Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Duke Ludwig in Bavaria, brother of Sisi, has died


November 10, 1920

Duke Ludwig in Bavaria, "the senior member of the House of Wittelsbach, has died, according to a dispatch from Basle, Switzerland.  He was 89 years old.

The duke, a brother of the late Empress Elisabeth of Austria, was born in Munich on June 21, 1831.  He had been married twice.  Both marriages were morganatic.  Two years ago, he received a divorce from his second wife.
As a young man, "he served in the Bavarian Cavalry and had attained the rank of General."  In 1859, he caused a scandal in his family, when he renounced his dynastic rights to "contract a morganatic marriage" with an actress, Henriette Mendel, who was created Baroness de Wallersee.  She died in 1891, and a year later, Ludwig married again.  His second wife was a Munich ballet dancer named Barth, "later called Frau von Bartolf."

The Bavarian Royal family "were moderately cordial" to Ludwig's first wife, but never accepted his second wife, who was forty-two years his junior."

Duke Ludwig was often in "financial difficulties."  He once was "compelled to sell a piece of royal property to a Munich brewery."  On several occasions, his sister, Empress Elisabeth, "warded off his creditors.

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