Editing Prince-Bishopric of Brandenburg (section)

==History==
The Prince-Bishopric of Brandenburg was an [[Imperial State|imperial estate]] of the [[Holy Roman Empire]] for some time, probably starting about 1161/1165. However, the Brandenburg bishops never managed to gain control over a significant territory, being overshadowed by the [[Margraviate of Brandenburg]], which was originally seated in the same city. Chapter and cathedral, surrounded by further ecclesiastical institutions, were located on the ''Dominsel'' (Cathedral Island), which formed a prince-episcopal [[Domfreiheit|cathedral immunity district]] (''Domfreiheit''), distinct from the city of Brandenburg. Only in 1929 the - meanwhile former - immunity district was incorporated into the city itself.

As rulers of [[imperial immediacy]], regnant in a, however, dispersed territory partitioned into the four bailiwicks ({{langx|de|Ämter}}) of Brandenburg/Havel, [[Ketzin]], [[Teltow]] and [[Ziesar]]. The prince-bishops from the early 14th century onwards resided in their fortress in Ziesar on the road to [[Magdeburg]]. The last actual bishop was [[Matthias von Jagow]] (d. 1544), who took the side of the [[Protestant Reformation]], married, and in every way furthered the undertakings of the [[House of Hohenzollern|Hohenzollern]] elector [[Joachim II Hector, Elector of Brandenburg|Joachim II]].

There were two more nominal bishops, but on the petition of the latter of these, the electoral prince [[John George, Elector of Brandenburg|John George of Brandenburg]] appointed in 1560, the secularisation of the bishopric was undertaken and finally accomplished in 1571, in spite of legal proceedings to reassert the imperial immediacy of the prince-bishopric within the Empire and so to likewise preserve the diocese, which dragged on into the 17th century.