Palatinate

From Freepedia

A palatinate is an area administered by a count palatine, originally the direct representative of the sovereign but later the hereditary ruler of the territory subject to the crown's overlordship. In England, it is also used to describe a shade of purple, coming from the colours of the County palatine of County Durham.


Contents

Germany

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.

The historical Electoral Palatinate (German Kurpfalz) was a much larger territory than that which later became known as the Rhenish Palatinate, the Electoral Palatinate having included territory that lay on the right bank of the Rhine, which included the cities of Heidelberg, which was the capital of the Electoral Palatinate until 1720, and Mannheim, which became the capital that year. The Electoral Palatinate (Kurpfalz) was dissolved in 1803, during the Napoleonic era, those territories that lay on the right bank of the Rhine becoming part of the newly-created Grand Duchy of Baden, which was governed from the city of Karlsruhe. Baden remained a German state until 1945 and is now one of the components of the state of Baden-Württemberg.

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 Bavaria.

History

The Palatinate emerged from the County Palatine of Lotharingia, which came into existence in the 10th century. During the 11th century it was dominated by the Ezzonian dynasty, who governed several counties on both banks of the Rhine. From about 1085/1086, after the death of the last Ezzonian palatine count, Herman II of Lotharingia (+1085), the Palatinate lost its military importance in Lotharingia. The territorial authority of the count palatine was reduced to his counties along the Rhine, from then on called County Palatine of the Rhine.

In the early 13th century, the territory fell to the Wittelsbach Dukes of Bavaria, who were also count palatine of Bavaria. During a later division of territory among the heirs of Duke Louis II of Upper Bavaria in 1294, the elder branch of the Wittelsbachs came into possession of both the Rhenish Palatinate and the Bavarian Palatinate (Upper Bavaria, which was north of the Danube, and also called the Upper Palatinate (Oberpfalz), in contrast to the Lower Palatinate along the Rhine).

In the Golden Bull of 1356, the Palatinate was made one of the secular electorates, 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 Simmern, Kaiserslautern, and Zweibrücken 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 1559, 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. In 1619 Elector Frederick V (the "Winter King") (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 Philip William, Count Palatine of Neuburg ( and who was also Duke of Jülich and Berg), a Catholic. The Neuburg line, which moved the capital from Heidelberg to Mannheim in 1720, lasted until 1742, when it, too, became extinct, and the Palatinate was inherited by Duke Karl Theodor of Sulzbach. The childless Karl Theodor also inherited Bavaria when its electoral line became extinct in 1777. His heir, Maximilian Joseph, Duke of Zweibrücken (on the French border), brought all the Wittelsbach territories under a single rule in 1799. The Palatinate was devastated 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. In 1806, Baden was raised to a Grand Duchy.

At the Congress of Vienna in 1814 and 1815, the Left Bank Palatinate was returned to the Wittelsbachs and became a formal part of the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1816 (to the displeasure of most Palatines, it should be noted here), and after this time, it was this region that 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.

Counts Palatine of Lotharingia, 945-1085

  • Hermann I of Lotharingia 945-994
  • Ezzo of Lotharingia 994-1034
  • Otto I of Lotharingia, 1034-1045 (Duke of Swabia 1045-1047)
  • Heinrich I of Lotharingia 1045-1061
  • Hermann II of Lotharingia 1061-1085 (between 1061-1064 in tutelage to Archbishop Anno II of Cologne)

Counts Palatine of the Rhine, 1085-1356

  • Heinrich II von Laach 1085-1095
  • Sigfried of Ballenstadt 1095-1113
  • Gottfried of Kalw 1113-1129
  • Wilhelm of Ballenstadt 1129-1139
  • Henry IV Jasomirgott 1139-1142
  • Hermann III von Stahleck 1142-1155
  • Conrad of Hohenstaufen 1156-1195
  • Henry V of Welf 1195-1211
  • Henry VI of Welf 1211-1214

House of Wittelsbach

  • Louis I 1214-1227
  • Otto I 1227-1253
  • Louis II 1253-1294
  • Rudolf I 1294-1317
  • Adolf 1317-1327
  • Rudolf II 1327-1353
  • Rupert I 1353-1356

Electors Palatine, 1356-1803

  • Rupert I 1356-1390
  • Rupert II 1390-1398
  • Rupert III 1398-1410
  • Louis III 1410-1436
  • Louis IV 1436-1449
  • Frederick I 1449-1476
  • Philip 1476-1508
  • Louis V 1508-1544
  • Frederick II 1544-1556
  • Otto Henry 1556-1559

House of Palatinate-Simmern

House of Bavaria

House of Palatinate-Simmern (restored)

House of Palatinate-Neuburg

House of Palatinate-Sulzbach

House of Palatinate-Zweibrücken

England (Durham)

Deriving from Durham's history as a Palatine County, the sporting colours of the University of Durham are known as Palatinates, the equivalent of Blues at Oxford and Cambridge. Honorary Palatinates are also awarded. The colour palatinate is a shade of lilac or purple, and is used in numerous heraldic devices within the university. The student newspaper is also named Palatinate; it is published weekly during term time, and was judged Best Student Newspaper by the Independent/NUJ in 2001.

For more information about the palatine counties of England, see County Palatine.

External links

Retrieved from "http://en.freepedia.org/Palatinate.html"


Views
Personal tools
In other languages
Similar Links