Richard C. Schlag

Research Topic

The Exercise of Emperorship in the Late Medieval German Lands: Monarchical Authority, Conflict Management, and the Common Weal, 1452-1477

Thesis was submitted on 11 October 2025. 

My doctoral thesis investigates and seeks to highlight the importance of the imperial monarchy in the politics and governance of the Holy Roman Empire in the late fifteenth century. I explore this theme through the lens of political, jurisdictional, and military conflicts within and between the principalities and aristocratic factions of the Empire. The focus of my research is a granular analysis of a twenty-five-year period of the reign of Emperor Friedrich III of Habsburg during which crucial power struggles and political debates reverberated through the Empire and were met with increasingly effective policies and initiatives on the part of the emperor and his officials and affinity. My research aims to re-evaluate the relationship between local and territorial politics and the crown in the late medieval Empire, to challenge established narratives of the marginality of the late medieval imperial monarchy, and to reconsider and de-emphasize the importance of dynastic and princely politics which dominate the historiographical literature.

Supervisor: Professor John Watts

Conference, Workshop, and Seminar Papers

Imperial, episcopal, and communal authority during the Cologne diocesan feud and the renegotiation of power in the Lower Rhine region, circa 1465-1480 - Workshop Negotiating Power: Political interactions in late medieval communities (1200-1600), KU Leuven, 19 May 2022 

Urban Jurisdictional Conflict, Political Networks, and the Imperial Government in the Fifteenth Century Holy Roman Empire - The Voices of the People. Democratic Participation in European Urban Centers in the Late Middle Ages Conference, University of Lisbon, 25 May 2023