Upper Rhenish Circle

The Upper Rhenish Circle (German: Oberrheinischer Reichskreis) was an Imperial Circle of the Holy Roman Empire established in 1500 on the territory of the former Duchy of Upper Lorraine and large parts of Rhenish Franconia including the Swabian Alsace region and the Burgundian duchy of Savoy.

Many of the circle's states west of the Rhine river were annexed by France under King Louis XIV during the 17th century, sealed by the 1678/79 Treaties of Nijmegen.

Read more about Upper Rhenish Circle:  Composition

Famous quotes containing the words upper and/or circle:

    I am not afraid of the priests in the long-run. Scientific method is the white ant which will slowly but surely destroy their fortifications. And the importance of scientific method in modern practical life—always growing and increasing—is the guarantee for the gradual emancipation of the ignorant upper and lower classes, the former of whom especially are the strength of the priests.
    Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)

    They will mark the stone-battlements
    And the circle of them
    With a bright stain.
    They will cast out the dead
    A sight for Priam’s queen to lament
    And her frightened daughters.
    Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)