The Political Language of Eberhard Windecke
The paper aims to characterise the political vision of Eberhard Windecke (1380-1440), a citizen of Mainz and a man in the service of the German Emperor Sigismund of Luxemburg. The article examines the main notions of his political language and interprets them with the help of historical dictionaries of German language. Windecke used the term rich (realm) to significate the contemporary Holy Roman Empire as a political formation with one ruler who possessed a special type of power - gewalt. This word was used to define the full authority of a king, as well as the unpredictable power of supernatural forces - God and Devil (Middle High German - gottliche /tufeliche gewalt ). However, the emperor could not realise his intentions if they were not supported by the real power (Middle High German - macht ) of the Imperial princes. On the other hand, this real power in form of imperial fiefs was to be confirmed by the king’s authority, hence, the macht was in a secondary position to the gewalt. Eberhard Windecke was deeply convinced that the welfare of the Holy Roman Empire depended on the concordance between the German king and the Imperial princes. At the same time, the term konigrich (kingdom, verbatim the king’s realm) signified another political structure represented by the kingdoms of Hungary and Bohemia. He probably thought that Sigismund was there in disposition of the both types of power, because he was by his birth a «natural lord» (Middle High German - ein natürlicher herr ) of these lands and was able to bequeath them to his heir, while the German king was to be made by the electoral princes.