CIRCLES of the Empire, such provinces and principalities of the German empire as have a right to be present at diets. Maximilian I. divided the empire into six, and some years after into ten circles. This last division was confirmed by Charles V. The circles, as they stand in the Imperial Matricula, are as follow: Austria, Burgundy, the Lower Rhine, Bavaria, Upper Saxony, Franconia, Swabia, Upper Rhine, Westphalia, and the Lower Saxony.