Article VIII
§1. [Rights of Territorial Rulers.] In order to prevent all future disputes over the political order, each and every elector, prince, and estate of the [Holy] Roman Empire shall, by virtue of this treaty, be established and confirmed in their possession of all their ancient rights, prerogatives, liberties, privileges, the free exercise of their territorial rights, both spiritual and temporal, their seigneuries, and their regalian rights. In the possession of all these things, they may not, by virtue of the present transaction, be molested at any time, in any manner, or under any pretext whatsoever.
§2. [Rights of Imperial Estates; Foreign Alliances.] They shall enjoy without contradiction the right of suffrage in all deliberations affecting the affairs of the Empire, especially with respect to interpreting the laws, declaring war, imposing taxes, raising levies and quartering soldiers, building for the public use new fortresses in the lands of the estates, and reinforcing old garrisons, making peace and alliances, and treating other such affairs. None of these or similar things shall be done or afterward approved except with the freely given advice and consent of all the Imperial estates:
First of all, each Imperial estate shall freely and forever enjoy the right of making alliances with other estates or with foreigners for its own preservation and security, always provided that such alliances not be made against the emperor, the Empire, the public peace, or this treaty. And in every case, they must be made without any prejudice to the oath that binds each of them to the emperor and the Empire.
§3. [The Imperial Diet.] Within six months from the date of this treaty’s ratification, the Imperial estates shall assemble at an Imperial Diet, and again thereafter as often as the public interest and necessity shall require. At the first Diet, they shall correct especially the faults of preceding assemblies’ decisions. Among the objects of correction should be the manner of electing the King of the Romans, (14) the Imperial capitulation (which ought to be reduced to terms that cannot subsequently be altered), (15) the manner and order for placing one or more of the estates under the ban (16) of the Empire, besides what has been formerly declared in the Imperial constitutions. They shall also treat there the re-establishment of the Imperial Circles, (17) the renewal of the Imperial matricula, (18) the means of inserting in it the names of such that have been taken out, moderating and lowering the taxes of the Empire, the reformation of policy and law of the fees that are paid to the Imperial Chamber Court, the best manner of forming and instructing the ordinary deputies according to the necessity and advantage of the commonwealth, the true business and duty of the directors of the colleges of the Empire, and other such affairs which cannot be specified here.
§4. [Imperial Free Cities.] (19) The Imperial Free Cities shall have a valid voice in the general and particular diets, equal to those of the other Imperial estates. Their regalian rights, annual revenues, and liberties and privileges of confiscation and imposing duties may not be touched or meddled with. The same applies to any other rights that they have legally obtained from the emperor and the Empire, or which they have possessed and exercised by a long usage before these present troubles, together with full jurisdiction within their walls and territories. Whatever has been done or attempted to the contrary up till now, namely through reprisals, arrests, stopping up of passages, and other prejudicial acts by private authority during the war, under any pretext whatsoever, or which may afterwards be done or executed without any pretended formality of law, shall remain for all future time null and void and forbidden. For the rest, in the future, all laudable customs, constitutions, and fundamental laws of the Holy Roman Empire shall be strictly kept and observed, and all the confusions and disorders that have crept in during the war shall be abolished. [ . . . ]
(14) The title of an emperor-elect before his Imperial coronation.
(15) An Imperial capitulation was a document an emperor signed at his election, in which he swore to respect the Imperial estates’ rights.
(16) A decree of outlawry.
(17) Circles were the twelve Imperial administrative districts created between 1495 and 1512.
(18) Tax rolls.
(19) Cities directly subject to the emperor and free from any obligations to a territorial prince. They formed one of the three chambers of the Imperial parliament (Diet).
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