1.
Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor
Conrad II, known as Conrad the Elder and Conrad the Salic, was Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire from 1027 until his death in 1039. The founder of the Salian dynasty of emperors, Conrad served as King of Germany from 1024, King of Italy from 1026, and King of Burgundy from 1033. The son of a nobleman in Franconia, Count Henry of Speyer and Adelaide of Alsace, he inherited the titles of count of Speyer. Conrad extended his power beyond his inherited lands, receiving the favor of the princes of the Kingdom of Germany. When the Saxon-based Ottonian dynasty of emperors died off with the childless Emperor Henry II, Conrad founded his own dynasty of rulers, known as the Salian dynasty, which ruled the Holy Roman Empire for over a century. Conrad continued the policies and achievements of the Ottonian Henry II regarding the Catholic Church, Conrad continued to build the Church as a center for imperial power, preferring to appoint church bishops over secular lords to important posts across the Empire.
Like Henry II before him, Conrad continued a policy of neglect over Italy, especially for the city of Rome. His reign marked a point of the medieval imperial rule. Following the death of the childless King Rudolph III of Burgundy in 1032, Conrad claimed dominion over the Kingdom of Arles, the three kingdoms formed the basis of the Empire as the royal triad. The Salian dynasty has its origins with Count Werner V of Worms and his son, Conrad the Red, succeeded him as Count in 941 and King Otto I of Germany appointed him as Duke of Lorraine in 944. He was subsequently married to Liutgarde, one of Ottos daughters, in 947, the relationship was strained, when Otto refused to honor a peace treaty Conrad, as Ottos representative, had conducted with the rebellious Berengar II of Italy. Conrad resented the influence of Ottos brother Henry I of Bavaria. In 953 Conrad joined the kings son Liudolf in rebellion against Otto and Otto were soon reconciled, with Conrad fighting for Otto in the great Battle of Lechfeld in 955.
Though the Germans were successful in halting the Hungarian invasions of Europe, Conrad was succeeded as Count of Worms in 956 by his son Otto of Worms, a grandson of Otto I. Sometime between 965 and 970 Otto of Worms oldest son, Henry of Speyer, was born, little is known of his life as he died the age of 20 between 985 and 990. Conrad IIs father was Henry of Speyer, and his mother was Adelaide of Alsace, after Henrys death, Adelaide married a Frankish nobleman. After her remarriage, Adelaide demonstrated no close relationship with her son, in 978 Emperor Otto II appointed his nephew Otto of Worms as Duke of Carinthia after deposing the rebellious Duke Henry I of Carinthia during the War of the Three Henries. Upon receiving the title, Otto lost his position at Worms
2.
Free imperial city
The evolution of some German cities into self-ruling constitutional entities of the Empire was slower than that of the secular and ecclesiastical princes. In the course of the 13th and 14th centuries, some cities were promoted by the emperor to the status of Imperial Cities, essentially for fiscal reasons. The Free Cities were those, such as Basel, Cologne or Strasbourg, like the other Imperial Estates, they could wage war, make peace, and control their own trade, and they permitted little interference from outside. In the Middle Ages, a number of Free Cities formed City Leagues, such as the Hanseatic League or the Alsatian Décapole, to promote and defend their interests. In the course of the Middle Ages, cities gained, and sometimes — if rarely — lost, some favored cities gained a charter by gift. Others purchased one from a prince in need of funds, some won it by force of arms during the troubled 13th and 14th centuries and other lost their privileges during the same period by the same way.
Some cities became free through the created by the extinction of dominant families. Some voluntarily placed themselves under the protection of a territorial ruler, a few, like Protestant Donauwörth, which in 1607 was annexed to the Catholic Duchy of Bavaria, were stripped by the Emperor of their status as a Free City — for genuine or trumped-up reasons. There were approximately four thousand towns and cities in the Empire, during the late Middle Ages, fewer than two hundred of these places ever enjoyed the status of Free Imperial Cities, and some of those did so only for a few decades. The military tax register of 1521 listed eighty-five such cities, from the Peace of Westphalia of 1648 to 1803, their number oscillated at around fifty. These cities were located in small territories where the ruler was weak. They were nevertheless the exception among the multitude of territorial towns, Cities of both latter categories normally had representation in territorial diets, but not in the Imperial Diet.
