Ed Ranks Imperial Circles of the Holy Roman Empire

An Empire, as drawn by Jackson Pollock.

The Holy Roman Empire (or the HRE… that’s what the cool kids call it!) was an immensely complex and decentralized political entity that lasted between the early Middle Ages and the early 19th Century. When you think of an “empire” as something run by an “Emperor” who asserts something along the lines of total control… well… yeah… this was not THAT type of “empire.”  Within this one empire there were hundreds of individual territories, states, and entities that held various degrees of autonomy. These included duchies, principalities, bishoprics, free imperial cities, and other such entities. Recall also from the high school history class that you slept through that the concept of a “state” with clearly defined borders is a notion more modern than the HRE itself. The 1648 Peace of Westphalia is several centuries younger the origins of the empire. The Westphalian system (short version: the principle in international law that each state has exclusive sovereignty over its territory) was adopted AFTER the Peace of Westphalia (hence, uh, the name).

So while it would be basically impossible for me or anyone else to rank every single one of these political entities that existed within the HRE, fortunately the empire would establish “Imperial Circles” that eventually came to be understood as the general “regional administrative divisions” within the empire. The first six were established right around 1500, but they would later grow in numbers. There would eventually be ten such circles (a nice, round number for ranking, eh?), each grouping together with the aim of facilitating cooperation, mutual assistance, and defense, as well as managing the complex political administration of the HRE which included electing Emperors.

Here they are, ranked! 

Honorable Mention: “Un-Encircled” Territories 

Initially, the lands ruled by the mighty Hapsburg Dynasty remained outside of any circled, but in 1512, the Diet at Trier and Cologne organized these lands into three additional circles. But even after that, there were still parts of the HRE that never quite made it into a circle. The Lands of the Bohemian Crown, the Old Swiss Confederacy, various Duchies/Republics/Fiefs of Italy, and other minor territories, never made it into one of the 10 circles. Given that they were uncircled, they won’t make the ranks of circles, will they? 

10. Franconian Circle

If you look at a map of the HRE, this circle looks like it’s sort of in the dead center of the empire. With something so central geographically, you’d think it would be more powerful and influential as a political entity, right? Nope! Kansas is at the center of the US, and you wouldn’t exactly say that Topeka is more powerful and influential than New York and Los Angeles. In fact, this general Franconian region had previously been ordered to be merged in a political alliance centuries prior to the circles concept, and it sort of fell apart because the cities and princes in it just weren’t felling it (pretty sure that’s a direct historic quote).  And not that size matters (it doesn’t, right ladies?), but the Franconian Circle was the smallest of the political entities.  The most famous city you’ve heard of as part of this circle is probably Nuremberg – but most people have only heard of that place for its World War II trial infamy, and not for anything to do with being an HRE power broker (nor were Bamberg and Wirtzburg – probably the most notable political entities within this circle. 

9. Burgundian Circle

The Burgundian Circle had a lot going for it that might make you think it was a super important circle in the HRE. First of all, it was one of the three new Circles added in 1512 to place the lands of the mighty Spanish Habsburgs (more on them later) into the whole Circle System.  The lands of this circle are pretty famous too – including much of what we’d now call the “low countries” of Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg, as well as some chunks of France. That land was then considerably enlarged in 1548 when chunks of the Lower Rhenish–Westphalian Circle to the Burgundian circle. Everything seemed to be headed in the right direction for this to be a POWER CIRCLE… but instead its power and influence waned thanks to the events of the Eighty Years War which would see the birth of a new breakaway Seven United Provinces, aka Dutch Republic in 1581, and the eventual annexation of the Free County of Burgundy by France in 1678. After an initial strong start, this Circle petered out and lost most of its land and influence. 

