A different electoral college for the Holy Roman Empire

When reading up for my question yesterday regarding the Babenberger Frederick the Quarrelsome of Austria, I came accross a source (in German) about the positions of the duchies and early imperial elections.

The seven prince electors, which were established by the Golden Bull of 1356, weren't divided evenly among the various parts, for instance Swabia, Thuringia, Bavaria, but also Lotharingia and the eldest non stem duchy Carinthia in the Carantanian region(which at the time included Styria, Carniola, Windic March etc.) weren't represented, whereas Brandenburg and Saxony both are from the area of the former Saxon stem duchy.

So what if these regions, most likely joined by the other archbishoprics (Salzburg and Bremen), did achieve better representation and thus gained an electorate.

Bavaria would rather straight forward be represented by the duke of Bavaria (or one of the ducal lines), however originally (and finally) the Bavaria and the Palatinate were united; Thuringia woud be the landgrave of Thuringia; for Carantania Carinthia, Styria and maybe even Austria, but that's the weakest case, unless the area would be Noricum; in Lotharingia the heirs of Upper Lorraine (duchy of Moselle later Lorraine) and Lower Lorraine (duchy of Brabant, also duke of Lothier) were, for that reason, the most prestigious could gain an electoral vote of both of them; and finally the hardest region fragmented Swabia, which could go to the county of Würtemberg or even the Swabian lands of the Habsburg. OTOH a more accepted prince elector of Swabia could also be given to another loyal prince of the empire within that region.

So that would result in an electoral college with 5 spiritual electors (maybe Mainz, Cologne and Trier remain more prestigious, due to their imperial offices) and 9 or 10 secular electors; I suggest 10 secular (so both Lorraine and Brabant would get an electorate; or alternatively a separate electorate for Austria and/or Carinthia/Styria, but these are already held by the same dynasty in 1356). Another consequence could be a even more controversial role of the non Germanic kingdom of Bohemia.

What would the result have been of a larger number of electorates. My personal first guess for Brabant and Lorraine would be a (continuing) stronger involvement in imperial politics, but what would be a more general effect on the empire?
 
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One of the advantages of an electorate was that its territory was deemed indivisible, save for the discretion of the electoral family (see Erfurt Division).

So this means that more electors = less Imperial Balkanization.
 
Having 15 electors seems like a lot, although that may just in in reflection of our timeline's roughly half that. Would this make buying the position of Emperor much more expensive since you have more votes you need to buy or would it remain similar with you still needing to spend roughly the same amount of money just spread over more voters for small individual shares?
 
The original stem duchies were Franconia, Saxony, Bavaria and Swabia. Later Lotharingia was added (later divided in Lower (with the region Frisia) and Upper Lotharingia (Lorraine)), the Saxon and Bavarian Eastern marches were added and non Germanic Bohemia came in the imperial orbit.
The largest bit of the Bavarian marches became the duchy of Carinthia, the remaining part remained the Bavarian Eastern March and would later evolve into the duchy of Austria (etc.). (And one of the territories, which evolved from the Saxon Eastern Marches, was Brandenburg.)
In Thuringia they stopped having dukes in the 10th century, but later became a landgraviate; and the Frisians never formed a duchy of their own, but were a part of Lotharingia.

Furthermore before the number of prince electors were fixed, the high nobles of other regions played a much larger role in the election.

Maybe it requires a early pod were it becomes customary that all these regions at least have the right to have at least one secular representative. This would probably also lead to the inclusion of the other archbishoprics Salzburg and Bremen to also increase the number of spiritual electors.

Even this (maybe the 15* electors I mentioned early) would just as the 7 electors IOTL have reduced the number of nobles eligible to vote in the imperial election.

(*= spiritual: Mainz, Cologne, Trier, Salzburg and Bremen; secular: Saxony (Sachsen), Franconia (Franken), Swabia (Schwaben), Bavaria (Bayern), Thuringia (Thüringen), Lower Lotharingia (Niederlothringen), Upper Lotharingia (Oberlothringen), Bohemia (Böhmen), the Saxon marches** and the Bavarian marches**(**= the areas east of these duchies named the 'Marken des Reiches'); and for a map:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...the_Holy_Roman_Empire_in_the_10th_century.png).
 
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I think what is needed is recognition of the stem duchies as administrative units rather than cultural ones so that each Duke maintains at least nominal power over their Duchy and below the Emperor.
Each lay elector would probably also be paired with a religious one.
I'm not sure how tie votes would be decided - assembly of the march lords?

How also do we factor in Arelat, Bohemia, and Italy/Lombardy. I'd assume that Burgundy and Bohemia can simply be added as Electorates (under their prominent lay and religious primates), but is Italy too large for a single Electorate?
 
The nobility of the German kingdom (former East Francia) elected the king of the Germans later king of the Romans, who could/would also become king of Burgundy and Italy. Just as later only the estates of Bohemia (proper) could elect the king of Bohemia in the Lands of the Bohemian Crown, without participation of Moravia, Lusatia or Silesia.
The different role of Bohemia in the electoral college comes from the fact that it was a duchy within the kingdom for some time and only became a separate kingdom later, whereas Burgundy and Italy were and never ceased to be different kingdoms.

IOTL the role of the non Germanic king of Bohemia often was described as to decide the vote in case of a tie.

I'm not sure about pairing them, the 5 archbishops were the most important religious lords, however not every duchy had it's own archbishopric (in fact in medieval times there were even kingdoms without their own archbishops) so I would just suggest lay representatives for duchies.
Obviously there can be disputes, like when are the (former) march regions given their own representative; and in case of fragmentation the emperor or the electors or even the nobility of the now fragmented 'duchy' will have to appoint a new elector (which could be or become the premier duchy within the former 'stem duchy).'
Regarding representation for the march regions, this will most likely just as IOTL happen to break the power of powerful stem duchies such as Saxony and Bavaria.
 
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