Thursday, February 18, 2010

MM Video: Bavarian Kings

7 comments:

  1. Quick question you might be able to answer. I have studied the german monarchies quite well, but failed to really grasp why Otto II was dethroned. I got some indications that he was not all that OK in the head, but i have not got any reliable source yet..

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  2. You might need to be more specific because nothing is ringing a bell with me. The only ones who come to mind are Emperor Otto II and Duke Otto II of Bavaria and I don'r recall either of them being dethroned for any reason. There were quite a few Otto's in German history so maybe it is another one you're thinking of? King Ludwig II of Bavaria was deposed on grounds of insanity -is that the one you're thinking of?

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  3. No no no, i am thinking of the one you have picture of. Prince Regent Luitpold succeeded him around 1800. I do beleive his father was Ludwig I, and his uncle was the Swan King Ludwig II himself. And from what i have heard he did not rule long, but was locked away. But that can just be hearsay. But perhaps they called him Otto I... might be wrong with the nr. All sources i have ever read just say he was declared insane.. But not what type of insanity or what.

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  4. Yes, yes, yes, I know the one now, that was King Otto I of Bavaria. Unfortunately not much is available on him, I know a number of people who have decried the lack of details on him. He does seem to have been very severely insane or perhaps mentally disabled would be a better term. Some have attributed it to a very severe sort of PTSD from the Franco-Prussian War, and of course insanity ran in the family. I don't have any good details to share, maybe some others will know more, but from all I've heard he was definitely severely mentally ill, was kept in seclusion from most of his life and may not have even known he was the nominal king of Bavaria.

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  5. Can you read german btw ? i have managed to get a responce from a professor but need someone to translate :)

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  6. Probably not as well as I used to but there's also plenty of on-line translators that could probably give you as good a general version as I could.

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  7. Hi, there is a useful entry on Otto at Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_of_Bavaria.

    His uncle Luitpold (brother of King Ludwig I) reigned as Prince Regent for Otto until Luitpold's death. Luitpold's son Ludwig then became the next Prince Regent. He couldn't wait for Otto's death and declared himself King Ludwig III in 1913. So Bavaria had two kings, Otto and Ludwig, until Otto's death in 1916. Many Bavarians believed then that this would curse the reigning house of Wittelsbach, which it eventually did. There was the revolution in 1918 and Ludwig III had to abdicate. The Bavarians did also not forget the dark role Ludwig III played in the abdication process (and murder?) of his cousin Ludwig II. Since Ludwig II loved France and hated Prussia, he started to make alliances with the French in the 1880s. Bismarck could not allow that. On the other side, the Wittelsbach house under Luitpold and his son Ludwig (III) were very worried due to the debts of Ludwig II jeopardizing their wealth. So a combination of Prussian (stabilizing their leading role in the newly created German Reich) and the ambitions of the Wittelsbach led the way to the assassination of Ludwig II.

    By the way, you may want to have a look at the Wikipedia entry of Prince Paul of Thurn and Taxis, a close and intimate friend of Ludwig II http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Paul_of_Thurn_and_Taxis

    By the way, congrats to your greatblog. Allan

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