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54-572: When in 1648 the Peace of Westphalia ended the Thirty Years' War , the parties agreed that the prince-bishoprics of Bremen and Verden were to become dominions of Sweden . The peace treaty had been prepared at a congress throughout the final years of the war. During the negotiations, several mostly Hanseatic cities requested that they become Imperial cities, with only Bremen being successful: Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor accepted Bremen as

108-500: A Free imperial city in 1646. A respective document was signed in Linz on 1 June, with the aim of preventing Sweden from gaining the city. In turn Bremen, among other concessions, paid about 100,000 talers . Owing to Swedish diplomatic efforts however, the text of the 1648 treaty did not determine whether or not Bremen was to be included in the future Swedish dominion. The Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen, northerly and easterly neighbouring

162-784: A peace treaty ending the Eighty Years' War that was not part of the Peace of Westphalia. Münster had been, since its re-Catholicism in 1535, a strictly mono-denominational community. It housed the Chapter of the Prince-Bishopric of Münster . Only Roman Catholic worship was permitted, while Calvinism and Lutheranism were prohibited. Sweden preferred to negotiate with the Holy Roman Empire in Osnabrück, which

216-467: A calamitous period of European history that killed approximately eight million people. Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III , the kingdoms of France and Sweden , and their respective allies among the princes of the Holy Roman Empire, participated in the treaties. The negotiation process was lengthy and complex. Talks took place in two cities, because each side wanted to meet on territory under its own control. A total of 109 delegations arrived to represent

270-544: A collective vote ( Kuriatstimme ) within their particular bench ( Curia ), as did the free imperial cities belonging to the College of Towns. The right to vote rested essentially on a territorial entitlement, with the result that when a given prince acquired new territories through inheritance or otherwise, he also acquired their voting rights in the diet. In general, members did not attend the permanent diet at Regensburg, but sent representatives instead. The late imperial diet

324-569: A heavy toll in money and lives. The Eighty Years' War was a prolonged struggle for the independence of the Protestant-majority Dutch Republic (the modern Netherlands), supported by Protestant-majority England, against Catholic-dominated Spain and Portugal. The Thirty Years' War was the most deadly of the European wars of religion , centred on the Holy Roman Empire. The war, which developed into four phases, included

378-712: A large number of domestic and foreign players, siding either with the Catholic League or the Protestant Union (later Heilbronn League ). The Peace of Prague (1635) ended most religious aspects of the war, and the French–Habsburg rivalry took over prominence. With between 4.5 million and 8 million dead in the Thirty Years' War alone, and decades of constant warfare, the need for peace became increasingly clear. Peace negotiations between France and

432-678: A local ruler, subject only to the Emperor himself, and managed to be accepted as third parties. Several attempts to reform the Empire and end its slow disintegration, starting with the Diet of 1495 , did not have much effect. In contrast, this process was hastened with the Peace of Westphalia of 1648, which formally bound the Emperor to accept all decisions made by the Diet, in effect depriving him of his few remaining powers. From then until its end in 1806,

486-580: A number of villages around, maintained its independence. When in 1700 Charles XII of Sweden asked Bremen-Verden's General Government what to do about Bremen's independence, the General Government recommended to concede its status as a Free Imperial City . In 1672, Sweden founded Carlsburg at the confluence of the Weser and Geeste rivers to compete with Bremen, but the settlement did not prosper. Sweden later lost all of Bremen-Verden during

540-588: A situation when the Dutch and the neighboring German principalities were weak, and then take the city of Bremen by surprise. The city of Bremen on the other side was successful in gathering allies, most notably Brunswick-Lüneburg (Celle) and the Electorate of Cologne , who raised a relief army. Brandenburg , Denmark-Norway and the Dutch Republic joined the anti-Swedish alliance. Wrangel failed to take

594-542: The Frankish kingdom when important decisions had to be made, probably based on the old Germanic law whereby each leader relied on the support of his leading men. In the early and high Middle Ages these assemblies were not yet institutionalized, but were held as needed at the decision of the king or emperor. They weren't called Diet yet, but Hoftag ( court day ). They were usually held in the imperial palaces ( Kaiserpfalz ) . For example, already under Charlemagne during

