[1] His name is phonetically spelt Laudon or Laudohn by Germans, and
the latter form was that adopted by himself and his family. In 1759,
however, he reverted to the original Scottish form.
LOUDOUN, JOHN CAMPBELL, 1ST EARL OF (1598-1663), Scottish politician,
eldest son of Sir James Campbell of Lawers, became Baron Loudoun in
right of his wife Margaret, granddaughter of Hugh Campbell, 1st Baron
Loudoun (d. 1622). He was created earl on the 12th of May 1633, but in
consequence of his opposition to Charles I.'s church policy in Scotland
the patent was stopped in Chancery. In 1637 he was one of the
supplicants against the introduction of the English liturgy; and with
John Leslie, 6th earl of Rothes, he took a leading part in the
promulgation of the Covenant and in the General Assembly which met at
Glasgow in the autumn of 1638. He served under General Leslie, and was
one of the Scottish commissioners at the Pacification of Berwick in June
1639. In November of that year and again in 1640 the Scottish estates
sent Loudoun with Charles Seton, 2nd earl of Dunfermline, to London on
an embassy to Charles I. Loudoun intrigued with the French ambassador
and with Thomas Savile, afterwards earl of Sussex, but without much
success. He was in London when John Stewart, earl of Traquair, placed in
Charles's hands a letter signed by Loudoun and six others and addressed
to Louis XIII. In spite of his protest that the letter was never sent,
and that it would in any case be covered by the amnesty granted at
Berwick, he was sent to the Tower. He was released in June, and two
months later he re-entered England with the Scottish invading army, and
was one of the commissioners at Ripon in October. In the following
August (1641) Charles opened parliament at Edinburgh in person, and in
pursuance of a policy of conciliation towards the leaders of the
Covenant Loudoun was made lord chancellor of Scotland, and his title of
earl of Loudoun was allowed. He also became first commissioner of the
treasury. In 1642 he was sent by the Scottish council to York to offer
to mediate in the dispute between Charles and the parliament, and later
on to Oxford, but in the second of these instances Charles refused to
accept his authority. He was constantly employed in subsequent
negotiations, and in 1647 was sent to Charles at Carisbrooke Castle, but
the "Engagement" to assist the king there made displeased the extreme
Covenanters, and Loudoun was obliged to retract his support of it. He
was now entirely on the side of the duke of Argyll and the preachers. He
assisted in the capacity of lord chancellor at Charles II.'s coronation
at Scone, and was present at Dunbar. He joined in the royalist rising of
1653, but eventually surrendered to General Monk. His estates were
forfeited by Cromwell, and a sum of money settled on the countess and
her heirs. At the Restoration he was removed from the chancellorship,
but a pension of £1000 granted him by Charles I. in 1643 was still
allowed him. In 1662 he was heavily fined. He died in Edinburgh on the
15th of March 1663.
The earl's elder son, James (d. 1684), 2nd earl of Loudoun, passed his
life out of Great Britain, and when he died at Leiden was succeeded by
his son Hugh (d. 1731). The 3rd earl held various high positions in
England and Scotland, being chosen one of the representative peers for
Scotland at the union of the parliaments in 1707. He rendered good
service to the government during the rising of 1715, especially at the
battle of Sheriffmuir, and was succeeded as 4th earl by his son John
(1705-1782), who fought against the Jacobites in 1745, was
commander-in-chief of the British force in America in 1756 and died
unmarried. The title then passed to James Mure Campbell (d. 1786), a
grandson of the 2nd earl, and was afterwards borne by the marquesses
of Hastings, descendants of the 5th earl's daughter and heiress, Flora
(1780-1840). Again reverting to a female on the death of Henry, 4th
marquess of Hastings, in 1868, it came afterwards to Charles (b.
1855), a nephew of this marquess, who became 11th earl of Loudoun.
