As early as the
Middle Ages, Franconia had very close links to king and empire. Located between the Rhenish territories of the empire and the
Kingdom of Bohemia, Franconia, which included the former
Duchy of Franconia, had been one of the centres of empire for a long time. By order of Emperor
Louis of Bavaria, Bamberg, Würzburg, Eichstätt and Fulda with the Hohenzollern Burgraves of Nuremberg, Counts of Henneberg, the Castell and Hohenlohe, the three episcopal cities, and the imperial cities of Nuremberg and Rothenburg united for the first time in a
Landfrieden union. But this union (the Franconian
Landfrieden) did not last long; it disintegrated in the face of opposition from cities and princes. On 2 July 1500, at the
Reichstag of Augsburg, the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation was divided into six imperial circles. These first circles were originally numbered, the Franconian Imperial Circle being given the number 1: The circles were later given names that corresponded to their geographical location, which gave rise to the name Franconian Circle, which appeared for the first time in 1522. In the late Middle Ages, Franconia was understood to mean the area between the forested uplands of the
Spessart and the
Steigerwald, mainly comprising the estates of the Bishopric of Würzburg. The imperial circle extended from the
Franconian Saale river to the
Altmühl river and encompassed most of the upper and middle reaches of the
River Main, roughly corresponding to the modern Bavarian provinces of
Upper,
Middle and
Lower Franconia, but without the
Electoral Mainz estates of the Upper Stift around
Aschaffenburg. Using the name Franconia, created an awareness of an inner unity and with an increased sense of togetherness and solidarity which, however, did not exist in the political or sovereign arenas. == Composition ==