Imperial Count
Encyclopedia
Imperial Count was a title in the Holy Roman Empire
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...

. On the one hand, it was used to designate the holders of a imperial county
County
A county is a jurisdiction of local government in certain modern nations. Historically in mainland Europe, the original French term, comté, and its equivalents in other languages denoted a jurisdiction under the sovereignty of a count A county is a jurisdiction of local government in certain...

, that is, a county that was a fief directly from the emperor, rather than from a duke; on the other hand, the owner of the title of "Count" could be elevated to "Imperial Count" by the emperor. This title would be valid in the entire empire.

Imperial count as a holder of a direct imperial fief

The holder of a County
County
A county is a jurisdiction of local government in certain modern nations. Historically in mainland Europe, the original French term, comté, and its equivalents in other languages denoted a jurisdiction under the sovereignty of a count A county is a jurisdiction of local government in certain...

 held directly from the Emperor
Holy Roman Emperor
The Holy Roman Emperor is a term used by historians to denote a medieval ruler who, as German King, had also received the title of "Emperor of the Romans" from the Pope...

, which was therefore not subject to any other secular authority, was called an immediate  Count. This particular political position was formed in the Middle Ages and lasted until the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire of German Nation in 1806.

Origins

In the Merovingian and Franconian Empire, a ("Count") was a royal official who exercised exercised the royal prerogatives in an administrative district ( or County) or who was the representative of the King or Emperor in a certain area (a march, royal castle, imperial palace
Kaiserpfalz
The term Kaiserpfalz or Königspfalz refers to a number of castles across the Holy Roman Empire which served as temporary, secondary seats of power for the Holy Roman Emperor in the Early and High Middle Ages...

 or royal estate). Originally the counts were ministerialis
Ministerialis
Ministerialis ; a post-classical Latin word, used in English, meaning originally servitor, agent, in a broad range of senses...

 ("service nobility"), but under the Ottonian
Ottonian
The Ottonian dynasty was a dynasty of Germanic Kings , named after its first emperor but also known as the Saxon dynasty after the family's origin. The family itself is also sometimes known as the Liudolfings, after its earliest known member Liudolf and one of its primary leading-names...

 emperors, the title became hereditary and the feudal system was gradually integrated with the hereditary nobility. A count who held his fief directly from the Emperor was an immediate Count and had a seat and a vote in the Imperial Diet
Reichstag (Holy Roman Empire)
The Imperial Diet was the Diet, or general assembly, of the Imperial Estates of the Holy Roman Empire.During the period of the Empire, which lasted formally until 1806, the Diet was not a parliament in today's sense; instead, it was an assembly of the various estates of the realm...

.

Power and political role

A seat and a full vote in the Imperial Diet
Reichstag (Holy Roman Empire)
The Imperial Diet was the Diet, or general assembly, of the Imperial Estates of the Holy Roman Empire.During the period of the Empire, which lasted formally until 1806, the Diet was not a parliament in today's sense; instead, it was an assembly of the various estates of the realm...

 made a count "immediate" and a member of the highest estate. In 1521, there were 144 imperial counts; in 1792 only 99 were left. Reasons for this decrease include elevations to a higher title, extinction of the male line, and territories being mediatized by more powerful imperial princes. Imperial counties were most numerous in Swabia
Swabia
Swabia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany.-Geography:Like many cultural regions of Europe, Swabia's borders are not clearly defined...

 and Franconia
Franconia
Franconia is a region of Germany comprising the northern parts of the modern state of Bavaria, a small part of southern Thuringia, and a region in northeastern Baden-Württemberg called Tauberfranken...

, and also in the north-western part of the empire.

In order to further their political interests more effectively and to preserve their independence, the Imperial Counts organized "colleges" (associations) and held ("count diets"). In the Imperial Diet
Reichstag (Holy Roman Empire)
The Imperial Diet was the Diet, or general assembly, of the Imperial Estates of the Holy Roman Empire.During the period of the Empire, which lasted formally until 1806, the Diet was not a parliament in today's sense; instead, it was an assembly of the various estates of the realm...

