Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of 70,550.19 km2 (27,239.58 sq mi), Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total land area of Germany. With over 13 million inhabitants it is the second most populous German state behind North Rhine-Westphalia, but due to its large physical size its population density is below the German average. Major cities include Munich, Nuremberg, and Augsburg.
The Electoral Palatinate or the Palatinate, officially the Electorate of the Palatinate, was a constituent state of the Holy Roman Empire. The electorate had its origins under the rulership of the Counts Palatine of Lotharingia in 915; it was then restructured under the Counts Palatine of the Rhine in 1085. From 1214 until the Electoral Palatinate was merged into the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1805, the House of Wittelsbach provided the Counts Palatine or Electors. These counts palatine of the Rhine would serve as prince-electors from "time immemorial", and were noted as such in a papal letter of 1261; they were confirmed as electors by the Golden Bull of 1356.
The House of Wittelsbach is a former Bavarian dynasty, with branches that have ruled over territories including the Electorate of Bavaria, the Electoral Palatinate, the Electorate of Cologne, Holland, Zeeland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Hungary, Bohemia, and Greece. Their ancestral lands of Bavaria and the Palatinate were prince-electorates, and the family had three of its members elected emperors and kings of the Holy Roman Empire. They ruled over the Kingdom of Bavaria which was created in 1805 and continued to exist until 1918.
Berg was a state—originally a county, later a duchy—in the Rhineland of Germany. Its capital was Düsseldorf. It existed as a distinct political entity from the early 12th to the 19th centuries.
Neumarkt is a Landkreis (district) in Bavaria, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Nürnberger Land, Amberg-Sulzbach, Schwandorf, Regensburg, Kelheim, Eichstätt and Roth.
Würzburg is a Landkreis (district) in the northwestern part of Bavaria, Germany. Neighboring districts are Main-Spessart, Schweinfurt, Kitzingen, Neustadt (Aisch)-Bad Windsheim, and the district Main-Tauber in Baden-Württemberg. The city Würzburg is not part of the district, although it is completely enclosed by it.
In heraldry, an ordinary is one of the two main types of charges, beside the mobile charges. An ordinary is a simple geometrical figure, bounded by straight lines and running from side to side or top to bottom of the shield. There are also some geometric charges known as subordinaries, which have been given lesser status by some heraldic writers, though most have been in use as long as the traditional ordinaries. Diminutives of ordinaries and some subordinaries are charges of the same shape, though thinner. Most of the ordinaries are theoretically said to occupy one-third of the shield; but this is rarely observed in practice, except when the ordinary is the only charge.
The coat of arms of Denmark has a lesser and a greater version.
Otto II, called the Illustrious, was the Duke of Bavaria from 1231 and Count Palatine of the Rhine from 1214. He was the son of Louis I and Ludmilla of Bohemia and a member of the Wittelsbach dynasty.
Louis I, called the Kelheimer or of Kelheim, since he was born and died at Kelheim, was the Duke of Bavaria from 1183 and Count Palatine of the Rhine from 1214. He was the only surviving son of Otto I, Duke of Bavaria by his wife Agnes of Loon. He married Ludmilla of Bohemia, a daughter of Duke Frederick of Bohemia.
The Duchy of Palatinate-Zweibrücken was a duchy of the Holy Roman Empire with full voting rights to the Reichstag. Its capital was Zweibrücken. The reigning house, a branch of the Wittelsbach dynasty, was also the Royal House of Sweden from 1654 to 1720.
The coat of arms of the German state of Baden-Württemberg features a greater and a lesser version.
The German state of Brandenburg has a coat of arms depicting a red eagle.
Heinzenbach is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis (district) in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Kirchberg, whose seat is in the like-named town.
Weidenbach is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Vulkaneifel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Daun, whose seat is in the like-named town. In Weidenbach, a Moselle Franconian dialect is spoken.
Over its long history, the Holy Roman Empire used many different heraldic forms, representing its numerous internal divisions.
The Veldenz lion is a heraldic emblem. As a charge the heraldic lion in the coat of arms has a stationary appearance. The blazon is "argent, a lion rampant azure, armed and langued gules".
The Bohemian Palatinate or Bohemian Upper Palatinate, since the 19th century also called New Bohemia, is a historical area in the northeast of present-day Bavaria (Germany), which from 1353 onwards was incorporated into the Crown of Bohemia by Emperor Charles IV. The Bohemian Palatinate lay in the north of the Upper Palatinate, its territory stretching up to Upper and Middle Franconia close to the Free Imperial City of Nuremberg.
The Palatine Lion, less commonly the Palatinate Lion, is an heraldic charge. It was originally part of the family coat of arms of the House of Wittelsbach and is found today on many coats of arms of municipalities, counties and regions in South Germany and the Austrian Innviertel.
The Franconian Rake is the name given to the coat of arms of the region of Franconia in Germany. It is described heraldically as per fess dancetty of three points gules and argent. The points represent a stylised heraldic rake.
