One of the major questions
about the Mediatized Houses
is the word "Mediatized".
What does it mean?
The word was used mostly in the operation of the Holy Roman Empire and
its successor states in what is now Germany. The root of the word
is the Latin word "media", meaning "between", and its use comes from the
number of layers of allegiance (in a feudal sense) between a nobleman
and his suzerain, who, in the Holy Roman Empire, was the Emperor.
If nobleman A and nobleman B held their fiefs directly from the Emperor,
then these were "immediate" fiefs ("im"-"mediate", nothing in between).
If for some reason nobleman A's fief was placed under the authority of
nobleman B, then nobleman A's fief was no longer "immediate", it was
"mediate". The act of degrading the type of allegiance in this way
is called "mediatizing".
For various reasons (none of which will be discussed here), Germany
did not coalesce into a modern nation the same way as, say, France and
Spain. While over the centuries there had been fitful attempts at
bringing the Germanies together, and various people used the title "King
of Germany", there was no such thing as "Germany" until the Weimar Republic
of 1918. Even the 1871 "German Empire" was not Germany -- the King
of Prussia simply took a higher-sounding title that did not affect the
sovereignty or indepencence or territory of any of the other German states.
How many of these German states existed under the Holy Roman Empire,
and which of these states could be considered to have been sovereign? The
answers are "several hundred" and "only some of them". Having an
immediate fief (see above) was not enough.
To quote from Prince Jean Engelbert d'Arenberg, in his dissertation
*The Lesser Princes of the Holy Roman Empire in the Napoleonic Era* [Washington,
D.C., 1950], later published as *Les Princes du St-Empire a l'epoque napoleonienne*
[Louvain, 1951], starting on p. 15:
The
Imperial States [Reichsstand] were the real
pillars of the Holy Roman
Empire. They consisted
mainly of the Princes and
Counts of the Empire who
posessed immediate territories
therein; i.e., fiefs
which were held directly
of the Emperor himself, and
who had, each of them, a
vote and a seat in the
Imperial Diet. The
holders of these Imperial States
and all those who were of
equal birth with them
constituted the High Nobility
[Hochadel] ...
The
dignity of States of the Empire was in general
attached not to the person
but to the fief. Such a
territory had to enjoy sovereign
rights under the
suzerainty of the Empire.
... The States of the Empire
accordingly exercised sovereignty
over various Imperial
Territories. But the
fact of sovereignty under the
suzerainty of the Emperor
was not in itself sufficient
to constitute a State of
the Empire. Of equal
importance was the fact
of having a vote and a seat in
the Imperial Diet.
Still another requirement was the
recognition of the quality
of a State of the Empire
either by usage or by special
legal authorization. In
a few cases this authorization
was granted to persons
even without an immediate
territority. The following
legal requirements were
met by all Imperial States,
except by those who had
received that dignity for their
person and not for their
territory:
1.
The possession of an immediate
Principality, County or Lordship invested with
the right of Sovereignty [Landeshoheit].
2.
The consent of the Emperor and of all the
Councils of the Imperial Diet, in the case of
an Electorate; the consent of the Emperor, of
the Council of Electors and of the Council of
Princes in all other cases.
3.
The assumption of an appropriate share in
supplying the financial, military and other
needs of the Empire.
4.
The membership in one of the ten Imperial
Circles.
These Imperial Circles had been set up by Maximilian I, and were for
military purposes. As such, they won't be described further here.
In the Council of Princes [Reichsfuerstlicheskollegium] of the Imperial
Diet [Reichstag] of 1792 there were 108 seats and votes, allocated as follows,
with the name of the dynasty holding the seat given in (parentheses):
. 3 ecclesiastical Electors
Mainz
Trier
Cologne
. 5 secular Electors:
Bohemia (Habsburg-Lorraine)
Palatinate (Wittelsbach)
Electoral Saxony (Electoral
Saxony, i.e., Wettin)
Brandenburg (Electoral Brandenburg,
i.e., Hohenzollern-Prussia)
Hanover (Brunswick-Guelf-Hanover)
. 33 ecclesiastical Princes (not described here in detail)
. 61 secular Princes:
"Old Princes":
Austria (Habsburg-Lorraine)
Burgundy (Habsburg-Lorraine)
Bavaria (Wittelsbach)
Palatinate-Lautern (Palatinate-Wittelsbach)
Palatinate-Simmern (Palatinate-Wittelsbach)
Palatinate-Neuburg (Palatinate-Wittelsbach)
Palatinate-Zweibruecken
(Zweibruecken-Wittelsbach)
Palatinate-Veldenz (Palatinate-Wittelsbach)
Saxe-Weimar (Wettin-Saxe-Weimar)
Saxe-Eisenach (Wettin-Saxe-Weimar)
Saxe-Coburg (Wettin-Saxe-Coburg)
Saxe-Gotha (Wettin-Saxe-Gotha)
Saxe-Altenburg (Wettin-Saxe-Gotha)
