Worms is a port on the left (west) bank of the Rhine River, just northwest of Mannheim. Known originally as Celtic Borbetomagus, by the reign of Julius Caesar it was called Civitas Vangionum, the chief town of the Vangiones. In 413 CE it became the capital of the Burgundians, who, after disputes with the Romans, rose in revolt in 435 against the Roman governor Flavius Aelius. He called upon his Hun allies, who destroyed the city in 436. The Hun destruction of Worms and the Burgundian kingdom inspired heroic legends in the epic poem Nibelungenlied (c. 1200).
Rebuilt by the Merovingian kings, Worms became a bishopric about 600 and a favourite residence of the Carolingian and Salian emperors. The bishopric (secularized in 1803) grew steadily in temporal power and territory, particularly under Bishop Burchard I (1000–1025), and Worms became a free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire in 1156, remaining free until 1801.
More than 100 imperial diets (assemblies) were held in the city (see Diet of Worms). The Concordat of Worms closed the Investiture Controversy in 1122, the “perpetual public peace” (Ewiger Landfriede) was proclaimed by the emperor Maximilian I there at the Diet of 1495, and Martin Luther appeared before the famous Diet of 1521 to defend his doctrines to the emperor Charles V. Worms became Protestant in 1525 and was the site of religious conferences in 1540 and 1557. It suffered severely during the Thirty Years’ War and was looted and burned by the French in 1689. These events led to a precipitous decline, which lasted until the city revived and expanded under the stimulus of industrial development in the 19th century. It was annexed to France in 1797 and passed to Hesse-Darmstadt in 1816.
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