LOUDUN, a town of western France, capital of an arrondissement in the
department of Vienne, on an eminence overlooking a fertile plain, 45 m.
by rail S.W. of Tours. Pop. (1906) 3931. It was formerly surrounded by
walls, of which a single gateway and two towers remain. Of the old
castle of the counts of Anjou which was destroyed under Richelieu, the
site now forming a public promenade, a fine rectangular donjon of the
12th century is preserved; at its base traces of Roman constructions
have been found, with fragments of porphyry pavement, mosaics and mural
paintings. The Carmelite convent was the scene of the trial of Urban
Grandier, who was burnt alive for witchcraft in 1634; the old Romanesque
church of Sainte Croix, of which he was curé, is now used as a market.
The church of St Pierre-du-Marché, Gothic in style with a Renaissance
portal, has a lofty stone spire. There are several curious old houses in
the town. Théophraste Renaudot (d. 1653), founder of the _Gazette de
France_, was born at Loudun, where there is a statue of him. The
manufacture of lace and upholstery trimming and of farm implements is
carried on, and there is a considerable trade in agricultural products,
wine, &c. Loudun (_Laudunum_ in ancient times) was a town of importance
during the religious wars and gave its name in 1616 to a treaty
favourable to the Protestants.
LOUGHBOROUGH, a market town and municipal borough in the Loughborough
(Mid) parliamentary division of Leicestershire, England, near the river
Soar and on the Loughborough canal. Pop. (1901) 21,508. It is 110 m.
N.N.W. of London by the Midland railway, and is served by the Great
Central and a branch of the London and North-Western railways. The
neighbourhood is a rich agricultural district, and to the S.W. lies the
hilly tract known as Charnwood Forest. The church of All Saints stands
on rising ground, and is a conspicuous object for many miles round; it
is of Decorated work, and the tower is Perpendicular. The other churches
are modern. Public buildings include the town hall and exchange, town
offices, county hall and free library. The grammar school, founded in
1495 under the charity of Thomas Burton, occupies modern buildings in
pleasant grounds. There is also a girls' grammar school partly dependent
on the same foundation. The principal industry is hosiery making; there
are also engineering, iron and dye works and bell foundries. The great
bell for St Paul's cathedral, London, was cast here in 1881.
Loughborough was incorporated in 1888. Area, 3045 acres.
The manor of Loughborough (_Lucteburne, Lucteburg, Lughteburgh_) was
granted by William the Conqueror to Hugh Lupus, from whom it passed to
the Despensers. In 1226-1227 when it belonged to Hugh Despenser he
obtained various privileges for himself and his men and tenants there,
among which were quittance from suits at the county and hundred courts,
of sheriffs' aids and of view of frankpledge, and also a market every
Thursday and a fair on the vigil, day and morrow of St Peter ad vincula.
The market rights were purchased by the town in 1880 from the trustees
of Thomas Cradock, late lord of the manor. Edward II. visited the manor
several times when it belonged to his favourite, Hugh Despenser the
elder. Among the subsequent lords were Henry de Beaumont and Alice his
wife, Sir Edward Hastings, created Baron Hastings of Loughborough in
1558, Colonel Henry Hastings, created baron in 1645, and the earls of
Huntingdon. Alexander Wedderburn was created Baron Loughborough in 1780
when he became chief justice of the common pleas. During the 19th
century most of the manorial rights were purchased by the local board.
Loughborough was at first governed by a bailiff, afterwards by a local
board, and was finally incorporated in 1888 under a mayor, 6 aldermen
and 18 councillors. It has never been represented in parliament.
Lace-making was formerly the chief industry, but machines for making
lace set up in the town by John Heathcote were destroyed by the Luddites
in 1816, and the manufacture lost its importance. Bell-founding was
introduced in 1840. John Cleveland, the Royalist poet, was born at
Loughborough in 1613, John Howe the painter in 1630 and Richard Pulteney
the botanist in 1730.
See _Victoria County History, Leicestershire_; W. G. D. Fletcher,
_Chapters in the History of Loughborough_ (1883); Sir Thomas Pochin,
"Historical Description of Loughborough" (1770) (vol. viii. of
_Bibliotheca topographica Britannica_).
