Bavaria

Since 555 Bavaria was a duchy, which was ruled by the family of Agilolfings. Under the Merovingians, it belonged to the sphere of influence of the Franks. . After a short period of autonomy in the 7th century, the Carolingian claiming this territory again for the Franks and this time with certain finality: Charlemagne exiled Duke Tassilo III in 788 to a life as monk and installed prefects for the territory.

With the decline of the Carolingians began again a period of independence. From 907 Arnulf I ruled by the family of Luitpoldings as King and Duke of Bavaria. But soon the area came again under the influence of the German kings, who could be dammed only briefly under the Welfs as dukes (starting from 1070). This period of Bavarian history ended in 1180, when Styria was made its own duchy.
In 1180, Otto I became the first member of House Wittelsbach to ascend to the Bavarian throne. This family governed the area until the year 1918. In the first centuries of the Wittelsbach rule many divisions took place, as the succession did not simply pass to the firstborn. Only the primogeniture law of 1506 ended this troubled phase.

During the Reformation Bavaria remained strictly Catholic through the efforts of the dukes. Duke Maximilian I received in 1623 in thanks for his help against the Bohemian estates the electorate from Emperor Ferdinand II. The new Electorate developed after the Thirty Years War into an absolutist state. 1806, the area was then elevated by Napoleon to the Kingdom of Bavaria and Maximilian I (formerly Duke Maximilian IV) to the first king.

Bavaria initially had no own coinage. The oldest mint of the area was in Regensburg; it dates back to the 9th century. Silver pennies were coined here throughout the Middle Ages. Arnulf I was the first minting master of Bavaria, who coined under his own name. The thin bracteates were in circulation from the 12th century to the 14th century. After the decline of value in the 15th century  of these small nominasl, Duke Albrecht IV began a comprehensive monetary reform in 1506/07: he divided the monetary system into larger (gold gulden, white pence, and gröschl) and smaller nominals (penny and heller) and claimed the minting authority  for himself and his successors alone. This system lasted for a long time. The thaler became common in Bavaria only at a very slow rate.