Associative Political Culture in the Holy Roman Empire: Upper Germany, 1346-1521What was the Holy Roman Empire in the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries? At the turning point between the medieval and early modern periods, this vast Central European polity was the continent's most politically fragmented. The imperial monarchs were often weak and distant, while a diverse array of regional actors played an autonomous role in political life. The Empire's obvious differences compared with more centralized European kingdoms have stimulated negative historical judgements and fraught debates, which have found expression in recent decades in the concepts of fractured 'territorial states' and a disjointed 'imperial constitution'. Associative Political Culture in the Holy Roman Empire challenges these interpretations through a wide-ranging case study of Upper Germany — the southern regions of modern-day Germany plus Alsace, Switzerland, and western Austria — between 1346 and 1521. By examining the interactions of princes, prelates, nobles, and towns comparatively, Associative Political Culture in the Holy Roman Empire demonstrates that a range of actors and authorities shared the same toolkit of technologies, rituals, judicial systems, and concepts and configurations of government. Crucially, Upper German elites all participated in leagues, alliances, and other treaty-based associations. As frameworks for collective activity, associations were a vital means of enabling and regulating warfare, justice and arbitration, and even lordship and administration. On the basis of this evidence, Associative Political Culture in the Holy Roman Empire offers a new and more coherent depiction of the Holy Roman Empire as a sprawling community of interdependent elites who interacted within the framework of a shared political culture. |
Contents
SHARED AND INTERCONNECTIVE STRUCTURES AND PRACTICES | |
Arbitration and ParaJudicial Mediation | |
Feuding and Warfare | |
Lordship and Administration | |
ASSOCIATIONS AND ASSOCIATIVE POLITICAL CULTURE | |
Alliances and Leagues | |
Associations and the Discourses of Peace Common Weal | |
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activity actors administration alliances alliances and leagues allies Alsace arbitrational assistance associations Austria authority Baden Basel bishop Burgundian called central Chapter Charles claims collective common concepts Confederates Constance constituted context contracts council Count Count Palatine court customary developed discussed documents Duke dynamics early electors elites estates evidence example existing feuding fifteenth century formal format forms fourteenth framework Friedrich functions given groups Holy Roman Empire Ibid imperial cities important institutions interactions involved judicial jurisdictions king lands late later medieval leagues lords lordship Margrave means mediation military monarchs mutual negotiation networks noble oaths offices parties peace period pledged political actors possessions powers practices princes Rappoltstein referred regional relationships remained representatives Rhenish Rhine sealed seen shared Sigismund sixteenth Society sources stipulations Strasbourg structures subjects suggests Swabian Tage territorial towns treaties understood Upper German urban