1.
Margraviate of Austria
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The Margraviate of Austria was a southeastern frontier march of the Holy Roman Empire created in 976 out of the territory on the border with the Kingdom of Hungary. Originally under the overlordship of the Dukes of Bavaria, it was ruled by margraves of the Franconian Babenberg dynasty and it became an Imperial State in its own right, when the Babenbergs were elevated to Dukes of Austria in 1156. In contemporary Latin, the entity was called the marcha Orientalis, marchia Austriae, the Old High German name Ostarrîchi first appeared on a famous deed of donation issued by Emperor Otto III at Bruchsal in November 996. Later the march was called the Margraviate of Austria or the Bavarian Eastern March to differentiate it from the Saxon Eastern March in the northeast. During the Anschluss period of 1938–45 the Nazi authorities tried to replace the term Austria with Ostmark, the march comprised the lands north and south of the Danube river, with the Enns tributary in the west forming the border with the Traungau shire of the Bavarian stem duchy. The eastern frontier with the Hungarian settlement area in the Pannonian Basin ran along the Morava and Leitha rivers, with the Gyepű borderland beyond. In the north, the march bordered on the Bohemian duchy of the Přemyslids, the early march corresponded closely to the modern region of Lower Austria. The initial Babenberger residence was probably at Pöchlarn on the former Roman limes, but maybe already Melk, the original march coincided with the modern Wachau, but was shortly enlarged eastwards at least as far as the Wienerwald. Under Margrave Ernest the Brave, the colonisation of the northern Waldviertel up to the Thaya river and the Bohemian march of Moravia was begun, the margraves residence later was moved down the Danube to Klosterneuburg until in 1142 Vienna became the official capital. The Babenbergs had a system of several castles built in the Wienerwald mountain range and along the Danube river. In the Austrian Alps some valleys retained their Rhaeto-Romance speakers until the 17th century, the first marches covering approximately the territory that would become Austria and Slovenia were the Avar March and the adjacent March of Carantania in the south. Both were established in the late 8th century by Charlemagne upon the incorporation of the territory of the Agilolfing dukes of Bavaria against the invasions of the Avars. When the Avars disappeared in the 820s, they were replaced largely by West Slavs, the March of Pannonia was set apart from the Duchy of Friuli in 828 and set up as a march against Moravia within the East Frankish regnum of Bavaria. These march, already called marcha orientalis, corresponded to a frontier along the Danube from the Traungau to Szombathely, by the 890s, the Pannonian march seems to have disappeared, along with the threat from Great Moravia, during the Hungarian invasions of Europe. Upon the defeat of Margrave Luitpold of Bavaria at the 907 Battle of Pressburg, in 955 King Otto I of Germany had started the reconquest with his victory at the 955 Battle of Lechfeld. However, much of Pannonia was still conquered by the Magyars and he appointed the Babenberg count Leopold the Illustrious from the House of Babenberg margrave in turn for his support. Leopold replaced one Burchard, whose status is not well known, margravial Austria reached its greatest height under Leopold III, a great friend of the church and founder of abbeys. He patronised towns and developed a level of territorial independence
2.
Duchy of Austria
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After the ruling dukes of the House of Babenberg became extinct, the German king Rudolf I took over the dominion as the first monarch of the Habsburg dynasty in 1276. Thereafter, Austria became the homeland of the dynasty and the nucleus of the Habsburg Monarchy. In 1453, the title of the Austrian rulers, invented by Duke Rudolf IV in the forged Privilegium Maius of 1359, was officially acknowledged by the Habsburg emperor Frederick III. Initially, the duchy was comparatively small in area, roughly comprising the modern-day Austrian state of Lower Austria. As a former border march, it was located on the periphery of the Empire, on the northern and southern shores of the Danube River. In the east, the Imperial border with the Kingdom of Hungary had gradually shifted towards the plains of the Morava River, on the right shore of the Danube, the lower Leitha River marked the Imperial–Hungarian border for centuries. In the south, Austria bordered the Styrian lands which were elevated to a duchy. The Avar Khaganate established in 567 comprised most of the later Austrian march up to the Enns river, temporarily part of Samos Empire from 631 to 658, the territory was under constant attack by the Carolingian forces of Charlemagne from 791 onwards. In 976 Emperor Otto II enfeoffed the Babenberg count Leopold the Illustrious with the Austrian margraviate, a large-scale German settlement along the Danube down to the border with Hungary followed, which ultimatively disrupted the Slavic continuity between the West Slavic and South Slavic lands. Although today closely associated with the Habsburg dynasty, Austria was, until 1246, Margrave Leopold the Generous was a loyal liensman of the Imperial House of Hohenstaufen in the struggle against the Bavarian Welf dynasty. In 1139, after King Conrad III of Germany deposed the Welf duke Henry the Proud, leopolds brother and successor Henry Jasomirgott was enfeoffed with Bavaria in 1141. In 1156 the Hohenstaufen Emperor Frederick Barbarossa approached a settlement with the Welfs, at the 1156 Imperial Diet in Regensburg, Henry Jasomirgott had to renounce the Bavarian duchy in favour of Henry the Lion. In compensation, the Babenberg margraviate was elevated to an equal duchy, the new Austrian duke took his residence at Vienna at the site of the later Hofburg Palace. He also founded Schottenstift Abbey as the Babenberg proprietary church, settled with Irish monks, the Austrian lands prospered, due to their favourable location on the Danube, as an important trade route from Krems and Mautern via Vienna down to Hungary and the Byzantine Empire. For a short time, the Babenbergs came to be one of the most influential ruling families in the Empire, peaking under the reign of Leopold V the Virtous and Leopold VI the Glorious. They also expanded their territory into the old Bavarian lands west of the Enns River, along the Traun to the city of Linz, in 1191 Duke Leopold V joined the Third Crusade and the Siege of Acre. When the English kingpassed through Austria on his way home, Leopold had him abducted and arrested at Dürnstein Castle. Handed over to Emperor Henry VI, Richard was only released after paying a ransom
3.
Duchy of Styria
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The Duchy of Styria was a duchy located in modern-day southern Austria and northern Slovenia. It was a part of the Holy Roman Empire until its dissolution in 1806, margrave Ottokar IV thereby became the first Duke of Styria and also the last of the ancient Otakar dynasty. Upon his death in 1192, Styria as stipulated fell to the Babenberg duke Leopold V of Austria, the Austrian Babenbergs became extinct in 1246, when Duke Frederick II the Quarrelsome was killed in battle against King Béla IV of Hungary. It passed quickly through the hands of Hungary in 1254, until the Bohemian king Ottokar II Přemysl conquered it, rudolph finally defeated Ottokar at the 1278 Battle on the Marchfeld, seized Austria and Styria and granted them to his sons Albert I and Rudolf II. The House of Habsburg provided Styria with dukes of their lineage ever since, in 1456 they could significantly enlarge the Styrian territory by acquisition of the comital Celje estates in Lower Styria. Both duchies were ruled in personal union, when Leopolds grandson Frederick V inherited Austria in 1457. In 1496 Fredericks son Maximilian I signed an order expelling all Jews from Styria, in 1512 the duchy joined the Empires Austrian Circle. A second Inner Austrian cadet branch of the Habsburgs ruled over Styria from 1564, the Protestant population was expelled, including the astronomer Johannes Kepler in 1600. Meanwhile, at the time of the Ottoman invasions in the 16th and 17th centuries after the 1526 Battle of Mohács, Styria remained a part of the Habsburg Monarchy and from 1804 belonged to the Austrian Empire. He also forwarded the construction of the Semmering railway to Mürzzuschlag and the Austrian Southern Railway line from Vienna to Trieste completed in 1857, history of Styria Map of the Balkans, 1815–59, showing the Duchy of Styria
4.
Duchy of Bavaria
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The Duchy of Bavaria was, from the sixth through the eighth century, a frontier region in the southeastern part of the Merovingian kingdom and was ruled by dukes under Frankish lordship. In the late ninth century a new duchy was created from this area and it was one of the stem duchies of the Kingdom of Germany and the Holy Roman Empire. Between 1070 and 1180 the Emperor was opposed by Bavaria, especially by the House of Welf, in the final conflict between the Duke Henry the Lion and the Hohenstaufen emperor Frederick I, Frederick I triumphed and deprived Henry of his fiefs. Bavaria then passed over to the House of Wittelsbach, which held it until 1918, the origins of the older Bavarian duchy can be traced to the year 551/555. In his Getica, the chronicler Jordanes writes, That area of the Swabians has the Bavarii in the east, until the end of the first duchy, all rulers descended from the family of the Agilolfings. The first documented duke was Garibald I, a scion of the Frankish Agilolfings, at around 743, the Bavarian duke Odilo vassalised the Slavic princes of Carantania, who had asked him for protection against the invading Avars. The residence of the largely independent Agilolfing dukes was then Regensburg, in the adjacent Alamannic lands west of the Lech river, Augsburg was a bishops seat. When Boniface established the Diocese of Passau in 739, he could build on local Early Christian traditions. In the south, Saint Rupert had founded in 696 the Diocese of Salzburg, probably after he had baptized Duke Theodo of Bavaria at his court in Regensburg, becoming the Apostle of Bavaria. In 798 Pope Leo III created the Bavarian ecclesiastical province with Salzburg as metropolitan seat and Regensburg, Passau, Freising, in the west, the Carolingian mayor of the palace Carloman had suppressed the last Alamannic revolt at the 746 Blood court at Cannstatt. The last tribal stem duchy to be incorporated was Bavaria in 788, the conquest of the Lombard Kingdom by Charlemagne entailed the fall of Tassilo, who was deposed in 788. Bavaria was then administrated by Frankish prefects, from 825 Louis the German styled himself King of Bavaria in the territory that was to become the centre of his power. Carlomans natural son Arnulf of Carinthia, raised in the former Carantanian lands, secured possession of the March of Carinthia upon his fathers death in 880, Carinthia and Bavaria were the bases of his power, with Regensburg as the seat of his government. Due mainly to the support of the Bavarians, Arnulf could take the field against Charles in 887, in 899 Bavaria passed to Louis the Child, during whose reign continuous Hungarian ravages occurred. During the reign of Louis the Child, Luitpold, Count of Scheyern, the German king Conrad I unsuccessfully attacked Arnulf when the latter refused to acknowledge his royal supremacy. The Carolingian reign in East Francia ended in 911 when Arnulfs son, King Louis the Child, the discontinuation of the central authority led to a new strengthening of the German stem duchies. At the same time, East Francia was exposed to the threat from Hungarian invasions. In 907 the army of Luitpold, Margrave of Bavaria suffered a defeat at the Battle of Pressburg
5.
