Elector
The Prince-Electors were princes , kings or feudal lords, invested in an elected office of imperial thrones.
Summary |
The prince-electors (Kurfrsten) or constituents of the Holy Roman Empire , were the seven princes in Germany which elected the Holy Roman Emperor. Their status was defined by the Golden Bull of 1356. The emperor was elected by a majority of their votes, at least four, regardless of the number of voters participating in the election.
Subsequently the composition of the electoral college has changed: creating electorates of Bavaria and Hanover in the seventeenth century , first in the disappearance of the eighteenth century.
These princes ruled over large States of the Holy Roman Empire , they had the privilege extensive, whose sovereignty territorial (Landeshoheit), which made them quasi-independent of the emperor. Electorates (the name given to the principalities of voters) were indivisible and can not be shared among heirs (in case of lay electorates). Upon termination of the lineage of an electorate, the emperor could be attributed to a new owner (except in the case of the King of Bohemia , as he himself was elected, until the seventeenth century ).
The electors of the Golden Bull
The prince-electors nominated by the Golden Bull of Charles IV were:
- the archbishop of Mainz , arch-chancellor for Germany ,
- the Archbishop of Trier , arch-chancellor of the Empire to the Gaul ,
- the archbishop of Cologne , arch-chancellor of the empire for Italy ,
- the king of Bohemia , arch-butler ,
- the Count Palatine of the Rhine or "elector palatine, Arch-Steward , Trustee (Vicar in case of vacancy imperial) Franconian law countries in the Western Empire
- the Duke of Saxony , or "voter Saxony , " Arch-Marshal , curator of Saxon law countries of Eastern Empire
- the Margrave of Brandenburg or "elector of Brandenburg, arch-chamberlain.
The electors of the modern era
In 1623 , the Palatine Frederick V was deprived of his office which was transmitted (for life, and therefore temporary) to his kinsman the Duke Maximilian I of Bavaria , but in 1648 his son Palatine Charles Louis recovered the electoral dignity, with load of arch-treasurer. An eighth electorate was created for the occasion, the electorate of Bavaria was perpetuated in the meantime.
In 1692 , Emperor Leopold I promoted Ernst August of Hanover , Duke of Brunswick-Lneburg , Prince of Calenberg , to the level of voter (elector of Brunswick-Lneburg), with the dignity of arch-standard bearer. His successors were known after 1705 as voters of Hanover , they took in 1708 the dignity of arch-treasurer, after the resignation of Palatine who claimed his former dignity of arch-seneschal.
In 1701 , the electorate of Brandenburg was erected in the kingdom of Prussia by the Emperor Leopold I , following the meeting of the Mark Brandenburg and the Duchy of Prussia (which was beyond the borders of the Holy Roman Empire until then).
In 1777 , the Elector Palatine inherited the Bavarian and the two electorates were combined.
In 1803 , the Holy Roman Empire was reorganized under the tutelage of Napoleon Bonaparte. The electorates of Trier and Cologne were deleted. However, Napoleon had given the electoral dignity to four lay princes deemed favorable to French politics:
- the Duke of Wrttemberg Frederick III ,
- the Margrave of Baden Charles I ,
- the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, William IX (Electorate of Hesse)
- the Duke of Salzburg.
In 1806 , the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved. Only the elector of Hesse continued to be styled election until 1866.
Other functions of the voters
Besides the imperial election, the prince-electors held positions in various institutions of the Holy Roman Empire. The three ecclesiastical electors, as Archie-chancellors, monitor and undertake appointments in various imperial institutions. In case of vacancy of the imperial seat, the Duke of Saxony and the Count Palatine of the Rhine and acting as trustees. Voters formed a college of the Diet of the Empire (Reichstag).
Election and inheritance is
If the imperial dignity was nominally elective until the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire , it was in fact inherited from the fifteenth century. Indeed, voters elected the king of the Romans, who would later be crowned emperor. This coronation was done by the pope until the election of Maximilian.
After the coronation, a new king of the Romans could be elected during the lifetime of the emperor. The custom was that the emperor and means in his lifetime, his own successor (usually his son or grand-son). This explains that the electoral system has paradoxically created a de facto inheritance for the benefit of Hapsburg , no discontinuity between the fifteenth and the eighteenth century (with the exception of Charles VII and Francis I , son of Emperor Joseph I. , respectively, from the houses of Wittelsbach and Lorraine ).
Special case of the King of Bohemia
The Habsburgs were able to get in the sixteenth century an Electorate (which they did not get Charles IV , despite their influence within the Empire), by electing one of their regularly as King of Bohemia. In the seventeenth century, the title of King of Bohemia became hereditary, definitely giving the Hapsburgs a Electorate. Moreover, the Habsburg dynasty Habsburg-Lorraine and was maintained at the head of the kingdom of Bohemia until 1918.
France
During the organization of the French empire , we created a "Grand Elector of the Empire, responsible for convening the electoral college and the legislature. Joseph Bonaparte was invested with that dignity, and when the latter became king of Naples ( March 31, 1806), he was eventually replaced (August 14, 1807) by Talleyrand (made "Vice-Grand Elector of the Empire"), who had to resign from the Ministry of External Relations See also References
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