Electoral capitulations 1519 to 1792

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Helmut Neuhaus
• Subject Area: Early Modern History
• Term: from 2010 to 2014
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 185413613

Except in the Holy Roman Empire and the ecclesiastical territories there were electoral capitulations in the Venetian Republic, in Bohemia, Hungary, Denmark, Sweden and Poland. The electoral capitulations, which since the beginning of the modern era each elected head of the Roman German Empire had to swear to before his coronation provide insights for the political, legal, constitutional and ecclesiastical history of the Old Empire and the history of Europe. They were both, the most recent constitution of the Empire, and a kind of government program, formulated by the electors in the name of the future head of the Empire. They defined the limits of the jurisdiction of the emperor and reflect the goals of its electoral voters, which aimed at the development of its territorial governance. Through the collegiate letters the electors created an additional instrument to articulate claims of the Imperial Estates. For the pre-modern era, the electoral capitulations - contracts between the privileged voters and the future rulers - for the spiritual and temporal states are central documents of the constitutional history. We can see them as an important step on the road to modern constitutions. The historical-critical edition of the 17 electoral capitulations and collegiate letters of the electors make central sources for German and European history for the first time in a reliable way provide. By full-text and index search capabilities of these sources will be developed for a variety of topics and disciplines far beyond the field of history. In addition to the digital edition comes a printed version, which will include to the standard of academic libraries and archives.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Participating Persons: Professor Dr. Karl Otmar Freiherr von Aretin (†); Professor Dr. Heinz Duchhardt; Professorin Dr. Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger