Bishopric of Hildesheim

Bishopric of Hildesheim
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The Bishopric of Hildesheim was a state of the Holy Roman Empire from the Middle Ages until 1803. It is named after its capital, Hildesheim.

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History

After the Duchy of Saxony had been conquered by the Frankish Kingdom, Hildesheim was founded as a missionary diocese by King Louis the Pious in 815. His son Louis the German appointed the famous former archbishop of Rheims, Ebbo, as bishop between 845 and 847.

In the 16th century, most of the diocese as well as most of the state of Hildesheim switched to protestantism. But the Bishopric managed to retain its independence from the surrounding Protestant states of Brunswick-Lüneburg, mostly because its bishops were members of the powerful House of Wittelsbach from 1573 until 1761. Among them was Klemens August of Bavaria, who was bishop from 1723 until 1761.

During the German Mediatisation of 1803, Hildesheim lost its statehood, and the territory was given to Prussia. Prussia lost it soon thereafter to the Kingdom of Westphalia. The Congress of Vienna of 1815 gave the territory to the Kingdom of Hanover.

v • d • e Lower Saxon Circle (1500–1806) of the Holy Roman Empire

Ecclesiastical	Bremen¹ · Halberstadt¹ · Hildesheim · Lübeck · Magdeburg¹ · Ratzeburg (until 1701) · Schwerin¹

Secular	Bremen (from 1648) · Brunswick (Blankenburg (until 1731) · Calenberg² · Celle · Grubenhagen² · Lüneburg² · Wolfenbüttel) · Hanover (from 1708) · Holstein (Glückstadt · Gottorp) · Mecklenburg (Güstrow (until 1695) · Schwerin · Strelitz) · Rantzau (until 1734) · Regenstein · Saxe-Lauenburg²

Cities	Bremen · Goslar · Hamburg · Lübeck · Mühlhausen · Nordhausen

¹ until 1648. ² until 1708.