Landvogtei Lower Alsace
The Landvogtei Unterelsass or Landvogtei Hagenau comprised the administration of the imperial rulership rights in the 45 imperial villages of the Unterelsass (= Reichspflege Hagenau) as well as the administration of the imperial rights in the 10 imperial cities Hagenau , Colmar , Schlettstadt , Weißenburg , Landau , Oberehnheim , Rosheim , Münster im St Gregorienthal , Mulhouse (until 1515), Kaysersberg and Türkheim . In 1423 the bailiwick was pledged by King Sigismund of Luxembourg for 50,000 guilders to the Elector Ludwig IV of the Palatinate , redeemed in 1558 by Emperor Ferdinand I and transferred to the young prince of the House of Habsburg. In 1648 the bailiwick came to France in the Peace of Westphalia . Exactly how far the French rights to the ceded imperial cities extended, the text of the treaty left open, which gave both sides room for interpretation. Although the French crown read the treaty in their favor and exercised the bailiwick more restrictively than was usual in the Holy Roman Empire, the city constitution of the former imperial cities was retained in parts until the French Revolution despite the prevailing absolutist doctrine. Until 1686 the whole of the Lower Alsace between Schlettstadt and Strasbourg was "reunited" , i. H. annexed to France.
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