Official name: Kingdom of Bavaria
Official regime:Constitutional Monarchy
Ruling family: Wittelsbach

Current Ruler:

Ludwig I August (b. 25/08/1786)
Wife: None, since Queen Maria Cristina of Bourbon died (b.1779-d.1848)
Children:
- Prince Maximilian Ludwig Joseph von Wittelsbach-Bourbon (18/11/1816)Wife (1836-....): Françoise of Bourbon (b. 1819).
- Princess Mathilde Cristina von Wittelsbach-Bourbon (02/02/1819)Wife (1843-....): off Prince Charles of Sweden.
- Prince Otto Maximilian von Wittelsbach-Bourbon (02/02/1819) Husband (1843-....): Princess Viktoria von Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (14/02/1822).
- Prince Luitpold Maximilian von Wittelsbach-Bourbon (20/08/1820)
- Princess Adelgunde Maria Cristina (b. 23/03/1824)
- Princess Hildegarde Maria von Wittelsbach-Bourbon (b. 25/10/1827)Husband (1844-....): Ernst II von Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (b. 21/06/1818).
- Prince Adalbert Joseph Ludwig von Wittelsbach-Bourbon (b. 25/10/1827).

Brothers/sisters of the king and family:

Sister 1: Princess Augusta Amalia Ludovika Georgia (b. 21/06/1788)
Husband (1815-1824): Eugène Rose de Beauharnais(b. 03/09/1781-d.21/04/1824), prince of Leuchtenberg
Children:
- Princess Josephine of Leuchtenberg (18/07/1816) Wife (1843-....):Prinz Ferdinand von Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (29/10/1819)
- Princess Eugénie Hortense Auguste of Beauharnais (18/07/1816-25/02/1848)Husband (1844-1848): Albert von Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (b. 26/08/1819).
- Prince Charles Auguste Eugène Napoléon of Beauharnais (20/06/1817)Wife (1844-): Marie von Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (b. 1808)
- Princess Amélie Auguste Eugènie Napoléone of Beauharnais (20/06/1817)Husband (1844-): Karl Alexander von Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (b. 1818-)
- Princess Theodelinde Louise Eugènie Auguste Napoléone of Beauharnais (28/01/1818) Husband (1848-....): Albert von Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (b. 26/08/1819).
- Princess Carolina Clotilde of Beauharnais (28/01/1818)
- Princess Maximiliana Josèpha Eugènie Auguste Napoléone of Beauharnais (02/02/1819).
Husband (1824-...): General Leopold von Baden (b.1790)
Children:
- Prince Ludwig Wilhelm August (22/10/1827) Wife (1844-...): Augusta Marie Luise Katharina von Saxe-Weimar (b. 30/09/1811).
- Prince Leopold Wilhelm August (25/04/1836)
- Princess Alexandrine Eugénie (15/02/1837)
- Prince Friedrich Leopold (16/03/1838)
- Prince Karl Leopold August (19/05/1840)
- Princess Marie Amélie Christine (30/12/1841)
- Princess Cecilie Christine Josèpha (30/12/1841).

Sister 2: Princess Amalie Marie Auguste (b. 25/10/1790-d. 25/08/1820)
Husband (1815-1820): Field-Marshall Johann Friedrich Graf von Seckendorf (b. 30/11/1789)*
Children:
- Prince Karl Wilhelm von Seckendorf (22/07/1816) Wife (1844-): Marie von Saxe-Altenburg (b. 1818)
- Prince Günther Johann von Seckendorf (01/02/1819) Wife (1844-): Therese von Saxe-Altenburg (b. 1823-)
- Prince Franz Joseph von Seckendorf (25/08/1820) Wife (1844-): Elizabeth von Saxe-Altenburg (b. 1826-)
*(The Field-Marshall married Pauline Bonaparte (20/10/1780-23/09/1826) in February of 1824 and she is his second wife.)

Sister 3: Princess Charlotte Auguste (b. 08/02/1792)
Husband (1817-1838): Count Maximilian von Montgelas (b. 10/09/1759-d. 03/04/1838)
Children:
- Prince Johann Sigmund von Montgelas (06/02/1819)
- Princess Marie Wilhelmine Auguste von Montgelas (30/08/1820) Husband (1844-....): Bernhard II von Saxe-Meiningen (b. 17/12/1800)
- Prince Rudolph Maximilian August von Montgelas (02/04/1824)
- Prince Karl Ulrich von Montgelas (30/05/1830).

Brother 1: Prince Karl Theodor Maximilian August (b. 07/07/1795)
Wife (August 1816-...): Princess Maria Teresa of Bragança (b. 1793)
Children:
- Princess Maria Wilhelmine von Wittelsbach-Bragança (02/01/1818).
- Prince Karl Albert Maximilian von Wittelsbach-Bragança (08/02/1819)
- Prince Karl Heinrich Maximian von Wittelsbach-Bragança (23/08/1820)
- Princess Anna Elizabetha von Wittelsbach-Bragança (b. 01/11/1827)
- Princess Maria Augusta von Wittelsbach-Bragança (b. 28/05/1836).

Brother 2: Prince Karl Friedrich Ludwig Wilhelm Maximilian Joseph (b. 28/10/1800-d. 25/11/1828)
Wife (1819-1828): Princess Isabel Maria of Bragança(b. 1801-d. 26/11/1828)
Children:
- Prince Karl Ludwig von Wittelsbach-Bragança (26/08/1820)
- Prince Friedrich Maximilian Maria (28/03/1824)
- Princess Christina Ludovika von Wittelsbach-Bragança (b. 19/10/1827)

Sister 4: Princess Elisabeth Ludovika (b. 13/11/1801)
Husband (December 1816-...): Jürgen von Osnabrück (b. 1798), prince of Nuremberg

Sister 5: Princess Amalie Auguste (b. 13/11/1801)
Husband (June 1817-...): General Karl Peters (b. 01/01/1797)
Children:
- Prince Karl Maximilian August Peters (09/02/1819)
- Princess Augusta Frederica Peters (06/04/1824)
- Prince Ludwig Karl Peters (02/06/1830).

