Archdiocese of Bremen
| Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen | ||||||||||||||
| Erzstift Bremen | ||||||||||||||
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Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen within the Holy Roman Empire (as of 1648), the episcopal residence (in Vörde) shown by a red spot.
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| Capital |
Bremen (seat of chapter) Vörde (seat of govt from 1219) Basdahl (venue of Diets) |
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| Languages | Northern Low Saxon, Frisian | |||||||||||||
| Religion | Roman Catholic | |||||||||||||
| Government | Principality | |||||||||||||
| Ruler: Prince-archbishop, administrator, or chapter (in vacancy) |
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| • | 1180–1184 | Prince-Archbishop Siegfried | ||||||||||||
| • | 1185–1190 | Prince-Archbishop Hartwig II | ||||||||||||
| • | 1596–1634 | Admin. John Frederick | ||||||||||||
| • | 1635–1645 | Administrator Frederick II | ||||||||||||
| Legislature | Estates of the Realm (Stiftsstände) convening at Diets (Tohopesaten or Landtage) in Basdahl | |||||||||||||
| Historical era | Middle Ages | |||||||||||||
| • | Break-up of stem duchy of Saxony |
1180 | ||||||||||||
| • | Bremen city de facto independent |
1186, especially from the 1360s | ||||||||||||
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Conquered by Catholic League |
Summer 1627 |
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Conquered by Sweden, Bremen and Lübeck |
10 May 1632 |
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| • | Seized by Sweden | 13 August 1645 | ||||||||||||
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Secularised as the Duchy of Bremen |
15 May Enter end year |
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| Currency | Reichsthaler, Bremen mark | |||||||||||||
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Coat of arms
The Archdiocese of Bremen (also Archdiocese of Hamburg-Bremen, German: Erzbistum Bremen, not to be confused with the modern Archdiocese of Hamburg, founded in 1994) is a historical Roman Catholic diocese (787–1566/1648) and formed from 1180 to 1648 an ecclesiastical state (continued under other names until 1823), named Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen (German: Erzstift Bremen) within the Holy Roman Empire. The prince-archbishopric consisted of about a third of the diocesan territory. The city of Bremen was de facto (since 1186) and de jure (since 1646) not part of the prince-archbishopric but belonged to the archdiocese. Most of the prince-archbishopric lay rather in the area to the north of the city of Bremen, between the Weser and Elbe rivers. Even more confusingly, parts of the prince-archbishopric belonged in religious respect to the neighbouring diocese of Verden, making up 10% of its diocesan territory.
Verden (German pronunciation: [ˈfeːɐ̯dən]) itself had a double identity too—as the diocese of Verden (German: Bistum Verden) and the Prince-Bishopric of Verden (German: Hochstift Verden). Each prince-bishopric had the status of an Imperial Estate (German: Reichsstand, plural: Reichsstände), each of which were represented in the Diet (German: Reichstag) of the Holy Roman Empire. From 1500 on the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen belonged to the Saxon Circle (later the Lower Saxon Circle; German: Sächsischer or, later. Niedersächsischer Kreis), an administrative substructure of the Empire. The Prince-Bishopric of Verden, on the other hand, belonged to the Lower Rhenish–Westphalian Circle (German: Niederrheinisch-Westfälischer Kreis, colloquially Westphalian Circle) and sent its own representative to the Diet. Even when the two prince-bishoprics were ruled in personal union, in order to maintain the two seats in the Diet they were never formally united in a real union. The same is true for the collectively governed Duchies of Bremen and Verden (German: Herzogtümer Bremen und Verden colloquially, but Herzogtum Bremen und Fürstentum Verden formally) which emerged in 1648 from the secularised two prince-bishoprics.
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