TY - JOUR
AU - Milton, Patrick
AB - This article focuses on interventions in the internal affairs of the territorial princes of the Holy Roman Empire in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, especially when such interventions were justified by the need to protect persecuted mediate subjects. It aims to show how intervention against tyrannical rule was perceived and conceptualized by contemporaries, and to thereby add insights into the normative underpinning of the system of rule in the Empire. By analysing two case-studies in some detail, the interventions in Nassau-Siegen (1705–1707) and Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1714–1719), the article documents aspects of the mindset of statesmen and the public with regard to intervention, in order to discern normative judgements and perceptions. It is argued that perceived tyranny—in other words, the mistreatment of subjects through violence and violations of their recognized rights—could, in legal theory and in state practice, lead to military interventions. A discourse against tyranny and arbitrary rule is evident not only in public statements, but also in private comment. Interventions were largely justified legalistically given the high degree of juridification of the Empire’s political culture. But there was also the strong moral element of a duty to conform to and enforce notions of civilized and Christian conduct. While legal and moral incentives were sufficient to enable interventions against petty tyrants, these would have to coincide and combine with pressing politico-strategic interests in order to allow interventions against more substantial rulers. Such interventions were often deemed necessary in order to restore geopolitical stability.
TI - Intervening Against Tyrannical Rule in the Holy Roman Empire during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries*
JF - German History
DO - 10.1093/gerhis/ghu114
DA - 2015-03-16
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/oxford-university-press/intervening-against-tyrannical-rule-in-the-holy-roman-empire-during-oeSOnAxOID
SP - 1
EP - 29
VL - 33
IS - 1
DP - DeepDyve
ER -