The paper deals with the homage of the ‘Steirische Landstaende’ – the representatives of the different estates – to theArchdukes of the Habsburg hereditary lands as a legal act. It examines how the act developed into the main mode oflegitimizing any kind of rule in the Early Modern Period. Also it focuses on the fundamental importance of the ‘alteHerkommen’ (old customs). The act of the representatives’ homage to the Archduke regularly was a focal point ofdifferent interests in terms of power-politics. Based on an overview of the Styrian homages’ development and thespecial case of the homage to Archduke Leopold I. in 1660 the paper tries to examine the decrease of the homages’importance and function in the Styrian dominions.