imperial circle of the Holy Roman Empire

During the early modern period, the Holy Roman Empire was divided into imperial circles (, ; singular: , ), administrative groupings whose primary purposes were the organization of common defensive structure and the collection of imperial taxes. They were also used as a means of organization within the Imperial Diet and the Imperial Chamber Court. Each circle had a circle diet, although not every member of the circle diet would hold membership of the Imperial Diet as well. Six imperial circles were introduced at the Diet of Augsburg in 1500. In 1512, three more circles were added, and the large Saxon Circle was split into two, so that from 1512 until the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire in the Napoleonic era, there were ten imperial circles. The Crown of Bohemia, the Swiss Confederacy and Italy remained unencircled, as did various minor territories which held imperial immediacy. Formation Initially the 1500 Diet of Augsburg set up six imperial circles as part of the Imperial Reform: the Bavarian Circle the Franconian Circle the Saxon Circle the Swabian Circle the Upper Rhenish Circle the Lower Rhenish-Westphalian Circle Originally, the territories held by the Habsburg dynasty and the electors remained unencircled. In 1512, the Diet at Trier and Cologne organized these lands into three more circles: the Austrian Circle, including the Habsburg territories inherited by Maximilian I the Burgundian Circle, including the patrimony of Maximilian's late wife, Mary of Burgundy the Electoral Rhenish Circle, including the ecclesiastical Electorates of Mainz, Cologne and Trier, and the secular Electorate of the Palatinate. Also, the Saxon Circle was divided into: the Lower Saxon Circle the Upper Saxon Circle, including the Electorates of Saxony and Brandenburg