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Prince-Bishopric of Basel Fürstbistum Basel | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1032–1803 | |||||||||||
 Flag | |||||||||||
 The Prince-Bishopric in the 18th century | |||||||||||
| Status | Prince-Bishopric | ||||||||||
| Capital |
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| Common languages | Franc-Comtais,High Alemannic,Latin | ||||||||||
| Religion | Catholic Swiss Reformed Church (from early 16th century) Judaism (from late 12th century) | ||||||||||
| Government | Elective principality | ||||||||||
| Prince-Bishop | |||||||||||
• 1032–1040 | Ulrich II | ||||||||||
• 1794–1803 | Franz Xaver von Neveu | ||||||||||
| History | |||||||||||
• Diocese established | 740 | ||||||||||
• Elevated to Prince-Bishopric | 1032 | ||||||||||
| 1495 | |||||||||||
| 1528 | |||||||||||
| 1797 | |||||||||||
• Mediatised to Baden | 1803 | ||||||||||
| Currency | Rappen Basel thaler (1576–1798) | ||||||||||
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ThePrince-Bishopric of Basel (German:Hochstift Basel, Fürstbistum Basel, Bistum Basel) was anecclesiastical principality within theHoly Roman Empire, ruled from 1032 byprince-bishops with their seat atBasel, and from 1528 until 1792 atPorrentruy, and thereafter atSchliengen. As animperial estate, the prince-bishop had a seat and voting rights at theImperial Diet. The final dissolution of the state occurred in 1803 as part of theGerman Mediatisation.
The Prince-Bishopric comprised territories now in the Swiss cantons ofBasel-Landschaft,Jura,Solothurn andBern, besides minor territories in nearby portions of southern Germany and eastern France. The city of Basel ceased to be part of the Prince-Bishopric after it joined theSwiss Confederacy in 1501.
The Bishopric of Basel was established by theCarolingians, either byPepin the Short or byCharlemagne himself. The first recorded bishop of Basel is one Walaus, the first entry in the list of bishops preserved inMunster Abbey. He is listed asarchiepiscopus during the reign ofPope Gregory III (731–741).The historicity of this is questionable, as Basel during this time was part of theArchdiocese of Besançon. It has been proposed that Walaus is identical with oneWalachus vocatus episcopuswho is attested in 778. Another candidate as first bishop of Basel is one Baldobertus, Abbot of Murbach, who signed asBaldeberthus episcopus civitas Baselae in 762.It is also possible that the seat of the diocese ofAugusta Raurica had intermittently been moved to Basel already in the 7th century, with one Ragnacharius mentioned asAugustanus et Basileae ecclesiarum praesul in thevita ofEustace of Luxeuil (d. 629).The title of bishop of Basel is attested with certainty still in the 8th century, withWaldo, Abbot ofReichenau, who was awarded the titles of bishop ofPavia and of Basel byCharlemagne in 791, titles he held without taking residence in either of these cities.The title was transferred to Waldo's successor as Abbot of Reichenau,Haito. Haito was succeeded by Udalricus (r. 823–835), who entered the city in May 824 and thus may have been the first bishop with actual residence in Basel.
Rudolph III of Burgundy in 999 presented the bishop of Basel with theAbbey of Moutier-Grandval, establishing the bishopric as a secular vassal state of Burgundy with feudal authority over significant territories. After the death of Rudolph in 1032, the vassalage was converted toimperial immediacy, elevating the Bishop of Basel to the status ofPrince-Bishop, ranking as an ecclesiasticalprince of theHoly Roman Empire.
The Prince-Bishopric reached the peak of its power during the late 12th to early 14th centuries.A legendary founder of the bishopric, one Pantalus, placed in either the 4th or 5th century, was venerated in the 12th century. His supposed relics were transferred from Cologne to Basel in 1270 (moved toMariastein in 1833).
In the course of the 14th century, financial difficulties forced the bishops of Basel to sell parts of their territory. During the 15th century, however, a number of politically and militarily successful bishops managed to regain some of the previously lost territories and Basel began to align itself with theOld Swiss Confederacy as an "associated city" (Zugewandter Ort).
Basel became the focal point of western Christendom during the 15th centuryCouncil of Basel (1431–1449), including the 1439 election ofantipopeFelix V. In 1459 PopePius II endowed theUniversity of Basel where such notables asErasmus ofRotterdam andParacelsus later taught. Following the Imperial Reform of 1495, the prince-bishopric was part of theUpper Rhenish Circle of theImperial Circle Estates.
The city ofBasel itself by gradual concessions gained itsde facto independence from the prince-bishops by the late 14th century. However, the city continued to renew a nominal oath of fealty to the bishops, even after it had joined theSwiss Confederacy in 1501, until the beginningSwiss Reformation in 1521. Prince-bishopChristoph von Utenheim held on as bishop of Basel for a few years, but the slow decline of his authority forced him to resign, on 19 February 1527.His successor,Philippe von Gundelsheim was the last bishop to be formally welcomed to the city, on 23 September 1527. In 1528, the Reformation led byJohannes Oecolampadius was formally adopted by the city. The celebration of Mass was abolished, and von Gundelsheim established his residence inPorrentruy, which was part of hissecular territories even though ecclesiastically, it was part of theArchdiocese of Besançon.The secular rule of the Prince-Bishops from this time was mostly limited to territories west of Basel, more or less corresponding to the moderncanton of Jura.
The Prince-Bishopric lost the bulk of its remaining territories to theRauracian Republic in 1792 (revolutionarily converted into the Frenchdépartement ofMont-Terrible in the following year), while thetreaty of Campo Formio in 1797 gave international recognizance to the French annexation, which could be expanded to all the bishopric territory (while Switzerland received AustrianFricktal as indemnity), which retainedSchliengen as its sole dominion. Schliengen was made part of theMargraviate of Baden in the resolution of theReichsdeputationshauptschluss of 1803, discontinuing the status of the bishops of Basel as secular rulers.
By the 16th century, the Prince-Bishopric of Basel comprised:
The Prince-Bishopric also held the following territories, which were lost before 1527:
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1 Part of theThree Bishoprics. 2Nomeny after 1737. 3 withoutReichstag seat. 4 until 1736. 5 JoinedSwiss 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 | |||||
