The principality arose upon the death of the Hohenzollern burgrave
Frederick V of Nuremberg on 21 January 1398, when his lands were partitioned between his two sons: the elder, Burgrave
John III received Kulmbach-Bayreuth and the younger,
Frederick VI, received the
Principality of Ansbach. The two principalities were once again united under the younger son, Frederick, after John's death on 11 June 1420. At the
Council of Constance in 1415, Emperor
Sigismund vested Frederick with the hereditary title of an
Elector of Brandenburg (as Frederick I). Frederick finally sold his burgravial title to the citizens of the
Imperial City of Nuremberg. On his death in 1440, his territories were again divided between his sons: the eldest,
John the Alchemist had waived his right of primogeniture and succeeded his father in Kulmbach-Bayreuth, while the second,
Frederick Irontooth, received the Brandenburg electorate. Ansbach passed to the third son
Albert Achilles. As John the Alchemist had no male heirs, he renounced his rights in 1457, whereupon Kulmbach-Bayreuth fell to his brother, Albert Achilles. When the eldest brother, the Brandenburg elector Frederick Irontooth abdicated in 1470, Albert united all Hohenzollern territories under his rule. After Albert's death in 1486 the Franconian principalities were finally partitioned according to his
Dispositio Achillea disposition, passing to the younger sons of his second marriage with
Anna of Saxony, Margrave
Siegmund and his brother
Frederick II.
Elder line While the Brandenburg electorate became the power base for the rising Hohenzollern dynasty, the Principality of Kulmbach-Bayreuth was held by Frederick's descendants, temporarily in
personal union with Ansbach. The rulers were commonly known as the Margraves of Brandenburg-Bayreuth (though Bayreuth is nowhere near Brandenburg). Kulmbach-Bayreuth became part of the
Franconian Circle in 1500. After in 1541 the ambitious Margrave
Albert Alcibiades assumed the rule over Kulmbach-Bayreuth, he barged onto the battlegrounds of the
Schmalkaldic War, several times switching sides between Emperor
Charles V and the Lutheran princes of the
Schmalkaldic League. In 1552 he sparked the
Second Margrave War against Nuremberg and the neighbouring
Prince-bishoprics of
Würzburg and
Bamberg. His soaring plans to re-establish the medieval
Duchy of Franconia under his rule ended with his utter defeat and an
Imperial ban in 1554. Albert was succeeded by his cousin Margrave
George Frederick in 1557, who from 1577 also ruled in the
Duchy of Prussia as regent for his incapable Hohenzollern relative Duke
Albert Frederick, Duke of Prussia. With George Frederick's death in 1603, the elder Bayreuth line became extinct. He left his successor, Margrave
Christian, younger son of the Brandenburg elector
John George, an orderly and functioning state.
Younger line Margrave Christian took his residence in Bayreuth; in 1655 he was succeeded by his grandson
Christian Ernst, who gained power and influence on Imperial politics in the military rank of a
Field marshal. In 1705 his son Prince
George William founded the
Ordre de la Sincerité, predecessor to the Prussian
Order of the Red Eagle. Margrave
Frederick, ruling from 1735, and his wife
Wilhelmine of Prussia, both patrons of arts and sciences, had the Bayreuth residence largely rebuilt in a distinct
Baroque style (
Markgrafenstil), including the erection of the
Margravial Opera House finished in 1748. A university was founded in 1742 and relocated to
Erlangen the next year. The younger line of the Brandenburg-Bayreuth margraves died out in 1769 with the death of
Frederick Christian, whereafter Bayreuth and Ansbach were once again ruled in personal union by Margrave
Charles Alexander. On 2 December 1791, Charles Alexander signed a treaty with King
Frederick William II of Prussia, whereby he ceded his principalities to the Prussian state against a lifelong annuity. He married socialite
Elizabeth Craven and retired to private life in
England, while Bayreuth and Ansbach were governed by the Prussian minister
Karl August von Hardenberg. Occupied by
French troops during the
War of the Fourth Coalition, Prussia had to cede Bayreuth according to the 1807
Treaty of Tilsit. At the 1808
Congress of Erfurt, the French emperor
Napoleon offered it for sale to the newly established
Kingdom of Bavaria; it changed owners in 1810 against a payment of 15 million francs. ==Margraves==