II. - Schloss Schwetzingen

III. Schwetzingen – Historical Context
a)
The Prince Electors and their
Schwetzingen Estate
1. A Summarized Political History
The Electors Palatine who used Schwetzingen
as hunting-lodge and later as their regular
summer-residence, were among the most
powerful princes of the Empire.
Originally, they had been known as Counts
Palatine of the Rhine 1 , a title and offi ce the
development of which is “among the most
diffi cult and least clear in German constitutional
history” 2 . In Merovingian times, the
Counts Palatine had been stewards of the
royal “palatium” that is, palace. They were
also used as royal offi cers to represent their
master in the provinces. Thus, in the East
Frankish Kingdom, later to become Germany,
the offi ces of Counts Palatine for various
regions developed. All but one became sooner
or later extinct; only the position of the Count
Palatine of the Rhine survived.
His possessions had originally centred around
the lower Rhine, but the ever-increasing
temporal power of the Rhenish archbishops
(Cologne, Mainz, Treves), combined with the
fact that the Hohenstaufen Emperors bestowed
large chunks of their possessions around
the mouth of the Neckar, on the Counts
Palatine, they had appointed from the ranks
of their relatives, meant that the “Palatinate”
“drifted” up the Rhine and came to be situated
in the region south of Mainz, and north of
what today is Alsace.
From 1214, the offi ce and possessions of the
Count Palatine fell to the Wittelsbach family,
who developed a Palatine and a Bavarian
branch, which in turn split up into many more
“sub-branches”. The counts whose territories
stretched from the border of Lorraine to the
the border of Bohemia, were among those
princes who became electors of the German
king, a privilege that was confi rmed in the
1 For the development of the “Palatinate”: Meinhard Schaab,
Geschichte der Kurpfalz. Band 1: Mittelalter, Stuttgart 1988;
Geschichte der Kurpfalz, Band 2: Neuzeit, Stuttgart 1992.
2 G. Waitz, Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte 7, 1876, p. 176.
Golden Bull of 1356. That is how the Counts
Palatine became known als “Elector’s Palatine”.
The electors gained more and more infl uence
along both banks of the Upper Rhine down to
the Swiss border. However, a series of rather
unfortunate confl icts with ensuing defeats
in the late 1400s and early 1500s, meant
that they missed the chance of becoming the
principal power in what today are Alsace and
Baden.
Still, enough power and prestige remained for
them to continue as one of the important princes
of the Empire. Their defection from the
Roman-Catholic church during the Reformation,
embracing fi rst Luther’s and later Calvin’s
teachings, was thus of major importance for
the history of Southern Germany.
Grossly over-estimating their strength, the
electors played the role of the leading Protestant
and Calvinist power in Germany, stirring
confl icts with the neighbouring Catholic
territories, and establishing close family links
with ruling houses of both the Netherlands
and Britain. Their risky policy culminated in
the assumption of the crown of Bohemia by
the Elector Frederick V. (1596-1632) which, as
is well known, led to the outbreak of the Thirty
Years War. The “Winter-King”, beaten by
the Habsburg Emperor in the famous “Battle
of the White Mountain”, lost Bohemia and all
his other possessions. The Palatinate, in turn
occupied by Spanish, Bavarian, Swedish and
French troops, suffered from plunderings,
destruction, famine and plague, and, by the
end of the war, was left devastated and almost
totally depopulated.
The Peace of Westphalia 1648, restored to
the Winter King’s son an electorate that was
much reduced in size and power. When his
succession died out in 1685, the Neuburg
branch of the Palatine Wittelsbachs inherited
the electorate. This was hotly contested by
Louis XIV. of France, whose brother had been
married to the Winter King’s granddaughter
– the famous Liselotte of the Palatinate,
Duchess of Orleans (1652-1721), whose
letters confer such a vivid picture of the Sun
III.
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