LOUGHREA, a market town of Co. Galway, Ireland, pleasantly situated on
the N. shore of Lough Rea, 116 m. W. from Dublin by a branch from
Attymon Junction on the Midland Great Western railway. Pop. (1901),
2815. There are slight remains of an Early English Carmelite friary
dating c. 1300, which escaped the Dissolution. Loughrea is the seat of
the Roman Catholic bishop of Clonfert, and has a cathedral built in
1900-1905. A part of the castle of Richard de Burgh, the founder of the
friary, still survives, and there are traces of the town fortifications.
In the neighbourhood are a cromlech and two ruined towers, and crannogs,
or ancient stockaded islands, have been discovered in the lough. Apart
from the surroundings of the lough, the neighbouring country is
peculiarly desolate.
LOUGHTON, an urban district in the Epping parliamentary division of
Essex, England, 11½ m. N.N.E. of Liverpool Street station, London, by
the Great Eastern railway. Pop. (1901), 4730. This is one of the
villages which has become the centre of a residential district, and is
frequented by holiday-makers from London, owing to its proximity to the
pleasant woodland scenery of Epping Forest. It lies on the eastern
outskirts of the Forest, near the river Roding. There are several modern
churches. The lordship of the manor was granted to Waltham Abbey. In the
vicinity are large earthworks, probably of British origin, known as
Loughton Camp.
LOUHANS, a town of east-central France in the old province of
Franche-Comté, now capital of an arrondissement in the department of
Saône-et-Loire, 34 m. N.N.E. of Mâcon by road. Pop. (1906), 3216. Its
church has a fine tower of the 15th century, of which the balustrade is
carved so as to form the first words of the Ave Maria. There are also a
hospital of the 17th century with a collection of ancient earthenware, a
town-hall of the 18th century and remains of ramparts of the 16th and
17th century. The town is the central market of the agricultural plain
of Bresse; chickens form the chief article of commerce. There is also a
large felt-hat manufactory.
LOUIS, or LEWIS (from the Frankish _Chlodowîch_, _Chlodwig_, Latinized
as _Chlodowius_, _Lodhuwicus_, _Lodhuvicus_, whence--in the Strassburg
oath of 842--O. Fr. _Lodhuwigs_, then _Chlovis_, _Loys_ and later
_Louis_, whence Span. _Luiz_ and--through the Angevin kings--Hungarian
_Lájos_; cf. Ger. _Ludwig_ or _Ludewig_, from O. H. Ger. _Hluduwîc_,
_Hludwîg_, _Ludhuwîg_, M. H. Ger. _Ludewîc_; Ital. _Lodovico_), a
masculine proper name, meaning "Fame-fight" or "Famous in fight," from
old Frankish _chlud_, _chlod_ (O. H. Ger. _hlud_, _hlod_), "fame," and
_wîch_ (O. H. Ger. _wîc_., _wîg_, A.S. _wîg_) "war," "battle" (cf. Gr.
[Greek: Klytsmachos]). The name has been borne by numerous European
sovereigns and others, of whom some are noticed below in the following
order: (1) Roman emperors and Frankish and German kings, (2) kings of
Bavaria, (3) kings of France, (4) kings of Hungary, (5) kings of Naples,
(6) Louis of Nassau. (Louis Philippe, king of the French, is dealt with
separately.)
