Upper Palatine

The Upper Palatine people inhabit the wooded hill country around Amberg, where Northern Bavarian dialects are spoken. In the High Middle Ages this was the Bavarian March of the Nordgau, colonized along the Naab river against the Slavs and Bohemians.

From the mid-1200s the Wittelsbachs held most of the region as part of the County Palatine of the Rhine. The Treaty of Pavia of 1329 split their inheritance: the western lands became the Lower Palatinate, while the eastern territory took the name Upper Palatinate.

Elector Palatine Frederick V's failed bid for the Bohemian crown in 1619 and 1620 cost him these lands, which the Emperor granted to the Duke of Bavaria. The Peace of Westphalia in 1648 left the Upper Palatinate with Bavaria. The free imperial city of Regensburg was added in 1806, and in 1837 King Ludwig I renamed the Regen district the Upper Palatinate.