pay Ulrich's debts and that they defend the Duchy from any future attacks made by Ulrich. Charles V may have had some motives in the purchasing of the Duchy based on plans of Maximilian I's in 1518 of "Austrian centralization" in Swabia with "an integrated judicial system." Charles V did not, however, ever rule the Duchy himself, electing instead to proclaim the "freedom of the Estates of Württemberg" on 15 October 1520 and that it would pay him an annual levy of 22,000 florins, setting the tone of the Habsburgs' 14-year rule of Württemberg, one in which the nobility were to be empowered. This government in Charles V's absence was headed by a new position, the Statthalter, a nobleman who represented the Emperor in all matters, and the reinstated Gregor Lamparter, one of the Ehrbarkeit and Chancellor at the time Ulrich had arrested that had escaped death. Charles V turned the Duchy over to Archduke Ferdinand I on 31 March 1522, who first called a diet to publicly state his support of the Treaty of Tübingen, followed by the appointment of a new Statthalter, Maximilian van Zeverbergen from the Netherlands, and Chancellor, Heinrich Winckelhofer, who was aided in the issuing of the Statthalters orders by the regents and other commissioners. Treasury officials were given much more control over the treasury than in Ulrich's reign so as to reestablish order, and the Estates would help organize it like its counterpart in Austria, which was separate from the Chancery and was called the Kammer and was operated by three treasurers. This control over the treasury and state expenditure would be the most important reform of the Habsburg occupation. Government The government of the Duchy of Württemberg was one composed of several hundred people. One group, called the "Notables," or Ehrbarkeit, made up of powerful local families, was the dominant force in the local administration of the Duchy. The central government consisted primarily of a bureaucracy of these Ehrbarkeit from the regional towns that came to work and live in Stuttgart. Typically, these officials began in local or district government, and then retired to their home towns in their later years or when court was not in session, creating the "town and district" character of Württemberg's politics. An oddity of the Duchy in comparison to other German states was that burghers held positions in the Duchy's central government alongside nobility, most of them