Ruprecht of the Palatinate

Ruprecht of the Palatinate (27 February 1427 – 16 or 26 July 1480) was the Archbishop and Prince Elector of Cologne from 1463 to 1480.

Biography Ruprecht was the third son of Louis III, Count Palatine of the Rhine, by his second wife, Matilda of Savoy. He renounced his claim to lands of the Palatinate and studied for holy orders at the universities of Heidelberg and Cologne. He was a canon in the Mainz Cathedral and then became subdeacon of the cathedral chapter at Cologne Chosen for his family connections, while solving its internal problems, in particular the shortage of income from being denied the toll income from the most important Rhine trading towns, which had been mortgaged by his predecessor, Dietrich II von Moers, to raise money for war. He was required to agree to 23 articles presented by the cathedral chapter limiting his financial options which the chapter and the Estates had agreed upon four days before his election, and to the chapter holding the important trading town of Zons as a pledge of his good behaviour. and to obtain them, he occupied Zons. he began the Cologne Ecclesiastical Conflict , which grew into the Burgundian Wars. The majority of Ruprecht's vassals, including the citizens of Cologne, renounced their allegiance to him and asked both the Pope and Emperor Frederick III to intervene. In open rebellion, they proclaimed Landgrave Hermann of Hesse administrator and protector of the archbishopric. The Emperor attempted in December 1473 to mediate the conflict, but failed. In 1474, Charles besieged Neuss, a stronghold of the rebels in which Hermann had taken refuge; the Reichstag decided at Augsburg to go to war against Charles, The Siege of Neuss lasted almost a year and ended in Charles accepting the Pope's mediation, including concerning Ruprecht's position as archbishop. Ruprecht had been excommunicated by the Pope in 1472 for not paying required contributions from his see to Rome. and died on 12 December 1476, and was buried in the Bonn Minster. His successor as Archbishop of Cologne was Hermann of Hesse, who had successfully defended Neuss against him and his allies and became Hermann IV; he gave Ruprecht an imposing tomb. He was passionate about hunting and hawking.