Brandenburg-Ansbach (Hohenzollern-Prussia)
Brandenburg-Bayreuth (Hohenzollern-Prussia)
Brunswick-Celle (Brunswick-Guelf-Hanover)
Brunswick-Kalenberg (Brunswick-Guelf-Hanover)
Brunswick-Grubenhagen (Brunswick-Guelf-Hanover)
Brunswick-Wolfenbuettel
(Brunswick-Guelf-Wolfenbuettel)
Pomerania-Wolgast (Sweden)
Pomerania-Stettin (Hohenzollern-Prussia)
Mecklenburg-Schwerin (Mecklenburg-Schwerin)
Mecklenburg-Guestrow (Mecklenburg-Schwerin)
Wuerttemberg (Wuerttemberg)
Hesse-Cassel (Hesse-Cassel)
Hesse-Darmstadt (Hesse-Darmstadt)
Baden-Baden (Baden)
Baden-Durlach (Baden)
Baden-Hochberg (Baden)
Holstein-Glueckstadt (Oldenburg-Denmark)
Holstein-Gottorp (Oldenburg-Holstein-Gottorp)
Saxe-Lauenburg (Brunswick-Guelf-Hanover)
Savoy (Savoy-Sardinia)
Leuchtenberg (Palatinate-Wittelsbach)
Anhalt (Bernburg, Koethen,
Zerbst, and Dessau branches)
Henneberg (all branches
of the House of Saxony-Wettin)
Lorraine-Nomeny (Habsburg-Lorraine)
Montbeliard (Wuerttemberg)
Arenberg (Ligne-Arenberg)
Secularized ecclesiastical territories:
Magdeburg (Hohenzollern-Prussia)
Bremen (Brunswick-Guelf-Hanover)
Halberstadt (Hohenzollern-Prussia)
Verden (Brunswick-Guelf-Hanover)
Minden (Hohenzollern-Prussia)
Schwerin (Mecklenburg-Schwerin)
Kamin (Hohenzollern-Prussia)
Ratzenburg (Mecklenburg-Strelitz)
Hersfeld (Hesse-Cassel)
"New Princes":
Zollern (Hohenzollern-Hechingen)
Sternstein (Lobkowicz)
Salm (Salm-Salm and Salm-Kyrburg)
Trasp in Tyrol (Dietrichstein)
Nassau-Hadamar (Nassau-Dietz-Orange)
Nassau-Dillenburg (Nassau-Dietz-Orange)
Wels (Auersperg)
East Frisia (Hohenzollern-Prussia)
Stuehlingen (Fuerstenberg)
Schwarzenberg (Schwarzenberg)
Schellenberg and Vaduz (Liechtenstein)
Schwarzburg (Schwarzburg)
Friedberg (Thurn und Taxis)
. 4 seats representing the Councils of the Counts of the Empire:
Council of the Counts of
the Wetterau (representing 12 Houses)
Council of the Counts of
Suabia (representing 23 Houses)
Council of the Counts of
Franconia (representing 17 Houses)
Council of the Counts of
Westphalia (representing 32 Houses)
. 2 other seats, representing the Free Cities.
This is also the order in which the Princes voted.
Several points can be made about this list. First, there are a
number of Habsburg domains, such as Hungary and Moravia, which are not
on this list. This is because they were not part of the Holy Roman
Empire. For that matter, Prussia (the territory that the Elector
of Brandenburg was King of) was not in the Empire either. Second,
note the concentration of votes in just a few houses -- for example the
Palatine Elector had six votes and the Elector of Hanover had seven. The
Elector of Hanover was, at that time (1792), also King of Great Britain,
which illustrates how many non-German sovereigns played a role in the Empire
(on the other hand the Kings of Sardinia, while they had a seat in the
Diet, seldom bothered even to send a representative).
Note also the distinction between "Old Princes" and "New Princes".
All of the "Old Princes" were present in the Diet of 1582, and the "New
Princes" were added afterwards. Starting in 1641, the Emperor would
award the title of "Reichsfuerst" [Prince of the Empire] to those persons
or Houses he thought worthy, and once the recipient person or dynasty was
able to satisfy the other requirements, they were admitted to the Diet.
Most though not all Reichsfuerst creations were for
persons or Houses which already had a territory and a function in the
Empire. The Houses which had received the title of Reichsfuerst but
which had not fulfilled the other requirements remained in the Councils
of the Counts of the Empire. These Councils comprised, as of around
1792, the following members:
Council of the Counts of the Wetterau
Princes and Counts of Solms-Braunfels,
Solms-Hohensolms, Solms-
Roedelheim, and Solms-Laubach
Princes and Counts of Nassau-Usingen,
Nassau-Weilburg, and
Nassau-Saarbruecken
Princes and Counts of Isenburg-Birstein,
Isenburg-Buedingen,
Isenburg-Meerholz, and Isenburg-Waechtersbach
Counts of Stolberg-Gedern-Ortenburg,
Stolberg-Stolberg, and
Stolberg-Wernigerode
Princes and Counts of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg
and Sayn-
Wittgenstein-Wittgenstein
Counts of Salm (Wild- und
Rheingrafen zu Grumbach, and Wild-
und Rheingraf zu Rheingrafenstein)
Princes and Counts of Leiningen-Hartenburg
and Leiningen-
Heidesheim
Counts of Westerburg
Princes of Schoenburg
Count of Wied-Runkel as
Count of Criechingen
Counts of Ortenburg
Counts of Reuss zu Plauen
Council of the Counts of Suabia
Prince of Fuerstenberg as
Count of Heiligenberg
Abbess of Buchau
Commander of the Teutonic
Knights as Count of Alschhausen
Prince of Oettingen
House of Habsburg-Lorraine
for the Count of Montfort
Elector of Bavaria as Count
of Helfenstein
Prince of Schwarzenberg
as Count of Klettgau and Sulz
Count of Koenigsegg
Count of Waldburg
Margrave of Baden-Baden
as Count of Eberstein
Count von der Leyen as Lord
of Hohengeroldseck
Counts of Fugger
