Despite the opposition of two dukes, Laszlo ultimately finalized the resolution to integrate the Austrian exclave into the Swabia region at the Swabia Regional Council.
Next, the new regional division detailed rules only needed to pass the Imperial Diet, and Austria would then gain representation and voting rights in Swabia.
In terms of territory size and the number of votes included, Austria was on par with the merged Duchy of Württemberg, and slightly higher than the Duchy of Baden. However, Württemberg's votes were held separately by a duke and an earl, so in reality, once Austria's representatives joined the Regional Council, they would largely dominate.
Not to mention, the Swabia Knightly Alliance had always welcomed the Emperor's participation.
As for the Free Cities, although most of them in the past hoped to achieve absolute freedom in a practical sense, while nominally submitting to the Emperor for protection, such ideas have undoubtedly been cast aside now.
If they did not fulfill their Free City obligations by paying universal taxes and accepting the Emperor's demands to provide services and support to the Empire, the safety of the Free Cities would never be genuinely guaranteed.
The Rhine City Alliance, which had previously allied with the Swabia City Alliance to resist the Imperial feudal nobility, has now completely fallen into decline after being forced to disband.
Apart from a few powerful Free Cities like Cologne and Frankfurt that maintained their status and endured until their fortunes turned, being incorporated into the Imperial register, many other cities ultimately suffered misfortune.
Just thirty or forty years ago, when the concept of Imperial reform was first proposed but not yet truly implemented and promoted throughout the Empire under the Emperor's leadership, there was a wave of annexation of Imperial cities in the Upper Rhine and Lower Rhine-Westphalia regions.
Powerful local Imperial Princes such as the Duke of Jülich-Berg, the Count of Cleves, and the Archbishop of Mainz often used force to compel the Imperial autonomous cities within their jurisdictions to submit. A recent typical example was the suppression of Mainz's autonomy ten years ago.
Since the main contradictions faced by the Emperors at the time were never regional conflicts and territorial changes within the Empire, these potentially troublesome issues were easily overlooked, and everyone tacitly pretended that nothing had ever happened.
It wasn't until the Emperor truly lifted the threat of the Ottoman and France to the Empire and the Habsburg Family that, when he looked back, only a few members of the former Rhine City Alliance remained.
In the Swabia region, due to its close proximity to the Emperor's territory, the safety of the Free Cities was basically guaranteed.
Moved by the tragic fate of their past allies, the Free Cities of Swabia highly valued the protection offered by the Empire and tried to maintain friendly relations with the Emperor.
Unlike the sparsely populated Free Cities in the northern Empire, which were mainly maintained by the loose Hanseatic League, more than sixty percent of the Empire's Free Cities were concentrated south of the Nuremberg-Frankfurt line. Connected by the Swabian League and the regions, these numerous cities shared very similar demands for important public interests such as order, law, and commercial development.
According to the conclusions reached by the consultants hired by Laszlo, regions with more scattered and weaker territories proved to be more active and easier to control.
Because weak Imperial estates were unable to independently support national-level administrative, financial, judicial, and military institutions, the establishment of regions, to a certain extent, compensated for this shortcoming.
The Swabia region and the Franconia region are typical examples; these two regions are also active promoters of the improvement and refinement of the Imperial administrative district system.
The Upper Rhine Region and the Westphalia Region, being too close to Burgundy and too far from Austria, showed characteristics of emphasizing military cooperation and severe internal fragmentation, a result of geopolitical factors.
From this, one can also glimpse the Imperial subjects' views on the Emperor—compared to the wolf-like, rapidly expanding Burgundy, the Emperor's identity as the Empire's protector has actually gained considerable recognition.
However, after Austrian territory was incorporated into the Swabia region, whether this recognition can continue is questionable.
To appease the Swabia estates, who were restless due to the Emperor's arrival, Laszlo held discussions with them for several days on the topic of detailed rules for regional governance.
Laszlo also carefully listened to the various opinions put forward by the representatives attending the meeting and promised to submit them to the Imperial Diet for discussion after organizing them.
Until the day the Emperor had to continue his journey, there were still many topics that had not been discussed, so much so that the Swabia regional councilors were reluctant to part with the Emperor.
Such a scene made Laszlo feel a bit embarrassed.
"It seems they truly need a framework like the Imperial region to survive. In a sense, they are even more enthusiastic about Imperial reform than Your Majesty."
