FULDA, one of the four provinces of the electorate of Hesse-Cassel, comprising the greater part of the ancient independent bishopric of Fulda, and the isolated circle of Schmalkalden. The bishopric of Fulda originated in an abbey founded by St. Boniface in 744. It subsequently received various privileges, and in 1752 was raised to the rank of an independent bishopric. In 1803 it was secularized and ceded as a principality to the Prince of Nassau-Orange; and in 1810 it was incorporated by Napoleon with the grand-duchy of Frankfurt. In 1814 it was divided, a district containing 27,000 inhabitants being given to Saxony-Weimar, and the rest to Prussia. Prussia afterwards ceded her portion to Hesse-Cassel, and it now forms one of the provinces of that electorate. It has an area of 720 square miles, and in 1846 contained 140,713 inhabitants.