Bavaria (Merveilles des Morte)

Electorate of Bavaria Kurfürstentum Bayern
Flag Coat of arms
Possessions of Bavaria in 1595
Status	Duchy of the Holy Roman Empire, Electorate(1357-) Rätian Republic (1520–)
Capital	Munich
Common languages	German
Religion	Jungism (1510-) Roman Catholic (-1510)
Government	Jungist republican monarchy (1520-) Feudal monarchy (-1520)
Elector
• 1467-1510	Albert IV
Establishment
Historical era	Middle Ages
• Garibald I, first documented duke	c. 555
• Margrave Arnulf assumed ducal title	907
• Created Elector	1357
• Rätian Republic	1520

The Electorate of Bavaria (German: Kurfürstentum Bayern), also known as the Rätian Republic of Bavaria (German: Räterepublik Bayern), was a medieval and early modern state in Central Europe. It was an Imperial State in the Holy Roman Empire, and the Duke of Bavaria was an prince-elector of the empire after 1357. Bavaria dates to atleast the sixth century when it served as the frontier region in the southeastern part of the Merovingian kingdom. It was settled by Bavarian tribes and ruled by dukes under Frankish overlordship. Bavaria was considerably weakened during internal conflicts of the ruling Ottonian dynasty. The Duchy of Carinthia was lost in 976, and between 1070 and 1180 the duchy was strongly opposed by the ruling Hohenstaufen dynasty, Duke Henry the Lion was deprived of his Bavarian titles and the duchy passed to the House of Wittelsbach.

The Duchy of Bavaria was divided into a number of smaller duchies, before being reunified under the reign of Albert IV, who reigned from 1467-1510. Albert IV would be influential in beginning the Lenzburg-Premyslid War, which saw Bavaria expand rapidly into southern Germany. Ruling at the beginning of the Reformation, Albert IV remained Catholic but apathetic toward persecuting the spread of Jungism and his chosen heir George I converted to the faith himself. After Albert IV's death this question of religion led to the War of the Bavarian Succession and the 1510 Diet of Munich, considered a turning point in the reformation for the Protestation of Munich, in which the first Jungist monarchs of the Empire formally declared opposition to a ban against Jungism. Bavaria was confirmed a Jungist state in 1512, although Catholic opposition continued. After the Great Peasants' War, Bavaria adopted Thinwhitedukist tenets and was declared a "Rätian Republic", however, their implementation of the ideology was minimal and largely reversed over the century; Bavaria declined to join the proposed Rätian Union, straining relations. During the Forty Years' War Bavaria later became a prominent state on the Jungist side.