Sister 6: Princess Sophie Friederike Dorothee Wilhelmine (b. 27/01/1805)
Husband (03/04/1824-25/02/1846): Prince Louis Napoléon Bonaparte (02/09/1778-25/02/1846)
- Prince Ludwig Frederich von Bonaparte-Wittelsbach (b. 15/11/1827).
Adopted children (from the husband's first wedding):
- Prince Napoléon Louis (11/10/1804-17/03/1831) married in 1824 with Amalie von Baden (b. 1795).
-- Prince Ludwig Friedrich von Bonaparte-Baden (b. 29/11/1827)
- Prince Charles Louis Napoléon (20/04/1808) Wife (28/11/1832-...): Amalie von Baden.
-Princess Amalie Charllotte Elizabetha (29/04/1836)
-Princess Marie Amalie Charlotte (30/11/1841)

Sister 7: Princess Marie Anne Leopoldine Elisabeth Wilhelmine (b. 27/01/1805)
Husband (03/04/1824-28/04/1844): Prince Joseph Napoléon Bonaparte (07/01/1768-28/04/1844)
- Prince Joseph Franz von Bonaparte-Wittelsbach (b. 26/11/1827)
Adopted children (from the husband's first wedding):
- Princess Zénaïde Laetitia Julie Bonaparte (b.1801) married in 1826 with Christian von Osnabrück, Duke of Palatinate (b.1801)
- Princess Charlotte Napoléone Bonaparte (b. 1802-d.1841) married in 1824-1841 with Wilhelm von Baden (b.1792)
-- Princess Sophie Charlotte von Baden-Bonaparte (b. 23/10/1827)
--Princess Henriette Charlotte (b.07/05/1832)
-- Princess Sofie Charlotte (b. 07/08/1834)
-- Princess Elisabeth Charlotte (b. 18/12/1835)
-- Princess Leopoldine Charlotte (b. 22/02/1837)

Sister 8: Princess Marie Ludovika Wilhelmine (b. 30/08/1808-d.25/04/1839),Husband (1828-1839): Friedrich August von Wettin(b. 1797-d.1839).
Line Extincted

Sister 9: Princess Maximiliana Josepha Caroline (b. 21/07/1810-d. 30/11/1832).
Husband (February of 1827-30/11/1832):

Napoleon François Joseph Charles Bonaparte (February of 1827)
- Prince Napoléon Maximilien Joseph Karl von Bonaparte-Wittelsbach (05/06/1830)
- Prince Maximilian Albrecht von Bonaparte-Wittelsbach (30/11/1832)



Queen Mother: Marie Louise of Habsbourg (b.12/12/1791-17/09/1847) since January of 1822 when she married King Maximilian I in Munich. Now present current mother-queen of Bavaria (1822-1847).
Children:
- Prince Napoleon François Joseph Charles Bonaparte (b. 20/03/1811) son of emperor Napoleon I (15/08/1769-05/05/1821) and of Marie Louise, adopted by King Maximilian and first in the line of sucession to the bavarian throne.
- Prince Maximilian Franz-Napoléon Joseph (b. 1823).



Minister of the Kingdom: see chancellor of South Germany
General-Intendent of Royal Police:Prinz Charles Napoleon Bonaparte since 1838.
Commander-in-chief of the army: Field-Marshall Johann Friedrich Graf von Seckendorf (b. 30/11/1789).
General Jérôme Bonaparte (15/11/1784).

Currency: Bavarian Mark.
Religions percentage:
-Roman Catholic Church (90%)
Archbishop Rudolhp Wallenstein

-Lutheran Church (10%)
A pastor in each place

In the Empire
Congo Colony: official religion catholic
Tanganika Colony: official religion catholic
Somalis Colony: official religion catholic
In the city of Lamu: official religion catholic

Small history about Bavaria

The Kingdom of Bavaria is one off the most ancient in all Europe.
The history begum with:
Little is known of the origin or history of the Raetians, who appear in the records as one of the most powerful and warlike of the Alpine tribes. Livy states distinctly (Ab Urbe Condita v. 33) that they were of Etruscan origin (a view favoured by Niebuhr and Mommsen). A tradition reported by Justin (xx. 5) and Pliny the Elder (Naturalis Historia, iii. 24, 133) affirmed that they were a portion of that people who had settled in the plains of the Po and were driven into the mountains by the invading Gauls, when they assumed the name of "Raetians" from their leader Raetus; a more probable derivation, however, is from Celtic rait (mountain land). Even if their Etruscan origin be accepted, at the time when the land became known to the Romans, Celtic tribes were already in possession of it and had amalgamated so completely with the original inhabitants that, generally speaking, the Raetians of later times may be regarded as a Celtic people, although non-Celtic tribes (Lepontii, Euganei) were settled among them.
The Raetians are first mentioned (but only incidentally) by Polybius (Histories xxxiv. 10, iS), and little is heard of them till after the end of the Republic. There is little doubt, however, that they retained their independence until their subjugation in 15 by Tiberius and Drusus.
At first Raetia formed a distinct province, but towards the end of the 1st century A.D. Vindelicia was added to it; hence Tacitus (Germania, 41) could speak of Augusta Vindelicorum (Augsburg) as "a colony of the province of Raetia". The whole province (including Vindelicia) was at first under a military prefect, then under a procurator; it had no standing army quartered in it but relied on its own native troops and militia for protection.
n the reign of Marcus Aurelius, Raetia was governed by the commander of the Legio III Italica. Under Diocletian it formed part of the diocese of the vicarius Italiae, and was subdivided into Raetia prima and Raetia secunda (each under a praeses), the former corresponding to the old Raetia, the latter to Vindelicia. The boundary between them is not clearly defined, but may be stated generally as a line drawn eastwards from the lacus Brigantinus (Lake Constance) to the Oenus (River Inn).
During the last years of the Western Empire, the land was in a desolate condition, but its occupation by the Ostrogoths in the time of Theodoric the Great, who placed it under a dux, to some extent revived its prosperity.

