Duchy · Eastern Germany, Bohemia and Austria · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Duchy of Bavaria

Bavaria in 1200 is a duchy of rights more than of land.

The settlement of 1180 that gave it to the Wittelsbach after Henry the Lion's fall also cut Styria away as a duchy of its own and left the Andechs, soon dukes of Merania, as princes of the Empire inside it; Austria had gone in 1156. What the duke holds as duke is the ducal office: the command of the Bavarian host, the ducal court and assemblies where the counts and free lords appear, the keeping of the peace, and the old ducal rights in Regensburg. What he holds as a lord is his house's scatter of castles and lands (Duke Louis's own lands) and, since 1196, the inheritance of the burgraves of Regensburg and the landgraves of Stefling (Burgraves' inheritance).

Inside his duchy stand the great counts, each lord of his own castles: Bogen, the two Ortenburg lines of Ortenburg and Kraiburg, Wasserburg, Moosburg, Frontenhausen, Abensberg, Falkenstein, Hohenburg, the landgraves of Leuchtenberg and the Diepolding margraves of Vohburg and Cham; the Andechs between the Ammersee and the Isar and on the lower Inn; the king's own lands in the Nordgau and, beyond it, his Egerland; the bishops of Regensburg, Freising, Passau and Eichstätt and the archbishop of Salzburg with the salt of Reichenhall; and great abbeys such as St Emmeram, Niederaltaich and Tegernsee. Louis, 26 and unmarried, has made the office count: Henry VI ruled the quarrels over vacant fiefs in his favour after 1192, granted him the Stefling inheritance in 1196, and he has just used force against the count of Kraiburg. He is one of Philip's leading princes.

Who rules

Name
Louis I of Wittelsbach (Ludwig der Kelheimer)
Title
Duke of Bavaria
Since
1183, on the death of his father Otto I (11 July 1183); a minor under his mother's regency and his uncles' guardianship until about 1189; 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. Father: Otto I (count palatine, first Wittelsbach duke from 1180, died 1183). Mother: Agnes of Loon, who held the regency council together with his uncles Archbishop Conrad of Mainz and the count palatine Otto VII (died 1189); en.wikipedia adds Barbarossa as guardian. Unmarried and without children on 1 January 1200: in late October 1204 at Kelheim he will marry Ludmila of Bohemia, widow of Count Albert III of Bogen, and their son Otto II is born in 1206. Sisters: Sophia, wife of Landgrave Hermann I of Thuringia (married 1196); Elisabeth, first wife of Margrave Berthold of Vohburg (died about 1189/90); Richardis, wife of Count Otto I of Guelders; a Heilika married either Count Dietrich of Wasserburg (FMG, a charter of 1192) or Count Adalbert III of Dillingen (Rhineland record): not settled. Kin who hold land: his first cousin Otto VIII, count palatine of Bavaria (Otto VIII (count palatine)), his nearest male kinsman; his uncle Conrad, archbishop of Mainz and cardinal-bishop of Sabina, about 75, who dies in October 1200.
Confidence
high

de.wikipedia (Ludwig der Kelheimer; Speyerer Fürstenerklärung; Ortenburg (Adelsgeschlecht); Konrad IV. von Frontenhausen; Diepoldinger); en.wikipedia (Louis I, Duke of Bavaria); fmg.ac (Bavarian nobility); the Rhineland record Bavaria; campaign notes Part 6 D and Part 10

Overlord

The king: Philip of Swabia, whom Louis has backed since the double election of 1198.

What the realm holds

  • The ducal office: command of the Bavarian host for the king's service and the duchy's defence, the ducal court and assemblies, and the keeping of the peace in the duchy
  • His house lands and castles: Kelheim, Scheyern, Dachau, Wartenberg, Burghausen and the others (Duke Louis's own lands); the Lech crossing at Landsberg (Rhineland map)
  • The burgraves' and landgraves' inheritance since 1196: Riedenburg, Stefling, Nittenau, Regenstauf, Haidau and the claim to the burgrave's office (Burgraves' inheritance)
  • In Regensburg: the mint, the right of escort and the court of the advocacies (from 1185 by the city's history), and the old ducal court by the royal palace
  • The mint right at Munich (the market itself is the bishop of Freising's)
  • Tolls on the salt roads at Burghausen and Landsberg
  • The service of his ministeriales, the sworn officers and knights of unfree birth who man his castles

How it was acquired

Barbarossa granted the duchy to Otto I, then count palatine, at Altenburg on 16 September 1180, after Henry the Lion's deposition; Styria was raised to a duchy at the same time. Louis succeeded at the age of nine in 1183. Henry VI settled the Bavarian quarrels over vacant fiefs in his favour (1192-93) and enfeoffed him with the Stefling inheritance in 1196.

