Duke Ludwig Wilhelm in Bavaria (1884–1968)

Duke Ludwig Wilhelm Karl Norbert Theodor Johann in Bavaria (17 January 1884 – 5 November 1968) was a member of a cadet branch of the House of Wittelsbach, Kingdom of Bavaria's ruling dynasty. This, younger line of the family held the title Duke in Bavaria.

Life

Ludwig Wilhelm was born at Schloss Tegernsee, the eldest son of Duke Karl Theodor in Bavaria and his second wife, Infanta Maria Josepha of Portugal, third daughter of an exiled King Miguel I of Portugal. He was nephew of Empress Sissi. Charlotte, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg, Empress Zita, the last Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary, and Prince Felix of Bourbon-Parma, Prince consort of Luxembourg, husband of Grand Duchess Charlotte and brother of Empress Zita, were among Ludwig Wilhelm's first cousins.

By royal command of King Leopold II, he received the Grand Cordon of Leopold as a gift of his sister's wedding in 1900.^[1] His elder sister Elisabeth in Bavaria married Albert, Crown Prince of Belgium. However the Prince was only 14 years old and today remains one of the youngest Grand Cordons in Belgian History.^[2]

On 19 March 1917 in Kreuth, he married Princess Eleonore Anna Lucie zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg (1880-1965), widow of Otto Victor II, Fürst of Schönburg-Waldenburg (1882 – killed at Rheims, 14 September 1914). She was the only daughter of Prince Franz zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg (1842-1909) and his wife, Countess Julia Cavalcanti d'Albuquerque de Villeneuve (1859-1930). The marriage remained childless, as did Eleonore's first marriage to Otto Victor II.

After the death of his wife on 20 February 1965, he adopted Max Emanuel, the grandson of his sister Duchess Marie Gabrielle in Bavaria.

Ludwig Wilhelm died on 5 November 1968 in Wildbad Kreuth, a spa he owned and had converted into a modern sanatorium in 1957.

Ancestry

References