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Was an ecclesiastical principality in what are today the German states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Württemberg. It was secularized in 1803.
Establishment
January 1087: In 1085 the Prince-Bishopric of Speyer acquired the remainder of the Speyergau, a medieval county in the East Frankish (German) stem duchy of Franconia.
Chronology
Interactive Chronologies with maps are available in the section Changes Navigation
Were a series of wars in Europe (and the overseas possessions of European countries) the 16th, 17th and early 18th that started after the Protestant Reformation. Although the immediate causes of the wars were religious, the motives were complex and also included territorial ambitions.
1.1.Thirty Years' War
Was a war that took place mainly in central Europe between 1618 and 1648. The war began as a religious conflict between Catholics and Protestant in the Holy Roman Empire but then escalated into a conflict for the hegemony in Europe between Habsburg Spain and Austria, Sweden and France.
1.1.1.Thirty Years' War Minor Scenarios
A series of conflicts related to the Thirty Years' War.
1.1.1.1.Invasion of Franche Comté (Ten Years War)
Was French invasion of modern-day Franche-Comté, at the time a possession of the Habsburg, during the Thirty Years' War.
January 1645: Following a treaty concluded with Cardinal Mazarin in 1644, France committed to cease hostilities in Franche-Comté, in exchange for the considerable sum of 40,000 écus, thus guaranteeing the region's neutrality once again. The year 1644 thus marked the end of the Ten Years' War in Franche-Comté.
1.1.2.Swedish Period
Was the third main period of the Thirty Years' War. It started with the intervention of the Kingdom of Sweden.
June 1634: Conquest of Philippsburg by Sweden.
1.1.3.Franco-Swedish Period
Was the fourth main period of the Thirty Years' War. It started with the intervention of the Kingdom of France.
1.1.3.1.North German Front (Sweden)
Was the north German front during the Franco-Swedish period of the Thirty Years' War.
January 1635: In 1634, Schorndorf was occupied by Sweden.
January 1635: In 1635, during the Thirty Years' War, Philippsburg was recaptured from the Swedes by Imperial troops led by the Spanish general Ottavio Piccolomini.
November 1637: After the death of Swedish King Ferdinand II, his son and successor Ferdinand III brought the Swedish troops back to Pomerania, leaving the territories occupied by Sweden in Germany.
November 1648: When in November Gustaf of Sweden received a report about the signed peace, he ordered his troops to leave. Also the French troops started leaving the occupied territories in the Holy Roman Empire.
1.1.3.2.Low Countries Front (France)
Was the Low Countries front during the Franco-Swedish period of the Thirty Years' War.
January 1636: Spanish occupation of Philippsbourg, Speyer, Landau and Treviri.
1.1.3.3.Rhineland Front (France)
Was the Rhineland front during the Franco-Swedish period of the Thirty Years' War.
September 1635: Jean de Werth takes over Heidelberg and then Speyer for the Imperials.
May 1645: French General Thurenne advanced up to Bad Mergentheim, where a battle with German field Marshal Franz von Mercy would take place on May, 5 1645.
November 1645: The French evacuate their ephemeral conquests in Germany, systematically devastating them.
May 1648: The French returned to Swabia and then to Bavaria. They defeated the Imperial forces at Zusmarshausen (May 17, 1648) and drove Maximilian of Bavaria out of Munich.
1.2.Nine Years' War
Was a conflict between France and the Grand Alliance, a coalition including the Holy Roman Empire, the Dutch Republic, England, Spain, and Savoy. It is considered the first war that saw fighting globally because battles occured in Europe, America, Africa and India.
1.2.1.Rhineland Theatre (Nine Years' War)
Was the Rhineland Theatre of the the Nine Years' War.
October 1688: The French besiege Philippsburg.
January 1689: Several towns fell to the French without resistance, including Oppenheim, Worms, Bingen, Kaiserslautern, Heidelberg, Speyer and, above all, the key fortress of Mainz.
June 1689: The French left the Rhineland region.
1.2.2.Peace of Ryswick
Were a series of treaties that ended the Nine Years' War.
September 1697: Peace of Ryswick (1697): France kept Strasbourg but returned Freiburg, Breisach, Philippsburg and the Duchy of Lorraine to the Holy Roman Empire.
