Ludwig
Prince of Bavaria
Ludwig (Ludwig Luitpold Josef Maria Aloys Alfried; 7 January 1845 – 18 October 1921) was the last King of Bavaria, reigning from 1913 to 1918. Initially, he served in the Bavarian military as a lieutenant and went on to hold the rank of Oberleutnant during the Austro-Prussian War. He entered politics at the age of 18 becoming a member of the Bavarian parliament and was a keen participant in politics, supporting electoral reforms. Later in life, he served as regent and de facto head of state from 1912 to 1913, ruling for his cousin, Otto. After the Bavarian parliament passed a law allowing him to do so, Ludwig deposed Otto and assumed the throne for himself. He led Bavaria during World War I. His short reign was seen as championing conservative causes and he was influenced by the Catholic encyclical Rerum novarum. After the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the German Empire was dissolved and the Weimar Republic was created. As a result of this revolution, the Bavarian throne was abolished along with the other monarchies of the German states, ending the House of Wittelsbach's 738-year reign over Bavaria. Fearing that he might be a victim of an assassination, Ludwig fled to Hungary, Liechtenstein and then Switzerland. He returned to Bavaria in 1920 and lived at Wildenwart Castle. Ludwig would die shortly after, when he was staying at Nádasdy Mansion in Sárvár.
The 1st Royal Bavarian Chevau-légers "Emperor Nicholas of Russia" (Königlich Bayerisches Chevaulegers-Regiment „Kaiser Nikolaus von Rußland“ Nr. 1) was a light cavalry regiment of the Royal Bavarian Army. The regiment was formed in 1682 and fought in the Battle of Vienna, the Great Turkish War, the War of the Spanish Succession, the War of the Austrian Succession, the Napoleonic Wars, the Austro-Prussian War, the Franco-Prussian War, and World War I. The regiment was disbanded in 1919.
The House of Wittelsbach (German: Haus Wittelsbach) is a former Bavarian dynasty, with branches that have ruled over territories including the Electorate of Bavaria, the Electoral Palatinate, the Electorate of Cologne, Holland, Zeeland, Sweden (with Swedish-ruled Finland), Denmark, Norway, Hungary, Bohemia, and Greece. Their ancestral lands of Bavaria and the Palatinate were prince-electorates, and the family had three of its members elected emperors and kings of the Holy Roman Empire. They ruled over the Kingdom of Bavaria which was created in 1805 and continued to exist until 1918. The 1805 Peace of Pressburg (now Bratislava) between Emperor Napoleon of France and Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor, as a consequence of the French victory over the Russians and Austrians at the Battle of Austerlitz (2 December), allowed Maximilian to raise Bavaria to the status of a kingdom. Accordingly, Maximilian proclaimed himself king on 1 January 1806. The King still served as an elector until Bavaria seceded from the Holy Roman Empire on 1 August 1806, joining the Confederation of the Rhine. The Duchy of Berg was ceded to Napoleon only in 1806. The Congress of Vienna 1814−15 led to the establishment of significant territorial gains for the Kingdom of
Bavaria. Although the Duchy of Berg remained lost, almost all of Franconia, previously ruled by a number of Prince-bishops, as well as parts of Swabia, which had belonged to various mediatised secular and ecclesiastic princes, came under Bavarian rule. In both areas a number of formerly free imperial cities were also integrated into the kingdom. The previously heavily fragmented Palatinate territory was rounded off and partially moved. Smaller, mostly ecclesiastical territories on the southern border with Austria were also added. In this way, the border of Bavaria, which largely still exists today, was redefined and the state grew by more than a third in size. Under Maximilian's descendants, Bavaria became the third most powerful German state, behind only Prussia and Austria. When the German Empire was formed in 1871, Bavaria became the new empire's second most powerful state after Prussia. The Wittelsbachs reigned as kings of Bavaria until the German Revolution of 1918–1919. On 12 November 1918 Ludwig III issued the Anif declaration (German: Anifer Erklärung) at Anif Palace in Austria, in which he released his soldiers and officials from their oath of loyalty to him and ended the 738-year rule of the House of Wittelsbach in Bavaria.
Royal Standard of the King of Bavaria. The white and blue lozenges, also known as "Wecken", originally came from the coat of arms of the Counts of Bogen and were adopted in 1242 by the Wittelsbachs, the ruling family of Bavaria from the 12th to the 20th century. From 1337, the Wittelsbachs used the diamond flag as their symbol. After that, there were various versions in which other elements were also added to the flag, such as the Palatinate lion in the flag of the Dukes of Bavaria-Landshut and Bavaria-Munich. There was no official flag for the state of Bavaria, only the rulers flew a flag.
Awards: Sash and star of the Royal Order of Saint Hubert (Sankt Hubertus Königlicher Orden), Stars of the Royal Military Order of Saint George for the Defense of the Faith and the Immaculate Conception (Königlicher Militärorden des Heiligen Georg zur Verteidigung des Glaubens und der Unbefleckten Empfängnis), the Military Order of Max Joseph (Militär-Max-Joseph-Orden) and the Military Merit Order (Militär-Verdienstorden).
