Editing Holy Roman Empire (section)

=== Imperial estates ===
{{Main|Imperial Estate}}

The number of territories represented in the Imperial Diet was considerable, numbering about 300 at the time of the [[Peace of Westphalia]]. Many of these ''[[Kleinstaaterei|Kleinstaaten]]'' ("little states") covered no more than a few square miles, or included several non-contiguous pieces, so the Empire was often called a {{Langx|de|Flickenteppich|label=none}} ("[[Patchwork|patchwork carpet]]").
An entity was considered a {{Langx|de|Reichsstand|label=none}} (imperial estate) if, according to [[feudal law]], it had no authority above it except the Holy Roman Emperor himself. The imperial estates comprised:
* Territories ruled by a hereditary nobleman, such as a prince, archduke, duke, or count.
* Territories in which secular authority was held by an ecclesiastical dignitary, such as an archbishop, bishop, or abbot. Such an ecclesiastic or Churchman was a [[prince of the Church]]. In the common case of a [[prince-bishop]], this temporal territory (called a prince-bishopric) frequently overlapped with his often larger ecclesiastical [[diocese]], giving the bishop both civil and ecclesiastical powers. Examples are the prince-archbishoprics of [[Electorate of Cologne|Cologne]], [[Archbishopric of Trier|Trier]], and [[Archbishopric of Mainz|Mainz]].
* [[Free imperial city|Free imperial cities]] and [[Imperial village]]s, which were subject only to the jurisdiction of the emperor.
* The scattered estates of the free [[Imperial Knight]]s and [[Imperial Count]]s, immediate subject to the Emperor but unrepresented in the Imperial Diet.

A sum total of 1,500 Imperial estates has been reckoned.{{Sfn|Gumpelzhaimer|1796}} For a list of {{Langx|de|Reichsstände|label=none}} in 1792, see [[List of Imperial Diet participants (1792)]].

The most powerful lords of the later empire were the Austrian Habsburgs, who ruled {{Convert|240000|km2|abbr=on}} of land within the Empire in the first half of the 17th century, mostly in modern-day Austria and Czechia. At the same time the lands ruled by the electors of Saxony, Bavaria, and Brandenburg (prior to the acquisition of Prussia) were all close to {{Convert|40000|km2|abbr=on}}; the [[Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg|Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg]] (later the Elector of Hanover) had a territory around the same size. These were the largest of the German realms. The Elector of the Palatinate had significantly less at {{Convert|20000|km2|abbr=on}}, and the ecclesiastical Electorates of Mainz, Cologne, and Trier were much smaller, with around {{Convert|7000|km2|abbr=on}}. Just larger than them, with roughly {{Convert|7000|–|10000|km2|abbr=on}}, were the Duchy of Württemberg, the Landgraviate of Hessen-Kassel, and the Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. They were roughly matched in size by the prince-bishoprics of Salzburg and Münster. The majority of the other German territories, including the other prince-bishoprics, were under {{Convert|5000|km2|abbr=on}}, the smallest being those of the Imperial Knights; around 1790 the Knights consisted of 350 families ruling a total of only {{Convert|5000|km2|abbr=on}} collectively.{{Sfn|Whaley|2012b|p=188}} Imperial Italy was less fragmented politically, most of it {{Circa|1600}} being divided between Savoy (Savoy, Piedmont, Nice, Aosta), the Grand Duchy of Tuscany (Tuscany, bar Lucca), the Republic of Genoa (Liguria, Corisca), the duchies of Modena-Reggio and Parma-Piacenza (Emilia), and the Spanish Duchy of Milan (most of Lombardy), each with between half a million and one and a half million people.{{Sfn|Smith|1920|p=19}} The [[Low Countries]] were also more coherent than Germany, being entirely under the dominion of the [[Spanish Netherlands]] as part of the [[Burgundian Circle]], at least nominally.

In 1792, 21 families (8 electors and 13 princely families) held 81 percent of the Empire's territory, plus all electoral and 56 of the 100 princely votes. These 21 families held 25 territories (some families had cadet branches e.g. the Bavarian and Palatinate Wittelsbachs), by far the largest being Austria and Prussia. Another 16.4 percent of the Empire was split between 151 ecclesiastical and secular lords, generally lacking princely status, with the majority of that 16.4 percent being held by a tenth of the lords. The remaining 2.6 percent of the Empire was split between 51 disconnected imperial cities and 400 families of Imperial Knights.<ref>Wilson 2004, p. 413–414.</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Territorial shares of the Reich after the Thirty Years' War{{Sfn|Wilson|2004|p=307}}{{Efn|Going by the given areas, Wilson's figures only include the German and Czech speaking parts of the Reich, thus excluding the French (e.g. [[Austrian Netherlands]], [[Franche-Comté]]) and Italian (e.g. [[Grand Duchy of Tuscany|Tuscany]], [[Savoyard state|Piedmont-Savoy]]) parts. This is evident in how the territories of the electors and "other German rulers" adds up to the stated total of the Reich, and in how the Reich's area does not change from the given {{Convert|687338|km2|abbr=on}} total from 1648 to 1792, despite many French territories of the [[Burgundian Circle]] being lost in this time. The figures also exclude lands held outside of the Empire (including German ones), such as the Hohenzollern Prussian territories.}}
|-
! Ruler
! 1648
! 1714
! 1748
! 1792
|-
| Austrian Habsburgs
| 225,390&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup> (32.8%)
| 251,185&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup> (36.5%)
| 213,785&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup> (31.1%)
| 215,875&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup> (31.4%)
|-
| Brandenburg Hohenzollerns
| 70,469&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup> (10.2%)
| 77,702&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup> (11.3%)
| 124,122&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup> (18.1%)
| 131,822&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup> (19.2%)
|-
| Other secular prince-electors{{Efn|In 1648: Saxony, Bavaria, and the Electoral Palatinate. At later dates: Saxony, Bavaria, the Electoral Palatinate, and Hanover.}}
| 89,333&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup> (13.1%)
| 122,823&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup> (17.9%)
| 123,153&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup> (17.9%)
| 121,988&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup> (17.7%)
|-
| Other German rulers
| 302,146&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup> (44.0%)
| 235,628&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup> (34.3%)
| 226,278{{nbs}}km<sup>2</sup> (32.9%)
| 217,653{{nbs}}km<sup>2</sup> (31.7%)
|-
| '''Total'''
| 687,338
| 687,338
| 687,338
| 687,338
|}