Was a war between the Kingdom of France and the Dutch Republic.
January 1677: Imperial forces recaptured Philippsburg in September 1676.
2.1.Peace of Nijmegen
Were a series of treaties that ended various interconnected wars, notably the Franco-Dutch War.
September 1678: Peace of Nijmegen
January 1679: Weissenburg made part of France.
Was a major European conflict sparked by a Polish civil war over the succession to Augustus II of Poland.
3.1.French invasion of the Rhineland
Was the French invasion of the Rhineland during the War of the Polish Succession.
July 1734: The French army, led by the Duke of Berwick, besieged the imperial fort at Philippsburg in 1734. The fort fell after a two-month siege in July, marking a significant victory for France during the War of the Polish Succession.
3.2.Treaty of Vienna (1738)
Was the treaty that ended the War of the Polish Succession. Augustus III was officially confirmed as King of Poland.
November 1738: After the Treaty of Vienna in 1738, which concluded the War of the Polish Succession, the French evacuated the territories they had occupied.
Was a global conflict that involved most of the European great powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. At the end of the war the main winner was Great Britain, that obtained territories in North America, the Caribbean and India, becoming the most powerful maritime and colonial of the European powers.
4.1.Central German Theatre
Was the theatre of war in central Germany of the Seven Years' War.
4.1.1.Rhineland Theatre (Seven Years' War)
Was the theatre of War in the Rhineland during the Seven Years' War.
April 1759: The French under General Victor-François de Broglie obtained a victory against British, Hanoverian, Hessian, and Brunswick forces in the Battle of Bergen.
August 1759: On 1 August 1759, the Anglo-German army of Ferdinand Prince of Brunswick-Lüneburg, routed the French during the Battle of Minden.
July 1760: French general de Broglie launched an offensive in the direction of Hesse, defeating Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel's forces on July 10 at the Battle of Korbach.
July 1760: The Battle of Warburg was fought on 31 July 1760 during the Seven Years' War. The battle was a victory for the Hanoverians and the British against the French army.
4.2.Treaty of Paris (1763)
Was a treaty signed on 10 February 1763 by the kingdoms of Great Britain, France and Spain, with Portugal in agreement, after Great Britain and Prussia's victory over France and Spain during the Seven Years' War.
February 1763: Treaty of Paris (1763): France and Spain restored all their conquests to Britain and Portugal.
Were a series of conflicts between France and several European monarchies between 1792 and 1815. They encompass first the French Revolutionary Wars against the newly declared French Republic and from 1803 onwards the Napoleonic Wars against First Consul and later Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. They include the Coalition Wars as a subset: seven wars waged by various military alliances of great European powers, known as Coalitions, against Revolutionary France - later the First French Empire - and its allies.
January 1804: In 1803, the right-bank territory of Speyer (at the time also spelled Spayer) was transferred to the Electorate of Baden. This decision was part of the territorial changes following the Treaty of Lunéville, which aimed to reorganize the territories of the Holy Roman Empire after the Napoleonic Wars.
5.1.War of the First Coalition
Were a series of wars between the Kingdom of France (later the French Republic) and several European Monarchies. The French Revolution had deteriorated the relations of France with the other European countries, that tried several times to invade France in order to crash the revolutionary government.
July 1794: The Battle of Trippstadt was a relatively minor French military action in 1794. This victory gave the French control of the mountain passes across the lower Vosges ( Kaiserslautern, Trippstadt, Schänzel, Neustadt and along the banks of the Speyerbach River).
January 1795: The French armies drove the Austrians, British, and Dutch beyond the Rhine, occupying Belgium, the Rhineland, and the south of the Netherlands.
5.1.1.Rhineland campaign of 1792
Was a French military campaign in the Rhineland.
September 1792: The French attacked Speyer on 29 September and conquered it the next day.
October 1792: French troops occupy Worms and Philippsburg without a fight.
5.1.2.Flanders Campaign
Was a French military campaign in the Flanders.
June 1795: Territory evacuated by the French at the end of the Flanders Campaign. The surrender of Luxembourg on 7 June 1795 concluded the French conquest of the Low Countries, thus marking the end of the Flanders Campaign.
