The Principality of Leiningen (german: Fürstentum Leiningen) was a short-lived

principality A principality (or sometimes princedom) can either be a monarchical feudatory or a sovereign state, ruled or reigned over by a regnant-monarch with the title of prince and/or princess, or by a monarch with another title considered to fall under ...

ruled by the

Prince of Leiningen The title of Prince of Leiningen (german: Fürst zu Leiningen) was created by the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, who elevated Carl Friedrich Wilhelm, Count of Leiningen-Dagsburg-Hardenburg (a younger branch of the House of Leiningen) to the rank ...

History

The principality emerged in 1803 in the course of

secularization In sociology, secularization (or secularisation) is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward non-religious values and secular institutions. The ''secularization thesis'' expresses the ...

and was created when the princely branch of the

House of Leiningen The House of Leiningen is the name of an old German noble family whose lands lay principally in Alsace, Lorraine, Saarland, Rhineland, and the Palatinate. Various branches of this family developed over the centuries and ruled counties with Impe ...

, which had been raised to the rank of a

Prince of the Holy Roman Empire Prince of the Holy Roman Empire ( la, princeps imperii, german: Reichsfürst, cf. ''Fürst'') was a title attributed to a hereditary ruler, nobleman or prelate recognised as such by the Holy Roman Emperor. Definition Originally, possessors o ...

in 1779, was deprived of its lands on the left bank of the

Rhine ), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland , source1_coordinates= , source1_elevation = , source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein , source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland , source2_coordinates= , so ...

by France, namely at Dagsburg, Hardenburg and Dürkheim, and subsequently received the secularized

Amorbach Abbey Amorbach Abbey (german: Kloster Amorbach) was a Benedictine imperial abbey of the Holy Roman Empire located at Amorbach. It was later the residence of the rulers of the short-lived Principality of Leiningen, before that became part of the Kingdom ...

as an ample compensation in 1803. A few years later, the Principality of Leiningen was

mediatized Mediatization or mediatisation may refer to: * German mediatisation German mediatisation (; german: deutsche Mediatisierung) was the major territorial restructuring that took place between 1802 and 1814 in Germany and the surrounding region by ...

in 1806. Its territory is now included mainly in

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...

, but partly in

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

and in

Hesse Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major histor ...

. Amorbach Abbey is still today the family seat of the Prince of Leiningen.

References

Bibliography

* Laurenz Hannibal Fischer:
Die Verwaltungsverhältnisse des fürstlichen Hauses Leiningen
', Amorbach 1828. * Eva Kell: ''Das Fürstentum Leiningen. Umbruchserfahrungen einer Adelsherrschaft zur Zeit der Französischen Revolution''. Kaiserslautern 1993. * Sandra Schwab: ''Die Entschädigung des Hauses Leiningen durch den Reichsdeputationshauptschluß von 1803'', Studienarbeit. GRIN Verlag für akademische Texte, BoD. Norderstedt 2007. * Ingo Toussaint: ''Die Grafen von Leiningen: Studien zur leiningischen Genealogie und Territorialgeschichte bis zur Teilung von 1317/18''. J. Thorbecke Verlag, 1982. __FORCETOC__

Principality of Leiningen The Principality of Leiningen (german: Fürstentum Leiningen) was a short-lived principality ruled by the Prince of Leiningen. History The principality emerged in 1803 in the course of secularization and was created when the princely branch of ...

Principalities of the Holy Roman Empire {{Germany-hist-stub