Editing Electoral Palatinate (section)

== History ==
=== Background ===
[[File:BlasonLorraine.svg|thumb|left|upright=0.4|Arms of the Duke of Lotharingia]]
The comital office of Count Palatine at the Frankish court of King [[Childebert I]] was already mentioned about 535. The Counts Palatine were the permanent representatives of the king in particular geographic areas, in contrast to the semi-independent authority of the dukes (and their successors). Under the [[Merovingian dynasty]], the position had been a purely appointed one, but by the Middle Ages had evolved into an hereditary one.

Up to the tenth century, the Frankish empire was centered at the royal palace ({{lang|de|[[Kaiserpfalz|Pfalz]]}}) in [[Aachen]], in what had become the [[Carolingian dynasty|Carolingian]] kingdom of [[Lotharingia]]. Consequently, the Count Palatine of Lotharingia became the most important of the Counts Palatine. Marital alliances meant that, by the Middle Ages, most Count Palatine positions had been inherited by the duke of the associated province, but the importance of the Count Palatine of Lotharingia enabled it to remain as an independent position.

In 985, [[Herman I, Count Palatine of Lotharingia|Herman I]], a scion of the [[Ezzonids]], is mentioned as count palatine of Lotharingia (which by then had been divided into Upper and [[Lower Lotharingia]]). While his Palatine authority operated over the whole of [[Duchy of Lorraine|Upper Lorraine]], the feudal territories of his family were instead scattered around south-western Franconia, including parts of the Rhineland around [[Cologne]] and [[Bonn]], and areas around the rivers [[Moselle]] and [[Nahe (Rhine)|Nahe]].

In continual conflicts with the rivalling [[Electorate of Cologne|Archbishops of Cologne]], he changed the emphasis of his rule to the southern [[Eifel]] region and further to the Upper Rhine, where the [[Ezzonid]] dynasty governed several counties on both banks of the river. The southernmost point was near [[Alzey]].<ref name="Kohnle">{{cite book |last=Kohnle |first=Armin |title=Kleine Geschichte der Kurpfalz |trans-title=A short history of the Electoral Palatinate |publisher=G. Braun Buchverlag |location=Karlsruhe |year=2005 |edition=First |series=Regionalgeschichte-fundiert und kompakt |pages=17 |chapter=Mittelalterliche Grundlagen; Pfalzgraftenamt, Territorialentwicklung und Kurwürde |isbn=978-3-7650-8329-7 |language=de }}</ref>

[[File:Arms of the Palatinate (Old).svg|thumb|left|upright=0.4|[[Palatine Lion]], arms of the Count Palatine]]
From about 1085/86, after the death of the last Ezzonian count palatine [[Hermann II, Count Palatine|Herman II]], Palatinate authority ceased to have any military significance in Lotharingia. In practice, the Count Palatinate's Palatine authority had collapsed, reducing his successor ([[Henry of Laach]]) to a mere feudal magnate over his own territories – along the Upper Rhine in south-western Franconia. From this time on, his territory became known as the County Palatine of the Rhine (not because Palatine authority existed there, but as an acknowledgement that the Count still held the title, if not the authority, of Count Palatine).

Various noble dynasties competed to be enfeoffed with the Palatinate by the [[Holy Roman Emperor]] – among them the [[House of Ascania]], the [[House of Salm]] (Count [[Otto I, Count of Salm|Otto I of Salm]] in 1040) and the [[House of Babenberg]] ([[Henry II, Duke of Austria|Henry Jasomirgott]] in 1140/41).

The first hereditary Count Palatine of the Rhine was [[Conrad, Count Palatine of the Rhine|Conrad]], a member of the [[House of Hohenstaufen]] and younger half-brother of Emperor [[Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor|Frederick Barbarossa]]. The territories attached to this hereditary office in 1156 started from those held by the Hohenstaufens in the [[Donnersberg]], [[Nahegau]], [[Haardt]], [[Bergstraße Route|Bergstraße]] and Kraichgau regions (other branches of the Hohenstaufens received lands in the [[Duchy of Swabia]], [[Franche-Comté]], and so forth). Much of this was from their imperial ancestors, the [[Salian dynasty|Salian]] emperors, and apart from Conrad's maternal ancestry, the Counts of [[Saarbrücken]]. These backgrounds explain the composition of Upper and Rhenish Palatinate in the inheritance centuries onwards. About 1182, Conrad moved his residence from [[Stahleck Castle]] near [[Bacharach]] up the Rhine river to [[Heidelberg]].