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648-673: The Great Northern War (1700–1721). Peace of Westphalia The Peace of Westphalia ( German : Westfälischer Friede , pronounced [vɛstˈfɛːlɪʃɐ ˈfʁiːdə] ) is the collective name for two peace treaties signed in October 1648 in the Westphalian cities of Osnabrück and Münster . They ended the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) and brought peace to the Holy Roman Empire , closing

702-589: The Habsburg Emperor began in Cologne in 1636. These negotiations were initially blocked by Cardinal Richelieu of France, who insisted on the inclusion of all his allies, whether fully sovereign countries or states within the Holy Roman Empire . In Hamburg , Sweden, France, and the Holy Roman Empire negotiated a preliminary peace in December 1641. They declared that the preparations of Cologne and

756-522: The Holy Roman Empire are the only context in which sovereignty and religious equality are mentioned in the text, but they are not new ideas in this context. While the treaties do not contain the basis for the modern laws of nations themselves, they do symbolize the end of a long period of religious conflict in Europe. Imperial Diet (Holy Roman Empire) The Imperial Diet ( Latin : Dieta Imperii or Comitium Imperiale ; German : Reichstag )

810-550: The Knights Hospitaller at Heitersheim . The Prince-Bishopric of Lübeck remained an ecclesiastical member even after it had turned Protestant , ruled by diocesan administrators from the House of Holstein-Gottorp from 1586. The Prince-Bishopric of Osnabrück , according to the 1648 Peace of Westphalia was under alternating rule of a Catholic bishop and a Lutheran bishop from the House of Hanover . Each member of

864-950: The Nine Years' War . In the War of the Bavarian Succession , the electoral dignities of the Palatinate and Bavaria were merged, approved by the 1779 Treaty of Teschen . The German Mediatisation of 1803 entailed the dissolution of the Cologne and Trier Prince-archbishoprics, the Prince-Archbishop of Mainz and German Archchancellor received—as compensation for his lost territory occupied by Revolutionary France —the newly established Principality of Regensburg . In turn, four secular princes were elevated to prince-electors: These changes however had little effect, as with

918-592: The Peace of Westphalia , religious matters could no longer be decided by a majority vote of the colleges. Instead, the Reichstag would separate into Catholic and Protestant bodies, which would discuss the matter separately and then negotiate an agreement with each other, a procedure called the itio in partes . The Catholic body, or corpus catholicorum , was headed by the Archbishop-Elector of Mainz . The Protestant body, or corpus evangelicorum ,

972-692: The Perpetual Diet of Regensburg in 1663 did the Diet permanently convene at a fixed location. The Imperial Diet of Constance opened on 27 April 1507; it recognized the unity of the Holy Roman Empire and founded the Imperial Chamber , the empire's supreme court. From 1489, the Diet comprised three colleges: The Electoral College ( Kurfürstenrat ), led by the Prince-Archbishop of Mainz in his capacity as Archchancellor of Germany . The seven Prince-electors were designated by

1026-812: The Saxon Wars , a Hoftag, according to the Royal Frankish Annals , met at Paderborn in 777 and determined laws over the subdued Saxons and other tribes. In 803 Charlemagne, by then crowned as emperor of the Franks, issued the final version of the Lex Saxonum . At the Diet of 919 in Fritzlar the dukes elected the first King of the Germans , who was a Saxon, Henry the Fowler , thus overcoming

1080-857: The Wetterau Association of Imperial Counts and mergers within the Swabian , the Franconian and the Lower Rhenish–Westphalian Circles . Likewise, on the ecclesiastical bench, the Imperial abbots joined a Swabian or Rhenish college. In the German Mediatisation of 1803, numerous ecclesiastical territories were annexed by secular estates. However, a reform of the Princes' college was not carried out until

1134-597: The papal brief Zelo Domus Dei . The main tenets of the Peace of Westphalia were: The treaties did not entirely end conflicts arising out of the Thirty Years' War. Fighting continued between France and Spain until the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659. The Dutch-Portuguese War that had begun during the Iberian Union between Spain and Portugal , as part of the Eighty Years' War, went on until 1663. Nevertheless,

