Dukes · Duchy of Bavaria · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Duke Louis's own lands

The duke's own lordship, as distinct from his ducal rights over the whole duchy (see the realm record Bavaria).

The Wittelsbach began as counts of Scheyern, and in 1200 the duke's own ground is still a scatter of castle districts, not a closed territory: Kelheim at the mouth of the Altmühl, his favourite seat; the old house lands round Scheyern on the Ilm (the castle of Wittelsbach near Aichach and the Lech crossing at Landsberg are drawn on the Rhineland map); Dachau on the Amper, which came to Duke Otto I when the counts of Dachau died out in 1182; Wartenberg on the Strogen near Erding, a ducal residence that burned at the end of the century; and Burghausen on the Salzach with its salt toll, which Henry the Lion had taken when the counts of Burghausen died out in 1168 and which passed to the Wittelsbach with the duchy in 1180. The inheritance of the burgraves of Regensburg and the landgraves of Stefling, his since 1196, is a separate record (Burgraves' inheritance). Between his castles lie the counties of Bogen, Ortenburg, Kraiburg, Wasserburg and Moosburg, the Andechs lands, the march of Cham and the lands of the bishops and the great abbeys.

Who he is

Name
Louis I of Wittelsbach (Ludwig der Kelheimer)
Title
Duke of Bavaria
Since
1183, when his father Otto I died (11 July 1183); knighted at Worms in summer 1192 in Henry VI's presence
Born
23 December 1173, reputedly in the castle of Kelheim (aged 26 on 1 January 1200)
Family
Wittelsbach. Unmarried. See the realm record Bavaria for his kin.
Confidence
high

de.wikipedia (Ludwig der Kelheimer; Kelheim; Burghausen; Nabburg; Konrad IV. von Frontenhausen); en.wikipedia (Louis I, Duke of Bavaria)

Overlord

The king (Philip of Swabia), from whom he holds the duchy.

What it holds

  • Kelheim: the castle (first named 1150) and the town at the mouth of the Altmühl on the Danube, his favoured residence; its town rights are dated 1181 (Duke Otto I) in one account and to Louis's own reign in another
  • The Wittelsbach house lands on the Ilm round Scheyern, where the family's old castle became the house monastery in the 1110s-1120s
  • Dachau and the Amper country, the lands of the counts of Dachau (from 1182)
  • Wartenberg castle on the Strogen near Erding and the ducal land round Erding (the castle burned at the end of the twelfth century; Erding becomes a town only in 1228)
  • Burghausen castle above the Salzach with the toll on the Hallein salt landed there, and the old ducal palace and estate of Ötting (Altötting) on the Inn (probable)
  • Ranshofen on the Inn, the old ducal palace with its house of Augustinian canons, in what is now the Innviertel (probable; the Innviertel's other castles are for the sal record)
  • Nabburg on the Naab (low confidence: the town's history says it came to the Wittelsbach after 1188; the Diepolding family history puts the Wittelsbach there only in 1256-58)
  • The mint right at Munich, which Barbarossa's ruling of 1180 left to the duke when the market went to the bishop of Freising
  • His rights in Regensburg: the mint, the right of escort and the court of the advocacies (the city's history dates them from 1185); see Regensburg
  • Landsberg on the Lech with the salt bridge (Rhineland map, Landsberg (Bavaria))
  • The duke's ministeriales, the sworn officers and knights of unfree birth who man these castles (families not pinned for 1200)

How it was acquired

The Scheyern-Wittelsbach house lands by inheritance. The duchy, with Henry the Lion's ducal possessions such as Burghausen and Landsberg, by Barbarossa's grant to Otto I at Altenburg on 16 September 1180. Dachau in 1182 when the counts of Dachau died out (usually described as a purchase from the last count's heirs). Nabburg after 1188 according to the town's history (not pinned).

Allies and rivals

Allies: King Philip; his uncle Archbishop Conrad of Mainz; his cousin the count palatine Otto VIII. Rivals in his own country: the bishop of Regensburg (the Stefling inheritance), the bishop of Freising (Munich), Count Rapoto II of Kraiburg (whose castle he destroyed in 1199), the counts of Bogen, and the Andechs dukes of Merania.

How things stand that morning

Holds these castles and lands on 1 January 1200. No attack on any of them is recorded for the winter of 1199-1200. His war of 1199 against Rapoto II of Kraiburg is recorded on the Kraiburg record (Kraiburg).

Wealth

Tolls on the salt roads (the Salzach at Burghausen, the Lech at Landsberg); the Regensburg mint and the mint right at Munich; the Danube traffic at Kelheim; the demesne farms and forests round Kelheim, Scheyern, Dachau and Wartenberg; the advocacy of the house monastery of Scheyern.

Military

The castles of Kelheim, Wartenberg, Dachau and Burghausen with the duke's ministeriales, and the household knights. In 1192 he fought Count Albert III of Bogen with the Ortenburg brothers; in 1199 he invaded the county of Kraiburg and destroyed its castle. No figures in the sources.

Threats

  • The bishop of Regensburg's claim to the burgraves' and landgraves' inheritance
  • Rapoto II of Kraiburg and his brother Henry of Ortenburg after the war of 1199
  • The Andechs dukes of Merania, princes of the Empire inside the duchy

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

  1. 1200 (day not pinned)Louis's first recorded stay in Munich, where he meets Bishop Otto II of Freising: the first visit by a Bavarian duke to the bishop's market.Depends on: Peace between duke and bishop over Munich's market and the ducal mint there. Stopped by: An open quarrel over Munich (King Otto IV will have to mediate one in 1209).

Places of note

  • Kelheim castle and town: The duke's favoured residence at the mouth of the Altmühl.
  • Wartenberg castle: Ducal residence on the Strogen, burned at the end of the twelfth century.
  • Burghausen castle: Ducal castle and salt toll on the Salzach.
  • Scheyern abbey: The house monastery on the site of the family's first castle.
  • Dachau: Castle of the counts of Dachau, ducal since 1182.

Where the sources disagree

  • Kelheim's town rights: de.wikipedia's town history gives 1181 under Otto I, while its section on the arms puts them under Louis.
  • Nabburg: de.wikipedia (Nabburg) has it pass to the Wittelsbach after 1188; de.wikipedia (Diepoldinger) puts the Wittelsbach there only in 1256-58. Drawn here as ducal with low confidence.

Evidence: The main acquisitions (1180, 1182) are dated in the handbooks; the list of castles Louis held on 1 January 1200 is reconstructed from them and from later ducal possession, so several are marked probable.

On the map: Only the duke's main castle districts are drawn; the extent of each is rough. The ducal ground between them is coloured bavaria by the realm and the anchors.

Primary sources for Bavaria

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

Sources and studies

  1. Ludwig der Kelheimer (de.wikipedia)
  2. Louis I, Duke of Bavaria (en.wikipedia)
  3. Kelheim (de.wikipedia)
  4. Burghausen (de.wikipedia)
  5. Nabburg (de.wikipedia)
  6. Geschichte Münchens (de.wikipedia)
  7. Speyerer Fürstenerklärung (de.wikipedia)

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.