Page "Imperial Reform" Paragraph 4

Maximilian I of Habsburg, elected King of the Romans since 1493, after 1477 had to defend his claims to the heritage of his deceased wife Mary of Burgundy against intriguing Louis XI of France, while subsequent to the 1453 Fall of Constantinople the expansion of the Ottoman Empire on the Balkans proceeded.

At the 1495 diet Maximilian asked the representatives of the estates not only for contributions, but also for the implementation of an imperial tax and commitment in troops.

The deputies, led by Chancellor Bertold von Henneberg-Römhild, the Archbishop of Mainz, in principle agreed on a Common Penny ( Gemeiner Pfennig ) tax paid directly to the Empire but in return set conditions: