Everything about Ludwig I Of Bavaria totally explained
Ludwig I (or
Louis I, which is the French form of his name, his
godfather was
Louis XVI of France) (
August 25 1786 in
Strasbourg –
February 29,
1868 in
Nice) was king of
Bavaria from
1825 until the
1848 revolutions in the German states.
Crown Prince
He was the son of
King Maximilian I and
Augusta Wilhelmine of Hesse-Darmstadt. In October
1810, he married
Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen (
1792-
1854), the daughter of
Frederick, Duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen. The wedding was the occasion of the first ever
Oktoberfest. Ludwig studied in
Landshut where he was taught by
Johann Michael Sailer and in
Göttingen.
Ludwig strongly rejected the alliance of his father with
Napoleon I of France but in spite of his anti-French politics the crown prince had to join the emperor's wars with allied Bavarian troops. In
1817 Ludwig was involved in the fall of Prime Minister
Count Max Josef von Montgelas. He succeeded his father on the throne in
1825.
Reign
Ludwig's rule was strongly affected by his enthusiasm for the arts and women and his overreaching royal assertiveness.
As enthusiast also for the German Middle Ages Ludwig ordered to reerect several monasteries in Bavaria which had been closed during the
German Mediatisation. He reorganized the administrative regions of Bavaria in
1837 and re-introduced the old names
Upper Bavaria,
Lower Bavaria,
Franconia,
Swabia,
Upper Palatinate and
Palatinate. He changed his royal titles to
Ludwig, King of Bavaria, Duke of Franconia, Duke in Swabia and Count Palatinate of the Rhine. His successors kept these titles. Ludwig's plan to reunite also the eastern part of the Palatinate with Bavaria couldn't be realized. The
Electoral Palatinate, a former dominion of the Wittelsbach, had been split up in
1815, the eastern bank of the Rhine with
Mannheim and
Heidelberg was given to
Baden, only the western bank was granted to Bavaria. Here Ludwig founded the city of
Ludwigshafen as a Bavarian rival to Mannheim.
Ludwig also encouraged Bavaria's industrialization. He initiated the Ludwig channel between the River
Main and the
Danube. In
1835 the first German railway was constructed in his domain, between the cities of
Fürth and
Nuremberg.
Ludwig supported the
Greek fight of independence: His second son
Otto was elected king of Greece in
1832.
After the
July Revolution in France
1830, his previous liberal policy became more and more repressive. The
Hambacher Fest in 1832 showed the discontent of the population suffered from high taxes and censorship. In
1837, the Roman Catholic supported clerical movement, the
Ultramontanes, came to power in the Bavarian parliament and began a campaign of reform to the constitution, which removed civil rights that had earlier been granted to Protestants, as well as enforcing censorship and forbidding the free discussion of internal politics. This regime was short-lived due to the demand by the Ultramontanes of the naturalization of Ludwig I's Irish mistress
Lola Montez, which was resented by Ludwig and the Ultramontanes were pushed out.
Ludwig had several love affairs and became one of the lovers of
Lady Jane Digby, an aristocratic
English adventuress. Ludwig became tainted with scandals associated with another of his mistresses, Lola Montez. It seems likely that his relationship with her contributed greatly to the fall from grace of the previously popular king.
During the
revolutions of 1848 he
abdicated on
March 20,
1848 in favour of his son,
Maximilian. He was buried in
St. Boniface's Abbey, Munich.
| Arms of the Kingdom of Bavaria 1835: |
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Cultural legacy
As admirer of ancient Greece and the Italian renaissance Ludwig patronised the arts as principal of many neoclassical buildings, especially in
Munich, and as fanatic collector. Among others he ordered to erect were the
Walhalla temple, the
Ludwigstrasse, the
Glyptothek, the
Old and the
New Pinakothek. One of his most famous conceptions was the celebrated "Schönheitengalerie" (Gallery of Beauties), in charge of the painter
Joseph Stieler, which contained portraits of several beautiful women who principally came from the high middle class. Also after his abdication, Ludwig remained an important sponsor for the arts.
He moved the
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität from
Landshut to
Munich in
1826.
Issue
By Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen (
8 July 1792 –
26 October 1854; married on
12 October 1810 in
Theresienwiese,
Munich)
| Name |
Birth |
Death |
Notes |
|
| Maximilian Joseph |
28 November 1811 |
10 March 1864 |
succeeded as King of Bavaria
married, 1842, Princess Marie of Prussia; had issue |
| Mathilde Karoline Friederike Wilhelmine Charlotte |
30 August 1813 |
25 August 1862 |
married, 1833, Ludwig III, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine; no issue |
| Otto Friedrich Ludwig |
1 June 1815 |
26 July 1867 |
become the 1st King of Greece
married, 1836, Duchess Amalia of Oldenburg; no issue |
| Theodolinde Charlotte Luise |
7 October 1816 |
12 April 1817 |
died in infancy |
| Luitpold Karl Joseph Wilhelm Ludwig |
21 March 1821 |
12 December 1912 |
Regent of Bavaria
married, 1844, Archduchess Auguste of Austria-Tuscany; had issue |
| Adelgunde Auguste Charlotte Caroline Elisabeth Amalie Marie Sophie Luise |
19 March 1823 |
28 January 1914 |
married, 1843, Francis V, Duke of Modena; had issue |
| Hildegard Luise Charlotte Theresia Friederike |
10 June 1825 |
2 April 1864 |
married, 1844, Archduke Albert of Austria, Duke of Teschen; had issue |
| Alexandra Amelie |
26 August 1826 |
21 September 1875 |
|
| Adalbert Wilhelm Georg Ludwig |
19 July 1828 |
21 September 1875 |
married, 1856, Infanta Amalia of Spain; had issue |
Ancestry
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