Imperial Circle - Formation of The Imperial Circles

Formation of The Imperial Circles

Initially the 1500 Diet of Augsburg set up six circles as part of the Imperial Reform:

  • the Bavarian Circle
  • the Swabian Circle
  • the Upper Rhenish Circle
  • the Lower Rhenish-Westphalian Circle
  • the Franconian Circle
  • the Saxon Circle

Originally, the territories held by the Habsburg dynasty and the Electors remained unencircled. In 1512 the Diet at Trier and Cologne organized these lands into four more circles:

  • the Austrian Circle, including the Habsburg territories inherited by Maximilian I
  • the Burgundian Circle, including the patrimony of Maximilian's late wife, Mary of Burgundy
  • the Upper Saxon Circle, including the Electorates of Saxony and Brandenburg
  • the Electoral Rhenish Circle, including the ecclesiastical Electorates of Mainz, Cologne and Trier, and the secular Electorate of the Palatinate.

In view of French claims raised to Maximilian's Burgundian heritage, the 1512 Diet initiated the official use of the name Holy Roman Empire of (the) German Nation (Latin: Sacrum Imperium Romanum Nationis Germanicæ) in its Final Act.

Though the Empire lost several western territories after the secession of the Seven United Netherlands in 1581 and during the French annexations of the 1679 Peace of Nijmegen, the ten circles remained largely unchanged until the early 1790s, when the French Revolutionary Wars brought about significant changes to the political map of Europe.

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