Duke Wilhelm in Bavaria

Wilhelm, Duke in Bavaria ( * November 10, 1752 in Gelnhausen, † January 8, 1837 Bamberg) was the Count Palatine and Duke of Gelnhausen. He was since February 16, 1799, the first Duke of Bavaria, a title of the Wittelsbach branch lines in the Palatinate, and from December 17, 1803 to March 20, 1806 governor in the Duchy of Berg. He never ruled over a principality of his own.

Life

His parents were Johann von Pfalz- Gelnhausen and Sophie Charlotte of Salm- Dhaun ( 1719-1770 ).

1778 William was made an honorary member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. William resided in Landshut and closed in 1797 when the last heiress relative, with the Elector and later king of Bavaria Maximilian I, the Ansbacher House contract in which the unity and indivisibility of wittelsbach between countries has been established. He married the sister of the elector, Maria Anna Countess Palatine of Birkenfeld -Zweibrücken and received on February 16, 1799 the title of Duke in Bavaria. In Apanagialrezeß 1803 William was awarded as a brother of the elector, the Duchy of Berg as alimony and thus the governorship. Until 1806, when the Duchy was ceded to Napoleon, Wilhelm took the electors in the Duchy. He could not reside in the ruined castle in Düsseldorf, but dodged on Inns, later the Governor's Palace and Castle Benrath.

After the secularization Wilhelm acquired in 1813 the monastery Banz near Bad Season stone. Since then transmits this also the name Castle Banz. Later it was sold to the Order of Angels, where the forests remained with the ducal house. Today, these forests have come by marriage into the ownership of the reigning House of Liechtenstein.

William is buried at Lake Tegernsee in the family vault of the Dukes of Bavaria. He decreed that after his death his heart should be transferred to the monastery church Banz. There it is in the church of St. Dionysius, and St. Peter left buried in the central pillars in the nave.