Allies and rivals

Allies: King Philip; his uncle Archbishop Conrad of Mainz, a mediator in the throne war whose kin are Staufen (campaign notes); his cousin the count palatine Otto VIII; his brothers-in-law Landgrave Hermann of Thuringia and Margrave Berthold of Vohburg; the Staufen bishops of his duchy (Regensburg, Freising, Eichstätt and Passau all joined the Speyer declaration). Rivals within the duchy: the bishop of Regensburg, who disputes the burgraviate; the bishop of Freising, lord of Munich; Count Rapoto II of Kraiburg and his brother Henry of Ortenburg; the young counts of Bogen and their Bohemian kin; the Andechs dukes of Merania. In the war of 1192 the Bogen count had help from Bohemia and the Andechs, and Duke Leopold V of Austria took Henry of Ortenburg prisoner.

The realm that morning

Louis backs Philip firmly: he signed the Speyer declaration for Philip in person on 28 May 1199. On 1 January 1200 his duchy has no great war, but it is not quiet everywhere: in 1199 he invaded the county of Kraiburg and destroyed Rapoto II's castle; in the same year Count Henry I of Ortenburg was at feud with the young counts of Bogen and quarrelled with the bishop of Passau; and the bishop of Regensburg does not accept his hold on the burgraviate. When the Kraiburg war ended, and whether a truce holds that winter, is not pinned.

Where Louis spends the turn of the year, at home or at Philip's Christmas court at Magdeburg, is not pinned.

Wealth

The duchy's wealth is the Danube trade through Regensburg, the salt of Reichenhall and Hallein moving west on the roads through Wasserburg, Munich and Landsberg and down the Salzach past Burghausen, the Regensburg penny, and the grain of the Danube plain. The duke's own revenues: his demesne and forests, the tolls at Burghausen and Landsberg, the mint and court fees in Regensburg, the mint at Munich, and the advocacies of his house monasteries.

Military

The Bavarian host: the duke summons the counts, free lords and ministeriales of the duchy for the king's service and for the duchy's defence. His own force is his castles and ministeriales. He served Henry VI in the Sicilian campaign of 1194, fought the count of Bogen in 1192 with the Ortenburg brothers, and invaded the county of Kraiburg in 1199. No figures in the sources.

Threats

  • The bishop of Regensburg's claim to the burgraviate (open feud 1203-05)
  • The Ortenburg brothers after the Kraiburg war of 1199
  • The Andechs, princes of the Empire inside the duchy
  • No son: his nearest male heir is his cousin Otto VIII
  • The death of his uncle Conrad of Mainz in October 1200 and, next year, a papal decision for Otto IV that would put Philip's princes in the wrong with Rome

As seen from the France and Iberia sheet

The young Wittelsbach duke, one of Philip's three closest princely supporters with Bernhard of Saxony and Dietrich of Meissen. Only the western edge of his duchy lies on this sheet: the right bank of the Lech, where the Wittelsbach hold Landsberg with its Lech bridge on the salt road, and the family castle of Wittelsbach near Aichach, seat of his cousin the count palatine Otto VIII. South of Landsberg the Lechrain round Schongau and Peiting is Staufen ground (the Welf inheritance), and the bishop of Augsburg and the counts of Lechsgemünd hold lands on both banks.

Name
Louis I of Wittelsbach (Ludwig der Kelheimer)
Title
Duke of Bavaria
Since
1183, on the death of his father Duke Otto I; of age by the early 1190s
Born
23 December 1173 at Kelheim (aged 26 on 1 January 1200)
Family
Wittelsbach. Son of Otto I, the first Wittelsbach duke (died 1183), and Agnes of Loon, who led the regency council with his uncles Conrad (archbishop of Mainz) and Otto (count palatine, died 1189). Unmarried on 1 January 1200: he marries Ludmila of Bohemia, widow of Count Albert III of Bogen, in late October 1204 at Kelheim; their only son Otto II is born in 1206. Sisters married into the princes' houses: Sophia to Landgrave Hermann of Thuringia (1196), and (probably named Heilika) to Count Adalbert III of Dillingen.
Confidence
high

de.wikipedia (Ludwig der Kelheimer, Otto VIII. von Wittelsbach, Grafen von Dillingen); de.wikipedia and ADB on Philip.

