BAVARIAN IMPERIAL CIRCLE BAYERISCHER REICHSKREIS.
One of the original six Circles, the Bavarian Circle consisted of the Duchy (later the Electorate) of Bavaria and about a dozen small secular principalities, practically all of which had been absorbed by Bavaria by the later 18th century. The Archbishop of Salzburg, the Bishops of Freising, Regensburg and Passau, the princely Provost of the Abbey of Berchtesgaden, and the heads of the three Regensburg monasteries were also members of the Circle, as was the Imperial Free City of Regensburg.
All were absorbed into Bavaria during the Napoleonic era, though most of Salzburg was in Austria after 1815. The Duke of Bavaria and the Archbishop of Salzburg were the Directors of the Circle from 1521.