The earliest known inhabitants of the district afterwards called Bavaria
were a people, probably of Celtic extraction, who were subdued by the
Romans just before the opening of the Christian era, when colonies were
founded among them and their land was included in the province of
Raetia. During the 5th century it was ravaged by the troops of Odoacer
and, after being almost denuded of inhabitants, was occupied by tribes
who, pushing along the valley of the Danube, settled there between A.D.
488 and 520. Many conjectures have been formed concerning the race and
origin of these people, who were certainly a new and composite social
aggregate. Most likely they were descendants of the Marcomanni, Quadi
and Narisci, tribes of the Suevic or Swabian race, with possibly a small
intermixture of Gothic or Celtic elements. They were called _Baioarii,
Baiowarii, Bawarii_ or _Baiuwarii_, words derived most probably from
_Baja_ or _Baya_, corruptions of _Bojer_, and given to them because they
came from _Bojerland_ or _Bohemia_. Another but less probable
explanation derives the name from a combination of the old high German
word _uuara_, meaning league, and _bai_, a Gothic word for both. The
Bavarians are first mentioned in a Frankish document of 520, and twenty
years later Jordanes refers to them as lying east of the Swabians. Their
country bore some traces of Roman influence, and its main boundaries
were the Enns, the Danube, the Lech and the Alps; but its complete
settlement was a work of time.
Frankish influence.
The Bavarians soon came under the dominion of the Franks, probably
without a serious struggle; and were ruled from 555 to 788 by dukes of
the Agilolfing family, who were possibly of Frankish descent. For a
century and a half a succession of dukes resisted the inroads of the
Slavs on their eastern frontier, and by the time of Duke Theodo I., who
died in 717, were completely independent of the feeble Frankish kings.
When Charles Martel became the virtual ruler of the Frankish realm he
brought the Bavarians into strict dependence, and deposed two dukes
successively for contumacy. Pippin the Short was equally successful in
maintaining his authority, and several marriages took place between the
family to which he belonged and the Agilolfings, who were united in a
similar manner with the kings of the Lombards. The ease with which
various risings were suppressed by the Franks gives colour to the
supposition that they were rather the outcome of family quarrels than
the revolt of an oppressed people. Between the years 739 and 748 the
Bavarian law was committed to writing and supplementary clauses were
afterwards added, all of which bear evident traces of Frankish
influence. Thus, while the dukedom belongs to the Agilolfing family, the
duke must be chosen by the people and his election confirmed by the
Frankish king, to whom he owes fealty. He has a fivefold wergild,
summons the nobles and clergy for purposes of deliberation, calls out
the host, administers justice and regulates finance. There are five
noble families, possibly representing a former division of the people,
after whom come the freeborn, and then the freedmen. The country is
divided into _gaus_ or counties, under their counts, who are assisted by
judges responsible for declaring the law.
Christianity.
Christianity had lingered in Bavaria from Roman times; but a new era set
in when Rupert, bishop of Worms, came to the country at the invitation
of Duke Theodo I. in 696. He founded several monasteries, and a similar
work was also performed by St Emmeran, bishop of Poitiers; with the
result that before long the bulk of the people professed Christianity
and relations were established between Bavaria and Rome. The 8th century
witnessed indeed a heathen reaction; but it was checked by the arrival
in Bavaria about 734 of St. Boniface, who organized the Bavarian church
and founded or restored bishoprics at Salzburg, Freising, Regensburg and
Passau.
Frankish conquest.
Tassilo III., who became duke of the Bavarians in 749, recognized the
supremacy of the Frankish king Pippin the Short in 757, but soon
afterwards refused to furnish a contribution to the war in Aquitaine.
Moreover, during the early years of the reign of Charlemagne, Tassilo
gave decisions in ecclesiastical and civil causes in his own name,
refused to appear in the assemblies of the Franks, and in general acted
as an independent ruler. His position as possessor of the Alpine passes,
as an ally of the Avars, and as son-in-law of the Lombard king
Desiderius, was so serious a menace to the Frankish kingdom that
Charlemagne determined to crush him. The details of this contest are
obscure. Tassilo appears to have done homage in 781, and again in 787,
probably owing to the presence of Frankish armies. But further trouble
soon arose, and in 788 the duke was summoned to Ingelheim, where on a
charge of treachery he was sentenced to death. He was, however, pardoned
by the king; and he then entered a monastery and formally renounced his
duchy at Frankfort in 794. The country was ruled by Gerold, a
brother-in-law of Charlemagne, till his death in a battle with the Avars
in 799, when its administration was entrusted to Frankish counts and
assimilated with that of the rest of the Carolingian empire, while its
condition was improved by the measures taken by Charlemagne for the
intellectual progress and material welfare of his realm. The Bavarians
offered no resistance to the change which thus abolished their dukedom;
and their incorporation with the Frankish dominions, due mainly to the
unifying influence of the church, was already so complete that
Charlemagne did not find it necessary to issue more than two
capitularies dealing especially with Bavarian affairs.
Union with Carolingian Empire.
Part of the German Kingdom.
The duchy passes to the Welfs.
