| War of the Succession of Landshut | |||||||||
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| Bavaria-Munich | |||||||||
TheWar of the Succession of Landshut resulted from a dispute between the Duchies ofBavaria-Munich (Bayern-München in German) andBavaria-Landshut (Bayern-Landshut). An earlier agreement between the differentWittelsbach lines, theTreaty of Pavia (1329), concerned the law of succession and stated that if one branch should become extinct in the male line, the other would inherit. The agreement disregarded imperial law, which stipulated that theHoly Roman Emperor should inherit if a line failed.
George, Duke of Bavaria-Landshut, had no surviving son, so George, in a breach of both imperial law and the house treaty, named his daughterElisabeth as his heir. DukeAlbert IV of Bavaria-Munich, seemingly disinherited, did not accept George's decision, leading to war in 1503. Over the course of the two-year war, many villages surrounding Landshut were reduced to ashes such asErgolding,Haimhausen andLandau an der Isar.[1][2]
The war ended in 1505 with the death of Elisabeth and her husband,Ruprecht of the Rhine, and a decision through arbitration byEmperor Maximilian I on 30 July 1505 at theDiet ofCologne. George's grandsonsOtto Henry andPhilip retainedPalatinate-Neuburg (Junge Pfalz), a fragmented region from the upperDanube extending from aboveFranconia to the northern part of theUpper Palatinate.Neuburg an der Donau was chosen as the capital of the new state. Because the two heirs had not yet reached their majority,Frederick II, Count Palatine of the Rhine, served as regent in a caretaker regime. The rest of the territory went to the Munich line of the House of Wittelsbach.
The emperor took the territory aroundKufstein for himself as reward for his mediation; theImperial City of Nuremberg gained important territories to the east of the city, includingLauf,Hersbruck andAltdorf. Ascount palatine, Otto-Heinrich spent huge sums of money to build a palace at Neuburg an der Donau. Through inheritance, he later becameElector Palatine, where his additions toHeidelberg Castle, known as theOttheinrichsbau, made him one of the most important builders of theGerman Renaissance.[3]
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