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When theImperial Circles (Latin:Circuli imperii;German:Reichskreise) — comprising a regional grouping of territories of theHoly Roman Empire — were created as part of theImperial Reform at the 1500Diet of Augsburg, many Imperial territories remained unencircled.
Initially six circles were established in order to secure and enforce thePublic Peace (Landfrieden) declared by EmperorMaximilian I and the jurisdiction of theReichskammergericht. They did not incorporate the territories of thePrince-electors and theAustrian homelands of the rulingHouse of Habsburg. Only at the 1512 Diet ofTrier were these estates (except for theKingdom of Bohemia) included in the newly implementedBurgundian,Austrian,Upper Saxon, andElectoral Rhenish circles, confirmed by the 1521Diet of Worms.
After 1512, the bulk of the remaining territories not comprised by Imperial Circles were thelands of the Bohemian crown, theOld Swiss Confederacy and theItalian territories (the exceptions wereSavoy, Piedmont, Nice, and Aosta, which were part of the Upper Rhenish Circle). Besides these, there were also a considerable number of minor territories which retainedimperial immediacy, such as individualImperial Villages (Reichsdörfer), and the lands held by individualImperial Knights (Reichsritter).
TheOld Swiss Confederacy remained part of the Holy Roman Empire until 1648, when it gained formal independence in thePeace of Westphalia.
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