Mediatised houses


The mediatised houses were ruling princely and comital-ranked houses that were mediatised in the Holy Roman Empire during the period from 1803 to 1815 as part of German mediatisation, and were later recognised during the period from 1825 to 1829 by the German ruling houses as possessing considerable rights and rank. With few exceptions, these houses were those whose heads held a seat in the Imperial Diet when mediatised during the establishment of the Confederation of the Rhine in 1806–07, by France in 1810, or by the Congress of Vienna in 1814–15. The mediatised houses were organised into two ranks: the princely houses, entitled to the predicate Durchlaucht, which previously possessed a vote on the Bench of Princes ; and the comital houses that were accorded the address of Erlaucht, which previously possessed a vote in one of the four Benches of Counts. Although some forms of mediatisation occurred in other countries, such as France, Italy, and Russia, only designated houses within the former Holy Roman Empire were legally mediatised houses.

Privileges

Mediatised houses generally possessed greater rights than other German noble families. Whilst they lost sovereignty and certain rights in their territories, they often still retained their private estates and some feudal rights, which may have included exclusive or primary access to local forestry, fishing, mining or hunting resources, jurisdiction over policing and lower level civil and criminal court cases. Mediatised houses also possessed the right to settle anywhere within the German Confederation while retaining their territorial prerogatives. The Congress of Vienna specified that the mediatised houses were recognised as the first vassals in their respective states, were usually entitled to membership in the legislative upper chambers in which their lands lay, and held rank equivalent to ruling houses. However, the Congress of Vienna did not specify which families were considered mediatised.
Members of mediatised houses possessed a rank higher than other German ducal, princely and comital families which held the same or even a higher hereditary title. For example, a prince of a mediatised house ranked higher than a duke of a family that had never possessed Imperial immediacy, even though in Germany, nominally, a duke is of higher rank than a prince.

Equality of birth

Most importantly, members of the mediatised houses were recognized as entitled to retain the equality of birth their families had enjoyed under the Holy Roman Empire with Germany's reigning dynasties, who inter-married by right with the other ruling houses of Europe. Although this privilege did not automatically require that every ruling family had to accept all members of mediatised families as eligible for dynastic inter-marriage, each mediatised family was allowed to impose its own marital standards by house law, and could be accepted by ruling families without legal demur. This had practical effects in determining whether a marriage was considered morganatic and what rights the children of such a marriage might possess.
It was ultimately left up to each sovereign state to determine which families were counted as part of the mediatised houses and which were not, leading to discrepancies between the roster of the Imperial Diet in 1806 and the families counted amongst the mediatised. Before 1806, the term "exemption" was used to refer to states that surrendered their immediacy and high jurisdiction rights to another state but retained their votes in the Imperial Diet. Not all exempt houses were counted amongst the mediatised houses. Further discrepancies exist because the houses were mediatised between 1806–1814 and the rosters of the princely and comital mediatised houses were not drawn up until 1825 and 1829 respectively. During that period, some families had become extinct or sold those of their territories to which the rights of mediatisation appertained.
From 1836 the Almanach de Gotha listed the mediatised houses in a section of their own, separate from both ruling dynasties and from princely and ducal families which were not recognized as having exercised sovereignty since the Congress of Vienna.
The rights of the mediatised houses in Austria and Czechoslovakia were abolished in 1919 following the defeat of Austria-Hungary in World War I and the establishment of republics in those countries. Rights were also abolished in Germany in 1919, however, the abolition was not initially enforced.
The following lists are exhaustive, including all of the mediatised houses.

