Aulic Council

A meeting of the Aulic Council, ca. 1700.

The Aulic Council (from the Latin aula, court in feudal language, in antiquity a hellenistic type of grand residence, usually private) was originally an executive-judicial council for the Holy Roman Empire.

Known in German as the Reichshofrat (literally meaning Court Council of the Empire) it was one of the two supreme courts of the Empire, the other being the Imperial Chamber Court (German: Reichskammergericht). It had not only concurrent jurisdiction with the latter court, but in many cases exclusive jurisdiction, in all feudal processes, and in criminal affairs, over the immediate feudatories of the Emperor and in affairs which concerned the Imperial Government.

Originating during the later Middle Ages as a paid Council of the Emperor, it was organized in its later form by Maximilian I in 1497, as a rival to the Imperial Chamber Court, which the Imperial Diet had forced upon him. It was composed of a president, a vice-president, a vice-chancellor, and 18 councillors, who were all chosen and paid by the Emperor, with the exception of the vice-chancellor, who was appointed by the Elector of Mainz. Of the 18 councilors, six were Protestants, whose votes, when they were unanimous, were an effective veto, so that a religious parity was to some extent preserved. The seat of the Aulic Council was at the Imperial residence, in Vienna. On the death of the Emperor, the Council was dissolved and had to be reconstructed by his successor.

Napoleon I's gains after the Battle of Austerlitz and the Peace of Pressburg culminated in the end of the Holy Roman Empire, and the Aulic Council ceased to exist in 1806 as an imperial institution. A war council of the same name was created in the Austrian Empire.

External links

• Order of the Aulic Council of March 16th, 1654 in full-text (in German)

Sources and references

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Gilman, D. C.; Thurston, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905). "Aulic Council". New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Aulic Council". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. (more to be worked in)