Princely Abbey of Stavelot-Malmedy

50°23′N 5°56′E / 50.383°N 5.933°E / 50.383; 5.933

Princely Abbey of Stavelot-Malmedy
  • Principauté abbatiale de Stavelot-Malmedy (French)
  • Preensdom Stavelot-Malmedy (Limburgish)
  • Abdijvorstendom Stavelot en Malmedy (Dutch)
  • Fürstabtei Stablo-Malmedy (German)
651–1795
Coat of arms. On a blue field, the upper half shows a man, robed in red, with a bishop's staff in his left hand, a church building in his right; the lower half shows a wolf, with pannier sacks on his back.
Coat of arms
Map highlighting the Abbacy of Stavelot, a region containing Stavelot and Malmedy. It is along the banks of a river and nestled between the duchies of Limburg and Luxemburg and the Bishopric of Liège.
Stavelot-Malmedy, as at 1560, within the Lower Rhenish–Westphalian Circle
StatusImperial Abbey of the Holy Roman Empire
CapitalStavelot
GovernmentElective principality
Historical eraMiddle Ages
• Malmedy abb. founded
648
• Stavelot abbey founded
651
• Abbot Poppo of Deinze
1020–48
• Abbot Wibald
1130–58
• Annexed by France
1794
• Creation of Ourthe
1795
9 June 1815
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Carolingian Empire
Ourthe (department)
Today part ofBelgium

The Princely Abbey of Stavelot-Malmedy, also Principality of Stavelot-Malmedy, sometimes known with its German name Stablo, was an ecclesiastical principality of the Holy Roman Empire. Princely power was exercised by the Benedictine abbot of the imperial double monastery of Stavelot and Malmedy, founded in 651. Along with the Duchy of Bouillon and the Prince-Bishopric of Liège, it was one of only three principalities of the Southern Netherlands that were never part of the Spanish Netherlands, later the Austrian Netherlands,[1] which after 1500 were assigned to the Burgundian Circle while the principalities were assigned to the Lower Rhenish Imperial Circle.[2]

As a prince-abbot, the abbot of Stavelot-Malmedy sat on the Ecclesiastical Bench of the College of Ruling Princes of the Imperial Diet alongside the prince-bishops. Along with the handful of other prince-abbots, he cast a full vote (votum virile),[3] in contrast to the majority of imperial abbots who were only entitled to collectively determine the votes of their respective curial benches.

In 1795, the principality was abolished and its territory was incorporated into the French département of Ourthe.[4] The Congress of Vienna in 1815 assigned Stavelot to the United Kingdom of the Netherlands,[5] and Malmedy became part of the Prussian district of Eupen-Malmedy.[5] Both are currently parts of the Kingdom of Belgium—since the 1830 Belgian Revolution and the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, respectively (Malmedy annexed to Belgium in 1925). In 1921 the Abbey church of Malmedy became the Cathedral of the short-lived Diocese of Eupen-Malmedy.

  1. ^ André Uyttebrouck (1975). "Une Confédération et trois principautés". In Rita Lejeune (ed.). La Wallonie, le Pays et les Hommes (in French). Vol. 1. La renaissance du livre. pp. 215–44, 235.
  2. ^ Hernach volgend die zehen Krayß  (in German). 1532 – via Wikisource.
  3. ^ Number 67 of the princely college.
  4. ^ Alexandre Ferrier de Tourettes (1838). Guide pittoresque et artistique du voyageur en Belgique (in French). Société Belge de Librairie, etc. p. 241.
  5. ^ a b "History". official website of Stavelot (in French). Archived from the original on 11 February 2012. Retrieved 26 December 2009.