The Golden Bull of 1356

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Count Palatine of the Rhine, Duke Friedrich the Fair of Austria, Duke of Bavaria, Emperor Charles IV, Emperor Ludwig IV, Holy Roman Empire, House of Habsburg, House of Wittelsbach, Prince-Elector, The Golden Bull of 1356

The Golden Bull of 1356 was a decree issued by the Imperial Diet of the Holy Roman Empire at Nuremberg and Metz (Diet of Metz, 1356/57) headed by Emperor Charles IV which fixed, for a period of more than four hundred years, important aspects of the constitutional structure of the Holy Roman Empire. It was named the Golden Bull for the golden seal it carried.

Though the election of the King of the Romans by the chief ecclesiastical and secular princes of the Holy Roman Empire was well established, disagreements about the process and papal involvement had repeatedly resulted in controversies, most recently in 1314 when Ludwig IV of Bavaria and Friedrich of Austria had been elected by opposing sets of electors.

Ludwig, who had eventually subdued his rival’s claim on the battlefield, made a first attempt to clarify the process in the Declaration of Rhense of 1338, which renounced any papal involvement and had restricted the right to choose a new king to the Prince-Electors. The Golden Bull, promulgated by Ludwig’s s successor and rival, Charles IV, was more precise in several ways.

Prince-Electors

Firstly, the Bull explicitly named the seven Prince-Electors who were to choose the King and also defined the Reichserzämter, their (largely ceremonial) offices at court:

Secondly, the principle of majority voting was explicitly stated for the first time in the Empire. The Bull prescribed that four (out of seven) votes would always suffice to elect a new King; as a result, three Electors could no longer block the election. Thirdly, the Electoral principalities were declared indivisible, and succession to them was regulated to ensure that the votes would never be divided.

Finally, the Bull cemented a number of privileges for the Electors, confirming their elevated role in the Empire. It is therefore also a milestone in the establishment of largely independent states in the Empire, a process to be concluded only centuries later, notably with the Peace of Westphalia of 1648.

Codification of Prince-Electors, though largely based on precedence, was not uncontroversial, especially in regard to the two chief rivals of the ruling House of Luxembourg:

The House of Wittelsbach ruled the Duchy of Bavaria as well as the County Palatinate. Dynastic divisions had caused the two territories to devolve upon distinct branches of the house. The Treaty of Pavia, which in 1329 restored the Palatinate branch, stipulated that Bavaria and the Palatinate would alternate in future elections, but the Golden Bull fixed the electoral vote upon the Palatinate and not upon Bavaria, partly because Charles’s predecessor and rival Ludwig IV was of that branch.

Ludwig IV’s sons, Ludwig V and Stephan II of Bavaria, protested this omission, feeling that Bavaria, one of the original duchies of the realm and their family’s chief territory for over 170 years, deserved primacy over the Palatinate. The omission of Bavaria from the list of Prince-Electors also allowed Bavaria, which had only recently been reunited, to fall into dynastic fragmentation again.

Brandenburg was in the hands of the Bavarian Wittelsbachs (though held by a junior member of the house) in 1356; they eventually lost the territory to the Luxemburgs in 1373, leaving the Bavarian branch without representation in the electoral college until 1623.

The House of Habsburg, long-time rivals of the Luxembourgs, were completely omitted from the list of Prince-Electors, leading to decreased political influence and dynastic fragmentation. In retaliation, Duke Rudolph IV, one of the dukes of fragmented Austria, had the Privilegium Maius forged, a document supposedly issued by Emperor Friedrich I Barbarossa.

The document gave Austria – elevated to the position of an Archduchy – special privileges, including primogeniture. While ignored by the Emperor and other princes at the time, the document was eventually ratified when Friedrich of Austria himself became Emperor in the 15th century. Still, the Habsburgs remained without an electoral vote until they succeeded to the Kingdom of Bohemia in 1526.

Procedures

The bull regulated the whole election process in great detail, listing explicitly where, when, and under which circumstances what should be done by whom, not only for the prince-electors but also (for example) for the population of Frankfurt, where the elections were to be held, and also for the counts of the regions the prince-electors had to travel through to get there.

