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The Political, Territorial and Dynastic Development of the States of the Holy Roman Empire

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Introduction

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Objectives and Scope

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    • This article explores the feudal history of the various polities or territories which comprised the Holy Roman Empire.
    • The Holy Roman Empire was a conglomeration of strong monarchies and petty sovereignties which developed, existed, consolidated and disintegrated, expanded and, in many cases, declined according to the dynamics and interplay of factors, both man-made (i.e., acts of war to assuage a ruler's ego) and natural (e.g., failure to produce a male heir or the results of inbreeding among royalty), that shaped feudalism in Europe during the medieval age.
    • This article will attempt to capture the essence and history of these polities within the framework of the European medieval period before it was obliterated and eventually replaced by the "Age of National Monarchies or Nation-States," the Age of Revolution and eventually the "Age of Republicanism." They will be presented as feudal organizations in contrast to the modern-day political subdivisions of the world and current nation-states.
    • It will achieve the preceding objective by culling and consolidating the thousands of bits and pieces of information available on the Internet (in English and in other languages, using Google's translation feature) in the section for each fief, polity or territory with appropriate citations at the end of the section. This will hopefully address the dearth or scarcity, not to speak of disparateness, of information about these polities which are scattered all over but not in one source material
    • This article will provide what may be the most comprehensive presentation of the Holy Roman Empire and its constituent polities in English which is found in one place ("one-stop-shop" in Wikipedia) that is relatively easy to surf or navigate on the Internet.

Format

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    • Through a chronological (and in bullet-point format) presentation, this article will show the origin, growth and, in many cases, decline of the polities during the age of feudalism or the medieval period. It will try to show the dynamics of their political and dynastic relationships with the Emperor, the regional overlords and with each other with respect to exercising their feudal rights and responsibilities, their competition over lands, heiresses, commercial advantages and religious indulgences as well as their search for power, prestige and position in the larger political feudal drama that was the Holy Roman Empire.
    • Using the above and additional information from the references, it is hoped that a "composite" presentation of each polity will eventually be written supported by visual aids (maps, pitures) and links to other information sources.
    • Note: There is already an article entitled List of states in the Holy Roman Empire to which this author also contributed a lot of information. However, its design as well as the table format constrict the presentation of a massive amount of data about the various states or polities of the HRE as envisioned in this current article.
    • Each polity, where possible, has a separate section where its historical development will be laid out. Interesting stories of the verious personae and important events will also be included in the "polity section." Finally, at the bottom of each "polity section," there is a list of supporting materials such as references and links to pictures of rulers and maps. This is intended to allow researchers and readers to check out the cited sources themselves. The linked pictures and maps are aimed at providing visual aids to the text in the section.
    • Each territory will have a separate section that will contain data relevant to its feudal history.
    • The collected data will highlight the:
      • date and mode of founding or establishment of the polity
      • feudal titles and ranks
      • acquisition or loss of territories or feudal rights
      • mode of acquisition or elevation of rank of dynasty and territory (inheritance, marriage, conquest, treaty or compact, purchase, grant, etc)
      • rulers' list and biographical highlights
      • significant socio-economic-political accomplishments of a polity/territory's dynasty and/or rulers.
      • area and population
      • Titles of sovereignty (and later, of honour) provide a "snapshot" view of the territorial extent achieved by a polity or dynasty.
      • In the above, the circumstance or reason for the elevation of a dynasty or polity's rank will be shown. This refers to providing data on why a lordship, for example, became a county, a duchy and so on. In many cases, for example, rulers or dynasties were rewarded by the Emperor with "promotion" because of the 1) personal achievement or service to the Emperor or the Empire by the ruler or head of dynasty (e.g., victory in critical battles, successful negotiation of peace treaties, or holding an influential position in the imperial household; 2) achievement of equality of rank prior to a marriage, or the assumption of a spouse's inherited territorial title(s) after the marriage; or 3) attainment of some strategic consideration (e.g., elevation of the Margraviate of Austria to a Duchy).

Features

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  • References
    • Due to the dearth of sources in English on the individual territories, most of the references sourced over the Internet are in other languages. Fortunately, Google has a translation feature which provides a rough English translation of the material in the original language. They will be cited at the bottom of each section using the Google English translation.
  • Family Trees
    • Links to family trees for visual guidance in understanding the succession of rulers (including succession disputes), dynastic relationships and intermarriages.
  • Family Coat of Arms and State Flag
  • Pictures
    • Links to pictures of rulers or personalities, castles and territory will be provided where possible.
  • Maps
    • Links to maps of the polity and surrounding area will be provided to provide a geographical perspective.
  • Selected Castles, Collections of Art Works, et.

