Palatinate-Lautern

Territory in the Holy Roman Empire
Palatinate-Lautern
coat of arms
Form of rule	monarchy
Ruler / government	Prince
Today's region / s	DE-RP
Parliament	Reichsfürstenrat , 1 virile vote
Reichskreis	Upper Rhine
Capitals / residences	Kaiserslautern
Denomination / Religions	reformed
Language / n	German
Incorporated into	1798: France ( Département du Mont-Tonnerre ), 1816: Kingdom of Bavaria

The Principality of Lautern , also called Palatinate-Lautern , existed as an independent territory in the Holy Roman Empire basically only at the time of Johann Casimir von der Pfalz between 1559 and 1592, after which it was again part of the Electoral Palatinate . In terms of imperial law, however, it continued into the final phase of the empire .

Time under Johann Casimir

Friedrich III. from the Palatinate from the Pfalz-Simmern line of the House of Wittelsbach bequeathed the Electoral Palatinate to the son Ludwig VI. For his son Johann Casimir, Palatinate-Lautern was formed from parts of the Palatinate. It consisted of the upper offices (Kaisers-) Lautern and Neustadt an der Haardt and the office of Sobernheim .

While Ludwig VI. went over to Lutheranism , Johann Casimir remained loyal to Calvinism . As a counterweight to the University of Heidelberg , he founded the high school in Neustadt ( Casimirianum ). In its time it was an important Calvinist college. Johann Casimir systematically settled Reformed immigrants from the Netherlands in his area and thus promoted commercial development.

The financial means for his politics came not least from the income of abolished monasteries. There were also foreign subsidies . For this, Johann Casimir temporarily provided troop contingents of up to 15,000 men for the Netherlands' struggle for freedom . However, he fell out with William of Orange .

Since the death of Louis VI. In 1583 Johann Casimir was also the administrator of the Electoral Palatinate for his nephew Friedrich IV.

Follow-up time

After the death of Johann Casimir, the area fell back to the Electoral Palatinate. Together with the Principality of Simmern, it came to Ludwig Philipp in 1611 .

As a part of the Electoral Palatinate, the principality comprised the Oberamt Lautern. The main town was (Kaisers-) Lautern. Sub-offices were Otterberg , Rockenhausen and Wolfstein . There were also the dishes Kübelberg , Ramstein , Steinwend , Weilerbach , Morlautern , Neukirch , Alsenborn and Waldfischbach .

The principality belonged to the Upper Rhine Imperial Circle and, even after the loss of independence, a virile vote in the Reichstag and the Imperial Council of Dukes was associated with its property .

From 1798 to 1814 the area belonged to the areas on the left bank of the Rhine annexed by France and became part of the Département du Mont-Tonnerre . Since 1816 the area belonged to the Kingdom of Bavaria .

literature

• Konrad Kretschmer : Historical geography of Central Europe. Munich / Berlin, 1904, p. 69
• Gerhard Taddey (ed.): Lexicon of German history . People, events, institutions. From the turn of the times to the end of the 2nd World War. 2nd, revised edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 1983, ISBN 3-520-80002-0 , p. 957.
• Gerhard Köbler : Historical lexicon of the German countries. The German territories from the Middle Ages to the present. 4th, completely revised edition. CH Beck, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-406-35865-9 , p. 463.