LOUIS I. (778-840), surnamed the "Pious," Roman emperor, third son of
the emperor Charlemagne and his wife Hildegarde, was born at Chasseneuil
in central France, and crowned king of Aquitaine in 781. He received a
good education; but as his tastes were ecclesiastical rather than
military, the government of his kingdom was mainly conducted by his
counsellors. Louis, however, gained sound experience in warfare in the
defence of Aquitaine, shared in campaigns against the Saxons and the
Avars, and led an army to Italy in 792. In 794 or 795 he married
Irmengarde, daughter of Ingram, count of Haspen. After the deaths of his
two elder brothers, Louis, at his father's command, crowned himself
co-emperor at Aix-la-Chapelle on the 11th of September 813, and was
formally associated in the government of the Empire, of which he became
sole ruler, in the following January. He earned the surname of "Pious"
by banishing his sisters and others of immoral life from court; by
attempting to reform and purify monastic life; and by showing great
liberality to the church. In October 816 he was crowned emperor at Reims
by Pope Stephen IV.; and at Aix in July 817, he arranged for a division
of his Empire among his sons. This was followed by a revolt of his
nephew, Bernard, king of Italy; but the rising was easily suppressed,
and Bernard was mutilated and killed. The emperor soon began to repent
of this cruelty, and when his remorse had been accentuated by the death
of his wife in 818, he pardoned the followers of Bernard and restored
their estates, and in 822 did public penance at Attigny. In 819 he
married Judith, daughter of Welf I., count of Bavaria, who in 823 bore
him a son Charles, afterwards called the Bald. Judith made unceasing
efforts to secure a kingdom for her child; and with the support of her
eldest step-son Lothair, a district was carved out for Charles in 829.
Discontent at this arrangement increased to the point of rebellion,
which broke out the following year, provoked by Judith's intrigues with
Bernard, count of Barcelona, whom she had installed as her favourite at
court. Lothair and his brother Pippin joined the rebels, and after
Judith had been sent into a convent and Bernard had fled to Spain, an
assembly was held at Compiègne, when Louis was practically deposed and
Lothair became the real ruler of the Empire. Sympathy was, however, soon
aroused for the emperor, who was treated as a prisoner, and a second
assembly was held at Nimwegen in October 830 when, with the concurrence
of his sons Pippin and Louis, he was restored to power and Judith
returned to court.
Further trouble between Pippin and his father led to the nominal
transfer of Aquitaine from Pippin to his brother Charles in 831. The
emperor's plans for a division of his dominions then led to a revolt of
his three sons. Louis met them in June 833 near Kolmar, but owing
possibly to the influence of Pope Gregory IV., who took part in the
negotiations, he found himself deserted by his supporters, and the
treachery and falsehood which marked the proceedings gave to the place
the name of _Lügenfeld_, or the "field of lies." Judith, charged with
infidelity, was again banished; Louis was sent into the monastery of St
Medard at Soissons; and the government of the Empire was assumed by his
sons. The emperor was forced to confess his sins, and declare himself
unworthy of the throne, but Lothair did not succeed in his efforts to
make his father a monk. Sympathy was again felt for Louis, and when the
younger Louis had failed to induce Lothair to treat the emperor in a
more becoming fashion, he and Pippin took up arms on behalf of their
father. The result was that in March 834 Louis was restored to power at
St Denis; Judith once more returned to his side and the kingdoms of
Louis and Pippin were increased. The struggle with Lothair continued
until the autumn, when he submitted to the emperor and was confined to
Italy. To make the restoration more complete, a great assembly at
Diedenhofen declared the deposition of Louis to have been contrary to
law, and a few days later he was publicly restored in the cathedral of
Metz. In December 838 Pippin died, and a new arrangement was made by
which the Empire, except Bavaria, the kingdom of Louis, was divided
between Lothair, now reconciled to his father, and Charles. The emperor
was returning from suppressing a revolt on the part of his son Louis,
provoked by this disposition, when he died on the 20th of June 840 on an
island in the Rhine near Ingelheim. He was buried in the church of St
Arnulf at Metz. Louis was a man of strong frame, who loved the chase,
and did not shrink from the hardships of war. He was, however, easily
influenced and was unequal to the government of the Empire bequeathed to
him by his father. No sustained effort was made to ward off the inroads
of the Danes and others, who were constantly attacking the borders of
the Empire. Louis, who is also called _Le Débonnaire_, counts as Louis
I., king of France.
