During the reign of Emperor Louis IV his son Stephen served as
vogt of
Swabia and
Alsace. The Emperor had acquired
Brandenburg,
Tyrol,
Holland and
Hainaut for his House but he had also released the
Upper Palatinate for the Palatinate branch of the Wittelsbach in 1329. When his father died in 1347, Stephen succeeded him as Duke of Bavaria and Count of
Holland and
Hainaut together with his five brothers. Louis IV had reunited Bavaria in 1340 but in 1349 the country was divided for the emperor's sons again into
Upper Bavaria,
Lower Bavaria-Landshut and
Bavaria-Straubing. Stephen II ruled from 1349 to 1353 together with his brothers
William I and
Albert I in
Holland and Lower Bavaria-Landshut, since 1353 only in Lower Bavaria-Landshut. After the temporary reconciliation of the Wittelsbach with
Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor, who had finally confirmed all Wittelsbach possessions, Stephen joined Charles' expedition to Italy in 1354. But soon the
Golden Bull of 1356 caused a new conflict since only the Palatinate branch of the Wittelsbach and his brother
Louis VI the Roman as margrave of Brandenburg were invested with the
electoral dignity. Stephen II was the last son of Emperor Louis IV who was in 1362 absolved from excommunication. When Duke
Meinhard, the son of his older brother
Louis V the Brandenburger died in 1363, Stephen II succeeded also in Upper Bavaria and invaded
Tyrol. To strengthen his position against
Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria he confederated with
Bernabò Visconti. Stephen finally renounced Tyrol to the
Habsburgs with the Peace of Schärding for a huge financial compensation after the death of
Margarete Maultasch in 1369. His conflict with his brother Louis VI the Roman on the Bavarian heritage of Meinhard finally caused also the loss of
Brandenburg by the
Wittelsbach dynasty since Louis then made Charles IV his contracted heir. However, Stephen accepted his brother
Otto, the last Wittelsbach regent of Brandenburg, as his nominal co-regent when he returned to Bavaria in 1373. Due to the loss of Brandenburg the Bavarian dukes received a financial compensation one more time. Stephen was succeeded by his three sons. He is buried in the
Frauenkirche in
Munich. ==Family and children==