During the 5th century the Romans in Noricum and Raetia came under increasing pressure from an influx of foreign peoples.

One theory of the etymological origins of the name "Bavarian" is that Bai(o)arii was derived from Bai(a)haim, which is thought to be equivalent with the land of the antique tribe of the Boii and modern Bohemia (Reindel 1981). Also In modern Caucasian Avar language "Bo" = Army-Land-Country and "Avar" meaning "Land of Avars". Bavarians were first of Hun-Avar tribes to convert to Cristianity.

The Bavarian name was first mentioned historically by the Franks in a list of peoples, prepared c. 520. The first document that also describes their location (east of the Swabians) is in the History of the Goths by the historian Jordanes dating from 551. Then follows a remark by Venantius Fortunatus in his description of his travels from Ravenna to Tours (565-571) in which he had crossed the lands of the Bavarians, referring to the dangers of travel in the region: 'If the road is clear and if the Bavarian does not stop you … then travel across the Alps.'

Archaeological evidence dating from the 5th and 6th centuries points to social and cultural influences from several regions and peoples, such as the remaining local Celtic-Roman population, Alamanni, Bohemians, Juthungians, Elbians, Marcomanni, Danubian Suebians, Skirians, Rugians, Thuringians, Lombards, Goths and other Germanic and Eastern peoples.2
Recent research (e.g. Wolfram and Pohl 1990) has moved away from searching for specific geographical origins of the Bavarians. It is now thought that the tribal ethnicity was established by the process of ethnogenesis, whereby an ethnic identity is formed because political and social pressures that make a coherent identity necessary.

The Bavarians soon came under the dominion of the Franks, probably without a serious struggle. The Franks likely regarded this border area as mainly being useful as a buffer zone against peoples to the east, such as the Avars and the Slavs, and as a source of manpower for the army. Sometime around 550 they put it under the administration of a duke -- possibly Frankish or possibly chosen from amongst the local leading families -- who was supposed to act as a regional governor for the Frankish king. The first duke we know of, and likely the first, was Gariwald, or Garibald I, a member of the powerful Agilolfing family.6 This was the beginning of a series of Agilolfing dukes that was to last until 788.
For a century and a half a succession of dukes resisted the inroads of the Slavs on their eastern frontier, and by the time of Duke Theodo I, who died in 717, had achieved complete independence from the feeble Frankish kings. When Charles Martel became the virtual ruler of the Frankish realm he brought the Bavarians into strict dependence, and deposed two dukes successively for contumacy. Pippin the Short likewise maintaining Frankish authority, and several marriages took place between the family to which he belonged and the Agilolfings, who were united in a similar manner with the kings of the Lombards. The ease with which the Franks suppressed various risings gives colour to the supposition that family quarrels rather than the revolt of an oppressed people motivated the rebellions.
Bavarian law was commited to writing between the years 739 and 748. Supplementary clauses, added afterwards, bear evidence of Frankish influence. Thus, while the dukedom belongs to the Agilolfing family, the duke must be chosen by the people and his election confirmed by the Frankish king, to whom he owes fealty. The duke has a fivefold weregild, summons the nobles and clergy for purposes of deliberation, calls out the host, administers justice and regulates finance. Five noble families exist, possibly representing former divisions of the people. Subordinate to the nobles we find the freeborn, and then the freedmen. The law divides the country into gaits or counties, under their counts, assisted by judges responsible for declaring the law.

