Neuchâtel, Principality of

Neuchâtel, the only part of present-day Switzerland to enter the Confederation as a principality (in 1814), has a unique history.

Its first recorded ruler, Rudolph III of Burgundy, mentions Neuchâtel in his will in 1032.

The dynasty of Count Ulrich von Fenis takes over the town and its territories in 1034.

The dynasty prospers and, by 1373, all the lands now part of the canton belonged to the count.

In 1405, the cities of Bern and Neuchâtel enter a union.

The lands of Neuchâtel had passed to the lords of Freiburg in the late fourteenth century as inheritance from the childless Elisabeth, Countess of Neuchâtel, to her nephews, then in 1458 to margraves of Sausenburg, who belong  to the House of Baden.

Their heiress, Jeanne de Rothelin, and her husband, the Duke of Longueville, inherite  it in 1504, after which the French house of Orléans-Longueville (Valois-Dunois).

Neuchâtel's Swiss allies then occupy it from 1512-1529 before returning it to its widowed Countess Jeanne de Hochberg, chatelaine of Rothelin, dowager duchess of Longueville.

The French preacher Guillaume Farel brings the teachings of the Protestant Reformation to the area in 1530.

When the house of Orléans-Longueville becomes extinct with Marie d'Orléans-Longueville's death in 1707, the Principality of Neuchâtel (German: Fürstentum Neuenburg) somehow passes to the Protestant King Frederick I in Prussia of the Berlin-based Hohenzollern dynasty, who then rule  Neuchâtel in personal union.

However, after 1707, the rightful heiress in primogeniture from Jeanne de Rothelin is the Catholic Paule de Gondi, Duchess of Retz.

The people of Neuchâtel choose Princess Marie's successor from among fifteen claimants.

They want their new prince first and foremost to be a Protestant, and also to be strong enough to protect their territory but based far enough away to leave them to their own devices.

Louis XIV actively promotes the many French pretenders to the title, but the Neuchâtelois people in the final decision in 1708 pass them over in favor of King Frederick I of Prussia, who claims his entitlement in a rather complicated fashion through the House of Orange and Nassau, who are not even descended from Jeanne de Rothelin.

Napoleon Bonaparte deposes King Frederick William III of Prussia as prince of Neuchâtel and appoints instead his chief of staff Louis Alexandre Berthier.

Starting in 1807, the principality provides Napoleon's Grande Armée with a battalion of rangers.

The rangers are nicknamed Canaris (i.e. canaries) because of their yellow uniforms.

After the Liberation Wars the principality is restored to Frederick William III in 1814.

The Conseil d'État (state council, i.e. government of Neuchâtel) addresseds him in May 1814 requesting the permission to establish a special battalion, a Bataillon de Chasseurs, for the service of his majesty.

Frederick William III then establishes by his most-supreme cabinet order (allerhöchste Cabinets-Ordre), issued in Paris on May 19, 1814, the Bataillon des Tirailleurs de la Garde following the same principles as with the Neuchâtel battalion within the Grande Armée.

The Conseil d'Etat of Neuchâtel has the right of nomination for the battalion's officers.

The commander is the battalion's only officer chosen by the monarch.

A year later he agrees to allow the principality to join the Swiss Confederation, then not yet an integrated federation, but a confederacy, as a full member.

Thus Neuchâtel becomes the first and only monarchy to join the otherwise entirely republican Swiss cantons

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