Raetia Curiensis

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Raetia Curiensis
Churrätien (German)
Currazia (Romansh)
476–11th century
Map of Raetia Curiensis during the 9th to 11th centuries
Map of Raetia Curiensis during the 9th to 11th centuries
CapitalChur
History 
• Raetia prima established
c. 300
476
• Frankish rule
548
• Subordination to the Duchy of Swabia
917
• Division
11th century
Preceded by		 Succeeded by
Raetia prima
County of Bregenz
County of Tyrol
Three Leagues
Prince-Bishopric of Chur

Raetia Curiensis (in Latin; German: Churrätien, Romansh: Currezia) was an early medieval province in Central Europe, named after the preceding Roman province of Raetia prima which retained its Romansh culture during the Migration Period, while the adjacent territories in the north were largely settled by Alemannic tribes. The administrative capital was Chur (Curia Raetorum) in the present Swiss canton of Grisons.

Location

The territory of the province roughly corresponded to modern Grisons (without the southern

Puschlav valleys), plus Liechtenstein, parts of Vorarlberg (the Ill valley with Feldkirch, Damüls, Großwalsertal, and Montafon), as well as the Alpine Rhine valley in the Canton of St. Gallen and adjacent Sarganserland. Until the 12th century, also the Vinschgau region, the valley called Urseren, and possibly Galtür and either parts or all of Glarus
belonged to Raetia Curiensis.

History

Roman provinces in the Alps, 395 AD

After the Alpine regions were conquered during the campaigns of Emperor

Imperial province governed by a Senator exercising the functions of a Praetor. The province was divided into the mountainous part of Raetia prima and northeastern Raetia secunda in the Alpine foothills during the reforms enacted by Emperor Diocletian in 297. Both were assigned to the Diocese of Italia under the Praetorian prefecture of Italy and placed under the military authority of a dux. The civil administration was entrusted to lower-ranking praeses officials, who took their seats at Curia Raetorum (Chur) and Augusta Vindelicorum (Augsburg
). The northeastern border of Raetia Curiensis with Raetia Vindelica cannot be determined exactly.

During the

Theoderic the Great
again began to appoint dux governors, who however had only military competences, while civil administration remained with a praeses. Nevertheless, it appears that the Chur bishops remained de facto independent rulers.

In 537 King

Alemannia re-attached it to the realm. Several ecclesiastical and secular offices were held by members of the Victorid dynasty. In the mid-8th century a surviving Lex Romana Curiensis, a "Roman Law of Chur", was an abbreviated epitome of the Breviary of Alaric.[1]

After the death of the last Victorid bishop Tello of Chur in 765, King Charlemagne took the occasion to issue a document of protection declaring Tello's successors his vassals. From the 770s onwards, Charlemagne appointed the bishops of Chur himself, increasing Frankish control over the territory. Upon the death of Bishop Remedius in 806 or 807,[1] he legislated a division between episcopal and comital property (divisio inter episcopatum et comitatum), ending the de facto secular rule of the Chur bishops. He appointed Hunfried I comes curiensis (or Reciarum comes[1]), ruling over a vast Imperial demesne. The ecclesiastical (episcopal) and secular (comital) claims to power remained a source of contention.

With Churraetia as a power base, the

Saracens
in 940 and 954.

In parallel with the development of

Bergell, Chiavenna, Bormio and Vinschgau
.

Raetia as a geographic designation remained in use at the end of the medieval period, when political power passed to the

Swiss Confederacy
, the canton was named Grisons (Graubünden).

Germanic–Latin boundary

In contrast to the remaining part of the former province of Raetia, Churraetia managed to retain its

walha "Latin/Romance", c.f. Walenstadt). The existence of a medieval German/Latin language boundary at Walensee and the Churfirsten can still be perceived from the prevalence of Latin toponymy.[2][3]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d Meyer-Marthaler 1948.
  2. ISBN 978-90-272-8499-0
    .
  3. ISBN 90-6203-221-4
    .

Sources
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Raetia_Curiensis&oldid=1209500422"