Germans
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Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe, who share a common German ancestry, culture and history. German is the mother tongue of a substantial majority of ethnic Germans. The English term Germans has historically referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages, before the collapse of communism and the reunification of Germany in 1990, Germans constituted the largest divided nation in Europe by far. Ever since the outbreak of the Protestant Reformation within the Holy Roman Empire, of approximately 100 million native speakers of German in the world, roughly 80 million consider themselves Germans. Thus, the number of Germans lies somewhere between 100 and more than 150 million, depending on the criteria applied. Today, people from countries with German-speaking majorities most often subscribe to their own national identities, the German term Deutsche originates from the Old High German word diutisc, referring to the Germanic language of the people. It is not clear how commonly, if at all, the word was used as an ethnonym in Old High German, used as a noun, ein diutscher in the sense of a German emerges in Middle High German, attested from the second half of the 12th century. The Old French term alemans is taken from the name of the Alamanni and it was loaned into Middle English as almains in the early 14th century. The word Dutch is attested in English from the 14th century, denoting continental West Germanic dialects, while in most Romance languages the Germans have been named from the Alamanni, the Old Norse, Finnish and Estonian names for the Germans were taken from that of the Saxons. In Slavic languages, the Germans were given the name of němьci, originally with a meaning foreigner, the English term Germans is only attested from the mid-16th century, based on the classical Latin term Germani used by Julius Caesar and later Tacitus. It gradually replaced Dutch and Almains, the latter becoming mostly obsolete by the early 18th century, the Germans are a Germanic people, who as an ethnicity emerged during the Middle Ages. Originally part of the Holy Roman Empire, around 300 independent German states emerged during its decline after the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 ending the Thirty Years War and these states eventually formed into modern Germany in the 19th century. The concept of a German ethnicity is linked to Germanic tribes of antiquity in central Europe, the early Germans originated on the North German Plain as well as southern Scandinavia. By the 2nd century BC, the number of Germans was significantly increasing and they began expanding into eastern Europe, during antiquity these Germanic tribes remained separate from each other and did not have writing systems at that time. In the European Iron Age the area that is now Germany was divided into the La Tène horizon in Southern Germany and the Jastorf culture in Northern Germany. By 55 BC, the Germans had reached the Danube river and had either assimilated or otherwise driven out the Celts who had lived there, and had spread west into what is now Belgium and France. Conflict between the Germanic tribes and the forces of Rome under Julius Caesar forced major Germanic tribes to retreat to the east bank of the Rhine, in Roman-held territories with Germanic populations, the Germanic and Roman peoples intermarried, and Roman, Germanic, and Christian traditions intermingled. The adoption of Christianity would later become an influence in the development of a common German identity
6.
Leopold I, Margrave of Austria
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Leopold I, known as the Illustrious, a member of the House of Babenberg, was Margrave of Austria from 976 until his death. He was the first margrave of the Babenberg dynasty which ruled of the March, the origins of Leopold the Illustrious are not known. According to some sources, his father Berthold was count in the Nordgau, a more recent theory identifies Leopold as a younger son of Duke Arnulf of Bavaria and brother of Count Berthold of Schweinfurt. While his ancestry remains disputed, some affiliation with the ducal Luitpoldings dynasty is probable, when Burkhard joined the uprising of Duke Henry II against Emperor Otto II, he was deposed at the Imperial Diet of Ratisbon in 976. According to a charter dated 21 July 976, loyal Leopold was appointed margrave of the Marcha orientalis, the resettlement of the east was a slow process that centered from the fortress of Pöchlarn down the Danube river. Leopolds margraviate originally coincided with the present-day Wachau valley, and whose boundary was the Traisen river near Sankt Pölten east of Krems. With the Magyar threat largely reduced following their defeat in 955, Leopold focused on securing his holdings from internal threats, in 984, he engaged in the reduction of the fortress at Melk, which was still controlled by supporters of the late margrave. Once Melk was secured, Leopold most likely used it as his residence, at a tournament held on 8 July, Leopold was hit in the eye by an arrow directed at his cousin. Two days later, on 10 July 994, he died from his injuries, in 1015, his son Duke Ernest I of Swabia, was buried next to his father. In the thirteenth century, their remains were returned to Melk Abbey, Leopold ruled over the re-established Marcha orientalis for eighteen years. He organized and expanded it with great ability, and left behind a margravate that had assumed the character of an ordered and civilized land, the chronicler Thietmar wrote that no man was wiser that he in all his actions, or of a worthier nature. Perhaps the highest testimony to Leopolds life and reputation came from the actions of Emperor Otto III, in 1976, the millennial anniversary of Leopolds appointment as margrave was celebrated as a Thousand Years of Austria. Celebrations under the title were held twenty years later at the anniversary of the famous 996 Ostarrîchi document first mentioning the Old German name of Austria. Leopold married Richardis, the daughter of Count Ernest IV of Sualafeldgau and probably the aunt of Duke Adalbero of Carinthia
7.
Frederick II, Duke of Austria
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Frederick II, known as Frederick the Quarrelsome, was Duke of Austria and Styria from 1230 until his death. He was the fifth and last Austrian duke from the House of Babenberg and he was killed in the Battle of the Leitha River, leaving no male heirs. Born in Wiener Neustadt, Frederick was the surviving son of the Babenberg duke Leopold VI of Austria and Theodora Angelina. The death of his elder brother Henry in 1228 made him the heir to the Austrian and Styrian duchies. His first spouse was Byzantine princess Sophia Laskarina, probably a daughter of Theodore I Laskaris and his first wife Anna Komnene Angelina, who died in 1222. Frederick secondly married Agnes of Merania in 1229, a member of the noble House of Andechs whose dowry included large possessions in Carniola, from 1232 Frederick called himself Dominus Carniolae, however, the couple divorced due to childlessness in 1243. Frederick succeeded his father in 1230, proud of his Byzantine descent, the young duke soon was known as the Quarrelsome because of his harsh rule and frequent wars against his neighbors, primarily with Hungary, Bavaria and Bohemia. Even the Austrian Kuenring ministeriales, which had so far been faithful to the ruling house, started an insurgency as soon as his reign began. According to the Weltchronik of Jans der Enikel, Frederick had gone to the court of Emperor Frederick II by his summon, when he approached the Emperor, he was enthusiastically invited—by both command and request of Emperor Frederick—to eat bread with him. The Duke refused, stating he brought his own gold, but the Emperor insisted without prevailing. Thus instead he ordered that no one in the sell the Duke firewood for his kitchen. Duke Frederick instead sought a house to buy and when the Emperor learned of this, Duke Frederick then instructed his marshal to go out late at night and buy some nuts so that his food could be prepared. Duke Frederick had impressed the Emperor so much that he allowed him the sale of firewood, afterwards, the Duke asked to be shown the Emperors assassins, which he was allowed. They moved onto the tower, which stood 50 cubics tall. The Emperor then told one to jump down and without a thought, immediately, Duke Frederick was impressed by the sheer loyalty of these men and the Emperor stopped the other man from jumping. The experience convinced the Duke of the Emperors power, most dangerous were his disputes with the Hohenstaufen Emperor Frederick II in the course of the rebellion of the emperors son Henry, husband of Fredericks sister Margaret. When he again refused to attend the 1235 diet in Mainz, Emperor Frederick II finally ostracized him, however, the expelled duke managed to maintain his position as the ruler of an Austrian rump state at his Wiener Neustadt residence. In the same year, Frederick enacted the Landrecht Law, which required all subjects to defend the country in the case of invasion, in 1239, in a spectacular change in imperial politics, Duke Frederick became one of the emperors most important allies
8.
Bamberg
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Bamberg is a town in Upper Franconia, Germany, on the river Regnitz close to its confluence with the river Main. A large part of the town has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1993, during the post-Roman centuries of Germanic migration and settlement, the region afterwards included in the Diocese of Bamberg was inhabited for the most part by Slavs. The town, first mentioned in 902, grew up by the castle Babenberch which gave its name to the Babenberg family, on their extinction it passed to the Saxon house. The area was Christianized chiefly by the monks of the Benedictine Fulda Abbey, in 1007, Holy Roman Emperor Henry II or Heinrich II made Bamberg a family inheritance, the seat of a separate diocese. The emperors purpose in this was to make the Diocese of Würzburg less unwieldy in size and to give Christianity a firmer footing in the districts of Franconia, Henry II ordered the building of a new cathedral, which was consecrated 6 May 1012. The church was enriched with gifts from the pope, and Henry had it dedicated in honor of him, in 1017 Henry also founded Michaelsberg Abbey on the Michaelsberg, near Bamberg, a Benedictine abbey for the training of the clergy. The emperor and his wife Kunigunde gave large temporal possessions to the new diocese, pope Benedict VIII visited Bamberg in 1020 to meet Henry II for discussions concerning the Holy Roman Empire. While he was here he placed the diocese in direct dependence on the Holy See and he also personally consecrated some of Bambergs churches. For a short time Bamberg was the centre of the Holy Roman Empire, Henry and Kunigunde were both buried in the cathedral. From the middle of the 13th century onward the bishops were princes of the Empire and ruled Bamberg, in 1248 and 1260 the see obtained large portions of the estates of the Counts of Meran, partly through purchase and partly through the appropriation of extinguished fiefs. By the changes resulting from the Reformation, the territory of this see was reduced nearly one half in extent, since 1279 the coat of arms of the city of Bamberg is known in form of a seal. The witch trials of the 17th century claimed about one thousand victims in Bamberg, the famous Drudenhaus, built in 1627, is no longer standing today, however, detailed accounts of some cases, such as that of Johannes Junius, remain. In 1647, the University of Bamberg was founded as Academia Bambergensis, bambrzy are German Poles who are descended from settlers from the Bamberg area who settled in villages around Posen in the years 1719–1753. In 1759, the possessions and jurisdictions of the diocese situated in Austria were sold to that state, when the secularization of church lands took place the diocese covered 3,305 km2 and had a population of 207,000. Bamberg thus lost its independence in 1802, becoming part of Bavaria in 1803, Bamberg was first connected to the German rail system in 1844, which has been an important part of its infrastructure ever since. The first republican constitution of Bavaria was passed in Bamberg, becoming known as the Bamberger Verfassung, in February 1926 Bamberg served as the venue for the Bamberg Conference, convened by Adolf Hitler in his attempt to foster unity and to stifle dissent within the then-young Nazi party. Bamberg was chosen for its location in Upper Franconia, reasonably close to the residences of the members of the dissident northern Nazi faction, in 1973, the town celebrated the 1, 000th anniversary of its founding. Bamberg is located in Franconia,63 km north of Nuremberg by railway and 101 km east of Würzburg and it is situated on the Regnitz river,3 km before it flows into the Main river
9.
Duchy of Franconia
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The Duchy of Franconia was one of the five stem duchies of East Francia and the medieval German kingdom emerging in the early 10th century. The word Franconia, first used in a Latin charter of 1053, was applied like the words Francia, France and it also included several Gaue on the left bank of the Rhine around the cities of Mainz, Speyer and Worms comprising present-day Rhenish Hesse and the Palatinate region. Unlike the other stem duchies, Franconia did not evolve into a political entity. In 906 the Conradine relative Count Conrad the Younger in the Lahngau is mentioned as a dux Franconiae, upon the extinction of the East Frankish Carolingians in 911, he was elected the first German king and was succeeded as Franconian duke by his younger brother Eberhard. King Otto did not appoint a new duke of Franconia, and the duchy was fragmented into several counties and bishoprics, the Salian counts in Rhenish Franconia were sometimes mentioned as Franconian dukes and they became Germanys royal and imperial dynasty in 1024. In 1093 their Franconian territories were granted as a fief to the count of Aachen. It contained the cities of Mainz, Speyer and Worms, the two being the administrative centres of countships within the hands of the Salian descendants of Conrad the Red. These counts were sometimes referred to as the Dukes of Franconia, Emperor Conrad II was last to bear the ducal title. Alongside these powerful entities were many smaller, petty states, in 1093, Emperor Henry IV gave the Salian territories in Rhenish Franconia as a fief to Henry of Laach, the Count palatine of Lower Lorraine at Aachen. His lands would evolve into the important principality of Electoral Palatinate, while Emperor Frederick Barbarossa in 1168 granted the ducal title to the Prince-Bishops of Würzburg in Eastern Franconia, Rhenish Franconia was divided and extinguished. Its territories became part of the Imperial Upper Rhenish Circle in 1500, Frederick, called himself Duke of Franconia towards his death Conrad II In 1168 the duchy of Franconia was bestowed by the Emperor Frederick I on the Bishopric of Würzburg. The bishops continued to rule until the bishopric was secularized in 1803, when the Grand Duchy of Würzburg, the Archbishopric of Mainz and most other parts of Franconia became part of the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1814, the kings assumed the ducal title. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh
10.
Bavaria
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Bavaria is a free state and one of 16 federal states of Germany. Located in the German southeast with an area of 70,548 square kilometres and its territory comprises roughly a fifth of the total land area of Germany, and, with 12.9 million inhabitants, it is Germanys second most populous state. Munich, Bavarias capital and largest city, is the third largest city in Germany, the Duchy of Bavaria dates back to the year 555. In the 17th century CE, the Duke of Bavaria became a Prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire, the Kingdom of Bavaria existed from 1806 to 1918, when Bavaria became a republic. In 1946, the Free State of Bavaria re-organised itself on democratic lines after the Second World War, Bavaria has a unique culture, largely because of the states Catholic majority and conservative traditions. Bavarians have traditionally been proud of their culture, which includes such as Oktoberfest. The state also has the second largest economy among the German states by GDP figures, modern Bavaria also includes parts of the historical regions of Franconia, Upper Palatinate and Swabia. The Bavarians emerged in a north of the Alps, previously inhabited by Celts. The Bavarians spoke Old High German but, unlike other Germanic groups, rather, they seem to have coalesced out of other groups left behind by Roman withdrawal late in the 5th century. These peoples may have included the Celtic Boii, some remaining Romans, Marcomanni, Allemanni, Quadi, Thuringians, Goths, Scirians, Rugians, the name Bavarian means Men of Baia which may indicate Bohemia, the homeland of the Celtic Boii and later of the Marcomanni. They first appear in written sources circa 520, a 17th century Jewish chronicler David Solomon Ganz, citing Cyriacus Spangenberg, claimed that the diocese was named after an ancient Bohemian king, Boiia, in the 14th century BCE. From about 554 to 788, the house of Agilolfing ruled the Duchy of Bavaria and their daughter, Theodelinde, became Queen of the Lombards in northern Italy and Garibald was forced to flee to her when he fell out with his Frankish overlords. Garibalds successor, Tassilo I, tried unsuccessfully to hold the frontier against the expansion of Slavs. Tassilos son Garibald II seems to have achieved a balance of power between 610 and 616, after Garibald II little is known of the Bavarians until Duke Theodo I, whose reign may have begun as early as 680. From 696 onwards he invited churchmen from the west to organize churches and his son, Theudebert, led a decisive Bavarian campaign to intervene in a succession dispute in the Lombard Kingdom in 714, and married his sister Guntrud to the Lombard King Liutprand. At Theodos death the duchy was divided among his sons, at Hugberts death the duchy passed to a distant relative named Odilo, from neighbouring Alemannia. He was defeated near Augsburg in 743 but continued to rule until his death in 748, saint Boniface completed the peoples conversion to Christianity in the early 8th century. Bavaria was in ways affected by the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century
11.
House of Habsburg
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The House of Habsburg, also called House of Hapsburg, or House of Austria, was one of the most influential royal houses of Europe. The throne of the Holy Roman Empire was continuously occupied by the Habsburgs between 1438 and 1740, from the sixteenth century, following the reign of Charles V, the dynasty was split between its Austrian and Spanish branches. Although they ruled distinct territories, they maintained close relations. The House takes its name from Habsburg Castle, a built in the 1020s in present-day Switzerland, in the canton of Aargau, by Count Radbot of Klettgau. His grandson Otto II was the first to take the name as his own. The House of Habsburg gathered dynastic momentum through the 11th, 12th, by 1276, Count Radbots seventh generation descendant Rudolph of Habsburg had moved the familys power base from Habsburg Castle to the Duchy of Austria. Rudolph had become King of Germany in 1273, and the dynasty of the House of Habsburg was truly entrenched in 1276 when Rudolph became ruler of Austria, which the Habsburgs ruled until 1918. A series of dynastic marriages enabled the family to expand its domains to include Burgundy, Spain and its colonial empire, Bohemia, Hungary. In the 16th century, the separated into the senior Habsburg Spain and the junior Habsburg Monarchy branches. The House of Habsburg became extinct in the 18th century, the senior Spanish branch ended upon the death of Charles II of Spain in 1700 and was replaced by the House of Bourbon. It was succeeded by the Vaudemont branch of the House of Lorraine, the new successor house styled itself formally as the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, although it was often referred to as simply the House of Habsburg. His grandson Radbot, Count of Habsburg founded the Habsburg Castle, the origins of the castles name, located in what is now the Swiss canton of Aargau, are uncertain. There is disagreement on whether the name is derived from the High German Habichtsburg, or from the Middle High German word hab/hap meaning ford, the first documented use of the name by the dynasty itself has been traced to the year 1108. The Habsburg Castle was the seat in the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries. The Habsburgs expanded their influence through arranged marriages and by gaining political privileges, in the 13th century, the house aimed its marriage policy at families in Upper Alsace and Swabia. They were also able to high positions in the church hierarchy for their members. Territorially, they often profited from the extinction of other families such as the House of Kyburg. By the second half of the 13th century, count Rudolph IV had become one of the most influential territorial lords in the area between the Vosges Mountains and Lake Constance
12.