The history of Bavaria for the ensuing century is bound up with that of
the Carolingian empire. Given at the partition of 817 to the king of the
East Franks, Louis the German, it formed part of the larger territories
which were confirmed to him in 843 by the treaty of Verdun, Louis made
Regensburg the centre of his government, and was active in improving the
condition of Bavaria, and providing for its security by numerous
campaigns against the Slavs. When he divided his possessions in 865 it
passed to his eldest son, Carloman, who had already undertaken its
government, and after his death in 880 it formed part of the extensive
territories of the emperor Charles the Fat. Its defence was left by this
incompetent emperor to Arnulf, an illegitimate son of Carloman, and it
was mainly owing to the support of the Bavarians that Arnulf was able to
take the field against Charles in 887, and to secure his own election as
German king in the following year. Bavaria, which was the centre of the
East Frankish kingdom, passed in 899 to Louis the Child, during whose
reign it was constantly ravaged by the Hungarians. The resistance to
these inroads became gradually feebler, and it is said that on the 5th
of July 907 almost the whole of the Bavarian race perished in battle
with these formidable enemies. For the defence of Bavaria the mark of
Carinthia had been erected on the south-eastern frontier, and during the
reign of Louis the Child this was ruled by Liutpold, count of Scheyern,
who possessed large domains in Bavaria. He was among those who fell in
the great fight of 907; but his son Arnulf, surnamed the Bad, rallied
the remnants of the race, drove back the Hungarians, and was chosen duke
of the Bavarians in 911, when Bavaria and Carinthia were united under
his rule. Refusing to acknowledge the supremacy of the German king
Conrad I., he was unsuccessfully attacked by the latter, and in 920 was
recognized as duke by Conrad's successor, Henry I., the Fowler, who
admitted his right to appoint the bishops, to coin money and to issue
laws. A similar conflict took place between Arnulf's son and successor
Eberhard and Otto the Great; but Eberhard was less successful than his
father, for in 938 he was driven from Bavaria, which was given by Otto
with reduced privileges to the late duke's uncle, Bertold; and a count
palatine in the person of Eberhard's brother Arnulf was appointed to
watch the royal interests. When Bertold died in 947 Otto conferred the
duchy upon his own brother Henry, who had married Judith, a daughter of
Duke Arnulf. Henry was disliked by the Bavarians and his short reign was
spent mainly in disputes with his people. The ravages of the Hungarians
ceased after their defeat on the Lechfeld in 955, and the area of the
duchy was temporarily increased by the addition of certain adjacent
districts in Italy. In 955 Henry was succeeded by his young son Henry,
surnamed the Quarrelsome, who in 974 was implicated in a conspiracy
against King Otto II. The reason for this rising was that the king had
granted the duchy of Swabia to Henry's enemy, Otto, a grandson of the
emperor Otto the Great, and had given the new Bavarian East Mark,
afterwards known as Austria, to Leopold I., count of Babenberg. The
revolt was, however, soon suppressed; but Henry, who on his escape from
prison renewed his plots, was formally deposed in 976 when Bavaria was
given to Otto, duke of Swabia. At the same time Carinthia was made into
a separate duchy, the office of count palatine was restored, and the
church was made dependent on the king instead of on the duke. Restored
in 985, Henry proved himself a capable ruler by establishing internal
order, issuing important laws and taking measures to reform the
monasteries. His son and successor, who was chosen German king as Henry
II. in 1002, gave Bavaria to his brother-in-law Henry of Luxemburg;
after whose death in 1026 it passed successively to Henry, afterwards
the emperor Henry III., and to another member of the family of
Luxemburg, as Duke Henry VII. In 1061 the empress Agnes, mother of and
regent for the German king Henry IV., entrusted the duchy to Otto of
Nordheim, who was deposed by the king in 1070, when the duchy was
granted to Count Welf, a member of an influential Bavarian family. In
consequence of his support of Pope Greegory VII. in his quarrel with
Henry, Welf lost but subsequently regained Bavaria; and was followed
successively by his sons, Welf II. in 1101, and Henry IX. in 1120, both
of whom exercised considerable influence among the German princes. Henry
was succeeded in 1126 by his son Henry X., called the Proud, who
obtained the duchy of Saxony in 1137. Alarmed at this prince's power,
King Conrad III. refused to allow two duchies to remain in the same
hands; and, having declared Henry deposed, he bestowed Bavaria upon
Leopold IV., margrave of Austria. When Leopold died in 1141, the king
retained the duchy himself; but it continued to be the scene of
considerable disorder, and in 1143 he entrusted it to Henry II.,
surnamed Jasomirgott, margrave of Austria. The struggle for its
possession continued until 1156, when King Frederick I. in his desire to
restore peace to Germany persuaded Henry to give up Bavaria to Henry the
Lion, a son of Duke Henry the Proud.
Then to the Wittelsbachs.
Area of Bavaria.
A new era of government set in when, in consequence of Henry being
placed under the imperial ban in 1180, the duchy was given by Frederick
I. to Otto, a member of the old Bavarian family of Wittelsbach (q.v.),
and a descendant of the counts of Scheyern. During the years following
the destruction of the Carolingian empire the borders of Bavaria were
continually changing, and for a lengthened period after 955 this process
was one of expansion. To the west the Lech still divided Bavaria from
Swabia, but on three other sides the opportunities for extension had
been taken advantage of, and the duchy embraced an area of considerable
dimensions north of the Danube. During the later years of the rule of
the Welfs, however, a contrary tendency had operated, and the extent of
Bavaria had been reduced. The immense energies of Duke Henry the Lion
had been devoted to his northern rather than his southern duchy, and
when the dispute over the Bavarian succession was settled in 1156 the
district between the Enns and the Inn had been transferred to Austria.
The increasing importance of the mark of Styria, erected into a duchy in
1180, and the county of Tirol, had diminished both the actual and the
relative strength of Bavaria, which was now deprived on almost all sides
of opportunities for expansion. The neighbouring duchy of Carinthia, the
great temporal possessions of the archbishop of Salzburg, as well as a
general tendency to independence on the part of both clerical and lay
nobles, were additional forces of similar influence.
Rule of the Wittelsbachs.
Division of the duchy.
Upper Bavaria.
When Otto of Wittelsbach was invested with Bavaria at Altenburg in
September 1180 the duchy was bounded by the Bohmerwald, the Inn, the
Alps and the Lech; and the power of the duke was practically confined to
his extensive private domains around Wittelsbach, Kelheim and Straubing.
