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Electoral capitulation
(1,006 words)

In the early modern period, a capitulation was generally a document with contractual content that was subdivided into chapters. By means of an electoral capitulation, an electoral body reached an agreement with a future ruler over the rights of his subjects or a special group of them “for the welfare of the empire” [1. 670]. Electoral capitulations were thus an example of a subject-ruler contract under the proto-constitutional states of the early modern period, particularly for European electoral monarchies. Upon the election of the monarch, a documentary replicating ritu…

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Marquardt, Bernd, “Electoral capitulation”, in: Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online, Editors of the English edition: Graeme Dunphy, Andrew Gow. Original German Edition: Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit. Im Auftrag des Kulturwissenschaftlichen Instituts (Essen) und in Verbindung mit den Fachherausgebern herausgegeben von Friedrich Jaeger. Copyright © J.B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung und Carl Ernst Poeschel Verlag GmbH 2005–2012. Consulted online on 19 March 2024 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2352-0272_emho_SIM_029944>
First published online: 2015
First print edition: 20170626



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