Christianity had lingered in Bavaria from Roman times, but a new era set in when Rupert, bishop of Worms, came to the county at the invitation of Duke Theodo I in 696. He founded several monasteries, as did St. Emmeran, bishop of Poitiers, with the result that before long the bulk of the people professed Christianity and relations commenced between Bavaria and Rome. The 8th century witnessed indeed a heathen reaction, but the arrival in Bavaria in about 734 of Saint Boniface checked apostacy. Boniface organised the Bavarian church and founded or restored bishoprics at Salzburg, Freising, Regensburg and Passau.
Tassilo III, who became duke of the Bavarians in 749, recognized the supremacy of the Frankish king Pippin the Short in 757, but soon afterwards refused to furnish a contribution to the war in Aquitaine. Moreover, during the early years of the reign of Charlemagne, Tassilo gave decisions in ecclesiastical and civil causes in his own name, refused to appear in the assemblies of the Franks, and in general acted as an independent ruler. His control of the Alpine passes, and his position as an ally of the Avars and as son-in-law of the Lombard king Desiderius formed so serious a menace to the Frankish kingdom that Charlemagne determined to crush him.
The details of this contest remain obscure. Tassilo appears to have done homage in 781, and again in 787, probably owing to the presence of Frankish armies. But further trouble soon arose, and in 788 the Franks summoned the duke to Ingelheim, and sentenced him to death on a charge of treachery. The King, however, pardoned Tassilo who entered a monastery and formally renounced his duchy at Frankfurt in 794.
Gerold, a brother-in-law of Charlemagne, ruled Bavaria till his death in a battle with the Avars in 799, when Frankish counts took over the administrátion and assimilated the land with the rest of the Carolingian empire. Measures taken by Charlemagne for the intellectual progress and material welfare of his realm improved conditions. The Bavarians offered no resistance to the change which thus abolished their dukedom. Their incorporation with the Frankish dominions, due mainly to the unifying influence of the church, appeared already so complete that Charlemagne did not find it necessary to issue more than two capitularies dealing especially with Bavarian affairs.
The history of Bavaria for the ensuing century intertwines with that of the Carolingian empire. Given at the partition of 817 to the king of the East Franks, Louis the German, Bavaria formed part of the larger territories confirmed to him in 843 by the Treaty of Verdun. Louis made Regensburg the centre of his government and actively developed Bavaria, providing for its security by numerous campaigns against the Slavs. When he divided his possessions in 865, it passed to his eldest son, Carloman, who had already managed its administration, and after his death in 880 it formed part of the extensive territories of Emperor Charles the Fat. This incompetent ruler left its defence to Arnulf, an illegitimate son of Carloman. Due mainly to the support of the Bavarians, Arnulf could take the field against Charles in 887 and secure his own election as German king in the following year. In 899 Bavaria passed to Louis the Child, during whose reign continuous Hungarian ravages occurred. Resistance to these inroads became gradually feebler, and tradition has it that on 5 July 907 almost the whole of the Bavarian tribe perished in battle against these formidable enemies.
During the reign of Louis the Child, Liutpold, Count of Scheyern, who possessed large Bavarian domains, ruled the Mark of Carinthia, created on the southeastern frontier for the defence of Bavaria. He died in the great battle of 907, but his son Arnulf, surnamed the Bad, rallied the remnants of the tribe, drove back the Hungarians, and became duke of the Bavarians in 911, uniting Bavaria and Carinthia under his rule. The German king Conrad I unsuccessfully attacked Arnulf when the latter refused to acknowledge his royal supremacy.
In 920 Conrad's successor as German king, Henry the Fowler of the Ottonian dynasty, recognized Arnulf as duke, confirming his right to appoint bishops, coin money and issue laws.
A similar conflict took place between Arnulf's son and successor Eberhard and Henry's son Otto I the Great. Eberhard proved less successful than his father, and in 938 fled from Bavaria, which Otto granted (with reduced privileges) to the late duke's uncle, Bertold. Otto also appointed a count palatine in the person of Eberhard's brother Arnulf to watch the royal interests.
When Bertold died in 947, Otto conferred the duchy upon his own brother Henry, who had married Judith, a daughter of Duke Arnulf. The Bavarians disliked Henry, who spent his short reign mainly in disputes with his people.
The ravages of the Hungarians ceased after their defeat on the Lechfeld (955), and the area of the duchy temporarily grew with the addition of certain adjacent districts in Italy.
In 955 Henry's young son Henry, surnamed the Quarrelsome, succeeded him, but in 974 he became involved in a conspiracy against King Otto II. The rising occurred because the king had granted the duchy of Swabia to Henry's enemy, Otto, a grandson of Emperor Otto the Great, and had given the new Bavarian Eastern Mark, subsequently known as Austria, to Leopold, count of Babenberg. The revolt soon failed, but Henry, who on his escape from prison renewed his plots, formally lost his duchy of Bavaria in 976 to Otto, Duke of Swabia. At the same time Carinthia was made a separate duchy, the office of Count Palatine was reestablished, and the Bavarian church became dependent on the king instead of on the duke.
Restored in 985, Henry proved himself a capable ruler by establishing internal order, issuing important laws and taking measures to reform the monasteries. His son and successor, chosen German king as Henry II in 1002, gave Bavaria to his brother-in-law Henry of Luxembourg, after whose death in 1026 it passed successively to Henry, afterwards Emperor Henry III, and then to another member of the family of Luxembourg, ruling as Duke Henry VII. In 1061, Empress Agnes, mother of and regent for the German king Henry IV, entrusted the duchy to Otto of Nordheim.
In 1070, King Henry IV deposed duke Otto, granting the duchy to Count Welf, a member of an influential Bavarian family with roots in northern Italy.
In consequence of his support of Pope Gregory VII in his quarrel with Henry, Welf lost but subsequently regained Bavaria; rwo of his sons followed him in succession: Welf II from 1101 and Henry IX from 1120. Both exercised considerable influence among the German princes.