Franconia
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However, there is no fixed area that is officially defined as Franconia. The German word Franken - Franconians - also refers to the people group and they are to be distinguished from the Germanic tribe of the Franks and who historically formed their easternmost settlement area. The origins of Franconia lie in the settlement of the Franks from the 6th century in the area probably populated until then mainly by the Elbe Germanic people in the Main river area. Known from the 9th century as Francia Orientalis. in the Middle Ages the region formed much of the part of the Duchy of Franconia and, from 1500. In the course of the restructuring of the south German states by Napoleon after the demise of the Holy Roman Empire, the German name for Franconia, Franken, comes from the dative plural form of Franke, a member of the Germanic tribe known as the Franks. The onomatologists largely follow the book compiled by early medieval scholar, Saint Isidore of Seville. This syllable occurs in the Middle Dutch vrac, avaricious, and old Norwegian frakkr, quick, bold, according to this the Franks were thus the brave ones, courageous ones or audacious ones. From the 9th century the name no longer referred to the whole of France, but increasingly to the region along the River Main. The German word frank in the sense of free is, by contrast, not a description of the Franks. Not until the 15th century was the German word frei borrowed from the French, other large rivers include the upper Werra in Thuringia and the Tauber, as well as the upper Jagst and Kocher streams in the west, both right tributaries of the Neckar. In southern Middle Franconia, the Altmühl flows towards the Danube, the man-made Franconian Lake District has become a popular destination for day-trippers and tourists. The landscape is characterized by numerous Mittelgebirge ranges of the German Central Uplands, to the north rise the Rennsteig ridge of the Thuringian Forest, the Thuringian Highland and the Franconian Forest, the border with the Upper Saxon lands of Thuringia. In the east, the Fichtel Mountains lead to Vogtland, Bohemian Egerland in the Czech Republic, the hills of the Franconian Jura in the south mark the border with the Upper Bavarian region, historical Swabia, and the Danube basin. The northern parts of the Upper Bavarian Eichstätt District, territory of the historical Bishopric of Eichstätt, are counted as part of Franconia. In the west, Franconia proper comprises the Tauber Franconia region along the Tauber river, the states larger Heilbronn-Franken region also includes the adjacent Hohenlohe and Schwäbisch Hall districts. In the city of Heilbronn, beyond the Haller Ebene plateau, furthermore, in those easternmost parts of the Neckar-Odenwald-Kreis which had formerly belonged to the Bishopric of Würzburg, the inhabitants have preserved their Franconian identity. Franconian areas in East Hesse along Spessart and Rhön comprise Gersfeld, the two largest cities of Franconia are Nuremberg and Würzburg. Though located on the periphery of the area, the Nuremberg metropolitan area is often identified as the economic
13.
Bamberg Cathedral
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The Bamberg Cathedral is a church in Bamberg, Germany, completed in the 13th century. The cathedral is under the administration of the Roman Catholic Church and is the seat of the Archbishop of Bamberg, since 1993, the cathedral has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Town of Bamberg. It was founded in 1002 by King Heinrich II and consecrated in 1012, after the first two cathedrals burned down in the 11th and 12th centuries, the current structure, a late Romanesque building with four large towers, was built in the 13th century. The cathedral is about 94 m long,28 m broad,26 m high, another well-known treasure of the cathedral is an equestrian statue known as the Bamberg Horseman. This statue, possibly depicting the Hungarian king Stephen I, most likely dates to the period from 1225 to 1237, Heinrich, son of Heinrich der Zänker became Duke of Bavaria in 995, replacing his banished father. His favourite dwelling was at Bamberg and he gave that property to his wife Kunigunde as a wedding gift, in 1002, Heinrich was elected King of Germany and he started to conduct his government business from Bamberg, giving the town various privileges. Probably late in 1002 the decision was made to establish a diocese at Bamberg, henry was pious, he and his wife had no children whom to leave the property to and the eastern border of his kingdom still lacked a diocese. The Hochstift was endowed with royal territories, notably around Bamberg, the first bishop was Eberhard von Abenberg, Heinrichs former chancellor. He took his home in the former Königspfalz, in 1007/1020 the diocese came under the direct authority of the pope, and was thus henceforth outside of the control of the Archbishop of Mainz. King Heinrich became a canon of the cathedral chapter, construction of this first cathedral had begun in 1002, with work starting on two crypts. It was consecrated on Heinrichs birthday, on 6 May 1012 and this first cathedral was a cruciform basilica with the main choir in the west and a second to the east, each above a crypt. Two towers were located on the eastern façade, the nave was covered by a flat wooden ceiling. This cathedral was smaller than the current structure and this cathedral burned down in the Easter week of 1081. Whilst the interior art was destroyed, damage to the structure was relatively minor. It was quickly rebuilt - by 1087 it was possible to hold a synode here, Bishop Otto had the church rebuilt completely and it was reconsecrated in 1111. This rebuilt church burned down in 1185. In 1047, the body of Pope Clement II was transferred from Rome to Bamberg and was buried in the cathedral, with the destruction of the tomb of Pope Benedict V at Hamburg at the beginning of the 19th century, this became the only papal grave in Germany. All other popes are buried in France or Italy, the current late Romanesque cathedral was erected by three men of the house of Andechs-Merania, Otto, Ekbert and Poppo
14.
House of Henneberg
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The House of Henneberg was a medieval German comital family which from the 11th century onwards held large territories in the Duchy of Franconia. Their county was raised to a county in 1310. The distant origins of family are speculative yet seem to originate in the Middle Rhine Valley. Charibert, a nobleman in Neustria is the earliest recorded ancestor of the family, five generations pass between Charibert and the next descendant of note, Rutpert I, Count of Rheingau and Wormsgau. Both the Capetian dynasty and the Elder House of Babenberg are direct lineal descendants of Count Robert I. The denotion Babenberger, named after the castle of Bamberg, was established in the 12th century by the chronicler Otto of Freising, the later House of Babenberg, which ruled what became the Duchy of Austria, claimed to come of the Popponid dynasty. However, the descent of the first margrave Leopold I of Austria remains uncertain, in the 11th century, the dynastys estates around the ancestral seat Henneberg Castle near Meiningen belonged to the German stem duchy of Franconia. They were located southwest of the Rennsteig ridge in the Thuringian Forest, in 1096 one Count Godebold II of Henneberg served as a burgrave of the Würzburg bishops, his father Poppo had been killed in Battle in 1078. In 1137 he established Vessra Abbey near Hildburghausen, the counts lost their position as the bishops were raised to Dukes of Franconia in the 12th century. After the extinction of the Bavarian House of Andechs upon the death of Duke Otto II of Merania in 1248, in 1274 the Henneberg estates were divided into the Schleusingen, Aschach-Römhild and Hartenberg branches. Count Berthold VII of Henneberg-Schleusingen was elevated to status in 1310, his estates comprised the towns of Schmalkalden, Suhl. In 1343 the Counts of Hennberg also purchased the Thuringian town of Ilmenau, the Coburg lands passed to the Saxon House of Wettin upon the marriage of Countess Catherine of Henneberg with Margrave Frederick III of Meissen in 1347. A thorn in the side remained the enclave of Meiningen, a held by the Bishops of Würzburg. Whereas the male line of the House of Babenberg became extinct in 1246, in 1554 William IV of Henneberg-Schleusingen had signed a treaty of inheritance with Duke John Frederick II of Saxony. The Lordship of Schmalkalden fell to Landgrave William IV of Hesse-Kassel, after the Congress of Vienna, the former Albertine parts around Schleusingen and Suhl fell to the Prussian province of Saxony. King Frederick William III of Prussia assumed the title of a Princely Count of Henneberg, bertold von Henneberg-Römhild, Prince-elector and archbishop of Mainz, son of George, count of Henneberg-Römhild. Europäische Stammtafeln, Stammtafeln zur Geschichte der Europäischen Staaten, Neue Folge, BAND II, Tafel 10, Die Robertiner I und die Anfänge des Hauses Capet, 922-923 König der Westfranken, Marburg, Verlag von J. A
15.