The decision to hold the elections in Frankfurt reflected a traditional feeling dating from days of the Kingdom of East Francia that both election and coronation ought to take place on Frankish soil. However, the election location was not the only specified location; the bull specified that the coronation would take place in Aachen, and Nuremberg would be the place where the first diet of a reign should be held. The elections were to be concluded within thirty days; failing that, the bull prescribed that the Prince-Electors were to receive only bread and water until they had decided.

Besides regulating the election process, the chapters of the Golden Bull contained many minor decrees. For instance, it also defined the order of marching when the Emperor was present, both with and without his insignia.

A relatively major decision was made in chapter 15, where Charles IV outlawed any conjurationes, confederationes, and conspirationes, meaning in particular the city alliances (Städtebünde), but also other communal leagues that had sprung up through the communal movement in mediaeval Europe. Most Städtebünde were subsequently dissolved, sometimes forcibly, and were re-founded, their political influence was much reduced. Thus the Golden Bull also strengthened the nobility in general to the detriment of the cities.

The pope’s involvement with the Golden Bull of 1356 was basically nonexistent, which was significant in the history of relations between the popes and the emperors. When Charles IV laid down procedure for electing a King of the Romans, he mentioned nothing about receiving papal confirmation of the election. However, Pope Innocent VI did not protest this because he needed Charles’s support against the Visconti. Pope Innocent continued to have good relations with Charles IV after the Golden Bull of 1356 until the former’s death in 1362.

Princess Elizabeth Stuart of England, Scotland and Ireland, Queen of Bohemia. Part II.

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Bavaria, Elizabeth Stuart, Frederick V of the Rhine, Holy Roman Empire, House of Wittelsbach, Prince-Elector, Princess of England, Scotland and Ireland

The man chosen for Elizabeth was Friedrich V, Count Palatine of the Rhine. Friedrich was of undeniably high lineage. His ancestors included the kings of Aragon and Sicily, the landgraves of Hesse, the dukes of Brabant and Saxony, and the counts of Nassau and Leuven. He and Elizabeth also shared a common ancestor in Henry II of England. He was “a senior Prince of the Empire” and a staunch defender of the Protestant faith.

Here is some background information on Friedrich and how the two became to be betrothed. He was an intellectual, a mystic, and a Calvinist. He was responsible for the construction of the famous Hortus Palatinus gardens in Heidelberg.

On September 19, 1610, Friedrich’s father, Friedrich IV, Prince-Elector of the Palatinate, died from “extravagant living”; his son being 14 years old at the time. Under the terms of the Golden Bull of 1356, Friedrich’s closest male relative would serve as his guardian and as regent of the Palatinate until Friedrich reached the age of majority.

However, his nearest male relative, Wolfgang Wilhelm, Count Palatine of Neuburg, was a Catholic, so, shortly before his death, Friedrich IV had named another Wittelsbach relative, Johann II, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken, as his son’s guardian. Friedrich V welcomed Johann to Heidelberg, whereas Wolfgang Wilhelm was denied entry. This led to a heated dispute among the princes of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1613, Matthias, Holy Roman Emperor intervened in the dispute, with the result being that Friedrich V was able to begin his personal rule in the Palatinate even though he was still underage.

Friedrich IV’s marriage policy had been designed to solidify the Palatinate’s position within the Reformed camp in Europe. Two of Friedrich V’s sisters were married to leading Protestant princes: his sister Luise Juliane to his one-time guardian Johann II, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken, and his sister Elizabeth Charlotte to Georg Wilhelm, Elector of Brandenburg. Friedrich IV had hoped that his daughter Katharina would marry the future Gustavus II Adolphus of Sweden, although this never came to pass.

In keeping with his father’s policy, Friedrich V sought a marriage to Elizabeth Stuart of England. James had initially considered marrying Elizabeth to Louis XIII of France, but these plans were rejected by his advisors. Friedrich’s advisors in the Palatinate were worried that if Elizabeth were married to a Catholic prince, this would upset the confessional balance of Europe, and they were thus resolved that she should marry Frederick V. Hans Meinhard von Schönberg, who had served as Frederick V’s Hofmeister since his return to Heidelberg, was sent to London to court the princess in spring 1612. After intense negotiations, a marriage contract was signed on May 26, 1612.

Courtship

Friedrich arrived in England on October 16, 1612, and the match seemed to please them both from the beginning. Their contemporaries noted how Friedrich seemed to “delight in nothing but her company and conversation”. Friedrich also struck up a friendship with Elizabeth’s elder brother, Prince Henry, which delighted his prospective bride immensely.

