Golden Bull of 1356

Golden Bull of 1356
The golden seal that earned the decree the name
Created	January 10, 1356 (chapters 1-23); December 25, 1356 (chapters 24-31)
Location	Austrian State Archives, Vienna (Bohemian and Mainz editions); Academic library of the Darmstadt University of Technology (Cologne edition); Bavarian State Archives, Munich (Electorate of the Palatinate edition and Nuremberg copy); Baden-Württemberg Main State Archives, Stuttgart (Trier edition); Frankfurt Institute for the History of the City (copy)
Author(s)	Delegates of the Imperial Diet held in Nuremberg and Metz
Purpose	Franchise of the seven Prince-electors voting for the King of the Romans

The Golden Bull of 1356 was a decree issued by the Imperial Diet at Nuremberg and Metz (Diet of Metz (1356/57)) headed by the Emperor Charles IV which fixed, for a period of more than four hundred years, important aspects of the constitutional structure of the Holy Roman Empire. It was named the Golden Bull for the golden seal it carried.

In June 2013 the Golden Bull was included in the UNESCO's Memory of the World Register.

According to the written text of the Golden Bull of 1356

We have promulgated, decreed and recommended for ratification the subjoined laws for the purpose of cherishing unity among the Electors, and of bringing about a unanimous election, and of closing all approach to the aforesaid detestable discord and to the various dangers which arise from it.

Though the election of the King of the Romans by the chief ecclesiastical and secular princes of the Holy Roman Empire was well established, disagreements about the process and papal involvement had repeatedly resulted in controversies, most recently in 1314 when Louis of Bavaria and Frederick of Austria had been elected by opposing sets of electors. Louis, who had eventually subdued his rival's claim on the battlefield, made a first attempt to clarify the process in the Declaration of Rhense of 1338, which renounced any papal involvement and had restricted the right to choose a new king to the prince-electors. The Golden Bull, promulgated by Louis's successor and rival, Charles IV, was more precise in several ways.

Firstly, the Bull explicitly named the seven Prince-electors (Kurfürsten) who were to choose the King and also defined the Reichserzämter, their (largely ceremonial) offices at court: