A word about "Germany"

Transcription

1 A word about "Germany" The story of Germany during this period is hopelessly connected with that of the Holy Roman Empire. During the sixteenth century that could mean at least three things: 1) the continuation of Ancient Imperial Rome, via Charles the Great and Otto the Great AND the secular arm of the Church state, temporal lieutenant of God on earth, with the pope as spiritual lieutenant of God on earth; 2) simply an opportunity to aggrandize the power and wealth of the emperor s family; 3) the basis for nascent national strivings [the phrase Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation was first used in the 1490's by the humanistic courtiers of the Emperor Maximilian]. In the latter case, some late medieval emperors had taken small steps toward consolidating sovereign power in an imperial government. These steps represented the only real basis that sixteenth-century politicians could use in attempting to consolidate power in a kind of national government. Following are the emperors and the steps that they took toward an imperial German state in the late Middle Ages: W.J.Wright 1 Spring 2011

2 Henry VII, , of the House of Luxemburg. Henry VII secured the hereditary monarchy of Bohemia for his son John. But, on the other hand, he also gave Burgundy away as a fief to the son of King Philip the Fair of France. Henry VII was emperor to whom Dante looked for the political salvation of Italy. Louis IV, the Bavarian, , House of Wittelsbach. Louis the Bavarian spent most of his reign in a struggle with a counter-emperor, Friedrich der Schöne of Hapsburg and Pope John XXII, who sided with the Hapsburg. Under the Bavarian, in the year 1328, the electors declared the pope only had the power to crown an emperor-elect, but not to confirm or interfere in imperial affairs. Shortly thereafter, Louis won backing for this declaration from a Reichstag. In effect, the Bavarian prepared the way for the Golden Bull of 1356, which we shall turn to shortly. Charles IV, , House of Luxemburg. In order to be crowned emperor at Rome in 1355, Charles IV renounced all imperial claims to the Papal States. He devoted more attention to Bohemia, his hereditary kingdom, than he did to the empire. In Bohemia, he adapted the Roman Law as a territorial code W.J.Wright 2 Spring 2011

3 called the Majestas carolina. This became an example to other princes with state-building ambitions. Charles also fostered the Golden Bull of 1356, which was promulgated in conjunction with agreements with the Reichstags of Nuremberg in 1355, and Metz in The Golden Bull of 1356 was a decree of the Emperor Charles IV, fixing the imperial election process approved by the imperial diets just mentioned. It has been said that prior to the work of Maximilian, the Golden Bull was the only institutution remotely resembling a modern constitution for the empire. The election of emperors was placed solely in the hands of seven electors who were represented powerful political entities within the empire: the archbishop-princes of Mainz, Trier, and Köln, the princes of Saxony, Brandenburg, and the Palatinate, and the King of Bohemia. They could elect whomever they pleased. Moroever, the emperor depended on the electors for taxes and the levy of men at arms. He also depended on all the princes and towns for the same, for they would be assembled as a Reichstag in important cases. W.J.Wright 3 Spring 2011

4 Maximilian I, the Royal Matchmaker, When Maximilian I came to the imperial throne, the Golden Bull of 1356 was about all there was of an imperial constitution. He made an attempt to create a strong central government under the emperor. He aimed at imitating the type of state-building witnessed in Castile- Aragon and France. Maximilian attempted to strengthen the imperial state by a series of reforms he implemented by decree, but with the support of Imperial Diets, or Reichstäge. The first reforms were done with the blessing of the Reichstäge of Worms (1495) and Augsburg (1500). These imperial diets imposed the following reforms: 1) Ewiger Landfriede- eternal peace between the estates; prevent wars or feuds and the Emperor is the peace keeper. 2) Reichskammergericht- Imperial supreme court to adjudicate all kinds of disputes and bring justice (would be the counterpart to the Parlement de Paris in France) 3) Reichsregiment- Imperial council of regency to serve in the absence of the Emperor and to help select officials and make decisions. This W.J.Wright 4 Spring 2011

5 idea was also favored by the independent-minded princes who saw it as a limitation on the Emperor. Maximilian also attempted to streamline the administration of the empire and increase his royal authority through reforms enacted at the Diet of Köln in All of the empire was divided into Kreise, circles or districts, for administrative purposes. The Emperor would appoint the directors of these districts, who were in charge of keeping the peace in these areas. The idea was that such Kreise leaders would be beholden to the Emperor. None of these reforms ever worked out very well, however. In reality, just in the German-speaking orbit, there were several virtually sovereign principalities. The greater ones of these included Württemberg, Bavaria, Hesse, Brandenburg, the Palatinate, and Saxony. Throughout the late medieval period, these territorial states had been aggrandizing themselves at the expense of the Church, Emperor, and the Towns, as well as at the expense of the middling and lower nobility. These states were busily streamlining their state apparatuses in the same manner as France and Castile-Aragon. One should not forget the attempts of great towns, such as Nürnberg, W.J.Wright 5 Spring 2011

6 Augsburg, and Strassburg, to aggrandize their power, too. Nor should one forget that there were hundreds of very small states within the confines of the Holy Roman Empire; there were more than 350 independent states up to the time of Napoleon. Some of the small states were little towns and there were many small noble states. Maximilian also tried to aggrandize the power of his family by a series of marriages, for which reason he is known as the royal matchmaker." He married his son Philip to Mad Joana of Castille and his granddaughter, Mary, to Louis of Bohemia and Hungary. Moreover, he also arranged the marriage of his grandson Ferdinand to Anne of Hungary and Bohemia. By and large, Maximilian seemed to resist the temptation to play the role of a continuator of the ancient Roman Empire. W.J.Wright 6 Spring 2011