Palatinates
PalatinatesTwo regions in Germany that comprise the Upper Palatinate. Frederick I bestowed the title of Count Palatine on his half-brother Conrad, who held lands east and west of the River Rhine (the Lower Palatinate). From 1214 these lands were ruled by the Bavarian Wittelsbach dynasty, whose own lands near Bohemia formed the Upper Palatinate. In 1356 the Counts Palatine were made Electors of the Holy Roman Empire.
The Rhenish (Lower) Palatinate became a centre of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, but the choice of Elector Frederick V as King of Bohemia led to clashes with Catholic Habsburg authority and the outbreak of the Thirty Years...
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