In 1495, an attempt was made at the
ReichstagThe Reichstag was the parliament of the Holy Roman Empire, and subsequently of the North German Confederation, and of Germany until 1945...
in the City of
WormsWorms is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, on the Rhine River. At the end of 2004, it had 85,829 inhabitants.Established by the Celts who called it Borbetomagus, Worms today remains embattled with the cities Trier and Cologne over title of "Oldest City in Germany"...
to give the disintegrating
Holy Roman EmpireThe Holy Roman Empire was a union of territories in Central Europe during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period under a Holy Roman Emperor. The first emperor of the Holy Roman Empire was Otto I, crowned in 962. The last was Francis II, who abdicated and dissolved the Empire in 1806 during...
a new structure, commonly referred to as
Imperial Reform .
The fundamental idea of the reform was largely based on the theory of inter-political concordance between the
EmperorThe Holy Roman Emperor is a term used by historians to denote a Middle Ages ruler, who as German King had in addition received the title of "Emperor of the Romans" from the Pope of the Holy Roman Church, and after the 16th century, the elected monarch governing the Holy Roman Empire, a Central...
and the
Imperial StateAn Imperial State or Imperial Estate was an entity in the Holy Roman Empire with a vote in the Reichstag or Imperial Diet. Several states had no seats in the Empire, while some officials were non-voting members; neither qualified as Imperial States...
s developed by Nicholas of Kues.
After the fall of the House of Hohenstaufen in the mid-13th century the Emperors had to face a continuous loss of power in favour of the estates, especially of the
Prince-electorThe Prince-electors of the Holy Roman Empire were the members of the electoral college of the Holy Roman Empire, having the function of electing the Holy Roman Emperors....
s assigned by the
Golden Bull of 1356The Golden Bull of 1356 was a decree issued by a Reichstag in Nuremberg headed by Emperor Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor that fixed, for a period of more than four hundred years, important aspects of the constitutional structure of the Holy Roman Empire...
.
In 1495, an attempt was made at the
ReichstagThe Reichstag was the parliament of the Holy Roman Empire, and subsequently of the North German Confederation, and of Germany until 1945...
in the City of
WormsWorms is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, on the Rhine River. At the end of 2004, it had 85,829 inhabitants.Established by the Celts who called it Borbetomagus, Worms today remains embattled with the cities Trier and Cologne over title of "Oldest City in Germany"...
to give the disintegrating
Holy Roman EmpireThe Holy Roman Empire was a union of territories in Central Europe during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period under a Holy Roman Emperor. The first emperor of the Holy Roman Empire was Otto I, crowned in 962. The last was Francis II, who abdicated and dissolved the Empire in 1806 during...
a new structure, commonly referred to as
Imperial Reform .
The fundamental idea of the reform was largely based on the theory of inter-political concordance between the
EmperorThe Holy Roman Emperor is a term used by historians to denote a Middle Ages ruler, who as German King had in addition received the title of "Emperor of the Romans" from the Pope of the Holy Roman Church, and after the 16th century, the elected monarch governing the Holy Roman Empire, a Central...
and the
Imperial StateAn Imperial State or Imperial Estate was an entity in the Holy Roman Empire with a vote in the Reichstag or Imperial Diet. Several states had no seats in the Empire, while some officials were non-voting members; neither qualified as Imperial States...
s developed by Nicholas of Kues.
After the fall of the House of Hohenstaufen in the mid-13th century the Emperors had to face a continuous loss of power in favour of the estates, especially of the
Prince-electorThe Prince-electors of the Holy Roman Empire were the members of the electoral college of the Holy Roman Empire, having the function of electing the Holy Roman Emperors....
s assigned by the
Golden Bull of 1356The Golden Bull of 1356 was a decree issued by a Reichstag in Nuremberg headed by Emperor Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor that fixed, for a period of more than four hundred years, important aspects of the constitutional structure of the Holy Roman Empire...