List of Princely mediatised houses (''Durchlaucht'')

List of Comital mediatised houses (''Erlaucht'')

List of Houses not considered as part of the mediatised houses

Listed below are houses that were not counted amongst the mediatised houses for one reason or another. Usually this is because
  • they became extinct before the formalisation of the mediatised houses in 1825/9,
  • they divested their immediate territories just before the German mediatisation in 1806, or
  • they surrendered their mediate rights before 1825/9.
The formal list of the mediatised Houses generally does not include the families of imperial immediacy bearers belonging to old Imperial States outside the German Confederation.
NameTitleNotes
Abensperg und TraunCountEglofs sold to Windisch-Grätz in 1804
Anhalt-Bernburg-Schaumburg-HoymPrinceMediatised by Nassau in 1806. Extinct 1812
Aspremont-LyndenCountRekem annexed by France and ceded by the Empire in the Treaty of Campo Formio in 1797. Received the county of Baindt in 1803. Mediatised by Württemberg in 1806. Sold in 1812
Boyneburg-BömelbergBaronInherited the immediate lordship of Gemen in 1800, after extinction of the Limburg-Styrum-Gemen branch. Unclear however if the Imperial Diet vote associated to Gemen was also inherited. Mediatised by Berg in 1806. Extinct 1826/31
Heydeck-BretzenheimPrinceThe lands of Bretzenheim were annexed by France and ceded by the Empire in the Treaty of Campo Formio in 1797. Received the principality of Lindau in 1803. Ceded to Austria in 1804. Extinct 1863
GrävenitzCountImperial Lordship of Welzheim was forcefully sold in 1735 by the Grävenitz family for 65.000 Gulden to Württemberg. Descendants of the last ruler, Count Friedrich Wilhelm von Grävenitz, who later unsuccessfully tried to reclaim its rights, went extinct.
LignePrinceCompensation for loss of the Imperial County of Ligne as a result of the Peace of Lunéville consisted of substitution of the secularized Imperial abbey of Edelstetten, with an individual vote guaranteed in the Imperial College of Princes in 1803. That principality was, however, sold to Prince Nikolaus Esterházy on 22 May 1804, before the abolition of the Holy Roman Empire, of which Edelstetten had been a constituent Imperial state, in 1806.
Limburg-StyrumCountImperial Diet vote lost in 1800, but still possessed the immediate lordship of Styrum, which was mediatised in 1806 and which is formally cited in the Treaty of the Confederation of the Rhine. Nevertheless, Limburg-Styrum was not listed by any member of the German Confederation as a mediatised House in 1825, given they had sold their German properties and left to their lands in the newly created kingdoms of the Netherlands and Belgium. The family is, however, generally counted as part of the mediatised houses.
NesselrodeCountImperial lordship of Reichenstein was mediatised by Nassau in 1806. An immediate branch of the family went extinct in 1824
Nostitz-RieneckCountRieneck sold to Colloredo-Mansfeld in 1803
OsteinCountMyllendonk annexed by France and ceded by the Empire in the Treaty of Campo Formio in 1797. Received the lordship of Buxheim in 1803. Mediatised by Bavaria in 1806. Extinct 1809
Plettenberg-MietingenCountWittem annexed by France and ceded by the Empire in the Treaty of Campo Formio in 1797. Received the lordship of Mietingen and Sulmingen in 1803. Mediatised by Württemberg in 1806. Extinct 1813
Sickingen-SickingenCountMediatised by Württemberg in 1806. Extinct 1834
SinzendorfPrinceRheineck annexed by France and ceded by the Empire in the Treaty of Campo Formio in 1797. Received the burgraviate of Winterrieden in 1803. Mediatised by Bavaria in 1806. Extinct 1822
Wartenberg-RothCountTheir possessions on the left bank of Rhine were annexed by France and ceded by the Empire in the Treaty of Campo Formio in 1797. As a compensation, they received the county of Roth in 1803. Mediatised by Württemberg in 1806. The family went extinct in 1818
Wied-RunkelPrinceLordship of Runkel east of the Lahn mediatised by Berg in 1806; rest mediatised by Nassau in 1806. Extinct 1824
WolfsteinCountRuled over the Imperial Lordship of Sulzbürg-Pyrbaum from 1673. Extinct 1740. Rights to the Lordship inherited by the Houses of Hohenlohe-Kirchberg and Giech.