The Bishopric of Utrecht is a Diocese based in the Dutch city of Utrecht. It was one of the Prince-Bishoprics of the Holy Roman Empire.
The Bishopric of Utrecht continued as a state of the Holy Roman Empire from 1024 until 1528, when the secular authority and territorial possessions of the bishopric and its entire worldly power were secularized by Emperor Charles V. The diocese itself continued to exist as an ecclesiastical entity, and in 1559 was elevated to an archbishopric.
By 1580 the Protestant Reformation in Utrecht and surrounding regions rendered impossible several attempts to effectively continue the ecclesiastical archdiocese, after the death of archbishop Frederik V Schenck van Toutenburg. The ecclesiastical archbishopric or archdiocese was reinstated in 1853 as the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Utrecht by Pope Pius IX.
Since the early 18th century Old Catholic dissidents have claimed the restoration of the archdiocese took place as early as 1723 by the election and episcopal consecration of Cornelius van Steenoven, enthroned, consecrated and elevated in a so-called schuilkerk by certain members of Utrecht Catholic clergy without papal approval.
Read more about Bishopric Of Utrecht: Bishops Until Protestant Reformation, Old-Catholic Archbishops Who Notified Their Election To The Pope, Roman Catholic Archbishops After Restoration of The Roman Catholic Episcopal Hierarchy