electorate · Germany and Central Europe

Electorate of Cologne

953 CE – 1803 CE (approx.) · capital Bonn

The prince-archbishopric of Cologne, one of the seven electors, whose archbishops crowned German kings and ruled a long strip of the Rhineland.

Origins

Cologne had been an archbishopric since the 8th century. In 953 Otto I made his brother Bruno archbishop and also duke of Lotharingia, founding the temporal power of the see. Grants of counties and, in 1180, the Duchy of Westphalia after the fall of Henry the Lion made the archbishops major territorial princes.

Rule and society

The Golden Bull of 1356 confirmed the archbishop as one of the seven electors and arch-chancellor of Italy. After long conflicts with the citizens and the archbishop's defeat at the Battle of Worringen in 1288, Cologne became in effect a free city, and the electors moved to Bonn. The Wittelsbach family held the see from 1583 to 1761, building the palaces at Brühl and Bonn.

Decline and legacy

French revolutionary armies took the Rhineland in 1794, and the electorate was dissolved in 1803; Westphalia went to Hesse-Darmstadt and other lands to Nassau. After 1815 the territories became Prussian. Cologne Cathedral, begun in 1248, was completed in 1880.

Connections (6)

More states of Germany and Central Europe →

Cite this page
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Electorate of Cologne. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/electorate-of-cologne
MLA
“Electorate of Cologne.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/electorate-of-cologne. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Electorate of Cologne.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/electorate-of-cologne.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Electorate of Cologne’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/electorate-of-cologne (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