Schweinfurt
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Schweinfurt is a city in the Lower Franconia region of Bavaria in Germany on the right bank of the navigable Main River, which is spanned by several bridges here,27 km northeast of Würzburg. The city was first documented in the year 790, although as early as 740 a settlement called Villa Suinfurde was mentioned, in the 10th century Schweinfurt was the seat of a margraviate. After the defeat of count Henry of Schweinfurt in 1002/1003, in the feud against King Henry II of Germany, in the first half of the 13th century Schweinfurt expanded to become a proper city with city wall, towers and city gates. At that time the Nikolaus hospital was founded, a mint was established, around 1250 Schweinfurt was totally destroyed during a feud between the Count of Henneberg and the Prince-Bishop of Würzburg. In the following years it was reconstructed, a document from 1282 signed by Rudolf I of Habsburg states that Schweinfurt was a free city within the Holy Roman Empire. At least since then the coat of arms of Schweinfurt has been a white eagle. In 1309 the city was given to the Count of Henneberg, some years later there was the first uprising of Schweinfurts citizens against the town council, followed by a second in 1513–1514. This time the issuing of a constitution was allowed, the city joined Martin Luthers Reformation in 1542. Schweinfurt was again destroyed in the course of the Second Margrave War, the years up to 1615 were spent by the citizens for its reconstruction. Schweinfurt joined the Protestant Union in 1609, in the Thirty Years War it was occupied by Gustavus Adolphus, who erected fortifications, the remains of which are still extant. The latest addition to the Lutheran churches in Schweinfurt arrived during the last years of the Soviet Union, in 1777, Johann Martin Schmidt began to produce white lead. Schweinfurt suffered from heavy casualties during the Napoleonic Wars of 1796–1801, Schweinfurt remained a free imperial city until 1802, when it passed to the Electorate of Bavaria. Assigned to the duke of Würzburg in 1810, it was granted to the Kingdom of Bavaria four years later. The first railway junction was opened in 1852, in the following years Schweinfurt became a world leading centre for the production of ball bearings. This was to lead to consequences for the city during World War II. Schweinfurt was bombed 22 times during Operation Pointblank by a total of 2285 aircraft, the Schweinfurt-Regensburg mission caused an immediate 34% loss of production and all plants but the largest were devastated by fire. Efforts to disperse the surviving machinery began immediately and the Luftwaffe deployed large numbers of interceptors along the corridor to Schweinfurt, bombing also included the Second Raid on Schweinfurt on 14 October 1943 and Big Week in February 1944. The decentralized industry was able to output to 85% of its pre-bombing level
16.
Luitpoldings
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The Luitpoldings were a medieval dynasty which ruled the German stem duchy of Bavaria from some time in the late ninth century off and on until 985. The descent of the East Frankish Luitpoldings has not been conclusively established, in 893 Arnulf appointed him margrave in Carinthia and Pannonia, succeeding the Wilhelminer margrave Engelschalk II. He inevitably interfered with the Ottonian King Henry I of Germany, whose rule he finally acknowledged in 921, reserving numerous privileges for himself. Eberhard had succeeded his father as Duke of Bavaria in 937, however, he struggled with King Otto I of Germany. Otto declared Eberhard deposed and banned the year and instead appointed Arnulfs brother Berthold duke. In 976 Henry the Younger received a compensation from Emperor Otto II with the newly established Duchy of Carinthia. In 983 he even regained the Bavarian ducal title, however, with his death in 989, the Luitpoldings became extinct
17.
Capetian dynasty
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The Capetian dynasty /kəˈpiːʃən/, also known as the House of France, is a dynasty of Frankish origin, founded by Hugh Capet. It is among the largest and oldest royal houses in Europe and the world, the senior line ruled in France as the House of Capet from the election of Hugh Capet in 987 until the death of Charles IV in 1328. They were succeeded by cadet branches, the Houses of Valois and Bourbon, the dynasty had a crucial role in the formation of the French state. Initially obeyed only in their own demesne, the Île-de-France, the Capetian kings slowly but steadily increased their power, for a detailed narration on the growth of French royal power, see Crown lands of France. Members of the dynasty were traditionally Catholic, the early Capetians had an alliance with the Church. The French were also the most active participants in the Crusades, culminating in a series of five Crusader Kings – Louis VII, Philip Augustus, Louis VIII, Saint Louis, the Capetian alliance with the papacy suffered a severe blow after the disaster of the Aragonese Crusade. Philip IIIs son and successor, Philip IV, humiliated a pope, the later Valois, starting with Francis I, ignored religious differences and allied with the Ottoman Sultan to counter the growing power of the Holy Roman Empire. Henry IV was a Protestant at the time of his accession, the Capetians generally enjoyed a harmonious family relationship. By tradition, younger sons and brothers of the King of France are given appanages for them to maintain their rank, when Capetian cadets did aspire for kingship, their ambitions were directed not at the French throne, but at foreign thrones. Through this, the Capetians spread widely over Europe, in modern times, both King Felipe VI of Spain and Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg are members of this family, both through the Bourbon branch of the dynasty. Along with the House of Habsburg, it was one of the two most powerful continental European royal families, dominating European politics for five centuries. The name of the dynasty derives from its founder, Hugh, the meaning of Capet is unknown. While folk etymology identifies it with cape, other suggestions suggest it to be connected to the Latin word caput, historians in the 19th century came to apply the name Capetian to both the ruling house of France and to the wider-spread male-line descendants of Hugh Capet. It was not a contemporary practice, the name Capet has also been used as a surname for French royalty, particularly but not exclusively those of the House of Capet. One notable use was during the French Revolution, when the dethroned King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette were referred to as Louis, the dynastic surname now used to describe Hugh Capets family prior to his election as King of France is Robertians or Robertines. The name is derived from the familys first certain ancestor, Robert the Strong, Robert was probably son of Robert III of Worms and grandson of Robert of Hesbaye. The Robertians probably originated in the county Hesbaye, around Tongeren in modern-day Belgium, the sons of Robert the Strong were Odo and Robert, who both ruled as king of Western Francia. The family became Counts of Paris under Odo and Dukes of the Franks under Robert, the Carolingian dynasty ceased to rule France upon the death of Louis V
18.
Duchy of Thuringia
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It was recreated in the Carolingian Empire and its dukes appointed by the king until it was absorbed by the Saxon dukes in 908. From about 1111/12 the territory was ruled by the Landgraves of Thuringia as Princes of the Holy Roman Empire, with Bisinus a first Thuringian king is documented about 500, who ruled over extended estates that stretched beyond the Main River in the south. His son and successor Hermanafrid married Amalaberga, a niece of the Ostrogoth king Theoderic the Great, however, when King Theoderic died in 526, they took the occasion to invade the Thuringian lands and finally carried off the victory in a 531 battle on the Unstrut River. King Theuderic of Rheims had Hermanafrid trapped in Zülpich where the last Thuringian king was killed and his niece Princess Radegund was kidnapped by King Chlothar I and died in exile in 586. The Thuringian realm was shattered, the north of the Harz mountain range was settled by Saxon tribes. The estates east of the Saale River were beyond Frankish control, the first documented duke of remaining Thuringia was a local noble named Radulf, installed by King Dagobert in the early 630s. Radulf was able to secure the Frankish border along the Saale River in the east from Slavic incursions, a punitive expedition led by the Frankish Mayor of the Palace Grimoald ultimatively failed and Radulf was able to maintain his semi-autonomous position. A conflict with Charles Martel around 717–19 brought an end to autonomy, in 849, the eastern part of Thuringia was organised as the limes Sorabicus, or Sorbian March, and placed under a duke named Thachulf. After Thachulfs death in 873, the Sorbs rose in revolt, in 880, King Louis replaced Radulf with Poppo, perhaps a kinsman. Poppo instigated a war with Saxony in 882 and in 883 he and his brother Egino fought a war for control of Thuringia. Egino died in 886 and Poppo resumed command, in 892, King Arnulf replaced Poppo with Conrad. This was an act of patronage by the king, for Conrads house, the Conradines, were soon feuding with Poppos, but Conrads rule was short, perhaps because he had a lack of local support. He was replaced by Burchard, whose title in 903 was marchio Thuringionum, Burchard had to defend Thuringia from the incursions of the Magyars and was defeated and killed in battle, along with the former duke Egino, on 3 August 908. He was the last recorded duke of Thuringia, the duchy was the smallest of the so-called younger stem duchies, and was absorbed by Saxony after Burchards death, when Burchards sons were finally expelled by Duke Henry the Fowler in 913. The Thuringians remained a distinct people, and in the Middle Ages their land was organised as a landgraviate, a separate Thuringian stem duchy did not exist during the emergence of the German kingdom from East Francia in the 10th century. Large parts of the Thuringian estates were controlled by the Counts of Weimar, according to the medieval chronicler Thietmar of Merseburg, Margrave Eckard I was appointed Thuringian duke. After his assassination 1002, Count William II of Weimar acted as Thuringian spokesman with King Henry II of Germany, Louis I had married the Rhenish Franconian countess Hedwig of Gudensberg and became the heir of extended estates in Thuringia and Hesse. A close ally of King Lothair II of Germany against the rising Hohenstaufen dynasty, the dynasty maintained the landgraviate throughout the fierce struggle of the Hohenstaufen and Welf royal families, occasionally switching sides according to the circumstances
19.