Otto only enjoyed his new dignity for three years, and was succeeded in
1183 by his son Louis I., who took a leading part in German affairs
during the earlier years of the reign of the emperor Frederick II., and
was assassinated at Kelheim in September 1231. His son Otto II., called
the Illustrious, was the next duke, and his loyalty to the Hohenstaufen
caused him to be placed under the papal ban, and Bavaria to be laid
under an interdict. Like his father, Otto increased the area of his
lands by purchases; and he had considerably strengthened his hold upon
the duchy before he died in November 1253. The efforts of the dukes to
increase their power and to give unity to the duchy had met with a fair
measure of success; but they were soon vitiated by partitions among
different members of the family which for 250 years made the history of
Bavaria little more than a jejune chronicle of territorial divisions
bringing war and weakness in their train. The first of these divisions
was made in 1255 between Louis II. and Henry I., the sons of Duke Otto
II., who for two years after their father's death had ruled Bavaria
jointly; and by it Louis obtained the western part of the duchy,
afterwards called Upper Bavaria, and Henry secured eastern or Lower
Bavaria. In the course of a long reign Louis, who was called the Stern,
became the most powerful prince in southern Germany. He was the uncle
and guardian of Conradin of Hohenstaufen, and when this prince was put
to death in Italy in 1268, Louis and his brother Henry inherited the
domains of the Hohenstaufen in Swabia and elsewhere. He supported
Rudolph, count of Habsburg, in his efforts to secure the German throne
in 1273, married the new king's daughter Mechtild, and aided him in
campaigns in Bohemia and elsewhere. For some years after Louis' death in
1294 his sons Rudolph I. and Louis, afterwards the emperor Louis IV.,
ruled their duchy in common; but as their relations were never
harmonious a division of Upper Bavaria was made in 1310, by which
Rudolph received the land east of the Isar together with the town of
Munich, and Louis the district between the Isar and the Lech. It was not
long, however, before this arrangement led to war between the brothers,
the outcome of which was that in 1317, three years after he had been
chosen German king, Louis compelled Rudolph to abdicate, and for twelve
years ruled alone over the whole of Upper Bavaria. But in 1329 a series
of events induced him to conclude the treaty of Pavia with Rudolph's
sons, Rudolph and Rupert, to whom he transferred the Palatinate of the
Rhine, which had been in the possession of the Wittelsbach family since
1214, and also a portion of Upper Bavaria north of the Danube, which was
afterwards called the Upper Palatinate. At the same time it was decided
that the electoral vote should be exercised by the two lines
alternately, and that in the event of either branch of the family
becoming extinct the surviving branch should inherit its possessions.
Lower Bavaria.
Reunion of the duchy.
Henry I. of Lower Bavaria spent most of his time in quarrels with his
brother, with Ottakar II. of Bohemia and with various ecclesiastics.
When he died in February 1200 Lower Bavaria was ruled by his three sons,
Otto III., Louis III. and Stephen I. Louis died childless in 1296;
Stephen left two sons at his death in 1310, namely, Henry II. and Otto
IV., and Otto, who was king of Hungary from 1305 to 1308, died in 1312,
leaving a son, Henry III. Lower Bavaria was governed by these three
princes until 1333, when Henry III. died, followed in 1334 by his cousin
Otto; and as both died without sons the whole of Lower Bavaria then
passed to Henry II. Dying in 1339, Henry left an only son, John I., who
died childless in the following year, when the emperor Louis IV., by
securing Lower Bavaria for himself, united the whole of the duchy under
his sway. The consolidation of Bavaria under Louis lasted for seven
years, during which the emperor was able to improve the condition of the
country. When he died in 1347 he left six sons to share his possessions,
who agreed upon a division of Bavaria in 1349. Its history, however, was
complicated by its connexion with Brandenburg, Holland and Tirol, all of
which had also been left by the emperor to his sons. All the six
brothers exercised some authority in Bavaria; but three alone left
issue, and of these the eldest, Louis, margrave of Brandenburg, died in
1361; and two years later was followed to the grave by his only son
Meinhard, who was childless. The two remaining brothers, Stephen II. and
Albert I., ruled over Bavaria-Landshut and Bavaria-Straubing
respectively, and when Stephen died in 1375 his portion of Bavaria was
governed jointly by his three sons. In 1392, when all the lines except
those of Stephen and Albert had died out, an important partition took
place, by which the greater part of the duchy was divided among
Stephen's three sons, Stephen III., Frederick and John II., who founded
respectively the lines of Ingolstadt, Landshut and Munich. Albert's
duchy of Bavaria-Straubing passed on his death in 1404 to his son
William II., and in 1417 to his younger son John, who resigned the
bishopric of Liege to take up his new position. When John died in 1425
this family became extinct, and after a contest between various
claimants Bavaria-Straubing was divided between the three remaining
branches of the family.
Internal condition 1392.
Intestine troubles.