8. Lower Saxon Circle

The whole “Circle” thing was started by the Diet of Augsburg in 1500, which set up six imperial circles as part of the great “Imperial Reform.” One of those six circles was the “Saxon Circle.” But the same 1512 events that added new circles also cut the Saxon circle into two smaller entities – the Lower and Upper Saxon Circles (although it would take another decade before they actually implemented the separation… things were much slower back then). Hamberg is probably the most instantly recognizable city that was part of this territory that the average person would recognize. While the House of Welf was a strong player in the Lower Saxon Circle, one issue that this body had to frequently deal with was the fact that foreign rulers (e.g., the kings of Prussia, Sweden, and Great Britain – all outside of the Holy Roman Empire) actually reigned over certain territories within this Circle at times.  And not to pick on Topeka again, but it would sort of be like if Kansas was part of the United States, but Topeka belonged to Canada and Wichita belonged to… I dunno… Morocco? Having part of the territory in “your” empire actually being ruled by other authorities outside of your empire is never a good thing. Plus, there is the whole “The Saxon Circle got cut in half” thing. Having the size of your circle cut in half and divided is a sure way to be less powerful than you used to be. 

7. Electoral Rhenish Circle

On paper, this is a fairly powerful and influential political entity with historical significance. That fact is presented in the name itself – as this Circle was comprised of the territories of four of the seven “Prince Electors” of the Holy Roman Empire – the very people who determined and elected the next Emperor!  These guys were basically seen as second to only the Emperor himself in terms of power, and on an equal level to kings within the HRE. So why rank the circle of these powerful electors among the lower half of the circles? Well… because honestly as a unified and coordinated political entity that pitched in for things like a common defense… this circle wasn’t successful. Looking at map of this circle – it’s not even close to being large chunks of land unified together. Instead, a political map of the HRE makes the Electoral Rhenish Circle look like a case of eczema along the Rhine (scroll back up and look at the purple bits... it’s so spotty and divided!) Powerful and influential rulers? Yes. But not a powerful united political administrative entity. 

6. Upper Saxon Circle

Unsurprisingly, the Upper Saxon Circle suffers from one of the same issues that its Lower counterpart did – it was cut in half after 12 years and thus its power was diminished a mere dozen years after it was established. But still… even though they only wound up with half of Saxony… that half was still an influential region which included the Electorates of Saxony and Brandenburg (which, like the four Electors in the Electoral Rhenish Circle, controlled who would be name the next Emperor). While there were a number of other principalities, counties, abbacies and duchies in this circle – Saxony and Brandenberg had the vast majority of the land and the vast majority of power.  The fact that this circle was large, geographically close, and mostly ruled by two dominant people – contribute to it being a more stable and influential circle than any of the ones previously discussed, but it's not top 5. 

5. Lower Rhenish-Westphalian Circle

This Circle encompassed key areas, including the city of Cologne within the aforementioned region of Westphalia. It played an important role in the western part of the empire and while it was made up of a number of small states – the Counts De la Marck were able to slowly consolidate more and more power over them to become a fairly significant power player in the HRE. Cleves (as in Anne of Cleves, one of Henry VIII’s wives) is located in this Circle, as are Liège and Munster (cheese… hell yeah!). So yeah, fairly stable and powerful Circle here, but it’s flying in at #5 in the ranking because there are more powerful and notable ones. This is middle of the pack. Not super powerful, but not weak or disunited either. 

4. Upper Rhenish Circle

Another OG Circle from the original 6 established in 1500, this one included extremely valuable territories like Alsace, Metz, Worms, Speyer, Strasbourg, and Verdun (Frankfurt was also part of it, but that city wasn’t exactly the important city it is today because the modern airport that forces you to go there). Like the Lower Rhenish-Westphalian Circle, it had a strategic position in the western part of the empire. All in all, a fairly large and powerful Circle that could be ranked higher if only not for some territorial losses late in the history of the HRE. A significant portion of this Circle that was west of the Rhine river were annexed by France under King Louis XIV during the 17th century (the French were always trying to expand east and grab HRE territory). And while the Empire warred to get this land back, eventually these lands were finally recognized as French by the 1678/79 Treaties of Nijmegen. 

