principality · Germany and Central Europe
Upper Palatinate
Origins
By the Treaty of Pavia in 1329, Emperor Louis the Bavarian divided the Wittelsbach possessions, giving the Rhineland Palatinate and the northern part of the Bavarian Nordgau to his nephews. This upland region between Regensburg and the Bohemian border, ruled from Amberg, became known as the Upper Palatinate, an outlying part of the Electoral Palatinate.
Rule and society
A governor in Amberg ran the land for the electors in Heidelberg; from 1595 this was Christian of Anhalt, architect of Protestant policy. The region's wealth came from iron mining and smelting around Amberg and Sulzbach, which made it the Ruhr of the Middle Ages. Its people were obliged to follow their rulers through Lutheranism and Calvinism, often against the wishes of the estates.
Decline and legacy
After Elector Frederick V's defeat at the White Mountain in 1620, Duke Maximilian I of Bavaria occupied the Upper Palatinate and in 1628 annexed it, re-Catholicising the population. The Peace of Westphalia confirmed it as part of the Electorate of Bavaria.
Lineage
On the connections map
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- Upper Palatinate was part of Electoral Palatinate1329 CE – 1621 CE
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Cite this page
- APA
- The Epoch Institute. (2026). Upper Palatinate. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/upper-palatinate
- MLA
- “Upper Palatinate.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/upper-palatinate. Accessed .
- Chicago
- The Epoch Institute. “Upper Palatinate.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/upper-palatinate.
- Harvard
- The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Upper Palatinate’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/upper-palatinate (Accessed: ).
Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