Stephen III, Duke of Bavaria

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Duke Stephen III of Bavaria (German, in full: Stephan III der Kneißl, Herzog von Bayern; 1337 — September 26, 1413, Niederschönfeld) was a Duke of Bavaria since 1375. He was the eldest son of Stephen II and Elizabeth of Sicily.

From 1375 to 1392 he ruled with his brothers Frederick and John II and received Ingolstadt after the division of Bavaria among the brothers in 1392. John had initiated a new partition of Bavaria since he refused to finance the Italian adventures of his brothers and Stephen's expensive holding of court. In 1395-1397 he jointly held also Bavaria-Munich with John II again after an armed conflict between both brothers. After the death of both of his brothers Stephen tried to extent his duchy. This caused a long conflict with his nephews. In opposite to them Stephen also supported King Rupert against the Luxemburg party. He was forced by his nephew Ernest to confine his reign to Bavaria-Ingolstadt in 1402 and therefore supported the uprisings of the citizenry of Munich in 1403 which failed. His attempt in 1410 to reconquer Tyrol which his father once had released to Habsburg was not successful.

[edit] Family and children

He was two times. First, he married 13 October 1364 with Taddaea Visconti, daughter of Bernabò Visconti and Beatrice della Scala. Second, he married in Cologne 16 January 1401 with Elisabeth of Cleves, daughter of Count Adolf II of Cleves. He had from first marriage a son Louis VII the Bearded, who succeeded him in Bavaria-Ingolstadt, and a daughter, who was the French queen Isabeau of Bavaria.