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Prince-Primate


Prince-Primate (German: Fürstprimas, Hungarian: hercegprímás) is a rare princely title held by individual (prince-)archbishops of specific sees in a presiding capacity in an august assembly of mainly secular princes, notably the following:

The Rheinbund or 'Confederation of the Rhine' was founded in 1806, when several German states seceded from the Holy Roman Empire and allied themselves with Emperor Napoleon of France, who assumed the position of a protector of the Confederation. Its highest office was held by Karl Theodor von Dalberg, first Archbishop of Mainz and then of Regensburg, who had been the first among the princes of the Holy Roman Empire and styled its Archchancellor, was given the first rank among the princes of the new Confederation and the title of Fürstprimas, 'Prince Primate'. As such he presided over the College of Kings and the Diet of the Confederation, a senate-like assembly which never actually assembled.

During his term as Prince Primate, Dalberg was Archbishop of Regensburg (in Bavaria) and at first Fürst (ruling Prince) of Aschaffenburg. Since September 19, 1806 his territories included the former Reichsstadt and on February 16, 1810 Dalberg was promoted to the strictly secular rank of Grand Duke of Frankfurt, in chief of another former Reichsstadt (on the lower Main, enclaved in the Electorate of Mainz, now in Hessen. At the same time, Napoleon appointed his stepson Eugène de Beauharnais — excluded from the French imperial succession — as heir to the Grand Duchy.


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