Ep. 225: Imperial Reform 1495 - The Ewige Landfrieden (Public Peace) of 1495

Let me start today’s episode with some outrageous national stereotypes. If an Englishman is disappointed with the way the affairs of state are conducted, he writes a letter to his member of Parliament. A Frenchman in that same situation rents a tractor and dumps manure outside the Palais d’Elysee. A German threatens to file a lawsuit with the constitutional court, the Bundesverfassungsgericht. Where did the Germans pick up the belief that courts and the law will protect them against government overreach? Sure, 19th and early 20th century judges had on occasion stood up to the Kais...