Bergregal

The Bergregal, or Bergwerksregal, was the historic right of ownership of untapped mineral resources in parts of German-speaking Europe; ownership of the Bergregal meant entitlement to the rights and royalties from mining (Berg in this context = "mining" and regal = "regale" or "right" as in droit de régale). Historically, it was one of those regalia, or privileges, that originally constituted the sovereign rights of the king (Berghoheit or "mining sovereignty"). In addition to the Bergregal there was also the Münzregal or "minting rights", an important sovereign privilege, which was a consequence of the Bergregal, since coins were minted near the mines from which their metal was obtained.

In the early days of the Roman Empire, the landowner had the right to extract minerals. The reason behind this was that mineral resources were seen as "fruit of the soil" which were deemed to belong the landowner. The first regalia, or royal privileges, emerged in the first millennium, but there was still no Bergregal governing mining rights as part of the laws regulating property. Emperors and kings, the nobility or clerics who ruled over a territory, established this right for themselves, based on their ownership of land and the mineral resources found therein. This was easy for the king or territorial princes because, as a rule, they were the actual landowners. But it was often political and economic circumstances rather than law and statute that were instrumental in the establishment of the Bergregal.

The Emperor, Barbarossa, had the Bergregal recorded in writing for the first time in Germany as part of the Roncaglian Constitution in 1158. This effectively removed the right to extract minerals from the landowner who, from then on, had to purchase such rights from the king. As a result of the Roncaglian Constitution, mining rights passed over time into the hands of the territorial lords. This led to arbitrary presumptions of rights by these territorial princes. Because of Kleinstaaterei – the plethora of minor states – and the special position of ecclesiastical principalities in the Holy Roman Empire, enforcement of the Bergregal by the emperor was virtually impossible. and so, in many cases, it was given to the princes. For example, Frederick I vested this privilege in Otto the Rich, the Margrave of Meissen. Likewise, the Bishop of Chur was given the Bergregal in 1349 and the King of Bohemia already received these rights even before the Golden Bull was issued.

...
Wikipedia