free imperial city

plural free imperial cities · alternative free and imperial city

1. historicalA self-ruling city within the Holy Roman Empire that had some autonomy and was represented in the Imperial Diet.

   Like many free imperial cities, Augsburg in the early Middle Ages was an Episcopal city.

   2012, Joel Van Amberg, A Real Presence: Religious and Social Dynamics of the Eucharistic Conflicts in Early Modern Augsburg 1520-1530, BRILL, page 7

   3 more examples

   A free imperial city held the status of Imperial immediacy, and was thus subordinate only to the Holy Roman Emperor, whereas a territorial city or town (Landstadt) was subordinate to a territorial prince – either an ecclesiastical lord (prince-bishop or prince-abbot) or a secular prince (duke (Herzog), margrave, count (Graf), etc.).

   The city-states of Germany and the Holy Roman Empire had their origins as free imperial cities, a term coined in the late eleventh century.

   1996, John Dornberg, Western Europe, Oryx Press, page 56

   Verdun was an ancient bishopric and a free imperial city, which France conquered in 1552 (together with Metz and Toul) and made into a fortress to protect its eastern borders.

   2007, Carlos Ramirez-Faria, Concise Encyclopedia Of World History, Atlantic Publishers, page 243