria ), Johann von Starhemberg (* 1412, † 1474), and at the same time his brother Ulrich the Elder of Starhemberg († 1477), imperial councilor, captain and caretaker zu Freistadt in Upper Austria, as well as his nephews, Kaspar von Starhemberg auf Sprinzenstein, Tegernbach and Grieskirchen , and his cousin, Rüdiger the Elder of Starhemberg, the privilege of freedom from red wax, whereby they rose to the Upper Austrian gentry.

Some time later, the restriction of freedom from red wax to members of the gentry was given up. In 1518, Georg von Tannberg († 23 September 1576), together with his younger brother Burghard von Tannberg auf Aurolzmünster and Offenberg, keeper of Gross-Enzersdorf (* approx. 1560), received imperial permission to seal with red wax. The former did not rise to the ranks until much later, on June 12, 1572, when he was promoted to imperial baron of Tannberg. His younger brother, on the other hand, died in the simple aristocracy, and only his son David von Tannberg rose to the imperial baron together with his uncle on June 12, 1572.

If the von Starhemberg and the von Tannberg belonged to the castle-seated Uradel of Upper Austria, the extension of the privilege of freedom from red wax z. B. in the fact that this privilege was awarded to Johann Christoph Fugger († 1612), the last prominent representative from the line of the Fugger von Reh , in 1594 at the same time as confirmation of the knightly nobility and an improvement in the coat of arms .

On October 18, 1668 at the latest, Emperor Leopold I went one step further by giving this privilege to the captain of the dominions Friedland (today Frýdlant v Čechách in the Czech Republic) and Reichenberg (today Liberec in the Czech Republic), Gideon, in his capacity as King of Bohemia Ehrlich von Ehrnfeldt († 1670), awarded at the same time as he was raised to the simple Bohemian nobility .

The granting of the privilege of freedom from red wax was therefore constantly expanded, so that from the 17th century onwards, emperors, kings and other sovereigns, but also newly ennobled petty nobility such as the Ehrlich von Ehrnfeldt family, could seal their documents with the same red wax.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Johann Baptist Witting (editor) in "The coats of arms of the nobility in Lower Austria" Part 2, S - Z, J. Siebmacher´s great Wappenbuch, Volume 26 part (reprint from 1983 of Siebmacher´s Wappenbuch IV. Volume, 4th section, Part 2 (Nuremberg 1918); Verlag Bauer and Raspe ISBN 3 87947 036 7 , p. 202)
  2. ↑ Johann Baptist Witting op. Cit. P. 300 and 301

literature

  • Georg von Frölichsthal: Terms of nobility law. Definitions and descriptions, in: Deutsches Adelsblatt , Volume XLI (2002).