ABSTRACT
Ernest of Bavaria (1554–1612) was elected prince-bishop of Liège on 28 January 1581. He became prince-elector of Cologne and Bishop of Munster and Hildesheim in 1585 and was one of the most important rulers in the Holy Roman Empire. His curriculum vitae was remarkable: pupil of the Jesuits, inflexible catholic, prosecutor of witches, practitioner of alchemy, lover of art, literature and women. Liège was a wealthy industrial city (coal, iron, weapons), prosperous thanks to its official neutrality and its strategic position in a Europe devastated by the Wars of Religion. On 15 June 1581, his joyeuse entrée offered an encounter between a Prince who never came to the city and a city jealous of its traditions and privileges. The entry procession and its itinerary are described in numerous manuscript and printed sources, but no painting or engraving survives. The iconography of the street décor is distinctive, stressing the political, religious and industrial identity of the city. At every stop, the Prince was required to sign a ‘capitulation’. When he finally entered the Cathedral of St Lambert, he had subscribed to the privileges of the chapter, the city and the craft guilds, and had lost a great proportion of his power.
