On the other hand, if Charles did not have the support of the German people and there was an internal threat towards him, he would have a problem in putting it down. It seems that this would be the biggest problem to arise from not having a standing army or standard form of taxation and, indeed, this was the case when Lutheranism occurred.
Another burden for Charles was the nature of the German government. Germany possessed no effective institutions that provided for the Government of the Empire as a whole. Although the Imperial Diet acted as a kind of national parliament, it assembled irregularly and infrequently. This weakened Charles’ power over the whole Empire.
However, it can be claimed that this was not such a big problem. Charles was able to set the agenda at the Imperial Diet and he negotiated with the Diet over its final decisions. Furthermore, in matters of law he was the supreme judge in Germany and he had the right to bestow titles and offices on his German subjects. Hence, he did have some power.
On the other hand, he still did not have the power in Government that other rulers had. Furthermore, previous attempts to establish a centralised form of Government had previously failed and this showed that it would be difficult to get rid of the problem. In 1495 Maximilian established the Imperial Chamber court. This was to be supreme legal authority throughout the Empire. However, the Emperor, fearing a diminution of his own authority, ignored its legal pre-eminence and the experiment made little progress. Furthermore, in 1500 Maximilian set up the Regency Council. The council would allow the princes to rule Germany in the Emperor’s absence and when he was resident it would act as a forum in which they could press their claims. However, Maximilian resented such a curtailment of his own role in government and put an end to the council in 1502. Therefore, it seems that Charles did not have as much power in government that other rulers enjoyed and it seemed that things would remain that way. This would have been a worry for Charles. This would make it difficult for him to pass legislation over the whole Empire and have an imperial army or an established system of imperial taxation.
The Princes were a problem towards Charles. Their powers had increased throughout the fifteenth century and most controlled the administration of justice within their own lands. Furthermore, some of the more powerful princes had begun to acquire the resources normally associated with the monarchies of the period. For example, they attracted the lesser nobility to their courts for employment. Moreover, the system of Imperial Leagues (Germany was divided into ten Imperial Leagues with the princes and cities given collective responsibility for law and order) further enforced the role of the princes.
To make matters worse for Charles, he had only been promised the support of Germany’s electoral prices in his bid to become Holy Roman Emperor if he signed a solemn undertaking, or ‘capitulation’. In it he promised to respect the laws and customs of the Empire, not to employ foreigners and to maintain German and Latin as the official languages of government. Therefore, it was evident from the beginning of Charles’ reign that the wishes of the German princes could not be ignored. Therefore, it seems that the princes were a threat to Charles’s power.
The imperial knights were also a potential threat towards Charles. They were proud of their independence and had suffered acute economic difficulties as the German agrarian economy faltered in the fifteenth century. This meant that there was always the chance of them rebelling or giving support to another rebellion. However, the imperial knights had generally shown loyalty to the Emperor in the past.
Although there were two powerful groups (the princes and the imperial knights) that could be a threat towards Charles, the situation was not hopeless. The Emperor enjoyed the allegiance of the Imperial Free Cities, of which there were about 80. This meant that Charles had some support, although their allegiance was largely nominal and they were accustomed to running their own affairs.
It is debatable whether Luther was a problem for Charles on his accesssion. Before, Charles became Holy Roman Emperor, Luther had begun his initial protest with the publication of the Ninety-Five Theses on 31 October 1517. He also had the support of Frederick of Saxony and had already been summoned to Augsburg in October 15118 to meet with the papal legate in Germany, Cardinal Cajetan, who appealed to him not to disturb the peace of the Church. Hence, Luther must have posed some threat. However, Lutheranism had not yet developed into the powerful force that it was to become.
Most of Charles’ worries were inter-linked. For example, Lutheranism could be considered a threat because the Emperor had no standing army and, if the threat developed, it would be hard to put down. Therefore, it is hard to say what was Charles’s largest worry.
However, overall, it is debatable whether the worries of the Empire were a problem to Charles. It seems that the empire entailed far more responsibilities than privileges since the title brought with it no actual power, only prestige, and, therefore, his other dominions could have been considered to be more important. Therefore, it can be claimed that none of Empire’s problems were as big a worry for Charles.
