Editing Imperial Reform (section)

== Further development ==

In 1500 six (from 1512 on: ten) [[Imperial Circle]]s were established with their own Circle Diets. The Circles, originally meant as constituencies of the Imperial Government, enabled a more uniform administration of the Empire to better execute the Perpetual Public Peace, taxation, and the raising of troops. The establishment of the Imperial Circles was a long-overdue response to the administrative impotence of the Empire at the local level regarding the questions of levies, implementation of justice, customs, beggars, poor people, and healthcare (implemented by medical police, or {{lang|de<!--not modern spelling, but gmh ("Middle High German") is defined to end in 1500-->|medizinische Policey}}, who took care of the drinking water supply and protection against epidemics). After some time, they also took responsibility for the construction of cross-border highways and roads, as well as many other matters in the early modern civilization process. Wolfgang Wüst opines that even if some aspects remained incomplete, the formation of the Imperial Circles proved to be an essential influence on the development of [[Early modern Europe|Early Modern Europe]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wüst |first1=Wolfgang |title=Der Fränkische Reichskreis: Fakten, Fragen und Forschung |date=2020 |location=St. Ottilien |isbn=978-3830680314 |edition=edited and expanded new}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Der Fränkische Reichskreis – Geschichtliche Darstellung – Frankenland Versand |url=https://frankenland-versand.de/franken-artikel/buecher-platzsets-und-plakate/der-fraenkische-reichskreis-geschichtliche-darstellung-3232-9519354/ |website=frankenland-versand.de/ |access-date=23 March 2022 |language=de-DE}}</ref>

Maximilian responded to the {{lang|de|Reichskammergericht}} by establishing the concurrent [[Aulic Council]] ({{lang|de|Reichshofrat}}, {{literal translation|imperial court council}}) in 1497. Throughout the modern period, the Aulic Council remained by far the faster and more efficient among the two Courts. The {{lang|de|Reichskammergericht}} on the other hand was often torn by matters related to confessional alliance.{{sfn|Stollberg-Rilinger|2021|p=46}} Around 1497-1498, as part of his administrative reforms, he restructured his Privy Council ({{lang|de|Geheimer Rat}}), a decision which today induces much scholarly discussion. Apart from balancing the {{lang|de|Reichskammergericht}} with the {{lang|de|Reichshofrat}}, this act of restructuring seemed to suggest that, as Westphal quoting Ortlieb, the "imperial ruler – independent of the existence of a supreme court – remained the contact person for hard pressed subjects in legal disputes as well, so that a special agency to deal with these matters could appear sensible" (as also shown by the large number of supplications he received).<ref>{{cite contribution |last1=Westphal |first1=Siegrid |contribution=Does the Holy Roman Empire Need a New Institutional History? |editor-last1=Evans |editor-first1=R. J. W |editor-last2=Schaich |editor-first2=Michael |editor-last3=Willson |editor-first3=Peter H. |title=The Holy Roman Empire, 1495–1806 |date=2011 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=9780199602971 |page=88}}</ref>

According to Thomas Brady Jr. and Jan-Dirk Müller, the most important governmental changes targeted the heart of the regime: the chancery. Early in Maximilian's reign, the Court Chancery at Innsbruck competed with the Imperial Chancery (which was under the elector-archbishop of Mainz, the senior Imperial chancellor). By referring the political matters in Tyrol, Austria as well as Imperial problems to the Court Chancery, Maximilian gradually centralized its authority. The two chanceries became combined in 1502.{{sfn|Brady|2009|p=111}} Jan-Dirk Müller opines that this chancery became the decisive government institution since 1502. In 1496, the emperor created a general treasury ({{lang|de|Hofkammer}}) in Innsbruck, which became responsible for all the hereditary lands. The chamber of accounts ({{lang|de|Raitkammer}}) at Vienna was made subordinate to this body.{{sfn|Berenger|Simpson|2014|p=132}} Under {{interlanguage link|Paul von Liechtenstein|de|Paul von Liechtenstein-Kastelkorn}}, the {{lang|de|Hofkammer}} was entrusted with not only hereditary lands' affairs, but Maximilian's affairs as the German king too.{{sfn|Müller|2003|p=298}}

Maximilian tried to direct the reform according to his monarchical-centralization agenda. Whaley notes that the real foundation of his Imperial power lay with his networks of allies and clients, especially the less powerful Estates, who helped him to recover his strength in 1502 – his first reform proposals as King of the Romans in 1486 were about the creation of a network of regional unions. According to Whaley, "More systematically than any predecessor, Maximilian exploited the potential of regional leagues and unions to extend imperial influence and to create the possibility of imperial government in the Reich." To the Empire, the mechanisms involving such regional institutions bolstered the Eternal Land Peace ({{lang|de|Ewiger Landfriede}}) declared in 1495 as well as the creation of the ''Imperial Circles''<ref>{{cite book |last1=Treichel |first1=Eckhardt |title=Organisation und innere Ausgestaltung des Deutschen Bundes 1815–1819 |date=14 December 2015 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |isbn=978-3-11-042400-3 |page=1549 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n9iRCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT1549 |access-date=14 February 2022 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Putten |first1=Jasper Cornelis van |title=Networked Nation: Mapping German Cities in Sebastian Münster's 'Cosmographia' |date=6 November 2017 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-35396-1 |page=256 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sSk_DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA256 |access-date=14 February 2022 |language=en}}</ref> between 1500 and 1512, although they were only fully functional some decades later.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Whaley |first1=Joachim |title=Germany and the Holy Roman Empire |volume=I: Maximilian I to the Peace of Westphalia, 1493–1648 |date=2012 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0198731016 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UiFWYsG-t7UC |access-date=25 December 2021 |pages=76, 77}}</ref>

The [[Old Swiss Confederacy|Swiss Confederacy]] did not accept the resolutions of the Imperial Diet and explicitly refused to pay the [[Common Penny]], one of the circumstances leading to the [[Swabian War]] of 1499 and the Confederacy's exemption from imperial legislation. Due to the obstinate resistance of several States, the collection of the tax was finally suspended in 1505.

The reform was more or less concluded with the Imperial Execution Order of 1555, part of the [[Peace of Augsburg]], which regulated more details of the responsibilities of the [[Imperial Circle]] Estates.