The Imperial Immediate Nobility
and the Holy Roman Empire Constitution
In the 18th century, a status of a noble family in the Holy Roman Empire was determined by several attributes. The most important of them was an ownership of the Imperial immediacy. Next was the right to vote in the Imperial Assembly and assemblies of the Imperial Circles. Another important attribute of a family was its titles. The time when a family acquired these attributes was also important. The following is a simplified overview of some features of the Imperial constitution related to the above-mentioned attributes. The most detailed description of the Imperial constitution can be found the books Teutsches Staats-Recht and Neues Teutsches Staats-Recht written by Johann-Jakob Moser (1701-1785).
Imperial immediacy and Imperial Estates
In 18th century the Holy Roman Empire (Heiliges römisches Reich) consisted of over 1800 separate territories governed by distinct authorities, which were defined as immediate (unmittelbar) to the Roman Emperor (German:Römischer Kaiser, Latin:Romanorum Imperator). A duke, a city council, a bishop, a count or a knight could own the possession of this Imperial immediacy (Reichsunmmitelbarkeit).
The Imperial immediacy gave their owners the territorial lordship (Landeshoheit), which resembled sovereignty of an independent state. Officially, this sovereignty was limited because all immediate territories were under the formal suzerainty of the Empire.
There was no clear definition of the Imperial immediacy in the Middle Ages. In the course of the Imperial reforms of the end of the 15th century there were attempts to create a complete list of all terrirories immediate to the Empire to levy the Common Penny (Gemeine Pfennig). The list of immediate Imperial territories that payed Imperial taxes was called Reichsmatrikel.
Original Reichsmatrikel changed drastically during the 16th century because:
- the Swiss lands lost their connections with the Empire: Geneva, Lausanne, Wallis, Schaffhausen, St.Gallen, Kreuzlingen, Einsiedeln, Dissentis, etc;
- France annexed some Imperial territories: Metz, Toul, Verdun, etc;
- lay princes grabbed ecclesiastical properties during the Reformation: Saalfeld, Maulbronn, Königsbronn, etc;
- several immediate families became extinct and their territories disappeared as separate entities: Hoorn, Wunstorf, Plesse, Gera, Beuchlingen, Bitsch, Ruppin, Schaumberg (in Austria), Bergen, Haag, Leissnigk, etc.
In the 17th and 18th centuries Reichsmatrikel was relatively stable.
The status of the Imperial Estate (Reichsstandschaft) was attached to the Imperial immediate territories, which paid the imperial taxes through one of 10 Imperial Circles (Reichskreise) and gave their owners the right to vote in the Imperial Assembly/the Imperial Diet (Reichstag).
Categories of Nobility
There were four major category of nobility in the Empire:
1. the territorial nobility.
2. Imperial Knights,
3. Counts and Lords,
4. Princes.
Most of noble families belonged to the category of the Territorial (landsässigen) Nobility. The territorial nobility did not have the right of Landeshoheit in their possessions. They were under jurisdiction of immediate territorial rulers.
The Imperial Knights were immediate to the Empire. They had the right of Landeshoheit in their possessions. The knightly territories were not included in the Imperial circles and the Imperial Knights did not pay the Imperial taxes. Thus, the Imperial Knights did not have the status of the Imperial Estate. The Imperial Knighthood(Reichsritterschaft) as a separate noble category shaped in the 15th century. The Imperial Knights had grouped themselves into three Knightly Circles (Ritterkreise): of Swabia, Franconia and the Rhine, that consisted of 14 Cantons.
The last two categories of nobility (Counts and Lords; Princes) constituted the the High Nobility (Hochadel). High noble families were recognized as the Imperial Estates (Reichsstände).
They had the right of Landeshoheit in their possessions and had representation in the Imperial Assembly.
Most of the territorial rulers that had the status of the Imperial Estate belonged to the category of the immediate Counts and Lords. The families, which had the title of Count (German:Graf, Latin:Comes), as a rule, descended from ancient sheriffs.In the 18thcentury there were several reigning houses derived from ancient comital families:
- Castell;
- Fürstenberg;
- Hohenzollern;
- Leiningen;
- Limburg-Styrum;
- Mansfeld;
- Mark;
- Montfort;
- Nassau;
- Schwarzburg;
- Oldenburg;
- Ortenburg;
- Öttingen;
- Sayn-Wittgenstein;
- Solms;
- Stolberg-Wernigerode;
- Waldeck;
- Wild- und Rheingrafen (in Upper Salm);
- Württemberg;
etc.