House of Habsburg-Lorraine
as Lords of Hohenems
Count of Traun as Lord of
Eggloff
Prince-Abbot of St. Blase
as Count of Bonndorf
Count of Stadion as Lord
of Thannhausen
Prince of Thurn und Taxis
as Lord of Eglingen
Count of Khevenhueller
Count of Kuefstein
Prince of Colloredo
Count of Harrach
Count of Sternberg
Count of Neipperg
Council of the Counts of Franconia
Princes and Counts of Hohenlohe
Counts of Castell
Counts of Erbach
Princes and Counts of Loewenstein
as Counts of Wertheim
Heirs to the Counts of Limpurg
Counts of Nostitz as Counts
of Rieneck
Prince of Schwarzenberg
as Lord of Seinsheim
Heirs to the Counts of Wolfstein
Counts of Schoenborn as
Lords of Reichelsberg
Counts of Schoenborn as
Lords of Wiesentheid
Counts of Windischgraetz
[personaliter]
Counts Orsini von Rosenberg
[personaliter]
Counts of Starhemberg (elder
line)
Counts of Wurmbrand [personaliter]
Counts of Giech [personaliter]
Counts of Graevenitz [personaliter]
Counts of Pueckler [personaliter]
Council of the Counts of Westphalia
King of Great Britain as
Lord of Sayn-Altenkirchen
King of Great Britain as
Count of Hoya
King of Great Britain as
Count of Spiegelberg
King of Great Britain as
Count of Diepholz
Duke of Holstein-Gottorp
Elector of Brandenburg as
Count of Tecklenburg
Duke of Arenberg as Count
of Schleiden
Duke of Arenberg as Lord
of Kerpen
Duke of Arenberg as Count
of Saffenburg
Prince of Wied-Runkel as
Count of Wied
Prince of Wied-Neuwied as
Chairman of the Council
Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel
and Count of Lippe-Bueckeburg as
Count of Schaumburg
Counts of Lippe
Counts of Bentheim
Princes and Counts of Loewenstein
as Counts of Virneburg
Prince of Kaunitz as Lord
of Rietberg
Prince of Waldeck as Count
of Pyrmont
Count of Toerring as Count
of Gronsfeld
Count of Aspremont as Count
of Reckheim
Princes of Salm as Lords
of Anholt
Count of Metternich as Lord
of Winnenburg
Prince of Anhalt-Bernburg-Schaumberg
as Count of Holzapfel
Counts of Plettenberg as
Lords of Witthem
Counts of Limburg-Stirum
as Lords of Gehmen
Count of Wallmoden as Lord
of Gimborn
Count of Quadt as Lord of
Wyckradt
Counts of Ostein as Lords
of Mylendonk
Counts of Nesselrode as
Lords of Reichenstein
Counts of Salm-Reifferscheidt
as Lords of Dyck
Counts of Platen [personaliter]
Counts of Sinzendorf as
Lords of Rhieneck
Prince of Ligne as Count
of Fagnolles
Those who are shown as [personaliter] were personal, not hereditary,
members of their Council.
Note also that these are not by any means the only titled persons in
the Empire. Nor are these the only people who held immediate or non-immediate
fiefs, or the people who comprised any of the ten Imperial Circles.
The people listed above are those who had a voice, however small, in the
Imperial decision-making process.
By the time of the 1792 Diet, the Empire's western neighbor, France,
had already sunk into revolution. France achieved some measure of
stability under the Republic and the Directorate, and its armies, especially
under the command of Bonaparte, won some major victories against the Empire,
particularly at Marengo (14 June 1800). In the Treaty of Luneville
(9 February 1801), the Empire lost some twenty-five thousand square miles
of territory. The only way for the Emperor to
compensate the dispossessed Princes was to sieze the remaining ecclesiastical
territories. An Imperial Delegation did so, and published on 25 February
1803 the famous Reichsdeputationshauptschluss, which reorganized the Empire
and the Imperial Diet. The Diet ratified this decision on 24 March
1803, and the Emperor ratified it on 27 April 1803 except for the paragraph
(Paragraph 32) which dealt specifically with the reorganization of the
Diet. The Emperor's objections were never overcome, thus the reorganization
of the Diet based on the
Reichsdeputationshauptschluss cannot be considered lawful, even though
a tentative list of seats was drawn up. What little business transacted
by the Diet between 1803 and its dissolution in 1806 was based on the list,
part of which (the Council of Princes) was printed in Prince Arenberg's
dissertation (cited above) on pp. 61-64 and is given here, territory first
with name of the dynasty in (parentheses):
Austria (Habsburg-Lorraine)
Upper Bavaria (Wittelsbach)
Styria (Habsburg-Lorraine)
Magdeburg (Brandenburg)
Salzburg (Lorraine-Tuscany)
Lower Bavaria (Wittelsbach)
Regensburg (Elector of Mainz)
Sulzbach (Wittelsbach)
The Teutonic Knights
Neuburg (Wittelsbach)
Bamburg (Wittelsbach)
Bremen (Brunswick-Guelf-Hanover)
Meissen (Wettin-Saxony)
Berg (Wittelsbach)
Wuerzburg (Wittelsbach)
Carinthia (Habsburg-Lorraine)
Eichstaedt (Lorraine-Tuscany)
Coburg (Wettin-Saxe-Coburg)
Bruchsal-Speier (Zaehringen-Baden)
Gotha (Wettin-Saxe-Coburg)
Ettenheim-Strassburg (Zaehringen-Baden)
Altenburg (Wettin-Saxe-Altenburg)
Constanz (Zaehringen-Baden)
Weimar (Wettin-Saxe-Weimar)
Augsburg (Wittelsbach)
Eisenach (Wettin-Saxe-Eisenach)
Hildesheim (Brandenburg)
