Bishopric of Speyer

Prince-Bishopric of Speyer
Fürstbistum Speyer
State of the Holy Roman Empire
← 888–1803 →   →
Coat of arms
The Prince-Bishopric of Speyer circa 1700
Capital		Speyer (to 1379) Udenheim2 (1379–1723) Bruchsal (from 1723)
Government		Elective principality
Historical era		Middle Ages
•	Established	3rd or 4th century
•	Gained territory	888
•	Speyer became     Imperial Free City	1294
•	Lost territory to France	1681–97
•	Partitioned and     secularised to     France and Baden	1801–03 1803

The Bishopric of Speyer, or Prince-Bishopric of Speyer (formerly known as Spires in English), was an ecclesiastical principality in what are today the German states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Württemberg. It was secularized in 1803. The prince-bishop resided in Speyer, a Free Imperial City, until the 14th century when he moved his residence to Uddenheim (Philippsburg), then in 1723 to Bruchsal, in large part due to the tense relationship between successive prince-bishops and the civic authorities of the Free City, officially Protestant since the Reformation. The prince-provostry of Wissemburg in Alsace was ruled by the prince-bishop of Speyer in a personal union relationship.^[1]

Geography

The bishopric of Speyer belonged to the Upper Rhenish Circle of the Holy Roman Empire. One of the smallest principalities of the Holy Roman Empire, it consisted of more than half a dozen separate enclaves totalling about 28 German square miles (about 1540 km²) on both sides of the Rhine. It included the towns of Bruchsal (on the right bank) as well as Deidesheim, Herxheim bei Landau, and Lauterburg (on the left bank). Around 1800 the bishopric included about 55,000 people.

History

A diocese of Speyer has possibly existed since the 3rd or 4th century. It was first mentioned in historical documents in 614. Up to 748 it was a suffragant bishopric of the archdiocese of Trier, and from then until the secularisation of the prince-bishopric in 1803, of the archdiocese of Mainz.

The history of the Bishopric of Speyer began latest in the late 7th century when the bishop of Speyer received royal domains in the neighboring Speyergau. In the 10th and 11th centuries, the diocese received additional lands, including gifts by emperor Otto I. In 1030 the building of the cathedral was begun. In 1061 the cathedral was consecrated. In 1086 emperor Henry IV granted the bishopric the remaining parts of the county of Speyergau.

From 1111 the citizens of the city of Speyer began to increasingly loosen their bonds to the rulership of the bishop. In 1230 a Bürgermeister was mentioned for the first time. 1294 Speyer became a Free Imperial City. The bishop moved his palace in 1371 to Udenheim. At the beginning of the 17th century bishop Philipp Christoph von Sötern expanded the fortress of Philippsburg. The prince-bishops reigned from there from 1371 to 1723. Afterwards the prince-bishop moved his seat to Bruchsal.

From 1681 to 1697, at the end of the War of the Grand Alliance, the fortress of Philippsburg on the left-bank went to France. In 1801/1802, the remaining left-bank territories of Speyer were conquered by French troops in the course of the French Revolution. The right-bank territories went to margraves of Baden.

This ended the secular responsibilities of the bishop of Speyer. The secularized bishopric continued ecclesiastically as the Diocese of Speyer. Finally French part of former prince-bishopric was divided between Bavaria and Hesse Darmstadt in 1815.

• 

  Speyer Cathedral

• 

  The Bishop's palace next to Speyer Cathedral (1765)

• 

  Udenheim Castle (main residence of the bishops from 1371)

• 

  Bruchsal Palace (main residence from 1723)

Prince-bishops of Speyer

The following were prince-bishops of Speyer, who were secular as well as ecclesiastical rulers.

See also

• Bishop of Speyer
• Speyer Cathedral

Footnotes

Upper Rhenish Circle (1500–1806) of the Holy Roman Empire Ecclesiastical Basel Fulda Hersfeld Metz1 Odenheim–Bruchsal Prüm Speyer Straßburg Toul1 Verdun1 Weißenburg Worms Secular Bar Heitersheim Hersfeld Hesse Darmstadt Homburg Kassel Marburg Rheinfels Isenburg-Birstein Kaiserslautern Lorraine2 Nassau Idstein Ottweiler Saarbrücken Usingen Weilburg Salm Kyrburg Salm Savoy Simmern Solms-Braunfels Sponheim3 Veldenz / Lautereck Waldeck3 Zweibrücken Counts and Lords With Imp. Diet seats Hanau Lichtenberg Münzenberg4 Isenburg Birstein Büdingen Büdingen-Birstein Königstein Mainz Stolberg Kriechingen Leiningen Dagsburg Hardenburg Westerburg Salm Grehweiler Grumbach Solms Hohensolms Laubach Lich Rödelheim Wetterau Wittgenstein Berleburg Wittgenstein Without Bretzenheim Dagstuhl Falkenstein Isenburg Meerholz Wächtersbach Mensfelden Olbrück Reipoltskirchen Salm-Dhaun Wartenberg Cities Décapole Colmar Hagenau Kaisersberg Landau Mühlhausen5 Münster im Elsaß Oberehnheim Rosheim Schlettstadt Türkheim Weißenburg Others Frankfurt Friedberg Metz Speyer Straßburg Toul Verdun Wetzlar Worms 1 Part of the Three Bishoprics.   2 Nomeny after 1737.   3 without Reichstag seat.   4 until 1736.   5 Joined Swiss Confederacy in 1515. Circles est. 1500: Bavarian, Swabian, Upper Rhenish, Lower Rhenish–Westphalian, Franconian, (Lower) Saxon Circles est. 1512: Austrian, Burgundian, Upper Saxon, Electoral Rhenish     ·     Unencircled territories

Catholic League (1609–1635) within the  Holy Roman Empire     Abbacies Ellwangen Kempten Bishoprics Augsburg Constance Eichstätt Passau Speyer Straßburg Worms Würzburg  and Bamberg Archbishoprics Mainz Cologne Trier Duchies Bavaria