Diet of Worms (1495)

Almost all the reform proposals advocated an Eternal Peace (Ewiger Landfriede), as well as legal, judicial, tax and coinage regulations.

When Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor announced on 24 November 1494 that the Diet of Worms would take place on 2 February 1495, his focus was not imperial reform, but various foreign policy issues.

In addition, Charles VIII of France had begun an Italian campaign in 1494, which threatened Pope Alexander VI, Imperial Italy and especially Milan, with whom Maximilian was connected by marriage.

As a consequence the Turkish War became secondary, and Maximilian planned a campaign in Italy in 1495, which he wanted to be linked to his coronation in Rome.

Contrary to his optimistic intentions, the king did not leave Worms until September, because the Imperial Estates did not want to embark on a campaign, but were interested in the reform of the empire.

He urged them to provide "urgent assistance" (so-called eilende Hilfe) against the French, which he saw as support from the Holy League of 1495 that he had backed.

Since the king clearly wanted to press on to Italy, the Estates attempted to take advantage of his predicament for themselves in order to clarify the question of reform.

In a renewed request to the Estates for help on 24 April, the king reported that papacy and imperial crown threatened to fall into the hands of Charles VIII, and that 4,000 men had had to be urgently dispatched to Italy.

On 1 June, the king was promised 100,000 guilders of emergency aid and they agreed in broad terms about the public peace, the chamber court and imperial taxes.

Berthold of Henneberg, the Prince Elector of Mainz, Archchancellor and spokesman for the Imperial Estates was a central figure at the diet.

During the negotiations he had the role of intermediary between the Estates and tried several times, when the diet threatened to collapse, to mediate and to make concessions to the king.

Because he campaigned strongly for the Imperial Government (Reichsregiment), Maximilian soon became suspicious that he wanted to use this route to set himself up as the ruler of the empire himself.

What motivation Berthold of Henneberg had for his policies, is not clear, but he was known as a shrewd and influential politician, who advocated the reform of the empire throughout his life.

The Imperial Government was the main plank of the reform plans put forward by the Estates and Berthold of Henneberg and, at the same time, the most difficult and contentious issue.

The plans of the Estates would have meant a voluntary disempowerment of the king and empire, entailing a transfer of imperial power to a council.

The Eternal Peace (a ban on feuding), the Imperial Chamber Court and the Common Penny were the outstanding and defining results of the Diet of Worms in 1495.

Due to their novelty at that time they were not able to be implemented immediately (or even at all), but at least the Eternal Peace and the Imperial Court laid the foundations of the present constitutional state.