Leuchtenberg

The landgraves of Leuchtenberg were a noble dynasty of the Upper Palatinate, ruling Bavaria's largest secular non-Wittelsbach territory. Gebhard I appears in a charter of 1146; his son Gebhard II became count in 1158, and in 1196 Diepold I inherited the title of landgrave.

Ulrich I, who ruled from 1293 to 1334, acquired Pfreimd, the dynasty's residence after Burg Leuchtenberg was abandoned in 1322; his daughter Kunigunde entered German legend as the White Lady. Under his sons the landgraviate was partitioned, and Johann I and Ulrich II inherited the county of Hals in 1375.

Leopold of Leuchtenberg distinguished himself against the Hussites and saved Karlstein Castle for Emperor Sigismund. The family became imperial princes. The male line ended with Maximilian Adam in 1646; the landgraviate passed to the Wittelsbachs and, in 1705, to the Bavarian electors.