Elisabeth of Bavaria (1478–1504)

Elisabeth of Bavaria (* 1478 in Burghausen ; † September 15, 1504 ) was a Countess Palatine near the Rhine and, according to the will of her father, Duchess of Bavaria-Landshut .

The daughter of Duke Georg the Rich and his wife Hedwig Jagiellonica moved more and more into focus after the death of her brother at the end of the 15th century, because the Duchy of Bavaria-Landshut had no male heirs. The Wittelsbach house contracts of 1392 and 1450 provided for mutual succession in this case.

Despite the conflicting house contracts, Georg determined her to be his heir and successor in his will on September 19, 1496. In 1499 she married Ruprecht von der Pfalz . Her first sons, the twins Ruprecht and Georg, both died in 1504. Her other sons Philipp and Ottheinrich, however, survived.

In 1503 Georg installed her husband as governor of Lower Bavaria. After the death of her father on December 1, 1503, her resolute action made a decisive contribution to the dissolution of the Regency Council of the Estates and to the outbreak of the Landshut War of Succession .

Your opponent Albrecht IV of Bavaria-Munich had the more important allies and soon King Maximilian on his side. Her outlawed husband died of dysentery on August 20, 1504 . Elisabeth continued the war and had the cities of Landshut , Dingolfing and Moosburg occupied.

So she was also given the imperial ban. On September 12, 1504, the Bohemian troops allied with it suffered a decisive defeat near Wenzenbach . Three days later, Elisabeth probably died of the dysentery that was rampant in Lower Bavaria. She is buried in the Seligenthal monastery .

literature

• Nikolaus Orlop: All rulers of Bavaria. 2nd Edition. LangenMüller in the FA Herbig Verlagsbuchhandlung GmbH, Munich 2006, pp. 346-349, ISBN 3-7844-3075-9 .