Henry IX's son Henry X, called the Proud, succeeded in 1126, and also obtained the Duchy of Saxony in 1137. Alarmed at this prince's power, King Conrad III refused to allow two duchies to remain in the same hands, and declared Henry deposed. He bestowed Bavaria upon Leopold IV, Margrave of Austria. When Leopold died in 1141, the king retained the duchy himself; but it continued to be the scene of considerable disorder, and in 1143 he entrusted it to Henry, surnamed Jasomirgott, Margrave of Austria.
The struggle for its possession continued until 1156, when King Frederick I, in his desire to restore peace to Germany, persuaded Henry to give up Bavaria to Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony and son of Henry the Proud. In return, Austria was elevated from a margraviate to an independent duchy in the Privilegium Minus. It was Henry the Lion who founded Munich.
During the years following the dissolution of the Carolingian empire the borders of Bavaria changed continually, and for a lengthy period after 955 expanded. To the west the Lech still divided Bavaria from Swabia, but on three other sides Bavaria took advantage of opportunities for expansion, and the duchy occupied a considerable area north of the Danube. During the later years of the rule of the Welfs, however, a contrary tendency operated, and the extent of Bavaria shrank. The immense energies of Duke Henry the Lion focused on his northern duchy of Saxony rather than on his southern duchy of Bavaria, and when the dispute over the Bavarian succession ended in 1156, the district between the Enns and the Inn became part of Austria.
The increasing importance of the Mark of Styria (erected into a duchy in 1180) and of the county of Tirol had diminished both the actual and the relative strength of Bavaria, which now on almost all sides lacked opportunities for expansion. The neighbouring duchy of Carinthia, the large territories of the Archbishop of Salzburg, as well as a general tendency to claim more independence on the part of both clerical and lay nobles: all these cramped Bavarian expansionism.
A new era began when, in consequence of Henry the Lion being placed under an imperial ban in 1180, Emperor Frederick I awarded the duchy to Otto, a member of the old Bavarian family of Wittelsbach, and a descendant of the counts of Scheyern. The Wittelsbach dynasty ruled Bavaria without interruption until 1918.
When Otto of Wittelsbach gained Bavaria at Altenburg in September 1180 the duchy's borders comprised the Böhmerwald, the Inn, the Alps and the Lech; and the duke exercised practical power only over his extensive private domains around Wittelsbach, Kelheim and Straubing.
Otto only enjoyed his rule for three years. His son Louis I succeeded him in 1183, played a leading part in German affairs during the early years of the reign of the emperor Frederick II, and died (assassinated) at Kelheim in September 1231. His son Otto II, called the Illustrious, the next duke, found that his loyalty to the Hohenstaufen emperors saw himself placed under a papal ban and Bavaria placed under an interdict. Like his father, Otto II increased the area of his lands by purchases, and he considerably strengthened his hold upon the duchy before he died in November 1253.
The efforts of the dukes to increase their power and to give unity to the duchy had met with a fair measure of success; but they were soon vitiated by partitions among different members of the family, which for 250 years made the history of Bavaria little more than a jejune chronicle of territorial divisions bringing war and weakness in their train.
The first of these divisions occurred in 1255. Louis II and Henry I, the sons of Duke Otto II, who for two years after their father's death had ruled Bavaria jointly, split their inheritance: Louis II obtained the western part of the duchy, afterwards called Upper Bavaria, and Henry secured eastern or Lower Bavaria.
In the course of a long reign Louis II, called "the Stern", became the most powerful prince in southern Germany. He served as the guardian of his nephew Conradin of Hohenstaufen, and after Conradin's execution in Italy in 1268, Louis and his brother Henry inherited the domains of the Hohenstaufen in Swabia and elsewhere. He supported Rudolph, count of Habsburg, in his efforts to secure the German throne in 1273, married the new king's daughter Mechtild, and aided him in campaigns in Bohemia and elsewhere.
For some years after Louis' death in 1294 his sons Rudolph I and Louis, afterwards the emperor Louis IV, ruled their duchy in common; but as their relations were never harmonious a division of Upper Bavaria occurred in 1310, by which Rudolph received the land east of the Isar together with the town of Munich, and Louis the district between the Isar and the Lech. It was not long, however, before this arrangement led to war between the brothers, with the outcome that in 1317, three years after he had become German king, Louis compelled Rudolph to abdicate, and for twelve years ruled alone over the whole of Upper Bavaria. But in 1329 a series of events induced him to conclude the treaty of Pavia with Rudolph's sons, Rudolph and Rupert, to whom he transferred the Palatinate of the Rhine (which the Wittelsbach family had owned since 1214) and also a portion of Upper Bavaria north of the Danube, afterwards called the Upper Palatinate (Oberpfalz).
At the same time the two lines of the Wittelsbach family decided to exercise the electoral vote alternately, and that in the event of the extinction of either branch of the family, the surviving branch should inherit its possessions.
Henry I of Lower Bavaria spent most of his time in quarrels with his brother, with Ottakar II of Bohemia and with various ecclesiastics. When he died in February 1290, the land fell to his three sons, Otto III, Louis II, and Stephen I. The families of these three princes governed Lower Bavaria until 1333, when Henry II (son of Otto III) died, followed in 1334 by his cousin Otto IV; and as both died without sons the whole of Lower Bavaria then passed to Henry III. Dying in 1339, Henry III left an only son, John I, who died childless in the following year, when the emperor Louis IV, by securing Lower Bavaria for himself, united the whole of the duchy under his sway.
The consolidation of Bavaria under Louis lasted for seven years, during which the emperor was able to improve the condition of the country. When he died in 1347 he left six sons to share his possessions, who agreed upon a division of Bavaria in 1349. Its history, however, was complicated by its connections with Brandenburg, Holland and Tirol, all of which the emperor had also left to his sons. All the six brothers exercised some authority in Bavaria; but three alone left issue, and of these the eldest, Louis, margrave of Brandenburg, died in 1361; followed to the grave two years later by his only (and childless) son Meinhard. The two remaining brothers, Stephen II and Albert I, ruled over Bavaria-Landshut and Bavaria-Straubing respectively, and when Stephen died in 1375 his three sons governed his portion of Bavaria jointly. In 1392, on the extinction of all the lines except those of Stephen and Albert, an important partition took place, which sub-divided the greater part of the duchy amongst Stephen's three sons, Stephen III, Frederick and John II, who founded respectively the lines of Ingolstadt, Landshut and Munich.