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1188-585: The Duchy of Bremen by the end of the year. In January 1666, Carl Gustaf Wrangel departed from Swedish Pomerania to command the Swedish army, which in early 1666 numbered 14,000 troops. By summer, all of the city of Bremen's territory was occupied, except the city itself. The Swedish chancellor of Bremen-Verden, Esaias von Pufendorf , went to the court in Paris to build an alliance with France. The Swedish position

1242-583: The Electorate itself remained officially Protestant and retained the directorship of the Protestant body. When the Elector's son also converted to Catholicism, Prussia and Hanover attempted to take over the directorship in 1717–1720, but without success. The Electors of Saxony would head the Protestant body until the end of the Holy Roman Empire. After the formation of the new German Empire in 1871,

1296-684: The Empire was not much more than a collection of largely independent states. Probably the most famous Diets were those held in Worms in 1495 , where the Imperial Reform was enacted, and 1521 , where Martin Luther was banned (see Edict of Worms ), the Diets of Speyer 1526 and 1529 (see Protestation at Speyer ), and several in Nuremberg ( Diet of Nuremberg ). Only with the introduction of

1350-526: The Empire's dissolution in 1806. The college of Imperial Cities ( Reichsstädtekollegium ) evolved from 1489 onwards. It contributed greatly to the development of the Imperial Diets as a political institution. Nevertheless, the collective vote of the cities was of inferior importance until a 1582 Recess of the Augsburg Diet . The college was led by the city council of the actual venue until

1404-672: The Golden Bull of 1356: The number increased to eight, when in 1623 the Duke of Bavaria took over the electoral dignity of the Count Palatine, who himself received a separate vote in the electoral college according to the 1648 Peace of Westphalia ( Causa Palatina ), including the high office of an Archtreasurer . In 1692 the Elector of Hanover (formally Brunswick-Lüneburg) became the ninth Prince-elector as Archbannerbearer during

1458-734: The Historical Commission of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences started to collect imperial records ( Reichsakten ) and imperial diet records ( Reichstagsakten ). In 1893 the commission published the first volume. At present the years 1524–1527 and years up to 1544 are being collected and researched. A volume dealing with the 1532 Diet of Regensburg, including the peace negotiations with the Protestants in Schweinfurt and Nuremberg , by Rosemarie Aulinger of Vienna

1512-458: The Peace of Westphalia as the origin of principles crucial to modern international relations, collectively known as Westphalian sovereignty . However, some historians have argued against this, suggesting that such views emerged during the nineteenth and twentieth century in relation to concerns about sovereignty during that time. Europe had been battered by both the Thirty Years' War and the overlapping Eighty Years' War (begun c. 1568), exacting

1566-456: The Peace of Westphalia did settle many outstanding European issues of the time. Some scholars of international relations have identified the Peace of Westphalia as the origin of principles crucial to modern international relations , including the inviolability of borders and non-interference in the domestic affairs of sovereign states. This system became known in the literature as Westphalian sovereignty . Most modern historians have challenged

1620-593: The Perpetual Diet in 1663, when the chair passed to Regensburg . The Imperial cities also divided into a Swabian and Rhenish bench. The Swabian cities were led by Nuremberg , Augsburg and Regensburg, the Rhenish cities by Cologne , Aachen and Frankfurt . For a complete list of members of the Imperial Diet from 1792, near the end of the Empire, see List of Reichstag participants (1792) . After

1674-671: The Prince-electors. The House of Princes was again subdivided into an ecclesiastical and a secular bench. Remarkably, the ecclesiastical bench was headed by the—secular— Archduke of Austria and the Burgundian duke of the Habsburg Netherlands (held by Habsburg Spain from 1556). As the Austrian House of Habsburg had failed to assume the leadership of the secular bench, they received the guidance over

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1728-404: The Princes' College held either a single vote ( Virilstimme ) or a collective vote ( Kuriatstimme ). Due to the Princes, their single vote from 1582 strictly depended on their immediate fiefs; this principle led to an accumulation of votes, when one ruler held several territories in personal union . Counts and Lords only were entitled to collective votes, they therefore formed separate colleges like

