The Westphalian duchy formed the largest part of the Cologne electorate. Apart from the fertile Hellweg Börde north of the Haar hill range, part of the Westphalian Lowland, the ducal lands primarily comprised mountainous and densely forested areas, with some significant metal deposits and brine springs. The Hellweg section connecting the towns of Werl, Erwitte and Geseke was part of an important trade route from Aachen to Goslar.
History
Formerly part of the Saxon stem duchy along with Angria and Eastphalia, the Westphalian lands were Christianized by the Cologne archbishops at the behest of the Frankish ruler Charlemagne upon his conquests in the Saxon Wars. First parishes were established east of the Rhenish estates around Soest, where the archbishops extended their episcopal territory. Numerous monastery foundations, like Grafschaft Abbey in 1072 by Anno II of Cologne, stabilized the ecclesiastical rule.
Creation of the duchy (1102–1180)
In the fierce Investiture Controversy, Archbishop Frederick I of Cologne in 1102 had occupied and seized half of the territory held by the Westphalian counts of Arnsberg, supporters of Emperor Henry IV. The other counties of the region could not resist the encroachment of the mighty Archbishopric, and soon after the counties of Werl, Rüthen and Volmarstein (near Wetter) followed. The former counts of Werl created a new county known as Werl-Arnsberg, and managed to keep their smaller and smaller territory independent of the Archbishops until they finally sold in 1368. After the rebellious Saxon duke Henry the Lion was defeated in 1180, Emperor Frederick Barbarossa presented the Archbishop of Cologne, Philip of Heinsberg with these territories and the southwest of the former Duchy of Saxony as the 'Duchy of Westphalia'.
Expansion (1180–1445)
Engelbert of Berg, archbishop of Cologne from 1220, began a campaign to force the nobility in Westphalia into submission and to extract from them the stewardship of the various scattered church lands. Engelbert managed to connect the lands of the duchy by annexing the territory from Hellweg to Diemel, and secured the south of the Sauerland at Attendorn in 1222. Further controversy of its expansion eventually leads to Engelbert's death at the hands of Frederick I of Isenberg in 1225. In 1260 by an agreement with the Dukes of Brunswick the Weser River became the official border of their spheres of influence. In 1277 the archbishops managed to defeat a large confederation of Westphalian and Lower Rhenish opponents, but further action in 1288 forced the archbishops to abandon intentions on much of the greater territory of Westphalia. The purchase and annexation of Werl-Arnsberg in 1368 united the territories of the north and south of the Sauerland.
Archbishop Frederick von Saarwerden began a hopeless campaign to maintain Colognian rights in Marck, and in 1392 was forced to abandon them. His successor, Dietrich II of Moers witnessed the last attempts by Cologne to gain rulership in Westphalia by attempting to break the powerful positions of Cleves and Marck. The financial burden placed upon the knights and cities of the Duchy of Westphalia led them into union in 1437. Cologne made peace with Cleves in 1441: this led Soest, the richest town of Westphalia, to refuse recognising Colognian supremacy in 1444 in the Soest Feud, that lasted until 1449. Soest had become a part of the Duchy of Cleves. Thereafter the town of Arnsberg became the administrative capital of Westphalia. Economically the loss of Soest had weakened the duchy. Especially as the surroundings of the town were very fertile and the grain was needed for the mountainous regions in the South. Peace with Marck was made in 1445 which witnessed territorial concessions from both sides.
Westphalia until the end of the Empire (1445–1806)
Arms of Westphalia (adopted in 1532)
After the Soest Feud, the city of Soest remained part of the Duchy of Cleves. Starting from 1463, the league of knights and cities in Westphalia began a long and bitter struggle against the archbishops. During the reign of Archbishop Herman V of Wied (1515–1546), the Reformation arrived in Westphalia. Eventually the Reformation was suppressed, but during the reign of Archbishop Gebhard Truchsess von Waldburg (1577–1583) the Reformation returned and he was forced to attend to Westphalia in 1582 where several knights and cities had adopted the new doctrine. The newly elected Archbishop Ernest of Bavaria (1583–1612) and his brother Ferdinand of Bavaria managed to regain the duchy for the archbishopric at the beginning of the Cologne War in 1583, and Protestantism survived only on the border region of Waldeck and Hesse. The Duchy of Westphalia was again confirmed as integral territory of the archbishopric in 1590.
