WITTELSBACH, FAMILY. - A German noble house descending from Margrave Luitpoldo, a relative of Emperor Arnulf, which came into possession of W. castle in 1115.
In 1180 OTTO of W. became Duke of Bavaria, and his son Louis I in 1214 Count Palatine of the Rhine. In 1294 the family divided into two lines, the Palatine and the Bavarian. The Palatine line obtained with the Golden Bull of Charles IV in 1356 the dignity of Prince-Elector, which it retained until 1623, when it was deprived of it in favor of the other Bavarian line because of its adherence to Protestantism. A branch of the Palatine line, that of the Palatine Zweibrücken, reigned in Sweden from 1654 to 1718 with CHARLES X, CHARLES XI, and CHARLES XII. The Bavarian line, from ALBERT V (1528–79) onward, constituted one of the most valid supports of Catholicism in Germany. The Dukes of Bavaria, Prince-Electors from 1623 (though in 1648 the electoral dignity was likewise restored to the Palatine line), acquired a very strong political position in Germany, led the Catholic League during the Thirty Years' War, and extended their influence into various parts of the Empire, particularly into the Electorate of Cologne, where they held uninterruptedly the dignity of Archbishop from 27 June 1583 with ERNEST to CLEMENT AUGUSTUS, who died on 6 January 1761.
Wiseman, Nicholas Patrick - Portrait - Rome, Venerable English College.
At the same time, the Dukes of Bavaria made no secret of their rivalry toward the Habsburgs and, during the War of the Austrian Succession, with CHARLES VII, they obtained—albeit for a very short time—the imperial throne. Upon the extinction of the Bavarian line in 1777, it was succeeded in Bavaria by that of the Palatinate Sulzbach with CHARLES THEODOR, and subsequently, in 1799, by that of Zweibrücken. Prince-Elector MAXIMILIAN IV received from Napoleon in 1806 the dignity of king, which he retained even after the Emperor's fall. In the struggle for German hegemony between Prussia and Austria, the Kings of Bavaria maintained an attitude favorable to the latter but ultimately adhered to the German Empire. In November 1918, LOUIS III was forced to abdicate following the revolution that broke out in Munich.