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Law-ref.org | TREATY OF WESTPHALIA |
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... According to this foundation of reciprocal Amity,
and a general Amnesty, all and every one of the Electors of the sacred
Roman Empire, the Princes and States (therein comprehending the Nobility,
which depend immediately on the Empire) their Vassals, Subjects, Citizens,
Inhabitants (to whom on the account of the Bohemian or German Troubles
or Alliances, contracted here and there, might have been done by the one
Party or the other, any Prejudice or Damage in any manner, or under what
pretence soever, as well in their Lordships, their fiefs, Underfiefs, Allodations,
as in their Dignitys, Immunitys, Rights and Privileges) shall be fully
re-establish’d on the one side and the other, in the Ecclesiastick or Laick
State, which they enjoy’d, or could lawfully enjoy, notwithstanding any
Alterations, which have been made in the mean time to the contrary. ...
... And as His Imperial Majesty, upon Complaints made
in the name of the City of Basle, and of all Switzerland, in the presence
of their Plenipotentiarys deputed to the present Assembly, touching some
Procedures and Executions proceeding from the Imperial Chamber against
the said City, and the other united Cantons of the Swiss Country, and their
Citizens and Subjects having demanded the Advice of the States of the Empire
and their Council; these have, by a Decree of the 14th of May of the last
Year, declared the said City of Basle, and the other Swiss-Cantons, to
be as it were in possession of their full Liberty and Exemption of the
Empire; so that they are no ways subject to the Judicatures, or Judgments
of the Empire, and it was thought convenient to insert the same in this
Treaty of Peace, and confirm it, and thereby to make void and annul all
such Procedures and Arrests given on this Account in what form soever. ...
... That all the Vassals, Subjects, Citizens and Inhabitants,
as well on this as the other side the Rhine, who were subject to the House
of Austria, or who depended immediately on the Empire, or who acknowledg’d
for Superiors the other Orders of the Empire, notwithstanding all Confiscations,
Transferrings, Donations made by any Captains or Generals of the Swedish
Troops, or Confederates, since the taking of the Province, and ratify’d
by the most Christian King, or decreed by his own particular Motion; immediately
after the Publication of Peace, shall be restor’d to the possession of
their Goods, immovable and stable, also to their Farms, Castles, Villages,
Lands, and Possessions, without any exception upon the account of Expences
and Compensation of Charges, which the modern Possessors may alledge, and
without Restitution of Movables or Fruits gather’d in. ...
... That it shall not for the future, or at present,
prove to the damage and prejudice of any Town, that has been taken and
kept by the one or other Party; but that all and every one of them, with
their Citizens and Inhabitants, shall enjoy as well the general Benefit
of the Amnesty, as the rest of this Pacification. And for the Remainder
of their Rights and Privileges, Ecclesiastical and Secular, which they
enjoy’d before these Troubles, they shall be maintain’d therein; save,
nevertheless the Rights of Sovereignty, and what depends thereon, for the
Lords to whom they belong. ...