Ansbach (Brandenburg)
Paderborn (Brandenburg)
Bayreuth (Brandenburg)
Freising (Wittelsbach)
Wolfenbuettel (Brunswick-Guelf-Wolfenbuettel)
Thuringia (Wettin-Saxony,
Saxe-Weimar, and Saxe-Gotha)
Celle (Brunswick-Guelf-Hanover)
Passau (Wittelsbach)
Calenberg (Brunswick-Guelf-Calenberg)
Trent (Habsburg-Lorraine)
Grubenhagen (Brunswick-Guelf-Grubenhagen)
Brixen (Habsburg-Lorraine)
Halberstadt (Brandenburg)
Carniola (Habsburg-Lorraine)
Baden (Zaehringen-Baden)
Teck (Wuerttemberg)
Durlach (Zaehringen-Baden-Durlach)
Osnabrueck (Brunswick-Guelf-Lueneburg)
Verden (Brunswick-Guelf-Hanover)
Muenster (Brandenburg)
Hochberg (Zaehringen-Baden)
Luebeck (Oldenburg-Holstein)
Wuerttemberg (Wuerttemberg)
Hanau (Louvain-Hesse-Cassel)
Glueckstadt (Oldenburg-Holstein-Glueckstadt)
Fulda (Nassau-Orange)
Oldenburg-Gottorp (Oldenburg-Holstein-Gottorp)
Kempten (Wittelsbach)
Schwerin (Mecklenburg-Schwerin)
Ellwangen (Wuerttemberg)
Guestrow (Mecklenburg-Guestrow)
The Knights of St. John
Darmstadt (Louvain-Hesse-Darmstadt)
Berchtesgaden (Lorraine-Tuscany)
Cassel (Louvain-Hesse-Cassel)
Westphalia (Louvain-Hesse-Darmstadt)
Pomerania (Sweden)
Ploen (Oldenburg-Holstein)
Thither Pomerania (Brandenburg)
Breisgau (Habsburg-Lorraine)
Lauenburg (Brunswick-Guelf-Hanover)
Corvey (Nassau-Orange)
Minden (Brandenburg)
The Burggraviate of Meissen
(Wettin-Saxony)
Leuchtenberg (Wittelsbach)
Anhalt (Anhalt)
Henneberg (Wettin - all
Saxon houses)
Schwerin (Mecklenburg-Schwerin)
Camin (Brandenburg)
Ratzeburg (Mecklenburg-Strelitz)
Hersfeld (Louvain-Hesse-Cassel)
Tyrol (Habsburg-Lorraine)
Tuebingen (Wuerttemberg)
Querfurt (Wettin-Saxony)
Arenberg (Ligne-Arenberg
Hechingen (Hohenzollern-Hechingen)
Fritzlar (Louvain-Hesse-Cassel)
Sternstein (Lobkowicz)
Salm (Salm)
Dietrichstein (Dietrichstein)
Hadamar (Nassau-Orange)
Zwiefalten (Wuerttemberg)
Dillenburg (Nassau-Dietz)
Auersperg (Auersperg)
Starkenburg (Louvain-Hesse-Darmstadt)
East Frisia (Brandenburg)
Fuerstenberg (Fuerstenberg)
Schwarzenberg (Schwarzenberg)
Goettingen (Brunswick-Guelf-Hanover)
Mindelheim (Wittelsbach)
Liechtenstein (Liechtenstein)
Thurn und Taxis (Thurn und
Taxis)
Schwarzburg (Schwarzburg)
Ortenau (Habsburg-Lorraine)
Aschaffenburg (Elector of
Mainz
Eichsfeld (Brandenburg)
Blankenburg (Brunswick-Guelf-Wolfenbuettel)
Stargard (Mecklenburg-Strelitz)
Erfurt (Brandenburg)
Usingen (Nassau-Usingen)
Weilburg (Nassau-Weilburg)
Sigmaringen (Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen)
Kyrburg (Salm-Kyrburg)
Baar and Stuhlingen (Fuerstenberg)
Klettgau (Schwarzenberg)
Buchau (Thurn und Taxis)
Waldeck (Waldeck)
Loewenstein-Wertheim (Loewenstein-Wertheim)
Oettingen-Spielberg (Oettingen-Spielberg)
Oettingen-Wallerstein (Oettingen-Wallerstein)
Solms-Braunfels (Solms-Braunfels)
Hohenlohe-Neuenstein (Hohenlohe-Neuenstein)
Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfuerst
(Hohenlohe-Wald-Schill)
Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Bartenstein
(Hohenlohe-Wald-Bart)
Isenburg-Birnstein (Isenburg-Birnstein)
Rittberg (Kaunitz)
Plauen-Greiz (Reuss-Plauen-Greiz)
Leiningen (Leiningen)
Edelstetten (Ligne)
Looz-Wolbeck (Looz-Corswarem)
The Council of the Counts
of Suabia
The Council of the Counts
of the Wetterau
The Council of the Counts
of Franconia
The Council of the Counts
of Westphalia
In all, 131 seats in the Council of Princes, after the proposed reorganization
of the Diet, based on the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss of 1803.
The Princes who would have benefited from this reorganization by finally
gaining a seat in the Diet, such as Leiningen and Waldeck, started acting
as though they had become sovereign (though still under the suzerainty
of the Emperor), and have continued to be credited, in otherwise accurate
references works, as having achieved sovereignty by virtue of the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss,
even though the 1803 reorganization of the Diet cannot be considered lawful.
Also in 1803 the number of secular Electors was almost doubled, from
5 (Bohemia, Palatinate, Electoral Saxony, Brandenburg, and Hanover) to
9 (with Baden, Hesse-Cassel, Wuerttemberg, and Salzburg [later Wuerzburg,
and held by the Grand Duke of Tuscany] added), while the Ecclesiastial
Electors dropped from 3 (Mainz, Trier, and Cologne) to one (Mainz,
the other two being secularized).
After Bonaparte proclaimed himself Emperor of the French on 18 May 1804,
the Holy Roman Emperor proclaimed himself Emperor of Austria on 11 August
1804, followed immediately by the Electors of Bavaria and Wuerttemberg,
who took advantage of the confusion and lack of Imperial
control to proclaim themselves Kings, and started gobbling up smaller
states, starting on 19 November 1805 when Wuerttemberg annexed Fuerstenberg.
The formal end of the Empire was signalled on 13 January 1806 when the
King of Sweden refused to send a representative to the
Imperial Diet because of the violations of its constitution by its
members.
