v08_1792 - ALLEMAGNE - ARCHEVÊCHÉ DE MAYENCE - FRÉDÉRIC-CHARLES JOSEPH VON ERTHAL Thaler de Contribution 1794 Mayence

GERMANY - MAINZ ARCHBISHOPRIC - FREDERICK CHARLES JOSEPH VON ERTHAL

(1774-1802)

The territories of the Archdiocese of Mainz were distributed along the banks of the Rhine and the valley of the Main. Before the Revolution, the territory occupied an area of 3,200 km2. Founded in 747, the archdiocese was a great center of influence for Catholicism in Germany. The golden bull of 1356 granted the archbishops of Mainz the primacy for the election of the emperor and the presidency of the electoral college. Frédéric-Charles Joseph d'Erthal was the last archbishop of Mainz. Mainz was like Koblenz during the Revolution a center of the counter-revolution and welcomed many emigrants. The city was occupied in 1792 by the French, then besieged the following year by the Prussians between April 6 and July 22. Mainz was ceded to France in 1797. The French annexed the left bank of the Rhine in 1801. The Archbishop's estate was secularized in 1803.