Some families received the comital title through marriages:
- Götterswick (1421 Counts of Bentheim);
- Runkel (1462 Counts of Wied and 1475 Counts of Leiningen-Westerburg);
- Reifferscheidt (1416/1455 Counts of Lower Salm);
Immediate territorial rulers that had no title were called the Noble Lords (Edlen Herren). In the 18thcentury there were several reigning houses derived from these non-titled immediate families. By that time all of them had been granted the comital title :
- Erbach (1532 Counts);
- Hanau (1429 Counts);
- Hohenems (1560 Counts);
- Hohenlohe (1450 Counts);
- Isenburg-Büdingen (1442 Counts);
- Königsegg (1629 Counts);
- Lippe (1529 Counts);
- Manderscheid (1457 Counts);
- Reuss (1673 Counts);
- Schönburg (1700 Counts);
- Schwarzenberg (1599 Counts);
- Waldburg (1628 Counts);
etc.
Princes (Fürsten) were the most influential noble category. Originally, the Princely rank (Fürstenstand) was assotiated with an ownership of archbishopics, bishopics, duchies, markgraviates, and other important secular and ecclesiastical territories. Among original German secular territories, which gave the Princely rank, were
- the duchy of Bavaria,
- the duchy of Saxony,
- the duchy of Lorraine,
- the duchy of Swabia,
- the palatinate of the Rhine,
- the palatinate of Saxony,
- the duchy of Austria,
- the duchy of Styria,
- the duchy of Carinthia,
- the duchy (then the kingdom) of Bohemia,
- the duchy of Brabant,
- the county of Anhalt,
- the landgraviate of Thuringia,
- the markgraviate of Brandenburg,
- the markgraviate of Misnia (Meissen),
- the markgraviate of Lusatia (Lausitz).
Later on, other territories were gived the Princely rank by the Roman emperors :
- Brunswick in 1235,
- Hesse in 1292,
- Savoy in 1310,
- Pomerania in 1320,
- Jülich in in 1336,
- Gelderland in 1339,
- Mecklenburg in 1348,
- Pont-a-Mousson (Bar) in 1354,
- Luxembourg in 1354,
- Tyrol in 1359,
- Baden in 1364,
- Orange (Oranien) in 1376,
- Berg in 1380,
- Nürnberg in 1385,
- Milan in 1395 (for the Visconti house),
- Kleve in 1417,
- Mantua in 1432,
- Cilly in 1436,
- Leuchtenberg in 1450,
- Modena in 1452 (for the Este house),
- Henneberg in 1471,
- Holstein in 1474 (for the Oldenburg house),
- Württemberg in 1495.
etc.
( Rulers of some territories claimed the Princely rank before it was recognized by the Emperors).
In many cases the elevated territories were made duchies or margraviates. The territories, which did not change treir titles, were styled Princely (gefürsteten) (Leuchtenberg, Henneberg,Tyrol, Cilli, etc).
The Imperial Assembly (Reichstag)
The Imperial Assembly consisted of three Councils: Electors, Princes and the Free Cities or Imperial Cities (Freistädte oder Reichsstädte).
Initially, many princes claimed the right to elect a head of the Empire. However, the Golden Bull of 1356 restricted this right to seven ecclesiastical and secular princes, which were called Princes-Electors (Kurfürsten). According the Golden Bull the Council of Electors consisted of seven members:
1. King of Bohemia (Czechy);
2. Archbishop of Mainz;
3. Archbishop of Trier;
4. Archbishop of Cologne(Köln);
5. Duke of Saxony-Wittenberg (Electoral Saxony);
6. Markgrave of Brandenburg;
7. Count Palatine of the Rhine.
During the Thirty Years war (1618-1648) Count Palatine of the Rhine was deprived his status of Elector and it went to Duke of Bavaria. After the war the eighth Electorate was created and given to Count Palatine of the Rhine (1648). In 1692, Duke of Brunswick-Hanover became the ninth member of the Council. In 1777, the dynasty of Bavaria died out and Count Palatine of the Rhine inherited Bavaria, and electoral voices of Bavaria and the Palatinate were merged.
The Council of Princes (Fürstenrat) consisted of two benches or banks: Ecclesiastical (Geistlichebank) and Secular (Lay) (Weltlichebank). (The house of Austria had voices of Austria and Burgundy in the Ecclesiastical bench).
By the end of the 18th century, there were one hundred voices in the Council of Princes. Usually, a big immediate territory had an individual voice (Virilstimme). Small territories were grouped in Curias and had collective or curial voices (Kuriatstimmen). There were two collective voices in the ecclesiastical bench of the Council of Princes. The four collective voices in the Secular bench of the Council of Princes belonged to the Colleges of the Imperial Counts (Reichsgrafenkollegium) of Franconia, Swabia, Wetterau and Westphalia.
