Reichskreis
The Princely Abbey of Stavelot-Malmedy, also Principality of Stavelot-Malmedy, was an ecclesiastical principality of the Holy Roman Empire. Princely power was exercised by the Benedictine abbot of the imperial double monastery of Stavelot and Malmedy, founded in 651. Along with the Duchy of and the Prince-Bishopric of, it was one of only three principalities of the Southern Netherlands that were never part of the Spanish (later, Austrian) Netherlands, which belonged to the Burgundian Circle while the principalities belonged to the Lower Rhenish Imperial Circle.