Birth : 18 May 1869 – Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria. Rupprecht was born in Munich, the eldest of the thirteen children of Prince Ludwig of Bavaria, the future King Ludwig III and his wife Maria Theresa of Austria-Este, who was the niece and heir of the childless Francis V, Duke of Modena who had been, at the time of his death, the Jacobite heir-general to the thrones of England and Scotland; as such, she became the heir after his death in 1875. In 1886 Rupprechts grandfather, Prince Luitpold, became de facto ruler of Bavaria when King Ludwig II and his successor King Otto both were declared insane in 1886. Rupprechts own position changed somewhat through these events as it became clear that he was likely to succeed to the Bavarian throne one day. At the age of 31, Rupprecht married his kinswoman Duchess Marie Gabrielle in Bavaria, with whom he had five children before her early death in 1912 at the age of 34. He also lost his grandfather in the same year, his father succeeding him in the position of Prinzregent, who in the Following Year was made king by the Bavarian Senate, becoming Ludwig III. This decision also made Rupprecht the Crown Prince of Bavaria. Rupprecht lost his chance to rule Bavaria when it became a republic in the revolution of 1918 that followed the first world war. Rupprecht escaped to Tyrol in fear of reprisals from the brief communist regime in Bavaria under Kurt Eisner but returned in September 1919. While away from Bavaria, he succeeded his mother, as the Jacobite heir. This occurred upon her death on 3 February 1919. As such, under his anglicized name he would be King Robert I (or Rupert) (King of England) and IV (King of Scotland), although he never claimed these crowns and strongly discouraged anyone from claiming them on his behalf. On 7 April 1921, he married as second wife Princess Antoinette of Luxembourg, who bore him six further children. While opposed to the Weimar Republic and never having renounced his rights to the throne, Rupprecht envisioned a Constitutional monarchy for Bavaria. Upon his fathers death in October 1921, Rupprecht declared his claim to the throne since his father had never formally renounced his crown in the Anif declaration. While never crowned king, he did become the head of the House of Wittelsbach until his own death on 2 August 1955.
Posted on: Sun, 18 May 2014 19:29:04 +0000
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