In the 6th century the Bavarians advanced from the north and in 1027 Tirol became a part of the Duchy of Bavaria. The German emperors took the strategically important "land in the mountains" away from the Dukes of Bavaria and gave it to the Bishops of Brixen and Trient.
The bishops enfeoffed various counties with Tirolean valleys. In 1286 Count Meinhard II of Görz-Tirol united the territories into the County of Tirol. In 1363 Countess Maultasch handed over Tirol to the Habsburg Duke Rudolf IV of Austria. In 1420 Duke Friedrich IV transferred the royal seat from Meran to Innsbruck. In 1490, his son, Duke Sigmund, abdicated in favor of his cousin, who later became Emperor Maximilian I. Under Maximilian´s rule Innsbruck became an administrative capital and artistic and cultural center.
In 1703 the Bavarians attempted to capture the whole of Tirol. In alliance with the French they reached as far as the Brenner Pass before beating back. Another Franco-Bavarian alliance during the Napoleonic Wars saw Tirol incorporated into Bavaria. In 1809 Andreas Hofer led a successful fight for independence, only to have Vienna return Tirol to Bavaria under a treaty later that year. A further blow was dealt to Tirol by the Treaty of St. Germain in 1919: prosperous South Tirol was ceded to Italy and East Tirol was isolated from the rest of the province.
