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Army of the Holy Roman Empire

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A Grenadier of the Imperial Army (Paderborn Regiment of Foot, Lower Rhenish–Westphalian Circle) at Philippsburg, 1734, during the War of the Polish Succession

The Imperial Army of the Holy Roman Empire (German Reichsarmee, Reichsheer or Reichsarmatur; Latin exercitus imperii) was the army of the Holy Roman Empire. Created in 1422, it came to an end even before the Empire was wound up in 1806, as the result of the French Revolutionary Wars. The French organized much of the empire into the Confederation of the Rhine, a satellite of France, with a common federal army.[1] The imperial forces originating from the lands of the new Emperor of Austria, a title created in 1804, became the Imperial and Royal Army (Kaiserlich-königliche Armee), which was defeated by the French at the battles of Ulm and Austerlitz in 1805.[2]

Despite appearances to the contrary, the Imperial Army did not constitute a permanent standing army which was always at the ready to fight for the Emperor. When there was some danger, an Imperial Army was mustered from among the elements constituting it.[3] In practice, the imperial troops often had stronger local allegiances than their loyalty to the Emperor.

History

Prompted by the threat posed by the Hussites, the Imperial Diet of 1422 held in Nuremberg created the Imperial Army by demanding specific contingents of troops from the various parts of the Empire. The Hussite Wars continued from 1420 to 1434, by when the army had proved its worth.[4] Over the next hundred years, the size of the Army was controlled, either by the numbers of men being strictly regulated or by the money to pay for it being limited. At the Diet of Worms in 1521 a commitment was made to the strength of 20,063 infantrymen and 4,202 cavalry, later simplified to 4,000 and 20,000. The cost of paying an army of this size for one month was known as the Romermonat.[5]

The Imperial Register (Reichsmatrikel or Heeresmatrikel) determined the contributions of the individual states making up the Empire, the first being the Register of 1422.[6]

The Imperial Army Constitution (Reichsdefensionalordnung) of 1681 finally determined the composition of the army, fixing the contingents to be provided by the various "Imperial Circles" of the Empire. The simple total strength (called in Latin the Simplum) was now fixed at 40,000 men, consisting of 28,000 infantry and 12,000 cavalry.[7] These figures were little altered until the demise of the Empire in 1806.

Nominal composition of the Imperial Army in 1681[8]
Imperial Circle Cavalry Infantry
Austrian Circle 2,522 5,507
Burgundian Circle 1,321 2,708
Electoral Rhenish Circle 600 2,707
Franconian Circle 980 1,902
Bavarian Circle 800 1,494
Swabian Circle 1,321 2,707
Upper Rhenish Circle 491 2,853
Lower Rhenish–Westphalian Circle 1,321 2,708
Upper Saxon Circle 1,322 2,707
Lower Saxon Circle 1,322 2,707
Total 12,000 28,000

In practice, the contingents supplied by each Imperial Circle were organized into a number of separate regiments. In some cases money was provided instead of men to fulfil these military obligations to the Emperor.

Further reading

  • Vladimir Brnardic, Darko Pavlovic, Imperial Armies of the Thirty Years' War (2009)
  • Winfried Dotzauer, Die deutschen Reichskreise (1383–1806) (Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 978-3-515-07146-8)
  • Max Jähns, 'Zur Geschichte der Kriegsverfassung des deutschen Reiches' in Preußische Jahrbücher 39 (1877)
  • Karl Linnebach, 'Reichskriegsverfassung und Reichsarmee von 1648 bis 1806' in Karl Linnebach, Deutsche Heeresgeschichte (Hamburg 1943, 2nd ed.)
  • Helmut Neuhaus, 'Das Reich im Kampf gegen Friedrich den Großen - Reichsarmee und Reichskriegführung im Siebenjährigen Krieg' in Bernhard Kröner, Europa im Zeitalter Friedrichs des Großen - Wirtschaft, Gesellschaft, Kriege (Munich, 1989), pp. 213–243
  • Martin Rink, Harald Potempa, 'Der Zusammenbruch des Alten Reichs (962-1806) und des alten Preußen im Jahre 1806' in Militärgeschichte March 2006
  • Hanns Weigl, Die Kriegsverfassung des alten deutschen Reiches von der Wormser Matrikel bis zur Auflösung (Bamberg, 1912)

Notes

  1. ^ Michael Hughes, Early modern Germany, 1477-1806 (1992), p. 182
  2. ^ Robert Cowley, Geoffrey Parker The Reader's Companion to Military History (2001), p. 43
  3. ^ André Corvisier, John Childs, A dictionary of military history and the art of war (1994), p. 306
  4. ^ John Rigby Hale, John Roger Loxdale Highfield, Beryl Smalley, Europe in the late Middle Ages (Northwestern University Press, 1965), p. 228
  5. ^ Thomas Robisheaux, Rural Society and the Search for Order in Early Modern Germany (2002), p. 177
  6. ^ John G. Gagliardo, Reich and nation: the Holy Roman Empire as idea and reality, 1763-1806 (Indiana University Press, 1980), p. 36
  7. ^ Militärgeschichtliche Zeitschrift, vol. 62 (Militärgeschichtlichen Forschungsamt, 2003), p. 121
  8. ^ Militärgeschichte - Zeitschrift für historische Bildung (issue of March 2006), table S. 7

See also

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