Like most other territories of Germany, Westphalia suffered during the Thirty Years' War. In 1794 the archbishops relocated to Westphalia after the French had annexed the territories west of the Rhine River. In the secularisation of 1803 the Duchy of Westphalia became part of Hesse-Darmstadt.
After the Empire (1806–1815)
In 1807 the Kingdom of Westphalia was created although it did not include the Duchy and had its capital in Hesse at Kassel. In 1815 the Congress of Vienna awarded the Duchy of Westphalia to Prussia in exchange for important lands west of the Rhine, and the Duchy was incorporated into the Province of Westphalia the same year.
Sources
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain:Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Westphalia". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
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Soest is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is the capital of the Soest district.
Soest is a Kreis (district) in the middle of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Neighbouring districts are Warendorf, Gütersloh, Paderborn, Hochsauerland, Märkischer Kreis, Unna and the independent town of Hamm.
The County of Mark was a county and state of the Holy Roman Empire in the Lower Rhenish–Westphalian Circle. It lay on both sides of the Ruhr River along the Volme and Lenne rivers.
The Electorate of Cologne, sometimes referred to as Electoral Cologne, was an ecclesiastical principality of the Holy Roman Empire that existed from the 10th to the early 19th century. It consisted of the Hochstift — the temporal possessions — of the archbishop of Cologne, and was ruled by him in his capacity as prince-elector. There were only two other ecclesiastical prince-electors in the Empire: the Electorate of Mainz and the Electorate of Trier. The archbishop-elector of Cologne was also arch-chancellor of Italy and, as such, ranked second among all ecclesiastical and secular princes of the Empire, after the archbishop-elector of Mainz, and before that of Trier.
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Nassau-Siegen was a principality within the Holy Roman Empire that existed between 1303 and 1328, and again from 1606 to 1743. From 1626 to 1734, it was subdivided into Catholic and Protestant parts. Its capital was the city of Siegen, founded in 1224 and initially a condominium jointly owned by the archbishopric of Cologne and Nassau. It was located some 50 km east of Cologne, and it contained the modern localities of Freudenberg, Hilchenbach, Kreuztal, Siegen, and Wilnsdorf.
Vest Recklinghausen was an ecclesiastical territory in the Holy Roman Empire, located in the center of today's North Rhine-Westphalia. The rivers Emscher and Lippe formed the border with the County of Mark and Essen Abbey in the south, and to the Bishopric of Münster in the north. In the east, a fortification secured the border with Dortmund and in the west it was bordered by the Duchy of Cleves.
The House of La Marck was a noble family, which from about 1200 appeared as the counts of Mark.
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The German Emperors after 1873 had a variety of titles and coats of arms, which in various compositions became the officially used titles and coats of arms. The title and coat of arms were last fixed in 1873, but the titles did not necessarily mean that the area was really dominated, and sometimes even several princes bore the same title.
Frederick von Saarwerden was archbishop-elector of Cologne as Frederick III from 1370 to 1414. Through the promotion of his great-uncle, Archbishop Kuno II of Falkenstein of Trier, Frederick von Saarwerden was elected archbishop of Cologne at the age of 20, which the Pope in Avignon also confirmed two years later after some misgivings. Frederick found the archbishopric completely plundered by his two predecessors of the County of Mark, Adolf and Engelbert, and had himself promised high payments to the Curia on the occasion of his election. Nevertheless, with the help of his very rich great-uncle Kuno, he succeeded in paying off the debts of the archbishopric within a few years.
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