Duchy of Magdeburg

The '''Duchy of Magdeburg''' ({{lang-de|Herzogtum Magdeburg}}) was a province of [[Brandenburg-Prussia]] from 1680 to 1701 and a province of the [[Kingdom of Prussia]] from 1701 to 1807. It replaced the [[Archbishopric of Magdeburg]] after its secularization by Brandenburg. The [[duchy]]'s capitals were [[Magdeburg]] and [[Halle, Saxony-Anhalt|Halle]], while [[Burg bei Magdeburg|Burg]] was another important town. Dissolved during the [[Napoleonic Wars]] in 1807, its territory was made part of the [[Province of Saxony]] in 1815. ==History== The [[Roman Catholic Church|Roman Catholic]] [[Archbishopric of Magdeburg]] began to be administered by secular princes, mostly [[Lutheranism|Lutheran]], in 1545 during the [[Protestant Reformation]]. In the 1648 [[Treaty of Westphalia]], the archbishopric was promised to the [[House of Hohenzollern]] of the [[Margraviate of Brandenburg]] upon the death of its incumbent administrator, [[August, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels]]. The city of Magdeburg was also required to pay homage to the [[prince-elector]]s of Brandenbug. In 1666, Elector [[Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg|Frederick William]] used his [[Prussian Army|developing army]] to install a permanent Brandenburger garrison in the city. Brandenburg-Prussia inherited the Archbishopric of Brandenburg upon the death of August of Saxe-Weissenfels in 1680 and reorganized the secularized territory as the Duchy of Magdeburg, with the electors of Brandenburg as hereditary dukes. The Halle region ([[Saalkreis]]), an exclave of the province, was surrounded by the Principality of [[Anhalt]], the [[County of Mansfeld]] (acquired by Prussia in 1790), and the [[Electorate of Saxony]]. Against the wishes of the duchy's Lutheran nobility, a [[Calvinist]] chancellor was appointed to govern the duchy. Through the leadership of [[August Hermann Francke]], Halle became the center of [[Pietism]] in Brandenburg-Prussia. When Elector Frederick III crowned himself [[Frederick I of Prussia|Frederick I]], [[King in Prussia]], in 1701, the Duchy of Magdeburg became part of the new [[Kingdom of Prussia]]. King [[Frederick William I of Prussia|Frederick William I]]'s 'allodification of the fiefs', or efforts to modernize feudal land ownership laws, was opposed by the duchy's [[Junker]] nobility, which feared losing their tax-exempt status. The nobles received judgements from the [[Holy Roman Empire|imperial]] court in [[Vienna]] protecting their rights in 1718 and 1725. [[Justus Henning Böhmer]] became chancellor of the province in 1743. With the creation of the [[General Directory]] in 1723 by Frederick William I, the Duchy of Magdeburg, the [[Principality of Halberstadt]], and the Margraviate of Brandenburg were administered by the second department of the General Directory. A state-capitalized agricultural [[credit union]] (''Landschaft'') was created in the duchy in 1780 for the exclusive use of the nobility. Control over the Magdeburg lands gave the monarchy a lucrative [[monopoly]] over the [[Stassfurt]] and Halle [[salt]] deposits. The estates of [[Pomerania]] voluntarily raised 5,000 troops for the Prussian Army during the [[Seven Years' War]]; their initiative was duplicated by the nobility of Magdeburg and neighboring provinces. In the War of the [[Fourth Coalition]], Prussia was defeated by [[Napoleon I of France|Napoleon]] in 1806. In the [[Treaties of Tilsit|Treaty of Tilsit]] the following year, the Duchy of Magdeburg was dissolved. The ducal territory west of the [[Elbe]] River, including the cities Magdeburg and Halle, were made part of the [[Kingdom of Westphalia]], a client state of the [[First French Empire]]. The ducal territory east of the Elbe remained in a drastically reduced Kingdom of Prussia. Prussia reacquired the Magdeburg and Halle territories during the [[War of the Sixth Coalition]]. In 1815 after the [[Napoleonic Wars]], the territory of the Duchy of Magdeburg, the [[Altmark]], and territory annexed from the [[Kingdom of Saxony]] formed the new Prussian [[Province of Saxony]]. ==External links== * [http://www.hoeckmann.de/germany/brandenburg-e.htm Map of the Duchy of Magdeburg in 1789] {{Lower Saxon Circle}} {{Territories and provinces of Prussia}} {{coord missing|Germany}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Duchy Of Magdeburg}}