Louis the Younger
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Louis the Younger, sometimes Louis III, was the second eldest of the three sons of Louis II the German and Emma. He succeeded his father as the King of Saxony on 28 August 876 and he died in 882 and was succeeded in all his territories, which encompassed most of East Francia, by his younger brother, Charles the Fat, already King of Italy and Emperor. As a young man, Louis was deployed in operations against the Abodrites to the east in 858 and 862. He marched as far as Limoges before turning back, back home, Louis forged close ties with the nobles of the East Francia and became increasingly independent from his father. He engaged himself to the daughter of Count Adalard and, in 865, he, Carloman had already been given the subregulus of Bavaria in 864, now Louis received Saxony, Thuringia, and Franconia and Charles Alemannia and Rhaetia. In 869, Louis married Liutgard, daughter of Liudolf, Duke of Eastphalia, Luitgard was a strong-willed and politically ambitious woman and later on spurred her husband to pursue ambitious goals. This match increased dissension between father and son and in 871 and in 873, Louis rebelled, but each time he was reconciled, upon his fathers death in 876, Louis fully inherited his subkingdoms, bearing the title rex Francorum. Louis also retained his fathers chief advisor, Luitbert, Archbishop of Mainz and he and his brother ruled their kingdoms independently but cooperatively and never at war. Louiss rule was threatened by Charles the Bald, who tried to annex the eastern parts of Lotharingia. Louis brought war on Charles and, on 8 October 876 at Andernach, the East Frankish army displayed superiority in both unity and tactics, and the young king had even dressed his soldiers in white garments so that they appeared as an army of dead spirits. After this victory, Louis the Germans three sons met in November at Nördlingen to discuss the division of their fathers kingdom and to have their hosts swear allegiance. Throughout his reign, though he is always called King of Saxony by historians, he never visited Saxony proper, at the end of 877, the brothers assembled again to discuss the administration of their half of Lotharingia. After Carloman relinquished his claim, the realm was divided between Louis and Charles, who met in September 878 in Alsatia. In 879, Carloman was incapacitated by a stroke and partitioned named Louis as his successor in Bavaria, Louis received it a year later when Carloman expired. This Treaty of Fouron was soon put to the test, when Louis the Stammerer died in April 879, a party of western nobles led by Abbot Joscelin invited Louis the Younger to succeed to the rule of the western kingdom. Since his wife Luitgard also advocated heeding this call, Louis invaded West Francia and he marched as far as Verdun, but after the new kings Louis III and Carloman ceded their part of Lotharingia to the invader, Louis retreated. In February 880, this gain was confirmed by the Treaty of Ribemont and this treaty determined the border of the two kingdoms that were to remain unchanged until the fourteenth century. In contrast to his father, Louis the Younger preferred reconciling royal interests with those of the nobility and he managed to bind powerful families to the king, including the Luidovingian relatives of his wife, that later themselves became kings and emperors
20.
Charles the Fat
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Charles the Fat, also known as Charles III, was the Carolingian Emperor from 881 to 888. The youngest son of Louis the German and Hemma, Charles was a great-grandson of Charlemagne and was the last Carolingian to rule over the briefly re-united empire, over his lifetime, Charles became ruler of the various kingdoms of Charlemagnes former Empire. Crowned Emperor in 881 by Pope John VIII, his succession to the territories of his brother Louis the Younger the following year reunited the kingdom of East Francia. Upon the death of his cousin Carloman II in 884, he inherited all of West Francia, the reunited Empire would not last. During a coup led by his nephew Arnulf of Carinthia in November 887, Charles was deposed in East Francia, Lotharingia, forced into quiet retirement he died of natural causes in January 888, just a few weeks after his deposition. The Empire quickly fell apart after his death, splintering into five separate successor kingdoms, the nickname Charles the Fat is not contemporary. It was first used by the Annalista Saxo in the twelfth century, there is no contemporary reference to Charless physical size, but the nickname has stuck and is the common name in most modern European languages. Regino of Prüm, a contemporary of Charless recording his death, calls him Emperor Charles, third of that name, Charles was the youngest of the three sons of Louis the German, first King of East Francia, and Hemma from the House of Welf. An incident of demonic possession is recorded in his youth, in which he was said to have been foaming at the mouth before he was taken to the altar of the church and this greatly affected his father and himself. In 859 Charles was made Count of the Breisgau, an Alemannic march bordering southern Lotharingia, in 863 his rebellious eldest brother Carloman revolted against their father. The next year Louis the Younger followed Carloman in revolt and Charles joined him, Carloman received rule over the Duchy of Bavaria. In 865 the elder Louis was forced to divide his lands among his heirs, Duchy of Saxony went to Louis. Lotharingia was to be divided between the younger two, Louis the German sent first Charles and then Carloman himself, with armies containing Italian forces under Berengar of Friuli, their cousin, to the Italian kingdom. These wars, however, were not successful until the death of Charles the Bald in 877, in 876 Louis the German died and the inheritance was divided as planned after a conference at Ries, though Charles received less of his share of Lotharingia than planned. In his charters, Charles reign in Germania is dated from his inheritance in 876, three brothers ruled in cooperation and avoided wars over the division of their patrimony, a rare occurrence in the Early Middle Ages. In 877 Carloman finally inherited Italy from his uncle Charles the Bald, Louis divided Lotharingia and offered a third to Carloman and a third to Charles. In 878 Carloman returned his Lotharingian share to Louis, who divided it evenly with Charles. In 879 Carloman was incapacitated by a stroke and divided his domains between his brothers, Bavaria went to Louis and Italy to Charles, Charles dated his reign in Italia from this point, and from then he spent most of his reign until 886 in his Italian kingdom
21.
East Francia
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East Francia or the Kingdom of the East Franks was a successor state of Charlemagnes empire and precursor of the Holy Roman Empire. Until 911 it was ruled by Carolingian dynasty and it was created after the 840-43 civil war between Charlemagnes grandchildren which ended with the Treaty of Verdun which divided the former empire into three kingdoms. In August 843, after three years of war following the death of emperor Louis the Pious on 20 June 840. The division of lands was based on the Meuse, Scheldt. The contemporary East Frankish Annales Fuldenses describes the kingdom being divided in three and Louis acceding to the eastern part, while West and Middle Francia contained the traditional Frankish heartlands, the East consisted mostly of lands only annexed to the Frankish empire in the eighth century. These included the duchies of Alemannia, Bavaria, Saxony and Thuringia, as well as the northern and eastern marches with the Danes, in 869 Lotharingia was divided between West and East Francia under the Treaty of Meersen. The short lived Middle Francia turned out to be the theatre of Franco-German wars up until the 20th century, all the Frankish lands were briefly reunited by Charles the Fat, but in 888 he was deposed by nobles and in East Francia Arnulf of Carinthia was elected king. The increasing weakness of royal power in East Francia meant that dukes of Bavaria, Swabia, Franconia, Saxony, Kings increasingly had to deal with regional rebellions. Because Conrad I was one of the dukes, he found it hard to establish his authority over them. Duke Henry of Saxony was in rebellion against Conrad I until 915 and struggle against Arnulf, on his deathbed Conrad I chose Henry of Saxony as the most capable successor. This kingship changed from Franks to Saxons, who had suffered greatly during the conquests of Charlemagne, by his death in July 936 Henry had prevented collapse of royal power as was happening in West Francia and left a much stronger kingdom to his successor Otto I. After Otto I was crowned as the Emperor in Rome in 962 the era of the Holy Roman Empire began, the term orientalis Francia originally referred to Franconia and orientales Franci to its inhabitants, the ethnic Franks living east of the Rhine. The use of the term in a sense, to refer to the eastern kingdom, was an innovation of Louis the Germans court. Since eastern Francia could be identified with old Austrasia, the Frankish heartland, under his grandson, Arnulf, the terminology was largely dropped and the kingdom, when it was referred to by name, was simply Francia. When it was necessary, as in the Treaty of Bonn with the West Franks, Henry I refers to himself as rex Francorum orientalium, king of the East Franks, in the treaty. By the 12th century, the historian Otto of Freising, in using the Carolingian terminology had to explain that the kingdom of the Franks was now called the kingdom of the Germans. The regalia of the Carolingian empire had divided by Louis the Pious on his deathbed between his two faithful sons, Charles the Bald and Lothair. Louis the German, then in rebellion, received nothing of the jewels or liturgical books associated with Carolingian kingship
22.
Viking expansion
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The Vikings extended their journeys all the way to the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea, and on the way they raided Galicia. In contemporary texts, the Vikings are often referred to as normandos or lordimani and our knowledge of Vikings in Spain is mainly based on written accounts. There are archeological findings of anchors of Viking ships, and some shapes of mounds by riversides look similar to the Norse longphorts in Ireland and these were ports or docks for Viking longships. After plundering a number of villages they were ultimately repulsed in the vicinity of Farum Brecantium i. e. the Tower of Hercules. Ramiro I of Asturias who was king of Asturias at the time, after the Asturian victory, the Vikings continued their voyage in direction of Lisbon. A major storm was unleashed, sinking most of the fleet, Vikings returned to Galicia in 859, during the reign of Ordoño I of Asturias. It was a contingent of a hundred ships from looting expeditions by the French coast that was now directed toward the Arousa estuary, after looting Iria Flavia they continued to Santiago de Compostela, where they laid siege. Their neighbours had paid tribute to avoid looting, but in spite of this and they were faced with an army led by Don Pedro who dispersed them and destroyed thirty eight of their ships, after which the surviving Vikings went south. As a result of this expedition the episcopal see of Iria relocated to Santiago de Compostela, in 951, the Vikings reappeared and attacked the Galician coast. Galician cities would then strengthen their defenses over the following years, in 964, the Vikings arrived again in Galicia, because the own bishop of Mondonedo, Rosendo of Celanova, they had to face. The expedition of 1015 was led by Olaf Haraldsson, who became king Olaf II of Norway. He destroyed four settlements, Castropol, Betanzos, Rivas de Sil and Tui
23.