5.1.3.Peace of Basel
Were a series of Treaties between the French Republic and Prussia, Spain and Hesse-Kassel that ended the War of the First Coalition with these countries.
April 1795: Peace of Basel of 1795 at the end of the War of the First Coalition between the Kingdom of Prussia and the French Republic. France gained the left bank of the Rhine.
5.2.War of the Second Coalition
Was the second war that saw revolutionary France against most of the European monarchies, led by Britain, Austria, and Russia, and including the Ottoman Empire, Portugal, Naples, and various German monarchies. Prussia did not join this coalition, and Spain supported France.
5.2.1.Suvorov Swiss campaign
Was a military campaign led by Russian general Alexander Suvorov against France that took place in Switzlerand.
October 1799: The Russian troops were forced by the French to abandon their hold on the left bank of the Rhine.
5.2.2.Treaty of Lunéville
Was a treaty between the French Republic and the Holy Roman Empire that formally ended the partecipation of Austria and the Holy Roman Empire in the War of the Second Coalition.
February 1801: The Treaty of Lunéville was signed in the Treaty House of Lunéville between the French Republic and Holy Roman Emperor Francis II. Certain Austrian holdings within the borders of the Holy Roman Empire were relinquished, and French control was extended to the left bank of the Rhine, "in complete sovereignty" but France renounced any claim to territories east of the Rhine. Contested boundaries in Italy were set. The Grand Duchy of Tuscany was awarded to the French.
January 1295: Speyer is declared a Free Imperial City.
January 1325: Landau fell to the Bishopric of Speyer.
January 1379: Based on Gustav Droysen's Map of the Holy Roman Empire in the XIV century.
January 1512: Landau is declared a Free Imperial City.
January 1547: Weissenburg Abbey in personal union with the Bishopric of Speyer.
Disestablishment
January 1804: In 1803, the right-bank territory of Speyer (at the time also spelled Spayer) was transferred to the Electorate of Baden. This decision was part of the territorial changes following the Treaty of Lunéville, which aimed to reorganize the territories of the Holy Roman Empire after the Napoleonic Wars.
Selected Sources
Addington, L. (1994): The Patterns of War Since the Eighteenth Century, Bloomington (USA), p.24
Battle of Warburg. BritishBattles.com. Retrieved on 30 march 2024 on https://www.britishbattles.com/frederick-the-great-wars/seven-years-war/battle-of-warburg/
De Leon, D. (1886): The Conference at Berlin on the West-African Question, Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 1, No. 1, p. 103-139
Droysen, G. (1886): Historischer Handatlas, Bielefeld and Leipzig (Germany), pp. 30-31
Exshaw, A. (1763): A Compleat History of the Late War, pp. 282-283
Gagliardo, J. (1980): Reich and Nation: The Holy Roman Empire as Idea and Reality, 1763–1806, Bloomington (USA), p. 192
Jorio, M. (2002): Basel, Frieden von (1795). Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz. https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/de/articles/044887/2002-05-01/
Kreins, J. (2003): Histoire du Luxembourg, Paris (France), p. 63
Krumenacker, Y. (2008): La Guerre de Trente Ans, Paris, Ellipses, pp. 144-145
Krumenacker, Y. (2008): La Guerre de Trente Ans, Paris, Ellipses, pp. 146-147
Livet, G. (1994): La Guerre de Trente Ans, Paris (France), p. 37
Poole, R.L. (1902): Historical Atlas of Modern Europe, Oxford (United Kingdom), Plate XI
Schmidt, G. (2006): Der Dreißigjährige Krieg, Munich (Germany), p. 65
Schmiele, E. (1887): Zur Geschichte des schwedisch-polnischen Krieges von 1655 bis 1660, Berlin (Germany), p. 5
Swiss campaign of Suvorov and his wonder-heroes. Top War. 30 September 2011. https://en.topwar.ru/7227-shveycarskiy-pohod-suvorova-i-ego-chudo-bogatyrey.html
Treaty of Ryswick (English version), https://bonoc.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/tratado-ryswick.pdf
Zeller, O. (2024): La Bresse et le pouvoir: Le Papier journal de Jean Corton, syndic du tiers état (1641-1643), Dijon (France), p. 12
Speyer Prince-Bishopric
