Hildesheim

The Prince-Bishopric of Hildesheim was an ecclesiastical state in the Leine valley of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1337 the Welf Henry III held the see of Hildesheim.

The Diocesan Feud of 1519–1523 with Henry the Younger of Brunswick cost the bishopric much land. Most inhabitants became Protestant in the sixteenth century; Wittelsbach prince-bishops ruled from 1573. Secularized to Prussia in 1803, the territory passed to Westphalia in 1807 and Hanover in 1815.