Principality of Bayreuth
Principality of Bayreuth/ Margraviate of Brandenburg-Kulmbach Fürstentum Bayreuth/Markgraftum Brandenburg-Kulmbach (German) | |||||||||
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1398–1791 | |||||||||
Christian Frederick, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach | |||||||||
Historical era | Ansbach | 1420–40 | |||||||
• Joined Franconian Circle | 1500 | ||||||||
• Partitioned in twain | 1655–1726 | ||||||||
• Line extinct; inherited by Ansbach | 20 January 1769 | ||||||||
• Ansbach and Bayreuth sold to Prussia | 2 December 1791 | ||||||||
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The Principality of Bayreuth (
Geography
The Kulmbach-Bayreuth principality arose from the northern uplands (Oberland) of the former Burgraviate of Nuremberg, while the southern lowlands (Unterland) formed the Principality of Ansbach. The final border demarcation was settled by the 1541 House Treaty of Regensburg, adding some smaller Unterland territories to Bayreuth. However, it was not connected with the Oberland core territory stretching up to the Franconian Forest and the Fichtel Mountains. Mountainous and densely wooded, most of the lands were of less agricultural use, nevertheless mineral resources, predominantly ore deposits led to the construction of numerous mines.
Beside the residence Bayreuth, the separate Oberland and Unterland territories were administered from Hof and Neustadt an der Aisch respectively.
History
The principality arose upon the death of the Hohenzollern burgrave Frederick V of Nuremberg on 21 January 1398, when his lands were partitioned between his two sons: the elder, Burgrave John III received Kulmbach-Bayreuth and the younger, Frederick VI, received the Principality of Ansbach.
The two principalities were once again united under the younger son, Frederick, after John's death on 11 June 1420. At the
As John the Alchemist had no male heirs, he renounced his rights in 1457, whereupon Kulmbach-Bayreuth fell to his brother, Albert Achilles. When the eldest brother, the Brandenburg elector Frederick Irontooth abdicated in 1470, Albert united all Hohenzollern territories under his rule. After Albert's death in 1486 the Franconian principalities were finally partitioned according to his Dispositio Achillea disposition, passing to the younger sons of his second marriage with Anna of Saxony, Margrave Siegmund and his brother Frederick II.
Elder line
While the Brandenburg electorate became the power base for the rising Hohenzollern dynasty, the Principality of Kulmbach-Bayreuth was held by Frederick's descendants, temporarily in personal union with Ansbach. The rulers were commonly known as the Margraves of Brandenburg-Bayreuth (though Bayreuth is nowhere near Brandenburg). Kulmbach-Bayreuth became part of the Franconian Circle in 1500.
After in 1541 the ambitious Margrave Albert Alcibiades assumed the rule over Kulmbach-Bayreuth, he barged onto the battlegrounds of the Schmalkaldic War, several times switching sides between Emperor Charles V and the Lutheran princes of the Schmalkaldic League. In 1552 he sparked the Second Margrave War against Nuremberg and the neighbouring Prince-bishoprics of Würzburg and Bamberg. His soaring plans to re-establish the medieval Duchy of Franconia under his rule ended with his utter defeat and an Imperial ban in 1554.
Albert was succeeded by his cousin Margrave George Frederick in 1557, who from 1577 als ruled in the Duchy of Prussia as regent for his incapable Hohenzollern relative Duke Albert Frederick, Duke of Prussia. With George Frederick's death in 1603, the elder Bayreuth line became extinct. He left his successor, Margrave Christian, younger son of the Brandenburg elector John George, an orderly and functioning state.
Younger line
Margrave Christian took his residence in Bayreuth; in 1655 he was succeeded by his grandson
The younger line of the Brandenburg-Bayreuth margraves died out in 1769 with the death of
Occupied by French troops during the War of the Fourth Coalition, Prussia had to cede Bayreuth according to the 1807 Treaty of Tilsit. At the 1808 Congress of Erfurt, the French emperor Napoleon offered it for sale to the newly established Kingdom of Bavaria; it changed owners in 1810 against a payment of 15 million francs.
Margraves
- 1398: John III of Nuremberg
- 1420: Frederick I of Brandenburg
- 1440: John IV the Alchemist
- 1457: Albert I Achilles(also Margrave of Brandenburg from 1470)
- 1486: Siegmund
- 1495: Frederick III (also Margrave of Ansbach as Friedrich I)
- 1515: Casimir
- 1527: Albert Alcibiades
- 1553: George Frederick (also Margrave of Ansbach)
- 1603: Christian
- 1655: Christian Ernst
- 1712: George William
- 1726: George Frederick Charles (previously Margrave of Kulmbach from 1708)
- 1735: Frederick
- 1763: Frederick Christian
- 1769: Charles Alexander(to 1791; also Margrave of Ansbach)
See also
Further reading
- Doehla, Johann Conrad (1990). A Hessian Diary of the American Revolution. Translated, Edited, and with an Introduction by Bruce E. Burgoyne from the 1913 Bayreuth edition by W. Baron von Waldenfels. Norman and London: OCLC 722636758.
External links
- The Ansbach-Bayreuth Army in America at Exulanten.com
- German States to 1918, A–E on WorldStatesmen.org
- Marek, Miroslav. "House of Hohenzollern (1 of 2)". Genealogy.EU. on Genealogy.eu
- Marek, Miroslav. "House of Hohenzollern (2 of 2)". Genealogy.EU.
- Ansbach and Bayreuth