The cities divided themselves into two groups, or benches, in the Imperial Diet, the Rhenish and the Swabian Bench. To avoid the possibility that they would have the vote in case of a tie between the Electors and the Princes, it was decided that these should decide first and consult the cities afterward. Constitutionally, if in no way, the diminutive Free Imperial City of Isny was the equal of the Margraviate of Brandenburg. Instead, many found it more profitable to maintain agents at the Aulic Council in Vienna. At the opposite end, the authority of Cologne, Worms, Goslar and they were the most economically significant burgher families who had asserted themselves politically over time. The burgher status was usually a privilege renewed pro-forma in each generation of the family concerned
3.
Campaigns of 1792 in the French Revolutionary Wars
The French Revolutionary Wars began in 1792. France declared war on Austria on 20 April 1792, the army performed poorly in the first engagements. Near Lille, French soldiers fled at sight of the Austrian outposts and murdered their general Théobald Dillon, thus the disciplined soldiers of the Allies had apparently good reason to expect an easy campaign. In the Southern Netherlands, plans called for the Austrians to besiege Lille, after completing its preparations in the leisurely manner of the previous generation, his army crossed the French frontier on 19 August 1792. The Allies readily captured Longwy and slowly marched on to Verdun, the commandant there, Colonel Beaurepaire, shot himself in despair, and the place surrendered on 3 September 1792. Brunswick now began his march on Paris and approached the defiles of the Argonne, kellermann moved but slowly, and before he arrived the northern part of the line of defence had been forced. Brunswick meanwhile had passed the northern defiles and had swung round to cut off Dumouriez from Châlons, the result was the Cannonade of Valmy.
Kellermann’s infantry, nearly all regulars, stood steady, the French artillery justified its reputation as the best in Europe, and eventually, with no more than a half-hearted infantry attack, the duke broke off the action and retired. This seemingly minor engagement proved the point of the campaign. Ten days later, without firing another shot, the army began its retreat. Meanwhile, the French forces in the south had driven back the Piedmontese and had conquered Savoy, another French success was the daring expedition into Germany made by Custine from Alsace. Custine captured Mainz on 21 October 1792 and penetrated as far as Frankfurt, in the north, the Austrian siege of Lille had completely failed, and Dumouriez now resumed his interrupted scheme for the invasion of the Netherlands. Controlling enormously superior forces, he made his late in the season. Custines invasion of the German Palatinate forms the background for Goethes Hermann and Dorothea, original text from 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica
4.
Protestation at Speyer
Gallen Weissenburg Windsheim Eight years earlier Martin Luther had been banned by the Holy Roman Empire at the Diet of Worms of 1521. Emperor Charles V had wanted to end the religious unrest between the Catholic majority and the minority at the Second Diet of Speyer. The Lutheran Heresy and the religious strife did not figure in his political plans. The Edict of Worms had been suspended in 1526, when the Diet of Speyer decided that every prince should hold whichever religious beliefs he could justify before his King and God. Three years after the Diet of 1526, on the 1 March 1529 Charles V announced the second Diet of Speyer and he again let himself be represented by his brother Ferdinand, as he could not personally appear due to the war with France. Until clarification from another council all further new developments would remain forbidden and he made further declarations, Those that until now have followed the Edict of Worms should continue to do so. In the areas where this has been deviated from, there shall be no new developments.
Finally, the sects which contradict the sacrament of the body and blood, shall absolutely not be tolerated. On 19 April the majority of representatives accepted the revocation of the 1526 edict, the evangelicals were told that they should yield to the fair and proper decisions of the majority. At this point the evangelical princes left the hall, when they returned somewhat later, Ferdinand wanted to leave the hall and refused to listen to them. So their objection was read out, they protested against the decision of the majority, Ferdinand demanded that they accept and obey the decision. The Protestant delegates refused to be bound by secular authority in matters of faith, on 20 April they presented the Letter of Protestation, which Ferdinand refused to accept. Therefore, it did not come to be out, but was printed. The Letter of Protestation was signed by Johann, Elector of Saxony, Margrave of Brandenburg, Duke of Braunschweig-Lüneburg, Landgrave of Hesse, and Wolfgang, Prince of Anhalt. At the final sitting of the Diet on 24 April the decision of the Diet was once more read out and this text was brought to the Holy Roman Emperor by an embassy.