In several exceptional cases the Colleges of the Imperial Counts of Franconia and Swabia admitted new candidates, which did not own immediate lordships attached to the Imperial Circles. Those new members of the Colleges were called Personalists because they were immediate as persons but not as owners of immediate territories. Some of them belonged to the Imperial Knighthood and possessed immediate territories included in no Imperial Circle (Giech, Neipperg, Rechberg, etc). The knightly family of Sickingen was recognized as an Estate of the Swabian Imperial Circle, and then accepted to the College Swabian Counts. Thus, Counts of Sickingen were not considered as Personalists. By the end of the Empire a lot of members of the Colleges had the Princely rank. Nevertheless, according the Imperial constitution, they belonged to the 'Counts and Lords' category. The parts of curial voices of Nassau, Hohenzollern, Waldeck, Salm, East Frisia, Fürstenberg, Schwarzenberg and Schwarzburg were made individual voices in the Council of Princes (see the New Princely Houses, below). Nevertheless, there were parts of curial voices of the Colleges that belonged to the houses that had individual voices in the Council:
- Ansbach of Sayn-Altenkirchen;
- Austria of Hohenems and Montfort(Tettnang-Argen);
- Baden of Eberstein;
- Bavaria of Helfenstein,
- Brunswick-Hanover of Hoya, Diepholz and Spiegelberg;
- Brandenburg of Tecklenburg;
- Salm of Anholt;
- Schwarzenberg of Klettgau-Sulz and Seinsheim;
- Holstein for Oldenburg-Delmenhorst;
- Thurn-Taxis of Eglingen;
- Fürstenberg of Heiligenberg;
- Hesse-Kassel of Schaumburg.
The Imperial Circle Estates
Imperial estates listed in Reichsmatrikel were grouped in the Imperial Circles (Reichskreise).
The status of the Imperial Circle Estate (Reichskreisstand) gave the right to sit and vote in Circle Assemblies or Circle Diets (Kreistage). Originally, all Imperial estates were members of Imperial Circles. Gradually this was changed. A status of the Imperial Circle Estate of an extinct reigning family passed with a Circle territory to its new owner with obligations to pay Imperial taxes. But the new owners did not inherite positions of the extinct family in the Imperial Assembly automatically. Thus, in the 18th century there were many secular territories , which were represented in the Circle Assemblies but not in the Imperial Assembly:
- Jülich-Berg,
- Kleve-Mark,
- Waldeck,
- Mindelheim,
- Sponheim,
- Hohenwaldeck,
- Hanau-Münzenberg,
- Hanau-Lichtenberg,
- Barby,
- Mansfeld,
- Hohenstein,
- Rantzau,
- Falkenstein,
- Justingen,
- Reipoltskirchen,
- Dachstuhl,
- Mörs,
- Königstein,
- Breiteneck, etc.
There were a few immediate territories that had representations only in the Imperial Assembly:
- Mömpelgard,
- Saffenburg,
- Dyck.
When the Circle system was established, the position of the King of Bohemia as Imperial Elector had been suspended since the Hussite wars 1420-1433. Thus, the Bohemian Crown Lands: Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, Lusatia, Glatz, etc were included in no Imperial Circle.
Several Imperial immediate territories (Jever, Kniphausen, Schaumburg an der Lahn, Landskron, Mechernich, Pirmont bei Karden, Rheda, Stein, Schauen etc),
were included in neither Imperial Circles nor Knightly Circles and were not represented in the Imperial Assembly.
The constant divisions in reigning families were reflected differently in the Imperial Assembly and in Circle Assemblies. E.g.,
- the Hohenlohe family had only two voices in the Assembly of the Franconian Circle
but six voices in the Franconian College of Imperial Counts;
- the County of Schaumburg was represented with two voices in the Circle of Lower Rhine-Westphalia,
but only with one voice in the Westphalian College;
- the County of Sayn was represented with one voices in the Circle of Lower Rhine-Westphalia,
and with two voices in the Westphalian College;
- the family of Giech and Hohenlohe inherited allodial lands of Wolfstein and got its voice in the College of Franconian Counts.
Bavaria acquired Landeshoheit over Obersulzbürg-Pyrbaum and the voice of Wolfstein in the Bavarian Circle Assembly.
Some Circle Assemblies had benches or banks similar to ones in the Imperial Assembly. A lot of the new princely houses were not accepted in the Council of Princes of the Imperial Assembly before 1803. But these houses had voices in the benches of Princes of Circle Assemblies:
- Öttingen-Öttingen,
- Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen,
- Nassau-Weilburg,
- Nassau-Usingen,
- Nassau-Idstein,
- Nassau-Saarbrücken,
- Nassau-Ottweiler,
- Waldeck,
- Solms-Braunfels,
- Isenburg-Birstein,
- Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rochefort,
- Hohenlohe-Waldenburg.
There were no curriate voices in Circle Assemblies, only individual ones. Voices of counts were equal to voices of princes. Thus, lesser estates played more important role in Circle Assemblies than in the Imperial Assembly, where their influence was minimal. In the 17th and 18th centuries institutions of some Imperial Circles
were more active than the Imperial institutions. In assemblies of those Circles powerful territorial rulers such as Austria, Bavaria, Brandenburg, Hanover, and Electoral Saxony did not have a lot of voices. In 1708 the Circle Assembly of Franconia excluded the County of Geyer from the list of the Circle Estates. The Assembly prevented Elector-Markgrave of Brandenburg (the heir to Count of Geyer-Gibelstadt) to become a member of that Imperial Circle. The Assemby of the Circle also supported the allodial heirs to the Limpurg house in their struggle for the voices of Limpurg against Brandenburg's claims.
