Mediatized Houses


The Mediatized Houses were ruling princely and comital-ranked houses which were mediatized in the Holy Roman Empire during the period of 1803–15 as part of German mediatization, and were later recognised in 1825-29 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 mediatized 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 Mediatized 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 which were accorded the address of Erlaucht, which previously possessed a vote in one of the four Benches of Counts. Whilst some form of mediatization occurred in other countries, such as France, Italy and Russia, only designated houses within the former Holy Roman Empire legally comprised the Mediatized Houses.

Privileges

Mediatized 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. Mediatized Houses also possessed the right to settle anywhere within the German Confederation while retaining their territorial prerogatives. The Congress of Vienna specified that the Mediatized 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 mediatized.
Members of Mediatized 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 mediatized 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 Mediatized Houses were recognized as entitled to retain the :de:Ebenbürtigkeit|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 mediatized families as eligible for dynastic inter-marriage, each mediatized 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 or not, and what rights the children of such a marriage might possess.
It was ultimately left up to each of the sovereign states to determine which families were counted as part of the Mediatized Houses and which were not, leading to discrepancies between the roster of the Imperial Diet in 1806 and the families counted amongst the mediatized. Prior to 1806, the term "exemption" was used to refer to states which 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 Mediatized Houses. Further discrepancies exist because the houses were mediatized between 1806–14 and the rosters of the princely and comital Mediatized Houses were not drawn up until 1825 and 1829 respectively, during which period some families had become extinct or sold those of their territories to which the rights of mediatization appertained.
From 1836 the Almanach de Gotha listed the Mediatized 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 Mediatized 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 Mediatized Houses.

List of Princely Mediatized Houses (''Durchlaucht'')

List of Comital Mediatized Houses (''Erlaucht'')

List of Houses not considered as part of the Mediatized Houses

Listed below are houses that for one reason or another were not counted amongst the Mediatized Houses. Usually this is because they became extinct before the formalisation of the Mediatized Houses in 1825/9, they divested their immediate territories just prior to the German Mediatization in 1806, or they surrendered their mediate rights before 1825/9.

Name
Title
Notes
Abensperg and TraunCountEglofs sold to Windisch-Grätz in 1804
Anhalt-Bernburg-Schaumburg-HoymCountMediatized 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. Mediatized 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. Mediatized 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
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 mediatized 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 Mediatized 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 mediatized houses.
NesselrodeCountMediatized by Nassau in 1806. Extinct 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. Mediatized 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 Sullmingen in 1803. Mediatized by Württemberg in 1806. Extinct 1813
SinzendorfPrinceRheineck annexed by France and ceded by the Empire in the Treaty of Campo Formio in 1797. Received the burgraviate of Winterrieden in 1803. Mediatized by Bavaria in 1806. Extinct 1822
Wartenberg-RothCountReceived the county of Roth in 1803. Mediatized by Württemberg in 1806. Extinct 1818
Wied-RunkelPrinceLordship of Runkel east of the Lahn mediatized by Berg in 1806; rest mediatized by Nassau in 1806. Extinct 1824