The main result of the threefold division of 1392 was a succession of
civil wars which led to the temporary eclipse of Bavaria as a force in
German politics. Neighbouring states encroached upon its borders, and
the nobles ignored the authority of the dukes, who, deprived of the
electoral vote, were mainly occupied for fifty years with intestine
strife. This condition of affairs, however, was not wholly harmful. The
government of the country and the control of the finances passed mainly
into the hands of an assembly called the _Landtag_ or _Landschaft_,
which had been organized in 1392. The towns, assuming a certain
independence, became strong and wealthy as trade increased, and the
citizens of Munich and Regensburg were often formidable antagonists to
the dukes. Thus a period of disorder saw the growth of representative
institutions and the establishment of a strong civic spirit. Stephen
III., duke of Bavaria-Ingolstadt, was distinguished rather as a soldier
than as a statesman; and his rule was marked by struggles with various
towns, and with his brother, John of Bavaria-Munich. Dying in 1413 he
was followed by his son, Louis, called the Bearded, a restless and
quarrelsome prince, who before his accession had played an important
part in the affairs of France, where his sister Isabella was the queen
of King Charles VI. About 1417 he became involved in a violent quarrel
with his cousin, Henry of Bavaria-Landshut, fell under both the papal
and the imperial ban, and in 1439 was attacked by his son Louis the
Lame. This prince, who had married a daughter of Frederick I. of
Hohenzollern, margrave of Brandenburg, was incensed at the favour shown
by his father to an illegitimate son. Aided by Albert Achilles,
afterwards margrave of Brandenburg, he took the elder Louis prisoner and
compelled him to abdicate in 1443. When Louis the Lame died in 1445 his
father came into the power of his implacable enemy, Henry of
Bavaria-Landshut, and died in prison in 1447. The duchy of
Bavaria-Ingolstadt passed to Henry, who had succeeded his father
Frederick as duke of Bavaria-Landshut in 1393, and whose long reign was
almost entirely occupied with family feuds. He died in July 1450, and
was followed by his son, Louis IX. (called the Rich), and about this
time Bavaria began to recover some of its former importance. Louis IX.
expelled the Jews from his duchy, did something for the security of
traders, and improved both the administration of justice and the
condition of the finances. In 1472 he founded the university of
Ingolstadt, attempted to reform the monasteries, and was successful in a
struggle with Albert Achilles of Brandenburg. On his death in January
1479 he was succeeded by his son George, also called the Rich; and when
George, a faithful adherent of the German king Maximilian I., died
without sons in December 1503, a war broke out for the possession of his
duchy.
War over the succession to Bavaria-Landshut.
Reigns of Albert the Wise and William IV.
Bavaria-Munich passed on the death of John II. in 1397 to his sons
Ernest and William III., but they only obtained possession of their
lands after a struggle with Stephen of Bavaria-Ingolstadt. Both brothers
were then engaged in warfare with the other branches of the family and
with the citizens of Munich. William, a loyal servant of the emperor
Sigismund, died in 1435, leaving an only son, Adolf, who died five years
later; and Ernest, distinguished for his bodily strength, died in 1438.
In 1440 the whole of Bavaria-Munich came to Ernest's son Albert, who had
been estranged from his father owing to his union with the unfortunate
Agnes Bernauer (q.v.). Albert, whose attempts to reform the monasteries
earned for him the surname of Pious, was almost elected king of Bohemia
in 1440. He died in 1460, leaving five sons, the two elder of whom, John
IV. and Sigismund, reigned in common until the death of John in 1463.
The third brother, Albert, who had been educated for the church, joined
his brother in 1465, and when Sigismund abdicated two years later became
sole ruler in spite of the claims of his two younger brothers. Albert,
who was called the Wise, added the district of Abensberg to his
possessions, and in 1504 became involved in the war which broke out for
the possession of Bavaria-Landshut on the death of George the Rich.
Albert's rival was George's son-in-law, Rupert, formerly bishop of
Freising, and son of Philip, count palatine of the Rhine; and the
emperor Maximilian I., interested as archduke of Austria and count of
Tirol, interfered in the dispute. Rupert died in 1504, and the following
year an arrangement was made at the diet of Cologne by which the emperor
and Philip's grandson, Otto Henry, obtained certain outlying districts,
while Albert by securing the bulk of George's possessions united Bavaria
under his rule. In 1506 Albert decreed that the duchy should pass
undivided according to the rules of primogeniture, and endeavoured in
other ways also to consolidate Bavaria. He was partially successful in
improving the condition of the country; and in 1500 Bavaria formed one
of the six circles into which Germany was divided for the maintenance of
peace. He died in March 1508, and was succeeded by his son, William IV.,
whose mother, Kunigunde, was a daughter of the emperor Frederick III. In
spite of the decree of 1506 William was compelled in 1516, after a
violent quarrel, to grant a share in the government to his brother
Louis, an arrangement which lasted until the death of Louis in 1545.
Roman Catholicism in Bavaria.
Reign of Maximillian I. and the Thirty Years' War.
William followed the traditional Wittelsbach policy, opposition to the
Habsburgs, until in 1534 he made a treaty at Linz with Ferdinand, king
of Hungary and Bohemia. This was strengthened in 1546, when the emperor
Charles V. obtained the help of the duke during the war of the league of
Schmalkalden by promising him in certain eventualities the succession to
the Bohemian throne, and the electoral dignity enjoyed by the count
palatine of the Rhine. William also did much at a critical period to
secure Bavaria for Catholicism. The reformed doctrines had made
considerable progress in the duchy when the duke from the pope extensive
rights over the bishoprics and monasteries, and took measures to repress
the reformers, many of whom were banished; while the Jesuits, whom he
invited into the duchy in 1541, made the university of Ingolstadt their
headquarters for Germany. William, whose death occurred in March 1550,
was succeeded by his son Albert IV., who had married a daughter of
Ferdinand of Habsburg, afterwards the emperor Ferdinand I. Early in his
reign Albert made some concessions to the reformers, who were still
strong in Bavaria; but about 1563 he changed his attitude, favoured the
decrees of the council of Trent, and pressed forward the work of the
Counter-Reformation. As education passed by degrees into the hands of
the Jesuits the progress of Protestantism was effectually arrested in
Bavaria. Albert IV. was a great patron of art. His court at Munich was
the resort of artists of all kinds, and the city was enriched with
splendid buildings; while artistic works were collected from Italy and
elsewhere. The expenses of a magnificent court led the duke to quarrel
with the _Landschaft_, to oppress his subjects, and to leave a great
burden of debt when he died in October 1579. The succeeding duke was
Albert's son, William V. (called the Pious), who was educated by the
Jesuits and was keenly attached to their tenets. He secured the
archbishopric of Cologne for his brother Ernest in 1583, and this
dignity remained in the possession of the family for nearly 200 years.