In the 17th and 18th centuries institutions of the Imperial Circles that did not have powerful territorial rulers (e.g. Swabia, Franconia) were more active than the Imperial institutions. In 1708 the Circle Assembly of Franconia excluded the County of Geyer from the list of the Circle Estates. The Assembly prevented Elector-Markgrave of Brandenburg (the heir to Count of Geyer-Gibelstadt) to become a member of that Imperial Circle. The Assemby of the Circle also supported the allodial heirs to the Limpurg house in their struggle for the voices of Limpurg against Brandenburg's claims.
There were two Imperial Circle Personalists, Princes of Thurn-Taxis and Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rochefort, who contributed monies not as owners of the Circle territories, but as persons.
The Ancient Princely houses
The houses, which owned individual voices in the Council of Princes in 1582, were called the Ancient Princely houses (Altfürstliche Häuser):
1. Dukes of Saxony-Lauenburg (the house of Ascanien);
2. Dukes of Saxony-Wittenberg (the house of Wettin);
3. Dukes of Lorraine and Bar;
4. Dukes of Bavaria, Counts Palatine of the Rhine (the house of Wittelsbach);
5. Princes of Anhalt (the house of Ascanien);
6. Dukes of Mecklenburg (the house of Niklotides);
7. Dukes of Pomerania;
8. Markgraves of Brandenburg (the house of Hohenzollern);
9. Markgraves of Baden and Hochberg (the house of Zähringen);
10. Landgraves of Hesse (the house of Louvain-Brabant);
11. Archdukes of Austria, Dukes of Carinthia and Styria, Princely Counts of Tyrol,etc (the Austrian Habsburgs);
12. Dukes of Brunswick and Luneburg (the house of Este-Welf);
13. Dukes of Jülich, Kleve and Berg;
14. Dukes of Savoy;
15. Dukes of Brabant, Gelderland, Limburg and Luxembourg (the Spanish Habsburgs as heirs to Dukes of Burgundy);
16. Dukes of Holstein (the house of Oldenburg);
17. Dukes of Württemberg and Princely Counts of Mömpelgard;
18. Princely Landgraves of Leuchtenberg;
19. Princely Counts of Henneberg.
The houses of Pomerania, Habsburg, Henneberg, Jülich-Kleve and Leuchtenberg became extinct. Other houses continued to rule until the 20th century.
In 1426 a branch of the Reuss family was enfeoffed with the Burgraviate of Misnia(Meissen). In 1548 it obtained the princely rank and was accepted to the Council of Princes (the voice became extinct with the branch in 1572).
The rulers of Orange (Oranien) had been given the Princely rank since the Middle Ages. The house of Chalon, which owned Orange, was listed in Reichsmatrikel among the Princely houses. It became extinct in 1530 and was succeeded in Orange by the house of Nassau-Dillenburg.
The house of Arenberg received the rank of Prince in 1576 and was admitted to the Councli of Princes in 1580.
Originally, a number of individual secular voices in the Council of Princes was not fixed, and depended on divisions and inheritances in the ruling families. Each branch of princely families had a separate voice. From the end of the 16th century, when new branches were established, they did not receive a separate voice automatically. E.g. all braches of the house of Anhalt shared one voice in the Council. Voices of extinct princely houses were preserved and given to other princely houses that acquired corresponding territories; voices of extinct branches of princely houses went to their relatives from other branches. In the 17th century the similar rules were introduced in Colleges of Imperial Counts.
As a rule, voices of extinct Ancient Princely houses went to other Ancient Princely houses:
- the voice of Henneberg to Dukes of Saxony-Wittenberg;
- the voice of Saxony-Lauenburg to Dukes of Brunswick;
- the voice of Leuchtenberg to Dukes of Bavaria;
- the voice of Duke of Burgundy (the Spanish Habsburgs) to Archdukes of Austria;
- the voice of Archdukes of Austria, etc to Dukes of Lorraine;
- one of the voices of Pomerania to Markgraves of Brandenburg;
(Another voice of Pomerania went to Vasa, the royal dynasty of Sweden. The Vasa house was succeeded in Sweden and Pomerania by the houses of Palatinate-Zweibrücken, Hesse-Kassel and Holstein-Gottorp that belonged to the Ancient Princely houses).
In 1738 the house of Lorraine lost its duchies of Lorraine and Bar to Stanislas Leszczynski, the former King of Poland. Stanislas, who did not leave sons, died in 1766, and King of France inherited the duchies. Nevertheless, the Lorraine house preserved its individual voice in the Council of Princes, that was now attached to the markgraviate of Nomeny.