Categories and Classification

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    • Polities are categorized and listed alphabetically from "Abbey" to "County" to "Kingdom" and so on. In the case of polities whose rank was elevated from "Lordship" to "Kingdom" (for example Wurttemberg which started as a lordship, then became a duchy, an electorate and finally a kingdom), they will be located in the category of the highest rank (that is, electorate or kingdom, as the case may be). A parenthethical cross reference will be indicated where necessary.

Other Article Features

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  • Glossary of Terms
    • A glossary of terms is provided to define words (or explain the meaning of not-easy-to-translate feudal concepts) in the context of feudal or medieval history and perspective. This is particularly important in the translation of "technical" feudal terms or concepts from the original German or French term, for example, to English.
    • In some cases, direct quotations of the definitions or explanations, and their corresponding citation, will be done to preserve the content and flavour of the original author (and avoid "reinventing the wheel," so to speak).
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Arch Stewardship

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  • Archstewardship of Waldburg-Scheer-Scheer
  • Archstewardship of Waldburg-Wolfegg-Ealdsee
  • Archstewardship of Waldburg-Wolfegg-Wolfegg
  • Archstewardship of Waldburg-Zeil-Trachburg
  • Archstewardship of Waldburg-Zeil-Wurzach

Frauenstift

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  • "A stift for women, probably a cloister funded by the land around it."
  • Frauenstift of Elten

Herrlichkeit

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  • ("Pretty much the same as a Herrschaft or Lordship; typically it has been granted as a lien in perpetuity by a higher authority for services rendered and appropriate payment as per the lien arrangement.)
  • Lordship of Dinklage
  • Lordship of Horstgen (Ger. Hörstgen)

Land

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  • Land of Hadeln

Parish

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  • (Kirchspiel: "Also known as a Glockenklang and initially the area within which the bells of the church could be heard. Later it became what we know as a parish.")
  • Kirchspiel of Winden

Patriarchate

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Reichstift

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  • A foundation set up by the Empire
  • Reichstift of Burtscheid

Rittersitz

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  • "A place where a knight had his castle or landed estate.")
  • Rittersitz of Frohnenburg

Swedish Pomerania

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  • Swedish Pomerania (Pommern)

Italian States of the Holy Roman Empire

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"The exact status of Northern Italy within the Empire became rather confused over time. By the 18th century, what remained formally were a collection of imperial fiefs of various sizes: 13 in Lombardy (including the duchies of Milan, Mantua, Monferrat, the principality of Mirandola, the Gonzaga territories), 19 in Liguria, 20 in the region of Bologna (including the duchies of Modena and Ferrara), 10 in Tuscany (the grand-duchy of Tuscany, Piombino, Soramo, Comacchio) and 11 in Tirnisani." [1] June 16, 2006]

Glossary of Feudal Terms

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  • English
  • Free City: city within a bishopric which from the 13th & 14th centuries were ruled independently of the Bishop and were freed from imperial obligations such as "army travel" anad annual tax; examples are Cologne, Augsburg, Worms, Speyer, Strasburg and Basel; later called "Free Imperial City".
  • German
  • Belehnung: investiture
  • Burgherr: lord of a castle
  • Burgmann - Castellan
  • Domherr: Cathedral canon
  • Ebenbürtigheit: right of birth
  • Fürstenrechten: princely or noble privileges
  • Imperial City: are immediate royal cities which are on imperial or royal house property or on church property which the king established. Different from "Reichsvogteistädte" where the king exercise only stewardship over the city where the Church continued to exercise sovereignty or rule
  • Landeshoheit: the right of sovereignty
  • Landrecht - Common Law
  • Lehensgebiet - Feudal domain or territory
  • Ministeriales - administrative household officers
  • Rittergut - knight's estate
  • Ritterschaft - the class of knights, i.e., those who possessed the Rittergüter
  • Stände - estates

References & External Links

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Articles

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Bibliographies

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Biographies

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Castles

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Dynastic or Family Web Sites

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Encyclopaedia

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Family Trees

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Genealogies

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Glossaries & Dictionaries

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Heraldry

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Histories

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Lists

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Maps

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Others

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