 On the emergence of states in the Late Middle Ages, the acquisition and thus mediatisation of the counties by the territorial princes played an important role.The beginning of the late medieval trend towards large territorial lordships in the 14th century was simultaneously the end of the "Grafschaft" of the late and high Middle Ages.In 1521 there were 144 imperially immediate "Grafschaften" in the Holy Roman Empire, the so-called imperial counties or "Reichsgrafschaften".