Electoral Palatinate

The Electoral Palatinate was a constituent state of the Holy Roman Empire until it was annexed by the Electorate of Baden in 1803. From the end of the 13th century, its ruler was one of the Prince-electors who elected the Holy Roman Emperor, ranking them among the most significant secular Princes of the Holy Roman Empire.

The Palatinate consisted of a number of widely dispersed territories, ranging from the left bank of the Upper Rhine in the modern state of Rhineland-Palatinate, adjacent parts of the French regions of Alsace and Lorraine to the opposite territory on the east bank of the Rhine in present-day Hesse and Baden-Württemberg up to the Odenwald range and the southern Kraichgau region, containing the capital cities of Heidelberg and Mannheim.

In 1541, Otto Henry, Elector Palatine converted to Lutheranism, while his Calvinist descendant, Frederick V, sparked the Thirty Years' War in 1618 by accepting the Crown of Bohemia. Occupied until the 1648 Peace of Westphalia, the Palatinate suffered extensive damage during the 1688 to 1697 Nine Years' War. Ruled in personal union with the Electorate of Bavaria from 1777, the Palatinate was annexed by Baden in 1803, before being absorbed by Bavaria in 1805.