Duchy of Oldenburg
Territory of the Holy Roman Empire
The Duchy of Oldenburg was a 1774 since elevated imperial principality in the Holy Roman Empire. It belonged to the Lower Rhenish - Westphalian Circle. It outlasted the end of the empire for a short time in the Confederation of the Rhine, but was annexed by the French Empire in 1811. 1815, the state was restored as Grand Duchy of Oldenburg. As Duchy of Oldenburg now the heartland of the Grand Duchy was designated as opposed to the external parts of the country Principality of Lübeck and the Principality of Birkenfeld.
History
Since the early Middle Ages was the County of Oldenburg. By countries exchange the county came in the Treaty of Tsarskoye Selo on 27 August 1773 the head of the House of Schleswig -Holstein - Gottorp, later Tsar Paul, who four days later his cousin the Prince-Bishop of Lübeck, Friedrich August ceded the land, which then was raised to the status of Duke Emperor Joseph II 1774/1777.
The Duchy thus consisted of two spatially separated sub-areas: Oldenburg itself and the Bishopric of Lübeck (after secularization in 1803 the Principality of Lübeck with the residence Eutin ).
1785 died Friedrich August. His nephew Peter Friedrich Ludwig took over for the feeble-minded biological son Peter Friedrich Wilhelm as coadjutor and successor official duties. Under him Oldenburg was again a city of residence. When Peter Friedrich Wilhelm died in 1823, Peter Friedrich Ludwig succeeded him as Duke Peter I in 1803 became Oldenburg in Reichsdeputationshauptschluss in exchange for the Elsflether Weser customs as compensation, the Hanover Office Wildeshausen and out of the former Bishopric of Münster, the offices of Vechta and Cloppenburg. The Bishopric of Lübeck was converted into a hereditary principality.
Although the country had joined the Confederation of the Rhine, beginning in 1811 it was annexed by France and added to the newly created Department of the Weser estuaries. In his capacity as Regent Peter Friedrich Ludwig refused the offered him as a substitute imperial domain Erfurt and emigrated to Russia, where Czar Alexander's sister Catherine Pavlovna was married to his son Georg April 30, 1809.