Since this Diet in Speyer the adherents of the movement became known as Protestants. Approximate original, I say, because according to Ney, “The protesting princes retained apparently no copy of the Protestation written down in a hurry and handed over to the Reichstag. For this reason, only the content of the Protestation handed over on the 19 April could be included in the Instrument of Appellation
5.
Vehicle registration plate
A vehicle registration plate, known as a number plate or a license plate, is metal or plastic plate attached to a motor vehicle or trailer for official identification purposes. The registration identifier is a numeric or alphanumeric ID that uniquely identifies the owner within the issuing regions database. The first two letters indicate the state to which the vehicle is registered, the next two digit numbers are the sequential number of a district. Due to heavy volume of vehicle registration, the numbers were given to the RTO offices of registration as well, the third part indicates the year of registration of the vehicle and is a 4 digit number unique to each plate. In some countries, the identifier is unique within the entire country, whether the identifier is associated with a vehicle or a person varies by issuing agency. In the vast majority of jurisdictions, the government holds a monopoly on the manufacturing of vehicle registration plates for that jurisdiction. Thus, it is illegal for private citizens to make and affix their own plates.
Alternately, the government will merely assign plate numbers, and it is the owners responsibility to find an approved private supplier to make a plate with that number. In some jurisdictions, plates will be assigned to that particular vehicle for its lifetime. If the vehicle is destroyed or exported to a different country. Other jurisdictions follow a policy, meaning that when a vehicle is sold the seller removes the current plate from the vehicle. Buyers must either obtain new plates or attach plates they already hold, as well as register their vehicles under the buyers name, a person who sells a car and purchases a new one can apply to have the old plates put onto the new car. One who sells a car and does not buy a new one may, depending on the laws involved, have to turn the old plates in or destroy them. Some jurisdictions permit the registration of the vehicle with personal plates, in some jurisdictions, plates require periodic replacement, often associated with a design change of the plate itself.
Vehicle owners may or may not have the option to keep their original plate number, alternately, or additionally, vehicle owners have to replace a small decal on the plate or use a decal on the windshield to indicate the expiration date of the vehicle registration. Plates are usually fixed directly to a vehicle or to a frame that is fixed to the vehicle. Sometimes, the plate frames contain advertisements inserted by the service centre or the dealership from which the vehicle was purchased. Vehicle owners can purchase customized frames to replace the original frames, in some jurisdictions licence plate frames are illegal
6.
Social Democratic Party of Germany
The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany. The party, led by Chairman Martin Schulz since 2017, has one of the two major contemporary political parties in Germany, along with the Christian Democratic Union. The SPD has governed at the level in Germany as part of a grand coalition with the CDU. The SPD participates in 14 state governments, nine of them governed by SPD Minister-Presidents, the SPD is a member of the Party of European Socialists and of the Socialist International, and became a founding member of the Progressive Alliance on 22 May 2013. Established in 1863, the SPD is the oldest extant political party represented in the German Parliament and was one of the first Marxist-influenced parties in the world. The General German Workers Association, founded in 1863, and the Social Democratic Workers Party, founded in 1869, merged in 1875, under the name Socialist Workers Party of Germany. From 1878 to 1890, any grouping or meeting that aimed at spreading socialist principles was banned under the Anti-Socialist Laws, in 1890, when the ban was lifted and it could again present electoral lists, the party adopted its current name.