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. 8 April 1200 (campaign notes)Death of Archbishop Adalbert III of Salzburg; later in 1200 Eberhard of Regensberg, bishop of Brixen, another of Philip's Speyer princes, is chosen in his place. The new archbishop is the duke's neighbour on the Salzach and at Reichenhall.Depends on: Natural death; Staufen influence on the election. Stopped by: Play that changes Adalbert's circumstances, or a contested election.
  2. 1200 (day not pinned)Louis's first recorded stay in Munich, where he meets Bishop Otto II of Freising.Depends on: Peace between duke and bishop. Stopped by: A quarrel over Munich's market and mint.
  3. 1200 (month not pinned)Rapoto II of Kraiburg, his castle destroyed, takes over the lands of the free lords of Rott; at some point he makes peace with Louis and rebuilds Kraiburg.Depends on: A settlement with the duke. Stopped by: A renewed war, or Louis's taking of the Rott lands himself.
  4. Summer and autumn 1200 (Philip's attack on Brunswick fails on 21 August)Philip campaigns in Saxony against the Welf strongholds (the Rhineland record's 'Brunswick campaign'); whether Louis or the Bavarian host takes part is not pinned.Depends on: Philip's summons and peace at home. Stopped by: Trouble in Bavaria or a truce in the throne war.
  5. 25 or 27 October 1200 (campaign notes)Death of Archbishop Conrad of Mainz, the duke's uncle and the family's cardinal; Mainz splits between a Staufen and a Welf candidate.Depends on: Natural death. Stopped by: Play that changes Conrad's circumstances.

Places of note

  • Kelheim: The duke's favoured residence.
  • Regensburg: The old ducal and royal city, with the duke's mint and court.

Where the sources disagree

  • The Rhineland record Bavaria says no Bavarian fighting is recorded for winter 1199-1200. The Ortenburg family history (de.wikipedia) records Louis's invasion of the Kraiburg land and the destruction of its castle in 1199, and feuds between Ortenburg and Bogen and between Ortenburg and Passau in the same year; the months are not given, so the state of war that winter is not pinned.
  • Bavaria makes a sister of Louis (probably Heilika) wife of Adalbert III of Dillingen; FMG names Heilika of Wittelsbach as wife of Count Dietrich of Wasserburg in a charter of 1192. Both may be right if she married twice; not settled.
  • Bavaria lists Louis's three closest princely allies as Bernhard of Saxony and Dietrich of Meissen; this record adds nothing against that, but notes that the Speyer list of 28 May 1199 has Louis, Berthold of Merania and the bishops of Regensburg, Freising and Eichstätt present in person, and Otto VIII, Bishop Wolfger of Passau and Margrave Berthold of Vohburg among the absent princes who joined.
  • campaign notes Part 9 do not list Regensburg, Freising or Eichstätt among the Staufen sees; all three bishops signed the Speyer declaration in person.
  • en.wikipedia (Louis I) dates Albert III of Bogen's death to 1198 and names Archbishop 'Eberhard' of Salzburg as an enemy in 1196; de.wikipedia gives 20 December 1197, and the archbishop in 1196 was Adalbert III.
  • Not written as records for want of sources in this run, and coloured Bavarian by the anchors: the counts of Schwarzenburg by Rötz and of Velburg in the Nordgau, the free lords of Laaber, the counts of Valley on the Mangfall (a Wittelsbach side line), and the counts of Hals and Leonberg on the lower Danube and Vils. Their holders in 1200 are not pinned.

Evidence: Louis's dates, side and acquisitions are well documented; his acts in the winter of 1199-1200 and the end of the Kraiburg war are not.

On the map: The duchy is coloured through the lords' parts and the anchors; the duke's own ground is in Duke Louis's own lands and Burgraves' inheritance, and the counts' lands are drawn over the Bavarian colour. The Andechs lands are coloured empire and the king's Nordgau lands staufen.

Primary sources for this realm

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. Speyerer Fürstenerklärung (de.wikipedia)
  4. Ortenburg (Adelsgeschlecht) (de.wikipedia)
  5. Konrad IV. von Frontenhausen (de.wikipedia)
  6. Medieval Lands: Bavarian nobility (fmg.ac)
  7. Otto IV., ADB (Winkelmann) and NDB, Deutsche Biographie

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