Complex sentence: The lion always had a firm place in heraldry for the rulers of Bavaria, as Counts of the Rhine Palatinate the House of Wittelsbach had included it in its coat of arms since the High Middle Ages.
Split into simpler sentences: The lion always had a firm place in heraldry for the rulers of Bavaria. As Counts of the Rhine Palatinate the House of Wittelsbach had included it in its coat of arms since the High Middle Ages.