[January 15th, 1511]

Called in late 1509, the Diet of Constance finalized its voting on the slate of proposed reforms mere days before Christmas, concluding in finality on December 23rd, 1511. It reconvened briefly on December 30th to hear a speech from the Elector of Cologne who had been given the floor by the Emperor to discuss charity that the Archbishop had recently been undertaking.

The slate of reforms passed in this diet are as follows;

Free City Representation

10 seats will be added to the Princes’ College consisting of representatives of the Free and Imperial Cities of the Empire.

Each of the Free and Imperial Cities of the six original circles will elect one representative among them.

Three representatives will be elected by the Cities at large.

The final representative will rotate between Hamburg, Lubeck, and Bremen.

The New Reichskreis

An Austrian Circle will be created, utilizing the same borders detailed in the previous proposals. It will be structured the same as the other diets; a council of three will be chosen. Due to an admitted lack of immediate Princes in the area, the young Ferdinand of Austria will be made Count of Tyrol. Due to both his young age and royal duties pertaining to Burgundy, he will be placed under a regency whom will assume the duties of representing the Count both on the Circle Diet and in the Reichsregiment until such a time Ferdinand comes of age.

Each Circle Council will have three members: one permanent member and two elected members. The Electors will be removed from the Circles entirely, holding permanent Reichsregiment seats and being responsible for collections of soldiers, taxes, and dispensing justice within their own lands and vassals. In the existing circles, the two elected members will be elected as follows: The College of Princes of each Circle Diet will elect one Prince to represent them on the Circle Council. If the Permanent member of the Circle Council is secular, this prince must be ecclesiastical. If the permanent member is ecclesiastical, this Prince must be secular. The College of sub-Princes (made up of Cities, counts, and Imperial abbeys) will elect one other representative to the Circle Council. This representative can be a Prince, a noble, a bishop, a city, or any estate with Immediacy.

Circle Elections for the two elected seats occur once every two years.

The permanent member of each Circle will be determined by the three ecclesiastical electors; Mainz, Trier, and Cologne. In the event they are unable to reach a consensus on a proper candidate, the decision falls to the Emperor. Consensus is defined as simple majority.

The three members of the Circle Council must choose between the three of them who will be Circle Head. If the Circle Council is deadlocked, the Emperor will appoint one of the three as Circle Head. The Circle Head must be capable of keeping the peace and enforcing the law within the Circle (i.e. he has to have enough money to raise a sizable army), and failure to do so is grounds for removal from the Circle Council. If a Permanent member of a Circle Council is removed from that position by the courts, he must be replaced with a different permanent member at the next Diet. With these changes, the Reichsregiment will now consist of 15 members with 15 equal votes: one representative of the Emperor, one representative of the each of the seven Electors, one representative of each of the seven Circle Councils (controlled by the Circle Head).

Each Prince constituent to each Circle maintains the right to challenge the Circle Head’s fitness to run the office before the Reichskammergericht at any moment. If a Prince issues a challenge and fails, that Prince will not be allowed to challenge Circle leadership for a period of 5 years. The Circle Head will be protected from challenges by other Princes for the duration of the court case plus a period of 6 months afterward. A ‘challenge’, if successful, would remove the current Circle Head from their position and the Circle Diet. If that member is a Permanent member, a new one will be picked by the three ecclesiastical Electors with the previous Circle Head disallowed to be chosen. If that member is a non-permanent member they will be elected as normal.

The Circles will be as follows;

• Saxon Circle

• Westphalian Circle

• Franconian Circle

• Swabian Circle

• Bavarian Circle

• Austrian Circle

• Lower Rhenish Circle

Pretend Trent is circled in Austria in this map

Reichspfenning and Reichskammergericht Reform

A new tax - the Reichspfennig - will be implemented to pay for the operations of the RKG and RR. It will be a direct tax like the Common Penny but at a much lower rate. (This is basically the historical Kammerzieler but under a different name because it is also paying for the RR).

The collection of the tax will be placed under the control of a Pfennigmeister, headquartered in Frankfurt and appointed by the RR. The Pfennigmeister has the authority to raise the tax as needed if the cost of administration for the RKG or RR increase, although such tax increases can be vetoed by either the RR or the Emperor.

The number of judges on the RKG will be increased from one to three. These three judges will be appointed by the Emperor.

The number of assessors on the RKG will be increased from 16 to 22. Each Circle Council will appoint two assessors from their own circle, each Elector will appoint one assessor and the Emperor will appoint one additional assessor (every player on the RR gets to control one assessor, and there are some controlled by those players who are on Circle Councils but not on the RR).

Every time a case is placed before the RKG, the three judges determine amongst themselves who is the best placed to judge the case without bias. The three judges will also choose 5 of the 22 assessors to hear the case. These should again be chosen to avoid judicial bias. If the judges are deadlocked, the RR will determine which judge should president over the case.

If there is no plaintiff able to serve as prosecutor, the Emperor will choose one of the assessors not already hearing the case to serve in that role.

The assessors will determine, by vote amongst themselves, whether the accused is guilty or innocent. The judge will determine the sentence.