Stephen III, Duke of Bavaria

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

Family

His maternal grandparents were Frederick III of Sicily and Eleanor of Anjou. Her parents were Charles II of Naples and Maria Arpad of Hungary.

Maria was a daughter of Stephen V of Hungary and his wife, queen Elisabeth, who was daughter of Zayhan of Kuni, a chief of the Cuman tribe and had been a pagan before her marriage.

Stephen V was a son of Béla IV of Hungary and Maria Laskarina. Maria Laskarina was a daughter of Theodore I Lascaris and Anna Angelina. Anna was daughter of Eastern Roman Emperor Alexius III and Euphrosyne Doukaina Kamaterina.

Reign

From 1375 to 1392 he ruled with his brothers Frederick and John II in Bavaria-Landshut. In 1392 Bavaria-Landshut was reduced since Bavaria-Ingolstadt and Bavaria-Munich were created. 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. Stephen III received Bavaria-Ingolstadt after the division of Bavaria, he soon considered this agreement as a disadvantage. In 1395-1397 he then jointly held also Bavaria-Munich together with John II 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.

Family and children

He was married twice. First, he was married on 13 October 1364 to Taddea Visconti, daughter of Bernabò Visconti and Beatrice della Scala. Second, he was married in Cologne on 16 January 1401 to Elisabeth of Cleves, daughter of Count Adolf III of Cleves. He had, from his first marriage, a son, Louis VII the Bearded, who succeeded him in Bavaria-Ingolstadt, and a daughter, who became the French queen, Isabeau of Bavaria.