A ''Hoftag'' (pl. ''Hoftage'') was the name given to an informal and irregular assembly convened by the

King of the Romans King of the Romans ( la, Rex Romanorum; german: König der Römer) was the title used by the king of Germany following his election by the princes from the reign of Henry II (1002–1024) onward. The title originally referred to any German k ...

, the

Holy Roman Emperor The Holy Roman Emperor, originally and officially the Emperor of the Romans ( la, Imperator Romanorum, german: Kaiser der Römer) during the Middle Ages, and also known as the Roman-German Emperor since the early modern period ( la, Imperat ...

or one of the Princes of the Empire, with selected chief princes within the

empire An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...

. Early scholarship also refers to these meetings as imperial diets (''Reichstage''), even though these gatherings were not really about the empire in general, but with matters concerning their individual rulers. In fact, the legal institution of the imperial diet appeared much later. From the feudal obligation of chief princes to stand by the king's side in word and deed, a consequent duty was derived by the time of the

High Middle Ages The High Middle Ages, or High Medieval Period, was the periodization, period of European history that lasted from AD 1000 to 1300. The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and were followed by the Late Middle Ages, which ended ...

to appear in person, at the request of the king, at royal assemblies in order to offer counsel and participate in decision-making. This was the so-called court attendance duty (''Hoffahrtspflicht''). The assemblies themselves were given various names in the different sources, such as ''parlamentum'', ''conventus'', ''colloquium'', ''curia'' or ''curia regis''. All these terms could be qualified with adjectives such as ''solemnis'' ("ceremonial") or ''magnus'' ("great") in order to clarify their nature. The ''Hoftag'' differed from the usual counsel meetings of the royal court essentially only in the additional participation of those invited. These could be princes, members of the nobility, prelates or representatives of foreign powers. From the 13th century, representatives of the

free imperial cities In the Holy Roman Empire, the collective term free and imperial cities (german: Freie und Reichsstädte), briefly worded free imperial city (', la, urbs imperialis libera), was used from the fifteenth century to denote a self-ruling city that ...

were also invited to ''Hoftage''. The assemblies were organised along the lines of a royal court meeting (''Hofhaltung'') and were firmly focussed on the king. When the king held such assemblies and whom he invited was entirely at his discretion. Hence, a distinction between the counsel given by the princes and their legal consent to a decision is difficult to make. However, it was from their obligation to advise the king, that the right soon emerged for the princes to be consulted on important matters concerning the empire, such as the declaration of an imperial military campaign. Exactly which matters the king had to be advised on and seek the approval of the princes seems to have been largely at the discretion of the king, so the ''Hoftage'' certainly cannot be viewed as an institutionalized joint exercise of power by the princes. Documents of the

High High may refer to: Science and technology * Height * High (atmospheric), a high-pressure area * High (computability), a quality of a Turing degree, in computability theory * High (tectonics), in geology an area where relative tectonic uplift t ...

and

Late Middle Ages The Late Middle Ages or Late Medieval Period was the period of European history lasting from AD 1300 to 1500. The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period (and in much of Europe, the Ren ...

containing important policy decisions or orders concerning imperial estates emphasize that the decisions were made with the "advice" and "consent" of the princes. Both terms are used in such documents synonymously from a legal point of view. Those princes who were not invited or who found themselves in opposition to the king, did not, however, feel bound by the decisions of the ''Hoftage''. Following the

Great Interregnum In the Holy Roman Empire, the Great Interregnum (so-called to distinguish it from the shorter period between 924 and 962) was a period of time following the death of Frederick II where the succession of the Holy Roman Empire was contested and fough ...

of the 13th century, the role of the prince electors increased, since only they had the role of princes of the empire and gave their formal acceptance to royal decrees about imperial matters through so-called letters of consent (''Willebriefe''). But even here, no obligation is discernible on the part of king to call for such letters in his regulations. In the wake of the decline of the kingdom to its respective allodial estates at the end of the 14th century and the general weakness at the time of its count-kings (''Grafenkönige''), "kingless assemblies" (''Königlose Tage'') gained increasing importance. At these gatherings, the principal rulers in the empire held counsel. Only rarely were ''Hoftage'' now called. From these kingless assemblies emerged the legal institution of the Imperial Diet at the end of the 15th century.

Literature

* Karl-Friedrich Krieger: ''König, Reich und Reichsreform im Spätmittelalter''. 2nd revised edition. Oldenbourg, Munich, 2005, , (''Enzyklopädie Deutscher Geschichte'' 14). * Malte Prietzel: ''Das Heilige Römische Reich im Spätmittelalter''. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt, 2004, , (''Geschichte kompakt - Mittelalter''). * Gabriele Annas: ''Hoftag - Gemeiner Tag - Reichstag. Studien zur strukturellen Entwicklung deutscher Reichsversammlungen des späten Mittelalters (1349 - 1471)''. 2 volumes. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen, 2004, , (''Schriftenreihe der Historischen Kommission bei der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften'' 68), (Zugleich: Köln, Univ., Diss., 1997), (with CD ROM: ''Verzeichnis der Besucher deutscher Reichsversammlungen des späten Mittelalters (1349 to 1471)''). {{Authority control Historical legislatures Politics of the Holy Roman Empire Government of the Holy Roman Empire fr:Diète d'Empire

See also

Literature