Elector palatine

The Elector of the Palatinate (German: Kurfürst von der Pfalz) ruled the Electoral Palatinate of the Rhine in the Kingdom of Germany and the Holy Roman Empire from 915 to 1803.

Counts Palatine of Lotharingia, 915–1085

The Palatinate emerged from the County Palatine of Lotharingia, which came into existence in the 10th century.

• Wigeric of Lotharingia, count of the Bidgau (c. 915/916–922)
• Godfrey, count of the Jülichgau (c. 940)

House of Ezzonen

During the 11th century, the Palatinate was dominated by the Ezzonian dynasty, who governed several counties on both banks of the Rhine. These territories were centered around Cologne-Bonn, but extended south to the Mosel and Nahe Rivers. The southernmost point was near Alzey.^[1]

• Hermann I of Lotharingia, 945–994
• Ezzo of Lotharingia, 994–1034
• Otto I of Lotharingia, 1034–45 (Duke of Swabia 1045–47)
• Heinrich I of Lotharingia, 1045–61
• Hermann II of Lotharingia, 1061–85 (in tutelage to Anno II, archbishop of Cologne until 1064)

Counts Palatine of the Rhine, 1085–1356

From about 1085/1086, after the death of the last Ezzonian palatine count, Herman II of Lotharingia, 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.

• Heinrich II of Laach, 1085–95
• Sigfried of Ballenstadt, 1095–1113
• Gottfried of Kalw, 1113–29
• William of Ballenstedt, 1129–39
• Henry IV Jasomirgott, 1139–42
• Hermann III of Stahleck, 1142–55

Hohenstaufen Counts Palatine

The first hereditary Count Palatine of the Rhine was Conrad of Hohenstaufen who was the younger brother of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. The territories attached to this hereditary office started from those held by the Hohenstaufens in Franconia and Rhineland (other branches of the Hohenstaufens received other areas including Swabian lands and Franche-Comté). Much of this originated from their imperial ancestors, the Franconian emperors, and a part from Conrad's maternal ancestry, the Saarbrücken. This background helps to explain the composition of the inheritance that comprised the Upper and Rhenish Palatinate in the following centuries.

• Conrad of Hohenstaufen 1156–95

Welf Counts Palatine

In 1195, the Palatinate passed to the House of Welf through the marriage of Agnes, heir to the Staufen count.

• Henry V of Welf, 1195–1213
• Henry VI of Welf, 1213–14

Wittelsbach Counts Palatine

In the early 13th century, with the marriage of the Welf heiress Agnes, the territory fell to the Wittelsbach Dukes of Bavaria, who were also dukes and counts palatine of Bavaria.

• Louis I, 1214–27
• Otto II, 1227–53
• Louis II (Duke of Upper Bavaria), 1253–94

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 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 (Oberpfalz) became common from the early 16th century in contrast to the Lower Palatinate along the Rhine.

• Rudolf I, 1294–1317
• Adolf, 1317–27

With the Treaty of Pavia in 1329, the emperor Louis IV, a son of Louis II, returned the Palatinate to his nephews Rudolf and Rupert.

• Rudolf II, 1329–53
• Rupert I, 1353–56

Electors Palatine, 1356–1777

In the Golden Bull of 1356, the Palatinate was recognized as one of the secular electorates, and given the hereditary offices of archsteward (Erztruchseß) 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 (Kurfürst von der Pfalz). The position as prince-elector had already existed earlier (for example, two rival kings of Germany were elected in 1257: Richard of Cornwall and Alfonso of Castile) though it is difficult to determine the exact start of that office.

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 Simmern, Kaiserslautern, and Zweibrücken in the Lower Palatinate, and in Neuburg and Sulzbach in the Upper Palatinate. The Elector Palatine, now based in Heidelberg, adopted Lutheranism in the 1530s and Calvinism in the 1550s.

First Electorate, 1356–1648

Second Electorate, 1648–1777

Electors of Bavaria and Counts Palatine of the Rhine, 1777–1803

v t e Members of the Electoral College of the Holy Roman Empire following the Golden Bull of 1356     Spiritual Cologne Secular Brandenburg Added in the 17th century Brunswick-Lüneburg (1692) Added from 1803 to 06 Hesse

Younger history

Only after the great restorations of 1815, the (Rhenish or Lower) Palatinate, albeit without any prince-electoral role any longer, was restored as one of then eight Bavarian Districts (= provinces). After WW II the American Military Government for Germany took it away from Bavaria and put it together with neighbouring territories to form a new state called Rhenania-Palatinate (German: Rheinland-Pfalz) with Mainz as the state capital. The people - as far as the Palatinian share amongst them was concerned, having felt a deep sense of neglect from the side of the distant governments in Munich for generations - later approved by plebiscite.

Notes