After his victory at Austerlitz (2 Dec 1805), Bonaparte tried to break
up the Empire by driving a wedge between Brandenburg (the power in the
north) and Austria (the power in the south), by offering to set up a federation
of the German states under his protection. Those states which left
the Empire and joined the federation could increase their territories at
the expense of those states which did not. On 12 July 1806 the Treaty
of the Confederation of the Rhine was signed, and the
Confederation came into legal existance. The states which initially
joined the Confederation, their dynasties and their date of joining were:
King of Bavaria
Wittelsbach 12 July 1806
King of Wuerttemberg
Wuerttemberg 12 July 1806
Grand Duke of Baden
Zaehringen 12 July 1806
Grand Duke of Frankfurt
Dalberg 12 July 1806
Grand Duke of Cleves and Berg
Murat
12 July 1806
Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt
Hesse
12 July 1806
Duke of Nassau-Usingen
Nassau 12 July
1806
Prince of Nassau-Weilburg
Nassau 12 July
1806
P of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen
Hohenzollern 12 July 1806
P of Hohenzollern-Hechingen
Hohenzollern 12 July 1806
Prince of Salm-Salm
Salm
12 July 1806
Prince of Salm-Kyrburg
Salm
12 July 1806
Prince of Isenburg-Birstein
Isenburg 12 July 1806
Duke of Arenberg
Ligne-Arenberg 12 July 1806
Prince of Liechtenstein
Liechtenstein 12 July 1806
Prince von der Leyen
Leyen
12 July 1806
Note that many of these upgraded their title when they joined.
Articles 13-25 of the Treaty of the Confederation of the Rhine described
in detail the territorial exchanges between the states which joined the
Confederation, and annexations by the member states of the territories
of the Princes and Counts who did not join. The Princes and Counts
whose territories were annexed, and who were thus mediatized on 12 July
1806, under the terms of Articles 13-25 of the Treaty of the Confederation
of the Rhine, were:
Prince of Auersperg
Duke of Croy-Solre
Prince of Dietrichstein
Prince of Esterhazy
Prince of Fuerstenberg
Princes/Counts of Fugger
Princes of Hohenlohe (7
branches in all)
Prince/Count of Leiningen
Prince of Lobkowicz
Princes/Counts of Loewenstein-Wertheim
Duke of Looz-Corswarem
Prince of Metternich
Prince of Nassau-Orange
(Dillenburg, Siegen, etc.)
Princes of Oettingen
Prince of Salm-Reifferscheidt
Prince of Sinzendorf
Princes/Counts of Solms
Prince of Thurn und Taxis
Princes/Counts of Truchsess-Waldburg
Prince of Wied
Count of Aspremont
Count of Bassenheim
Count of Bentheim-Steinfurt
Count of Castell
Count of Erbach
Count of Hatzfeld
Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg
Counts of Isenburg
Count of Koenegsegg-Aulendorf
Count of Limburg
Count of Nostitz
Count of Ostein
Count of Plettenberg
Count of Quadt
Count of Rechteren-Limpurg
Count of Salm-Horstmar
Counts of Sayn-Wittgenstein
Count of Schaesberg
Count of Schoenborn
Count of Stadion
Count of Sternberg
Count of Toerring
Count of Traun
Count of Wallmoden
Count of Wartenberg
Baron of Boemelburg
Baron of Riedesel
Baron of Wendt
Prince of Anhalt as Count
of Holzapfel
Prince of Stolberg-Gedern
as Count of Koenigstein
The Knights of the Empire
in Franconia
The Knights of the Empire
in Suabia
The Knights of the Empire
in Westphalia
It should be noted that these were the Princes and Counts who had immediate
fiefs which were mediatized by the annexations described in Articles 13-25
of the Treaty of the Confederation of the Rhine. Some of these Princes
and Counts had a seat and a vote in the Council of Princes (before or after
the 1803 reorganization of the Imperial Diet), and some of these Princes
and Counts had a seat and a vote in one of the Councils of the Counts of
the Empire, and some of them had neither
seats nor votes. Mediatization of a fief refers only to the degrading
of the immediacy of that fief, and does not imply anything else about the
holder of the fief. Note also that mediatization under the
Confederation of the Rhine is slightly different from mediatization
under the Empire, because of the levels of feudal alliance involved.
On 1 August 1806, ten states (Bavaria, Wuerttemberg, the Arch-Chancellor,
Baden, Hesse-Darmstadt, Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, Hohenzollern-Hechingen,
Salm-Salm, Salm-Kyrburg, and Isenburg) presented a note to the Imperial
Diet stating that they were seceeding from the Empire and the Diet.
Two weeks later Arenberg, von der Leyen, Nassau-Usingen and Nassau-Weilburg
were added to the note, but by then the Emperor had abdicated and the Empire
dissolved (6 August 1806).
More states joined the Confederation:
Grand Duke of Wuerzburg
Lorraine-Tuscany 25 Sept 1806
King of Saxony
Wettin 11 Dec
1806
Duke of Saxe-Weimar
Wettin 15 Dec
1806
Duke of Saxe-Gotha
Wettin 15 Dec
1806
Duke of Saxe-Meiningen
Wettin 15 Dec
1806
Duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen
Wettin 15 Dec
1806
Duke of Saxe-Coburg
Wettin 15 Dec
1806
P of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt
Schwarzburg 18 Apr 1807
P of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen Schwarzburg
18 Apr 1807
Duke of Anhalt-Bernburg
Anhalt 18 Apr
1807
Duke of Anhalt-Dessau
Anhalt 18 Apr
1807
Duke of Anhalt-Koethen
Anhalt 18 Apr
1807
Prince of Lippe-Detmold
Lippe
18 Apr 1807
Prince of Schaumburg-Lippe
Lippe
18 Apr 1807
Prince of Waldeck
Waldeck 18 Apr 1807
Prince of Reuss-Greiz
Reuss
18 Apr 1807
Prince of Reuss-Schleiz
Reuss
18 Apr 1807
Prince of Reuss-Lobenstein
Reuss
18 Apr 1807
Prince of Reuss-Ebersdorf
Reuss
18 Apr 1807
King of Westphalia
Bonaparte 7 Dec 1807
Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
Mecklenburg 18 Feb 1808
Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
Mecklenburg 22 Mar 1808
Duke of Oldenburg
Oldenburg 14 Oct 1808
Grand Duke of Cleves and Berg
Bonaparte 3 March 1809
(Murat had abdicated on
1 Aug 1808)
The details of the activities of the Confederation of the Rhine can
fill several books and need not concern us here, except that Napoleon's
military demands constantly increased. Napoleon at least maintained
the appearance of legality in his dealings with the states of the Confederation,
until 13 December 1810 when he, without pretext, incorporated the Duchy
of Oldenburg, the Duchy of Arenberg, the Principalities of Salm-Salm and
Salm-Kyrburg, and large parts of the Grand Duchy of Cleves and Berg, of
the former Electorate of Hanover, and of the Kingdom of Westphalia, into
France. This followed his swallowing of Holland (9 July 1810).
