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Rittersturm
The so-called ''Rittersturm''Godsey 2004, p. 145 (lit. "knight storm") was the illegal seizure of the imperially immediate territories of the Imperial Knights within the Holy Roman Empire by some Imperial Estates in 1802–1804.Whaley 2012, p. 626 In 1803, under the new political structures imposed by the final resolution of the Holy Roman Empire, the '' Reichsdeputationshauptschluss'', the Imperial Knights or ''Reichsritterschaften'' should have remain untouched, unlike the ecclesial prince-bishoprics which were forcibly secularised. But by the winter of 1802/1803, the territorial states of Bavaria, Hesse-Kassel and Württemberg attempted to take possession of the tiny and fragmented estates belonging to the neighbouring Imperial Knights through a combination of Surrender and Transfer Edicts (''Abtretungs- und Überweisungspatenten'') and military force. In autumn 1803 the majority of the roughly 300 knightly estates were ''de facto'' annexed by their larger neighbours. I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. From the accession of Otto I in 962 until the twelfth century, the Empire was the most powerful monarchy in Europe. Andrew Holt characterizes it as "perhaps the most powerful European state of the Middle Ages". The functioning of government depended on the harmonic cooperation (dubbed ''consensual rulership'' by Bernd Schneidmüller) between monarch and vassals but this harmony was disturbed during the Salian period. The empire reached the apex of territorial expansion and power under the House of Hohenstaufen in the mid-thirteenth century, but overextending led to partial collapse. On 25 December 800, Pope Leo III crowned the Frankish king Charlemagne as emperor, reviving the title in Western Europe, more than three centuries after the fall of the earlier ancient Weste ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
German Mediatisation
German mediatisation (; german: deutsche Mediatisierung) was the major territorial restructuring that took place between 1802 and 1814 in Germany and the surrounding region by means of the mass mediatisation and secularisation of a large number of Imperial Estates. Most ecclesiastical principalities, free imperial cities, secular principalities, and other minor self-ruling entities of the Holy Roman Empire lost their independent status and were absorbed into the remaining states. By the end of the mediatisation process, the number of German states had been reduced from almost 300 to just 39. In the strict sense of the word, mediatisation consists in the subsumption of an immediate () state into another state, thus becoming ''mediate'' (), while generally leaving the dispossessed ruler with his private estates and a number of privileges and feudal rights, such as low justice. For convenience, historians use the term ''mediatisation'' for the entire restructuring process that t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Imperial Knights
The Free Imperial knights (german: link=no, Reichsritter la, Eques imperii) were free nobles of the Holy Roman Empire, whose direct overlord was the Emperor. They were the remnants of the medieval free nobility ('' edelfrei'') and the ministeriales. What distinguished them from other knights, who were vassals of a higher lord, was the fact that they had been granted Imperial immediacy, and as such were the equals in most respects to the other individuals or entities, such as the secular and ecclesiastical territorial rulers of the Empire (margraves, dukes, princes, counts, archbishops, bishops, abbots, etc.) and the Free Imperial cities, that also enjoyed Imperial immediacy. However, unlike all of those, the Imperial knights did not possess the status of Estates (''Stände'') of the Empire, and therefore were not represented, individually or collectively, in the Imperial Diet. They tended to define their responsibilities to the Empire in terms of feudalized obligations to the E ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Imperial Immediacy
Imperial immediacy (german: Reichsfreiheit or ') was a privileged constitutional and political status rooted in German feudal law under which the Imperial estates of the Holy Roman Empire such as Imperial cities, prince-bishoprics and secular principalities, and individuals such as the Imperial knights, were declared free from the authority of any local lord and placed under the direct ("immediate", in the sense of "without an intermediary") authority of the Holy Roman Emperor, and later of the institutions of the Empire such as the Diet ('), the Imperial Chamber of Justice and the Aulic Council. The granting of immediacy began in the Early Middle Ages, and for the immediate bishops, abbots, and cities, then the main beneficiaries of that status, immediacy could be exacting and often meant being subjected to the fiscal, military, and hospitality demands of their overlord, the Emperor. However, with the gradual exit of the Emperor from the centre stage from the mid-13th centur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Electorate Of Baden
The Electorate of Baden was a State of the Holy Roman Empire from 1803 to 1806. In 1803, Napoleon bestowed the office of Prince-elector to Charles Frederick, but in 1806, Francis II dissolved the Empire. Baden then achieved sovereignty, and Charles Frederick became Grand Duke. History The French Revolution began in 1789, and at its onset the Margraviate of Baden was united under Charles Frederick, but it did not form a compact territory. Its total area was only about , consisting of a number of isolated districts lying on either bank of the upper Rhine. Charles Frederick endeavored to acquire the intervening stretches of land, so as to give territorial unity to his country. His opportunity to do so came during the French Revolutionary Wars. When war broke out between the French First Republic and the Holy Roman Empire in 1792, the Margraviate of Baden fought for the House of Habsburg. However, their country was devastated as a result, and in 1796 the Margrave was compelled t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Principality Of Regensburg
The Principality of Regensburg (german: Fürstentum Regensburg) was a principality of the Holy Roman Empire that was created in 1803. Its capital was Regensburg. Following the dissolution of the Empire in 1806, the principality became a member state of the Confederation of the Rhine until 1810. History The principality was initially created as an ecclesiastical electorate for Archbishop Karl Theodor von Dalberg, the Elector-Archchancellor of the Empire and the former Archbishop of Mainz, due to the annexation of Mainz itself by the French following the Treaty of Lunéville. Most of the new principality consisted of the territory of the former Prince-Bishopric of Regensburg. The principality also included the Lordships of Donaustauf, Wörth, and Hohenburg, the former free imperial city of Regensburg, St. Emmeram's Abbey, and the abbeys Obermünster and Niedermünster located within the city of Regensburg. Dalberg also acquired the newly-created Principality of Aschaffenburg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Electorate Of Saxony
