Imperial Knight

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The Imperial Knights was an Organisation of free nobles of the Holy Roman Empire, who could retain their direct subordination to the Emperor (Kaiser) and their holdings, mostly in Swabia, Franconia, and the Rhineland but who did not have a seat or voice in the Reichstag. They belonged to the Lower Nobility.

[edit] History

The Imperial Knights were special protectors of the Kaiser but remained shut out of the Reichstag and were not included in the Imperial Circle Constitution, which determined who could sit on the Kreistag or regional council. In the Late Middle Ages, these lower nobles began to organize themselves into confederations, which by the second half of the 16th Century had become practically compulsory. These confederations aimed at protecting the rights of the Nobility and mutual military defense. Because of the tax demands placed on the Knights in 1542 because of the threatening danger of Turkish attack, necessitated that the Knights find an organisational form that on the one hand could defend their Rights and Privilages as Nobles and on the other hand fulfilled their obligations to the Kaiser.

Therefore the Imperial Knights organized themselves into 15 Knight-cantons (Ritterorten) in the middle of the 16th Century, which were themselves organized, after 1577, with but one exception, 3 Knight-regions (Ritterkreisen). The six Cantons of Odenwald, Gebürg, Rhön-Werra, Steigerwald, Altmühl und Baunach, belonged to the Franconian Region, the five Cantons of Donau, Hegau-Allgäu-Bodensee, Neckar-Schwarzwald, Kocher und Kraichgau belonged to the Swabian Region, the three Cantons of Oberrhein, Mittelrhein und Niederrhein (upper-, middle-, and lower-Rhine) belonged to the Rhineland Region, and the Canton of Niederelsass (lower Alsace) had its own special status.

And indeed from 1577 on, the Imperial Knights met in a Congress called the General Correspondence Convention, but the Regions and especially the Cantons became somewhat more important as their proximity meant that their interests were more closely aligned.

The Imperial Knights were called very often to war by the Kaiser and therefore won significant influence in the Military and the Administration of the Empire and also over the more powerful nobles.

Every Canton had its own Ritterhauptmann or Captain and kept detailed records of noble families and properties. The Imperial Knights were exempt from imperial taxes and were not required to quarter troops. With the founding of the Confederation of the Rhine in 1806 and the end of the Holy Roman Empire, the Imperial Knights' possessions, which were generally enclaves, formerly completely independent under the Kaiser, became the possessions of the High Nobles, by whose terretory they were surrounded. They, for the most part, took the title Freiherr and submitted themselves to their new lords.

This article incorporates text translated from the corresponding German Wikipedia article as of November 18, 2006.