Several voices of extinct branches of the Ancient Princely houses were excluded from the Council of Princes after 1582:
- Tyrol,
- Styria,
- Hesse-Rheinfels,
- Hesse-Marburg,
- Baden-Saussenberg,
- Jülich,Kleve and Berg (Elector-Markgrave of Brandenburg and Count Palatine in Neuburg, heirs to the last Duke, could not come to agreement about the voice).
Two new individual voices were created for branches of the Ancient Princely after 1582:
- Saxony-Gotha and
- the second voice for the Franconian branch of the Brandenburg house (Bayreuth),
In 1648, the treaty of Westphalia gave several secularized ecclesiastical territories and their voices in the Council of Princes to secular princely houses:
1. Magdeburg to Brandenburg;
2. Bremen to Sweden (in 1715/1720 went to Brunswick-Hanover);
3. Halberstadt to Brandenburg;
4. Verden to Sweden (in 1715/1720 went to Brunswick-Hanover);
5. Minden to Brandenburg;
6. Schwerin to Mecklenburg;
7. Kamin to Brandenburg;
8. Ratzenburg to Mecklenburg;
9. Hersfeld to Hesse-Kassel.
Voices of these former ecclesiastical territories were transferred to the Secular bench (Weltlichebank) of the Council of Princes.
The former possessions of archbishops (Magdeburg, Bremen) gave their new owners the title of Duke, the former possessions of bishops - the title of Prince.
Some Princely houses were able to accumulate several voices. E.g. in 1793 the Hanover line of the house of Brunswick had six voices in the Council.
The New Pricely Houses
Originally, grants of Imperial titles changed the status of grantees in the Empire. Emperor Maximilian I (1486-1519), like other European monarchs of his age, granted many new Imperial titles. Among those who received new Imperial titles were not only owners of Imperial immediate territories as used to be.
Since the age of Maximilian I the Roman Emperors started to grant Imperial titles, including the most important title of Imperial Prince(Reichsfürst),
to noble families of all categories, even those who had no Imperial immediate territories.
First examples of such grants:
- in 1486 the family of Croÿ received the Princely rank as owners of the territory Chimay that was not immediate;
- in 1515 the Lithuanian noble family of Radziwill, which had no possessions in the Empire at all, received the title of Imperial Prince.
The new practice of the Imperial title granting created a big issue. Now there was no clear understanding how grants of the Imperial titles affected relations of the noble families to the Imperial institutions such as the Imperial Assembly and the Imperial Circles.
From the end of the 16th century the Roman Emporors from the Habsburg house tried to promoted non-immediate territorial noble families that played important roles at the court of Vienna to the level of the immediate houses. These families were given Imperial titles, their non-immediate possessions were declared duchies and counties (Gottschee, Friedland, Krummau, etc). In same cases these houses received as fiefs ancient duchies in Silesia (Münsterberg, Sagan, Troppau, Jägerndorf, etc). Nevertheless, these houses remained the Austrian subjects.
In 1629, during the 30 years War, two Dukes of Mecklenburg were banned. Emperor Ferdinand II made his general Albrecht of Wallenstein/Waldstein (Valdtejn) (+1634) Duke of Mecklenburg. The general belonged to the the Bohemian territorial nobility, but had been given the rank of Imperial Prince (1623), the non-immediate Duchy of Friedland in Bohemia (1625) and the Silesian Duchy of Sagan (1627). Victories of King Gustav-Adolf of Sweden allowed expelled Dukes returned their possessions (1631). The Habsburgs did not give up their attempts to make the Austrian subjects with the princely titles equal to the Ancient Princes. When the Roman Emporors granted the title of Imperial Prince, the new princes were not accepted in the Council of Princes automatically. In 1641 Emperor Ferdinand III tried to introduce three new members into the Council of Princes. His attempt failed. Two of the new candidates, Imperial Prince of Eggenberg and Imperial Prince of Lobkowitz, the Austrian subjects, were rejected by members of the Council. Ancient princes did not accept the status of the Eggenbergs and the Lobkowitzs as equal to their own status. By their request lawyers worked out strict requirements for new candidates. The most important of these requirements was an ownership an immediate territory included in one of the Imperial Circles. Also the new candidate had to get an agreement of other members of the Council. By 1653 both Princes had managed to meet all requirements (they became owners of immediate territories, etc) and were accepted in the Council. the Ancient princes had no objections against the third candidate, Prince of Hohenzollern, from an ancient comital family.
The houses that received the right to vote in the Council in the 17th and 18th centuries were called the New Pricely houses (Neufürstliche Häuser).
The following is a list of the New Pricely houses with dates of their introduction in the Council:
1653 Hohenzollern-Hechingen;
1653 Eggenberg (the voice became extinct in 1717);
1653 Lobkowitz;
1654 Salm;
1654 Dietrichstein;
1654 Piccolomini (the voice became extinct in 1656);
1654 Nassau-Hadamar & Nassau-Siegen;
1654 Nassau-Dillenburg & Nassau-Diez;
1654 Auersperg;
1664 Portia/Porcia (the voice became extinct in 1665);
1667 East Frisia (Ostfriesland) (the voice went to Brandenburg);
1667 Fürstenberg;
1674 Schwarzenberg;
1686 (?1674) Waldeck-Eisenberg (the voice became extinct in 1692);
1705 Churchill-Marlborough (the voice became extinct in 1714);
1709 Lamberg (the voice of Leuchtenberg, went back to Bavaria);
1713 Liechtenstein;
1754 Thurn-Taxis;
1754 Schwarzburg.
There were two distinct categories of the New Pricely houses:
1.The houses that enjoyed Imperial immediacy in the Middle Ages.
- Hohenzollern-Hechingen;
- Salm (Wild- und Rheingrafen);
- Nassau;
- East Frisia;
- Fürstenberg;
- Schwarzenberg;
- Waldeck-Eisenberg;
- Schwarzburg.
2. The houses that acquired immediate territories only in the 17th or 18th centuries to satisfy the above-mentioned requirement.
- Eggenberg;
- Lobkowitz;
- Dietrichstein;
- Piccolomini;
- Auersperg;
- Portia;
- Churchill-Marlborough;
- Lamberg;
- Liechtenstein;
- Thurn-Taxis.
The immediate territories that the New Pricely houses acquired in Imperial circles:
- Gradisca in the Imperial Circle of Austria by Eggenberg;
- Sternstein in the Imperial Circle of Bavaria by Lobkowitz;
- Tarasp in the Imperial Circle of Austria by Dietrichstein;
- Thengen in the Imperial Circle of Swabia by Auersperg;
- Mindelheim in the Imperial Circle of Swabia by Churchill-Marlborough;
- Schellenberg-Vaduz in the Imperial Circle of Swabia by Liechtenstein;
- Eglingen, and then Sheer-Friedberg in the Imperial Circle of Swabia by Thurn-Taxis.
The importance of these houses did not derive from their immediate territories. Such New princely houses never permanently resided in their immediate territories,
never personally ruled them. E.g. the first visit of Prince of Liechtenstein to his immediate principality happended only in 1842.
During the War of the Spanish succession Elector and Duke of Bavaria was banned by the Roman Emperor and his possession, the Langraviate of Leuchtenberg in the Imperial Circle of Swabia, was given to the family of Lamberg (1708). The Lambergs, which belonged to the Austrian territorial nobility, were made Imperial Princes in 1707 and were admitted to the Council in 1709 as Langraves of Leuchtenberg. After the War Leuchtenberg and its voice in the Council went back to Electors-Dukes of Bavaria.
The houses of Auersperg and Dietrichstein, actually, acquired an immediate territory after they were accepted to the Council.
Voices of Princes Piccolomini and Portia became extinct in the first generation because they failed to get an immediate territory.
The lordship of Mindelheim was returned to Bavaria in 1714 and its voice in the Council became extinct.
(Before 1803, Bavaria had a vote for this territory only in the Imperial Circle of Swabia, but not in the Imperial Assembly).
Voices of extinct New Princely houses were excluded from the Council of Princes. The only exception was the voice of East Frisia that went to Brandenburg.
New members of the Colleges of Imperial Counts
Territorial noble families could get the status of Imperial Estate when they were admitted to one of the Colleges of the Imperial Counts. The Colleges required that a new candidate owned an Imperial immediate lordship. In the 17th and 18th centuries some territorial noble families managed to receive the status of Imperial Estate when they inherited immediate lands through marriages with representatives of high noble families:
- Bömelberg in Gemen;
- Kaunitz in Rietberg;
- Kirchberg-Farnroda in Sayn;
- Ostein in Mylendonk;
- Pückler in Limpurg;
- Schönborn in Wiesentheid;
- Sternberg in Blankenheim & Gerolstein;
- Törring-Jettenbach in Gronsfeld;
etc.
Some territorial counts (landsässigen Grafen) were admitted to the Colleges when they acquired (bought, were granted or enfeoffed) immediate territories with the right of Landeshoheit:
- Abensberg-Traun in Egloff;
- Aspremont-Lynden in Reckheim;
- Gravenegg in Eglingen;
- Hatzfeld in Gleichen;
- Heydeck/Heideck in Bretzenheim;
- Freyberg in Justingen;
- Leyen in Hohengeroldseck;
- Liechtenstein in Vaduz and Schellenberg;
- Metternich in Winneburg & Beilstein;
- Nesselrode in Reichenstein;
- Nostitz in Rieneck;
- Platen in Hallermund;
- Rantzau/Ranzau/Ranzow in Barmstedt(Pinneberg);
- Schäsberg in Kerpen & Lommersum;
- Schönborn in Reichelsberg;
- Sinzendorf-Ernstbrunn in Rheineck;
- Stadion in Thannhausen;
- Thurn-Taxis in Eglingen;
- Tilly in Breiteneck;
- Velen/Vehlen in Bretzenheim;
- Wallmoden in Neustadt & Gimborn;
etc.
