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| - In the Holy Roman Empire, a Prince of the Empire was the ruler of a princely state with a corresponding seat in the Imperial Diet. A princely state was a state ruled by a King, Duke, Count Palatine, Prince, Landgrave, Margrave or Princely Count; as well as the Prince-Bishops and a select few abbots and provosts.
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abstract
| - In the Holy Roman Empire, a Prince of the Empire was the ruler of a princely state with a corresponding seat in the Imperial Diet. A princely state was a state ruled by a King, Duke, Count Palatine, Prince, Landgrave, Margrave or Princely Count; as well as the Prince-Bishops and a select few abbots and provosts. The princes held more rights than the other immediate rulers in the empire, save the Electors, and in the Imperial Diet formed a council divided into two benches where each prince held one vote for each territory they ruled. The councils were the Bench of Spiritual Princes (for the Prince-Bishops) and the Bench of Secular Princes (for the noblemen). Furthermore the secular princes divided themselves into two groups: the Old Princes and the New Princes, divided by whether they acquired princely rank before or after the formalising of laws regarding them in 1572. During the Reformation where several prince-bishops were secularised, the imperial diet vote was transferred to the new owner in the Council of Secular Princes.
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