Prince of the Holy Roman Empire

• territorial rule and the jura regalia, i.e. sovereign rights, over an immediate fief of the Empire
• a direct vote (votum virile) and a seat in the Imperial Diet
• direct support for the expenses and the military ban of the Empire.

Not all states met all three requirements, so one may distinguish between effective and honorary princes of the Holy Roman Empire.^[2][3]

The Princes of the Empire ranked below the seven

From the 13th century onwards, further estates were formally raised to the princely status by the emperor. Among the most important of these were the

Ecclesiastical Princes were the

• Rulers of states of the Empire who did not hold an individual seat in the princely chamber of the Imperial Diet, but held a seat as a count and shared with other counts in the one vote exercised by each of the four regional comital councils or Grafenbanken.
• Sovereigns outside the Empire, such as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.^[4]
• Nobles allowed to bear the princely title, but who had neither a vote nor a seat in the Imperial Diet, individual or shared, such as the
  Imperial state
  . Although this courtesy tended to become hereditary for families, the right to princely status was called Personalist (personal) and could be revoked by the Emperor.
• Foreigners of note, such as the
  Radziwiłł.^[6]
• Subjects of the Empire who were given a princely title by an Emperor, but who held no territory or sovereignty at all. This status was occasionally granted to the morganatic wives and children of electoral and immediate families, allowing them to share in the husband/father's princely title, but not his princely rank and privileges (e.g., Frederick William von Hessenstein).

See also

• List of states in the Holy Roman Empire
• List of Imperial Diet participants (1792)
• German mediatization

References