Karl Theodor Anton Maria von Dalberg (8 February 1744 – 10 February 1817) was Prince- Archbishop of Regensburg,

Arch-Chancellor An archchancellor ( la, archicancellarius, german: Erzkanzler) or chief chancellor was a title given to the highest dignitary of the Holy Roman Empire, and also used occasionally during the Middle Ages to denote an official who supervised the wo ...

of the Holy Roman Empire, Bishop of

Constance Constance may refer to: Places *Konstanz, Germany, sometimes written as Constance in English *Constance Bay, Ottawa, Canada * Constance, Kentucky * Constance, Minnesota * Constance (Portugal) * Mount Constance, Washington State People * Consta ...

and Worms, prince-primate of the Confederation of the Rhine and

Grand Duke Grand duke (feminine: grand duchess) is a European hereditary title, used either by certain monarchs or by members of certain monarchs' families. In status, a grand duke traditionally ranks in order of precedence below an emperor, as an approxi ...

of Frankfurt.

Early life and career

Born in Herrnsheim near Worms, Germany, as a member of Dalberg family, he was the son of Franz Heinrich von Dalberg (1716–1776), administrator of Worms, one of the chief counsellors of the Prince-elector and

Archbishop of Mainz The Elector of Mainz was one of the seven Prince-electors of the Holy Roman Empire. As both the Archbishop of Mainz and the ruling prince of the Electorate of Mainz, the Elector of Mainz held a powerful position during the Middle Ages. The Archb ...

and his wife Baroness Maria Sophie Anna von Eltz-Kempenich (1722–1763). Karl devoted himself to the study of canon law, and entered the church. Having been appointed in 1772 governor of

Erfurt Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits in ...

, he won further advancement by his successful administration. In 1787 he was elected coadjutor cum iure successionis of the

Archbishopric of Mainz The Electorate of Mainz (german: Kurfürstentum Mainz or ', la, Electoratus Moguntinus), previously known in English as Mentz and by its French name Mayence, was one of the most prestigious and influential states of the Holy Roman Empire. In the ...

and the

Bishopric of Worms The Prince-Bishopric of Worms, was an ecclesiastical principality of the Holy Roman Empire. Located on both banks of the Rhine around Worms just north of the union of that river with the Neckar, it was largely surrounded by the Electorate of the ...

, and in 1788 of the Bishopric of Constance;"Karl von Dalberg, Archbishop of Mainz and Prince Primate", The British Museum
/ref> at the same time, he became titular archbishop of Tarsus in Cilicia and was ordained priest (11/11/1787) and bishop (8/31/1788). While he did succeed the respective bishops in Constance (1800) and Worms (1802), he failed to succeed in Mainz as bishop, though he did succeed in Mainz's temporal rights and also, ''de facto'', in the pastoral ones as far as the right bank of the Rhine was concerned. As statesman, Dalberg was distinguished by his patriotic attitude, whether in ecclesiastical matters, in which he leaned to the Febronian view of a German national church, or in his efforts to galvanize the atrophied machinery of the Empire into some sort of effective central government of Germany. Failing in this, he turned to the rising star of

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

, believing that he had found in him the only force strong enough to save Germany from dissolution. By the Treaty of Lunéville in 1801, in which all territories on the left bank of the river Rhine were ceded to France, Dalberg's predecessor had to surrender Mainz and Worms; the Concordat of 1801 had reduced Mainz to a simple diocese in the province of

Mechelen Mechelen (; french: Malines ; traditional English name: MechlinMechelen has been known in English as ''Mechlin'', from where the adjective ''Mechlinian'' is derived. This name may still be used, especially in a traditional or historical contex ...

that conscribed the French department of Donnersberg (including the city of Worms). For Mainz,

Joseph Ludwig Colmar Joseph Ludwig Colmar (born at Strasburg, 22 June 1760; died at Mainz, 15 December 1818) was a German Catholic Bishop of Mainz. Life After his ordination (20 December 1783) he was professor of history and Greek at the Royal Seminary, and curate ...