In 1597 he abdicated in favour of his son Maximilian I., and retired
into a monastery, where he died in 1626. Maximilian found the duchy
encumbered with debt and filled with disorder, but ten years of his
vigorous rule effected a remarkable change. The finances and the
judicial system were reorganized, a class of civil servants and a
national militia founded, and several small districts were brought under
the duke's authority. The result was a unity and order in the duchy
which enabled Maximilian to play an important part in the Thirty Years'
War; during the earlier years of which he was so successful as to
acquire the Upper Palatinate and the electoral dignity which had been
enjoyed since 1356 by the elder branch of the Wittelsbach family. In
spite of subsequent reverses these gains were retained by Maximilian at
the peace of Westphalia in 1648. During the later years of this war
Bavaria, especially the northern part, suffered severely. In 1632 it was
invaded by the Swedes, and, when Maximilian violated the treaty of Ulm
in 1647, was ravaged by the French and the Swedes. After repairing this
damage to some extent, the elector died at Ingolstadt in September 1651,
leaving his duchy much stronger than he had found it. The recovery of
the Upper Palatinate made Bavaria compact; the acquisition of the
electoral vote made it influential; and the duchy was able to play a
part in European politics which intestine strife had rendered impossible
for the past four hundred years. (A. W. H.*)
Beginning of modern period.
Re-union of the Palatinate.
Whatever lustre the international position won by Maximilian I. might
add to the ducal house, on Bavaria itself its effect during the next two
centuries was more dubious. Maximillian's son, Ferdinand Maria
(1651-1679), who was a minor when he succeeded, did much indeed to
repair the wounds caused by the Thirty Years' War, encouraging
agriculture and industries, and building or restoring numerous churches
and monasteries. In 1669, moreover, he again called a meeting of the
diet, which had been suspended since 1612. His good work, however, was
largely undone by his son Maximilian II. Emmanuel (1679-1726), whose
far-reaching ambition set him warring against the Turks and, on the side
of France, in the great struggle of the Spanish succession. He shared in
the defeat at Hochstadt on the 13th of August 1704; his dominions were
temporarily partitioned between Austria and the elector palatine, and
only restored to him, harried and exhausted, at the peace of Baden in
1714. Untaught by Maximilian Emmanuel's experience, his son, Charles
Albert (1726-1745), devoted all his energies to increasing the European
prestige and power of his house. The death of the emperor Charles VI.
was his opportunity; he disputed the validity of the Pragmatic Sanction
which secured the Habsburg succession to Maria Theresa, allied himself
with France, conquered Upper Austria, was crowned king of Bohemia at
Prague and, in 1742, emperor at Frankfort. The price he had to pay,
however, was the occupation of Bavaria itself by Austrian troops; and,
though the invasion of Bohemia in 1744 by Frederick II. of Prussia
enabled him to return to Munich, at his death on the 20th of January
1745 it was left to his successor to make what terms he could for the
recovery of his dominions. Maximilian III. Joseph (1745-1777), by the
peace of Fussen signed on the 22nd of April 1745, obtained the
restitution of his dominions in return for a formal acknowledgment of
the Pragmatic Sanction. He was a man of enlightenment, did much to
encourage agriculture, industries and the exploitation of the mineral
wealth of the country, founded the Academy of Sciences at Munich, and
abolished the Jesuit censorship of the press. At his death, without
issue, on the 30th of December 1777, the Bavarian line of the
Wittelsbachs became extinct, and the succession passed to Charles
Theodore, the elector palatine. After a separation of four and a half
centuries, the Palatinate, to which the duchies of Julich and Berg had
been added, was thus reunited with Bavaria. So great an accession of
strength to a neighbouring state, whose ambition she had so recently had
just reason to fear, was intolerable to Austria, which laid claim to a
number of lordships--forming one-third of the whole Bavarian
inheritance--as lapsed fiefs of the Bohemian, Austrian, and imperial
crowns. These were at once occupied by Austrian troops, with the secret
consent of Charles Theodore himself, who was without legitimate heirs,
and wished to obtain from the emperor the elevation of his natural
children to the status of princes of the Empire. The protests of the
next heir, Charles, duke of Zweibrucken (Deux-Ponts), supported by the
king of Prussia, led to the war of Bavarian succession. By the peace of
Teschen (May 13th, 1779) the Inn quarter was ceded to Austria, and the
succession secured to Charles of Zweibrucken. For Bavaria itself Charles
Theodore did less than nothing. He felt himself a foreigner among
foreigners, and his favourite scheme, the subject of endless intrigues
with the Austrian cabinet and the immediate cause of Frederick II.'s
League of Princes (_Furstenbund_) of 1785, was to exchange Bavaria for
the Austrian Netherlands and the title of king of Burgundy. For the
rest, the enlightened internal policy of his predecessor was abandoned.
The funds of the suppressed order of Jesus, which Maximilian Joseph had
destined for the reform of the educational system of the country, were
used to endow a province of the knights of St John of Jerusalem, for the
purpose of combating the enemies of the faith. The government was
inspired by the narrowest clericalism, which culminated in the attempt
to withdraw the Bavarian bishops from the jurisdiction of the great
German metropolitans and place them directly under that of the pope. On
the eve of the Revolution the intellectual and social condition of
Bavaria remained that of the middle ages.
The revolutionary wars.
In 1792 the revolutionary armies overran the Palatinate; in 1795 the
French, under Moreau, invaded Bavaria itself, advanced to Munich--where
they were received with joy by the long-suppressed Liberals--and laid
siege to Ingolstadt. Charles Theodore, who had done nothing to prevent
or to resist the invasion, fled to Saxony, leaving a regency, the
members of which signed a convention with Moreau, by which he granted an
armistice in return for a heavy contribution (September 7th, 1796).
