The man who ended 1,200 years of ecclesiastical rule. Napoleon's armies occupied Salzburg in 1800 and again in 1809. The political consequences of the Napoleonic era were permanent: the 1803 Reichsdeputationshauptschluss (Imperial Recess) secularised Salzburg and transferred it first to Ferdinand of Tuscany, then briefly to Bavaria (1806-1809), before it became permanently part of Austria in 1816 after Napoleon's final defeat.
The French period erased Salzburg's status as an independent ecclesiastical state forever. The prince-archbishopric that had governed the city since the days of Saint Rupert, that had built Salzburg Cathedral, Hohensalzburg Fortress, and the Residenz, ceased to exist.