There were territorial lords that owned lands, which immediacy were disputed. If these lords were able to obtain recognition of their immediacy, they could be accepted in the Colleges (e.g. Schleiden, Mylendonk, Wyckradt, Gemen, etc). Usually the acceptance in the Colleges followed recognition as an Imperial Circle Estate.
Imperial titles
In the Empire only Emperors granted titles. As a rule, secular territorial titles were hereditary and were passed in the male line.
The title of Duke (Herzog) was the highest after the royal title and in most cases gave its owner the Princely rank. By the end of the 13th century there were several duchies in the Empire:
- Saxony,
- Lorraine,
- Limburg,
- Brabant,
- Bavaria,
- Austria,
- Styria,
- Carinthia,
- Brunswick-Lüneburg,
- Silesia,
- Pomerania.
Before 16th century only a few new duchies were established in Germany and Italy:
- Lucca ( for the Castracani house);
- Gelderland in 1339;
- Mecklenburg in 1348;
- Luxembourg in 1354;
- Jülich in in 1356;
- Berg in 1380;
- Milan in 1396 ( for the Visconti house);
- Kleve in 1417;
- Savoy in 1417;
- Modena in 1452 ( for the Este house)
- Holstein in 1474 ( for the Oldenburg house);
- Württemberg in 1495.
The title of Count was the most widespread title of territorial rulers. There were several titles derived from the title of Count: Markgrave (Markgraf), Count Palatine (Pfalzgraf), Land Count or Landgrave (Landgraf), Forest Count (Wildgraf), City Count or Burgrave (Burggraf), etc.
In the 15th century the title of Baron (Freiherr) was introduced in Germany, which stood one grade below than Count.
Before the 16th century, the Imperial Knights and territorial nobles never bore titles.
The Imperial Princely rank of a house could be associated with a family name or a main family territory. There were two forms of title use. E.g. the Mansfeld house used both. The more formal style was "the HRE Prince and Prince of Fondi, Count and Lord of Mansfeld, Noble Lord of Heldrungen, Seeburg and Schraplau, Lord of the Lordship of Dobrzisch, Neuhaus and Arnstein". Nevertheless another form also existed "the HRE Prince of Mansfeld and Fondi, Noble Lord of Heldrungen,...".
Another example gave the Wittelsbach family that sometimes used the style "Prince-Elector of the Palatinate-Bavaria"(Kurfürst von Pfalzbayern) instead of "HRE Prince-Elector, Count Palatine of the Rhine, Duke of Bavaria,...".
The ruler of Schaumburg in the 17th century was styled: "the HRE Prince, Count of Holstein and Schaumburg, Lord of Gemen". The King of Denmark, who was the Duke of Holstein, was against the style
"HRE Prince of Holstein".
The houses, which did not own immediate territories by the time they received the Princely rank, had the title of Imperial Prince connected with their family names.
When these houses acquired immediate possessions they still had their family name assotiated with Princely titles, e.g. "the HRE Prince of Eggenberg, Duke of Krummau, Princely Count of Gradisca, Count of Adelsberg, Lord of Aquileja" or "the HRE Prince of Lobkowitz, Duke in Silesia at Sagan, Princely Count of Sternstein" (see article "The New Pricely Houses").
The Emperors might grant to some families the right to rename their immediate territories giving them the family's name, e.g. Liechtenstein, Ligne, Metternich, Rantzau, Windisch-Graetz, etc.
In most parts of the Empire an immediate territory was considered a property of a whole family. Thus, not only a person who actually ruled over the territory bore a corresponding title, but all members of his family. The only exception was the title of Imperial Prince. The Emperors might restrict this title only to a head of a house. It was additional favor when the Imperial Princely rank was given to all members of a house.
In the 18th century the non-reigning members of royal, ducal and princely houses had been informally called Prinzen. In the 19th century, Prinz became an official title of the younger members of the most reigning houses.
The family could use the title of a territory it did not own when it:
a. claimed a territory (e.g. Dukes of Saxony bore titles of the extinct house of Jülich-Kleve);
b. owned a territory in the past (e.g. Archdukes of Austria bore titles of Dukes of Burgundy and Lorraine).
In the 18th century it became more often to mention branches of reigning houses in titles, e.g. "Prince of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen".