See _Annales Fuldenses_; _Annales Bertiniani_; Thegan, _Vita
Hludowici_; the _Vita Hludowici_ attributed to Astronomus; Ermoldus
Nigellus, _In honorem Hludowici imperatoris_; Nithard, _Historiarum
libri_, all in the _Monumenta Germaniae historica_. _Scriptores_,
Bände i. and ii. (Hanover and Berlin, 1826 fol.); E. Mühlbacher, _Die
Regesten des Kaiserreichs unter den Karolingern_ (Innsbruck, 1881);
and _Deutsche Geschichte unter den Karolingern_ (Stuttgart, 1886); B.
Simson, _Jahrbücher des fränkischen Reichs unter Ludwig dem Frommen_
(Leipzig, 1874-1876); and E. Dümmler, _Geschichte des ostfränkischen
Reiches_ (Leipzig, 1887-1888). (A. W. H.*)
LOUIS II. (825-875), Roman emperor, eldest son of the emperor Lothair
I., was designated king of Italy in 839, and taking up his residence in
that country was crowned king at Rome by Pope Sergius II. on the 15th of
June 844. He at once preferred a claim to the rights of an emperor in
the city, which was decisively rejected; but in 850 he was crowned joint
emperor at Rome by Pope Leo IV., and soon afterwards married his cousin,
Engelberga, a daughter of King Louis the German, and undertook the
independent government of Italy. He took the field against the Saracens;
quashed some accusations against Pope Leo; held a diet at Pavia; and on
the death of his father in September 855 became sole emperor. The
division of Lothair's dominions, by which he obtained no territory
outside Italy, aroused his discontent, and in 857 he allied himself with
Louis the German against his brother Lothair, king of Lorraine, and
King Charles the Bald. But after Louis had secured the election of
Nicholas I. as pope in 858, he became reconciled with his brother, and
received some lands south of the Jura in return for assistance given to
Lothair in his efforts to obtain a divorce from his wife, Teutberga. In
863, on the death of his brother Charles, Louis received the kingdom of
Provence, and in 864 came into collision with Pope Nicholas I. over his
brother's divorce. The archbishops, who had been deposed by Nicholas for
proclaiming this marriage invalid, obtained the support of the emperor,
who reached Rome with an army in February 864; but, having been seized
with fever, he made peace with the pope and left the city. In his
efforts to restore order in Italy, Louis met with considerable success
both against the turbulent princes of the peninsula and against the
Saracens who were ravaging southern Italy. In 866 he routed these
invaders, but could not follow up his successes owing to the want of a
fleet. So in 869 he made an alliance with the eastern emperor, Basil I.,
who sent him some ships to assist in the capture of Bari, the
headquarters of the Saracens, which succumbed in 871. Meanwhile his
brother Lothair had died in 869, and owing to his detention in southern
Italy he was unable to prevent the partition of Lorraine between Louis
the German and Charles the Bald. Some jealousy between Louis and Basil
followed the victory at Bari, and in reply to an insult from the eastern
emperor Louis attempted to justify his right to the title "emperor of
the Romans." He had withdrawn into Benevento to prepare for a further
campaign, when he was treacherously attacked in his palace, robbed and
imprisoned by Adelchis, prince of Benevento, in August 871. The landing
of fresh bands of Saracens compelled Adelchis to release his prisoner a
month later, and Louis was forced to swear he would take no revenge for
this injury, nor ever enter Benevento with an army. Returning to Rome,
he was released from his oath, and was crowned a second time as emperor
by Pope Adrian II. on the 18th of May 872. He won further successes
against the Saracens, who were driven from Capua, but the attempts of
the emperor to punish Adelchis were not very successful. Returning to
northern Italy, he died, somewhere in the province of Brescia, on the
12th of August 875, and was buried in the church of St Ambrose at Milan,
having named as his successor in Italy his cousin Carloman, son of Louis
the German. Louis was an excellent ruler, of whom it was said "in his
time there was great peace, because every one could enjoy his own
possessions."
See _Annales Bertiniani_, _Chronica S. Benedicti Casinensis_, both in
the _Monumenta Germaniae historica, Scriptores_, Bände i. and iii.
