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The 'Archbishopric of Cologne' was one of the major ecclesiastical principalities of the Holy Roman Empire. Cologne is the ancient Roman city of Colonia Agrippina. It became a free city in 1288 and the residence of the Archbishop was moved from Cologne Cathedral to Bonn. Its territories included a strip of territory along the Left Bank of the Rhine east of Jülich, as well as the Duchy of Westphalia on the other side of the Rhine, beyond Berg and Mark. The Archbishop was traditionally one of the Imperial Electors and the Archchancellor of Italy and Burgundy, technically from 1238 and permanently from 1263 until 1803.
During the 16th century, no fewer than three Archbishops of Cologne converted to Protestantism. The first two, Hermann von Wied and Salentin von Isenburg-Grenzau, resigned the Archbishopric on converting; but Gebhard Truchsess von Waldburg, on converting to Calvinism in 1582, attempted to secularize the Archbishopric. This resulted in the Cologne War in which a Bavarian army installed the Bavarian prince Ernst as Archbishop - the first major success of the Counter-Reformation in Germany. From then until the mid 18th century the Archbishopric was effectively a secundogeniture of the Wittelsbach rulers of Bavaria. As the Archbishop in this period usually also held the Bishopric of Münster (and often the Bishopric of Liège), he was one of the most substantial princes of northwestern Germany.
After 1795, the Archbishopric's territories on the Left Bank of the Rhine were occupied by France, and were formally annexed in 1801. The ''Reichsdeputationshauptschluss'' of 1803 secularized the rest of the Archbishopric, giving the Duchy of Westphalia to the Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt. Cologne was, however, reestablished as the seat of a Catholic archbishop in 1824, and is an archdiocese to the present day.

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See also

External links

See also

★ List of Bishops and Archbishops of Cologne

★ Kingdom of Westphalia

★ Lists of office-holders

★ List of Bishops and Archbishops

★ List of Roman Catholic archdioceses

★ List of Roman Catholic dioceses

★ Roman Catholicism in Germany

★ Roman Catholicism by country

★ County of Vest Recklinghausen

External links

★ Map of the Archbishopric of Cologne 1789