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Peace Treaties of Westphalia (October 14/24, 1648)*

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Article I
[Establishment of Peace.] A Christian, universal, and perpetual peace and a true and sincere friendship shall be established between His Holy Imperial Majesty, the House of Austria, and all its allies and adherents and their heirs and successors (principally the Catholic King of Spain and the electors, princes, and estates of the Empire), on the one side, and Her Holy Royal Majesty and the kingdom of Sweden, and all her allies and adherents and their heirs and successors (principally the Most Christian King [of France] and the respective electors, princes, and estates of the Empire), on the other side. This [peace] shall be sincerely and earnestly preserved and upheld, so that each party may promote the benefit, honor, and advantage of the other, whereby the fruits of this peace and friendship shall flourish and bloom again reciprocally between the entire [Holy] Roman Empire and the kingdom of Sweden.

Article II
[Cessation of Hostilities; Amnesty.] That there be, on both sides, a perpetual oblivion and amnesty for all hostile acts committed since the beginning of these troubles in whatever place or manner, by one party or the other, [ . . . ] [so] that all injuries, acts of violence, hostility, damage, and expense, which either side has inflicted on the other, both before and during the war, are—without any regard to persons or things through spoken word, writings, or actions—to be forgotten, to the degree that anything one party could allege of the other on this account is to be buried in perpetual oblivion.

Article III
§1. [Restoration of Rulers’ Rights.] According to this foundation of a general and unlimited amnesty, each and every elector of the Holy Roman Empire, the princes and estates therein included, the nobility that hold [fiefs] immediately of the Empire, (2) their vassals, subjects, citizens and inhabitants [ . . . ] shall be fully re-established on both sides, in the same estate as to both spiritual and temporal rights, which they enjoyed or could by right enjoy before those troubles, notwithstanding all the changes made to the contrary, which shall be annulled and remain void. [ . . . ]

Article IV
[ . . . ] §3. [Bavaria and the Upper Palatinate.] First, as regards the House of Bavaria, the electoral dignity formerly held by the electors Palatine, [ . . . ] and also the entire Upper Palatinate (3) and the county of Cham, with all their appurtenances and regalian and other rights, shall remain in the possession of Duke Maximilian of Bavaria, Count Palatine of the Rhine, and of his children and the entire Wilhelmine line (4) so long as there are male heirs. [ . . . ]




(2) Princes, nobles, urban regimes, monasteries, and other ecclesiastical foundations which stood directly under Imperial authority were said to be “immediate” to the Empire. Nobles, urban regimes, and ecclesiastical institutions which stood under the authority of a territorial prince or an Imperial city, and thus only indirectly under Imperial authority, were said to be “mediate” to the Empire.
(3) A land now in the northeastern area of the state of Bavaria. Its capital lay at Amberg. Regensburg, the only major city in the region, was an Imperial city and thus free of princely jurisdiction. The county of Cham was united politically with the Upper Palatinate.
(4) Wittelsbach dynasty comprised two lines, the senior Palatine and the junior Bavarian (here: Wilhelmine). The two lines shared the titles of Count Palatine of the Rhine and Duke of Bavaria.

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