1782-544: The Treaty of Hamburg were preliminaries of an overall peace agreement. The main peace negotiations took place in Westphalia , in the neighbouring cities of Münster and Osnabrück . Both cities were maintained as neutral and demilitarized zones for the negotiations. In Münster, negotiations took place between the Holy Roman Empire and France, as well as between the Dutch Republic and Spain who on 30 January 1648 signed

1836-464: The abdication of Francis II as Holy Roman Emperor the Empire was dissolved only three years later. The college of Imperial Princes ( Reichsfürstenrat or Fürstenbank ) incorporated the Imperial Counts as well as immediate lords, Prince-Bishops and Imperial abbots . Strong in members, though often discordant, the second college tried to preserve its interests against the dominance of

1890-462: The association of this system with the Peace of Westphalia, calling it the 'Westphalian myth'. They have challenged the view that the modern European states system originated with the Westphalian treaties. The treaties do not contain anything in their text about religious freedom, sovereignty, or balance of power that can be construed as international law principles. Constitutional arrangements of

1944-742: The belligerent states, but not all delegations were present at the same time. Two treaties were signed to end the war in the Empire: the Treaty of Münster and the Treaty of Osnabrück. These treaties ended the Thirty Years' War in the Holy Roman Empire, with the Habsburgs (rulers of Austria and Spain) and their Catholic allies on one side, battling the Protestant powers (Sweden and certain Holy Roman principalities) allied with France (though Catholic, strongly anti-Habsburg under King Louis XIV ). Several scholars of international relations have identified

1998-411: The city's territory, had been occupied by Sweden since 1646/47. Swedish forces had then expelled the forces of Prince-Archbishop Frederick II, Prince of Denmark , officiating from 1637 to 1648. On 18 February 1647, the emperor accepted Sweden's annexation of the prince-archbishopric's territory as a secularized duchy. After the war a dispute about custom collection between Bremen and the emperor led to

2052-522: The city, and initiated negotiations at his headquarters in Habenhausen . On 14 November, the Peace of Habenhausen was signed: Swedish Bremen-Verden was obliged to destroy the fortresses built close to the city. Bremen had to dispense with its status as an Imperial city during the contemporary sessions of the Imperial Diet , which were scheduled to last until the end of the 17th century. Bremen

2106-428: The court of the Emperor. These assemblies were usually referred to as Hoftage (from German Hof "court"). Only beginning in 1489 was the Diet called the Reichstag , and it was formally divided into collegia ("colleges"). Initially, the two colleges were of the prince-electors and of the remaining dukes and princes. Later, the imperial cities with Imperial immediacy became oligarchic republics independent of

2160-417: The ecclesiastical princes. The first ecclesiastical prince was the Archbishop of Salzburg as Primas Germaniae ; the Prince-Archbishop of Besançon , though officially a member until the 1678 Treaty of Nijmegen , did not attend the Diet's meetings. The ecclesiastical bench also comprised the Grand Master and Deutschmeister of the Teutonic Knights , as well as the Grand Prior of the Monastic State of

2214-474: The end of the empire in 1806, it was in permanent session at Regensburg . All Imperial Estates enjoyed immediacy and, therefore, they had no authority above them besides the Holy Roman Emperor himself. While all the estates were entitled to a seat and vote, only the higher temporal and spiritual princes of the College of Princes enjoyed an individual vote ( Virilstimme ), while lesser estates such as imperial counts and imperial abbots, were merely entitled to

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2268-402: The interests of 140 Imperial States, and 27 interest groups representing 38 groups. Two separate treaties constituted the peace settlement: The power asserted by Ferdinand III was stripped from him and returned to the rulers of the Imperial States . The rulers of the Imperial States could again choose their own official religions. Catholics and Lutherans were redefined as equal before

2322-442: The largely independent rule of the dukes over their respective territories, and also limited the number of electors to seven. The Pope, contrary to modern myth, was never involved in the electoral process but only in the process of ratification and coronation of whomever the Prince-Electors chose. Until the late 15th century the Diet was not formalized as an institution. Instead, the dukes and other princes would irregularly convene at

