Wittelsbach, house of

German noble family that ruled in Bavaria from the 12th to the 20th century.

In 1124 Otto V, count of Scheyern (d. 1155), moved the family residence to the castle of Wittelsbach and took its name. In 1180 his son Otto VI became Otto I, duke of Bavaria. In 1214 Otto II obtained the Palatinate of the Rhine. A descendant, Louis IV, as Holy Roman emperor, divided the lands and granted the Palatinate to his nephew, Rupert, who obtained the title of elector (r. 1353–90). Several divisions of ducal Bavaria were reunited under Albert IV (d. 1508). The Bavarian dukes became electors from 1623, and the last direct line died out in 1777. The Palatine branch united with Bavaria in 1799 under Duke Maximilian IV Joseph, who became king of Bavaria (1806) as Maximilian I. His descendants (including Louis I and Louis II) were kings until the abdication of Louis III in 1918.

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▪ German history

      German noble family that provided rulers of Bavaria and of the Rhenish Palatinate until the 20th century. The name was taken from the castle of Wittelsbach, which formerly stood near Aichach on the Paar in Bavaria. In 1124, Otto V, count of Scheyern (d. 1155) removed the residence of his family to Wittelsbach and called himself by this name. His son, Otto VI, after serving the German king Frederick I, was invested duke of Bavaria, as Otto I in 1180. From that date until 1918, Bavaria was ruled by the Wittelsbachs.

      The first step toward extending their authority outside Bavaria was made in 1214, when Otto II, through marriage, obtained the Palatinate of the Rhine. A descendant, Louis, became duke of Bavaria in 1294 and Holy Roman emperor, as Louis IV, in 1328. In 1329, by the Treaty of Pavia, Louis IV made the first important division of the Wittelsbach lands by granting the Palatinate of the Rhine and the upper Palatinate of Bavaria to his brother's sons, Rudolf II (d. 1353) and Rupert I. Rupert, who from 1353 to 1390 was sole ruler, was granted the title of elector of the Palatinate of the Rhine in 1356.

      Meanwhile, the descendants of the emperor Louis IV retained the rest of Bavaria but made several divisions of their territory, the most important of which was in 1392, when the branches of Ingolstadt, Munich, and Landshut were founded. Three generations later, however, after much contention, ducal Bavaria was reunited by Albert IV (d. 1508), who introduced the rule of primogeniture.

      The Wittelsbachs of the Palatinate provided a German king, Rupert, who reigned from 1400 to 1410, but their lands continued to be subdivided among themselves, creating a profusion of branches of the family. A Wittelsbach of one of the Palatinate branches became king of Sweden as Charles X in 1654; Charles XI and Charles XII continued this line of the Wittelsbach dynasty in the Swedish kingdom until 1718.

      The Bavarian dukes had also become electors, beginning in 1623. The Bavarian elector Charles Albert (d. 1745) was Holy Roman emperor, as Charles VII, from 1742. With his son Maximilian III Joseph the Bavarian line of Wittelsbachs died out in 1777. The elector Palatine, Charles Theodore, also a Wittelsbach, then succeeded to Bavaria, by virtue of a dynastic treaty of 1724. On his death (1799) the Palatinate and Bavaria were reunited under Duke Maximilian IV Joseph of Zweibrücken, who in 1806 became king of Bavaria as Maximilian I.

      Maximilian I's descendants were kings of Bavaria until Louis III abdicated in 1918. Louis III's son, Prince Rupert (d. 1955), a potential pretender to the British crown through his female descent from the Stuarts, led Bavarian monarchist opinion against Hitler.

      Prince Adalbert of Bavaria (a grandson of King Maximilian I), his son Louis Ferdinand, and his grandson Ferdinand all married Spanish infantas (1856, 1883, and 1906). Their branch had a contingent interest in the succession to the Spanish crown.

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