In the years leading up to World War I, the party remained ideologically radical in official principle, by 1912, the party claimed the most votes of any German party. Despite the agreement of the Second International to oppose the First World War, after 1918 the SPD played an important role in the political system of the Weimar Republic, although it took part in coalition governments only in few years. Adolf Hitler prohibited the party in 1933 under the Enabling Act – party officials were imprisoned, killed or went into exile, in exile, the party used the name Sopade. In the Soviet Zone of Occupation, the Soviets forced the Social Democrats to form a party with the Communists. In the Western zones, the Communist Party was banned by West Germanys Federal Constitutional Court, since 1949, in the Federal Republic of Germany, the SPD has been one of the two major parties, with the other being the Christian Democratic Union. From 1969 to 1982 and 1998 to 2005 the Chancellors of Germany were Social Democrats whereas the other years the Chancellors were Christian Democrats, the SPD was established as a Marxist party in 1875.
After World War II, under the leadership of Kurt Schumacher, the SPD re-established itself as a socialist party, representing the interests of the working class and the trade unions. With the Godesberg Program of 1959, the party evolved from a socialist working-class party to a modern social-democratic party working within capitalism. The current party platform of the SPD espouses the goal of social democracy, according to the party platform, freedom and social solidarity, form the basis of social democracy. The coordinated social market economy should be strengthened, and its output should be distributed fairly, the party sees that economic system as necessary in order to ensure the affluence of the entire population. The SPD tries to protect the poor with a welfare state
7.
Speyer Cathedral
The cathedral, which is dedicated to St. Mary, patron saint of Speyer and St. Stephen is generally known as Kaiserdom zu Speyer. Pope Pius XI raised Speyer Cathedral to the rank of a basilica of the Roman Catholic Church in 1925. As the burial site for Salian and Habsburg emperors, with the Abbey of Cluny in ruins, it remains the largest Romanesque church. It is considered to be a point in European architecture, one of the most important architectural monuments of its time. In 1981, the cathedral was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List of culturally important sites as a monument of Romanesque art in the German Empire. In 1025, Conrad II ordered the construction of the Christian Western worlds largest church in Speyer which was supposed to be his last resting place. Construction began 1030 on the site of a basilica which stood on an elevated plateau right by the Rhine. Along with Santiago de Compostela, Cluny Abbey, and Durham Cathedral, neither Conrad II, nor his son Henry III, were to see the cathedral completed.
Conrad II died in 1039 and was buried in the cathedral while it was still under construction, the graves were placed in the central aisle in front of the altar. Nearly completed, the cathedral was consecrated in 1061 and this phase of construction, called Speyer I, consists of a Westwerk, a nave with two aisles and an adjoining transept. The choir was flanked by two towers, the original apse was round inside but rectangular on the outside. The nave was covered with a wooden ceiling but the aisles were vaulted. Around 1090, Conrads grandson, Emperor Henry IV, conducted a reconstruction in order to enlarge the cathedral. He had the eastern sections demolished and the foundations enforced to a depth of up to eight metres, only the lower floors and the crypt of Speyer I remained intact. The nave was elevated by five metres and the wooden ceiling replaced with a groin vault of square bays. Each vault extends over two bays of the elevation, every second pier was enlarged by adding a broad pilaster or dosseret, which formed a system of interior buttressing.
Engaged shafts had appeared around 1030 in buildings along the Loire from where the spread to Normandy. The only other example of such a bay system is in the church of San Vincente, Cardona
8.
Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor
Henry IV ascended to King of the Germans in 1056. From 1084 until his abdication in 1105, he was referred to as the King of the Romans. He was the emperor of the Salian dynasty and one of the most powerful. His reign was marked by the Investiture Controversy with the Papacy, several civil wars over his throne took place in both Italy and Germany. He died of illness, soon after defeating his sons army near Visé, in Lorraine, in 1056 at Aachen, Henry IV was enthroned as the King of the Germans by Pope Victor II, while his mother, Agnes of Poitou, became regent. In 1062 the young king was kidnapped as a result of the Coup of Kaiserswerth, Agnes retired to a convent, and the government was placed in the hands of Anno. His first action was to back Pope Alexander II against the antipope Honorius II, the education and training of Henry were supervised by Anno, who was called his magister, while Adalbert of Hamburg, archbishop of Bremen, was styled Henrys patronus. Henrys education seems to have been neglected, and his willful, the malleable Adalbert of Hamburg soon became the confidante of the ruthless Henry.
