Principality of Neuchâtel
Principality of Neuchâtel Principauté de Neuchâtel | |||||||||
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| 1034–1848 | |||||||||
Coat of arms
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Location of Neuchâtel in Switzerland | |||||||||
| Status | Swiss associate (until 1798) Swiss canton (1814-1848) | ||||||||
| Capital | Neuchâtel | ||||||||
| Common languages | French | ||||||||
| Religion | Catholic (until 1530) Reformed (from 1530) | ||||||||
| Government | Principality | ||||||||
| Prince | |||||||||
• 1034–1070 (first) | Ulrich I | ||||||||
• 1840–1848 (last) | Frederick William IV | ||||||||
| History | |||||||||
• Established | 1034 | ||||||||
• Personal union with Prussia | 1707 | ||||||||
• Accession to the Swiss Confederation | 1815 | ||||||||
• Republic proclaimed | 1848 | ||||||||
• Treaty of Paris | 26 May 1857 | ||||||||
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The Principality of Neuchâtel (French: Principauté de Neuchâtel; known as the County of Neuchâtel (Comté de Neuchâtel) until the 17th century) was a state in present-day Switzerland that existed from the 11th century until 1848. It was the predecessor of the modern Republic and Canton of Neuchâtel. Its capital was the city of Neuchâtel.
An associate state of the Old Swiss Confederation, Neuchâtel was allied from the late 13th century to several Swiss cantons and cities, most notably Fribourg (1290), Bern (1308), Solothurn (1369) and Lucerne (1501). Following the extinction of the native House of Neuchâtel in 1395, the county passed into the hands of families from Southern Germany, then to the French House of Orléans-Longueville in the early 16th century. On the death of Marie de Nemours in 1707, the principality was awarded to the royal dynasty of Prussia, the House of Hohenzollern, entering into a personal union with the Kingdom of Prussia. After an interlude during the Napoleonic era (1806–1814), Neuchâtel was restored to the King of Prussia and admitted as a full member of the Swiss Confederation, a unique dual status confirmed at the Congress of Vienna in 1815. It maintained its status as both a principality and a canton until the republican revolution of 1848, which led to the foundation of the present-day canton of Neuchâtel.