Mediatization in Germany (1803-15)

• Introduction
• Secularization and mediatization in 1803
1. Princes of the Empire
2. Secularization of the Prelates Bench
3. New territories in the counts' benches
4. Mediatization of Imperial Cities
• Mediatization 1806-15
• The Treaty of 1806
  
• Princes
• Counts
  
• After 1815: Standesherren in 19th c.
• list of Standesherren (Gollwicker)
  
• fürstliche
• gräfliche
• Treaties

Introduction

Secularization and mediatization in 1803

Of those who were immediate in the Empire, some became sovereign; the others became subjects of someone else: they were mediatized.

Most mediatizations took place in July 1806 as a consequence of the formation of the Confederation of the Rhine.  Within the area covered by the Confederation, those who became full-fledged members of the Confederation became full-fledged members of the international community as sovereign entities.  A few other mediatizations were carried out by Napoleon between 1806 and 1813, and were not reversed by the Congress of Vienna.

The exact process of mediatization was delineated by articles 25-33 of the treaty founding the Confederation. Although the mediatized families did not acquire sovereignty and lost some of their powers (legislation, final jurisdiction, control over police and military conscription, right to levy taxes), they kept their private estates and feudal rights, including lower jurisdiction in civil and criminal cases, jurisdiction over local policing, forests, hunting and fishing rights, mining rights, etc. Mediatized princes continued to be subject to a special jurisdiction in criminal matters, their estates were free from confiscation, and some of their liabilities were taken over by their new sovereigns. They were free to settle anywhere within the territory of the Confederation.

Over the course of the 19th c. the term mediatized families began to slide. The reason is that the act founding the German Confederation (8 June 1815) defined special privileges for members of the mediatized families, in a manner reminiscent of what the Confederation of the Rhine had done. But it left it to the individual members of the Federation to decide who was a mediatized family among its subject, and drew a list of princely families (in 1825) and comital families (in 1829) to whom this status had been recognized. These families became the ones included in the Gotha and are known as standesherrliche. Because of this process, there is some degree of discrepancy between the upper nobility of the Holy Roman Empire and that of 19th century Germany.

1. Princes of the Empire

1. The first column lists the composition in 1792 (based on Pütter; the order of precedence is as in Beck 1755, with spiritual and temporal princes alternating).
• a name in italics indicates a state lost to France in 1801.
  
2. The second column lists the composition in 1803 as proposed by the Reichsdeputations-Hauptschluß.  The order of precedence in the Hauptschluß is slightly different from the earlier one.
   
• a name in bold indicates a new state.
• a number in italics between parentheses gives the ranking for that state in column 1.
• a date between brackets is the date of induction into the Reichstag.
  
3. The third column indicates the possessor of the seat in 1803, after the changes proposed by the Hauptschluß.
• an underlined name indicates a change of ownership in 1803.
  
4. The fourth column indicates when the state was mediatized after 1803.
   

2. Secularization of the Prelates Bench

1. The first column lists the original members of the prelates' benches.
   
• Italics indicate a territory that was lost to France in 1801.
2. The second column lists subdivisions when the original territory was divided between new owners.
3. The third column indicates the new owner of the secularized territory.
4. The fourth column names the territory lost to France for which the new owner was being compensated.
   

3. Changes in the counts' benches

where is Reifferscheid?

4. Mediatization of Imperial Cities

Mediatization in 1806-15

Mediatization in the Treaty of Paris, July 1806

Princes

Counts

1. The first column lists the families
2. The second column indicates:
• The date of title, i.e. the year in which the title of Reichsgraf or Reichsfürst was conferred. 
• The date of admission, i.e. when the family was admitted to the counts' bench and became effectively reichsständisch.  "A" means altfürstlich or altgräflich, a date of admission prior to 1582. 
3. The third column indicates the bench to which the family belonged.  The abbreviations of names of benches are as follows:
• Wt = Wetterau
• S = Swabia
• F = Franconia
• W =  Westphalia
4. The fourth column names the territories possessed by the family (when they differ from the family name)
   
• "P" indicates that the seat was held personaliter.
5. The fifth column indicates whether a new title or territory was acquired (in 1803, unless otherwise specified).
6. The last column indicates in which sovereign state the family was mediatized.

The 19th c. Standesherren

• the list of princely families whose heads received the title of Durchlaucht (by application of the Bundesbeschluß 18 Aug 1825) and of comital families whose heads received the title of Erlaucht (by application of the Bundesbeschluß 13 Feb 1829), as given in Meyer & Zoepfl: Corpus Iuris Confoederationis Germanicae. vol. 2, p. 177-78, 211-12. 1859.
  
  Meyer and Zoepfl cite the lists provided to the Diet by
  
• Austria (Protokollen, 1829, p. 57, 341; 1830, p. 530)
  
• Baden (1829, p. 64)
  
• electoral Hesse (1829, p. 108)
  
• Nassau (1829, p. 109)
  
• Saxony (1829, p. 128)
  
• Hesse-Darmstadt (1829, p. 128, 340)
  
• Bavaria (1829, p. 382; 1831, p. 631)
  
• Württemberg (1829, p. 407-08)
  
• Prussia (1829, p. 425-26)
  
• Hannover (1829, p. 548-49)
  
• Mecklenburg (1830, p. 1103).
  
  
• the list of princely and comital families entitled to the styles of Durchlauchtand Erlaucht, as given in the Almanach de Gotha (e.g., ed. 1833, p. 107).  This list also provides the names of the states who declared each family to the German Diet.
• the list of Standesherren in Gollwicker's book
• the article by Conrad Bornhak (1913):  'Die einzelnen mediatisierbaren Hauser.' Archiv des offentlichen Rechts 31(4):457-487.