Principality of Leiningen
{{use dmy|date=April 2025}}
{{Infobox country
|native_name = Fürstentum Leiningen
|conventional_long_name = Principality of Leiningen
|common_name = Leiningen
|era = Early modern period
|status = State of the Holy Roman Empire
|empire = Holy Roman Empire
|government_type = Principality
|image_coat = Leiningen-1803.PNG
|image_map = Fuerstentum Leiningen.png
|image_map_caption = Map of the Principality of Leiningen
|year_start = 1803
|year_end = 1806
|
|event_start =
|date_start =
|event1 =
|date_event1 =
|event2 =
|date_event2 =
|event3 =
|date_event3 =
|event4 =
|date_event4 =
|event_end = Mediatized to Baden
|date_end =
|
|p1 = Duchy of Swabia
|image_p1 = File:Arms of Swabia.svg
|s1 = Grand Duchy of Baden
|image_s1 = File:Coat of Arms of the Grand Duchy of Baden 1877-1918.svg
|
|capital = Amorbach
|
|footnotes =
}}
The Principality of Leiningen ({{langx|de|Fürstentum Leiningen}}) was a short-lived principality ruled by the Prince of Leiningen. It was created in 1803 as part of compensation for the House of Leiningen losing land to France but was mediatized three years later to become part of the Grand Duchy of Baden.
History
File:Amorbach-abteikirche.jpg]]
The principality emerged in 1803 in the course of secularization and was created when the princely branch of the House of Leiningen, which had been raised to the rank of a Prince of the Holy Roman Empire in 1779, was deprived of its lands on the left bank of the Rhine by France, namely at Dagsburg, Hardenburg and Dürkheim, and subsequently received the secularized Amorbach Abbey as an ample compensation in 1803.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L8kqAQAAMAAJ&q=amorbach|title=The Prince Consort: Man of Many Facets : the World and the Age of Prince Albert|last1=Scheele|first1=Godfrey|last2=Scheele|first2=Margaret|date=1977|publisher=Oresko Books|isbn=9780846703228|pages=23|language=en}} The Principality was also given Adersbach and Rohrbach as compensation for the loss of land on the left bank of the River Rhein due to the collapse of the Electoral Palatinate.{{cite book |pages=107–108 |title=The Narrow Path: The Known Ancestors of Brenna Wagenbach |first=Richard |last=Endress |publisher=FriesenPress |year=2024 |isbn=9781038325327}}
The sovereignty of Leiningen was viewed to have improved the economy of the villages within it, with Carl Friedrich Wilhelm, 1st Prince of Leiningen engaging in a construction and road widening programme due to the economic boom. A few years later, the Principality of Leiningen was mediatized to become part of the Grand Duchy of Baden in 1806.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B1aHCwAAQBAJ&q=prince+Leiningen+1803+1806&pg=PA663|title=Heart of Europe: A History of the Holy Roman Empire|last=Wilson|first=Peter H.|date=2016-02-29|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=9780674058095|pages=663|language=en}} Following the mediatization, it was viewed to have worsened the economic situation in Leiningen, that by 1808 the local Amorbach schoolteacher was having to ask Prince Carl personally for firewood to heat the school and have access to a room to lock it away in due to the risk of theft.{{cite book |title=German Pioneers on the American Frontier: The Wagners in Texas and Illinois |first=Andreas |last=Reichstein |page=11 |publisher=University of North Texas Press |year=2001 |isbn=9781574411348}} Its territory is now included mainly in Baden-Württemberg, but partly in Bavaria and in Hesse. Amorbach Abbey is still today the family seat of the Prince of Leiningen.{{cite book|last=Dettelbacher|first=Werner|title=Franken - Kunst, Geschichte und Landschaft |language=German |page=84 |publisher=Dumont Verlag|year=1974|isbn=3-7701-0746-2}}
References
{{Reflist}}
Bibliography
- Laurenz Hannibal Fischer: [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_Qct2rTJzBQoC Die Verwaltungsverhältnisse des fürstlichen Hauses Leiningen], Amorbach 1828.
- Eva Kell: Das Fürstentum Leiningen. Umbruchserfahrungen einer Adelsherrschaft zur Zeit der Französischen Revolution. Kaiserslautern 1993.
- Sandra Schwab: Die Entschädigung des Hauses Leiningen durch den Reichsdeputationshauptschluß von 1803, Studienarbeit. GRIN Verlag für akademische Texte, BoD. Norderstedt 2007.
- Ingo Toussaint: Die Grafen von Leiningen: Studien zur leiningischen Genealogie und Territorialgeschichte bis zur Teilung von 1317/18. J. Thorbecke Verlag, 1982.
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