Law, Society and Political Culture in Late Medieval and Reformation Germany

A sourcebook illustrative of the legal, political, social and cultural history of the German lands of the Holy Roman Empire in the late medieval and Reformation era (c. 1350–1550). It includes translations of all the major laws issued in the Empire in this period, as well as sources focused on local elites and ordinary men and women.
This book offers a selection of edited and translated sources that shed light on law, society and political culture in Germany between the mid-fourteenth and mid-sixteenth centuries, enabling readers to discover the tumultuous late medieval and Reformation era in the Holy Roman Empire in unprecedented depth. The selection includes all the major legislation issued in the Empire from the Golden Bull of 1356 to the Peace of Augsburg in 1555. Most of these laws, which have shaped the constitutional development of Germany in its various incarnations down to the twenty-first century, are translated into English here for the first time. Thematic chapters cover the unique elective monarchy, imperial diets, plans for imperial and ecclesiastical reform, alliances and associations, warfare and arbitration and lordship and administration at local levels. Each theme is contextualised by the author’s detailed interpretive prefaces.