House of Wittelsbach - Reign in The Holy Roman Empire

Reign in The Holy Roman Empire

The Wittelsbach family was the ruling dynasty of the German territories of Bavaria from 1180 to 1918 and of the Electorate of the Palatinate from 1214 until 1805; in 1815 the latter territory was partly incorporated as Rhine Palatinate into Bavaria, which was elevated to a kingdom by Napoleon in 1806.

On Duke Otto II's death in 1253, the Wittelsbach possessions were divided between his sons: Henry became Duke of Lower Bavaria, and Louis II Duke of Upper Bavaria and Count Palatine of the Rhine. When Henry's branch died out in 1340 the duchy was reunited under Emperor Louis IV, a son of Duke Louis II.

The family provided two Holy Roman Emperors: Louis IV (1314–1347) and Charles VII (1742–1745), both members of the Bavarian branch of the family, and one German King with Rupert of the Palatinate (1400–1410), a member of the Palatinate branch.

The House of Wittelsbach split into these two branches in 1329: Under the Treaty of Pavia, Emperor Louis IV granted the Palatinate including the Bavarian Upper Palatinate to his brother Duke Rudolf's descendants, Rudolf II, Rupert I and Rupert II. Rudolf I this way became the ancestor of the older (Palatinate) line of the Wittelsbach dynasty, which returned to power also in Bavaria in 1777 after the extinction of the younger (Bavarian) line, the descendants of Louis IV.

Read more about this topic:  House Of Wittelsbach

Famous quotes containing the words roman empire, reign in, reign, holy, roman and/or empire:

    The descendants of Holy Roman Empire monarchies became feeble-minded in the twentieth century, and after World War I had been done in by the democracies; some were kept on to entertain the tourists, like the one they have in England.
    Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)

    In order to prove a friend to one’s guests, frugality must reign in one’s meals; and, according to an ancient saying, one must eat to live, not live to eat.
    Molière [Jean Baptiste Poquelin] (1622–1673)

    Fatalism, whose solving word in all crises of behavior is “All striving is vain,” will never reign supreme, for the impulse to take life strivingly is indestructible in the race. Moral creeds which speak to that impulse will be widely successful in spite of inconsistency, vagueness, and shadowy determination of expectancy. Man needs a rule for his will, and will invent one if one be not given him.
    William James (1842–1910)

    The holy passion of friendship is of so sweet and steady and loyal and enduring a nature that it will last through a whole lifetime, if not asked to lend money.
    Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)

    The gale, it plies the saplings double,
    It blows so hard, ‘twill soon be gone:
    To-day the Roman and his trouble
    Are ashes under Uricon.
    —A.E. (Alfred Edward)

    The sea, washing the equator and the poles, offers its perilous aid, and the power and empire that follow it.... “Beware of me,” it says, “but if you can hold me, I am the key to all the lands.”
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)