Bavaria: From the Romans to the Wittelsbachs

The borders of Bavaria have varied considerably in its history. The region was inhabited by Celts when Drusus conquered it (15 b.c.) for Rome. The Baiuoarii (see Germans) invaded it (6th cent. a.d.) and set up the duchy to which they gave their name. It was one of the five basic or stem duchies of medieval Germany. Irish and Scottish monks began the Christianization of the area, and it was completed (8th cent.) by St. Boniface. In 788, Charlemagne defeated Duke Tassilo III and added Bavaria to his empire. From 817 to 911, Bavaria was ruled by the Carolingians Louis the German, Carloman (d. 880), Arnulf, and Louis the Child.

In 911 the duchy (then comprising, roughly, Bavaria proper, present-day Austria, and part of the Upper Palatinate) came under indigenous rulers. Frequent Magyar inroads were stopped (955) by Emperor Otto I, who in 947 had given Bavaria to his brother Henry. Henry's grandson was duke of Bavaria when he was elected (1002) German king as Henry II. After his accession Bavaria was ruled by various houses, but in 1070 Emperor Henry IV gave the fief to Welf, or Guelph, d'Este IV (see Este), who began the dynasty of the Guelphs.

From the 9th to the 12th cent. the Bavarian dukes, of whatever house, were at the center of the rebellions of the great German princes against the imperial authority. To reduce their power Emperor Otto II in 976 stripped the duchy of all but present-day Upper and Lower Bavaria and the Tyrol. When in 1137 the Guelph Henry the Proud acquired Saxony in addition to Bavaria, Conrad III deposed him and gave Bavaria to the Babenberg rulers of Austria. Frederick II restored (1156) Bavaria to Henry the Lion but in 1180 deposed the rebellious Guelph and bestowed the duchy (from which he detached considerable territory in what is now Austria) on Otto of Wittelsbach. The political history of Bavaria, much reduced in importance, became that of the Wittelsbach family, which ruled until 1918.

Sections in this article:

• Introduction
• Bavaria since World War I
• Bavaria under the Wittelsbachs
• From the Romans to the Wittelsbachs
• Economy and People
• Land

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