Immediately afterwards he was forced to retire.
Between the French and the Austrians, Bavaria was now in an evil case.
Before the death of Charles Theodore (February 16th, 1799) the Austrians
had again occupied the country, preparatory to renewing the war with
France. Maximilian IV. Joseph (of Zweibrucken), the new elector,
succeeded to a difficult inheritance. Though his own sympathies, and
those of his all-powerful minister, Max Josef von Montgelas (q.v.),
were, if anything, French rather than Austrian, the state of the
Bavarian finances, and the fact that the Bavarian troops were scattered
and disorganized, placed him helpless in the hands of Austria; on the
2nd of December 1800 the Bavarian arms were involved in the Austrian
defeat at Hohenlinden, and Moreau once more occupied Munich. By the
treaty of Luneville (February 9th, 1801) Bavaria lost the Palatinate and
the duchies of Zweibrucken and Julich.
French influence.
In view of the scarcely disguised ambitions and intrigues of the
Austrian court, Montgelas now believed that the interests of Bavaria lay
in a frank alliance with the French republic; he succeeded in overcoming
the reluctance of Maximilian Joseph; and, on the 24th of August, a
separate treaty of peace and alliance with France was signed at Paris.
By the third article of this the First Consul undertook to see that the
compensation promised under the 7th article of the treaty of Luneville
for the territory ceded on the left bank of the Rhine, should be carried
out at the expense of the Empire in the manner most agreeable to Bavaria
(de Martens, _Recueil_, vol. vii. p. 365). In 1803, accordingly, in the
territorial rearrangements consequent on Napoleon's suppression of the
ecclesiastical states, and of many free cities of the Empire, Bavaria
received the bishoprics of Wurzburg, Bamberg, Augsburg and Freisingen,
part of that of Passau, the territories of twelve abbeys, and seventeen
cities and villages, the whole forming a compact territory which more
than compensated for the loss of her outlying provinces on the Rhine.[1]
Montgelas' ambition was now to raise Bavaria to the rank of a first-rate
power, and he pursued this object during the Napoleonic epoch with
consummate skill, allowing fully for the preponderance of France--so
long as it lasted--but never permitting Bavaria to sink, like so many of
the states of the confederation of the Rhine, into a mere French
dependency. In the war of 1805, in accordance with a treaty of alliance
signed at Wurzburg on the 23rd of September, Bavarian troops, for the
first time since Charles VII., fought side by side with the French, and
by the treaty of Pressburg, signed on the 26th of December, the
principality of Eichstadt, the margraviate of Burgau, the lordship of
Vorarlberg, the countships of Hohenems and Konigsegg-Rothenfels, the
lordships of Argen and Tetnang, and the city of Lindau with its
territory were to be added to Bavaria. On the other hand Wurzburg,
obtained in 1803, was to be ceded by Bavaria to the elector of Salzburg
in exchange for Tirol. By the 1st article of the treaty the emperor
acknowledged the assumption by the elector of the title of king, as
Maximilian I.[2] The price which Maximilian had reluctantly to pay for
this accession of dignity was the marriage of his daughter Augusta with
Eugene Beauharnais.
For the internal constitution of Bavaria also the French alliance had
noteworthy consequences. Maximilian himself was an "enlightened" prince
of the 18th-century type, whose tolerant principles had already
grievously offended his clerical subjects; Montgelas was a firm believer
in drastic reform "from above," and, in 1803, had discussed with the
rump of the old estates the question of reforms. But the revolutionary
changes introduced by the constitution proclaimed on the 1st of May 1808
were due to the direct influence of Napoleon. A clean sweep was made of
the medieval polity surviving in the somnolent local diets and
corporations. In place of the old system of privileges and exemptions
were set equality before the law, universal liability to taxation,
abolition of serfdom, security of person and property, liberty of
conscience and of the press. A representative assembly was created on
paper, based on a narrow franchise and with very limited powers, but was
never summoned.
Treaty of Ried.
In 1809 Bavaria was again engaged in war with Austria on the side of
France, and by the treaty signed at Paris on the 28th of February 1810
ceded southern Tirol to Italy and some small districts to Wurttemberg,
receiving as compensation parts of Salzburg, the quarters of the Inn and
Hausruck and the principalities of Bayreuth and Regensburg. So far the
policy of Montgelas had been brilliantly successful; but the star of
Napoleon had now reached its zenith, and already the astute opportunist
had noted the signs of the coming change. The events of 1812 followed;
in 1813 Bavaria was summoned to join the alliance against Napoleon, the
demand being passionately backed by the crown prince Louis and by
Marshal Wrede; on the 8th of October was signed the treaty of Ried, by
which Bavaria threw in her lot with the Allies. Montgelas announced to
the French ambassador that he had been compelled temporarily to bow
before the storm, adding "Bavaria has need of France." (For Bavaria's
share in the war see NAPOLEONIC CAMPAIGNS.)
Relations with Austria.
