Prince-primate (German: Fürstprimas, Hungarian: hercegprímás) is a rare princely title held by individual (prince-) archbishops of specific sees in a presiding capacity in an august assembly of mainly secular princes, notably the following: The Rheinbund or 'Confederation of the Rhine' was founded in 1806, when several German states seceded from the Holy Roman Empire and allied themselves with Emperor Napoleon of France,[1] who assumed the position of the Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine.
[2] Its highest office was held by Karl Theodor von Dalberg, first Archbishop of Mainz and then of Regensburg.
At the same time, Napoleon appointed his stepson Eugène de Beauharnais — excluded from the French imperial succession — as heir to the Grand Duchy.
The primate was entitled to hold national synods, was Legatus Natus of the Holy Roman Church, and therefore had the right, inside of his legation (territory where he represented the Pope), to have the cross carried before him, dealt directly with Rome and had the right of visitation in the episcopal sees and the religious houses in Hungary, except the exempt Archabbey of Pannonhalma (S. Martinus in Monte Pannoniæ).
To the primate also belonged the right (delegated regalia) to superintend the royal mint at Kremnica (German: Kremnitz, Hungarian: Körmöcbánya), for which he received a significant sum from its seigniorage revenues, called jus piseti ('right of').