, starting in the 16th Century, and in particular in the Perpetual Diet (1663–1806), the imperial counts were grouped into "imperial count colleges" known as . Early in the 16th Century, such colleges were formed in Wetterau
Wetterau
The Wetterau is a fertile undulating tract, watered by the Wetter, a tributary of the Nidda River, in the western German state of Hesse, between the hilly province Oberhessen and the north-western Taunus mountains....

 and Swabia
Swabia
Swabia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany.-Geography:Like many cultural regions of Europe, Swabia's borders are not clearly defined...

. The Franconian college was created in 1640, the Westphalian college in 1653.
In 1792, there were four imperial count colleges:
  1. the Lower Rhenish-Westphalian College of Imperial Counts, with 33 members
  2. the Wetterau College of Imperial Counts, with 25 members
  3. the Swabian College of Imperial Counts, with 24 members
  4. the Franconian College of Imperial Counts, with 17 members

End of the imperial immediacy

In 1806, with the Confederation of the Rhine
Confederation of the Rhine
The Confederation of the Rhine was a confederation of client states of the First French Empire. It was formed initially from 16 German states by Napoleon after he defeated Austria's Francis II and Russia's Alexander I in the Battle of Austerlitz. The Treaty of Pressburg, in effect, led to the...

 Act and the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire of German Nation, all immediate counties were mediatized and annexed by neighbouring states.

At the Congress of Vienna
Congress of Vienna
The Congress of Vienna was a conference of ambassadors of European states chaired by Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, and held in Vienna from September, 1814 to June, 1815. The objective of the Congress was to settle the many issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars,...

, it was decided that the affected families would keep their noble title and their status as equal in rank to sovereign ruling families.

A few counties had been elevated to principalities by Napoléon Bonaparte. Most of these were mediatized by the Congress of Vienna; a few survived as principalities until 1918: Lippe
Lippe
Lippe is a Kreis in the east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Neighboring districts are Herford, Minden-Lübbecke, Höxter, Paderborn, Gütersloh, and district-free Bielefeld, which forms the region Ostwestfalen-Lippe....

, Schaumburg-Lippe
Schaumburg-Lippe
Schaumburg-Lippe was until 1946 a small state in Germany, located in the present day state of Lower Saxony, with its capital at Bückeburg.- History :...

, and Reuß
Reus
Reus is the capital of the comarca of Baix Camp, in the province of Tarragona, in Catalonia, Spain. The area has always been an important producer of wines and spirits, and gained continental importance at the time of the Phylloxera plague...

 (in several lines).

Imperial count as a holder of a title valid througout the Empire

Those counts who had received their title by patent from the Holy Roman Emperor
Holy Roman Emperor
The Holy Roman Emperor is a term used by historians to denote a medieval ruler who, as German King, had also received the title of "Emperor of the Romans" from the Pope...

 or an Imperial Vicar
Imperial vicar
An imperial vicar was a prince charged with administering all or part of the Holy Roman Empire on behalf of the Emperor. Later, an imperial vicar was invariably one of two princes charged by the Golden Bull with administering the Holy Roman Empire during an interregnum.The Holy Roman Empire had no...

 were also considered Imperial Counts. A title created by the Emperor was valid throughout the Empire and did not need acknowledgment by the imperial princes, unless stated otherwise in the patent.

A title granted by another sovereign was, in principle, only valid in the country ruled by that sovereign. An Elector of Brandenburg, for example, could only grant titles valid in his lands and territories. An Emperor from the House of Habsburg could either (in his capacity as Regent of the Habsburg hereditary lands) grant an Austrian title or (in his capacity as Emperor) an imperial title.

Titular imperial counts usually had no role in the ruling of the Empire, although there were exceptions. Sometimes, when a prince wished to marry a lady of lower rank and wanted to avoid a morganatic marriage
Morganatic marriage
In the context of European royalty, a morganatic marriage is a marriage between people of unequal social rank, which prevents the passage of the husband's titles and privileges to the wife and any children born of the marriage...

, the Emperor might be willing to elevate her to Imperial Countess, typically upon payment of a fee.
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