Editing Adolf, King of the Romans (section)

== Deposition==
[[Image:Absetzung Adolfs und Wahl Albrechts I.jpg|thumb|upright 1.2|Deposition of Adolf and Election of [[Albert I, King of Germany|Albert]], illustration from the Chronicles of the Bishops of Würzburg]]

The electors probably did not plan from the beginning to depose the king, but as events unfolded this result became more inevitable. The reason for the clashes was Adolf’s Thuringia policy. On [[Pentecost]] 1297 the elector of Brandenburg, duke of Saxony, and king of Bohemia joined together to enforce their interests. The elector of Mainz, Gerhard II, was associated with this group.

In February 1298, the situation became alarming for Adolf because Wenceslaus II and Albert of Habsburg put aside their years of disputes over Austria and Styria, and reached an agreement in the event that Adolf was deposed and Albert elected in his place. There may have been a meeting of the electors as early as the coronation of King Wenceslaus of Bohemia, on 2 June 1297. In January 1298, through the efforts of the archbishop of Mainz, Albert of Habsburg was brought to testify before an imperial court in order to find a compromise between Adolf and Albert. This did not happen; the two came close to battle in the Upper Rhine Valley and the matter was not resolved.

On 1 May 1298, the archbishop of Mainz invited the king to his court, so that the dispute could be decided there. Archbishop Gerhard claimed he was authorised to do so as imperial arch-chancellor of Germany, according to an old legal principle.{{sfn|Herde|2000|p=518}} Adolf, as a party to the conflict, could not at the same time act as judge and saw these charges as a provocation given that Albert was raising arms against him, the rightful king. Therefore, the meeting planned for 15 June, at which the dispute was to be resolved, did not take place.

A meeting between the archbishop of Mainz, Count Albrecht of Saxony-Wittenberg, and three margraves of Brandenburg ([[Otto IV, Margrave of Brandenburg-Stendal]], [[Henry I, Margrave of Brandenburg]] and [[Herman, Margrave of Brandenburg-Salzwedel]]) on  23 June 1298 then led to a lawsuit against the king himself. The archbishop of Cologne and the king of Bohemia had previously authorised the archbishop of Mainz to act in their names. In these proceedings Adolf was charged with numerous crimes, including the continued breach of the peace in Thuringia and the breaking of the promises he had made to the archbishop of Mainz. Adolf was deemed unworthy of his office and had forfeited his royal dignity.

It is remarkable that Adolf was not excommunicated by the Pope before being deposed. The pope was probably not even included in the deposition procedure. The princes, it is true, did try to formulate their arguments similarly to Innocent IV’s statement in the deposition of [[Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor|Frederick II]], but the process was unprecedented. Because Adolf had been elected and crowned, the contemporary understanding was that he had been chosen by God to be the ruler and that the princes were breaking their oath in which they swore loyalty to the king. Therefore, included in the list of charges were some that, at first glance, appear peculiar today, such as the desecration of communion wafers and the simonistic extortion of money. Furthermore, there was no imperial legal procedure for the ousting of the king. Therefore, the princes relied on their right to vote, from which also they derived their right to oust a king. This argument was problematic insofar as the deposition of Frederick II was already a precedent for this case. According to church law, only the pope had the power to depose a king.