Europe · High and late Middle Ages
Duchy of Bavaria
drawn on the map 1260–1325, 1352–1777, 1780–1805
The Duchy of Bavaria re-emerged as one of the stem duchies of the East Frankish/German kingdom in the 10th century, after the Carolingian collapse. It was a major constituent of the Holy Roman Empire, ruled successively by several dynasties.
- Shown on the map
- 1260–1325, 1352–1777, 1780–1805 (3 periods)
- Peak area
- 97k km²
- Region
- Europe
Overview
The Duchy of Bavaria re-emerged as one of the stem duchies of the East Frankish/German kingdom in the 10th century, after the Carolingian collapse. It was a major constituent of the Holy Roman Empire, ruled successively by several dynasties. The Wittelsbach dynasty acquired the duchy in 1180 (when Frederick Barbarossa granted it to Otto I of Wittelsbach after deposing Henry the Lion) and held it until 1918.
Decline and legacy
Bavaria was raised to an electorate in 1623 during the Thirty Years' War, when the electoral dignity was transferred from the Palatinate to Duke Maximilian I. The Electorate of Bavaria persisted until the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, when Bavaria became a kingdom under Napoleon's reorganization.
Common questions
- What was the Duchy of Bavaria?
- The Duchy of Bavaria re-emerged as one of the stem duchies of the East Frankish/German kingdom in the 10th century, after the Carolingian collapse. It was a major constituent of the Holy Roman Empire, ruled successively by several dynasties.
- When is the Duchy of Bavaria shown on the map?
- The border data draws the Duchy of Bavaria 1260–1325, 1352–1777, 1780–1805, in 3 separate periods. The source samples borders at fixed dates, so a span can begin late or run on past the end.
- How large was the Duchy of Bavaria?
- At its greatest extent drawn on this map, the Duchy of Bavaria covered about 97,000 km². That is the largest area the border data gives it across the years it is drawn, not necessarily its greatest extent in history.
- How did the Duchy of Bavaria end?
- Bavaria was raised to an electorate in 1623 during the Thirty Years' War, when the electoral dignity was transferred from the Palatinate to Duke Maximilian I. The Electorate of Bavaria persisted until the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, when Bavaria became a kingdom under Napoleon's reorganization.
Sources
This compendium cites its sources once for the whole document rather than per territory. Its bibliography names the English Wikipedia articles for each polity as the primary basis, cross-checked against Encyclopædia Britannica and the World History Encyclopedia, while flagging entries built on thin or contested evidence — Samo's Empire on a single Fredegar passage, Venice's 697 founding date as legendary, the Pacta conventa as a probable forgery. The article this entry is anchored on:
- Wikipedia — Duchy of Bavaria en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duchy_of_Bavaria
This entry was last updated .
This entry was researched and drafted with AI from the sources above, and has not been reviewed by a historian. How entries are made
Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.
Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).
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