Similar social phenomena were, of course, manifesting themselves contemporaneously in other parts of Europe; but in Germany the change was more sudden than elsewhere, and was complicated by special political circumstances.
The political and military functions of that for the mediaeval polity of Germany, so important class, the knighthood, or lower nobility, had by this time become practically obsolete, mainly owing to the changed conditions of warfare.

But yet the class itself was numerous, and still, nominally at least, possessed of most of its old privileges and authority.

The extent of its real power depended, however, upon the absence or weakness of a central power, whether Imperial or State-territorial.

The attempt to reconstitute the centralized power of the empire under Maximilian, of which the _Reichsregiment_ was the outcome, had, as we have seen, not proved successful.

Its means of carrying into effect its own decisions were hopelessly inadequate.