Mediatization, defined broadly, is the subsumation of one monarchy into another monarchy in such a way that the ruler of the annexed state keeps his or her sovereign title and, sometimes, a measure of local power. A monarchy is a Form of government in which supreme power is actually or nominally lodged in an individual who is the Head of state, often for life or For instance: when a sovereign county is annexed to a larger principality, its reigning count might find himself subordinated to a prince, but nevertheless remains a count, and one of sovereign rank, if not actually fully sovereign in deed. A county is a Land area of Regional Government within a larger State. A principality (or princedom) is a monarchical feudatory or Sovereign state, ruled or reigned over by a monarch with the title of Prince His subjects exercise their allegiance to the higher prince through him, and so his sovereignity is said to be mediatised, as in, "through the medium of".

The term "mediatization" was originally applied to the reorganization of the German states during the early 19th century, although the process had been going on since the Middle Ages. Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. The 19th century of the Common Era began on January 1, 1801 and ended on December 31, 1900, according to the Gregorian calendar Mediatization has occurred in a number of other countries: Italy (e. Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest g. , Orsini, Doria, Pallavicini), Russia (e. The Orsini family was one of the most celebrated princely families in medieval Italy and Renaissance Rome, and which in former times had large possessions Doria, originally de Auria (from de filiis Auriae) meaning "the sons of Auria" and then de Oria or d'Oria, is the name of an old The Pallavicini, Pallavicino, and sometimes Paravicino, or Paravicini, were an Italian noble family descended from Oberto I (died Russia (Россия Rossiya) or the Russian Federation ( Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) is a transcontinental Country extending g. , Sibirsky, Vorotynsky), and France (e. Sibirsky ( Russian: Сибирский, pl Сибирские) was the foremost of many Genghisid ( Shaybanid) families formerly living Vorotynsky was one of the most eminent Rurikid princely houses of Muscovite Russia. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. g. ,Rohan, de Bouillon and Lorraine) are notable examples. See Rohan (disambiguation for other uses of the word The house of Rohan was a family of Viscounts later Dukes and Bouillon is a Municipality of Belgium. It lies in the country's Walloon Region and Luxembourg Province.

Mediatized sovereign houses rank higher than other houses of nominally equal (or higher) rank, but who never ruled a state. This division had great social significance, as mediatized princes were considered equal to royals for marriage purposes; in essence they were regarded as royalty. Thus if a scion from the most obscure mediatized family (say the child of an impoverished mediatized count) married an emperor or a king, their alliance was considered equal, not morganatic, and their children could inherit dynastic rights. A morganatic marriage is a type of Marriage which can be contracted in certain countries usually between people of unequal Social rank, which prevents the passage Thus the children of Ernst Count zu Lippe-Biesterfeld, though the children of a Count, were called princes, and the son of his second son, Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld, was fit to marry Juliana, Crown Princess, later Queen, of the Netherlands and their eldest daughter, Beatrix, today occupies the Dutch throne. Lippe-Biesterfeld was a line of the House of Lippe that received sovereign status on 25 October 1905. Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands (29 June 1911 in Jena – 1 December 2004 in Utrecht) Prince of Lippe-Biesterfeld born HSH Count Bernhard Leopold Friedrich Juliana (Juliana Emma Louise Marie Wilhelmina van Oranje-Nassau 30 April 1909 &ndash 20 March 2004) was Queen regnant of the

This is one of the reasons why so many monarchs married German princes: German mediatized families were especially abundant.

The authoritative guide to the royal and noble houses of Europe, the Almanach de Gotha, is divided into three sections: sovereign houses, mediatized houses, and other noble houses. The Almanach de Gotha, was a respected directory of Europe's highest Nobility and Royalty.