. The autonomous
Reichsstände nevertheless had painfully become aware of the disadvantages in the defiency of a centralised authority on the occasion of threats and armed conflicts like the
Hussite WarsThe Hussite Wars, also called the Bohemian Wars involved the military actions against and amongst the followers of Jan Hus in Bohemia in the period 1420 to circa 1434. The Hussite Wars were arguably the first European war in which hand-held gunpowder weapons such as hand cannons made a decisive...
.
Maximilian I of HabsburgMaximilian I of Habsburg was King of the Romans from 1493 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1508 until his death, but had ruled jointly with his father for the last ten years of his father's reign, from circa 1483...
, elected
King of the RomansKing of the Romans was the title used by the elected ruler of the Holy Roman Empire, the Imperator futurus prior to his imperial coronation performed by the Pope, King of the Romans was the title used by the elected ruler of the Holy Roman Empire, the Imperator futurus ("Emperor to-be"—...
since 1493, after 1477 had to defend his claims to the heritage of his deceased wife
Mary of BurgundyMargaret, Duchess of Savoy|house=House of Valois-Burgundy|father=Charles the Bold|mother=Isabella of Bourbon|date of birth=13 February 1457|place of birth=Brussels, Brabant|date of death=|place of death=Castle of Wijnendale, Flanders...
against intriguing
Louis XI of FranceLouis XI , called the Prudent and the Universal Spider or the Spider King, was the King of France from 1461 to 1483...
, while subsequent to the 1453
Fall of ConstantinopleThe Fall of Constantinople was the capture of the capital of the Byzantine Empire which occurred after a siege laid by the Ottoman Empire, under the command of Sultan Mehmed II. The siege lasted from Thursday, 5 April, 1453 until Tuesday, 29 May, 1453 , when the city fell to the Ottomans...
the expansion of the
Ottoman EmpireThe Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299 to November 1, 1922 The Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State (Ottoman Turkish: دَوْلَتِ عَلِیَّهِ عُثْمَانِیَّه Dawlet-il ʿAliyyat-il ʿOs̠māniyye, Modern Turkish:...
on the
BalkansThe Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
proceeded. At the 1495 diet Maximilian asked the representatives of the estates not only for contributions, but also for the implementation of an imperial
taxTo tax is to impose a financial charge or other levy upon a taxpayer by a state or the functional equivalent of a state such that failure to pay is punishable by law.Taxes are also imposed by many subnational entities...
and commitment in troops. The deputies, led by Chancellor
Bertold von Henneberg-RömhildBertold von Henneberg-Römhild , was Archbishop of Mainz and Prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire from 1484 to 1504.The son of George, Count of Henneberg and Johanna, daughter of Count Philipp I of Nassau-Weilburg entered the ecclesiastical profession and, after passing through its lower stages,...
, the
Archbishop of MainzThe Archbishopric of Mainz or Electorate of Mainz was an influential ecclesiastic and secular prince-bishopric in the Holy Roman Empire between 780–82 and 1802. In the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy, the Archbishop of Mainz was the primas Germaniae, the substitute of the Pope north of the Alps...
, in principle agreed on a
Gemeiner Pfennig (Common Penny) tax paid directly to the Empire but in return set conditions:
- The constitution of a Reichsregiment, an imperial government intended as a replacement of the clumsy and slow Reichstag, which had never managed to gain much influence. Consisting of 20 ecclesial and secular Prince
Prince, from French "Prince" , is a general term for a monarch, for a member of a monarchs' or former monarch's family, and is a hereditary title in some members of Europe's highest nobility...
s and representatives of the Imperial CitiesIn the Holy Roman Empire, a free imperial city was a city formally ruled by the emperor only — as opposed to the majority of cities in the Empire, which were governed by one of the many princes of the Empire, such as dukes or prince-bishops...
it was meant to control the finance and foreign policy of the Emperor. Maximilian refused to this restriction of his authority from the beginning and did not consent until the 1500 Reichstag at AugsburgAugsburg is a city in the south-west of Bavaria in Germany. It is a College town and home of the Regierungsbezirk Schwaben and the Bezirk Schwaben. Augsburg is an urban district and home to the institutions of the Landkreis Augsburg. It is, as of 2008, the third-largest city in Bavaria with a...
after the states had conceded own LandsknechtLandsknechts were European, most often German, mercenary pikemen and supporting foot soldiers from the late 15th to the late 16th century, and achieved the reputation for being the universal mercenary of the European Renaissance.-Etymology:The term is from German, Land "land,...
