Prince-Bishopric of Osnabrück
| Prince-Bishopric of Osnabrück | ||||||||||
| Hochstift Osnabrück | ||||||||||
| State of the Holy Roman Empire | ||||||||||
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 Prince-Bishopric of Osnabrück in 1786 (red line).
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| Capital | Osnabrück | |||||||||
| Languages | Low Saxon, German | |||||||||
| Religion | Roman Catholic until the 1540s, then also Lutheran | |||||||||
| Government | Principality | |||||||||
| Historical era | Middle Ages | |||||||||
| • | Created on collapse of Saxony |
1225 | ||||||||
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Secularised to Hanover |
1803 | ||||||||
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Coat of arms
The Prince-Bishopric of Osnabrück (German: Hochstift Osnabrück) was a state of the Holy Roman Empire from 1225 until 1803. It was the territory of princely rule held by the incumbents of the Diocese of Osnabrück (German: Bistum Osnabrück), therefore wielding secular and religious functions as prince-bishops. It was named after its capital, Osnabrück.
The still extant Diocese of Osnabrück, erected in 772, is the oldest see founded by Charlemagne, in order to Christianize the conquered stem-duchy of Saxony. The episcopal and capitular temporal possessions of the see, originally quite limited, grew in time, and its prince-bishops exercised an extensive civil jurisdiction within the territory covered by their rights of Imperial immunity. The Prince-Bishopric continued to grow in size, making its status during the Reformation a highly contentious issue.
In the German Mediatisation of 1803, the bishopric was dissolved when the last bishop was Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany. The secular or temporal power given to the Hanover branch of Brunswick-Lüneburg; the see, the chapter, the convents and the Catholic charitable institutions were secularized. The territory of the see passed to Prussia in 1806, to the Kingdom of Westphalia in 1807, to Napoleonic France in 1810, and again to Hanover in 1814.
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