Holy Roman Empire

Main article: German Mediatisation

Between 1803 and 1806, the vast majority of the states of the Holy Roman Empire were mediatized by Napoleon. The German Mediatisation was the series of mediatisations and secularisations that occurred in Germany in 1795 &ndash 1814, during 1803 ( MDCCCIII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Year 1806 ( MDCCCVI) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common The Holy Roman Empire ( HRE; German Heiliges Römisches Reich (HRR, Latin Sacrum Romanum Imperium (SRI was a union of territories in These states lost their Reichsunmittelbarkeit ("imperial immediacy") and became part of other states. Imperial immediacy (Reichsfreiheit or Reichsunmittelbarkeit) was a privileged feudal and political status a form of statehood which a City, religious The number of states was reduced from about three hundred to about thirty. Mediatization went along with secularization: the abolition of most of the ecclesiastic states. Secularization or secularisation generally refers to the process of transformation by which a Society migrates from close identification with religious institutions Ecclesiology (from Greek grc ἐκκλησίᾱ ekklēsiā, "congregation church" and grc -λογία -logia) is the study of the

The legal basis for mediatization was the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss of 1803, which had become necessary under pressure from France. The German Mediatisation was the series of mediatisations and secularisations that occurred in Germany in 1795 &ndash 1814, during 1803 ( MDCCCIII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. The Treaty of the Confederation of the Rhine of 1806 continued the process of mediatization. The Confederation of the Rhine or Rhine Confederation (Rheinbund États confédérés du Rhin officially and Confédération du Rhin in practice) lasted Year 1806 ( MDCCCVI) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common The constitution of the German Confederation of 1815 confirmed the mediatization, but gave certain rights to the mediatized princes, such as first instance jurisdiction. The German Confederation (Deutscher Bund was the association of Central European states created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 to serve as the successor to Year 1815 ( MDCCCXV) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year The European Court of First Instance, created in 1989 is a court of the European Union.

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom there were no mediatized families, as the United Kingdom and its predecessor monarchies had been relatively centralised since medieval times. Consequently no British people outside of the royal family itself were eligible to contract equal marriages with members of royal families of countries in which the distinction between mediatized and non-mediatized nobles was observed. An English duke might be many times richer than a minor German mediatized prince, his title was theoretically equal, and his political power might be greater — but the German prince and his children counted as royalty, and the Englishman and his children did not. This meant for example that the English duke's daughter would be too low in rank to marry the German prince as an equal.

Morganatic marriage does not exist in English law, and the British royal family and British aristocracy, while traditionally concerned with rank, often adopted a far more flexible attitude than their counterparts in many Continental European countries. A morganatic marriage is a type of Marriage which can be contracted in certain countries usually between people of unequal Social rank, which prevents the passage Queen Victoria allowed her daughter Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll to contract an equal marriage with a non-mediatized noble (the Duke of Argyll) in 1871, which would have been completely out of the question for a member of any continental sovereign house at that time. Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901 was from 20 June 1837 the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland The Princess Louise (Louise Caroline Alberta Marchioness of Lorne and Duchess of Argyll by marriage 18 March 1848 &ndash 3 December 1939 was a member of the When Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, another non-mediatized noble, became queen consort of England in 1936 her rank wasn't an issue at all, though it would have been an insurmountable obstacle to her elevation in some European countries. Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (Elizabeth Angela Marguerite 4 August 1900 &ndash 30 March 2002 was the Queen Consort of King George A queen consort is the title given to the wife of a reigning king.

Within the British aristocracy no stigma was attached to marrying a partner from a non-noble background, provided that he or she was upper class (which in this context meant anyone from or closely allied to an aristocratic or gentry landowning family). Is a concept in Sociology that refers to the group of people at the top of a Social hierarchy. Landed gentry is a term traditionally applied in Britain to those people of a certain type and education who possess land in the form of country estates often (but

See also

• Mediatized houses - a list of German mediatized princely houses. The German Mediatisation was the series of mediatisations and secularisations that occurred in Germany in 1795 &ndash 1814, during