Part of Bavarian History is that former Bavarians used to live in a region north the Alps. They were occupied by the Celts, which was a part of the Roman provinces of Rhaetia and Noricum.
They spoke Old High German, and they have incorporated Marcomanni, Thuringians, Goths, Rugians, Heruli, and some outstanding Romans.
By the way, the name “Bavarian” (“Baiuvari”) means “Men of Baia,” which designates Bohemia, the homeland of the Marcomanni. For the past 550 to 788, the house of Agilolfing ruled the duchy of Bavaria. Then it lastly ended with Tassilo III who was deposed by Charlemagne.
The three early dukes of Bavaria were named in Frankish sources: Garibald was selected to the office by the Merovingian kings and he got married with Lombard princess Walderada in 555. Theodelinde daughter of Garibald later was chosen as the Queen of the Lombards which is in northern Italy. Lombard’s father was forced to escape when he fell out with his Frankish overlords.
In 600, Garibald’s successor, Tassilo I, failed to hold the eastern frontier against the growth of Slavs and Avars. Tassilo’s son Garibald II was supposed to have achieved equilibrium of authority between 610 and 616.
After Garibald II not anything much was known about the Bavarians until Duke Theodo I, in 680. His son, Theudebert, led a crucial Bavarian battle to interfere in a sequence dispute in the Lombard Kingdom in 714. He allowed his sister Guntrud to marry with the Lombard King Liutprand. At the time of Theodo’s death the duchy was separated among his sons. But his grandson Hucbert reunited it.
In the early 20th century Henrik Ibsen, Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky were drawn to Schwabing, Bavaria later devastated by World War II.
