| • Science | • People | • Locations | • Timeline |
| Contents | ||
More particularly, the Palatinate (German die Pfalz) usually refers to one of two areas in Germany, each formerly ruled by a count palatine.
When Germans speak about "the Palatinate" they are usually referring to the Rhenish Palatinate (Rheinpfalz, sometimes called the "Lower Palatinate" or Niederpfalz). Long administratively a part of Bavaria (although it does not border Bavaria proper), today it occupies rather more than a quarter of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate (Rheinland-Pfalz) and contains towns and cities such as Ludwigshafen, Kaiserslautern, Frankenthal , Neustadt an der Weinstraße , Landau and Speyer. That part of the old Rhenish Palatinate which lay on the right bank of the Rhine is called Electoral Palatinate (Kurpfalz) and, annexed by Baden at the beginning of the 19th century, it now forms part of the state of Baden-Württemberg. It includes the cities of Mannheim and Heidelberg, which had been the capitals of the old electorate.
The Upper Palatinate (Oberpfalz) is a larger area 300 km to the east, containing the cities of Regensburg and Amberg. It is now a part of the state of BavariaWith an area of 70,553 km² and 11. 6 million inhabitants, the Free State of Bavaria ( German Bayern or Freistaat Bayern forms the southernmost of the 16 Bundeslander of Germany. Its capital is Munich. Geography Bavaria shares international borders with Au.
The Palatinate arose as the County Palatine of the Rhine, a large feudal state lying on both banks of the Rhine, which seems to have come into existence in the 10th century. The territory fell to the WittelsbachThe Wittelsbach family were the ruling dynasty of the German state of Bavaria from 1180 to 1918 and of the Rhine Palatinate from 1214 until 1805; in 1815 the latter territory was incorporated into Bavaria, which had been a kingdom since 1806. The family p Dukes of Bavaria in the early 13th century, and during a later division of territory among one of the heirs of Duke Louis II of Upper Bavaria in 1294, the elder branch of the Wittelsbachs came into possession not only of the Rhenish Palatinate, but also of that part of Upper Bavaria itself which was north of the Danube, and which came to be called the Upper Palatinate (Oberpfalz), in contrast to the Lower Palatinate along the Rhine. In the Golden BullA Golden Bull or chrysobull was a golden ornament representing a seal (a bulla aurea or "golden seal" in Latin), attached to a decree issued by monarchs in Europe and the Byzantine Empire during the Middle Ages and Renaissance. The term was originally coi of 1356Events January 20 Edward Balliol surrenders title as King of Scotland to Edward III of England September 19 Battle of Poitiers The English defeat the French in the Hundred Years' War, capturing the King John II of France in the process. December 25 Empero, the Palatinate was made one of the secular electoratesIn the Holy Roman Empire, the prince-electors or electoral princes German: Kurfurst (singular) Kurfursten (plural)—were the members of the electoral college of Holy Roman Empire, having the function of electing the king of Germany before his accession as, and given the hereditary offices of Archsteward of the Empire and Imperial Vicar of the western half of Germany. From this time forth, the Count Palatine of the Rhine was usually known as the Elector Palatine.
Due to the practice of division of territories among different branches of the family, by the early 16th century junior lines of the Palatine Wittelsbachs came to rule in SimmernSimmern (pronounced zi-MANN), town in Germany in the western state of Rhineland-Palatinate and seat of the Simmern enclave of the Rhein-Hunsruck district or Kreis. Since 1969, the town has officially been known as Kreisstadt Simmern-Hunsruck, as a result, Kaiserslautern, and ZweibrückenZweibrucken is a city of Germany in Rhineland-Palatinate, on the Schwarzbach River at the border of the Palatine Forest. Population 38,464 (2001). The town was the capital of the former duchy of Zweibrucken, and the Alexander-Kirche (founded in 1493) cont in the Lower Palatinate, and in Neuburg and Sulzbach in the Upper Palatinate. The Elector Palatine, now based in Heidelberg, converted to Lutheranism in the 1530s.
When the senior branch of the family died out in 1559Events January 15 Elizabeth I of England is crowned in Westminster Abbey. April 3 Peace of Cateau Cambresis France makes peace with England and Spain. France gives up most of its gains in Italy (including Savoy), keeping only Saluzzo, but keeps the three, the Electorate passed to Frederick III of Simmern, a staunch Calvinist, and the Palatinate became one of the major centers of Calvinism in Europe, supporting Calvinist rebellions in both the Netherlands and France. Frederick III's grandson, Frederick IV, and his adviser, Christian of Anhalt , founded the Evangelical Union of Protestant states in 1608, and in 1619 Elector Frederick V (the son-in-law of King James I of England) accepted the throne of Bohemia from rebellious Protestant noblemen. He was soon defeated by the forces of Emperor Ferdinand II at the Battle of White Mountain in 1620, and Spanish and Bavarian troops soon occupied the Palatinate itself. In 1623, Frederick was put under the ban of the Empire, and his territories and Electoral dignity granted to the Duke (now Elector) of Bavaria, Maximilian I.
By the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, Frederick V's son, Charles Louis, was restored to the Lower Palatinate, and given a new electoral title, but the Upper Palatinate and the senior electoral title remained with the Bavarian line. In 1685, the Simmern line died out, and the Palatinate was inherited by the Count Palatine of Neuburg (who was also Duke of Jülich and Berg), a Catholic. The Neuburg line, which moved the capital to Mannheim in 1720, lasted until 1742, when it, too, became extinct, and the Palatinate was inherited by the Duke Karl Theodor of Sulzbach. The childless Karl Theodor also inherited Bavaria when its electoral line became extinct in 1777, and all the Wittelsbach lands save Zweibrücken on the French border (whose Duke was, in fact, Karl Theodor's presumptive heir) were now under a single rule. The Palatinate was destroyed in the Wars of the French Revolution - first its left bank territories were occupied, and then annexed, by France starting in 1795, and then, in 1803, its right bank territories were taken by the Margrave of Baden
At the Congress of Vienna in 1814 and 1815, the Left Bank Palatinate was returned to Bavaria, and after this time it was this region which was principally known as the Palatinate. The area remained a part of Bavaria until after the Second World War, when it was separated and became a part of the new state of Rhineland-Palatinate, along with former left bank territories of Prussia and Hesse-Darmstadt.