Prince-bishop of Liège
| Prince-Bishopric of Liège | ||||||||||||
| Ecclesiastic state of the Holy Roman Empire | ||||||||||||
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 The Prince-Bishopric of Liège around 1350.
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| Capital | Liège | |||||||||||
| Languages | French, Dutch, German, Walloon | |||||||||||
| Religion | Roman Catholicism | |||||||||||
| Government | Elective principality | |||||||||||
| Prince-Bishop | ||||||||||||
| • | 340s–384 | Saint Servatius (first bishop, at Tongeren) | ||||||||||
| • | approximately 670-700 | Saint Lambert (at Maastricht) | ||||||||||
| • | 972–1008 | Notger (first prince-bishop) | ||||||||||
| • | 1792–94 | François-Antoine-Marie de Méan (last) | ||||||||||
| Historical era | Middle Ages | |||||||||||
| • | Creation of diocese | 340s | ||||||||||
| • | Secular powers obtained | 980 | ||||||||||
| • | Purchased Lordship of Bouillon |
1096 |
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| • | Annexed County of Loon | 1366 | ||||||||||
| • | Acquired County of Horne | 1568 | ||||||||||
| • | Liège Revolution | 1789–91 | ||||||||||
| • | Annexed by France | 1795 | ||||||||||
| • | Concordat accepts dissolution of Bishopric |
10 September 1801 |
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| Today part of |
 Belgium France Germany Netherlands
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The Prince-Bishopric of Liège was a state of the Holy Roman Empire in the Low Countries, situated for the most part in present Belgium, which was ruled by the Bishop of Liège who held an Imperial Estate and had seat and voice at the Imperial Diet. The Prince-Bishopric of Liège should not be confused with the diocese of Liège, which was larger.
The bishops of Liège acquired their status as a Prince-bishop between 980 and 985 when Bishop Notger, who had been the bishop of Liege since 972, received secular control of the County of Huy from Otto II, Holy Roman Emperor.
The Prince-Bishopric belonged from 1500 on to the Lower Rhenish–Westphalian Circle. Its territory included most of the present Belgian provinces of Liège and Limburg, and some exclaves in other parts of Belgium and the Netherlands.
It briefly became a republic (the Republic of Liège) from 1789 to 1791, before reverting to a Prince-Bishopric in 1791. The role of Prince-Bishop permanently ended when the state was annexed by France in 1795. In 1815 it became part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, and in 1830 it was within the part of that kingdom which split off to become Belgium.
The principality ruled by the bishops of Liège was never part of the Seventeen Provinces or the Spanish and Austrian Southern Netherlands, but from the 16th century onwards its politics were strongly influenced by the dukes of Burgundy and later the Habsburgs, though remaining under the sovereignty of the family de la Marck (Dutch: van der Marck).
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