The plenipotentiaries of the powers that signed the treaty, ACT, No IX. — Federative Constitution of Germany… (1815)
“ ART. XIV. In order to secure to the ancient States of the empire, mediatised in 1806, and in the subsequent years, the enjoyment of equal rights in all countries belonging to the Confederation, and conformable to the relations at present existing between them, the confederated states establish the following principles:A.—The houses of the mediatised princes and counts are nevertheless to rank equally with the high nobility of Germany, and are to retain the same privileges of birth-right with the sovereign houses (Ebenbütrtigkeit,) as they have hitherto enjoyed. ”