[[File:Map of the Electoral Palatinate (1329).svg|thumb|left|upright=0.7|Territory of the Palatinate (1329) along the [[Rhine]]]]
Upon Conrad's death in 1195, the Palatinate passed to the [[House of Welf]] through the (secret) marriage of his daughter [[Agnes of Hohenstaufen]] with [[Henry V, Count Palatine of the Rhine|Henry of Brunswick]]. When Henry's son [[Henry VI, Count Palatine of the Rhine|Henry the Younger]] died without heirs in 1214, the Hohenstaufen king [[Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor|Frederick II]] enfeoffed the [[House of Wittelsbach|Wittelsbach]] Duke [[Louis I, Duke of Bavaria|Louis I of Bavaria]], whose son, [[Otto II, Duke of Bavaria|Otto II of Bavaria]], married [[Agnes of the Palatinate]], daughter of Henry of Brunswick and Agnes of Hohenstaufen, in 1222. The Bavarian House of Wittelsbach eventually held the Palatinate territories until 1918.

During a later division of territory among the heirs of Duke [[Louis II, Duke of Bavaria|Louis II, Duke of Upper Bavaria]], in 1294, the elder branch of the Wittelsbachs came into possession of both the Rhenish Palatinate and the territories in the [[Bavarian Nordgau]] (Bavaria north of the Danube river) with the centre around the town of [[Amberg]]. As this region was politically connected to the Rhenish Palatinate, the name [[Upper Palatinate]] ({{langx|de|Oberpfalz}}) became common from the early 16th century in contrast to the Lower Palatinate along the Rhine.

With the [[Treaty of Pavia (1329)|Treaty of Pavia]] in 1329, the Wittelsbach Emperor [[Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor|Louis IV]], a son of Louis II, returned the Palatinate to his nephews [[Rudolf II, Duke of Bavaria|Rudolf]] and [[Rupert I, Elector Palatine of the Rhine|Rupert I]].

[[File:Map of the Electoral Palatinate (1505)-DE.svg|thumb|upright=0.7|The Palatinate (1505)]]
In the [[Golden Bull of 1356]], the Palatinate was recognized as one of the secular electorates, and given the hereditary offices of archsteward ({{langx|de|Erztruchseß}}, {{langx|la|Archidapifer}}) of the Empire and imperial vicar (''[[Reichsverweser]]'') of Franconia, Swabia, the Rhine, and southern Germany. From that time forth, the Count Palatine of the Rhine was usually known as the Elector Palatine ({{langx|de|Kurfürst von der Pfalz}}, {{langx|la|Palatinus elector}}). In 1386, Rupert I helped establish the [[Heidelberg University|University of Heidelberg]], the oldest University in [[Germany]].

In 1400, the Elector Palatine, [[Rupert, King of the Romans|Rupert III]], was elected as [[King of the Romans]], but he was never crowned as Holy Roman Emperor because he was defeated in Italy while attempting to travel to Rome for a coronation.

Due to the practice of dividing territories among different branches of the family, by the early 16th century junior lines of the Palatine Wittelsbachs came to rule in [[Palatinate-Simmern|Simmern]], [[Palatinate-Lautern|Kaiserslautern]], and [[Palatine Zweibrücken|Zweibrücken]] in the Lower Palatinate, and in [[Palatinate-Neuburg|Neuburg]] and [[Palatinate-Sulzbach|Sulzbach]] in the Upper Palatinate. The Elector Palatine, now based in Heidelberg, adopted Lutheranism in the 1530s; when the senior branch of the family died out in 1559, the electorate passed to [[Frederick III, Elector Palatine|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 [[Eighty Years' War|Netherlands]] and [[French Wars of Religion|France]]. Elector [[Frederick IV, Elector Palatine|Frederick IV]] became the leader of the [[Protestant Union]] in 1608.

=== Thirty Years' War ===
{{main|Palatinate campaign}}

In 1619, the Protestant [[Frederick V of the Palatinate|Frederick V]], Elector Palatine, accepted the throne of [[Kingdom of Bohemia|Bohemia]] from the [[Bohemian Diet]].<ref>Frederick V was married to [[Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia|Elizabeth]], the daughter of England's [[James VI and I|King James I]]. [[Lucy Hughes-Hallett|Hughes-Hallett, Lucy]] (2024). ''The Scapegoat: The Brilliant Brief Life of the [[George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham|Duke of Buckingham]]''. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, pp. 181–183.</ref> This initiated the 1618–1648 [[Thirty Years' War]], one of the most destructive conflicts in human history; it caused over eight million fatalities from military action, violence, famine, and plague in the vast majority in the German states of the Holy Roman Empire.{{sfn|Wilson|2009|p=787}} In terms of proportional German casualties and destruction, it was surpassed only by the period January to May 1945 and remains the single greatest war trauma in German memory.<ref>{{cite web |date=2014-10-21 |title=Der Dreißigjährige Krieg – die Urkatastrophe der deutschen Geschichte? |language=de |periodical=[[Der Teckbote]] |url=https://www.teckbote.de/datenschutz_artikel,-neidlingen-im-grossen-friedenswerk-von-1648-_arid,84911.html |access-date=2018-07-23}}</ref>

[[File:Gerard van Honthorst 006.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.8|[[Frederick V, Elector Palatine|Frederick I]], [[King of Bohemia]] (1619–1620)]]

Frederick was evicted from Bohemia in 1620 following his defeat by the forces of [[Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor]], at the [[Battle of the White Mountain]]. Over the period 1621–1622, the Palatinate was occupied by Spanish and Bavarian troops and Frederick was exiled to the [[Dutch Republic]]. His territories and electoral rights were transferred to the distantly related but Catholic [[Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria|Maximilian I of Bavaria]], Duke of Bavaria and  now Prince Elector Palatine.

