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See also:ELECTORS (Ger. Kurfursten, from Kilren, O.H.G. kiosan, choose, elect, and See also:Furst, See also:prince) , a See also:body of See also:German princes, originally seven in number, with whom rested the See also:election of the German See also: The principle of heredity began to fail because there were no heirs. Again the strength of tribal feeling in Germany made the monarchy into a See also:prize, which must not be the apanage of any single tribe, but must circulate, as it were, from Franconian to Saxon, from Saxon to Bavarian, from Bavarian to Franconian, from Franconian to Swabian; while the growing See also:power of the baronage, and its See also:habit of erecting See also:anti-kings to emphasize its opposition to the See also:crown (as, for instance, in the reign of Henry IV.), coalesced with and gave new force to the See also:action of tribal feeling. Lastly, the fact that the German kings were also See also:Roman emperors finally and irretrievably consolidated the growing tendency towards the elective principle. The principle of heredity had never held any great sway under the See also:ancient Roman See also:Empire (see under See also:EMPEROR) ; and the medieval Empire, instituted as it was by the papacy, came definitely under the influence of ecclesiastical prepossessions in favour of election. The See also: (see Narratio de electione Lotharii, M.G.H.. Scriptt. xii. p. 51o), of Conrad III. (see Otto of Freising, Chronicon, vii. 22) and of See also:Frederick I. (see Otto of Freising, Gesta Frid. ii. 1) had all been marked by an element, more or less pronounced, of election. That element is perhaps most considerable in the See also:case of Lothair, who had no rights of heredity to urge. Here we read of ten princes being selected from the princes of the various duchies, to whose choice the See also:rest promise to assent, and of these ten selecting three candidates, one of whom, Lothair, is finally chosen (apparently by the whole See also:assembly) in a some-what tumultuary See also:fashion. In this case the electoral assembly would seem to be, in the last resort, the whole See also:diet of all the princes. But a de facto pre-See also:eminence in the See also:act of election is already, during the 12th century, enjoyed by the three Rhenish archbishops, probably because of the See also:part they afterwards played at the See also:coronation, and also by the See also:dukes of the great duchies—possibly because of the part they too played, as vested for the time with the great offices of the See also:household, at the coronation feast.' Thus at the election of Lothair it is the See also:archbishop of See also:Mainz who conducts the proceedings; and the election is not held to be final until the See also:duke of See also:Bavaria has given his assent. The fact is that, votes being weighed by quality as well as by quantity (see DIET), the votes of the archbishops and dukes, which would first be taken, would of themselves, if unanimous, decide the election. To prevent tumultuary elections, it was well that the election should be left exclusively with these great dignitaries; and this is what, by the middle of the 13th century, had eventually been done.
The See also:chaos of the See also:interregnum from 1198 to 1212 showed the way for the new departure; the chaos of the great interregnum (1250–1273) led to its being finally taken. The decay of the great duchies, and the narrowing of the class of princes into a See also:close See also:corporation, some of whose members were the equals of the old dukes in power, introduced difficulties and doubts into the practice of election which had been used in the 12th century. The contested election of the interregnum of 1198–1212 brought these difficulties and doubts into strong See also:relief. The famous See also:bull of See also:Innocent III. (Venerabilem), in which he decided for Otto IV. against See also: But the definition and the See also:acknowledgment were still imperfect. (I) The See also:composition of the electoral body was uncertain in two respects. The duke of Bavaria claimed as his right the electoral vote of the king of Bohemia; and the practice of partitio in electoral families tended to raise further
' This is the view of the Sachsenspiegel, and also of See also:Albert of See also:Stade (quoted in See also:Schroder, p. 476, n. 27) : Palatinus eligit, quia dapifer est ; See also:dux Saxoniae, quia marescalcus," &c. Schroder points out (p. 479, n. 45) that ' participation in the coronation feast is an See also:express recognition of the king "; and those who are to See also:discharge their See also:office in the one must have had a prominent See also:voice in the other.difficulties about the exercise of the vote. The Golden Bull of 1356 settled both these questions. Bohemia (of which See also: The result of the election, whether made, as at first, by the princes generally or, as after 1257, by the seven electors exclusively, was in itself simply the creation of a German king —an electio in See also:regent. But since 962 the German king was also, after coronation by the pope, Roman emperor. Therefore the election had a See also:double result: the man elected was not only electus in regem, but also promovendus ad imperium. The difficulty was to define the meaning of the See also:term promovendus. Was the king elect inevitably to become emperor? or did the promotio only follow at the discretion of the pope, if he thought the king elect See also:fit for promotion? and if so, to what extent, and according to what See also:standard, did the pope See also:judge of such fitness? Innocent III. had already claimed, in the bull Venerabilem, (1) that the electors derived their power of election, so far as it made an emperor, from the See also:Holy See (which had originally " translated " the Empire from the See also:East to the West), and (2) that the papacy had a See also:jus et auctoritas examinandi personam electam in regem et promovendam ad imperium. The latter claim he had based on the fact that he anointed, consecrated and crowned the emperor—in other words, that he gave a spiritual office according to spiritual methods, which entitled him to inquire into the fitness of the recipient of that office, as a bishop inquires into the fitness of a See also:candidate for ordination. Innocent had put forward this claim as a ground for deciding between competing candidates: See