Immediately after the first peace of Paris (1814), Bavaria ceded to
Austria Tirol and Vorarlberg; by the congress of Vienna it was decided
that she was to add to these the greater part of Salzburg and the
quarters of the Inn and Hausruck, receiving as compensation, besides
Wurzburg and Aschaffenburg, the Palatinate on the left bank of the Rhine
and certain districts of Hesse and of the former abbacy of Fulda. But
with the collapse of France the old fear and jealousy of Austria had
revived in full force, and Bavaria only agreed to these cessions (treaty
of Munich, April 16th, 1816) on Austria promising that, in the event of
the powers ignoring her claim to the Baden succession in favour of that
of the line of the counts of Hochberg, she should receive also the
Palatinate on the right bank of the Rhine. The question was thus left
open, the tension between the two powers remained extreme, and war was
only averted by the authority of the Grand Alliance. At the congress of
Aix (1818) the question of the Baden succession was settled in favour of
the Hochberg line, without the compensation stipulated for in the treaty
of Munich; and by the treaty of Frankfort, signed on behalf of the four
great powers on the 20th of July 1819, the territorial questions at
issue between Bavaria and Austria were settled, in spite of the protests
of the former, in the general sense of the arrangement made at Vienna. A
small strip of territory was added, to connect Bavaria with the
Palatinate, and Bavarian troops were to garrison the federal fortress of
Mainz.
Constitution of 1818.
Lola Montez.
Meanwhile, on the 1st of February 1817, Montgelas had been dismissed;
and Bavaria had entered on a new era of constitutional reform. This
implied no breach with the European policy of the fallen minister. In
the new German confederation Bavaria had assumed the role of defender of
the smaller states against the ambitions of Austria and Prussia, and
Montgelas had dreamed of a Bavarian hegemony in South Germany similar to
that of Prussia in the north. It was to obtain popular support for this
policy and for the Bavarian claims on Baden that the crown prince
pressed for a liberal constitution, the reluctance of Montgelas to
concede it being the cause of his dismissal. On the 26th of May 1818 the
constitution was proclaimed. The parliament was to consist of two
houses; the first comprising the great hereditary landowners, government
officials and nominees of the crown; the second, elected on a very
narrow franchise, representatives of the small land-owners, the towns
and the peasants. By additional articles the equality of religions was
guaranteed and the rights of Protestants safeguarded, concessions which
were denounced at Rome as a breach of the Concordat, which had been
signed immediately before. The result of the constitutional experiment
hardly justified the royal expectations; the parliament was hardly
opened (February 5th, 1819) before the doctrinaire radicalism of some of
its members, culminating in the demand that the army should swear
allegiance to the constitution, so alarmed the king, that he appealed to
Austria and Germany, undertaking to carry out any repressive measures
they might recommend. Prussia, however, refused to approve of any _coup
d'etat_; the parliament, chastened by the consciousness that its life
depended on the goodwill of the king, moderated its tone; and Maximilian
ruled till his death as a model constitutional monarch. On the 13th of
October 1825, he was succeeded by his son, Louis I., an enlightened
patron of the arts and sciences, who transferred the university of
Landshut to Munich, which, by his magnificent taste in building, he
transformed into one of the most beautiful cities of the continent. The
earlier years of his reign were marked by a liberal spirit and the
reform, especially, of the financial administration; but the revolutions
of 1831 frightened him into reaction, which was accentuated by the
opposition of the parliament to his expenditure on building and works of
art. In 1837 the Ultramontanes came into power with Karl von Abel
(1788-1859) as prime minister. The Jesuits now gained the upper hand;
one by one the liberal provisions of the constitution were modified or
annulled; the Protestants were harried and oppressed; and a rigorous
censorship forbade any free discussion of internal politics. The
collapse of this regime was due, not to popular agitation, but to the
resentment of Louis at the clerical opposition to the influence of his
mistress, Lola Montez. On the 17th of February 1847, Abel was dismissed,
for publishing his memorandum against the proposal to naturalize Lola,
who was an Irishwoman; and the Protestant Georg Ludwig von Maurer
(q.v.) took his place. The new ministry granted the certificate of
naturalization; but riots, in which ultramontane professors of the
university took part, were the result. The professors were deprived, the
parliament dissolved, and, on the 27th of November, the ministry
dismissed. Lola Montez, created Countess Landsfeld, was supreme in the
state; and the new minister, Prince Ludwig von Oettingen-Wallerstein
(1791-1870), in spite of his efforts to enlist Liberal sympathy by
appeals to pan-German patriotism, was powerless to form a stable
government. His cabinet was known as the "Lolaministerium"; in February
1848, stimulated by the news from Paris, riots broke out against the
countess; on the 11th of March the king dismissed Oettingen, and on the
20th, realizing the force of public opinion against him, abdicated in
favour of his son, Maximilian II.
Anti-Prussian policy.
Before his abdication Louis had issued, on the 6th of March, a
proclamation promising the zealous co-operation of the Bavarian
government in the work of German freedom and unity. To the spirit of
this Maximilian was faithful, accepting the authority of the central
government at Frankfort, and (19th of December) sanctioning the official
promulgation of the laws passed by the German parliament. But Prussia
was henceforth the enemy, not Austria. In refusing to agree to the offer
of the imperial crown to Frederick William IV., Maximilian had the
support of his parliament. In withholding his assent to the new German
constitution, by which Austria was excluded from the Confederation, he
ran indeed counter to the sentiment of his people; but by this time the
back of the revolution was broken, and in the events which led to the
humiliation of Prussia at Olmutz in 1851, and the restoration of the old
diet of the Confederation, Bavaria was safe in casting in her lot with
Austria (see GERMANY: _History_). The guiding spirit in this
anti-Prussian policy, which characterized Bavarian statesmanship up to
the war of 1866, was Ludwig Karl Heinrich von der Pfordten (1811-1880),
who became minister for foreign affairs on the 19th of April 1849. His
idea for the ultimate solution of the question of the balance of power
in Germany was the so-called _Trias_, i.e. a league of the Rhenish
states as a counterpoise to the preponderance of Austria and Prussia. In
internal affairs his ministry was characterized by a reactionary policy
less severe than elsewhere in Germany, which led none the less from 1854
onward to a struggle with the parliament, which ended in the dismissal
of Pfordten's ministry on the 27th of March 1859. He was succeeded by
Karl Freiherr von Schrenk auf Notzing (1806-1884), an official of
Liberal tendencies who had been Bavarian representative in the diet of
the Confederation. Important reforms were now introduced, including the
separation of the judicial and executive powers and the drawing up of a
new criminal code. In foreign affairs Schrenk, like his predecessor,
aimed at safeguarding the independence of Bavaria, and supported the
idea of superseding the actual constitution of the Confederation by a
supreme directory, in which Bavaria, as leader of the purely German
states, would hold the balance between Prussia and Austria. Bavaria
accordingly opposed the Prussian proposals for the reorganization of the
Confederation, and one of the last acts of King Maximilian was to take a
conspicuous part in the assembly of princes summoned to Frankfort in
1863 by the emperor Francis Joseph (see GERMANY).
