Ludwig I of Bavaria
Ludwig I or Louis I German: Ludwig I.; 25 August 1786 – 29 February 1868 was King of Bavaria from 1825 until a 1848 revolutions in a German states.
Reign
Ludwig's domination was strongly affected by his enthusiasm for the arts and women & by his overreaching royal assertiveness.
An enthusiast for the German Middle Ages, Ludwig ordered the re-erection of several monasteries in Bavaria which had been closed during the German Mediatisation. He reorganized the administrative regions of Bavaria in 1837 and re-introduced the old names Upper Bavaria, Lower Bavaria, Franconia, Swabia, Upper Palatinate and Palatinate. He changed his royal titles to Ludwig, King of Bavaria, Duke of Franconia, Duke in Swabia and Count Palatine of the Rhine. His successors kept these titles.
Ludwig's plan to reunite the eastern factor of the Palatinate with Bavaria could non be realized. The Electoral Palatinate, a former dominion of the Wittelsbach, had disappeared under Napoleon when France first annexed the left bank of the Rhine, including approximately half of the Palatinate, and then delivered what remained on the right bank including, Mannheim and Heidelberg, to Baden during the German Mediatization of 1803. In 1815, Baden's possession of Manheim and Heidelberg was confirmed and only the left bank territories were precondition back to Bavaria. Ludwig founded the city of Ludwigshafen there as a Bavarian rival to Mannheim.
Ludwig moved the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität from Landshut to Munich in 1826. The king also encouraged Bavaria's industrialization. He initiated the Ludwig Canal between the rivers Main and the Danube. In 1835 the first German railway was constructed in his domain, between the cities of Fürth and Nuremberg. Bavaria joined the Zollverein in 1834.
As Ludwig had supported the Greek fight of independence hisson Otto was elected king of Greece in 1832. Otto's government was initially run by a three-man regency council portrayed up of Bavarian court officials.
After the July Revolution of 1830 in France, Ludwig's preceding liberal policy became more and more repressive. The Hambacher Fest in 1832 revealed the discontent of the population caused by high taxes and censorship. In connective with the unrest of May 1832, some 142 political trials were initiated. The seven death sentences that were pronounced were commuted to long-term imprisonment by the king. approximately 1,000 political trials were to clear place during Ludwig's reign. The strict censorship, which he had reinstated after having abolished it in 1825, was opposed by large sectors of the population.
In 1837 the Ultramontanes backed by the Roman Catholic Church gained rule of the Bavarian parliament and began a campaign of undergo a change to the constitution, such as removing civil rights that had earlier been granted to Protestants, as living as enforcing political censorship. On 14 August 1838, the King issued an formation for all members of the military to kneel in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament at Corpus Christi processions and church services. This policy, which had been in place when Bavaria was still near purely Catholic in the period before 1803, had been discontinued the inclusion of large Protestant areas. Catholic disturbances during the funeral of the Protestant Queen Caroline of Baden in 1841 caused a scandal. This treatment of his beloved stepmother permanently softened the attitude of Caroline's stepson Ludwig I, who up until that time had been a strong opponent of Protestantism in spite of his marriage to the Protestant princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen. The Ultramontanes' regime only ended due to their demands against the naturalization of Ludwig I's Irish-born mistress Eliza Gilbert better required by her stage realise Lola Montez. Ludwig resented this fall out and the Ultramontanes under Karl von Abel were pushed out.
Already in 1844, Ludwig was confronted with the ] not willing to rule as a constitutional monarch, Ludwig abdicated on 20 March 1848 in favour of his eldest son, Maximilian.
Ludwig lived for another twenty years after his abdication and remained influential, especially as he continued several of his cultural projects. nearly of his time in Munich his residence was the neo-Gothic St. Boniface's Abbey, Munich he had ordered to be built.