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| Free Imperial City of CologneFreie Reichsstadt Köln | |||||||||
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| 1288 – 1796 | |||||||||
Flag
Coat of arms
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 A map of the Electorate of Cologne showing key cities and towns. The city of Cologne was not a part of the territory of the Electorate, although it was part of the episcopal diocese. | |||||||||
| Status | Free Imperial City of the Holy Roman Empire | ||||||||
| Capital | Cologne | ||||||||
| Religion | Roman Catholic | ||||||||
| Government | Republic | ||||||||
| Historical era | Early Modern | ||||||||
| • City founded | 38 BC | ||||||||
| • Battle of Worringen | June 5, 1288 | ||||||||
| • Expulsion of Jews | 1424 | ||||||||
| • Treaty of Utrecht | 1474 | ||||||||
| • Gained Imperial immediacy | 1475 | ||||||||
| • Cologne War | 1583–88 | ||||||||
| • Annexed by France | May 28, 1796 | ||||||||
| • Awarded to Prussia | June 9, 1815 | ||||||||
| Currency | Thaler | ||||||||
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| Today part of |  Germany | ||||||||
| a: 1288 was the de facto year of independence for the city of Cologne, formalized by Emperor Frederick III in 1475 | |||||||||
The Imperial Free City of Cologne was a free imperial city and archdiocese of Catholic Church, in the Lower Rhenish–Westphalian Circle. It was a fortification of the first rank, and one of the most important market towns of the Holy Roman Empire.
History
The municipal history of Cologne follows an arch similar to that of other cities of Northern Germany and the Low Countries. At first the bishop ruled through his burgrave, advocate, and nominated jurats (scabino, schöffe). Then, as the trading classes grew in wealth, his jurisdiction began to be disputed; the conjuratio pro libertate of 1112 seems to have been an attempt to establish a medieval commune.
Peculiar to Colognewas the Richerzeche, a corporation of all the wealthy patricians, which gradually absorbed in its hands the direction of the city's government. The first record of its active interference is in 1225.
In the 13th century the archbishops made repeated efforts to assert their authority, and in 1259 Archbishop Konrad von Hochstaden, by appealing to the democratic element of the population, the "brotherhoods" (fraternitates) of the craftsmen, succeeded in overthrowing the Richerzeche, and driving its members into exile. His successor, Engelbert II, attempted to overthrow the democratic constitution set up by him, which resulted in the brotherhoods joining forces with the patricians against the archbishop in 1262, and the Richerzeche returning to share its authority with the elected " great council " (Weiter Rat).
However, none of the trade or craft guilds had a share in the government, which continued in the hands of the patrician families, the membership of which, was necessary, even for election to the council and to the parochial offices. This continued long after the Battle of Worringen (1288) had finally secured for the city full self-government, and the archbishops had ceased to reside within its walls.
In the I4th century, a narrow patrician council selected from the Richerzeche, with two burgomasters, was the supreme. In 1370, an insurrection of the weavers was suppressed; but in 1396, because the rule of the patricians had been weakened by internal dissensions, a bloodless revolution led to the establishment of a comparatively democratic constitution. This constitution was based on the organization of the trade and craft guilds, which lasted with slight modifications, until the French Revolution.
The greatness of Cologne, in the Middle Ages, was due to her trade. Wine and herrings were the chief articles of her commerce; but her weavers were held in repute from time immemorial, and exports of clothes was large, while her goldsmiths and armorers were famous. Her merchants were settled in London; their colony forming the nucleus of the Steelyard. When the city joined the Hanseatic League (q.v.) in 1201, its power and repute were so great that it was made the chief place of a third of the confederation.
In spite of their feuds with the archbishops, the burghers of Cologne were staunch Catholics, and the number of the magnificent medieval churches left is evidence at once of their piety and their wealth. The university, founded in 1389 by the sole efforts of the citizens, soon gained a great reputation. In the 15th century its students numbered much more than a thousand, and its influence extended to Scotland and the Scandinavian kingdoms. Its decline began, however, from the moment when the Catholic sentiment of the city closed it to the influence of the Reformers; the number of its students sank to vanishing point, and though, under the influence of the Jesuits, it subsequently revived, it never recovered in its old importance. It was dealt a final blow when, in 1777, when the enlightened archbishop Maximilian Frederick (d. 1784) founded the university of Bonn, and in 1798, amid the confusion of the revolutionary epoch, it ceased to exist.
The same intolerance that ruined the university, all but ruined the city too. It is difficult to blame the burghers for resisting the dubious reforming efforts of Hermann of Wied, archbishop from 1515 to 1546, inspired mainly by secular ambitions; but the expulsion of the Jews in 1414, and the exclusion, under Jesuit influence, of Protestants from the right to acquire citizenship, and from the magistracy, dealt severe blows at the prosperity of the place. A variety of other causes contributed to its decay - the opening up of new trade routes, the gradual ossification of the guilds into close and corrupt corporations, the wars in the Netherlands, the Thirty Years' War, and the Wars of the Spanish and Austrian Succession.
When Cologne was occupied by the French in 1794, it was a poor and decayed city of some 40,000 inhabitants, of whom only 6000 possessed civic rights. When, in 1801, by the treaty of Luneville, it was incorporated in France, it was not important enough to be more than the chief town of an arrondissement. On the death of the last elector in 1801 the archiepiscopal seat was left vacant. With the assignment of the city to Prussia by the congress of Vienna in 1815, a new era of prosperity began.
See also
References
- "Cologne". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 20 Oct. 2012 <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/125964/Cologne>.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
| Members of the Hanseatic League by quarter, and trading posts of the Hanseatic League | ||||
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 Lower Rhenish–Westphalian Circle (1500–1806) of the Holy Roman Empire | |||||||
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| from 1648 until 1648 without seat in Imperial Diet status uncertain
Circles est. 1500: Bavarian, Swabian, Upper Rhenish, Lower Rhenish–Westphalian, Franconian, (Lower) Saxon
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