2376-400: The latter imposing an Imperial ban on the city in 1652/53. Sweden, which had never accepted Bremen's Imperial immediacy, attacked in 1654. Swedish forces commanded by Hans Kristofer von Königsmark occupied part of the territory held by the city, but did not attack the city itself. Bremen recruited mercenaries and strengthened its defensive works. Without engaging in any major confrontation,

2430-409: The law, and Calvinism was given legal recognition as an official religion. The independence of the Dutch Republic, which practiced religious toleration, also provided a safe haven for European Jews. The Holy See was very displeased at the settlement, with Pope Innocent X calling it "null, void, invalid, iniquitous, unjust, damnable, reprobate, inane, empty of meaning and effect for all time" in

2484-454: The longstanding rivalry between Franks and Saxons and laying the foundation for the German realm. After the conquest of Italy , the 1158 Diet of Roncaglia finalized four laws that would significantly alter the (never formally written) constitution of the Empire, marking the beginning of the steady decline of the central power in favour of the local dukes. The Golden Bull of 1356 cemented the concept of "territorial rule" ( Landesherrschaft ),

2538-463: The parties agreed on the First Stade Recess  [ de ] on 28 November. It was agreed that Sweden kept occupied Bederkesa and Lehe , and Bremen had to pledge allegiance to the Swedish king Charles X Gustav . Bremen did so on 6 December. In 1665, Bremen refused to pledge allegiance to Charles X Gustav's successor, Charles XI of Sweden . In March, the Swedish riksråd decided to wage war. Thereupon, 12,000 Swedish troops were transferred to

2592-406: Was also banned from emitting representatives to the Diet of the Lower Saxon Circle . What could not be foreseen at the time of the peace was that the Imperial Diet was to become the " Perpetual Diet of Regensburg ", lasting until the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806. Bremen further had to cede its territories north of the city and at the lower Weser river. However, the city itself with

2646-438: Was controlled by Protestant forces. Osnabrück was a bi-denominational Lutheran and Catholic city, with two Lutheran churches and two Catholic churches. The city council was exclusively Lutheran, and the burghers mostly so, but the city also housed the Catholic Chapter of the Prince-Bishopric of Osnabrück and had many other Catholic inhabitants. Osnabrück had been subjugated by troops of the Catholic League from 1628 to 1633 and

2700-439: Was headed by the Elector of Saxony . At meetings of the Protestant body, Saxony would introduce each topic of discussion, after which Brandenburg-Prussia and Hanover would speak, followed by the remaining states in order of size. When all the states had spoken, Saxony would weigh the votes and announce a consensus. Frederick Augustus II, Elector of Saxony converted to Catholicism in 1697 in order to become King of Poland, but

2754-432: Was in effect a permanent meeting of ambassadors between the estates. The role and function of the Imperial Diet evolved over the centuries, like the Empire itself, with the estates and separate territories increasing control of their own affairs at the expense of imperial power. Initially, there was neither a fixed time nor location for the Diet. It began as a convention of the dukes of the old Germanic tribes that formed

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2808-503: Was that France had to intervene on the Swedish side, since Bremen was Swedish according to the Peace of Westphalia, of which France was a guarantor . Pufendorf was, however, told by Hugues de Lionne that France would not hesitate to declare openly that she read the treaty as Bremen being an Imperial city, rather than provoke a new great war with the Holy Roman Empire and the Dutch Republic with an assault Sweden and France could hardly win. Lionne said Sweden would be better off waiting for

2862-431: Was the deliberative body of the Holy Roman Empire . It was not a legislative body in the contemporary sense; its members envisioned it more like a central forum where it was more important to negotiate than to decide. Its members were the Imperial Estates , divided into three colleges. The diet as a permanent, regularized institution evolved from the Hoftage (court assemblies) of the Middle Ages . From 1663 until

2916-409: Was then taken by Lutheran Sweden. The peace negotiations had no exact beginning or end, because the 109 delegations never met in a plenary session. Instead, various delegations arrived between 1643 and 1646 and left between 1647 and 1649. The largest number of diplomats were present between January 1646 and July 1647. Delegations had been sent by 16 European states, 66 Imperial States representing

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