Prince-elector
From the 13th century onwards, a small group of prince-electors gained the privilege of electing the King of the Romans.
As rulers of Imperial Estates, the electors enjoyed all the privileges of princes, including the right to enter into alliances, to autonomy in relation to dynastic affairs, and to precedence over other subjects.
The Golden Bull granted them the Privilegium de non appellando, which prevented their subjects from lodging an appeal to a higher Imperial court.
Many electors ruled a number of States of the Empire or held several ecclesiastical titles, and therefore had multiple votes in the Council of Princes.
More often, an electoral suite or embassy was sent to cast the vote; the credentials of such representatives were verified by the Archbishop of Mainz, who presided over the ceremony.
Electors were free to vote for whomsoever they pleased (including themselves), but dynastic considerations played a great part in the choice.
After those lines ended in extinction, the electors began to elect kings from different families, so that the throne would not once again settle within a single dynasty.
All kings elected from 1438 onwards were from among the Habsburg dynasty until 1740, when Austria was inherited by a woman, Maria Theresa, sparking the War of the Austrian Succession and the short-lived rule of a Bavarian Wittelsbach emperor.
These augmentations were displayed in three alternative ways: When the Duke of Bavaria replaced the Elector Palatine in 1623, he assumed the latter's office of Arch-Steward.
Elections were irregularly held by the Franks, whose successor states include France and the Holy Roman Empire.
In the election of Lothar III in 1125, a small number of eminent nobles chose the monarch and then submitted him to the remaining magnates for their approbation.
Soon, the right to choose the monarch was settled on an exclusive group of princes, and the procedure of seeking the approval of the remaining nobles was abandoned.
A letter written by Pope Urban IV in 1265 suggests that by "immemorial custom", seven princes had the right to elect the King and future Emperor.
Meanwhile, the King of Bohemia, who held the ancient imperial office of Arch-Cupbearer, asserted his right to participate in elections.
[7] The Declaration of Rhense issued in 1338 had the effect that election by the majority of the electors automatically conferred the royal title and rule over the empire, without papal confirmation.
The college's composition remained unchanged until the 17th century, although the Electorate of Saxony was transferred from the senior to the junior branch of the Wettin family in 1547, in the aftermath of the Schmalkaldic War.
In 1623, the Elector Palatine, Frederick V, came under the imperial ban after participating in the Bohemian Revolt (a part of the Thirty Years' War).
When the Thirty Years' War concluded with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, a new electorate was created for the Count Palatine of the Rhine.
In 1685, the religious composition of the College of Electors was disrupted when a Catholic branch of the Wittelsbach family inherited the Palatinate.
In 1706, the Elector of Bavaria and Archbishop of Cologne were outlawed during the War of the Spanish Succession, but both were restored in 1714 after the Peace of Baden.
The Treaty of Lunéville (1801), which ceded territory on the Rhine's left bank to France, led to the abolition of the archbishoprics of Trier and Cologne, and the transfer of the remaining spiritual Elector from Mainz to Regensburg.
[8] After the abolition of the Holy Roman Empire in August 1806, the Electors continued to reign over their territories, many of them taking higher or alternative titles.
The Congress of Vienna accepted the Electors of Bavaria, Württemberg, and Saxony as Kings, along with the newly created Grand Duke of Baden.
The European powers refused to acknowledge this title at the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle (1818), however, and instead listed him with the Grand Dukes as a "Royal Highness".
Hesse-Kassel remained the only Electorate in Germany until 1866, when the country backed the losing side in the Austro-Prussian War and was absorbed into Prussia.
Left to right: Archbishop of Cologne , Archbishop of Mainz , Archbishop of Trier , Count Palatine , Duke of Saxony , Margrave of Brandenburg and King of Bohemia ( Codex Balduini Trevirorum , c. 1340 )