The 13 December 1810 action was later cited by Alexander I of Russia (brother-in-law
of the Duke of Oldenburg) as one of the reasons why he (Alexander I) joined
the Great Coalition against Napoleon.
The Confederation started unravelling after the Treaty of Kalisch (28
February 1813), which provided that the Confederation should be dissolved
after an Allied victory. The Mecklenburg Dukes promptly quit the
Confederation and joined the Allies, followed by the Anhalt Dukes
and most of the rest. Among the last to leave were the Princes
of Hohenzollern on 24 November 1813, leaving behind the King of Saxony,
the Grand Duke of Frankfurt, Prince von der Leyen, and the Prince of Isenburg,
but by then the Confederation of the Rhine was effectively dead.
The Congress of Vienna was charged with bringing some sort of order
to Europe after the fall and exile of Napoleon. Again the details
of the negotiations need not concern us, but one result was the German
Federal Act [Deutschen Bundesakte] of 8 June 1815, which dealt with the
Mediatized houses in Article 14. In this, the Mediatized Houses were
counted among the higest nobility with the right of equality with the reigning
houses [Ebenbuertigkeit], the Heads of the Mediatized Houses
were the first vassals [Standesherren] of those states in which their
former territories were located, they were exempt from military service,
given civil and penal jurisdiction at the lowest level, etc.,
but always within the framework of the laws of the new state and under
the supervision of the government of the new state. Many of the Mediatized
Houses protested violently against the terms of this Article, but they
were powerless to prevent it. At no point, though, did the Congress
of Vienna decide exactly *which* Houses had been mediatized, and thus deserving
of these higher privileges, leaving that up to the discretion of the individual
states.
The astute reader may have noticed that the lists of those Houses which
had a seat and vote in the Council of Princes of the Imperial Diet both
before and after the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss, and the lists of those
Houses which either joined the Confederation of the Rhine, or whose territories
were mediatized by the Treaty of the Confederation of the Rhine, bear little
or no relation to the list of families we usually refer to as "Mediatized".
There's an explanation for this, though perhaps not a reason.
After the Congress of Vienna, Europe settled down. The sovereign
states in the area which used to be the Holy Roman Empire were the states
that are familiar to us:
Empire of Austria
Kingdom of Bavaria
Kingdom of Hanover
Kingdom of Prussia
Kingdom of Saxony
Kingdom of Wuerttemberg
Duchy of Anhalt-Dessau
Duchy of Anhalt-Bernburg
Duchy of Anhalt-Koethen
Grand Duchy of Baden
Duchy of Brunswick
Electorate of Hesse
Grand Duchy of Hesse and
by Rhine
Principality of Hohenzollern-Hechingen
Principality of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen
Principality of Liechtenstein
Principality of Lippe-Detmold
Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
Principality of Nassau-Usingen
Principality of Nassau-Weilburg
Grand Duchy of Oldenburg
Principality of Reuss-Greiz
Principality of Reuss-Schleiz
Principality of Reuss-Lobenstein
Principality of Reuss-Ebersdorf
Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
Duchy of Saxe-Gotha
Duchy of Saxe-Meiningen
Duchy of Saxe-Hildburghausen
(later Saxe-Altenburg)
Duchy of Saxe-Saalfeld-Coburg
Principality of Schaumburg-Lippe
Principality of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen
Principality of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt
Principality of Waldeck-Pyrmont
Several of these states acknowledged various Standesherren among the
nobility in their country, under the terms of Article 14 of the Deutsches
Bundesakte, and on 18 August 1825, the German Diet recognized the predicate
of "Most Serene Highness" [Durchlaucht] for the Heads of the princely Houses
that were recognized as Standesherren, and later on 13 February 1829 the
Diet recognized the predicate of "Most Illustrious Highness" [Erlaucht]
for the Heads of the countly Houses that were recognized as Standesherren.