Eventually, during an absence of Anno from Germany, Henry managed to control of his civil duties. Henrys entire reign was marked by apparent efforts to consolidate Imperial power, in reality, however, he carefully worked to maintain the loyalty of the nobility and the support of the pope. In 1066, he expelled from the Crown Council Adalbert of Hamburg, Henry adopted urgent military measures against the Slav pagans, who had recently invaded Germany and besieged Hamburg. In June 1066 Henry married Bertha of Savoy/Turin, daughter of Otto, Count of Savoy, in the same year, at the request of the Pope, he assembled an army to fight the Italo-Normans of southern Italy. Henrys troops had reached Augsburg when he received news that Godfrey of Tuscany, husband of the powerful Matilda of Canossa, in 1068, driven by his impetuous character and his infidelities, Henry attempted to divorce Bertha. Henry obeyed and his wife returned to Court, Henry believed that the Papal opposition was less about his marriage than about overthrowing lay power within the Empire, in favour of an ecclesiastical hierarchy.
In the late 1060s, Henry demonstrated his determination to reduce any opposition and he led expeditions against the Lutici and the margrave of a district east of Saxony, soon afterwards he had to quell the rebellions of Rudolf of Swabia and Berthold of Carinthia. Much more serious was Henrys struggle with Otto of Nordheim, duke of Bavaria and it was decided that a trial by combat should take place at Goslar, but when Ottos demand for safe conduct to and from the place of meeting was refused, he declined to appear. He was declared deposed in Bavaria, and his Saxon estates were plundered, however, he obtained sufficient support to carry on a struggle with the king in Saxony and Thuringia until 1071, when he submitted at Halberstadt. Henry aroused the hostility of the Thuringians by supporting Siegfried, archbishop of Mainz, in his efforts to exact tithes from them
9.
Tabula Peutingeriana
Tabula Peutingeriana, referred to as Peutingers Tabula or Peutinger Table, is an illustrated itinerarium showing the layout of cursus publicus, the road network in the Roman Empire. The map is a 13th-century parchment copy of the Roman original, and covers Europe, North Africa, and parts of Asia. The original map which the copy is based on is thought to date to the 4th or 5th century and was itself based on a map prepared by Agrippa during the reign of the emperor Augustus. Named after the 16th-century German antiquarian Konrad Peutinger, the map is today kept at the Austrian National Library in Vienna. After Agrippas death in 12 BC, that map was engraved in marble and put on display in the Porticus Vipsania in the Campus Agrippae area in Rome, bowersock concluded that the original source is likely the map made by Vipsanius Agrippa. The original Roman map, of which this is the surviving copy, was last revised in the 4th or early 5th century. The presence of cities of Germania Inferior that were destroyed in the mid-fifth century provides a terminus ante quem.
The Tabula Peutingeriana is the known surviving map of the Roman cursus publicus. The map itself was created by a monk in Colmar in modern-day eastern France in 1265 and it is a parchment scroll,0.34 metres high and 6.75 metres long, assembled from eleven sections, a medieval reproduction of the original scroll. The map shows many Roman settlements and the roads connecting them, as well as features such as rivers, forests. The distances between settlements are given, in total no less than 555 cities and 3,500 other place names are shown on the map. The three most important cities of the Roman Empire at the time – Rome and Antioch – are represented with special iconic decoration. Besides the totality of the empire, the map shows areas in the Near East and the Ganges, Sri Lanka, and even an indication of China. It even shows a Temple to Augustus at Muziris on the modern-day Malabar Coast, the map appears to be based on itineraries, lists of destinations along Roman roads, as the distances between points along the routes are indicated.
Travelers would not have possessed anything so sophisticated as a modern map, the Peutinger Table represents these roads as a series of stepped lines along which destinations have been marked in order of travel. The shape of the parchment pages accounts for the rectangular layout. However, a similarity to the coordinates of Ptolemys earth-mapping gives some writers hope that some terrestrial representation was intended by the unknown original compilers. The Peutinger family kept possession of the map for more than two hundred years until it was sold in 1714 and it is today conserved at the Austrian National Library at the Hofburg palace in Vienna
10.
