Duke in Bavaria

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Duke in Bavaria was a title that u. a. the Wittelsbach dukes of Pfalz-Zweibrücken and the branch lines descended from them led.

For example, the full title of Karl I , the progenitor of the Palatinate-Birkenfeld family, was : "Count Palatine near Rhine, Duke in Bavaria, Count of Veldenz and Sponheim ". However, according to the Palatinate primogeniture law, only the ruling dukes of Zweibrücken actually had the rank of duke, the other family members had the rank of count palatine.

The title gained importance from 1799 through the Wittelsbach branch Pfalz-Birkenfeld-Gelnhausen , which has its genealogical origin with Johann Karl von Birkenfeld-Gelnhausen (1638–1704), the brother of Christian II. Von Pfalz-Birkenfeld , and his - after a long trial legitimized - descendants from his second marriage to Esther-Marie von Witzleben (1665–1725) takes. After Maximilian Joseph von Pfalz-Birkenfeld-Zweibrücken became Bavarian and Palatinate Elector, he actually elevated his cousin Wilhelm from the Gelnhausen line to the status of duke. When Bavaria became a kingdom in 1806, he was also allowed to call himself "Royal Highness".

Prominent members of this line were:

The current head of the line is, by civil and legal adoption in 1965 , Max in Bavaria , the biological brother and designated successor of the current head of the House of Wittelsbach, Franz von Bayern . His grandmother was Marie Gabriele geb. Duchess in Bavaria . The current Hereditary Princess Sophie von Liechtenstein also descends from the line through him .

literature

  • Klaus Eberhard Wild: On the history of the counties Veldenz and Sponheim and the Birkenfeld lines of the Palatinate Wittelsbacher . Announcements from the Association for Local Studies in the Birkenfeld district 43.Birkenfeld 1982.
  • Hermann von Witzleben, Ilka von Vignau: The dukes in Bavaria - From the Palatinate to the Tegernsee . Prestel, Munich 1976.