View source for Princely Abbey of Kempten

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{{Infobox country <!-- move this template to [[Kempten Abbey]] once created -->
|native_name            = ''Fürststift Kempten''
|conventional_long_name = Princely Abbey of Kempten
|common_name            = Kempten Abbey
|
|image_coat             = Fuerststift Kempten coat of arms.png
|image_map              = Kempten, Imperial City and Imperial Abbey.jpg
|image_map_caption      = Imperial City and Princely Abbey of Kempten, c. 1800
|
|era                    = Middle Ages
|status                 = Princely Abbey
|empire                 = Holy Roman Empire
|government_type        = Elective ecclesiastical principality
|year_start             = 1062
|year_end               = 1803
|life_span              =
|
|event_pre              = Abbey founded
|date_pre               = 752
|event_start            = [[Imperial immediacy]] confirmed
|date_start             =
|event1                 = [[Prince-abbot|Prince–Abbacy]]
|date_event1            = 1213
|event2                 = Joined [[Swabian Circle]]
|date_event2            = 1500
|event3                 = Joined [[Catholic League (Germany)|Catholic League]]
|date_event3            = 1609
|event4                 = Abbey property purchased by the City of Kempten
|date_event4            = 1525
|event_end              = [[German Mediatisation|Mediatised]] to [[Electorate of Bavaria|Bavaria]]
|date_end               =
|event_post             = Cities united
|date_post              = 1819
|
|p1                     = Duchy of Swabia
|image_p1               = [[File:Arms of Swabia.svg|20px|alt=|link=Duchy of Swabia]]
|s1                     = Electorate of Bavaria
|flag_s1                = Flag of Bavaria (lozengy).svg
|
|capital                = Kempten (not included)
|
|footnotes              = {{coord|47.7277|10.3132|type:city_region:DE|display=title}}
}}
The '''Princely Abbey of Kempten''' ({{langx|de|'''Fürststift Kempten''' or '''Fürstabtei Kempten'''}}) was an [[Hochstift|ecclesiastical principality]] of the [[Holy Roman Empire]] for centuries until it was annexed to the [[Electorate of Bavaria]] in the course of the [[German mediatization]] in 1803.
==Geography==
[[File:Kempten - Fürstäbtliche Residenz mit Hofgarten, St.Lorenz.jpg|thumb|left|Residence and St Lawrence Church]]
Located within the former [[Duchy of Swabia]], the princely abbey was the second largest ecclesiastical principality of the [[Swabian Circle]] by area, after the [[Prince-Bishopric of Augsburg]]. It stretched along the [[Iller]] River in the [[Allgäu]] region, from [[Waltenhofen]] (Martinszell) in the south to [[Legau]] and [[Bad Grönenbach|Grönenbach]] in the northwest, and up to [[Ronsberg]] and [[Unterthingau]] in the east.
The [[Imperial city]] of [[Kempten]] itself formed a self-ruling city its own right, enclaved within the abbey's territory. The Princely Abbey of Kempten covered approximately {{convert|1000|km2|mi2|abbr=off}} and included some 85 villages and hundreds of hamlets and farms. At the time of its annexation to Bavaria in 1802, it had some 42,000 subjects.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.historisches-lexikon-bayerns.de/artikel/artikel_45400|title = Kempten, Fürstabtei: Territorium und Verwaltung – Historisches Lexikon Bayerns}}</ref>
==History==
According to the 11th-century chronicles by [[Hermann of Reichenau]], the monastery of Kempten dedicated to [[Mary (mother of Jesus)|Virgin Mary]] and [[Gordianus and Epimachus]] was established in 752 under its first abbot Audogar.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Historischer Verein für Schwaben|title=Zeitschrift des Historischen Vereins für Schwaben, Volumes 1-3|year=1874|location=Augsburg|pages=228–229}}</ref> According to other sources, it was however erected by two Benedictine monks from the [[Abbey of Saint Gall]], [[Magnus of Füssen]] and Theodor, who also founded the [[St Mang's Abbey, Füssen|St Mang's Monastery]] in [[Füssen]].<ref name=HDS>{{HDS|8394|Saint Gall (Princely Abbey)}}</ref>
[[File:Audogar mit Mönchen.jpg|thumb|left|Audogar, first abbot of Kempten]]
The abbey had financial and political support from the ruling [[Carolingian dynasty]], mainly from [[Hildegard (queen)|Hildegard]], the second wife of [[Charlemagne]], and her son [[Louis the Pious]]. It soon became one of the more prominent monasteries in the [[Carolingian Empire]].  It was rebuilt in 941 by the abbot [[Ulrich of Augsburg]] after [[Magyar people|Magyar]] raids.
