As the Empire emerged from the
medieval era, immediate counts were definitively excluded from possessing the individual seat and vote (
Virilstimme) in the Diet that belonged to electors and princes. In order, however, to further their political interests more effectively and to preserve their independence, the imperial counts organized regional associations and held ("countly councils"). In the Imperial Diet, starting in the 16th century, and consistently from the
Perpetual Diet (1663–1806), the imperial counts were grouped into "imperial
comital associations" known as
Grafenbänke. Early in the 16th century, such associations were formed in
Wetterau and
Swabia. The
Franconian association was created in 1640, the
Westphalian association in 1653. They participated with the emperor, electors and princes in ruling the Empire by virtue of being entitled to a seat on one of the Counts' benches (
Grafenbank) in the Diet. Each "bench" was entitled to exercise one collective vote (
Kuriatstimme) in the Diet and each comital family was allowed to cast one fractional vote toward a bench's vote: A majority of fractional votes determined how that bench's vote would be cast on any issue before the Diet. Four benches were recognised (membership in each being determined by which quadrant of the Empire a count's fief lay within). By being seated and allowed to cast a shared vote on a Count's bench an imperial count obtained, the "seat and vote" within the Imperial Diet which, combined with
Imperial immediacy, made of his chief land holding an
Imperial estate (
Reichsstand) and conferred upon him and his family the status of
Landeshoheit, i.e. the semi-sovereignty which distinguished Germany and Austria's high nobility (the
Hochadel) from the lower nobility (
Niederadel), who had no representation in the Diet and usually answered to an over-lord. Thus the
reichsständische imperial counts pegged their interests and status to those of the imperial princes. In 1521 there were 144 imperial counts; by 1792 only 99 were left. The decrease reflected elevations to higher title, extinction of the male line, and purchase or annexation (outright or by the subordination known as
mediatisation) by more powerful imperial princes. In 1792 there were four associations (benches) of counties contributing the votes of 99 families to the Diet's
Reichsfürstenrat: • the
Lower Rhenish-Westphalian Association of Imperial Counts, with 33 members • the
Wetterau Association of Imperial Counts, with 25 members • the
Swabian Association of Imperial Counts, with 24 members • the
Franconian Association of Imperial Counts, with 17 members By the
Treaty of Lunéville of 1800, princely domains west of the
Rhine River were annexed to
France, including imperial counts. In the
Final Recess of the Imperial Delegation of 1803, those deemed to have resisted the French were compensated with secularized Church lands and
free cities. Some of the counts, such as
Aspremont-Lynden, were generously compensated. Others, such as
Leyen, were denied compensation due to failure to resist the French. By 1806,
Napoleon's re-organisation of the continental map squeezed not only all imperial counts but most princes out of existence as quasi-independent entities by the time of the Holy Roman Empire. Each was annexed by its largest German neighbor, although many were swapped by one sovereign to another as they sought to shape more cohesive borders or lucrative markets. In 1815 the
Congress of Vienna sought to turn back the clock on the
French Revolution's politics, but not on the winnowing of Germany's ruling dynasties and myriad maps. The imperial counts and princes were compensated for the loss of their rights as rulers with largely symbolic privileges, gradually eroded but not extinguished until 1918, including
Ebenbürtigkeit; the right to inter-marry with Germany's (and, by extension, Europe's) still reigning dynasties, a prerogative most
reichsunmittelbar families had enjoyed prior to
mediatisation. A few counties had been elevated to
principalities by Napoleon. Most of these were also mediatised by the Congress of Vienna. A few of their dynasties held on to their sovereignty until 1918:
Lippe,
Reuß,
Schwarzburg and
Waldeck-Pyrmont. == Status of Imperial count ==