After his death in 1632, Frederick's daughter [[Elisabeth of the Palatinate|Princess Elizabeth]] and wife [[Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia]], worked tirelessly to have the Palatinate restored to her son [[Charles Louis, Elector Palatine|Charles Louis]] and the Protestant cause. When the [[Peace of Westphalia]] ended the war in 1648, he regained the Lower Palatinate and the title 'Elector Palatine' but now ranked lower in precedence than the others. He was succeeded by [[Charles II, Elector Palatine]], in 1680, but the Simmern branch became extinct in the male line after he died in 1685.

In 1670, Charles II's sister [[Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate]] married [[Philippe I, Duke of Orléans|Philippe of Orléans]], younger brother of [[Louis XIV]]; on this basis, Louis claimed the Rhineland territories of the Palatinate for France. However, he was outmaneuvered by [[Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor]], whose third wife was [[Eleonore-Magdalena of Pfalz-Neuburg]], eldest daughter of [[Philip William, Elector Palatine|Philip William]], a Catholic who was the closest male heir in the direct line. Leopold installed his father-in-law as Elector Palatine, ensuring that his electoral vote and this strategic region remained in Imperial control.{{sfn|Jackson|2021|p=463}}

=== Nine Years' War ===
[[File:Heidelberg - castle 3.JPG|thumb|left|upright=0.9|[[Heidelberg Castle]], destroyed by the French in 1689 and never rebuilt]]
When France invaded the Palatinate in September 1688 to enforce its claim, these wider connections meant the conflict rapidly escalated, leading to the outbreak of the [[Nine Years' War]]. The French were forced to withdraw in 1689 but before doing so, destroyed much of Heidelberg, another 20 substantial towns and numerous villages.{{sfn|Lynn|1999|p=198}} This destruction was systematically applied across a large section of the Rhineland but especially the Palatinate, which was raided again in 1693; the devastation shocked much of Europe.{{sfn|Dosquet|2016|pp=643–644}} France later renounced its claim to the region in the 1697 [[Treaty of Ryswick]].

[[Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine|Johann Wilhelm]] succeeded as elector in 1690, changing his residence first to [[Düsseldorf]], then back to Heidelberg and finally [[Mannheim]] in 1720. Like his father, he was a Catholic, which under the 1555 [[Peace of Augsburg]] meant the Protestant majority in the Palatinate was theoretically obliged to convert to Catholicism. The 1705 'Palatine Church Division' compromised by allocating five-sevenths of public church property to the Reformed or Calvinist church and the remainder to Catholicism, while excluding the Lutheran Church, whose membership exceeded 40% of the population in some areas.{{sfn|Beiler|2008|pp=60–61}}

In 1716, [[Charles III Philip, Elector Palatine|Charles Philip]] succeeded his brother as elector and in January 1742, helped his cousin [[Charles VII, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles Albert]] become the first non-Habsburg emperor in over 300 years.{{sfn|Lindsay|1957|p=420}} He died in December and the Palatinate passed to [[Charles Theodore, Elector of Bavaria|Charles Theodore]], then Duke of [[Palatinate-Sulzbach|Sulzbach]], who also inherited the [[Electorate of Bavaria]] in 1777. The title and authority of the two electorates were combined, Charles and his heirs retaining only the vote and precedence of the Bavarian elector, although continuing to use the title 'Count Palatine of the Rhine'.

=== Mediatisation ===
{{Main|German mediatisation}}
[[File:Hornöck Maximilian I von Bayern um 1810.jpg|thumb|upright=0.7|[[Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria|Maximilian Joseph]], Elector of Bavaria (1799–1806)]]

The Palatine territories on the [[left bank of the Rhine]] were annexed by [[French First Republic|France]] in 1795, mainly becoming part of the [[Mont-Tonnerre]] department. In 1799 Elector Charles Theodore died and the territory was inherited by the Duke of [[Palatine Zweibrücken]], uniting all the Wittelsbach lands. The loss of the left bank territories was accepted by the new Elector [[Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria|Maximilian Joseph]] in the [[Treaty of Paris (1802)|Treaty of Paris]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.kurpfalzarchiv.de/die-aufloesung-der-kurpfalz/|title=Die Auflösung der Kurpfalz |trans-title=Dissolution of the Electoral Palatinate|website=Kurpfalz Regional Archiv|access-date=11 September 2021}}</ref> Those on the right were taken by the [[Elector of Baden]], after the 1805 [[Peace of Pressburg (1805)|Peace of Pressburg]] dissolved the Holy Roman Empire; the remaining Wittelsbach territories were united by Maximilian Joseph as the [[Kingdom of Bavaria]].{{sfn|Nicholls|1999|p=18}}