Duke of Lower Bavaria
| Duchy of Bavaria | ||||||||||
| Herzogtum Bayern | ||||||||||
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Stem duchy of East Francia and the Kingdom of Germany (843–962) State of the Holy Roman Empire (from 962) |
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.svg) Bavaria (red, including the Austrian march) within the German kingdom
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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 | ||||||||
| • | Carinthia split off | 976 | ||||||||
| • | 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. It was settled by Bavarian tribes and ruled by dukes (duces) under Frankish overlordship. A new duchy was created from this area during the decline of the Carolingian Empire in the late ninth century. It became one of the stem duchies of the East Frankish realm which evolved as the Kingdom of Germany and the Holy Roman Empire.
During internal struggles of the ruling Ottonian dynasty, the Bavarian territory was considerably diminished by the separation of the newly established Duchy of Carinthia in 976. Between 1070 and 1180 the Holy Roman Emperors were again strongly opposed by Bavaria, especially by the ducal House of Welf. In the final conflict between the Welf and Hohenstaufen dynasties, Duke Henry the Lion was banned and deprived of his Bavarian and Saxon fiefs by Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. Frederick passed Bavaria over to the House of Wittelsbach, which held it until 1918. The Bavarian dukes were raised to prince-electors during the Thirty Years' War in 1623.
The medieval Bavarian stem duchy covered present-day Southeastern Germany and most parts of Austria along the Danube river, up to the Hungarian border which then ran along the Leitha tributary in the east. It included the Altbayern regions of the modern state of Bavaria, with the lands of the Nordgau march (the later Upper Palatinate), but without its Swabian and Franconian regions. The separation of the Duchy of Carinthia in 976 entailed the loss of large East Alpine territories covering the present-day Austrian states of Carinthia and Styria as well as the adjacent Carniolan region in today's Slovenia. The eastern March of Austria —roughly corresponding to the present state of Lower Austria— was likewise elevated to a duchy in its own right by 1156.
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Wikipedia