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Prince-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)
Languages Rhine Franconian, South Franconian
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
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Duchy of Franconia Duchy of Franconia
Mont-Tonnerre
Margraviate of Baden Margraviate of Baden


Coat of arms

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.

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.

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 It was first mentioned in historical documents in 614.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.


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