(Hanover and Berlin, 1826 fol.); E. Mühlbacher, _Die Regesten des
Kaiserreichs unter den Karolingern_ (Innsbruck, 1881); Th. Sickel,
_Acta regum et imperatorum Karolinorum, digesta et enarrata_ (Vienna,
1867-1868); and E. Dümmler, _Geschichte des ostfränkischen Reiches_
(Leipzig, 1887-1888). (A. W. H.*)
LOUIS III. (c. 880-928), surnamed the "Blind," Roman emperor, was a son
of Boso, king of Provence or Lower Burgundy, and Irmengarde, daughter of
the emperor Louis II. The emperor Charles the Fat took Louis under his
protection on the death of Boso in 887; but Provence was in a state of
wild disorder, and it was not until 890, when Irmengarde had secured the
support of the Bavarian king Arnulf and of Pope Stephen V., that Louis
was recognized as king. In 900, after the death of the emperor Arnulf,
he went to Italy to obtain the imperial crown. He was chosen king of the
Lombards at Pavia, and crowned emperor at Rome in February 901 by Pope
Benedict IV. He gained a temporary authority in northern Italy, but was
soon compelled by his rival Berengar, margrave of Friuli, to leave the
country and to swear he would never return. In spite of his oath he went
again to Italy in 904, where he secured the submission of Lombardy; but
on the 21st of July 905 he was surprised at Verona by Berengar, who
deprived him of his sight and sent him back to Provence, where he passed
his days in enforced inactivity until his death in September 928. He
married Adelaide, possibly a daughter of Rudolph I., king of Upper
Burgundy. His eldest son, Charles Constantine, succeeded to no more than
the county of Vienne.
See _Forschungen zur deutschen Geschichte_, Bände ix. and x.
(Göttingen, 1862-1886); E. Dümmler, _Geschichte des ostfränkischen
Reichs_ (Leipzig, 1887-1888); and _Gesta Berengarii imperatoris_
(Halle, 1871); and F. de Gingins-la-Sarra. _Mémoires pour servir à
l'histoire de Provence et de Bourgogne Jurane_ (Zürich, 1851).
(A. W. H.*)
LOUIS IV., or V. (c. 1287-1347), surnamed the Bavarian, Roman emperor
and duke of Upper Bavaria, was the second son of Louis II., duke of
Upper Bavaria and count palatine of the Rhine, and Matilda, daughter of
the German king Rudolph I. Having lost his father in 1294 he inherited,
jointly with his elder brother Rudolph, Upper Bavaria and the
Palatinate, but passed his time mainly at the court of the Habsburgs in
Vienna, while his early experiences of warfare were gained in the
campaigns of his uncle, the German king Albert I. He was soon at
variance with his brother over their joint possessions. Albert taking
the part of Louis in this quarrel, Rudolph promised in 1301 to admit his
brother to a share in the government of Bavaria and the Palatinate. When
Albert was murdered in May 1308, Louis became a candidate for the German
throne; but his claim was not strongly supported. The new king, Henry
VII., was very friendly with Rudolph, and as the promise of 1301 had not
been carried out, Louis demanded a partition of their lands. Upper
Bavaria was accordingly divided in 1310, and Louis received the
north-western part of the duchy; but Rudolph refused to surrender any
part of the Palatinate. In 1310, on the death of Stephen I., duke of
Lower Bavaria, Louis undertook the guardianship of his two young sons.
This led to a war between the brothers, which lasted till June 1313,
when peace was made at Munich. Many of the nobles in Lower Bavaria,
however, angered at Louis, called in the aid of Frederick I. (the Fair),
duke of Austria; but he was defeated at Gammelsdorf on the 9th of
November 1313, a victory which not only led to peace, but conferred
considerable renown on Louis.
In August 1313 the German throne had again become vacant, and Louis was
chosen at Frankfort on the 20th of October 1314 by a majority of the
electors, and his coronation followed at Aix-la-Chapelle on the 25th of
November. A minority of princes had, however, supported Frederick of
Austria; and a war followed between the rivals, during which Louis was
supported by the cities and the districts of the middle and lower Rhine.
