The Hildesheim Diocesan Feud[1] (German: Hildesheimer Stiftsfehde) or Great Diocesan Feud,[2] sometimes referred to as a "chapter feud",[3][4] was a conflict that broke out in 1519 between the Prince-Bishopric of Hildesheim (Hochstift Hildesheim) and the principalities of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and Calenberg that were ruled by the House of Welf. Originally just a local conflict between the Hildesheim prince-bishop John IV of Saxe-Lauenburg and his own prince-bishopric's nobility (Stiftsadel), it developed into a major dispute between various Lower Saxon territorial princes. The cause was the attempt by Prince-Bishop John to redeem the pledged estates and their tax revenue from the nobles in his temporalities, the prince-bishopric (Hochstift, or simply das Stift). The diocesan feud ended with the Treaty of Quedlinburg in 1523.[5]
- ^ Hildesheim Diocesan Feud at www.proz.com. Accessed on 8 May 2011.
- ^ The Princebishopric of Hildesheim, 1643-1723 at www.zum.de. Accessed on 8 May 2011.
- ^ Hildesheim at www.jewishencyclopedia.com. Accessed on 8 May 2011.
- ^ Perhaps more strictly described as the "Feud of the Hildesheim Prince-Bishopric", because the feud was not a result of John's episcopal spiritual function within his diocese, which was much larger, but about his secular role as prince-bishop within his smaller territory within the Holy Roman Empire, the Hochstift Hildesheim, correctly translated as "Prince-Bishopric of Hildesheim". The boundaries of the diocese of Hildesheim were never in question.
- ^ Hildesheim Stift Feud, 1518-1523 at www.zum.de. Retrieved on 4 Apr 2010.