Duchy of Bavaria
| Duchy of Bavaria | ||||||||||
| Herzogtum Bayern | ||||||||||
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Stem duchy of the Kingdom of Germany (843–962) State of the Holy Roman Empire (from 962) |
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 Bavarian lands after 1392 partition
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| Capital |
Regensburg (until 1255) Munich (from 1505) |
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| Government | Feudal monarchy | |||||||||
| Historical era | Medieval Europe | |||||||||
| • | Garibald I, first documented duke | c. 555 | ||||||||
| • | Margrave Arnulf assumed ducal title |
907 | ||||||||
| • |
Duchy of Carinthia Split off |
976 | ||||||||
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Duchy of Austria split off |
1156 | ||||||||
| • | To House of Wittelsbach |
1180 | ||||||||
| • | Reunification | 1503 | ||||||||
| • | Raised to Electorate | 1623 | ||||||||
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| Today part of |
 Germany Austria Italy Slovenia
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The Duchy of Bavaria (German: Herzogtum Bayern) was, from the sixth through the eighth century, a frontier region in the southeastern part of the Merovingian kingdom and was ruled by dukes (duces) under Frankish lordship. In the late ninth century a new duchy was created from this area. It was one of the stem duchies of the Kingdom of Germany and the Holy Roman Empire.
Between 1070 and 1180 the Emperor was opposed by Bavaria, especially by the House of Welf. In the final conflict between the Duke Henry the Lion and the Hohenstaufen emperor Frederick I, Frederick I triumphed and deprived Henry of his fiefs. Bavaria then passed over to the House of Wittelsbach, which held it until 1918.
The origins of the older Bavarian duchy can be traced to the year 551/555. In his Getica, the chronicler Jordanes writes: "That area of the Swabians has the Bavarii in the east, the Franks in the west ..."
Until the end of the first duchy, all rulers descended from the family of the Agilolfings. The Bavarians then colonized the area from the March of the Nordgau along the Naab river (later called the Upper Palatinate) up to the Enns in the east and southward across the Brenner Pass to the Upper Adige in present-day South Tyrol. The first documented duke was Garibald I, a scion of the Frankish Agilolfings, who ruled from 555 onward as a largely independent Merovingian vassal.
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Wikipedia