Swabian Circle Schwäbischer Reichskreis | |
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1500–1808 | |
The Swabian Circle as at the beginning of the 16th century within the Holy Roman Empire | |
Capital | Ulm |
Area | |
• 1801 | 34,314 km2 (13,249 sq mi) |
Government | |
Circle Colonel | |
• 1531-1537 | Wolfgang von Montfort |
• 1556-1562 | Wilhelm von Eberstein |
• 1563, 1564-1568 | Christoph |
• 1569-1591 | Louis III |
• 1622-1628 | John Frederick |
Legislature | Circle Diet |
Historical era | Early modern period |
• Established | 1500 |
• Peace of Westphalia | 1648 |
1806 | |
• Disestablished | 1808 |
Today part of | Austria Germany Liechtenstein Switzerland |
The Circle of Swabia or Swabian Circle (German: Schwäbischer Reichskreis or Schwäbischer Kreis) was an Imperial Circle of the Holy Roman Empire established in 1500 on the territory of the former German stem-duchy of Swabia. However, it did not include the Habsburg home territories of Swabian Austria, the member states of the Swiss Confederacy nor the lands of the Alsace region west of the Rhine, which belonged to the Upper Rhenish Circle. The Swabian League of 1488, a predecessor organization, disbanded in the course of the Protestant Reformation and the Thirty Years War later in the 16th century.