Rhine
The largest city on the river Rhine is Cologne, with a population of more than 1,050,000 people. It is the second-longest river in Central and Western Europe, at about 1,230 km, with an average discharge of about 2,900 m3/s. The Rhine and the Danube formed most of the inland frontier of the Roman Empire and, since those days. The many castles and fortifications along the Rhine testify to its importance as a waterway in the Holy Roman Empire, in the modern era, it has become a symbol of German nationalism. The variant of the name of the Rhine in modern languages are all derived from the Gaulish name Rēnos, spanish is with French in adopting the Germanic vocalism Rin-, while Italian and Portuguese retain the Latin Ren-. The Gaulish name Rēnos belongs to a class of river names built from the PIE root *rei- to move, run, the grammatical gender of the Celtic name is masculine, and the name remains masculine in German and French. The Old English river name was variously inflected as masculine or feminine, the length of the Rhine is conventionally measured in Rhine-kilometers, a scale introduced in 1939 which runs from the Old Rhine Bridge at Constance to Hoek van Holland.
The river length is shortened from the rivers natural course due to a number of canalisation projects completed in the 19th and 20th century. The total length of the Rhine, to the inclusion of Lake Constance and its course is conventionally divided as follows, The Rhine carries its name without distinctive accessories only from the confluence of the Vorderrhein and Hinterrhein near Tamins-Reichenau. Above this point is the catchment of the headwaters of the Rhine. It belongs almost exclusively to the Swiss Canton of Graubünden, ranging from Gotthard Massif in the west via one valley lying in Ticino, Lake Toma near the Oberalp Pass in the Gotthard region is seen as the source of the Vorderrhein and the Rhine as a whole. The Hinterrhein rises in the Rheinwald valley below Mount Rheinwaldhorn, the Vorderrhein, or Anterior Rhine, springs from Lai da Tuma, near the Oberalp Pass and passes the impressive Ruinaulta formed by the largest visible rock slide in the alps, the Flims Rockslide. A multiday trekking route is signposted along the young Rhine called Senda Sursilvana, the Hinterrhein/Rein Posteriur, or Posterior Rhine, starts from the Paradies Glacier, near the Rheinwaldhorn.
One of its tributaries, the Reno di Lei, drains the Valle di Lei on politically Italian territory, after three main valleys separated by the two gorges and Viamala, it reaches Reichenau. The Vorderrhein arises from numerous source streams in the upper Surselva, one source is Lai da Tuma with the Rein da Tuma, which is usually indicated as source of the Rhine, flowing through it. Into it flow tributaries from the south, some longer, some equal in length, such as the Reno di Medel, the Rein da Maighels, and the Rein da Curnera. The Cadlimo Valley in the Canton of Ticino is drained by the Reno di Medel, all streams in the source area are partially, sometimes completely and sent to storage reservoirs for the local hydro-electric power plants. In its lower course the Vorderrhein flows through a gorge named Ruinaulta through the Flims Rockslide, the whole stretch of the Vorderrhein to the Rhine confluence near Reichenau-Tamins is accompanied by a long-distance hiking trail called Senda Sursilvana
11.
Bishopric of Speyer
The Bishopric of Speyer, or Prince-Bishopric of Speyer, was an ecclesiastical principality in what are today the German states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Württemberg. The prince-provostry of Wissemburg in Alsace was ruled by the prince-bishop of Speyer in a personal union relationship, the bishopric of Speyer belonged to the Upper Rhenish Circle of the Holy Roman Empire. One of the smallest principalities of the Holy Roman Empire, it consisted of more than half a dozen separate enclaves totalling about 28 German square miles on both sides of the Rhine and it included the towns of Bruchsal as well as Deidesheim, Herxheim bei Landau, and Lauterburg. Around 1800 the bishopric included about 55,000 people, a diocese of Speyer has possibly existed since the 3rd or 4th century. It was first mentioned in documents in 614. Up to 748 it was a suffragant bishopric of the archdiocese of Trier, the history of the Bishopric of Speyer began at the latest in the late 7th century when the bishop of Speyer received royal domains in the neighboring Speyergau.
