Electorate of Cologne

Coordinates: 51°0′N 6°50′E / 51.000°N 6.833°E / 51.000; 6.833
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Electorate of Cologne
Kurfürstentum Köln (German)
953–1803
Flag of Cologne
Flag
State of the Holy Roman Empire
Imperial elector
Capital
GovernmentPrince-Archbishopric
Elector of Cologne
 
• 1801–1803
Archduke Anton Victor of Austria
Historical era
German mediatization
1803
Preceded by		 Succeeded by
Duchy of Lorraine
Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt
Duchy of Nassau
Wied-Runkel
Rhin-et-Moselle
Roer (department)
Cologne Cathedral
The Electorate of Cologne (red) and neighboring states in the mid-18th century

The Electorate of Cologne (

arch-chancellor of Italy
(one of the three component titular kingdoms of the Holy Roman Empire, the other two being Germany and Burgundy) and, as such, ranked second among all ecclesiastical and secular princes of the Empire, after the archbishop-elector of Mainz, and before that of Trier.

The capital of the electorate was

German mediatization
.

The electorate should not be confused with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cologne, the area over which the archbishop exercised spiritual authority, which was larger. Even larger was the Ecclesiastical Province of Cologne, which included suffragan dioceses such as Liège and Münster (see map below).

History

Berg and Mark
.

By the end of the 12th century, the Archbishop of Cologne was one of the seven electors of the

Free Imperial City, independent from the archbishop.[1] The first pogrom against the Jews was in 1349, when they were used as scapegoats for the Black Death, and therefore burnt in an auto-da-fé.[2] Political tensions arose from issues of taxation, public spending, regulation of business, and market supervision, as well as the limits of corporate autonomy.[3]

Long-distance trade in the Baltic grew, as the major trading towns came together in the Hanseatic League, under the leadership of Lübeck. It was a business alliance of trading cities and their guilds that dominated trade along the coast of Northern Europe and flourished from the 1200 to 1500 and continued with lesser importance after that. The chief cities were Cologne on the Rhine River, Hamburg and Bremen on the North Sea, and Lübeck on the Baltic.[4] The economic structures of medieval and early modern Cologne were based on the city's major harbor, its location as a transport hub and its entrepreneurial merchants who built ties with merchants in other Hanseatic cities.[5]

During the 16th century, two Archbishops of Cologne converted to

Bishopric of Liège
), he was one of the most important princes of northwestern Germany.

From 1597 until 1794, Bonn was the residence the Elector, and consequently the capital of the Electorate.

After 1795, the electorate's territories on the left bank of the Rhine were occupied by

Duke of Arenberg
. Cologne was, however, reestablished as the seat of a Catholic archbishop in 1824, and is an archdiocese to the present day.

List of electors

For the electors of Cologne, see Archbishop of Cologne.

Notes

  1. ^ Harry de Quetteville. "History of Cologne". The Catholic Encyclopedia, Nov 28, 2009.
  2. ^ Liber Chronicarum Mundi
  3. ^ David Nicholas, The Growth of the Medieval City: From Late Antiquity to the Early Fourteenth Century (1997) pp 69–72, 133–42, 202–20, 244–45, 300–307
  4. ^ James Westfall Thompson, Economic and Social History of Europe in the Later Middle Ages (1300–1530) (1931) pp. 146–79
  5. ^ Joseph P. Huffman, Family, Commerce, and Religion in London and Cologne (1998) covers from 1000 to 1300.

External links

Media related to Electorate of Cologne at Wikimedia Commons

51°0′N 6°50′E / 51.000°N 6.833°E / 51.000; 6.833

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