Arnulf of Carinthia
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After Arnulfs birth, Carloman married, before 861, a daughter of that same Count Ernst, who died after 8 August 879. Arnulf kept his seat here and from later events it may be inferred that the Carantanians, from an early time, treated him as their own Duke. Later, after he had been crowned King of East Francia, Arnulf turned his old territory of Carinthia into the March of Carinthia, however, Bavaria was more or less ruled by Arnulf. The division of the realm was confirmed in 880 after Carloman’s death, whenEngelschalk II of Pannonia in 882 rebelled against Aribo, Margrave of Pannonia and ignited the Wilhelminer War, Arnulf supported him and accepted his and his brothers homage. This ruined Arnulfs relationship with his uncle the Emperor and put him at war with Svatopluk of Moravia, Pannonia was invaded, but Arnulf refused to give up the young Wilhelminers. Arnulf did not make peace with Svatopluk until late 885, by which time Moravian ruler was loyal to the emperor, some scholars see this war as destroying Arnulfs hopes at succeeding Charles the Fat. Arnulf took the role in the deposition of his uncle. With the support of the Frankish nobles, Arnulf called a Diet at Tribur and deposed Charles in November 887, Arnulf, having distinguished himself in the war against the Slavs, was then elected king by the nobles of East Francia. West Francia, the Kingdom of Burgundy and the Kingdom of Italy at this point elected their own kings from the Carolingian family, like all early Germanic rulers, he was heavily involved in ecclesiastical disputes. Arnulf was fighter, not a negotiator, in 890 he was successfully battling Slavs in Pannonia. In 891 Danes invaded Lotharingia, and crushed an East Frankish army at Maastricht, at the decisive Battle of Leuven in September 891 in Lotharingia, Arnulf repelled an invasion by the Normans, essentially ending their invasions on that front. The Annales Fuldenses report that the bodies of dead Northmen blocked the run of the river, after this victory Arnulf built a new castle on an island in the Dijle river. Arnulf took advantage of the problems in West Francia after the death of Charles the Fat to secure the territory of Lotharingia, which he converted into a kingdom for his son Zwentibold. In 889 Arnulf supported the claim of Louis the Blind to the kingdom of Provence, after receiving an appeal from Louis’ mother, Ermengard. Recognising the superiority of Arnulf’s position, in 888 king Odo of France formally accepted the suzerainty of Arnulf, in 893 Arnulf switched his support from Odo to Charles the Simple after being persuaded by Fulk, Archbishop of Reims, that it was in his best interests. Arnulf then took advantage of the fighting between Odo and Charles in 894, taking more territory from West Francia. At one point, Charles the Simple was forced to flee to Arnulf and his intervention soon forced Pope Formosus to get involved, as he was worried that a divided and war weary West Francia would be easy prey for the Vikings. In 895 Arnulf summoned both Charles and Odo to his residence at Worms, charles’s advisers convinced him not to go, and he sent a representative in his place
24.
Lahngau
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The Lahngau was a medieval territory comprising the middle and lower Lahn River valley in the current German states of Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate. The traditional names of the Gau are Loganahe Pagus or Pagus Logenensis, the Lahngau was the East Frankish ancestral homeland of the Conradines. It was divided in ca.900 into the Upper and Lower Lahngau, the western boundary of the Lahngau was near present-day Montabaur. To the west of the Lahngau, extending to the Rhine River, was the Engersgau with its center in the Neuwied Basin, the northwestern border was marked by the watershed of the Westerwald. Northwest and north of the Lahngau was the Auelgau with its central settlements near the mouth of the Sieg River, North and northeast of the Lahngau was the Hessengau, the former settlement area of the Chatti. Like the Lahngau, the Hessengau would for a time be dominated by the Conradines, southeast of the Lahngau was the Wettereibagau. South, at the watershed of the Taunus Mountains, was the boundary with the Königssondergau, the exact demarcation of the boundary between Oberlahngau and Niederlahngau has not survived. According to some historians, the boundary is presumed to have been the watershed between the Solmsbach and the Weil River, east of Weilburg. Christian Spielmann writes in 1894, “Weilburg lay in the Niederlahngau and it extended from about the Nister to the Pfahlgraben and from the Gelbach and Aar westward to the Ulmbach and eastward to Weil. Other historians suggest the border was west of Weilburg, hellmuth Gensicke suggested the watershed between the Kerkerbach and Elbbach as a possible boundary. The following discussion is based on the interpretation of Gensicke assuming a border west Weilburg, the Carolingian gaus were divided into districts called Zentmarken. For these districts names such as gau, “Zente”, or “Mark” were used, the original Zentmarken of the Niederlahngau were probably the Reckenforst around Dietkirchen, the Hadamarer Mark, the Ellarer Mark, and the Zente Winnen - Höhn. In the Oberlahngau were the Haiger Mark and the Herborner Mark, the Erdagau should also be understood as a sub-gau of the Lahngau. The assignment of the Kallenbach Zent north of present-day Löhnberg is unclear, with increasingly denser populations, the Zentmarken were divided or new ones were established. The population centers of the Lahngau developed from places established at fords on the Lahn, some of these places go back, according to archaeological finds, to Frankish camps of the 6th and 7th centuries that secured crossings of the Lahn. The urban centers of the Niederlahngau were the cities of Diez. The centers that developed in the Oberlahngau were Wetzlar, Haiger, Dietkirchen emerged as an important ecclesiastical center for the Lahngau. In the Middle Ages, the St. Lubentius Basilica at Dietkirchen was the seat of an archdeaconry that included all of the areas on the bank of the Rhine belonging to the Archbishopric of Trier
25.
Rhenish Franconia
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Rhenish Franconia or Western Franconia denotes the western half of the central German stem duchy of Franconia in the 10th and 11th century, with its residence at the city of Worms. The territory located on the banks of Rhine river roughly corresponded with the state of Hesse. It contained the ancient cities of Mainz, Speyer and Worms and these counts were sometimes referred to informally, on account of the great power in the region, as dukes of Franconia. Emperor Conrad II was actually the last to bear the ducal title, alongside these powerful entities there were many smaller, petty states. While Emperor Frederick Barbarossa in 1198 granted the title to the Prince-Bishops of Würzburg in Eastern Franconia. Its territories became part of the Imperial Upper Rhenish Circle in 1500, leipzig 1897 Herzogtümer Ost- und Rheinfranken
26.
Main (river)
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The Main is a river in Germany. With a length of 527 kilometres, including the White Main as 574 km and it is also the longest river lying entirely in Germany. The largest cities along the Main are Frankfurt am Main and Würzburg, the mainspring of the Main River flows through the German states of Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and Hesse. Its basin competes with the Danube for water, as a result, the Main begins near Kulmbach in Franconia at the joining of its two headstreams, the Red Main and the White Main. The Red Main originates in the Franconian Jura mountain range,50 km in length, the White Main originates in the mountains of the Fichtelgebirge, it is 41 km long. In its upper and middle section, it runs through the valleys of the German Highlands and its lower section crosses the Lower Main Lowlands to Wiesbaden, where it discharges into the Rhine. Major tributaries of the Main are the Regnitz, the Franconian Saale, the Tauber, the name Main derives from the Latin Moenus or Menus. It is not related to the name of the city Mainz, the Main is navigable for shipping from its mouth at the Rhine close to Mainz for 396 km to Bamberg. Since 1992, the Main has been connected to the Danube via the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal, the Main has been canalized with 34 large locks to allow CEMT class V vessels to navigate the total length of the river. The 16 locks in the adjacent Rhine-Main-Danube Canal and the Danube itself are of the same dimensions, there are 34 dams and locks along the 380 km navigable portion of the Main, from the confluence with the Regnitz near Bamberg, to the Rhine. Location, City or town where the lock is located, Year built, Year when the lock was put into operation. Main-km, Location on the Main, measured from the 0 km stone in Mainz-Kostheim, the reference point is the center of the lock or lock group. Distance between locks, length in km of impoundment, altitude, height in meters above mean sea level of the upper water at normal levels. Height, Height of the dam in meters, lock length, Usable length of the lock chamber in meters. Lock width, Usable width of the chamber in meters. Most of the dams along the Main also have turbines for power generation, Height, Height of the dam in meters. Power, Maximum power generation capacity in megawatts, turbines, Type and number of turbines. Operator, Operator of the hydroelectric plant, tributaries from source to mouth, Around Frankfurt are several large inland ports
27.
