Rudolf II "the blind" (8 August 1306 – 4 October 1353) was

Count Palatine of the Rhine This article lists counts palatine of Lotharingia, counts palatine of the Rhine, and electors of the Palatinate (), the titles of three counts palatine who ruled some part of the Rhine region in the Kingdom of Germany and the Holy Roman Empire b ...

(see Palatinate) from 1329 to 1353. He was born in Wolfratshausen, the son of

Rudolf I, Duke of Bavaria Rudolf I of Bavaria, called "the Stammerer" (; 4 October 1274 – 12 August 1319), a member of the Wittelsbach dynasty, was Duke of Upper Bavaria and Count Palatine of the Rhine from 1294 until 1317. Life Rudolf was born in Basel, the son o ...

, and Mechtild of Nassau, daughter of King Adolf of Nassau-Weilburg. His uncle was Emperor Louis IV. During his childhood, his father and his uncle fought over their inheritance. After the death of his father, his family was placed under the guardianship of Duke Johann von Nassau, who was a partisan of the Austrian cause. His uncle,

Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor Louis IV (; 1 April 1282 – 11 October 1347), called the Bavarian (, ), was King of the Romans from 1314, King of Italy from 1327, and Holy Roman Emperor from 1328 until his death in 1347. 20 October 1314 imperial election, Louis' election a ...

had taken the Palatinate by force of arms. In August 1322, the war finally came to an end, but only after Mechthild's death in June 1323, were the three nephews finally able to make peace with their uncle. His sons inherited

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

and Rudolf I's sons inherited the

Upper Palatinate The Upper Palatinate (; , , ) is an administrative district in the east of Bavaria, Germany. It consists of seven districts and 226 municipalities, including three cities. Geography The Upper Palatinate is a landscape with low mountains and nume ...

and the Palatinate in line with the Treaty of Pavia. He was blind only in the last years of his life.

Posterity

Rudolph married twice: *In 1328, he married Anne of Carinthia-Tyrol (1300 – 31 October 1331), daughter of Duke Otto III of Carinthia They had one daughter: Anne of the Palatinate (26 September 1329 – 2 February 1353) who married in 1349 the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV *In 1348, he married

Margaret of Sicily Margaret of Sicily (also called Margaret of Hohenstaufen or Margaret of Germany) (1 December 1241, in Foggia – 8 August 1270, in Frankfurt-am-Main) was a Princess of Sicily and Germany, and a member of the House of Hohenstaufen. By marriage ...

(1331 – 1377), daughter of King Frederick II of Sicily and

Eleanor of Anjou Eleanor of Anjou (August 1289 – 9 August 1341) was Queen of Sicily as the wife of King Frederick III of Sicily, Frederick III of Sicily. She was a member of the Capetian House of Anjou by birth. She was the third daughter of King Charles II of ...

. He died in Neustadt.

References

External links

Eintrag in der ADB

Counts Palatine of the Rhine 1306 births 1353 deaths Rudolf II, Duke of Bavaria {{Germany-noble-stub