Duchies of Medieval Germany
Stammesherzogtümer - or as they're known in English, German stem duchies.
In essence, my question relates to how these duchies operated in early, high and even late middle ages. The Holy Roman Empire was a very powerful kingdom (Empire?), but it was made up of all these stem duchies controlled by powerful dukes and barons who supplied both the manpower and the economic wealth that kept the Empire together and allowed the Habsburg Empire to thrive.
Below is a detailed map of the HRE in the year 1400.
How did this whole complex arrangement work?
The map contains at least 40 different duchies, dukedoms, margraviates and small (Italian) republics.
It's fascinatingly remarkable that the HRE was a unified and powerful empire right from Otto the Ist and up to the Napoleonic Wars.
Thoughts?
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