ELIZABETH WITTELSBACH: HOUSE OF WITTELSBACH

The Wittelsbach family is an European royal family and a German dynasty from Bavaria.
Members of the family served as Dukes, Electors and Kings of Bavaria (1180–1918), Counts Palatine of the Rhine (1214–1803 and 1816–1918), Margraves of Brandenburg (1323–1373), Counts of Holland, Hainaut and Zeeland (1345–1432), Elector-Archbishops of Cologne (1583–1761), Dukes of Jülich and Berg (1614–1794/1806), Kings of Sweden (1441–1448 and 1654–1720) and Dukes of Bremen-Verden (1654–1719).
The family also provided two Holy Roman Emperors (1328/1742), one King of the Romans (1400), two Anti-Kings of Bohemia (1619/1742), one King of Hungary (1305), one King of Denmark and Norway (1440) and a King of Greece (1832–1862).
The family's head, since 1996, is Franz, Duke of Bavaria.
Berthold, Margrave in Bavaria (died 980), was the ancestor of Otto I, Count of Scheyern (died 1072), whose 3rd son Otto II, Count of Scheyern acquired the castle of Wittelsbach (near Aichach). The Counts of Scheyern left Burg Scheyern ("Scheyern Castle", constructed in about 940) in 1119 for Burg Wittelsbach ("Wittelsbach Castle").
Otto I's son Eckhard I, Count of Scheyern was father to the Count palatine of Bavaria Otto IV (died 1156), whose son Otto was invested with the Duchy of Bavaria in 1180 after the fall of Henry the Lion. Duke Otto's son Louis I, Duke of Bavaria acquired also the Electorate of the Palatinate in 1214.
The Wittelsbach family was the ruling dynasty of the German territories of Bavaria from 1180 to 1918 and of the Electorate of the Palatinate from 1214 until 1805; in 1815 the latter territory was partly incorporated as Rhine Palatinate into Bavaria, which was elevated to a kingdom by Napoleon in 1806.
On Duke Otto II's death in 1253, the Wittelsbach possessions were divided between his sons: Henry became Duke of Lower Bavaria, and Louis II Duke of Upper Bavaria and Count Palatine of the Rhine. When Henry's branch died out in 1340 the duchy was reunited under Emperor Louis IV, a son of Duke Louis II.
The family provided two Holy Roman Emperors: Louis IV (1314–1347) and Charles VII (1742–1745), both members of the Bavarian branch of the family, and one German King with Rupert of the Palatinate (1400–1410), a member of the Palatinate branch.
The House of Wittelsbach split into these two branches in 1329: Under the Treaty of Pavia, Emperor Louis IV granted the Palatinate including the Bavarian Upper Palatinate to his brother Duke Rudolf's descendants, Rudolf II, Rupert I and Rupert II. Rudolf I this way became the ancestor of the older (Palatinate) line of the Wittelsbach dynasty, which returned to power also in Bavaria in 1777 after the extinction of the younger (Bavarian) line, the descendants of Louis IV.

[edit] Bavarian branch

The Bavarian branch kept the duchy of Bavaria until its extinction in 1777.
The Wittelsbach Emperor Louis IV acquired Brandenburg, Tyrol, Holland and Hainaut for his House but he had also released the Upper Palatinate for the Palatinate branch of the Wittelsbach in 1329. His sons succeeded him as Duke of Bavaria and Count of Holland and Hainaut. So for half a century, from 1323 until 1373, the younger branch of the dynasty also ruled Brandenburg in the north-east of Germany. In the south Tyrol was kept between 1342 and 1363. Between 1345 and 1432, they also governed in Holland, Zeeland and Hainaut in the north-west of the former German Empire. Tyrol was lost with the death of duke Meinhard and the following Peace of Schärding when Tyrol was finally renounced to the Habsburgs in 1369. In 1373 Otto, the last Wittelsbach regent of Brandenburg, released the country to the House of Luxembourg. On Duke Albert's death in 1404, he was succeeded in the Netherlands by his eldest son, William. A younger son, John III, became Bishop of Liège. However, on William's death in 1417, a war of succession broke out between John and William's daughter Jacqueline of Hainaut. This would be the last episode of the Hook and Cod wars and finally place the counties into Burgundian hands in 1432.

Trausnitz Castle of the Bavarian dukes

Emperor Louis IV had reunited Bavaria in 1340 but from 1349 onwards Bavaria was split among the descendants of Louis IV, who created the branches Bavaria-Landshut, Bavaria-Straubing
Franz's patriline is the line from which he is descended father to son. Patrilineal descent is the principle behind membership in royal houses, as it can be traced back through the generations.