Paying for protection: defence finance and collective action in the Holy Roman Empire, c.1560–1610

How did the Holy Roman Empire finance its defence against the Ottoman Empire in the late sixteenth century despite its decentralized political structure and the apparent incentives for individual estates to avoid contributing? This article reassesses the payments made by the members of the Empire towards the so-called Türkenhilfen granted by imperial diets between 1566 and 1603. It shows that earlier research has substantially overstated compliance: on average, estates paid only about 72.5 per cent of the sums they owed, rather than nearly 90 per cent as previously believed. Nevertheless, contributions remained high enough to help sustain the Habsburg defence of Hungary against repeated Ottoman attacks. The article examines which types of estates proved most willing to contribute and identifies several recurring patterns. Estates located closer to the Ottoman frontier paid larger shares than more distant territories, and participation in the imperial diets that approved the grants was associated with higher levels of compliance. Imperial cities, ecclesiastical territories and, unexpectedly, Lutheran estates also contributed more than comparable territories. The article argues that these groups were motivated not only by concern for collective security but also by a desire to secure the emperor’s support for their own political and property rights. The Empire’s defence system therefore functioned not simply because of constitutional design, but because collective and private interests frequently coincided.