Note that the Standesherren were the highest nobility in their countries,
and that these predicates of "Durchlaucht" and "Erlaucht" denoted nothing
more than social status within and among these
countries. The *Almanach de Gotha*, an annual publication, which
up until the 1835 edition had divided its genealogical pages into two Parts,
Part I showing the Sovereign houses and Part II showing the non-sovereign
Princely houses, added a Part III starting in its 1836 issue. This Part
III, "Maisons Princieres et Comtales", listed those Princes and Counts
who had been recognized as Standesherren, with the predicates of "Durchlaucht"
and "Erlaucht", and the states in which the
Standesherren had been recognized:
Princes ("Durchlaucht" as of 18 August 1825):
Arenberg (Austria, Prussia,
Hanover)
Auersperg (Austria)
Bentheim-Bentheim (Austria,
Prussia, Hanover)
Bentheim-Steinfurt (Austria,
Prussia, Hanover)
Bentheim-Tecklenburg-Rheda
(Austria, Prussia, Hanover)
Colloredo-Mannsfeld (Austria,
Wuerttemberg)
Croy-Dulmen (Austria, Prussia)
Dietrichstein (Austria,
Wuerttemberg)
Esterhazy v Galantha (Austria,
Bavaria)
Fuerstenberg (Austria, Wuerttemberg,
Baden, Hohenzollern-
Sigmaringen)
Fugger-Babenhausen (Austria,
Bavaria)
Hohenlohe-Langenburg (Austria,
Wuerttemberg)
Hohenlohe-Oehringen (Austria,
Wuerttemberg)
Hohenlohe-Kirchberg (Austria,
Wuerttemberg)
Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Bartenstein
(Austria, Wuerttemberg)
Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Bartenstein-Jagstberg
(Austria,
Wuerttemberg)
Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfuerst
(Austria, Bavaria,
Wuerttemberg)
Isenburg-Birstein (Austria,
Electoral Hesse, Grand Duchy of
Hesse)
Kaunitz-Rietberg (Austria,
Prussia)
Khevenhuller-Metsch (Austria)
Leiningen (Austria, Bavaria,
Baden, Grand Duchy of Hesse)
Leyen (Austria, Baden)
Lobkowicz (Austria)
Loewenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg
(Austria, Bavaria,
Wuerttemberg, Baden, Grand Duchy of Hesse)
Loewenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg
(Austria, Bavaria,
Wuerttemberg, Baden, Grand Duchy of Hesse)
Looz-Corswarem (Austria,
Prussia, Hanover)
Metternich (Austria)
Oettingen-Spielberg (Austria,
Bavaria, Wuerttemberg)
Oettingen-Wallerstein (Austria,
Bavaria, Wuerttemberg)
Rosenberg (Austria)
Salm-Salm (Austria, Prussia)
Salm-Kyrburg (Austria, Prussia)
Salm-Horstmar (Austria,
Prussia)
Salm-Reifferscheidt-Krautheim
(Austria, Baden)
Salm-Reifferscheidt-Raitz
(Austria)
Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg
(Austria, Prussia)
Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein
(Austria, Prussia, Wuerttemberg)
Schoenburg-Waldenburg (Austria,
Kingdom of Saxony)
Schoenburg-Hartenstein (Austria,
Kingdom of Saxony)
Schwarzenberg (Austria,
Bavaria, Wuerttemberg)
Solms-Braunfels (Austria,
Prussia, Wuerttemberg, Grand Duchy od
Hesse)
Solms-Lich (Austria, Prussia,
Wuerttemberg, Grand Duchy od
Hesse)
Starhemberg (Austria)
Thurn und Taxis (Austria,
Bavaria, Wuerttemberg, Hohenzollern-
Sigmaringen)
Trauttmansdorff (Austria)
Waldburg-Wolfegg-Waldsee
(Austria, Wuerttemberg)
Waldburg-Zeil-Trauchburg
(Austria, Bavaria, Wuerttemberg)
Waldburg-Zeil-Wurzach (Austria,
Bavaria, Wuerttemberg)
Wied (Austria, Prussia,
Nassau)
Windisch-Graetz (Austria,
Wuerttemberg)
Counts ("Erlaucht" as of 13 February 1829):
Castell-Remlingen (Bavaria)
Castell-Rudenhausen (Bavaria)
Erbach-Erbach (Bavaria,
Wuerttemberg, Grand Duchy of Hesse)
Erbach-Wartenberg-Roth (Bavaria,
Wuerttemberg, Grand Duchy of
Hesse)
Fugger-Kirchberg-Weissenhorn
(Wuerttemberg)
Fugger-Gloett (Bavaria)
Fugger-Kirchheim (Bavaria)
Fugger-Nordendorf (Bavaria,
Wuerttemberg)
Giech (Bavaria)
Goertz, Schlitz gennant
von (Grand Duchy of Hesse)
Harrach (Austria)
Isenburg-Philippseich (Grand
Duchy of Hesse)
Isenburg-Buedingen (Electoral
Hesse, Grand Duchy of Hesse)
Isenburg-Buedingen-Meerholz
(Wuerttemberg, Electoral Hesse,
Grand Duchy of Hesse)
Koenigsegg-Aulendorf (Wuerttemberg)
Kuefstein (Austria)
Leiningen-Billigheim (Baden)
Leiningen-Neudenau (Baden)
Leiningen-Alt-Westerburg
(Grand Duchy of Hesse)
Leiningen-Neu-Westerburg
(Nassau)
Neipperg (Wuerttemberg)
Ortenburg (Bavaria)
Pappenheim (Bavaria)
Platen-Hallermund (Hanover)
Plettenberg-Mietingen (Wuerttemberg)
Pueckler-Limpurg (Wuerttemberg)
Quadt-Isny (Wuerttemberg)
Rechberg (Wuerttemberg)
Rechteren-Limpurg (Bavaria)
Schaesberg-Thannheim (Wuerttemberg)
Schoenborn-Wiesentheid (Bavaria)
Schoenborn-Buchheim (Austria,
Bavaria)
Schoenburg-Hinterglauchau
(Kingdom of Saxony)
Schoenburg-Rochsburg (Kingdom
of Saxony)
Schoenburg-Wechselburg (Kingdom
of Saxony)
Solms-Laubach (Grand Duchy
of Hesse)
Solms-Roedelheim (Electoral
Hesse, Grand Duchy of Hesse)
Solms-Wildenfels (Grand
Duchy of Hesse)
Stadion (Austria, Wuerttemberg)
Stadion-Thannhausen (Bavaria)
Sternberg-Manderscheid (Austria,
Wuerttemberg)
Stolberg-Wernigerode (Prussia,
Hanover, Grand Duchy of Hesse)
Stolberg-Stolberg (Prussia,
Hanover)
Stolberg-Rossla (Prussia,
Grand Duchy of Hesse)
Toerring Gutenzell (Wuerttemberg)
Waldbott-Bassenheim (Wuerttemberg,
Bavaria, Nassau)
Waldeck-Pyrmont (Wuerttemberg)
Wallmoden-Gimborn (Mecklenburg)
Wurmbrand (Austria)
The list of Houses the German Diet considered to have been Mediatized
seems fairly odd when compared to historical events (mentioned above) in
the Holy Roman Empire and in the Confederation of the Rhine, but since
the decisions as to which Prince or Count was to be recognized as a Standesherr
was left up to the individual states, there was no reason to for the states
to be overly concerned about what had happened before. The major
change for these mediatized houses was that they now had a new predicate
(Durchlaucht or Erlaucht) by which they should be addressed. Even
these honors were lightly given, as on 12 June 1845 the German Diet extended
the recognition of "Erlaucht" to the Count of Bentinck, who was not even
a Standesherr in any of the German States (though Oldenburg later made
the Count of Bentinck a Standesherr).
