Page:The history of medieval Europe.djvu/583

 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES 533 each bearing a different title : namely, the Count Palatine of the Rhine, the Duke of Saxony, the Margrave of Branden- burg, and the King of Bohemia, whose electoral right, how- ever, was sometimes contested by the Duke of Bavaria. These seven electors in many cases did not elect the son of the preceding emperor, but chose some one from an entirely different family. Often, too, they imposed conditions upon the man whom they selected, and if he did not live up to these preelection promises or in other ways disappointed them, they would depose him and choose another. Some- times they disagreed among themselves and elected two candidates simultaneously. The power of the electors was permanently defined in written legal form in the Golden Bull of the Emperor Charles IV in 1356, but this was for the most The Golden part a rehearsing of what had long been custom- Bul1 ary. It may be regarded as the chief constitutional docu- ment in the history of medieval Germany and thus some- what comparable to Magna Carta in English history. Whereas the Great Charter shows us a united action by the baronage which was something akin to a national opposition and which later perpetuated itself in the Parliament, the Golden Bull reveals the great local lords as the chief power in the Empire and is largely devoted to their ceremonial functions and political privileges. It is treason to attack their persons; they elect the emperor and hold the chief offices about his person; in their own territories they may coin money and collect taxes and hold independent courts of their own. While the imperial office is elective, the office and lands of each lay electorate are to be transmitted hered- itarily observing the rule of primogeniture and territorial indivisibility. The electors, however, were not able to monopolize such rights for themselves; a number of other lords were equally independent in their local government. But the Many petty rule of primogeniture was not universally fol- states lowed; family lands were sometimes partitioned among several sons, and intermarriage also kept altering bounda-