ABSTRACT
In the lands of the Guelph Dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg a vigorous political reorganization seems to have taken place at the beginning of the sixteenth century. From 1495 the Dukes called assemblies of Estates in order to obtain more financial aid for their ambitious military policies, especially those which arose out of the French candidature for the imperial title and out of the civil war called the Hildesheimer Stiftsfehde between members of the Guelph family in 1519–20. At frequent assemblies ducal officials successfully negotiated with prelates, nobles and town councils for extraordinary taxes. In the later fourteenth century and in the fifteenth these taxes had been negotiated in something like a greater ducal council, which was composed of selected members of the Estates, who were at the same time sworn councillors of the Dukes. By the sixteenth century the Estates seem to have lost influence or trust in this council, making it necessary for the Dukes to call assemblies of the Estates seemingly for the first time ever for the purpose of getting consent to taxes. These were then levied as excise on produce and on cattle for a fixed number of years. 1