Maximilian was succeeded on the 10th of March 1864 by his son Louis II.,
a youth of eighteen. The government was at first carried on by Schrenk
and Pfordten in concert. Schrenk soon retired, when the Bavarian
government found it necessary, in order to maintain its position in the
Prussian _Zollverein_, to become a party to the Prussian commercial
treaty with France, signed in 1862. In the complicated Schleswig-Holstein
question (q.v.) Bavaria, under Pfordten's guidance, consistently opposed
Prussia, and headed the lesser states in their support of Frederick of
Augustenburg against the policy of the two great German powers. Finally,
in the war of 1866, in spite of Bismarck's efforts to secure her
neutrality, Bavaria sided actively with Austria.
Union with German Empire.
The rapid victory of the Prussians and the wise moderation of Bismarck
paved the way for a complete revolution in Bavaria's relation to Prussia
and the German question. The South German Confederation, contemplated by
the 6th article of the treaty of Prague, never came into being; and,
though Prussia, in order not prematurely to excite the alarm of France,
opposed the suggestion that the southern states should join the North
German Confederation, the bonds of Bavaria, as of the other southern
states, with the north, were strengthened by an offensive and defensive
alliance with Prussia, as the result of Napoleon's demand for
"compensation" in the Palatinate. This was signed at Berlin on the 22nd
of August 1866, on the same day as the signature of the formal treaty of
peace between the two countries. The separatist ambitions of Bavaria
were thus formally given up; she had no longer "need of France"; and in
the war of 1870-71, the Bavarian army marched, under the command of the
Prussian crown prince, against the common enemy of Germany. It was on
the proposal of King Louis II. that the imperial crown was offered to
King William.
This was preceded, on the 23rd of November 1870, by the signature of a
treaty between Bavaria and the North German Confederation. By this
instrument, though Bavaria became an integral part of the new German
empire, she reserved a larger measure of sovereign independence than any
of the other constituent states. Thus she retained a separate diplomatic
service, military administration, and postal, telegraph and railway
systems. The treaty was ratified by the Bavarian chambers on the 21st of
January 1871, though not without considerable opposition on the part of
the so-called "patriot" party. Their hostility was increased by the
_Kulturkampf_, due to the promulgation in 1870 of the dogma of papal
infallibility. Munich University, where Dollinger (q.v.) was professor,
became the centre of the opposition to the new dogma, and the "old
Catholics" (q.v.) were protected by the king and the government. The
federal law expelling the Jesuits was proclaimed in Bavaria on the 6th
of September 1871 and was extended to the Redemptorists in 1873. On the
31st of March 1871, moreover, the bonds with the rest of the empire had
been drawn closer by the acceptance of a number of laws of the North
German Confederation, of which the most important was the new criminal
code, which was finally put into force in Bavaria in 1879. The
opposition of the "patriot" party, however, reinforced by the strong
Catholic sentiment of the country, continued powerful, and it was only
the steady support given by the king to successive Liberal ministries
that prevented its finding disastrous expression in the parliament,
where it remained in a greater or less majority till 1887, and has
since, as the "centre," continued to form the most compact party in an
assembly made up of "groups."
Meanwhile the royal dreamer, whose passion for building palaces was
becoming a serious drain on the treasury, had been declared insane, and,
on the 7th of June 1886, the heir-presumptive, Prince Luitpold, was
proclaimed regent. Six days later, on the 13th of June, Louis committed
suicide. His brother, Otto I., being also insane, the regency was
confirmed to Prince Luitpold.
Since 1871 Bavaria has shared to the full in the marvellous development
of Germany; but her "particularism," founded on traditional racial and
religious antagonism to the Prussians, was by no means dead, though it
exhibited itself in no more dangerous form than the prohibition,
reissued in 1900, to display any but the Bavarian flag on public
buildings on the emperor's birthday; a provision which has been since so
far modified as to allow the Bavarian and imperial flags to be hung side
by side.
AUTHORITIES.--_Monumenta Boica_ (44 vols., Munich, 1763-1900); G.T.
Rudhart, _Aelteste Geschichte Bayerns_ (Hamburg, 1841); A. Quitzmann,
_Abstammung, Ursitz, und alteste Geschichte der Bairwaren_ (Munich,
1857), and _Die alteste Geschichte der Baiern bis 911_ (Brunswick,
1873); S. Riezler, _Geschichte Bayerns_ (Gotha, 1878-1899); Ad.
Brecher, _Darstellung der geschichtlichen Entwickelung des bayrischen
Staatsgebiets_, map (Berlin, 1890); E. Rosenthal, _Geschichte des
Gerichtswesens und der Verwaltungsorganisation Bayerns_ (Wurzburg,
1889); A. Buchner, _Geschichte von Baiern_ (Munich, 1820-1853);
_Forschungen zur Geschichte Bayerns_, edited by K. von
Reinhardstottner (Berlin, 1897 fol.). Much valuable detail will be
found in the lives of Bavarian princes and statesmen in the
_Allgemeine deutsche Biographie_ (Leipzig, 1875-1906 in progr.)
(W. A. P.)