Editing Imperial circle (section)

== Responsibilities ==
The Imperial Circles were extremely important in the administration of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1747, [[Friedrich Karl von Moser|Friedrich Carl Moser]] noted that "the preservation of the imperial system depends largely upon . . . the western imperial circles."<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Wines |first=Roger |date=1967 |title=The Imperial Circles, Princely Diplomacy and Imperial Reform 1681-1714 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1877665 |journal=The Journal of Modern History |volume=39 |issue=1 |pages=1–29 |issn=0022-2801}}</ref> Some historians go even farther, like Hanns Hubert Hofmann, who suggests that "all real state-like functions of the Reich lay exclusively with the circles, not the diet."<ref name=":0" />

At first, starting as elective districts in 1500, the powers of the Imperial Circles gradually expanded. In 1512 they became responsible for enforcing decrees of the ''[[Reichskammergericht]]'', the Imperial Chamber Court. In 1530, they were made responsible for mobilizing contingents of the [[Army of the Holy Roman Empire|''Reichsarmee'']], and by 1555, they were responsible for protecting the public peace within the Empire. In 1559, they began to regulate imperial coinage.

The [[Peace of Augsburg]] in 1555 also drew upon the first attempts at local organization in the circles, particularly in the Swabian Circle. It created a fixed constitution for the circles and gave them authority to keep civil and religious peace in their territories. The princes in each circle met in local assemblies called the ''kriestags'', and as such, the circles became a substitute for imperial bureaucracy. After 1555, several circles became effective governmental bodies, especially in Swabia, Franconia, and Lower Saxony. Not only did they carry out orders from the Imperial Diet and Courts, but they also enacted their own legislation. Examples of such include economics, police, and military affairs.

By 1648, some of the Imperial Circles, which became dominated by one or two major powers, began to lose their function. The Austrian and Burgundian circles, both dominated by possessions of the Habsburgs, never developed full constitutions in the first place. Both Saxon circles (for example the Upper Saxon Circle was dominated by Brandenburg and Saxony) stopped convening by 1683, and the Bavarian circle only met on occasion to decide military measures.