Archbishop Adolf drew back the curtain, seeing the citizens of Constance and the representatives of the Swabia region lining the streets to bid farewell, and joked with the Emperor.
Laszlo waved his hand in distress; he really couldn't stand the enthusiastic attitude of the Swabia subjects.
In the past, among the petitions sent from the Empire and its subordinate states, the Swabians complained the most, claiming that the Emperor completely ignored their demands.
Now it seems that might actually be the case.
Excluding the few powerful local Imperial Princes who worried about their power being curtailed by the Emperor, the other Swabia Imperial estates were generally very close to him.
Throughout the entire Empire, if anyone took Imperial reform and the Imperial regions most seriously, it was undoubtedly the various Imperial estates of Swabia.
Not to mention the two regions along the Rhine River, which had both internal traitors and external pressures, and intense internal conflicts within the regions.
Bamberg, Würzburg, and the Hohenzollern Family in the Franconia region had been feuding for decades.
Five years ago, the alliance between Bamberg and Würzburg broke down, and their confrontation turned into a three-way balance of power. The Franconia Knightly Alliance and the Teutonic Order territories, nominally directly subordinate to the Emperor, swayed between the various parties.
As for the other regions, Lower Saxony was nonexistent, and the remaining few regions had Electors in charge. Only the Swabia experimental field best fit Laszlo's vision for the Imperial regions, and they happened to understand and accept the Emperor's ideas.
This made Laszlo extremely glad that he had first launched the Imperial reform in Swabia. Now, this region was beginning to play its role in reciprocating the reform and promoting the development and improvement of the Imperial governance system.
It's just a pity that this time he wasn't specifically here to solve Swabia's problems, otherwise he would probably have to stay here for a long time.
"I suppose this is the meaning of the Imperial tour. I will personally go and listen to the demands and aspirations of the Imperial subjects, hoping to rebuild the great Empire," Laszlo remarked thoughtfully.
"The Imperial subjects will surely understand your painstaking efforts, but what I am more concerned about now are the subsequent Imperial reforms. The Swabia Council has put forward many constructive proposals, and you see..."
"We cannot shy away from the trouble when it comes to Imperial reform. I will first screen those proposals, hand over the suitable ones to the Imperial Privy Council for deliberation, and finally submit them to the Imperial Diet for a vote."
Laszlo ignored the Archbishop of Mainz's tired demeanor.
"In position, seek its governance" was his most basic requirement for his subordinates.
Moreover, he had recently issued an edict granting judicial immunity to the Count of Nassau-Wiesbaden.
This Count was Adolf's elder brother, and after receiving this semi-permanent privilege, all cases involving him could only be heard by the Imperial Supreme Court and were not subject to the jurisdiction of any lower courts.
This privilege enhanced the local authority of the House of Nassau in the Upper Rhine Region and solidified the political alliance between the Emperor and the Count of Nassau.
In exchange, Adolf sided with the Habsburg Family at the Electoral Council.
It could be said that from the moment Adolf pledged allegiance to the Emperor, he and the House of Nassau had received numerous favors from the Empire, so when it was time to work, they naturally couldn't shirk.
The Archbishop, well aware of this, could only nod helplessly.
Initially, he heard that he could become a truly
But after all this, he was just organizing the Imperial Privy Council to do hard labor. His power was indeed considerable, but his body couldn't quite handle it.
"Don't worry, although the Swabia Council proposed many suggestions, only a few truly touched upon the crucial points," Laszlo said, comforting Adolf, as he knew his health was gradually deteriorating.
His thoughts returned to the meetings of the past few days, and those complex proposals resurfaced in his mind.
The "Regional Public Order Regulations" was a proposal Laszlo valued highly. Although it was currently only a rough outline, it would inevitably cover all aspects of regional affairs once expanded.
The new regulations would serve as the code of conduct for the regional public security forces—or rather, some of these regulations were formulated based on the current modus operandi of the regional public security forces.
For example, combating bandits and mercenary thugs to protect the safety of pedestrians and merchants, as well as apprehending beggars, vagrants, and gypsies.
These factors disturbing social stability were ended by Swabia's public security judges and military commanders in a very simple and crude manner—arrest, then sell them to Venice, Genoa, or the Hungarian Colonial Office.
Both republics offered high prices. Venice, after its defeat by Austria, had always lacked sufficient oarsmen, so they bought people from the southern regions of the Empire to serve as galley slaves.