In the 10th and 11th centuries, the diocese received additional lands, in 1030 the building of the cathedral was begun. In 1061 the cathedral was consecrated, in 1086 emperor Henry IV granted the bishopric the remaining parts of the county of Speyergau. From 1111 the citizens of the city of Speyer began to loosen their bonds to the rulership of the bishop. In 1230 a Bürgermeister was mentioned for the first time, in 1294 Speyer became a Free Imperial City. The bishop moved his palace in 1371 to Udenheim, at the beginning of the 17th century bishop Philipp Christoph von Sötern expanded the fortress of Philippsburg. The prince-bishops reigned from there from 1371 to 1723, afterwards the prince-bishop moved his seat to Bruchsal. From 1681 to 1697, at the end of the War of the Grand Alliance, in 1801/1802, the remaining left-bank territories of Speyer were conquered by French troops in the course of the French Revolution. The right-bank territories went to margraves of Baden and this ended the secular responsibilities of the bishop of Speyer.
The secularized bishopric continued ecclesiastically as the Diocese of Speyer, the French part of the former prince-bishopric was divided between Bavaria and Hesse Darmstadt in 1815. The following were prince-bishops of Speyer, who were secular as well as ecclesiastical rulers
12.
Palatinate (region)
The Palatinate, historically Rhenish Palatinate, is a region in southwestern Germany. It occupies more than a quarter of the German federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate, in the west, the Palatinate borders on Saarland, historically comprising the states Saarpfalz District. In the northwest, the Hunsrück mountain range forms the border with the Rhineland region, in the south, the German-French border separates the Palatinate from Alsace. One-third of the region is covered by the Palatinate Forest, including the Palatinate Forest Nature Park popular with hikers and it is Germanys largest contiguous forested area with about 1,771 km2 and is part of the Franco-German Palatinate Forest-North Vosges Biosphere Reserve. The western and northern part of the Palatinate is densely forested and its highest mountain is the Donnersberg with a height of 687 m, situated in the North Palatine Uplands near Kirchheimbolanden. Most of the major Palatinate towns lie in the eastern part of the Upper Rhine Plain down to the River Rhine.
Here the German Wine Route passes through the renowned Palatinate wine region, major rivers include the Upper Rhine tributaries Lauter and Speyerbach, as well as Schwarzbach and Glan in the west. Historically the Electoral Palatinate and several territories were part of the Palatinate. The Palatinate is divided into four non-administrative sub-regions, comprising the rural districts and independent towns and cities, North Palatinate. Like most of Europe, the Palatinate is part of the climate zone influenced by the Atlantic. Wet air from the westerly and southwesterly winds leads to precipitation in the Mittelgebirge ranges. Here the clemency of the weather permits the cultivating of almond and fig trees, stone pines, Mediterranean Cypress, the lower hilly regions are known for their extended chestnut forests, sometimes referred to as German Tuscany in tourist advertising. Formerly a Celtic region, this area was conquered by the Roman Empire under Emperor Augustus in about 12 BCE, during the decay of the Empire, Alamanni tribes settled here, their territory was conquered by Francia under King Clovis I about 496.
From 511 onwards the area belonged to the part of Frankish Austrasia. From the Middle Ages until 1792, the Palatinate was divided into 45 secular and ecclesiastical territories, the largest and most important of these was the Electorate of the Palatinate, a number of territories on both sides of the Rhine formerly held by the Counts palatine of Lotharingia. In 1214 the Bavarian House of Wittelsbach was enfeoffed with these estates and they lost control with the reunification with Bavaria under Elector Charles Theodore in 1777. The major ecclesiastical territory in the region was the Bishopric of Speyer, the Imperial city of Landau joined the Alsacien Décapole in 1521 to preserve its status. Nevertheless, it was seized by France after the Thirty Years War, other larger regional entities included the Duchy of Zweibrücken and the Prince-Bishopric of Speyer
Spalding, United Kingdom, since 1956
Chartres, France, since 1959
Kursk, Russia, since 1989
Ravenna, Italy, since 1989
Gniezno, Poland, since 1992[8]
Yavne, Israel, since 1998
Rusizi, Rwanda, since 1982/2001
Ningde, China, since October 2013 together with:
Worms, Germany, since October 2014[9]
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. 25 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 694.
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). 
