Background
According to the written text of the Golden Bull of 1356, "We have promulgated, decreed and recommended for ratification the subjoined laws for the purpose of cherishing unity among the electors, and of bringing about a unanimous election, and of closing all approach to the aforesaid detestable discord and to the various dangers which arise from it." After the long-time struggle of his predecessor Louis IV with antiking Frederick the Fair, Charles IV felt that it was necessary to change the current system of electing the "King of the Romans". He thought that without this new decree the world would never be rid of envious and ambitious politicians.
The Golden Bull explicitly named the seven Kurfürsten or prince-electors who were to choose the King of the Romans, who would then usually be crowned Holy Roman Emperor by the pope later. The seven prince-electors were, "Three prelates were archchancellors of Germany (Mainz), Gaul and Burgundy (Trier), and Italy (Cologne) respectively : the Bohemia cupbearer, the Palsgrave seneschal, Saxony marshal, and Brandenburg chamberlain." Consequently, the Bull speaks of the rex in imperatorem promovendus, the "king to be promoted emperor" — although the distinction between the two titles would become increasingly irrelevant (and virtually nonexistent after Maximilian I had renounced his coronation as Emperor in 1508).
Even though the practice of election had existed earlier and most of the dukes named in the Golden Bull were involved in the election, and although the practice had mostly been written down in an earlier document, the Declaration of Rhense from 1338, the Golden Bull was more precise in several ways. For one, the dukedoms of the Electors were declared indivisible, and succession was regulated for them to ensure that the votes would never split. Secondly, the Bull prescribed that four votes would always suffice to elect the new King; as a result, three Electors could no longer block the election, and the principle of majority voting was explicitly stated for the first time in the Empire. Finally, the Bull cemented a number of privileges for the Kurfürsten to confirm 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 1648 Peace of Westphalia.
Read more about this topic: Golden Bull Of 1356
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