Albert I's duchy of Bavaria-Straubing passed on his death in 1404 to his son William II, and in 1417 to his younger son John, who resigned the bishopric of Liege to take up his new position. When John died in 1425 this family became extinct, and after a contest between various claimants,the three remaining branches of the Wittelsbach family partitioned Bavaria-Straubing between themselves.
The main result of the threefold division of 1392 proved a succession of civil wars which led to the temporary eclipse of Bavaria as a force in German politics. Neighbouring states encroached upon its borders, and the nobles ignored the authority of the dukes, who, deprived of the electoral vote, were mainly occupied for fifty years with intestine strife.
This condition of affairs, however, had some benefits. The government of the country and the control of the finances passed mainly into the hands of an assembly called the Landtag or Landschaft, organized in 1392. The towns, assuming a certain independence, became strong and wealthy as trade increased, and the citizens of Munich and Regensburg often proved formidable antagonists to the dukes. Thus a period of disorder saw the growth of representative institutions and the establishment of a strong civic spirit.
Stephen III, duke of Bavaria-Ingolstadt, achieved renown rather as a soldier than as a statesman; and his rule saw struggles with various towns, and with his brother, John of Bavaria-Munich. On his death in 1413 his son Louis, called the Bearded, succeeded. Before his accession, this restless and quarrelsome prince, had played an important part in the affairs of France, where his sister Isabella had married King Charles VI. About 1417 he became involved in a violent quarrel with his cousin, Henry of Bavaria-Landshut, fell under both the papal and the imperial ban, and in 1439 came under attack from his son, Louis the Lame. This prince, who had married a daughter of Frederick I of Hohenzollern, margrave of Brandenburg, very much disliked the favour shown by his father to an illegitimate son. Aided by Albert Achilles, afterwards margrave of Brandenburg, he took the elder Louis prisoner and compelled him to abdicate in 1443. When Louis the Lame died in 1445 his father came into the power of his implacable enemy, Henry of Bavaria-Landshut, and died in prison in 1447.
The duchy of Bavaria-Ingolstadt passed to Henry, who had succeeded his father Frederick as duke of Bavaria-Landshut in 1393, and whose long reign comprised almost entirely family feuds. He died in July 1450, and his son, Louis IX (called the Rich) succeeded. About this time Bavaria began to recover some of its former importance.
Louis IX expelled the Jews from his duchy, increased the security of traders, and improved both the administration of justice and the condition of the finances. In 1472 he founded the university of Ingolstadt, attempted to reform the monasteries, and successfully defeated Albert Achilles of Brandenburg. On the death of Louis IX in January 1479 his son George, also called the Rich, succeeded; and when George, a faithful adherent of the German king Maximilian I, died without sons in December 1503, a war broke out for the possession of his duchy.
Bavaria-Munich passed on the death of John II in 1397 to his sons Ernest and William III, but they only obtained possession of their lands after a struggle with Stephen of Bavaria-Ingolstadt. Both brothers then engaged in warfare with the other branches of the family and with the citizens of Munich. William III, a loyal servant of the emperor Sigismund, died in 1435, leaving an only son, Adolf, who died five years later; and Ernest, distinguished for his bodily strength, died in 1438. In 1440 the whole of Bavaria-Munich came to Ernest's son Albert III, who had become estranged from his father owing to his union with the unfortunate Agnes Bernauer. Albert, whose attempts to reform the monasteries earned for him the surname of Pious, almost became the elected king of Bohemia in 1440. He died in 1460, leaving five sons, the two elder of whom, John IV and Sigismund, reigned in common until the death of John in 1463. The third brother, Albert, who had been educated for the church, joined his brother in 1465, and when Sigismund abdicated two years later became sole ruler in spite of the claims of his two younger brothers.
Albert IV, called the Wise, added the district of Abensberg to his possessions, and in 1504 became involved in the war which broke out for the possession of Bavaria-Landshut on the death of George the Rich. Albert's rival was George's son-in-law, Rupert, formerly bishop of Freising, and also successor of Philip, count palatine of the Rhine. The emperor Maximilian I, interested as archduke of Austria and count of Tirol, interfered in the dispute. Rupert died in 1504, and the following year an arrangement was made at the Diet of Cologne by which the emperor and Philip's grandson, Otto Henry, obtained certain outlying districts, while Albert by securing the bulk of George's possessions united Bavaria under his rule. In 1506 Albert decreed that the duchy should pass according to the rules of primogeniture, and endeavoured in other ways also to consolidate Bavaria. He was partially successful in improving the condition of the country; and in 1500 Bavaria formed one of the six circles into which Germany was divided for the maintenance of peace. He died in March 1508, and was succeeded by his son, William IV, whose mother, Kunigunde, was a daughter of the emperor Frederick III.
[edit]
The Reunited Duchy
In spite of the decree of 1506 William IV was compelled in 1516, after a violent quarrel, to grant a share in the government to his brother Louis, an arrangement which lasted until the death of Louis in 1545.
