The visiting Duke of Württemberg was wined and dined during a visit in 1655: the tiny independent city-state was entirely surrounded by Württemberg territory and good relations with the dukes were important. The population of Giengen, which has stood at close to 2000 on the eve of the War in 1618, was back to 1200 in 1651 and to 1700 in 1671. From the year of the fire to 1672, some 206 individuals - 95 from the area, 20 from Ulm, 29 from Bavaria and 62 from the rest of the Empire - have purchased Giengen's citizenship ("Bürgerrecht"). A new tax code adopted by the Town Council in 1677 caused considerable popular discontent and following a complaint to the Aulic Council, an imperial commission composed of the count of Oëttingen and members of the Town Council of Ulm, Giengen's powerful neighbor to the south, ruled that the guilds should be involved in the decision process on taxation. The rule was to remain in force until Giengen ceased to be a Free Imperial City in 1802. The 18th century was somewhat uneventful for Giengen and the city was relatively spared by the War of the Spanish Succession and the other wars of the century. Not much happened in the sleepy city: the belfry of St. Georg’s church’s was rebuilt after a fire and a new baptismal font was donated by a prominent citizen; an organ-making shop opened business; one Jakob Osswald and his daughter are beheaded for “incestua cum filia”. A 1734 survey showed that there were "130 horses, 150 heads of cattle, many pigs and 1,000 sheep" in the tiny Free Imperial City, which had a distinct rural character. In 1732, the city, imitating other Protestant states, took in 12 Protestant families that, along with hundreds of others, had been expulsed from Salzburg by the Prince-Archbishop. Emperor Charles VII stayed briefly at the Bürgermeister’s house in 1743, and on his way back from Italy in June 1788, Goethe stayed for two nights at the "Goldenen Gans" Inn, where he spent 2 gulden in victuals. The population then was about 1770, almost unchanged from a century earlier. In the course of the mediatisation of 1802-03, Giengen was not spared the fate of the great majority of the 50 Free Imperial Cities of the moribund Holy Roman Empire and the city lost its independence.