!!!Privilegium maius

Privilegium maius (Grosser Freiheitsbrief), forged charter 
commissioned by Duke Rudolf IV and fabricated in 1359, by which 
he claimed enormous privileges: holding of fiefs in his land, 
sovereignty symbols (crown and sceptre), administration of justice 
without appeal to the emperor, succession as defined by primogeniture 
and in the female line. The Duchy of Austria and the domains connected 
to it were to be indivisible, compulsory military service against 
Hungary with only 12 men for the period of one month. At ceremonies 
the duke was to be considered an archduke palatine and be seated to 
the Emperor´s right, directly after the electors. The object of 
the forgery was to reduce the duties of the imperial princes. 
Altogether Rudolf IV had 5 documents forged, the so-called 
Henricianum (dated 1056) even includes documents allegedly dating back 
to Julius Caesar and Emperor Nero.

\\
On F. Petrarca´s advice, Emperor Karl IV was not prepared 
to accept the Privilegium maius but it was sanctioned by 
Friedrich III as King in 1442 and as Emperor in 1453. 
Rudolf II confirmed the document in 1599 and Karl VI in 
1729. The Privilegium maius lost its constitutional significance in 
1804 and the documents were exposed as forgeries by W. Wattenbach in 
1856.

!Literature
A. Lhotsky, Das Privilegium maius, Geschichte einer 
Urkunde, 1957.


%%language
[Back to the Austrian Version|AEIOU/Privilegium_maius|class='wikipage austrian']
%%

[{FreezeArticle author='AEIOU' template='Lexikon_1995_englisch'}]
[{ALLOW view All}][{ALLOW comment All}][{ALLOW edit FreezeAdmin}]