was soon appointed as bishop. (Worms, though it had lost its city, remained an extant diocese on the right bank of the Rhine, so Dalberg could succeed there.) In the Final Recess of the Extraordinary Imperial Deputation of 1803, it was decided to compensate German princes for their losses to France by distributing the Church land among them, so Dalberg lost a couple of territories there (among other things, Constance), though (due to the prominent position of the Arch-Chancellor of the Empire, and perhaps also due to his personality and skilled diplomatics), he would be the only spiritual prince to retain at least some territory for temporal government: the Mainzian lands around Aschaffenburg, the ' ( Free Imperial City) of Wetzlar (with the rank of a Countship) and the Principality of

Regensburg Regensburg or is a city in eastern Bavaria, at the confluence of the Danube, Naab and Regen rivers. It is capital of the Upper Palatinate subregion of the state in the south of Germany. With more than 150,000 inhabitants, Regensburg is the f ...

containing the Imperial City, the bishopric, and some independent monasteries. (Regensburg was also where the Imperial Deputation had taken place.) In addition, he was designated Archbishop of the (former Salzburg suffragan) Regensburg, to which (spiritually now) the former Mainz lands on the right bank of the Rhine, and the former Mainzian suffragans were attached. This was, of course, the decision of a state authority which, in its spiritual part, could not take effect until ratified by the Pope; in any case, Regensburg's bishop, Schroffenberg, was still alive at the time. So, Dalberg did not exercise spiritual authority in the older part of the Regensburg diocese until Bishop Schroffenberg died, at which point he made himself elected vicar capitular of the diocese; finally, on February 1st, 1805, he received the papal assent and was Archbishop of Regensburg.

Prince-primate of the Confederation of the Rhine

After the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, Dalberg together with other princes joined the Confederation of the Rhine. He formally resigned the office of Arch-Chancellor in a letter to Emperor Francis II, and was appointed prince-primate of the Confederation of the Rhine by Napoleon. At that point, the ' of Frankfurt was included among his territories. Not long after, Dalberg appointed Napoleon's uncle,

Cardinal Fesch Joseph Fesch, Prince of France (3 January 1763 – 13 May 1839) was a French priest and diplomat, who was the maternal half-uncle of Napoleon Bonaparte (half-brother of Napoleon's mother Laetitia). In the wake of his nephew, he became Archbishop ...

, coadjutor in his archdiocese (an action for which he had no canonical rights). After the Treaty of Schönbrunn (1810), he was elevated by the French to the rank of

Grand Duke of Frankfurt The Grand Duchy of Frankfurt was a German satellite state of Napoleonic creation. It came into existence in 1810 through the combination of the former territories of the Archbishopric of Mainz along with the Free City of Frankfurt itself. Histor ...

. This greatly augmented Dalberg's territories, although he had to cede

to the Kingdom of Bavaria. As Grand Duke of Frankfurt he ordered all restrictions on the Jews of Frankfurt lifted. This was opposed by the Lutheran town council, until 1811, when Dalberg issued a proclamation ending the requirement that Jews live in the ghetto or pay special taxes. In 1813 he ceded all his temporal offices to Napoleon's stepson Eugène de Beauharnais, who had been heir apparent since 1810.

Death and legacy

Dalberg died in 1817 in Regensburg. Though his political subservience to Napoleon was resented by a later generation in Germany, as a man and prelate he is remembered as amiable, conscientious and large-hearted. Himself a scholar and author, Dalberg was a notable patron of letters, and was the friend of Goethe,

Schiller Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, and philosopher. During the last seventeen years of his life (1788–1805), Schiller developed a productive, if complicated, friendsh ...

and Wieland.

Notes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dalberg, Karl Theodor Anton Maria von 1744 births 1817 deaths Roman Catholic bishops of Worms 19th-century Roman Catholic archbishops in the Holy Roman Empire Archbishop-Electors of Mainz Roman Catholic bishops of Constance 19th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Bavaria Members of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres Prince-primate of the Confederation of the Rhine German Freemasons Roman Catholic Freemasons