King James did not take into consideration the couple’s happiness, but saw the match as “one step in a larger process of achieving domestic and European concord”. The only person seemingly unhappy with the match was Elizabeth’s mother Queen Anne (born a princessof Denmark). As the daughter of a king, the sister of a king, the wife of a king, and the mother of a future king, Queen Anne also desired to be the mother of a queen. She is said to have been somewhat fond of Friedrich mild manner and generous nature but simply felt that he was of too low of stock.

On November 6, 1612 Henry, Prince of Wales, died. His death took an emotional toll on Elizabeth, and her new position as second in line to the throne made her an even more desirable match. Queen Anne and those like-minded who had “always considered Friedrich of the Rhine to be an unworthy match for her, were emboldened in their opposition”. Elizabeth stood by Friedrich, whom her brother had approved, and whom she found to have the sentiments of a fine gentleman. Above all, he was “regarded as the future head of the Protestant interest in Germany.

The wedding took place on February 14, 1613 at the royal chapel at the Palace of Whitehall and was a grand occasion that saw more royalty than ever visit the court of England. The marriage was an enormously popular match and was the occasion for an outpouring of public affection with the ceremony described as “a wonder of ceremonial and magnificence even for that extravagant age”.

It was celebrated with lavish and sophisticated festivities both in London and Heidelberg, including mass feasts and lavish furnishings that cost nearly £50,000, and nearly bankrupted King James. Among many celebratory writings of the events was John Donne’s “Epithalamion, Or Marriage Song on the Lady Elizabeth, and Count Palatine being married on St Valentine’s Day”. A contemporary author viewed the whole marriage as a prestigious event that saw England “lend her rarest gem, to enrich the Rhine”.

Electress Palatine

After almost a two-month stay in London for continued celebrations, the couple began their journey to join the Electoral court in Heidelberg. The journey was filled with meeting people, sampling foods and wines, and being entertained by a wide variety of performers and companies. At each place the young couple stopped, Elizabeth was expected to distribute presents. The cash to allow her to do so was not readily available, so she had to use one of her own jewels as collateral so that the goldsmith Abraham Harderet would “provide her with suitable presents on credit.

Her arrival in Heidelberg was seen as “the crowning achievement of a policy which tried to give the Palatinate a central place in international politics” and was long anticipated and welcomed. Elizabeth’s new husband transformed his seat at Heidelberg Castle, creating between 1610 and 1613 the Englischer Bau (i.e., English Building) for her, a monkey-house, a menagerie, and the beginnings of a new garden in the Italian Renaissance garden style popular in England at the time. The garden, the Hortus Palatinus, was constructed by Elizabeth’s former tutor, Salomon de Caus. It was dubbed the “Eighth Wonder of the World” by contemporaries.

Although Elizabeth and Friedrich were considered to be genuinely in love and remained a romantic couple throughout the course of their marriage, problems already had begun to arise. Before the couple had left England, King James had made Friedrich promise that Elizabeth “would take precedence over his mother, of Louise Juliana of Orange-Nassau, the daughter of Willem I the Silent, Prince of Orange, and Charlotte de Bourbon-Montpensier. James further had Friedrich promise his daughter would always be treated as if she were a Queen”. This at times made life in the Palatinate uncomfortable for Elizabeth, as Friedrich’s mother Louise Juliana had “not expected to be demoted in favour of her young daughter-in-law” and, as such, their relationship was never more than cordial.

Issue:

Elizabeth gave birth to three children in Heidelberg, Heinrich Friedrich, Hereditary Prince of the Palatinate, was born in 1614, Charles Ludwig in 1617, (the future Prince-Elector Palatine of the Rhine) and Elisabeth in 1619.

The rest of the children born to Friedrich and Elizabeth were:

Prince Rupert, Duke of Cumberland (fought with his uncle King Charles I of England in the English Civil Wars)
Prince Maurice
Louise Hollandine, Abbess of Maubuisson
Prince Ludwig
Prince Eduard, Count Palatine of Simmern
Princess Henriette Marie
Prince Philipp Friedrich
Princess Charlotte
Sophia, Electress of Hanover (mother of King George I of Great Britain)
Prince Gustavus Adolphus