The Bishopric of Fulda was formerly an independent ecclesiastical state, but was secularised at the treaty of Lunéville and now forms part of the territory of Hesse-Cassel.

Before 1600 the earldom of Chester and the duchy of Lancaster had been absorbed by the crown, but the bishopric of Durham remained the type of an almost independent state, and the colony palatine of Maryland was modelled after it.

The possession of this circle had, in the meantime, been disputed with variable success between Count Tilly and the Swedish General Horn, whom Gustavus had left there with 8,000 men; and the Bishopric of Bamberg, in particular, was at once the prize and the scene of their struggle.