The Golden Bull of 1356: Electors, Royal Elections, and Urban Order

In 1356, Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV, also King of Bohemia, worked with the princes to establish the Golden Bull. It addressed the choice of the empire's supreme ruler and rights between princes: who could vote, when they should assemble, how a valid outcome was reached, and what privileges the electors should retain. Disputed successions and delayed elections could draw the entire empire into rivalry.

The Bull was promulgated in two stages. Its first twenty-three chapters were issued at Nuremberg on January 10, followed by eight more at Metz on December 25. The provisions repeatedly stated that arrangements had been made with the advice and consent of the ecclesiastical and secular electors. Beyond voting, they detailed seats, processions, and court offices, seeking to reduce disputes over rank through publicly visible order.

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Electoral rights belonged to the archbishops of Mainz, Trier, and Cologne, the King of Bohemia, the Count Palatine of the Rhine, the Duke of Saxony, and the Margrave of Brandenburg. Within a month of learning of the king's death, the Archbishop of Mainz was to notify them and summon them to Frankfurt. If he neglected this duty, the other electors still had to assemble on their own; delay by the convener could not prevent the election.

Safe passage formed part of the procedure. Electors had to provide requested escorts to their fellows even if they were enemies, and princes and cities along the route had similar obligations. Each elector could bring 200 mounted attendants, no more than fifty of them armed. Those unable to attend could send representatives with full powers, while the city had to supply necessities at ordinary prices.

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Before the election, electors swore to choose a suitable ruler according to their judgment, uninfluenced by bargains, bribes, or promises. A majority decision had the force of unanimity. If three electors chose another elector, the candidate's own vote could complete the majority. The Bull thus provided a clear means of resolving competition.

If no choice had been made thirty days after the oath, the electors were to live on bread and water and remain in Frankfurt until they reached a result. Before conducting other imperial business, the newly elected King of the Romans had to confirm the electors' existing rights and privileges in sealed documents, then confirm them again upon becoming emperor. Electoral procedure and guarantees of princely interests were thereby connected.

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The electoral rights of secular princes were generally to pass by legitimate male primogeniture. A guardian would act during an heir's minority, with the heir assuming the rights personally at eighteen. Bohemia retained its right to elect a king during a vacancy according to its own privileges and customs. The second part further required the territories and rights of the four secular electorates to remain intact, preventing family partition from producing renewed disputes over voting eligibility.

Privileges also concerned actual revenues. The Bull confirmed the electors' rights over metal mines and saltworks already discovered or subsequently found in their territories, as well as existing tolls and other rights. A separate chapter confirmed the King of Bohemia's right to mint gold and silver coin. Governmental and fiscal resources were concentrated in these territorial rulers; other imperial subjects did not thereby gain equal political standing.

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The Bull also constrained townspeople. Those who remained on their original lord's land while using citizenship in another town to evade obligations could not enjoy that town's exemptions. They had to move there in fact and bear its taxes and public burdens. Alliances formed without the lord's consent were prohibited, with an exception retained for leagues intended to preserve local peace.

For challenges and private warfare, the law required notice at least three full days in advance, delivered to the opponent personally or announced publicly at his usual residence before suitable witnesses. It also condemned unjust wars, burning and plunder, and unlawful charges. These provisions imposed procedural limits on conflict while demonstrating that armed confrontation among princes, lords, and cities remained a reality lawmakers had to address.

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The articles designated Frankfurt for elections, Aachen for coronations, and Nuremberg for a new king's first imperial diet, unless a legitimate obstacle intervened. Frankfurt's council acquired its own document in 1366 to confirm the city's electoral role. It was subsequently consulted in successive royal or imperial elections held there and was even mistakenly regarded as the empire's single master copy.

Nuremberg also requested a document between 1366 and 1378 to uphold the provision for the first imperial diet to meet there. Its version bore a wax seal. In 1474, Friedrich Creussner printed the Bull in Nuremberg. The seven surviving original documents include copies held by cities; they were not simply one copy retained by each of the seven electors.

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