(mercenary) troops to him, only to abolish the Regiment two years later.
- The Perpetual Public Peace (Ewiger Landfriede) established the Reich as a single body of law and a kind of monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force that excluded feud
A feud is a long-running argument or fight between parties—often, through guilt by association, groups of people, especially families or clans. Feuds begin because one party perceives itself to have been attacked, insulted or wronged by another...
s as means of politics between the vassals.
- The related installation of the Reichskammergericht
The Imperial Chamber Court was one of two highest judicial institutions in the Holy Roman Empire, the other one being the Aulic Council in Vienna. It was founded in 1495 by the Imperial Diet in Worms...
(Imperial Chamber Court, Imperial High Court), a supreme court for all of the Reichs territory, possibly was the reform's most far-reaching impact as it separated the jurisdiction from the person of the Emperor as the head of the imperial executive. Maximilian reacted with the establishment of the concurrent Aulic CouncilThe Aulic Council was originally an executive-judicial council for the Holy Roman Empire....
(Reichshofrat) in 1497. The Reichskammergericht originally had its seat at Frankfurt am Main, it moved to SpeyerSpeyer is a city in Germany with approx. 50,000 inhabitants, located beside the river Rhine. It lies 25 km south of Ludwigshafen and Mannheim. Its oldest known name was Civitas Nemetum, named by a Teutonic tribe, the Nemeter, settling in this area...
in 1523 and finally to WetzlarWetzlar is a town in the German federal state of Hesse, capital of the Lahn-Dill district. Located at 8° 30′ E, 50° 34′ N, there are approximately 54,000 inhabitants...
in 1693.
- The establishment of six (from 1512 on: ten) Reichskreise
An Imperial Circle comprised a regional grouping of territories of the Holy Roman Empire, primarily for the purpose of organizing a common defensive structure and of collecting the imperial taxes, but also as a means of organization within the Reichstag and the Reichskammergericht.Each circle had...
(Imperial Circle Estates) with own Circle Diets (Kreistage), carried out in 1500. The Circles, originally meant as constituencies of the Reichsregiment, enabled a more uniform administration of the Reich to better execute the Perpetual Public Peace, taxing and the formation of troops.
The
Swiss ConfederacyThe Old Swiss Confederacy was the precursor of modern-day Switzerland. The Swiss Eidgenossenschaft, as the Confederacy was called, was a loose federation of largely independent small states called cantons that existed from the late 13th century until 1798, when it was invaded by the French...
did not accept the Reichstag
resolutions and explicitly refused to pay the Gemeiner Pfennig, one of the circumstances leading to the
Swabian WarThe Swabian War of 1499 was the last major armed conflict between the Old Swiss Confederacy and the House of Habsburg...
of 1499 and the Confederacy's exempt from imperial legislation. Due to obstinant resistance of several States the collection was finally suspended in 1505.
Whether the reform can be considered successful depends on how one defines its goals; today, many scholars believe that the reform was not really aimed at producing a modern state (in which it would be considered a failure), but rather attempted to consolidate and distribute power between the Empire and the States in consensus, in which it did succeed.
The reform was more or less concluded with the 1555 Reichsexekutionsordnung (Imperial Execution Order), part of the
Peace of AugsburgThe Peace of Augsburg was a treaty between Charles V and the forces of the Schmalkaldic League, an alliance of Lutheran princes, on September 25, 1555, at the imperial city of Augsburg, now in present-day Bavaria, Germany. It provided the first legal basis for the co-existence of Catholicism and...
, which regulated more details of the tasks of the Imperial Circle Estates.