===Imperial Status===
The status of [[Imperial immediacy]] (''Reichsfreiheit'') was confirmed by King [[Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor|Henry IV of Germany]] in 1062. The Kempten abbots assumed the title of a [[Prince-abbot]] (''Fürstabt'') in the 12th century. In 1213 the [[House of Hohenstaufen|Hohenstaufen]] king [[Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor|Frederick II of Germany]] vested them with [[Graf|comital]] privileges in the abbey's territory and in 1218 also ceded the rights of a secular ''[[Vogt]]'' protector, confirmed by his son King [[Henry (VII) of Germany|Henry VII]] in 1224.
Several attempts under their successors [[Conrad IV of Germany|Conrad IV]] and [[Rudolph I of Germany|Rudolph I]] to regain the secular lordship ultimately failed. The abbey's development of an Imperial estate was accomplished with the bestowing of a single vote in the [[Imperial Diet (Holy Roman Empire)|Imperial Diet]] in 1548.
By a privilege granted by King Rudolph I, the town of Kempten had freed itself from the authority of the abbot and became a [[Free imperial city]], starting a long rivalry. When during the [[German Peasants' War]] in 1525 the Kempten Prince-abbot had to seek shelter within the city walls, he was forced to sell his last property rights inside the imperial city in the so-called “Great Purchase”, marking the start of a tense co-existence of two independent estates bearing the same name next to each other.
===Thirty Years' War===
[[File:Aerial image of the Fürstäbtliche Residenz (view from the southeast).jpg|thumb|Abbey complex]]
More conflict arose after the Imperial city of Kempten from 1527 onwards converted to [[Protestantism]] in direct opposition to the [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] monastery. The citizens signed the 1529 [[Protestation at Speyer]] and the 1530 [[Augsburg Confession]]. In turn, Kempten Abbey joined the [[Catholic League (German)|Catholic League]] in 1609. During the [[Thirty Years' War]], the monastery buildings were burnt to the ground by [[Swedish Empire|Swedish]] troops in 1632.
From 1651, the Kempten Prince-abbot Roman Giel of Gielsberg commissioned a princely residence and the new abbey church [[St. Lorenz Basilica]], one of the first major churches to be built after the war in Germany. Still in 1706,
Kempten was the center of a religious controversy, when the abbot confiscated a Reformed church, which provoked King [[Frederick I of Prussia]] to confiscate all Benedictine properties until the church was returned.<ref name= "Whaley p. 324">{{harvnb|Whaley|2011|p=324}}</ref>
===Secularisation===
[[File:Honorius Roth von Schreckenstein.jpg|thumb|Honorius Roth von Schreckenstein, Prince-Abbot of Kempten (1760-1785)]]
Emperor [[Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles VI]] granted the monastery complex [[German town law|town privileges]] in 1728, however, an autonomous municipality was not established. In 1775 the abbey ordered the last [[Witch-hunt|witchcraft trial]] in the Holy Roman Empire,<ref name= "Beales p. 62">{{harvnb|Beales|2003|p=62}}</ref> when [[Anna Maria Schwegelin]] was sentenced to death by decapitation, though the verdict was not enforced.
During the [[Napoleonic Wars]] the abbey's territory was occupied by [[Electorate of Bavaria|Bavarian]] troops in 1802 and was formerly dissolved in the subsequent [[German mediatization]] (''Reichsdeputationshauptschluss''). The abbey's territory as well as the Imperial city of Kempten were annexed by Bavaria, in 1819 both territories were merged into a single communal entity within the [[Kingdom of Bavaria]].
==Notes==
{{reflist}}
==Bibliography==
*{{cite book |last=Beales|first=Derek Edward Dawson | title = Prosperity and Plunder: European Catholic Monasteries in the Age of Revolution, 1650-1815|edition=2003|year=2003| publisher = [[Cambridge University Press]]| isbn= 9780521590907}} <small>- Total pages: 395 </small>
*{{cite book |last=Whaley|first=Joachim | title = Germany and the Holy Roman Empire: Volume II: The Peace of Westphalia to the Dissolution of the Reich, 1648-1806 [[Oxford History of Early Modern Europe]] Series|edition=2011|year=2011| publisher = [[Oxford University Press]]| isbn= 9780199693078 }} <small>- Total pages: 752 </small>
{{Catholic League}}
{{Swabian Circle}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kempten, Princely Abbey Of}}
[[Category:Imperial abbeys disestablished in 1802–03]]
[[Category:States and territories established in 1213]]
[[Category:Kempten|Princely Abbey of Kempten]]
[[Category:Imperial abbeys]]
[[Category:Former monarchies of Europe]]