The so-called ´Royal Court Book´

The Royal Kammergericht is a preliminary stage to the Reichskammergericht and has long been overshadowed by its successor institution in research. It was not until the studies of Christine Reinle, Friedrich Battenberg, Paul-Joachim Heinig and Bernhard Diestelkamp that it became the focus of research. However, the early days of the Royal Kammergericht in particular, around the middle of the 15th century, remained largely in the dark, when this court stood out clearly against the older court for the first time. In the course of new investigations, the applicant was able to find a previously unknown source. Das Königliche Gerichtsbuch records information on 277 court proceedings, in particular the respective judges and assessors as well as procedural acts such as judgments, testimony or authorizations. The vast majority of the information contained was previously completely unknown to research. This publication offers an edition of this important source in full text. It starts with a foreword by Bernhard Diestelkamp, who underlines the central importance of this source for research. In the extensive analysis that follows, the applicant classifies the book into legal and cultural- historical research. The text of the edition is followed by extensive registers, without which it would hardly be possible to use this manuscript. This integral part of the publication contains a list of the meetings as well as a list of proceedings, which opens up all the entries it contains. In addition to information on parties, procurators and duration, it also contains information on previous instances and commissions, some of which were obtained from other sources. The book concludes with a comprehensive index of places and people, which clearly shows the broad regional distribution of the people listed. This extends from the Hanseatic city of Bremen in the north to the county of Gorizia in the south, from Cambrai in the west to the Teutonic Order in the east. In the context of this publication, the administrative practice at the court of Frederick III. is also analyzed, whereby among other things theses about the intensification of the writing processes in the 15th century or the relationship between Hof- and Kammergericht were put to the test. Last but not least, the focus of the investigation is the specific procedure at the Kammergericht as well as the political relevance of this Court of Justice. Das Königliche Gerichtsbuch, which was made available to research for the first time, is a first-rate source for the legal and administrative history of the late medieval empire, but the 690 entries it contains also offer numerous other, so far completely unknown information on research questions concerning local, social or gender aspects.