Principality of Ansbach

{{Short description|Free Imperial principality in the Holy Roman Empire (1398–1791)}}

{{No footnotes|date=November 2009}}

{{Infobox country

|native_name = {{native name|de|Markgrafschaft Brandenburg-Ansbach/Fürstentum Ansbach}}

|conventional_long_name = Margraviate of Brandenburg-Ansbach/Principality of Ansbach

|common_name = Ansbach

|era = Early modern period

|status = Principality

|empire = Holy Roman Empire

|today = Germany

|year_start = 1398

|year_end = 1791

|event_pre = Nuremberg became
imperial city

|date_pre =
1219

|event_start = Partition of
burgraviate

|date_start =
21 January

|event1 = Personal union with
Brandenburg

|date_event1 =
1415–40

|event2 = Reunion with
Bayreuth

|date_event2 =
11 June 1420

|event3 = Repartition

|date_event3 = 21 September 1440

|event4 = Restoration of
personal union

|date_event4 =
1470–86

|event_end = Margraviate sold
to Prussia

|date_end =
2 December

|event_post = Formal annexation

|date_post = 28 January 1792

|p1 = Burgraviate of Nuremberg

|flag_p1 = Burgraves of Nuremberg (Eigener Entwurf Version 2).svg

|s1 = Kingdom of Prussia

|flag_s1 = Flag of Prussia (1750).svg

|image_coat = Principato di Ansbach.svg

| symbol = House of Hohenzollern#Margraves of Brandenburg-Ansbach (1398–1791)

|image_map = Principality of Ansbach 1791.png

|image_map_caption = The Principality of Brandenburg-Ansbach as of 1791, superimposed over modern borders.

|capital = Ansbach

|common_languages = East Franconian

|religion = Roman Catholic

|footnotes =

}}

The Principality or Margraviate of (Brandenburg) Ansbach ({{langx|de|Fürstentum Ansbach}} or {{lang|de|Markgrafschaft Brandenburg-Ansbach}}) was a {{lang|de|free imperial}} principality in the Holy Roman Empire centered on the Franconian city of Ansbach. The ruling Hohenzollern princes of the land were known as margraves, as their ancestors were margraves (so the principality was a margraviate but not a march).