Upper Saxon Circle
The Upper Saxon kingdom group comprised territories in Central and East Germany. He insisted from the beginning of the 16th century to the end of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806. He served for coordinating common matters of the states involved and had, for example, skills in coinage. He had to get the removal of the Empire and help to organize the position of troops for the Emperor according to the decisions of the Reichstag.
History
The Upper Saxon Circle Empire arose in 1512 as one of ten districts of the kingdom of the Holy Roman Empire in the course of the reforms Emperor Maximilian I ( 1459-1519 ). The main task of the circle were in his area, the preservation of the public peace, the collection of imperial taxes and the establishment of the imperial army.
Kreisausschreibender prince of the kingdom of Upper Saxony circle was the Elector of Saxony. That is, he had to organize the meetings of the members or their envoys, who advised on the settlement of matters of common interest. Venue of the county councils was generally Leipzig, but also Frankfurt ( Oder) and Jiiterbog. After the Peace of Westphalia, the weights shifted increasingly in favor of large estates Upper Saxony Elector of Saxony and the Electorate of Brandenburg. They had less and less interest, so as to the proper function of the Reich circle - 120 years before the official end of the Holy Roman Empire and the Imperial Circles - took place already in 1683, the last Upper Saxon council.
Territories of the Reich circle
The Upper Saxon kingdom circle included not only the most Wettin territories also Anhalt principalities, the Electorate of Brandenburg, the Pomeranian duchies and territories of the Counts Reuss, Schoenburg and Schwarzburg and thus rewrote an area which today largely in the eastern states and in the Polish voivodships West Pomerania and Lebus is.
In the area of today's German states of Saxony- Anhalt and Thuringia, however, the archbishopric of Magdeburg belonged ( with Halle / Saale), the diocese ( later Principality ) Halberstadt and the imperial cities of Nordhausen and Mühlhausen the Lower Saxon kingdom circle and the dominions of the last two lines of the Counts of Henneberg, so large parts of present-day southern Thuringia to the Frankish kingdom circle. In addition, the city of Erfurt included with their field and the calibration field to the Archbishopric of Mainz - and thus to kurrheinischen circle. The Saxon margraviates Lower and Upper Lusatia belonging to any realm circle.
The following individual territories on the Upper Saxon Circle Empire, of which only existed individual temporarily belonged.
Electorates
- Electorate of Saxony
- Electorate of Brandenburg
Spiritual principalities
- Principality of Pomerania - 1648 Brandenburg Electorate
Reichsprälaturen
- Quedlinburg Abbey
- Abbey Gernrode - at Anhalt
- Pin Walk Ried - 1648 Principality of Brunswick Wolfenbüttel
Secular principalities
- Principality of Anhalt
- Saxe-Altenburg
- Saxe-Coburg
- Saxe-Coburg -Eisenach
- Saxe-Coburg -Saalfeld
- Sachsen -Eisenberg
- Saxe- Eisenach
- Saxe-Gotha
- Saxe-Gotha -Altenburg
- Saxony- Hildburghausen
- Saxe- Jena
- Saxe-Meiningen ( offices Altenstein and Salzungen, court love stone)
- Sachsen -Saalfeld
- Saxe-Weimar
- Duchy of Saxe - Weissenfels ( cross- ford ) - since 1746 Electorate
- Duchy of Pomerania ( Prussian ) - 1648 to Brandenburg
- Duchy of Pomerania ( Swedish) - 1648 in Sweden
- Principality of Schwarzburg- Rudolstadt
- Principality of Schwarzburg- Sondershausen
- Principality of Reuss
Empire Empire counties and lordships
- County Barby - 1659 to the Electorate of Saxony
- County of Hohenstein
- Principality of Hatzfeld
- County Lohra
- County Klettenberg
- County of Mansfeld - to Brandenburg and Elector of Saxony
- Dominions of the Counts of Schoenburg ( Schönburgische Rezessherrschaften )
- County of Stolberg - 1738 Electorate of Saxony
- County of Wernigerode - 1714 Brandenburg