Editing Electoral Palatinate (section)

=== 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.