The Genoese, on the other hand, could be seen as opening a new business route. In addition to the white slave trade route in the Black Sea, they now opened an Imperial trade route, selling Germans to North Africa for profit.
Laszlo had previously turned a blind eye to these commercial activities, which were detrimental to his image, as land annexation and overpopulation in Swabia had begun to gradually worsen, and continuing would inevitably lead to peasant rebellions.
Although most of the population flowing out of the Empire eventually went to Hungary or the Eastern Empire, some still fell into the hands of the two republics.
As a result, these simpletons from Swabia actually planned to write this blatant human trafficking into the Imperial regulations, which somewhat annoyed him.
Furthermore, the regulations lacked many things, especially content related to caring for the people's livelihood, promoting prosperity, and ensuring public welfare.
Although the Empire's subjects were not directly ruled by him, Laszlo's desire to improve the Empire's current situation was genuine.
Besides this most important new regulation, proposals such as unifying coinage rights and integrating regional customs policies were also quite interesting.
If they could truly be realized at this stage, the situation in the regions should improve significantly.
As for the requests made by several Imperial Princes to emulate Austria in promulgating state laws, Laszlo directly refused them.
They had clearly learned of the Emperor's intention to implement a new legal code throughout the Empire, and thus found this way to express their dissatisfaction and resistance.
The key was that their ideal new law was not the comprehensive collection of customary laws, Charlemagne's edicts, and partially improved Roman law compiled in the "Swabia Code," which had been popular for two hundred years, but rather a law modeled after the "imperial code" that strengthened the power of the Imperial Princes.
In the past, among the German people, law was considered part of the world's operating principles created by God, and thus sacred. It could only be "discovered" and "sought," not created.
Among them, the "Swabia Code," widely circulated in the southern Empire, and the "Saxony Code," popular in the northern Empire, were the great compilations of customary laws from various parts of the Empire.
However, with the advancement of territorialization of the states, the authority of the Imperial Princes in their respective lands was continuously strengthened. What they needed was no longer customary law that constrained and restricted them, but new written laws that fully served their interests.
Generally speaking, the establishment of legislative and judicial power was considered a symbol of the completion of state-building. After this step, a state would become a sovereign state in the true sense, and due to its subordination to the Empire, it effectively became a "sub-state" between an independent sovereign state and a feudal territory.
Laszlo's measures to promote legal reform within the Habsburg territories inadvertently accelerated the disintegration of the customary law system and also showed stronger Imperial Princes the correct path to building "states within a state."
After all, the Habsburg Family had been old hands at building state domains ever since they forged the "Privilegium Maius."
If it weren't for the Imperial Crown returning to the Habsburg Family this century, Austria and Bohemia might not be deeply involved in Imperial affairs now, and would instead be rapidly developing towards complete independence.
So, it was not only the Empire that chose the Habsburgs, but also the Habsburgs who chose the Empire.
As a result, Laszlo's measures, intended to maintain order and strengthen Imperial authority, instead first accelerated the process of state territorialization in the southern Empire.
This tendency was something Laszlo needed to suppress. The method was to extend the new laws applied in Austria and Bohemia to the entire Empire, thereby inhibiting or even reversing the establishment and improvement of the states' own judicial systems.
However, the accumulation of over a hundred years since the promulgation of the golden bull was not something he could easily reverse.
Although Laszlo found this quite troublesome, he did not regret systematically reforming and introducing Roman law into the Empire.
Rational and just laws are the foundation for public power to implement "good governance." Abandoning the promotion of legal reform is equivalent to returning the power of governance to local lords and clergy. Only in the most primitive feudal territories can customary law exist in large quantities. Laszlo would not do such a self-defeating thing.
No one yet knew what future this wave, initiated by him, would lead the Empire to.
Would the various Imperial Princes establish their own states, causing the Empire to completely fragment into a confederation? Or would the Emperor reshape the Imperial order with strong power, making the Empire's glory shine once again?
Laszlo's view on this was simple and clear: it was up to human effort.
If the deep-seated problems were truly irreversible, then he would have no choice but to break the old and establish the new.
With complex emotions, Laszlo bid farewell to Constance and continued his journey along the Rhine River, accompanied by the Swabia Imperial Princes and Free City representatives.
His beloved son, Christopher, who was about to assume the position of "Permanent Vice-Emperor," was awaiting his arrival in Basel.