Acht

Outlawry (or proscription): exclusion of a lawbreaker from the community in the Middle Ages (after which anyone could kill the proscribed party without punishment). Outlawry covered the district under jurisdiction of a court, a territory or an entire empire. The proscription of Henry the Lion in 1180, through which Styria became a duchy, was important for Austria. In 1711 Karl VI had to promise to request permission from the Reichstag (Imperial Diet) to impose outlawry as a sentence, which practically amounted to its abolition. In this way the outlawry proceedings brought against Friedrich II of Prussia by Maria Theresia failed in 1756.