bureaucracy also meant the number of clerks growing from 25 in 1520 to over 80 by the end of the century. Accountants too grew in number, as the number of bookkeepers (Buchhalter), charged with maintaining a general ledger to recording and writing summaries of votes cast in privy council meetings, would be expanded greatly to fill the needs of the government. Other low-level positions included the keeper of the treasury (Gewöhlbeverwater), who curated the goods of the treasury vault such as government archives, and the message supervisor (Botenmeister), who managed the couriers of the Duchy. The Estates The Estates (Landschaft), the largest political body in the Duchy, were an entity that had existed even before the founding of the Duchy (The first assembly of the Estates, called a Landtag, occurred in Leonberg in 1457 when Count Ulrich V summoned the notables of the towns to counterbalance the attending knights (Ritterschaft)), and it consisted of representatives from several different estates (Stände): the prelates, nobles, and burgher officials. The prelates were the abbots of the fourteen monasteries of the Duchy, who were generally present at the diets as Ducal appointees after the Reformation. Roughly 30 noblemen, usually Ducal councilors or some other senior official, also regularly attended. Since the Estates were intended to be the representatives of the Duchy's inhabitants, about 75% of the participants of a Diet were townsfolk, though the peasantry had almost no input. The Estates had no means of imposing their will, and were to a certain extent dependent on the Duke to be effective. At times they were able to convince the Duke into reform, such as with the Treaty of Tübingen in 1514. During times of minority or absence of the Duke, the Estates had a large decree of control over policy and government, which they effectively lost in times of majority. Duke Ulrich, for example, rarely called Diets. Of the burghers that attended the Landtag of 1520, all of them belonged to the court and council of 44 towns, all of them Ehrbarkeit. The lack of resistance on their part to Ulrich's strong government shows that the Estates had neither a strong leader and popular support nor a permanent position in the Duchy's constitution and could be easily coerced. The Estates became useful to the Duke for the payment of his debts and for the declaration of the war, and they provided the Duchy's leading