His embarrassments were complicated by a renewal of the dispute with his
brother; but when this had been disposed of in 1317 by Rudolph's
renunciation of his claims on upper Bavaria and the Palatinate in
consideration of a yearly subsidy, Louis was able to give undivided
attention to the war with Frederick, and obtained several fresh allies.
On the 28th of September 1322 a battle was fought at Mühldorf, which
ended in a complete victory for Louis, owing mainly to the timely aid of
Frederick IV. of Hohenzollern, burgrave of Nüremburg. Frederick of
Austria was taken prisoner, but the struggle was continued by his
brother Leopold until the latter's death in 1326. Attempts to enable the
two kings to rule Germany jointly failed, and about 1326 Frederick
returned to Austria, leaving Louis in undisputed possession of the
country. Before this conclusion, however, a new enemy had taken the
field. Supported by Philip V. of France in his desire to free Italy
entirely from German influence, Pope John XXII. refused to recognize
either Frederick or Louis, and asserted his own right to administer the
empire during a vacancy. After the battle of Mühldorf Louis sent
Berthold of Neifen, count of Marstetten, into Italy with an army, which
soon compelled the papal troops to raise the siege at Milan. The pope
threatened Louis with excommunication unless he resigned his kingdom
within three months. The king thereupon appealed to a general council,
and was placed under the papal ban on the 23rd of March 1324, a sentence
which he answered by publishing his charges against the pope. In the
contest Louis was helped by the Minorites, who were upholding against
John the principal of clerical poverty, and by the writings of Marsilius
of Padua (who dedicated to Louis his _Defensor pacis_), William of
Occam, John of Jandun and others. Taking the offensive, Louis met his
Ghibelline supporters at Trent and reached Italy in March 1327; and in
May he received the Lombard crown at Milan. Although the pope renewed
his fulminations Louis compelled Pisa to surrender, and was hailed with
great rejoicing in Rome. On the 17th of January 1328 he was crowned
emperor in St Peter's by Sciarra Colonna, a Roman noble; and he answered
the continued attacks of Pope John by pronouncing his deposition, and
proclaiming Peter of Corvara pope as Nicholas V. He then undertook an
expedition against John's ally, Robert, king of Naples, but, disunion
among his troops and scarcity of money and provisions, drove him again
to Rome, where, finding that his exactions had diminished his
popularity, he left the city, and after passing six months at Pisa,
returned to Germany in January 1330. The struggle with the pope was
renewed in Germany, and when a formidable league had been formed against
Louis, his thoughts turned to a reconciliation. He was prepared to
assent to very humiliating terms, and even agreed to abdicate; but the
negotiations, which were prolonged by further demands on the part of the
pope, were interrupted by his death in December 1334. John's successor,
Benedict XII., seemed more anxious to come to an arrangement, but was
prevented from doing so by the influence of Philip VI. of France.
Overtures for peace were made to Philip, but without success; and in
July 1337 Louis concluded an alliance with Edward III., king of England,
and made active preparations for war. During these years his attention
was also occupied by a quarrel with John, king of Bohemia, over the
possession of Tirol, by a campaign in Lower Bavaria, and a futile
expedition against Nicholas I., bishop of Constance. But although his
position was shaken by the indifferent success which attended these
campaigns, it was improved when the electors meeting at Rense in July
1338 banded themselves together to defend their elective rights, and
when the diet at Frankfort confirmed a decree which declared that the
German king did not need the papal approbation to make his election
valid.
Louis devoted considerable thought and time to extending the possessions
of the Wittelsbach family, to which he belonged. Tirol had for some time
been a subject of contention between the emperor and other princes. The
heiress of this county, Margaret Maultasch, had married John Henry,
margrave of Moravia, son of King John of Bohemia. Having quarrelled with
her husband, Margaret fled to the protection of Louis, who seized the
opportunity to declare her marriage void and to unite her in 1342 with
his son Louis. The emperor also increased his possessions by his own
marriage. In 1322 his first wife, Beatrice, daughter of Henry III.,
count of Glogau, had died after thirteen years of married life, and
Louis then married Margaret, daughter of William III., count of Holland.
