Prince of the Holy Roman Empire
However, by the time the Holy Roman Empire was abolished in 1806, there were a number of holders of Imperial princely titles who did not meet these criteria.A particular estate of "the Princes" was first mentioned in the decree issued by Emperor Frederick Barbarossa in 1180 at the Imperial Diet of Gelnhausen, in which he divested Duke Henry the Lion of Saxony and Bavaria.Around 1180, the secular Princes comprised the Herzöge (Dukes) who generally ruled larger territories within the Empire in the tradition of the former German stem duchies, but also the Counts of Anhalt and Namur, the Landgraves of Thuringia and the Margraves of Meissen.Among the most important of these were the Welf descendants of Henry the Lion in Brunswick-Lüneburg, elevated to Princes of the Empire and vested with the ducal title by Emperor Frederick II in 1235, and the Landgraves of Hesse in 1292.Later elevated noble families like the Fürstenberg, Liechtenstein or Thurn und Taxis dynasties subsequently began to refer to their territory as a "principality" and assumed the awarded rank of a Prince (Fürst) as a hereditary title.
Heraldic crownHoly Roman EmpireMantleGermanFürstHoly Roman EmperorprincelyimmediatesuzerainLandeshoheitsovereigntyCollege of Princeshonoraryinter-marryCongress of ViennaGerman ConfederationMediatized Housesmediatizedarchdukesmargraveslandgravescounts palatineprincely countsprince-electorsprimogenitureagnaticImperial stateLate Middle AgesFrederick BarbarossaImperial DietGelnhausenHenry the LionSaxonyBavariaEike of RepgowSachsenspiegelHeerschildjura regaliaGolden Bull of 1356ReichsgrafenFreiherrenReichsprälatenHerzögestem duchiesAnhaltThuringiaMeissenHieronymus von ColloredoPrince-Archbishop of SalzburgBrunswick-LüneburgFrederick IILandgraves of HesseDiet of AugsburgFürstenbergLiechtensteinThurn und TaxisPrincehereditary titleMillstattPrince-BishopsBesançonBremenMagdeburgSalzburgPrince-abbotsPeace of WestphaliaSovereign Military Order of MaltaHouse of Kinskymotu proprioPrinces of BelmontePrinces ChigiPrinces OrsiniPrinces of BrogliePrinces OrloffPrinces PotemkinLubomirskiRadziwiłłmorganaticFrederick William von HessensteinList of states in the Holy Roman EmpireList of Imperial Diet participants (1792)German mediatizationArenbergAlmanach de GothaReichsfürstHis Serene HighnessRosenbergPrince Assistant to the Papal Throne