Gradations
Several immediate estates held the privilege to attend the Reichstag meetings in person including an individual vote (votum virile):
- the seven Prince-electors designated by the Golden Bull of 1356
- the other Princes of the Holy Roman Empire
- secular: Dukes, Margraves, Landgraves etc.
- ecclesiastical: Prince-Bishops and Prince-Provosts.
They formed the Imperial Estates together with those Counts and Barons, Imperial prelates and Imperial cities who only held a collective vote (votum curiatum).
Further immediate estates not represented in the Reichstag were the Imperial Knights as well as several abbeys and minor localities, the remains of those territories, which in the High Middle Ages had been under the direct authority of the Emperor and mostly had been given in pledge to the princes meanwhile.
Read more about this topic: Imperial Immediacy
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