3. Swabian Circle

The Circle of Swabia! Now we’re in top 3 land. Another OG territory from 1500 and established in what had historically been the German “stem-duchy” of Swabia (let’s not get into this, stem duchies are a whole other post-Carolingian Dynasty thing). This territory is obviously also heavily connected and formed from the predecessor "Swabian League" – a defense pact that can be seen as a sort of precursor and inspiration for the “Circle” concept itself. Though if you look at  a map of it, it seems to be mostly together in a circular shape – you can see that there are all sorts of missing dots and spots in it that make it seem a bit shattered and consisting of small, less powerful states.  That being said – the Swabian Circle was a shining example of how to get the circle system to work properly, as despite that shattered appearance it had an extremely effective government, and was able to prevent much of France’s desires for eastward expansion (it succedded where the Upper Rhenish Circle failed) – especially through a standing army it maintained at Kehl fortress. Cities like Aalen, Baden, Buchau, Staufen, Teck, and Ulm may not sound like the powerhouse European cities of the past or present but that only further proves how the circle system could work effectively by having a lot of lesser, smaller territories that could otherwise be conquered by some greedy French rival if they were apart instead remain united and defended by sticking together. 

2. Bavarian Circle

There is a significant power jump from #3 to #2, as we are now talking about a real Holy Roman powerhouse. This was a large and mostly geographically consistent circle that looks a lot like a state with properly defined borders that we think of today (with the exception of some lands of the Prince-Bishops of Freising which were separate and acted like a little island of the circle down in modern Slovenia). The most significant state (by far) in the circle was the Duchy of Bavaria (Munich and all that), which would on to be raised to an Electorate by Emperor Ferdinand II in 1623 – replacing the Count Palentine as a Prince Elector. The Elector of Bavaria would be so important in the HRE that the title also came with the role of being Arch-Steward (aka Arch-Seneschal) of the empire between 1623 and the end of the Empire in 1806 (minus a brief blip from 1706 to 1714 where the Elector of Bavaria sided with France AGAINST the HRE in the War of the Spanish Succession and was temporarily booted out). The Bavarian Circle also included the Upper Palatinate territories, Imperial city of Regensburg (which became the seat of the Imperial Diet in 1663 – making it a central and important city in the empire), the Prince-Archbishopric of Salzburg, and the Prince-Bishoprics of Freising, Passau and Regensburg. The Elector of Bavaria was from the House of Wittelsbach (and later its cadet branches) – and while we don’t think of the Wittelsbachs as an iconic and famous reigning European royal family on the level of families like the Habsburgs and Bourbons – maybe it’s all just branding and because it’s hard to pronounce. They were quite the powerful family that ruled in areas that are today Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Hungary, Romania, the Czech Republic, and Greece. 

1. Austrian Circle

Well, I just mentioned the Habsburgs when comparing them to the Wittelsbachs, and I think it goes without saying that the Habsburgs are as famous and iconic in world history as they are for a reason – power. And while they had power in a number of places, one of their most significant areas of power was in the Holy Roman Empire, especially in their role over the Austrian Circle (not so much the Burgundian Circle). The Austrian Circle wasn’t one of the original circles in 1500, and was only added later in 1512. That’s sort of because it was initially already so powerful it didn’t need to be organized into part of the circle system as an alliance because it was already… well… essentially totally unified as a Habsburg-ruled entity. How powerful were the Habsburgs? Were they part of the all-important group of Prince-Electors who got to decide the next Holy Roman Emperor? Well… I mean… that would have been sort of a moot point because by the time of the circle system the Habsburg family didn’t need to worry much about being an elector to choose who the Emperor would be. Why? Because they were the Emperors. Yeah, the HRE maintained an electoral system where technically electors chose the Emperor and it wasn’t a purely hereditary title. But for much of the empire’s later history – the Habsburgs had it on lockdown. The only exceptions being Charles VII of the House of Wittelsbach, who ruled from 1742 to 1745, and Francis I of the House of Lorraine from 1745 until 1765. But Francis was married to the Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa and thereafter the heirs to the Emperor title would be the merged House of Habsburg-Lorraine. The chunk of land ruled by these all-powerful Habsburgs within the Austrian Circle roughly corresponds to present-day Austria (it lacked Salzburg initially… but would eventually take that away from the Bavarian Circle to claim it for its own too), Slovenia, and a few regions of Northern Italy. So there you have it! Now you likely know substantially more about the Holy Roman Empire than you did before.