The Electorate of Saxony, also known as Electoral Saxony (German: or ), was a territory of the Holy Roman Empire from 1356–1806. It was centered around the cities of Dresden, Leipzig and Chemnitz. In the Golden Bull of 1356, Emperor Charles IV designated the Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg an electorate, a territory whose ruler was one of the prince-electors who chose the Holy Roman emperor. After the extinction of the male Saxe-Wittenberg line of the House of Ascania in 1422, the duchy and the electorate passed to the House of Wettin. The electoral privilege was tied only to the Electoral Circle, specifically the territory of the former Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg. In the 1485 Treaty of Leipzig, the Wettin noble house was divided between the sons of Elector Frederick II into the Ernestine and Albertine lines, with the electoral district going to the Ernestines. In 1547, when the Ernestine elector John Frederick I was defeated in the Schmalkaldic War, the electoral district and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Archduchy Of Austria
The Archduchy of Austria (german: Erzherzogtum Österreich) was a major principality of the Holy Roman Empire and the nucleus of the Habsburg monarchy. With its capital at Vienna, the archduchy was centered at the Empire's southeastern periphery. Its present name originates from the Frankish term ''Oustrich'' - Eastern Kingdom (east of the Frankish kingdom). The Archduchy developed out of the Bavarian Margraviate of Austria, elevated to the Duchy of Austria according to the 1156 '' Privilegium Minus'' by Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. The House of Habsburg came to the Austrian throne in Vienna in 1282 and in 1453 Emperor Frederick III, also the ruler of Austria, officially adopted the archducal title. From the 15th century onwards, all Holy Roman Emperors but one were Austrian archdukes and with the acquisition of the Bohemian and Hungarian crown lands in 1526, the Habsburg hereditary lands became the centre of a major European power. The Archduchy's history as an imper ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor
Francis II (german: Franz II.; 12 February 1768 – 2 March 1835) was the last Holy Roman Emperor (from 1792 to 1806) and the founder and Emperor of the Austrian Empire, from 1804 to 1835. He assumed the title of Emperor of Austria in response to the coronation of Napoleon as Emperor of the French. Soon after Napoleon created the Confederation of the Rhine, Francis abdicated as Holy Roman Emperor. He was King of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia. He also served as the first president of the German Confederation following its establishment in 1815. Francis II continued his leading role as an opponent of Napoleonic France in the Napoleonic Wars, and suffered several more defeats after the Battle of Austerlitz. The marriage of his daughter Marie Louise of Austria to Napoleon on 10 March 1810 was arguably his severest personal defeat. After the abdication of Napoleon following the War of the Sixth Coalition, Austria participated as a leading member of the Holy Alliance at the Congr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reichshofrat
The Aulic Council ( la, Consilium Aulicum, german: Reichshofrat, literally meaning Court Council of the Empire) was one of the two supreme courts of the Holy Roman Empire, the other being the Imperial Chamber Court. It had not only concurrent jurisdiction with the latter court, but in many cases exclusive jurisdiction, in all feudal processes, and in criminal affairs, over the immediate feudatories of the Emperor and in affairs which concerned the Imperial Government. The seat of the Aulic Council was at the Hofburg residence of the Habsburg emperors in Vienna. History The Aulic Council (from the Latin ''aula'', court in feudal language, in antiquity a Hellenistic type of grand residence, usually private) was originally an executive-judicial council for the Empire. Originating during the Late Middle Ages as a paid Council of the Emperor, it was organized in its later form by the German king Maximilian I by decree of 13 December 1497. It was meant as a rival to the separate Imper ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Freiherr Von Massenbach
(; male, abbreviated as ), (; his wife, abbreviated as , literally "free lord" or "free lady") and (, his unmarried daughters and maiden aunts) are designations used as titles of nobility in the German-speaking areas of the Holy Roman Empire and in its various successor states, including Austria, Prussia, Bavaria, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, etc. Traditionally, it denotes the titled rank within the nobility above ' (knight) and ' (nobility without a specific title) and below ' ( count, earl). The title superseded the earlier medieval form, '. It corresponds approximately to the English ''baron'' in rank. The Duden orthography of the German language references the French nobility title of ''Baron'', deriving from the latin-germanic combination ''liber baro'' (which also means "free lord"), as corresponding to the German "Freiherr"; and that ''Baron'' is a corresponding salutation for a ''Freiherr''. Duden; Definition of ''Baron, der'' (in German)/ref> ' in the feudal system ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Landgraviate Of Hesse-Darmstadt
The Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt (german: Landgrafschaft Hessen-Darmstadt) was a State of the Holy Roman Empire, ruled by a younger branch of the House of Hesse. It was formed in 1567 following the division of the Landgraviate of Hesse between the four sons of Landgrave Philip I. The residence of the landgraves was in Darmstadt, hence the name. As a result of the Napoleonic Wars, the landgraviate was elevated to the Grand Duchy of Hesse following the Empire's dissolution in 1806. Geography The landgraviate comprised the southern Starkenburg territory with the Darmstadt residence and the northern province of Upper Hesse with Alsfeld, Giessen, Grünberg, the northwestern ''hinterland'' estates around Gladenbach, Biedenkopf and Battenberg as well as the exclave of Vöhl in Lower Hesse. History The Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt came into existence in 1567, when George, youngest of the four sons of Landgrave Philip I "the Magnanimous", received the Hessian lands ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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