Reichsverfassung und ständische Interessen: der Streit um das Verfahren auf dem Deputationstag von 1564. Neue Erkenntnisse aus der Aktenedition

Abstract

SUMMARYIn 1555 and 1559 the Imperial Deputation Diet was institutionalized in the Holy Roman Empire's constitution. Sixteen imperial estates were appointed to meet in cases of serious problems of peace-keeping and to discuss solutions together with the emperor's commissioners. But the constitution did not fix the mode of consultations: should the assembled electors, princes and cities (or else their envoys) debate in one common chamber or separately, as was usual at imperial Diets? This problem would be solved in practice at the first Deputation Diet in Worms (1564). Scholars have suggested that here the final decision for separate chambers – as the electors wanted – was the outcome of mainly legal reasoning, but the sources in a recent volume of the Deutsche Reichstagsakten clearly show that the better strategy of negotiation brought the final resolution in this dispute.