Elector of Trier

This prince, brother of Emperor Henry VII, who ruled from 1307 to 1354, was the real founder of the power of Trier.

Although his predecessor, Diether III of Nassau, had left the electorate heavily encumbered with debt, Baldwin raised it to great prosperity with the help of the emperors Henry VII, Louis the Bavarian and Charles IV, to whom he had rendered active political and military support.

Throughout the Middle Ages, the Sancta Civitas Trevirorum [Latin, “Holy City of Trier”] was a flourishing site of religious foundations and became a great center of monastic learning.

During the Thirty Years' War, Archbishop-Elector Philip Christopher von Sotern favored France and accepted its protection in 1631.

The following year, the French army drove all the Spanish and Swedish troops from the electorate, but in March 1635 the Spaniards returned, recaptured Trier and took the archbishop-elector prisoner.

He remained in captivity for ten years, but in 1645 was reinstated by the French and confirmed in his authority by the Treaty of Westphalia.

Under the Peace of Luneville in 1801 France annexed all the territories of the Electorate of Trier to the west of the Rhine and, in 1802, the archbishop-elector abdicated.