Le Colloque

 In November last year, Red Baron reported about a colloquium at Ensisheim. Still, he left the question, "Why did Ensisheim become a central place for the Habsburgs in the region?" unanswered but promised to do it in a future blog providing some highlights.

Here is a "crown" made from wood showing the Austrian colors and the Upper Alsace's coat of arms. It was on display during the colloquium.

Habsburg territories in the Upper Rhine region around 1100

The Habsburgs had a slow start in the region. They only owned small estates but ruled the earldom of Upper Alsace.

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Around 1260, Alsace was a dispersed region. In addition to free imperial cities, small princes held land, prince bishops, and prince abbots had vast territorial possessions, and Habsburg rights were distributed in between.

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By 1500, the Habsburgs' territorial situation was somewhat better, as they now possessed larger contiguous areas in Upper Alsace and in Breisgau on the other side of the Rhine River (white color), notably the cities of Mulhouse and Freiburg.

It would have been natural for territorial conflicts to break out in this mingled situation. However, the close neighbors were concerned about their freedom and aware that peace was central to the stability of their territories and domains. 

That we, to the praise of Almighty God and in honor of our most gracious lord,
the Roman emperor, and especially as members of the Holy Roman Empire,
in the strength of the imperial peace of 1471 at Regensburg, by all our subjects
 and allies and all other members of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation
have all come together in unity.

And indeed, the so-called Lower League of 1474 on the Upper Rhine successfully defeated Charles the Bold of Burgundy. 

Still, peace did not remain over the years because the imperial central power had little presence in the southwest of the empire; the region was left on its own. 

A league of ten imperial cities formed in the 14th century, the Decapolis, worked better and lasted longer. They still stood to the emperor for their liberty when the Habsburg possessions in Alsace had reverted to the French crown in the Westfalian peace treaty in 1648.

So, the Habsburg authorities moved from Ensisheim to the right bank of the Rhine River and opened in Freiburg. Were the Habsburgs perhaps glad to get rid of Alsace because of their permanent financial difficulties?

In the final discussion at the colloquium, the question arose as to why Ensisheim was so significant for the Habsburgs until the Thirty Years' War?

It was proposed since the founder of the House of Austria, Rudolf, had fortified the place and also moved the district court there that the later Habsburgs remembered the past. So small Ensisheim became their central administrative center in the southwest.
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