- Louis II, Duke of Bavaria
:"Not to be confused with King
Ludwig II of Bavaria ".Duke Louis II of Bavaria (German: "Ludwig II der Strenge, Herzog von Bayern, Pfalzgraf bei Rhein");
13 April 1229 –2 February 1294 , wasDuke of Bavaria and Count Palatine of the Rhine from 1253. Born inHeidelberg , he was a son of duke Otto II and Agnes of Palatinate. She was a daughter of the WelfHenry V, Count Palatine of the Rhine , her grandfathers were Henry XII the Lion andConrad of Hohenstaufen .Biography
In 1246 Ludwig supported his brother-in-law king
Conrad IV of Germany againstHeinrich Raspe and in 1251 Ludwig was at war again against thebishop of Regensburg . In 1253 Ludwig succeeded his father as duke of Bavaria.When the
Wittelsbach country was divided in 1255 among Otto's sons, Ludwig received the Palatinate andUpper Bavaria , while his brother duke Henry XIII of Bavaria receivedLower Bavaria . This partition was against the law and therefore caused the anger of the bishops in Bavaria who allied themselves with kingOtakar II of Bohemia in 1257. In August 1257 Ottokar invaded Bavaria, but Ludwig and Henry managed to repulse the attack. It was one of the rare harmonious actions of the two brothers, who often argued.During the German
interregnum after king William's death in 1256 Ludwig supported Richard of Cornwall.Together with his brother Ludwig also aided his youngHohenstaufen nephewConradin in his duchy ofSwabia , but it was not possible to enforce Conradin's election as German king. As a result for his support Ludwig was banned by the pope in 1266. In 1267 Ludwig accompanied Conradin only toVerona . After the young prince's execution inNaples in 1268, Ludwig inherited some of Conradin's possessions inSwabia and supported the election of theHabsburg Rudolph I against Ottokar II in 1273. On26 August 1278 the armies of Rudolph and Ludwig met Otakar's forces on the banks of theRiver March in theBattle of Dürnkrut and Jedenspeigen where Otakar was defeated and killed. In 1289 the electoral dignity of Bavaria passed to Bohemia again, but Ludwig remained an elector as Count Palatine of the Rhine. After Rudolph's death in 1291 Ludwig could not enforce the election of his Habsburg brother-in-law Albert I against Adolf of Nassau.Ludwig died at Heidelberg. His son Rudolf succeeded him, with Adolf of Nassau becoming his father-in-law a few months later. Ludwig was buried in the crypt of
Fürstenfeld Abbey .Family and children
Ludwig II was married three times.
The execution of Marie of Brabant
He had his first wife Marie of Brabant —a daughter of
Henry II, Duke of Brabant andMarie of Hohenstaufen — executed inDonauwörth in 1256 due to mistaken suspicion of adultery; back in those days the punishment for an adulterous wife was beheading. Any actual guilt on her part could never be validated. As expiation Ludwig founded the Cistercian friaryFürstenfeld Abbey (Fürstenfeldbruck) near Munich.Different sources tell varying tales about how this terrible mistake could happen in the first place: In 1256 Ludwig had been away from home for an extended time, due to his responsibilities as a sovereign in the area of the Rhine. His wife wrote two letters, one to her husband, and another to the earl of Kyburg at Hunsrück, a vassal of Ludwig. Details about the actual content of the second letter vary, but according to the chroniclers the messenger who carried the letter to Ludwig had been given the wrong one, and Ludwig came to the conclusion that his wife had a secret love affair.
Over time a great many tales of folklore sprang up around Ludwig's bloody deed, most of them written long after Ludwig's death: Ballad-mongers embellished the tale into a murderous frenzy, during which Ludwig allegedly not only killed his wife after having ridden home for five days and nights, but also stabbed the messenger who brought him the wrong letter, then upon entering his castle stabbed his own castellan and a court lady and threw his wife's maid from the battlements, before he massacred his wife either by stabbing her (why change a winning formula?) or cutting off her head.
Several more restrained chronicles support the account of Marie's execution in January 18, 1256 in Donauwörth at castle Mangoldstein by ducal decree for alleged adultery, but nothing beyond that.
Later marriages
In 1260 Ludwig married his second wife
Anna of Glogau . They had the following children:# Maria (b. 1261), a nun in
Marienburg abbey.
# Ludwig (13 September 1267 –23 November 1290 , killed at a tournament atNuremberg .He married his third wife Mechthild, one of king Rudolph's daughters, on
27 October 1273 . Their children were:# Agnes (ca. 1267/77–1345), married to:
## 1290 inDonauwörth LandgraveHenry II of Hesse ;
## 1298/1303 Heinrich I "Ohneland" ("Lackland"),Margrave of Brandenburg .
# Rudolf I (4 October 1274 ,Basle –12 August 1319 ).
# Mechthild (1275–28 March 1319 ,Lüneburg ), married 1288 to DukeOtto II of Braunschweig-Lüneburg .
# Ludwig IV (1 April 1282 ,Munich –11 October 1347 ,Puch bei Fürstenfeldbruck ).Ludwig II was succeeded by his oldest son Rudolf.
Links
* [http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_der_Strenge German wiki entry for Ludwig II. ("Ludwig der Strenge")]
* [http://www.genealogie-mittelalter.de/wittelsbacher_oberbayern/ludwig_2_der_strenge_herzog_von_bayern_+_1294.html Genealogy of Ludwig II. (compilation of various sources, in German)]
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