Louis the Child
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Louis the Child, sometimes called Louis III or Louis IV, was the king of East Francia from 899 until his death in 911 and was the last ruler of Carolingian dynasty there. He succeeded his father, king Arnulf of Carinthia in 899, Louis also inherited the crown of Lotharingia with the death of his elder illegitimate half-brother Zwentibold in 900. During his reign the country was ravaged by Magyar raids, Louis was born in September or October 893 in Altötting, Duchy of Bavaria. He was the legitimate son of king Arnulf of Carinthia and his wife, Ota. He had at least two brothers, his elder, illegitimate brother Zwentibold, who ruled Lotharingia, and another brother named Ratold, ratolds maternity and age are unknown. Louis was crowned in Forchheim on 4 February 900 and this is the earliest East Frankish royal coronation about which records are known to exist. Louis was of a weak constitution, often sick, and due to his young age. Indeed, the coronation was probably a result of the fact there was little Louis could gain at the expense of the nobles. The most influential of Louiss councillors were Hatto I, Archbishop of Mainz and it was these two who assured that the royal court decided in favour of the Conradines against the Babenbergers in the matter of the Duchy of Franconia. They appointed Louiss nephew, Conrad as a duke, in 903 Louis promulgated the Raffelstetten Customs Regulations, the first customs regulations in the East Frankish part of Europe. In 900, during Hungarian invasions of Europe, Magyar army ravaged Bavaria, another group of Magyars were defeated by Luitpold, Margrave of Bavaria and Bishop Richer of Passau. In 901 they devastated Duchy of Carinthia, in 904 Louis invited Kurszán, the kende of Magyars to negotiations, but killed him and his delegation. In 906 Magyars twice ravaged Duchy of Saxony, in 907 they inflicted a heavy defeat on the Bavarians who had invaded Hungary, killing the Margrave Liutpold and many high nobles in the Battle of Pressburg. Next year it was the turn of Saxony and Thuringia, in 909 that of Alemannia. On their return, however, Arnulf, Duke of Bavaria inflicted a defeat on them on the Rott, Louis himself tried to take some military control as he grew older, but he had little success against the Magyars. His army was destroyed at Ennsburg in 907, in a state of despair, possibly afflicted by severe depression, Louis died at Frankfurt am Main on 20 or 24 September 911, only seventeen or eighteen years old. Louis was buried in the monastery of Saint Emmeram in Regensburg and his death brought an end to the eastern branch of the Carolingian dynasty. The vacuum left in the Carolingian East was eventually filled in 919 by the family of Henry the Fowler, a cousin, and heralded the beginning of the Ottonian dynasty
28.
Imperial Diet (Holy Roman Empire)
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The Imperial Diet was the deliberative and legislative body of the Holy Roman Empire. Its members were the Imperial Estates, divided into three colleges, the diet as a permanent, regularized institution evolved from the Hoftage of the Middle Ages. From 1663 until the end of the empire in 1806, it was in permanent session at Regensburg, the Imperial Estates had, according to feudal law, no authority above them besides the Holy Roman Emperor himself. The holding of an Imperial Estate entitled one to a vote in the diet, thus, an individual member might have multiple votes and votes in different colleges. In general, members did not attend the permanent diet at Regensburg, the late imperial diet was in effect a permanent meeting of ambassadors between the Estates. Initially, there was neither a fixed time nor location for the Diet, the Golden Bull of 1356 cemented the concept of territorial rule, the largely independent rule of the dukes over their respective territories, and also limited the number of electors to seven. The Pope, contrary to myth, was never involved in the electoral process. However, until the late 15th century, the Diet was not actually formalized as an institution, instead, the dukes and other princes would irregularly convene at the court of the Emperor, these assemblies were usually referred to as Hoftage. Only beginning in 1489 was the Diet called the Reichstag, initially, the two colleges were that of the prince-electors and that of the other dukes and princes. Several attempts to reform the Empire and end its slow disintegration, notably starting with the Diet of 1495, from then to its end in 1806, the Empire was not much more than a collection of largely independent states. Only with the introduction of the Perpetual Diet of Regensburg in 1663 did the Diet permanently convene in a fixed location. The Imperial Diet of Constance opened on 27 April 1507, it recognized the unity of the Holy Roman Empire and founded the Imperial Chamber, the empire’s supreme court. Since 1489, the Diet comprised three colleges, The Electoral college, led by the Prince-Archbishop of Mainz in his capacity as Archchancellor of Germany, in 1692 the Elector of Brunswick-Lüneburg became the ninth Prince-elector as Archbannerbearer during the Nine Years War. In the War of the Bavarian Succession, the dignities of the Palatinate. The college of Imperial Princes incorporated the Imperial Counts as well as lords, Prince-Bishops. Strong in members, though often discordant, the second college tried to preserve its interests against the dominance of the Prince-electors, the House of Princes was again subdivided into an ecclesiastical and a secular bench. Remarkably, the bench was headed by the—secular—Archduke of Austria. As the Austrian House of Habsburg had failed to assume the leadership of the secular bench, the ecclesiastical bench also comprised the Grand Master and Deutschmeister of the Teutonic Knights, as well as the Grand Prior of the Monastic State of the Knights Hospitaller at Heitersheim
29.
Forchheim
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Forchheim is a large town in Upper Franconia in northern Bavaria, and also the seat of the administrative district of Forchheim. Forchheim is a royal city, and is sometimes called the “Gateway to the Franconian Switzerland”. Its population, as of December 2013, was 30,705 and its position is 49°44 N, 11°04 E and its elevation is 265 metres above sea level. In 2005, Forchheim celebrated its 1, 200th anniversary of first documentary mention, on the occasion of which the Deutsche Post issued special commemorative stamps worth 45 cents, in 2004, the city played host to the Bavarian provincial Exhibition. When the coat of arms was bestowed upon the town at the beginning of the 13th century, people believed that their town’s name. This resulted in the coat of arms showing two trout, although the rivers around the town were certainly home to a great number of trout in those days, it seems likelier that the towns name was actually derived from the Old High German word vorha. Hence, the name means “pine home” with a probability bordering on certainty, the name most likely originates in the 7th century, when Frankish settlers first ensconced themselves in the region. They established many towns with names ending in –heim. Forchheim is directly connected to the Autobahn network by way of the A73, via 2 Exits Forchheim-Nord, through Forchheim run Federal Highways B470. In 2011, the former B4 which also ran through Forchheim was downgraded to a regional road because of its parallelity concerning the importance to the Autobahn A73. Rail traffic from the station goes towards Bamberg, Nuremberg and Ebermannstadt, the railway line to Höchstadt was permanently closed on 1 April 2005. Since 2010, Forchheim is also connected to the Nuremberg S-Bahn, local public transportation, such as buses and hailed shared taxis, is incorporated into the Greater Nuremberg transport area. The city lies right on the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal and lies roughly 30 minutes from Nuremberg Airport, buckenhofen Burk Kersbach with Sigritzau Reuth Serlbach In the 8th century, a royal court and a palace were built in Forchheim. This is the first documentary evidence of the town’s existence, in the following centuries, Forchheim saw many imperial diets and princely gatherings. On 10 November,911, Conrad I was elected and crowned the first “German” king, on 1 November 1007, Emperor Heinrich II granted Forchheim, then under Crown ownership, the Bishopric of Bamberg. In Heinrich IV’s time, Rudolf von Rheinfelden was chosen to be the Gegenkönig on 15 March 1077, sometime between 1200 and 1220, Forchheim was raised to city, and was given its current coat of arms. Owing to Forchheim’s fortifications, it got through the Thirty Years War without being overrun even once, the Prince-Bishop of Bamberg fled the Swedes in this war, seeking shelter for himself, and also for his cathedral treasure, in the strongly defended fortress town of Forchheim. The Swedes laid siege to the several times from 1632 to 1634
30.
Fritzlar
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Fritzlar is a small German town in the Schwalm-Eder district in northern Hesse,160 km north of Frankfurt, with a storied history. The town has a medieval center ringed by a wall with numerous watch towers, thirty-eight meters high, the Grey Tower is the highest remaining urban defense tower in Germany. The city hall, first documented in 1109, with a relief of St. Martin. The Gothic church of the old Franciscan monastery is today the Protestant parish church, many houses in the town center, notably around the market square, date from the 15th to 17th centuries and have been carefully maintained or restored. The town is dominated by the imposing Romanesque-Gothic Church of St. Peter from the 12th-14th centuries, in 1974, the town hosted the 14th Hessentag state festival. Fritzlar lies in northern Hesse, mainly on the bank of the Eder river. Ten villages in the area were incorporated into the town in 1974. The area is characterized by farmland and mostly wooded basalt peaks. Examples of these can be found at Gudensberg, Homberg, Felsberg, Heiligenberg, Altenburg, Jesberg, the Anglo-Saxon missionary Saint Boniface, apostle of the Germans, established a church and monastery dedicated to Saint Peter in Fritzlar in 724. The current Saint Peters Church, constructed in the 11th century, is accompanied by a monument to Boniface, in 782 emperor Charlemagne granted it imperial protection and substantial territory, and this triggered the rapid development of the town around it. Several imposing stone residences built by wealthy canons during the 14th century survive to this day in the old part of the town, the canons college was dissolved only in 1803. This event marked the end of bitter rivalry between the two large German tribes of the Franks and the Saxons and the beginning of the German Empire that lasted until the Napoleonic wars. Conrads choice was respected by the Reichstag of 919, where Henry was proclaimed king by the leaders of the Franks and Saxons. Burchard I, Duke of Swabia quickly swore allegiance as well, in 1079 Fritzlar ceased to be a crown possession when it was given to the archbishop of Mainz by Emperor Henry IV in the aftermath of his submission to the Pope at Canossa. It thus became a pillar in the long-lasting feuds between Mainz and the landgraves of Thuringia and later of Hesse for territorial supremacy in northern Hesse. The first major devastation occurred in 774, during Charlemagnes Saxon Wars, while the king was in Italy, the Saxons invaded Hesse and besieged Büraburg, where the population of Fritzlar had sought refuge. Failing to take the fortress, the Saxons destroyed Fritzlar, and this gave rise to the legend that two angels had appeared to chase away the invaders and protect the church. Emperor Henry IV, who resided in Fritzlar, was faced with an insurrection led by the pretender king Rudolf of Swabia
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