Electorate of Württemberg

The Electorate of Württemberg was a short-lived state of the Holy Roman Empire in south-western Germany. In 1803 the Imperial Diet raised the Duchy of Württemberg to an electorate, the highest rank of princely dignity in the empire, as part of the reorganization of Germany that followed the French Revolutionary wars. The new elector was Frederick II Eugene's son Frederick III, who had succeeded as duke in 1797. His house had lost its possessions on the left bank of the Rhine in the German mediatisation of 1802-1803 but was compensated with nine free imperial cities, including Reutlingen and Heilbronn, and other territories amounting to about 850 square miles, which roughly doubled the duchy's size. The electorate lasted only a few years: on 1 January 1806 Frederick assumed the title of King of Württemberg, and when Francis II abdicated in August 1806 the Holy Roman Empire ceased to exist. Württemberg then joined the Confederation of the Rhine and became a kingdom, which it remained until 1918. The electorate therefore marks a brief transitional moment between the old duchy and the Napoleonic kingdom.