Electorate of Cologne Kurfürstentum Köln (German) | |||||||||||||||||
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| 953–1803 | |||||||||||||||||
 Flag | |||||||||||||||||
.svg) Map of the Lower Rhine around 1560 with the Electorate of Cologne highlighted in red, including theDuchy of Westphalia | |||||||||||||||||
| Status | State of the Holy Roman Empire Imperial elector | ||||||||||||||||
| Capital | |||||||||||||||||
| Government | Prince-Archbishopric | ||||||||||||||||
| Elector of Cologne | |||||||||||||||||
• 1238-1261 | Konrad von Hochstaden | ||||||||||||||||
• 1801–1803 | Archduke Anton Victor of Austria | ||||||||||||||||
| Historical era | Middle Ages | ||||||||||||||||
• Bishopric established | Ancient Roman times | ||||||||||||||||
• Elevated toarchbishopric | 953 | ||||||||||||||||
• Bruno I archbishop | 953 | ||||||||||||||||
| 1031 | |||||||||||||||||
• Cologne madeFree Imperial City | 1288 | ||||||||||||||||
• JoinedElectoral Rhenish Circle | 1512 | ||||||||||||||||
| 1803 | |||||||||||||||||
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TheElectorate of Cologne (German:Kurfürstentum Köln), sometimes referred to asElectoral Cologne (German:Kurköln), was anecclesiastical principality of theHoly Roman Empire that existed from the 10th to the early 19th century. It consisted of theHochstift—thetemporal possessions—of thearchbishop of Cologne, and was ruled by him in his capacity asprince-elector. There were only two other ecclesiastical prince-electors in the Empire: theElectorate of Mainz and theElectorate of Trier. The archbishop-elector of Cologne was alsoarch-chancellor of Italy (one of the three component titular kingdoms of the Holy Roman Empire, the other two being Germany and Burgundy) and, as such, ranked second among all ecclesiastical and secular princes of the Empire, after the archbishop-elector of Mainz, and before that of Trier.
The capital of the electorate wasCologne. Conflicts with the citizens of Cologne caused the elector to move toBonn. TheFree Imperial City of Cologne was recognized after 1475, thus removing it from even the nominal secular authority of the elector. Cologne and Bonn were occupied by France in 1794. The right bank territories of the electorate were secularized in 1803 during theGerman mediatization.
The electorate should not be confused with theRoman Catholic Archdiocese of Cologne, the area over which the archbishop exercised spiritual authority, which was larger. Even larger was the Ecclesiastical Province of Cologne, which included suffragan dioceses such as Liège and Münster (see map below).
Cologne was the ancient Roman city ofColonia Agrippina in the province ofGermania Inferior, and has been a bishop's see since Roman times. In 953, the archbishops of Cologne first gained noteworthy secular power, whenBishop Bruno was appointed as duke by his brotherEmperor Otto I. To weaken the secular nobility, who threatened his power, Otto endowed Bruno and his successors in the bishop's seat with the prerogatives of secular princes. This was the beginning of the electoral state of Cologne. It was formed from the temporal possessions of the archbishopric and included in the end a strip of territory along the left Bank of theRhine east ofJülich, and theDuchy of Westphalia on the other side of the Rhine, beyondBerg andMark.
By the end of the 12th century, the Archbishop of Cologne was one of the seven electors of theHoly Roman Emperor. Besides being prince-elector, he was Arch-chancellor ofItaly as well, technically from 1238 and permanently from 1263 until 1803. In theBattle of Worringen (1288), the archbishop was captured by soldiers of the city and was forced to grant the city near-complete autonomy. Eventually, the archbishop moved toBonn to escape jurisdiction conflicts with the city government. In 1475, Cologne became aFree Imperial City, independent from the archbishop.[1] The firstpogrom against the Jews was in 1349, when they were used as scapegoats for theBlack Death, and therefore burnt in anauto-da-fé.[2] Political tensions arose from issues of taxation, public spending, regulation of business, and market supervision, as well as the limits of corporate autonomy.[3]
Long-distance trade in the Baltic grew, as the major trading towns came together in theHanseatic League, under the leadership ofLübeck. It was a business alliance of trading cities and their guilds that dominated trade along the coast of Northern Europe and flourished from the 1200 to 1500 and continued with lesser importance after that. The chief cities were Cologne on the Rhine River,Hamburg andBremen on the North Sea, and Lübeck on the Baltic.[4] The economic structures of medieval and early modern Cologne were based on the city's major harbor, its location as a transport hub and its entrepreneurial merchants who built ties with merchants in other Hanseatic cities.[5]
During the 16th century, two Archbishops of Cologne converted toProtestantism. The first,Hermann von Wied, resigned the archbishopric on converting, butGebhard Truchsess von Waldburg, who converted toCalvinism in 1582, attempted to secularize the archbishopric. His marriage the following February, and his refusal to relinquish the territory resulted in the election of a competing archbishop and prince-elector,Ernst of Bavaria, brother of theWittelsbach Duke of Bavaria. In theCologne War that followed, the pope funded Italian and Spanish mercenaries and the Catholic Bavarians also sent an army to support Ernst, while the ProtestantNetherlands supported von Waldburg. The war ruined most of the Electoral economy, and many villages and towns were besieged and destroyed. TheSiege of Godesberg in November–December 1583 ended with the destruction of Godesberg Castle and the slaughter of most of its inhabitants. After several more sieges, von Waldburg gave up his claim to the see and retired toStrasbourg with his wife. Ernst became archbishop–the first major success of theCounter-Reformation in Germany. Under Ernst's direction,Jesuits supervised the reintroduction of Catholicism in the Electorate. From 1583 to 1761, the archbishopric was effectively asecundogeniture of the Bavarian branch of the House of Wittelsbach. As the archbishop in this period usually also held theBishopric of Münster (and often theBishopric of Liège), he was one of the most important princes of northwestern Germany.
From 1597 until 1794,Bonn was the residence the Elector, and consequently the capital of the Electorate.
After 1795, the electorate's territories on the left bank of the Rhine were occupied byFrance and were formally annexed in 1801. Cologne was part of thedépartement ofRoer; Bonn was part of thedépartement ofRhin-et-Moselle. TheReichsdeputationshauptschluss of 1803 secularized the rest of the archbishopric, giving the Duchy of Westphalia to theLandgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt andVest Recklinghausen to theDuke of Arenberg. Cologne was, however, reestablished as the seat of a Catholic archbishop in 1824, and is an archdiocese to the present day.
Media related toElectorate of Cologne at Wikimedia Commons
51°0′N6°50′E / 51.000°N 6.833°E /51.000; 6.833
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