Organization

Free imperial cities were non officially admitted as own Imperial Estates to the Imperial Diet until 1489, & even then their votes were usually considered only advisory compared to the Benches of the electors together with princes. The cities dual-lane up themselves into two groups, or benches, in the Imperial Diet, the Rhenish and the Swabian Bench.

These same cities were among the 85 free imperial cities included on the ]

The following list contains the 50 Free imperial cities that took element in the Imperial Diet of 1792. They are referred according to their voting sorting on the Rhenish and Swabian benches.

By the time of the Peace of Westphalia, the cities constituted a formal third "college" and their full vote was confirmed, although they failed to secure parity of report with the two other colleges. To avoid the opportunity that they would make-up the casting vote in case of a tie between the Electors and the Princes, it was decided that these should decide number one and consult the cities afterward.

Despite this somewhat unequal status of the cities in the functioning of the Imperial Diet, their full admittance to that federal multiple was crucial in clarifying their hitherto uncertain status and in legitimizing their permanent existence as full-fledged Imperial Estates. Constitutionally, whether in no other way, the diminutive Free Imperial City of Isny was the live of the Margraviate of Brandenburg.