Liège, Prince-Bishopric of

The Prince-Bishopric of Liège is a state of the Holy Roman Empire in the Low Countries in present Belgium, which i ruled by the Bishop of Liège as a prince within the Empire.

The ecclesiastical domain of the bishop is much larger than the domain which he controls as a prince.The bishops of Liège acquires their status as a Prince-Bishop between 980 and 985 when Bishop Notger, who had been the bishop of Liege since 972, receives secular control of the County of Huy from Otto II, Holy Roman Emperor.The Prince-Bishopric belongs from 1500 on to the Lower Rhenish–Westphalian Circle.

Its territory includes most of the present Belgian provinces of Liège and Limburg, and some exclaves in other parts of Belgium and the Netherlands.It briefly becomes a republic (the Republic of Liège) from 1789 to 1791, before reverting to a Prince-Bishopric in 1791.

The role of Prince-Bishop permanently ends when the state is annexed by France in 1795.

In 1815, it becomes part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, and in 1830 it is within the part of that kingdom which splits off to become Belgium.The bishopric of Liège is never part of the Dutch Seventeen Provinces or the Spanish and Austrian Southern Netherlands, but from the 16th century onwards, its politics are strongly influenced by the dukes of Burgundy and later the Habsburgs, under the sovereignty of the family de la Marck (Dutch: van der Marck).

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