also:Boniface VIII. pressed the claim against Albert I. in 1298, even though his election was unanimous; while See also: The doctrine thus positively affirmed at Rense is negatively reaffirmed in the Golden Bull, in which a significant silence is maintained in regard to papal rights. But the doctrine was not in practice followed: See also:Sigismund himself did not venture to dispense with papal approbation. By the end of the 14th century the position of the electors, both individually and as a corporate body, had become definite and precise. Individually, they were distinguished from all other princes, as we have seen, by the indivisibility of their territories and by the custom of primogeniture which secured that indivisibility; and they were still further distinguished by the fact that their See also:person, like that of the emperor himself, was protected by the See also:law of See also:treason, while their territories were only subject to the See also:jurisdiction of their own courts. They were See also:independent territorial sovereigns; and their position was at once the envy and the ideal of the other princes of Germany. Such had been the policy of Charles IV.; and thus had he, in the Golden Bull, sought to magnify the seven electors, and himself as one of the seven, in his capacity of king of Bohemia, even at the expense of the Empire, and of himself in his capacity of emperor. Powerful as they were, however, in their individual capacity, the electors showed themselves no less powerful as a corporate body. As such a corporate body, they may be considered from three different points of view, and as acting in three different capacities. They are an electoral body, choosing each successive emperor; they are one of the three colleges of the imperial diet (see DIET); and they are also an electoral See also:union (Kurfurstenverein), acting as a See also:separate and independent See also:political See also:organ even after the election, and during the reign, of the monarch. It was in this last capacity that they had met at Rense in 1338; and in the same capacity they acted repeatedly during the 15th century. According to the Golden Bull, such meetings were to be See also:annual, and their deliberations were to concern "the safety of the Empire and the See also:world." Annual they never were; but occasionally they became of great importance. In 1424, during the attempt at reform occasioned by the failure of German arms against the'See also:Hussites, the Kurfurstenverein acted, or at least it claimed to act, as the predominant partner in a duumvirate, in which the unsuccessful Sigismund was relegated to a secondary position. During the See also:long reign of Frederick III.—a reign in which the interests of See also:Austria were cherished, and the welfare of the Empire neglected, by that apathetic yet tenacious emperor—the electors once more attempted, in the year 1453, to erect a new central See also:government in See also:place of the emperor, a government which, if not conducted by themselves directly in their capacity of a Kurfurstenverein, should at any rate be under their influence and See also:control. So, they hoped, Germany might be able to make See also:head against that papal aggression, to which Frederick had yielded, and to take a leading part in that crusade against the See also:Turks, which he had neglected. Like the previous attempt at reform during the Hussite See also:wars, the See also:scheme came to nothing; the forces of disunion in Germany were too strong for any central government, whether monarchical and controlled by the emperor, or oligarchical and controlled by the electors. But a final attempt, the most strenuous of all, was made in the reign of See also:Maximilian I., and under the influence of See also:Bertold, elector and archbishop of Mainz. The See also:council of 1500, in which the electors (with the exception of the king of Bohemia) were to have sat, and which would have been under their control, represents the last effective attempt at a real Reichsregiment. Inevitably, however, it shipwrecked on the opposition of Maximilian; and though the attempt was again made between 1521 and 1530, the See also:idea of a real central government under the control of the electors perished, and the development of See also:local See also:administration by the circle took its place.
In the course of the 16th century a new right came to be exercised by the electors. As an electoral body (that is to say, in the first of the three capacities distinguished above), they claimed, at the election of Charles V. in 1519 and at subsequent elections, to impose conditions on the elected monarch, and to determine the terms on which he should exercise his office in the course of his reign. This Wahlcapitulation, similar to the Facia Conventa which limited the elected kings of See also:Poland, was left by the diet to the discretion of the electors, though after the treaty of See also:Westphalia an attempt was made, with some little success,' to turn the See also:capitulation into a matter of legislative enactment by the diet. From this time onwards the only fact of importance in the See also:history of the electors is the See also:change which took place in the composition of their body during the 17th and 18th centuries. From the Golden Bull to the treaty of Westphalia (1356–1648) the composition of the electoral body had remained unchanged. In 1623, however, in the course of the See also:Thirty Years' See also:War, the vote of the See also:count palatine of the Rhine had been transferred to the duke of Bavaria; and at the treaty of Westphalia the vote, with the office of imperial See also: In 1708 a ninth_ vote, along with the office of imperial standard-See also:bearer, was created for See also:Hanover; while ' See Schroder's Lehrbuch der deutschen Rechtsgeschichte, p. 820. finally, in 1778, the vote of Bavaria and the office of imperial butler returned to the See also:counts palatine, as heirs of the duchy, on the extinction of the ducal line, while the new vote created for the See also:Palatinate in 1648, with the office of imperial treasurer, was transferred to See also:Brunswick-See also:Luneburg (Hanover) in lieu of the one which this See also:house already held. In 1806, on the See also:dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, the electors ceased to exist. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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