The Roman Emperors could change a status of Imperial immediate territory upgrading it to County (Grafschaft), Princely County (gefürsteten Grafschaft), Princely Landgraviate (gefürsteten Landgrafschaft), Duchy (Herzogtum) or Principality (Fürstentum):
(See the Appendix)
Rulers with a special status
By the end of the 18th century some houses preserved the status of Imperial Estate but did not have full political authority in their territories.
- In 1738 the County of Stolberg came under the partial overlordship of Electoral Saxony. Count of Stolberg-Stolberg, whose another possession, the County of Hohenstein, had been under the overlordship of Brunswick-Hanover, since this time had no sovereignty. Nevertheless, he did not loose his membership in the Wetterau College of Imperial Counts.
- Since 1740 all possessions of Counts and Prince of Schönburg were under the partial overlordship of Electoral Saxony. They continued to collectively own a voice in the Wetterau College of Imperial Counts.
- The County of Bentheim, owned by the house of Bentheim-Bentheim, was mortgaged until 1804 to Brunswick-Hanover, which had the Bentheim voice in the Circle of Lower Rhine-Westphalia. The Bentheim family preserved its voice in the the Westphalian College of Imperial Counts.
- The County of Hallermund gave its owner, Count of Platen, the right to vote in the the Westphalian College and in the Circle Assembly of the Lower Rhine-Westphalia. Brunswick-Hanover exercised actual authority in the County.
After the 15th century, most ruling houses gradually started to introduce the principle of primogeniture. Thus, principalities and counties were not divided among multiple heirs any more. Sometimes, younger sons of rulers were given territories as apanages without the rights of Landeshoheit (e.g. Brandenburg-Schwedt, Hesse-Philippsthal, Lippe-Biesterfeld, Lippe-Weissenfels, Reuss-Köstritz, Holstein-Sonderburg etc). In several cases younger members of ruling houses were given some sovereign rights (e.g. Hesse-Homburg) and, it often led to legal disputes.
In the 18th century the Silesian dukes of Teschen, Öls, Münsterberg, Sagan, Troppau, Jägerndorf, etc were not recognized as immediate Imperial princes. However, they enjoyed many similar priviliges, including the right to mint coins.
North Italy never formally broke out from the Empire. Many rulers there concidered their possessions as Imperial fiefs and bore Imperial titles, nevertheless, with exception of Duke of Savoy, were represented neither in Imperial circles nor in the Imperial Assembly.
Appendix
Imperial immediate territories whose status was upgraded.
- 1436 Counties of Cilli and Ortenburg to Principality;
- 1495 Lordship of Steinfurt to County (for the Bentheim house);
- 1532 Lordship of Erbach to County;
- 1538 Lordship of Zimmern to County;
- 1576 County of Arenberg to Princely County;
- 1623 County of Hohenzollern to Princely County;
- 1624 Lordship of Neustadt to Princely County of Sternstein (for the Lobkowitz house);
- 1628 Lordship of Wolfegg to County (for the Waldburg house);
- 1628 Lordship of Zeil to County (for the Waldburg house);
- 1628 Lordship of Segenberg to County (for the Waldstein/Wallenstein house);
- 1629 Lordship of Königsegg to County;
- 1641 Lordship of Neustadt to Princely County of Sternstein (for the Lobkowitz house);
- 1643 Lordship of Esterau to County of Holzapfel;
- 1644 Princely County of Arenberg to Duchy;
- 1650 Lordship of Barmstedt to County of Rantzau;
- 1664 Lordship of Thengen to Princely County (for the Auersperg house);
- 1664 County of Fürstenberg to Princely County;
- 1665 Lordship of Thannhausen to County (for the Sinzendorf house);
- 1671 County of Schwarzenberg to Princely Landgraviate;
- 1679 Lordships of Winneburg and Beilstein to County (for the Metternich house);
- 1685 Lordships of the family of Geyer-Giebelstatt to County;
- 1689 County of Klettgau to Princely Landgraviate (for the Schwarzenberg house);
- 1710 County of Schwarzburg to Principality;
- 1719 Lordship of Schellenberg and County of Vaduz to Principality of Liechtenstein;
- 1757 County of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg to Principality;
- 1770 Lordship(Baronie) of Fagnolles to County (for the Ligne house);
- 1772 County of Hohenlohe-Neuenstein to Principality;
- 1785 Lordships of Scheer and County of Friedberg to Princely County of Friedberg-Scheer (for the Thurn-Taxis house);
- 1803 Lordships of Babenhausen, Boos and Ketterhausen to Principality of Babenhausen (for the Fugger house);
- 1803 Lordship of Ochsenhausen to Principality (for the Metternich house);
- 1804 Lordship of Egloff to Principality of Windisch-Graetz;
- 1804 Lordship of Edelstetten to Princely County (for the Esterházy of Galántha house);
- 1804 Lordships of Krautheim and Gerlachsheim to Principality (for the Salm-Reifferscheidt house);
- 1805 Lordship of Umpfenbach to Princely County (for the Trauttmansdorf house);
etc.
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