These divisions of genealogical section of the *Almanach de Gotha* (Part
I the Sovereign houses, Part II the non-Sovereign Princely houses including
those Standesherren who were Princes, and Part III the Standesherren Counts
of the German States) continued until the Franco-Prussian War and the King
of Prussia naming himself "Emperor of Germany" (1871). A pan-German
triumphalism appeared in the German states, and the editors of the *Almanach
de Gotha* followed along. In a fairly nasty bit of Germanic chauvinism,
the 1876 *Almanach de Gotha* combined Parts II and III into a single Part
II.
In the Preface of the 1876 edition, the editors claim that their reason
for doing this was that some of the houses in Part III belonged to the
same dynasty as some of the houses in Part II (no examples were given in
the Preface, though Fugger, Isenburg, and Leiningen are good examples),
and they thought it would be easier for the reader to deal with these houses
when they were combined into a single list. This was bad enough (insinuating
that a higher-ranking noblemen in a small German state, such as the Counts
of Goertz or the Counts of Pappenheim, were in some way comparable to the
Princes of Rohan or the Princes Kinsky or the Princes of Chigi-Albani),
but what happened with the next edition was worse.
In the 1877 *Almanach de Gotha*, the new Part II was divided into two
sub-Parts, A and B. Part II A was for the mediatized German nobles,
and Part II B was for the other German Princes and the non-German Princes.
The criteria used for inclusion in Part II A were listed on page 90 of
the 1877 edition, and were solely the decisions of the German Diet on 18
August 1825, 13 February 1829, and 12 June 1845 mentioned above about the
Durchlaucht and Erlaucht predicates. This
means that, according to the editors of the *Almanach de Gotha*, the
Counts of Goertz and the Counts of Pappenheim were not just comparable
to the Princes of Rohan or the Princes Kinsky or the Princes of Chigi-Albani,
they were superior.
The 1890 edition changed the name of Part II A to Part II, and the name
of Part II B to Part III, but other than that there has been no alteration
in the structure of either the *Almanach de Gotha* or its successor, the
"Genealogisches Handbuch der Fuerstlichen Haeuser" sub-series of the "Genealogisches
Handbuch des Adels".
A case could be made that the Reichsstanden of the Holy Roman Empire,
that is, those Princes who held a seat and vote in the Imperial Diet (at
least those who held a seat and vote before the non-lawful reorganization
of the Diet in 1803) could be considered to have had some level of Sovereignty,
or even co-Sovereignty, under the suzerainty of the Emperor, but the assertions
of the *Almanach de Gotha* are, at best, ludicrous. What's impressive,
though, is the number of other
genealogical works, such as *Burke's Royal Families of the World*,
vol. I, pp. 547-557, which uncritically accept the opinions of the editors
of the *Almanach de Gotha* as being in any way representative of the historical
record.
One last quote from Prince Arenberg's dissertation (pp. 203-205):
All the Princes of the Holy
Roman Empire, except the Emperor,
the Elector of Brandenburg in his capacity
as King of Prussia, the
Elector of Hanover in his capacity as King
of England and a few
other Princes in similar positions, were not
full-fledged
sovereigns because they recognized the suzerainty
of the Empire
over their territories. The personification
of this suzerainty
was the Emperor, who was for his own hereditary
territories
Sovereign and Suzerain at the same time.
But this situation
changed with the establishment of the Confederation
of the Rhine.
The Sovereigns of the Confederation announced
their succession
from the Empire and assumption of full sovereignty.
That act, in
itself, could of course never constitute a
legal termination of
the Suzerainty of the Emperor. But Francis
II, in his
proclamation of August 6, 1806, abdicated
for himself and for his
descendants, released the officials of the
Empire from their oath
and effectuated the dissolution of the Holy
Roman Empire. The
position of the Emperor had legally never
been that of a
hereditary monarch. The imperial dignity
was elective, and,
therefore, contingent upon a sort of contract
between the
Electoral States of the Empire and one particular
State to whom
they wished to transfer the supreme authority.
With much more
justice than in the case of the German Empire
as created by
Bismarck, one can say of the Holy Roman Empire
that it was a
republic of Princes with one of them as elected
chairman. The
Sovereigns of the Confederation of the Rhine
constituted a
minority of the total number of the States
of the Empire, and
their secession, therefore, could not become
legal until the
elected chairman agreed to bring about the
end of the whole
system. But once this was done, the
Princes of the Confederation
became independent in virtue of both their
own act and of the
renunciation of their legal Suzerain.
Whether in the future someone will publish a genealogical handbook of
those families which were fully Sovereign, and including (or not) the Reichsstanden
(the Imperial States), and including (or not) the Houses which were allegedly
promoted by the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss, and
including (or not) the states which joined the Confederation of the
Rhine, in other words a genealogical handbook whose criteria for inclusion
is something closer to historical accuracy than the social-precedence whims
of the German Diet or the belligerent nationalism of a nineteenth-century
publisher is, of course, beyond the scope of this paper.
William Addams Reitwiesner
January 1998
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