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.
Princess Ludovika of Bavaria was the sixth child of King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria and his second wife Caroline of Baden. She was the mother of Empress Elisabeth of Austria and was born and died in Munich.
Maximilian I Joseph was Duke of Zweibrücken from 1795 to 1799, prince-elector of Bavaria from 1799 to 1806, then King of Bavaria from 1806 to 1825. He was a member of the House of Palatinate-Birkenfeld-Zweibrücken, a branch of the House of Wittelsbach.
The King of Bavaria was a title held by the hereditary Wittelsbach rulers of Bavaria in the state known as the Kingdom of Bavaria from 1805 until 1918, when the kingdom was abolished. It was the second time Bavaria was a kingdom, almost a thousand years after the short-lived Carolingian kingdom of Bavaria.
Duke in Bavaria was a title used among others since 1506, when primogeniture was established, by all members of the House of Wittelsbach, with the exception of the Duke of Bavaria which began to be a unique position. So reads for instance the full title of the late 16th century's Charles I, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld and patriarch of the House of Palatinate-Birkenfeld: "Count Palatine by Rhine, Duke in Bavaria, Count to Veldenz and Sponheim". The title grew in importance as Wilhelm, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld-Gelnhausen began to use it, in the early 19th century, as his primary title – Duke Wilhelm in Bavaria. This choice has also had effect for his descendants.
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.
Max-Emanuel Ludwig Maria Herzog in Bayern as the younger son of Albrecht, Duke of Bavaria, is the heir presumptive to both the headship of the former Bavarian royal house and the Jacobite succession.
The Electorate of Bavaria was a quasi-independent hereditary electorate of the Holy Roman Empire from 1623 to 1806, when it was succeeded by the Kingdom of Bavaria.
Duke Maximilian Joseph in Bavaria, known informally as Max in Bayern, was a member of a junior branch of the royal House of Wittelsbach who were Kings of Bavaria, and a promoter of Bavarian folk-music. He is most famous today as the father of Empress Elisabeth of Austria ("Sisi") and great-grandfather of King Leopold III of Belgium.
Frederick Michael, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld was a member of the Wittelsbach dynasty. He was the son of Christian III of Palatinate-Zweibrücken and Caroline of Nassau-Saarbrücken and a member of the House of Palatinate-Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld, a branch of the House of Wittelsbach. He was the father of the Bavarian King Maximilian I Joseph. Furthermore, he engaged Nicolas de Pigage to reconstruct his summer palace in Oggersheim.
Charles II August Christian was Duke of Zweibrücken from 1775 to 1795. A member of the Palatine House of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld, a branch of the House of Wittelsbach, he was the elder brother of the first King of Bavaria, Maximilian I, and of Queen Amalia of Saxony.
Karl Theodor, Duke in Bavaria, was a member of the House of Wittelsbach and a professional oculist. He was the favorite brother of Empress Elisabeth of Austria, and the father of Queen Elisabeth of the Belgians.
Duchess Helene in Bavaria, nicknamed Néné, was the Hereditary Princess of Thurn and Taxis as the wife of Maximilian Anton Lamoral. She was a Duchess in Bavaria by birth as the daughter of Duke Maximilian Joseph and Princess Ludovika. She was temporarily the head of the Thurn and Taxis family.
The House of Palatinate-Birkenfeld, later Palatinate-Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld, was the name of a collateral line of the Palatine Wittelsbachs. The Counts Palatine from this line initially ruled over only a relatively unimportant territory, namely the Palatine share of the Rear County of Sponheim; however, their importance steadily grew. All living members of the House of Wittelsbach descend from Palatinate-Birkenfeld, which thus became the parent branch of the Kings of Bavaria.
Princess Amélie Louise Julie of Arenberg, (full German name: Amalie Luise Julie, Prinzessin und Herzogin von Arenberg and full French name: Amélie Louise, princesse et duchesse d'Arenberg, was a member of the House of Arenberg by birth and, through her marriage to Duke Pius August in Bavaria, a member of the Palatinate-Birkenfeld-Gelnhausen line of the House of Wittelsbach. Amélie Louise was a grandmother of Empress Elisabeth of Austria through her son Duke Maximilian Joseph in Bavaria.
Duke Wilhelm in Bavaria was a German prince of the House of Wittelsbach.
John Charles, Count Palatine of Birkenfeld at Gelnhausen, was a German prince and ancestor of the cadet branch of the royal family of Bavaria known, from the early 19th century, as Dukes in Bavaria. He took Gelnhausen as the name of his branch of the family after acquiring that estate in 1669.
Frederick Bernard, Count Palatine of Gelnhausen was Count Palatine and Duke of Birkenfeld-Gelnhausen.
Countess Palatine Maria Anna of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld-Bischweiler was Countess Palatine of Birkenfeld-Gelnhausen and Duchess in Bavaria, through her marriage to Duke Wilhelm in Bavaria. Maria Anna was a great-grandmother of Empress Elisabeth of Austria through her son Duke Pius August in Bavaria
Duchess Maria Elisabeth Amalie Franziska in Bavaria was a Duchess in Bavaria as a member of the Palatine Birkenfeld-Gelnhausen line of the House of Wittelsbach and through her marriage to Louis-Alexandre Berthier became Princess of Wagram and Princess of Neuchâtel.
