NAPOLEON AND MEDIATISATION
We see now that the rates of Napoleon’s reformatting of the European feuds more likely reflect some kind of collector activity, rather than military one, and mediatisation of the Holy Roman Empire (HRE) looks like organic part of the all-European process. HRE and France were not at war in fact, but discussed the mediatisation order, and Franz II was not against reformatting of territories, he even initiated it from time to time. It was not war, it was “Perestroika”.
THE CORE OF MEDIATISATION
Bavaria, Hessen-Kassel and Württemberg grasped enclaves with the help delivery-transfer edicts (Abtretungs — und Überweisungspatenten); the Network shows similar combinations of terms in the chapters of the Roman law concerning loan business.
The imperial knights, holding imperial fees and swearing to the Emperor an oath, were not able to oppose to the shown papers, and around formally imperial 300 armies were quickly re-subordinated (Rittersturm).
Details of HRE mediatisation are identical to those, which occurred in the feudal society in case of annexation: the name (mediatisation) was the same, the titles remained as well. Sometimes mediatized lands are called annexed ones.
The Habsburgers’ vassals became the vassals of some other sovereigns (English Wikipedia) that specifies the transition of the key rights from the Habsburgers to other families.
The HRE Emperor lost the direct power over 90 % of his vassals, but during 3 years, he kept his nominal status. It deprived HRE of financial receipts, but left for the Emperor the right to sign, giving to acts of ownerships transfer the legitimate character.
MEDIATISATION ANALOGUE
Partial analogue of mediatisation is transfer of objects of the Union submission to the republics. The president of the USSR remained on his post for a long time after the announcement of sovereignties, legitimizing with his signature the acts of the USSR property transfer.
MEDIATISATION AND SECULARIZATION
Mediatisation in HRE coincides in time, circumstances and essence of procedures with secularization in HRE. Synchronously with the Empire loss of its positions, the positions of the mediatized territories were also lost by the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) that allows assuming that HRE and RCC acted within the limits of the uniform management technology.
Partial secularization analogue is the withdrawal of the CPSU property when the Party objects were transferred to municipalities in an organized way, under the exact sent down regulations.
Now – there are some notes.
HRE LEGAL BASE
The basis of the state system and principles of the Sacred Roman Empire functioning were unwritten legal customs, that is, common law, matriarchal truth of the Salic type. For this reason, matriculus was called matriculus, but not patriculus. Pay attention, the common law (so, typical matriarchy as well) on the HRE territory remained in force, at least, until 1806, and its abolishment in 1848 seems quite natural.
ABOUT IMPERIAL ESTATES
The necessary condition for obtaining the status of the imperial estate and the voting right in Reichstag of the Sacred Roman Empire was the ownership of certain imperial fee. Here again there comes a question: what status those landowners had who possessed their own lands, but not granted for service imperial fees? The history of HRE break does not show the destiny of these independent landowners. It is the right occasion to remember a hypothesis of two kinds of power — native land aristocratic one and holding cities alien duke and merchant type, which imperial estates presented in fact. Mediatisation was the result of bankruptcy of the duke and merchant power – and not necessary for the benefit of the land aristocracy.
ABOUT MATRICULUS
Principles of distribution of financial obligations, and the skeleton of the subject composition of the Empire established by the Wormser matriculus in 1521 remained invariable until the end of existence of the Sacred Roman Empire. That is, till 1806.
I will remind here that according to matriculus of 1521 all armed forces of the Sacred Roman Empire consisted of 4001 horsemen and 19958 infantrymen. In proportion to the population of those territories of the beginning of the 16 century, it was just 0.2 % — in conditions of absence of scientific and technological revolution, the country was not able to support a more numerous army even in the 19 century.
ABOUT SYNCHRONOUS EVENTS
The basis of HRE power were silver mines of Hungary and Slovakia. In 1785-1815 earthquakes and plague epidemics were basically fixed in these regions. Attempts to find any notions of economic activities in Hungary and Slovakia during those 30 years had no success. I will also remind here, that Slovak Wikipedia for July 10th, 2019 still had not generated any section devoted to the history of the country in the 19 century. All mentions about silver in Austria disappeared in 1797 when money were not exchanged for silver any more, and appeared in 1812 when the currency of Austria went down in price 216 times at first, and then — 388 times.
THE BASIC CONCLUSIONS
German mediatisation was an organic part of so-called “Napoleonic wars” as certain all-European process of satisfaction of creditors’ interests following the results of the whole series of scale sovereign defaults of the largest European countries. Rotation of the rights to the lands and the population means that the feudal rights to those lands and to that population were in the pledge, which got on sale during realization of that pledge.
July 12, 2019 <https://scan1707.blogspot.com/2019/07/1803-1806.html>
Translated by Berenkova Violetta Michailovna