Louis II, Duke of Bavaria

Louis II, Duke of Bavaria
Duke Louis II, as depicted in a sculpture inside Fürstenfeld Abbey
Born	(1229-04-13)13 April 1229 Heidelberg
Died	2 February 1294(1294-02-02) (aged 64) Heidelberg
Noble family	House of Wittelsbach
Spouse(s)	Maria of Brabant Anna of Glogau Matilda of Habsburg
Detail Issue Rudolf I, Duke of Bavaria Agnes of Bavaria, Margravine of Brandenburg-Stendal Ludwig IV, Holy Roman Emperor
Father	Otto II Wittelsbach, Duke of Bavaria
Mother	Agnes of the Palatinate

Ludwig I or Louis I of Upper Bavaria (German: Ludwig II der Strenge, Herzog von Bayern, Pfalzgraf bei Rhein) (13 April 1229 – 2 February 1294) was Duke of Upper Bavaria and Count Palatine of the Rhine from 1253. He is known as Ludwig II or Louis II as Duke of Bavaria, and also as Louis the Strict. Born in Heidelberg, he was a son of duke Otto II and Agnes of the Palatinate. She was a daughter of the Welf Henry V, Count Palatine of the Rhine, her grandfathers were Henry XII the Lion and Conrad of Hohenstaufen.

Biography

In 1246, the young Louis supported his brother-in-law King Conrad IV of Germany against the usurpation of Heinrich Raspe. In 1251, Louis was at war again against the bishop of Regensburg.

Louis succeeded his father Otto as Duke of Bavaria in 1253. When the Wittelsbach country was divided in 1255 among Otto's sons, Louis received the Palatinate and Upper Bavaria making him the duke of Upper Bavaria, while his brother duke Henry XIII of Bavaria received Lower Bavaria making him the duke of Lower Bavaria. This partition was against the law and therefore caused the anger of the bishops in Bavaria who later allied themselves with king Ottokar II of Bohemia in 1257. During the German interregnum, after King William's death in 1256, Louis supported King Richard of Cornwall. In August 1257 King Ottokar finally invaded Bavaria, but Louis and Henry managed to repulse the attack. It was one of the rare concerted and harmonious actions of the two brothers, who often argued.

The main residences of Louis were at Alter Hof located at the very north-eastern part of Munich and Heidelberg Castle. As one of the Prince-electors of the empire, he was strongly involved in the royal elections for forty years. Together with his brother, Louis also aided his young Hohenstaufen nephew Conradin in his duchy of Swabia, but it was not possible to enforce Conradin's election as German king. As a result of his support for the Hohenstaufen, Louis was banned by the pope in 1266. In 1267 when his nephew crossed the Alps with an army, Louis accompanied Conradin only to Verona. After the young prince's execution in Naples in 1268, Louis inherited some of Conradin's possessions in Swabia and supported the election of the Habsburg Rudolph I against Ottokar II in 1273. On 26 August 1278, the armies of Rudolph and Louis met Ottokar's forces on the banks of the River March in the Battle of Dürnkrut and Jedenspeigen where Ottokar was defeated and killed. In 1289, the electoral dignity of Bavaria passed to Bohemia again, but Louis remained an elector as Count Palatine of the Rhine. After Rudolph's death in 1291, Louis could not enforce the election of his Habsburg brother-in-law Albert I against Adolf of Nassau.

Louis died at Heidelberg on February 2, 1294. He was succeeded by his eldest surviving son Rudolf I who had Adolf of Nassau as his father-in-law a few months later. Louis was buried in the crypt of Fürstenfeld Abbey.

Family and children

Louis II with his first two wives Maria of Brabant (middle) and Anna of Glogau (right), 16th century

Louis II was married three times.

Later marriages

Louis' third wife, Matilda of Habsburg

Louis married his second wife Anna of Glogau in 1260. They had the following children:

1. Maria (b. 1261), a nun in Marienberg abbey at Boppard.
2. Agnes (1262 – 21 October 1269).
3. Ludwig (13 September 1267 – 23 November 1290, killed at a tournament at Nuremberg).

He married his third wife Matilda of Habsburg, one of king Rudolph's daughters, on 24 October 1273.^[1] Their children were:

1. Rudolf I (4 October 1274, Basle – 12 August 1319).
2. Mechthild (1275 – 28 March 1319, Lüneburg), married 1288 to Duke Otto II of Brunswick-Lüneburg.
3. Agnes (ca. 1276/78 – 22 July 1345), married firstly in 1290 Landgrave Henry "the Younger" of Hesse and secondly 1298/1303 Henry I "Lackland", Margrave of Brandenburg.
4. Anna (b. 1280), a nun in Ulm.
5. Ludwig IV (1 April 1282, Munich – 11 October 1347, Puch -now a district of Fürstenfeldbruck-).

Louis II was succeeded by his eldest surviving son Rudolf I.

Ancestry

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Louis II, Duke of Bavaria.

• German wiki entry for Ludwig II. (Ludwig der Strenge)
• Genealogy of Ludwig II. (compilation of various sources, in German)