Bishopric of Ösel–Wiek


The Bishopric of Ösel–Wiek was a Roman Catholic diocese and semi-independent prince-bishopric in the Holy Roman Empire, covering what are now Saare, Hiiu and Lääne counties of Estonia.

History

The bishopric was created on 1 October 1228 as a Latin rite diocese by papal legate William of Modena and simultaneously as a state of Holy Roman Empire—making it a prince-bishopric—by Henry, King of the Romans. Due to the repeated shift of the seat of the bishops, it was also successively known as bishopric of Leal from 1234, Perona from 1251, Hapsal Castle from 1279, and the seat shifted to the castle of Arensburg on the island of Ösel ; the cathedral and cathedral chapter remained in Hapsal. It was a suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the Metropolitan Archbishopric of Riga from 1253.
One of the five members of the Livonian Confederation, the state was administratively divided into two bailiwicks. The bishop was also the lord of the Teutonic Order over its fiefs on the bishopric's territory. From 1241 until 1343, Ösel Island was an autonomous part of Ösel-Wiek prince-bishopric.
The principality ceased to exist in 1560 when its last prince-bishop, Johannes V von Münchhausen, sold it to Denmark, which vested executive power in royally appointed Governors. King Frederick II of Denmark's brother Magnus of Livonia, Duke of Holstein, obtained it as an appanage on 15 April 1560 and was elected bishop on 13 May 1560; the Danish dynasty being Lutheran, he abolished the diocese and assumed the secular feudal style Lord of Ösel on 20 March 1567.
Denmark ceded Wiek to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in exchange for parts of Ösel belonging to the Livonian Order. Later Ösel became a Danish possession.

Episcopal Ordinaries and Prince-Bishops of Ösel-Wiek (Saare-Lääne)