William followed the traditional Wittelsbach policy of opposition to the Habsburgs until in 1534 he made a treaty at Linz with Ferdinand, king of Hungary and Bohemia. This link strengthened in 1546, when the emperor Charles V obtained the help of the duke during the war of the league of Schmalkalden by promising him in certain eventualities the succession to the Bohemian throne, and the electoral dignity enjoyed by the count palatine of the Rhine. William also did much at a critical period to secure Bavaria for Catholicism. The reformed doctrines had made considerable progress in the duchy when the duke obtained from the pope extensive rights over the bishoprics and monasteries, and took measures to repress the reformers, many of whom were banished; while the Jesuits, whom he invited into the duchy in 1541, made the university of Ingolstadt their headquarters for Germany. William, whose death occurred in March 1550, was succeeded by his son Albert V, who had married a daughter of Ferdinand of Habsburg, afterwards the emperor Ferdinand I. Early in his reign Albert made some concessions to the reformers, who were still strong in Bavaria; but about 1563 he changed his attitude, favoured the decrees of the Council of Trent, and pressed forward the work of the Counter-Reformation. As education passed by degrees into the hands of the Jesuits the progress of Protestantism was effectually arrested in Bavaria.
Albert V patronised art extensively. Artists of all kinds resorted to his court in Munich, and splendid buildings arose in the city; while Italy and elsewhere contributed to the collection of artistic works. The expenses of a magnificent court led the duke to quarrel with the Landschaft, to oppress his subjects, and to leave a great burden of debt when he died in October 1579. The succeeding duke, Albert's son, William V (called the Pious), had received a Jesuit education and showed keen attachment to Jesuit tenets. He secured the archbishopric of Cologne for his brother Ernest in 1583, and this dignity remained in the possession of the family for nearly 200 years. In 1597 he abdicated in favour of his son Maximilian I, and retired into a monastery, where he died in 1626.
Maximilian I found the duchy encumbered with debt and filled with disorder, but ten years of his vigorous rule effected a remarkable change. The finances and the judicial system were reorganised, a class of civil servants and a national militia founded, and several small districts were brought under the duke's authority. The result was a unity and order in the duchy which enabled Maximilian to play an important part in the Thirty Years War; during the earlier years of which he was so successful as to acquire the Upper Palatinate and the electoral dignity which had been enjoyed since 1356 by the elder branch of the Wittelsbach family. In spite of subsequent reverses, Maximilian retained these gains at the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. During the later years of this war Bavaria, especially the northern part, suffered severely. In 1632 the Swedes invaded, and when Maximilian violated the treaty of Ulm in 1647, the French and the Swedes ravaged the land. After repairing this damage to some extent, the elector died at Ingolstadt in September 1651, leaving his duchy much stronger than he had found it. The recovery of the Upper Palatinate made Bavaria compact; the acquisition of the electoral vote made it influential; and the duchy was able to play a part in European politics which intestine strife had rendered impossible for the past four hundred years.
Whatever lustre the international position won by Maximilian I might add to the ducal house, on Bavaria itself its effect during the next two centuries was more dubious. Maximilian's son, Ferdinand Maria (1651-1679), who was a minor when he succeeded, did much indeed to repair the wounds caused by the Thirty Years' War, encouraging agriculture and industries, and building or restoring numerous churches and monasteries. In 1669, moreover, he again called a meeting of the diet, which had been suspended since 1612. His good work, however, was largely undone by his son Maximilian II Emanuel (1679-1726), whose far-reaching ambition set him warring against the Turks and, on the side of France, in the great struggle of the Spanish succession. He shared in the defeat at the Battle of Blenheim, near Hochstädt, on 13 August 1704; his dominions were temporarily partitioned between Austria and the elector palatine, and only restored to him, harried and exhausted, at the peace of Baden in 1714; the first Bavarian peasant insurrection, known as the Bloody Christmas of Sendling, having been crushed by the Austrian occupators in 1706. Untaught by Maximilian II Emmanuel's experience, his son, Charles Albert (1726-1745), devoted all his energies to increasing the European prestige and power of his house. The death of the emperor Charles VI. proved his opportunity: he disputed the validity of the Pragmatic Sanction which secured the Habsburg succession to Maria Theresa, allied himself with France, conquered Upper Austria, was crowned king of Bohemia at Prague and, in 1742, emperor at Frankfurt. The price he had to pay, however, was the occupation of Bavaria itself by Austrian troops; and, though the invasion of Bohemia in 1744 by Frederick II of Prussia enabled him to return to Munich, at his death on January 20 1745 it was left to his successor to make what terms he could for the recovery of his dominions. Maximilian III Joseph (1745 - 1777), by the peace of Fussen signed on 22 April 1745, obtained the restitution of his dominions in return for a formal acknowledgment of the Pragmatic Sanction. He was a man of enlightenment, did much to encourage agriculture, industries and the exploitation of the mineral wealth of the country, founded the Academy of Sciences at Munich, and abolished the Jesuit censorship of the press. At his death, without issue, on December 30, 1777, the Bavarian line of the Wittelsbachs became extinct, and the succession passed to Charles Theodore, the elector palatine. After a separation of four and a half centuries, the Palatinate, to which the duchies of Jülich and Berg had been added, thus reunited with Bavaria.
So great an accession of strength to a neighbouring state, whose ambition she had so recently had just reason to fear, proved intolerable to Austria, which laid claim to a number of lordships -- forming one-third of the whole Bavarian inheritance -- as lapsed fiefs of the Bohemian, Austrian, and imperial crowns. These were at once occupied by Austrian troops, with the secret consent of Charles Theodore himself, who was without legitimate heirs, and wished to obtain from the emperor the elevation of his natural children to the status of princes of the Empire. The protests of the next heir, Charles, duke of Zweibrucken (Deux-Ponts), supported by the king of Prussia, led to the war of Bavarian succession. By the peace of Teschen (13 May 1779) the Inn quarter was ceded to Austria, and the succession secured to Charles of Zweibrucken.
