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(historical) A self-ruling city within the Holy Roman Empire that had some autonomy and was represented in the Imperial Diet.
A free imperial city held the status of Imperial immediacy, and was thus subordinate only to the Holy Roman Emperor, whereas a territorial city or town (Landstadt) was subordinate to a territorial prince – either an ecclesiastical lord (prince-bishop or prince-abbot) or a secular prince (duke (Herzog), margrave, count (Graf), etc.).
1996, John Dornberg, Western Europe, Oryx Press, page 56:
The city-states of Germany and the Holy Roman Empire had their origins as free imperial cities, a term coined in the late eleventh century.
2007, Carlos Ramirez-Faria, Concise Encyclopedia Of World History, Atlantic Publishers, page 243:
Verdun was an ancient bishopric and a free imperial city, which France conquered in 1552 (together with Metz and Toul) and made into a fortress to protect its eastern borders.
2012, Joel Van Amberg, A Real Presence: Religious and Social Dynamics of the Eucharistic Conflicts in Early Modern Augsburg 1520-1530, BRILL, page 7:
Like many free imperial cities, Augsburg in the early Middle Ages was an Episcopal city.
Translations
self-ruling city within the Holy Roman Empire subordinate only to the emperor
Imperial immediacy on Wikipedia.Wikipedia 