List of states in the Holy Roman Empire

This list of states in the Holy Roman Empire includes any territory ruled by an authority that had been granted imperial immediacy, as well as many other feudal entities such as lordships, sous-fiefs, and allodial fiefs.

The Holy Roman Empire was a complex political entity that existed in central Europe for most of the medieval and early modern periods and was generally ruled by a German-speaking Emperor. The states that composed the Empire, while enjoying a form of territorial authority called Landeshoheit that granted them many attributes of sovereignty, were never fully sovereign states in the sense that term is understood presently.^[1]

In the 18th century, the Holy Roman Empire consisted of approximately 1,800 such territories, the majority being tiny estates owned by the families of Imperial Knights.^[2] This page does not directly contain the list but discusses the format of the various lists and offers some background to understand the complex organisation of the Holy Roman Empire. The lists themselves can be accessed via the alphabetical navigation box below; each letter will lead the reader to a page on which states of the Empire that began with that letter are listed.

List of states in the Holy Roman Empire (A)

List of states in the Holy Roman Empire (B)

List of states in the Holy Roman Empire (C)

List of states in the Holy Roman Empire (D)

List of states in the Holy Roman Empire (E)

List of states in the Holy Roman Empire (F)

List of states in the Holy Roman Empire (G)

List of states in the Holy Roman Empire (H)

List of states in the Holy Roman Empire (I)

List of states in the Holy Roman Empire (J)

List of states in the Holy Roman Empire (K)

List of states in the Holy Roman Empire (L)

List of states in the Holy Roman Empire (M)

List of states in the Holy Roman Empire (N)

List of states in the Holy Roman Empire (O)

List of states in the Holy Roman Empire (P)

List of states in the Holy Roman Empire (Q)

List of states in the Holy Roman Empire (R)

List of states in the Holy Roman Empire (S)

List of states in the Holy Roman Empire (T)

List of states in the Holy Roman Empire (U)

List of states in the Holy Roman Empire (V)

List of states in the Holy Roman Empire (W)

List of states in the Holy Roman Empire (Z)

: the territory ruled by a bishop as a prince.

Hochstift

(Reichsabtei): an abbey with imperial immediacy. Its head was a Reichsabt, literally 'Imperial Abbot' or 'Abbot of the Empire'. A monastery with similar status was a Reichskloster.

Imperial Abbey

(Reichskreis, plural Reichskreise): a regional grouping of states of the Holy Roman Empire, primarily for the purpose of organising a common defence and of collecting imperial taxes, but also as a means of organisation within the Imperial Diet.

Imperial Circle

(Reichstag): the parliament of the Holy Roman Empire. The same name was used in the North German Confederation and in Germany until 1945.

Imperial Diet

(Reichsstand, plural Reichsstände): an entity in the Holy Roman Empire with a vote in the Imperial Diet. Several states had no seats in the Empire, while some officials (such as the Hereditary Usher) were non-voting members; neither qualified as Imperial States.

Imperial Estate

(freie Reichsstadt): a city formally responsible to the emperor only – as opposed to the majority of cities in the Empire, which belonged to the territory of one of the many princes (Fürsten) of the Empire, such as dukes or prince-bishops. Free cities also had independent representation in the Imperial Diet of the Holy Roman Empire.

Imperial Free City

(Reichsfreiheit or Reichsunmittelbarkeit; adjectives reichsfrei, reichsunmittelbar) was a privileged feudal and political status, a form of statehood within the Holy Roman Empire. The ruler of an immediate city, abbey or territory had no overlord other than the Holy Roman Emperor and the Imperial Diet. Immediate states had the right to collect taxes and tolls themselves, and held juridical rights (including the Blutgericht, 'high' justice including capital punishment) themselves. De facto, immediacy corresponded to a semi-independence with a far-reaching autonomy.

Imperial immediacy

: In 1495, an attempt was made at a Diet in the city of Worms to give the disintegrating Holy Roman Empire a new structure, commonly referred to as Imperial Reform (in German: Reichsreform).

Imperial Reform

(Reichsstand, plural Reichsstände): an entity in the Holy Roman Empire with a vote in the Imperial Diet.

Imperial State

is a German word mostly used to describe the territorial fragmentation in Germany and neighboring regions during the Holy Roman Empire (especially after the end of the Thirty Years' War). It refers to the large number of nearly sovereign small and medium-sized secular and ecclesiastical principalities and free imperial cities, some of which were little larger than a single town or the surrounding grounds of the monastery of an Imperial abbey.

Kleinstaaterei

is Military alliance and mutual assistance strengthened the position of imperial cities, especially during the interregnum period of the 13th to 14th century.

League of cities

is the loss of imperial immediacy through annexation by a larger state. A mediatized lord lost most of his power over his former territory, but retained his title and most of his personal privileges.

Mediatization

: any ruling Prince whose territory is a member of the Holy Roman Empire (not only German-speaking countries, but also many bordering and extensive neighbouring regions) and entitled to a voting seat (or in a collective voting unit, such as a Grafenbank) in the Imperial Diet.

Prince of the Empire

(Fürstabt) or prince-abbess (Äbtissin): an abbot or abbess with the rank of prince. Prince-abbots (but not prince-abbesses) had a seat and vote on the Ecclesiastical Bench of the College of Ruling Princes of the Imperial Diet, where they sat alongside the prince-bishops.

Prince-abbot

(Fürstbischof): a bishop with the rank, ex officio, of prince (Fürst). As a prince, he was the temporal ruler of a Hochstift; as a bishop, he exercised the spiritual duties of an ordinary bishop over his diocese, which was always larger than his Hochstift. Prince-bishops had seat and voice on the Ecclesiastical Bench of the College of Ruling Princes of the Imperial Diet. Nearly all the bishops of the Holy Roman Empire outside the Habsburg lands were prince-bishops.

Prince-bishop

or electoral prince (Kurfürst, pl. Kurfürsten): a member of the electoral college of the Holy Roman Empire, having the function of electing the Holy Roman Emperors.

Prince-elector

: the transfer of property from ecclesiastical to civil possession or use.^[3]

Secularization

the territorial development of the different states or polities (acquisition or loss of possessions, union of rulers or dynasties, etc.);

the royal or noble dynasties, including their various branches, which ruled over territories or polities;

the transmission of succession rights (marriage, female succession, conquest, cession, pledge, etc.);

the attributes of "statehood" (right to mint coins, holding markets and fairs, entering into treaties and pacts, appointment of civil officials, etc.); and

the size of territory and population of the various polities whenever these are available.

The
1529: College of Princes
1793: Council of Princes

Teutonic Order

The
1793: Council of Princes

Order of St. John

List of Imperial Diet participants (1792)

(after 1815)

List of historic states of Germany

The Arenberg Archives and Cultural Centre. "The Dukes of Arenberg". . Retrieved June 26, 2006.

[1]

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[2]

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[3]

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[4]

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[5]

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[6]

"Freiburg's History for Pedestrians" (2006). . Retrieved June 26, 2006.

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https://web.archive.org/web/20091027065258/http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Rotunda/2209/index.html

"History of the House of Sayn". . Retrieved July 13, 2006.

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[10]

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Kingdoms of Europe

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[12]

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[13]

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[14]

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[15]

Principality of Liechtenstein. "Liechtenstein at a Glance: History". . Retrieved June 25, 2006.

[16]

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[17]

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Sainty, Guy Stair

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[23]

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[24]

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[25]

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[36]

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