For Bavaria itself Charles Theodore did less than nothing. He felt himself a foreigner among foreigners, and his favourite scheme, the subject of endless intrigues with the Austrian cabinet and the immediate cause of Frederick II's League of Princes (Fürstenbund) of 1785, was to exchange Bavaria for the Austrian Netherlands and the title of king of Burgundy. For the rest, the enlightened internal policy of his predecessor was abandoned. The funds of the suppressed order of Jesus, which Maximilian Joseph had destined for the reform of the educational system of the country, were used to endow a province of the knights of St John of Jerusalem, for the purpose of combating the enemies of the faith. The government was inspired by the narrowest clericalism, which culminated in the attempt to withdraw the Bavarian bishops from the jurisdiction of the great German metropolitans and place them directly under that of the pope. On the eve of the Revolution the intellectual and social condition of Bavaria remained that of the middle ages.
Revolutionary and Napoleonic
In 1792 revolutionary armies overran the Palatinate; in 1795 the French, under Moreau, invaded Bavaria itself, advanced to Munich -- where they were received with joy by the long-suppressed Liberals -- and laid siege to Ingolstadt. Karl Theodor, who had done nothing to prevent wars or to resist the invasion, fled to Saxony, leaving a regency, the members of which signed a convention with Moreau, by which he granted an armistice in return for a heavy contribution (7 September 1796).
Between the French and the Austrians, Bavaria was now in an evil case. Before the death of Charles Theodore (16 February 1799) the Austrians had again occupied the country, preparatory to renewing the war with France. Maximilian IV Joseph (of Zweibrücken), the new elector, succeeded to a difficult inheritance. Though his own sympathies, and those of his all-powerful minister, Maximilian von Montgelas, were, if anything, French rather than Austrian, the state of the Bavarian finances, and the fact that the Bavarian troops were scattered and disorganized, placed him helpless in the hands of Austria; on 2 December 1800 the Bavarian arms were involved in the Austrian defeat at Hohenlinden, and Moreau once more occupied Munich. By the Treaty of Lunéville (9 February 1801) Bavaria lost the Palatinate and the duchies of Zweibrucken and Jüllich.
In view of the scarcely disguised ambitions and intrigues of the Austrian court, Montgelas now believed that the interests of Bavaria lay in a frank alliance with the French republic; he succeeded in overcoming the reluctance of Maximilian Joseph; and, on the 24th of August, a separate treaty of peace and alliance with France was signed at Paris. By the third article of this the First Consul undertook to see that the compensation promised under the 7th article of the treaty of Lunéville for the territory ceded on the left bank of the Rhine, should be carried out at the expense of the Empire in the manner most agreeable to Bavaria (see de Martens, Recueil, vol. vii. p. 365).
In 1803, accordingly, in the territorial rearrangements consequent on Napoleon's suppression of the ecclesiastical states, and of many free cities of the Empire, Bavaria received the bishoprics of Würzburg, Bamberg, Augsburg and Freisingen, part of that of Passau, the territories of twelve abbeys, and seventeen cities and villages, the whole forming a compact territory which more than compensated for the loss of her outlying provinces on the Rhine. Montgelas now aspired to raise Bavaria to the rank of a first-rate power, and he pursued this object during the Napoleonic epoch with consummate skill, allowing fully for the preponderance of France - so long as it lasted - but never permitting Bavaria to sink, like so many of the states of the confederation of the Rhine, into a mere French dependency. In the war of 1805, in accordance with a treaty of alliance signed at Würzburg on 23 September, Bavarian troops, for the first time since the days of Charles VII, fought side by side with the French, and by the Treaty of Pressburg, signed on 26 December, the principality of Eichstädt, the margravate of Burgau, the lordship of Vorarlberg, the countships of Hohenems and Konigsegg-Rothenfels, the lordships of Argen and Tetnang, and the city of Lindau with its territory were to be added to Bavaria. On the other hand Würzburg, obtained in 1803, was to be ceded by Bavaria to the elector of Salzburg in exchange for Tirol. By the 1st article Of the treaty the emperor acknowledged the assumption by the elector of the title of king, as Maximilian I. The price which Maximilian had reluctantly to pay for this accession of dignity was the marriage of his daughter Augusta with Eugene Beauharnais.
For the internal constitution of Bavaria also the French alliance had noteworthy consequences. Maximilian himself was an "enlightened" prince of the 18th-century type, whose tolerant principles had already grievously offended his clerical subjects; Montgelas was a firm believer in drastic reform "from above", and, in 1803, had discussed with the rump of the old estates the question of reforms. But the revolutionary changes introduced by the constitution proclaimed on 1 May 1808 were due to the direct influence of Napoleon. A clean sweep was made of the medieval polity surviving in the somnolent local diets and corporations. In place of the old system of privileges and exemptions were set equality before the law, universal liability to taxation, abolition of serfdom, security of person and property, liberty of conscience and of the press. A representative assembly was created on paper, based on a narrow franchise and with very limited powers, but was never summoned.
In 1809 Bavaria was again engaged in war with Austria on the side of France, and by the treaty signed at Paris on 28 February 1810 ceded southern Tirol to Italy and some small districts to Württemberg, receiving as compensation parts of Salzburg, the quarters of the Inn and Hausruck and the principalities of Bayreuth and Regensburg. So far the policy of Montgelas had been brilliantly successful; but the star of Napoleon had now reached its zenith, and already the astute opportunist had noted the signs of the coming change.
The events of 1812 followed; in 1813 Bavaria was summoned to join the alliance against Napoleon, the demand being passionately backed by the crown prince Louis and by Marshal Wrede; on 8 October was signed the treaty of Ried, by which Bavaria threw in her lot with the Allies. Montgelas announced to the French ambassador that he had been compelled temporarily to bow before the storm, adding "Bavaria has need of France". (For Bavaria's share in the war see Napoleonic Campaigns.)
Immediately after the first peace of Paris (1814), Bavaria ceded to Austria Tirol and Vorarlberg; during the Congress of Vienna it was decided that she was to add to these the greater part of Salzburg and the districts of the Inn and Hausruck, receiving as compensation, besides Würzburg and Aschaffenburg, the Palatinate on the left bank of the Rhine and certain districts of Hesse and of the former abbacy of Fulda.