Free City of Frankfurt Freie Stadt Frankfurt | ||||||
State of the Holy Roman Empire | ||||||
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Location of Frankfurt within
the Holy Roman Empire | ||||||
Capital | Frankfurt am Main | |||||
Languages | Hessian (German) | |||||
Government | Republic | |||||
History | ||||||
- | Established | 1372 | ||||
- | Gained Imperial immediacy | |||||
- | Disestablished | N/A | ||||
Population | ||||||
- | est. | 91,150 |
The Free Imperial City of Frankfurt (German: Freie Reichsstadt Frankfurt) was an Imperial Free City in the Holy Roman Empire centered around the titular city of Frankfurt. Frankfurt was a major city of the Holy Roman Empire, being the seat of imperial elections since 885, was often the city for imperial coronations, and after the reforms of Henry VIII became the de facto capital of the Empire. Frankfurt was declared an Imperial Free City (Reichsstadt) in 1372, making the city an entity of Imperial immediacy, meaning immediately subordinate to the Holy Roman Emperor and not to a regional ruler or a local nobleman.
The city of Frankfurt would have various leadership structures, the most durable of which began in 1311 and saw the city with two mayors: Senior Mayor (Ältere Bürgermeister) and Junior Mayor (Jüngere Bürgermeister). The city's 42 councilors were in charge of elections using a balloting procedure. Re-election was possible, but not in the year immediately following, although this rule was sometimes suspended during rare emergencies. Despite the name, the title of Senior and Junior had nothing to do with the age or seniority of the incumbent, but referred to the traditional division of responsibilities between the departments. The senior mayor always came from the jury and chaired the council representing the city externally, and so he was regarded as the head of state.
History[]
Forty Years' War[]

Salentin von Isenburg, the elderly Senior Mayor

Isaac Grieff, the untested Junior Mayor
During the Forty Years' War Frankfurt played a pivotal role in the beginning of the conflict, leading some historians to nickname the earliest phase of the war the Frankfurter Phase. The war was directly sparked by the Imperial Election of 1596, which took place at an assembly in Frankfurt. After a deadlock among the electors assembled in the city, religious violence in the city helped to galvanize the two emerging factions. Unable to find a suitable candidate for Emperor that would satisfy both Catholics and Jungists, each group instead sought to elect their own respective emperor. The city of Frankfurt would become the first battleground of the war, much to the distress of Senior Mayor Salentin von Isenburg and Junior Mayor Isaac Greiff.
The city of Frankfurt was officially Jungist, having adopted the Jungist church in 1516, and the church was financially and administratively intertwined with city budget and government. The Jungist citizens within the city walls formed a uniform Jungist congregation, while those Jungists living in neighboring villages in the countryside under city-state rule formed separate entities, administered by the city not by congregational bodies. All Jungist churches within the walls were owned by the city and gratuitously used by the uniform congregation. Despite this, the city was also largely surrounded by Catholic states, most notably the Archbishopric of Mainz. The city's policy during much of the Protestant Reformation had been of neutrality, but the city struggled to contain fighting in the early days of the war.
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