 In the course of the German mediatization of 1803, the Prince-archbishopric of Salzburg, an ecclesiastical State of the Holy Roman Empire, was secularized as the Electorate of Salzburg, ruled by the Habsburg archduke Ferdinand III of Austria.However, two years later, this short-lived principality was annexed by the newly established Austrian Empire according to the Peace of Pressburg and Ferdinand received the Grand Duchy of Würzburg in compensation.The electoral title became obsolete with the Empire's dissolution in 1806.