Palatinates

Palatinates Two regions in Germany that comprise the Upper Palatinate. FREDERICK I bestowed the title of Count Palatine on his half-brother Conrad, who held lands east and west of the River Rhine (the Lower Palatinate). From 1214 these lands were ruled by the Bavarian Wittelsbach dynasty, whose own lands near Bohemia formed the Upper Palatinate. In 1356 the Counts Palatine were made Electors of the Holy Roman Empire.

The Rhenish (Lower) Palatinate became a centre of the Protestant REFORMATION in the 16th century, but the choice of Elector FREDERICK V as King of Bohemia led to clashes with Catholic Habsburg authority and the outbreak of the THIRTY YEARS WAR. After the Battle of the White Mountain (1621) the Palatinates were partitioned, with Bavaria annexing the Upper Palatinate and the Lower Palatinate passing to Frederick's heirs under the terms of the Treaty of WESTPHALIA. The Lower Palatinate was invaded and brutally devastated by LOUIS XIV in 1688–89. In 1777 the two Palatinates were reunited. However, in the early 19th century, the Upper Palatinate was again absorbed into Bavaria, while the Lower Palatinate was divided between various German states and France. The modern German Land of Rhineland Palatinate (Rheinland-Pfalz) occupies a portion of the original Lower Palatinate's territory.