Imperial Diet
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Seating plan for the Imperial Diet from a 1675 engraving: Emperor and Prince-electors at the head, secular Princes to the left, ecclesiastical to the right, deputies of Imperial Cities in the foreground.
The Imperial Diet (Latin: Dieta Imperii/Comitium Imperiale) was the deliberative body of the Holy Levantine Empire. It was not initially a legislative body in the contemporary sense for most of its history; its members envisioned it more like a central forum where it was more important to negotiate than to decide. During the 1850s, attempted reforms of the Empire changed the mandate of the Diet into a more modern legislative role, albeit one with limited authority.
Its members were the Imperial Estates, divided into three colleges, the senior most of which was the Collegial Electorate. The Diet as a permanent, regularized institution evolved from the court assembles of the early medieval period. From 1301 until the end of the empire in 1935, it was in permanent session at Corcra (though from 1929 to the end it met in Urceopolis), making it the longest-serving deliberative body in history. Joining the Imperial Estates in 1859 were elected representatives from each of the 35 Imperial Circles.
The Imperial Estates originally had, according to feudal law, no authority above them besides the Emperor of the Levantines (or emperor-elect) himself. The holding of an Imperial Estate entitled one to a vote in the diet. Thus, an individual member might have multiple votes and votes in different colleges. In general, members did not attend the permanent diet at Corcra, but sent representatives instead. The late Imperial Diet was declared to have co-sovereignty with the Emperor in its revitalized, legislative role, but functionally continued to act in accordance with the will of the Emperor, making its authority relatively hollow.
History
The precise role and function of the Imperial Diet changed over the centuries, as did the Empire itself, in that the estates and separate territories gained more and more control of their own affairs at the expense of imperial power. Initially, there was neither a fixed time nor location for the Diet. It started as a convention of the dukes of the old Gaelic tribes that formed the Kingdom of Gallawa when important decisions had to be made, and was probably based on the old Gaelic law whereby each leader relied on the support of his leading men. For example, already under Emperor Conchobar the Great during the march on Urceopolis, the Diet, according to the Royal Levantine Annals, met at Durham in 756 and officially determined laws concerning the subdued Duchy of Yustona and other members of the Latin League.
During the period of the Recess of the Julii, beginning in 1816, members of the Diet from Urcea practiced a form of abstentionism, which ground the proceedings of the institution to a halt. Reforms in the 1840s which dealt with the definition of a legal quorum, ended the stalemate and allowed the proceedings of the Diet to continue. The Urcean delegation would return during the first decade of the 19th century.