When her brother, count William IV., died childless in 1345, the emperor
obtained possession of Holland, Zealand and Friesland. In 1341 he
recovered a portion of the Palatinate, and soon deserted Edward of
England and came to terms with Philip of France. The acquisition of the
territories, and especially of Tirol, had provided Louis with many
enemies, prominent among whom were John of Bohemia and his family, that
of Luxemburg. John, therefore, entered into an alliance with Pope
Clement VI. The course of the war which ensued in Germany was such as to
compel the emperor to submit to humiliating terms, though he stopped
short of accepting the election of Charles, margrave of Moravia
(afterwards the emperor Charles IV.) as German king in July 1346.
Charles consequently attacked Tirol; but Louis, who appeared to have
considerable chances of success, died suddenly at a bear-hunt near
Munich on the 11th of October 1347. He was buried in the Frauenkirche at
Munich, where a statue was erected to his memory in 1622 by Maximilian
I., elector of Bavaria, and where a second was unveiled in 1905. He had
seven sons, three of whom were subsequently electors of Brandenburg, and
ten daughters.
Various estimates have been formed of the character of Louis. As a
soldier he possessed skill as well as bravery, but he lacked
perseverance and decision in his political relations. At one time
haughtily defying the pope, at another abjectly craving his pardon, he
seems a very inglorious figure; and the fact that he remained almost
undisturbed in the possession of Germany in spite of the utmost efforts
of the popes, is due rather to the political and intellectual
tendencies of the time than to his own good qualities. Nevertheless he
ruled Bavaria with considerable success. He befriended the towns,
encouraged trade and commerce and gave a new system of laws to the
duchy. German took the place of Latin in the imperial charters, and
although not a scholar, the emperor was a patron of learning. Louis was
a man of graceful appearance, with ruddy countenance and prominent nose.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Many of the authorities for the life and reign of Louis
are found in the _Fontes rerum Germanicarum_, Bände i. and iv., edited
by J. F. Böhmer (Stuttgart, 1843-1868). Among these is the _Vita
Ludovici IV._, by an unknown author. A number of important documents
are found in the _Regesta imperii_ 1314-1347, edited by J. F. Böhmer
and J. Ficker (Innsbruck, 1865); _Acta imperii selecta_, edited by J.
F. Böhmer and J. Ficker (Innsbruck, 1870); _Urkunden zur Geschichte
des Römerzuges Königs Ludwigs des Bayern_, edited by J. Ficker
(Innsbruck, 1865); _Urkundliche Beiträge zur Geschichte Kaisers
Ludwigs IV._, edited by C. Höfler (Munich, 1839); _Vatikanische
Urkunden zur Geschichte Kaisers Ludwigs des Bayern_, Bände v. and vi.
(Stuttgart, 1877-1888); _Vatikanische Akten zur Deutschen Geschichte
in der Zeit Kaisers Ludwigs des Bayern_, edited by S. Riezler
(Innsbruck, 1891). In the _Forschungen zur Deutschen Geschichte_
(Göttingen, 1862-1886), Band xx., is found _Urkunden zur Bairischen
und Deutschen Geschichte 1256-1343_, edited by S. Riezler; and in Band
xiii. is C. Häutle's _Beiträge zum Itinerar Kaiser Ludwigs_.
The following may also be consulted: C. Gewoldus, _Defensio Ludovici
IV. contra A. Bzovium_ (Ingolstadt, 1618); J. G. Herwartus, _Ludovicus
IV. imperator defensus_ (Mainz, 1618); N. Burgundus, _Historia
Bavarica sive Ludovicus IV. imperator_ (Ingolstadt, 1636). The best
modern authorities are F. von Weech, _Kaiser Ludwig der Bayer und
König Johann von Böhmen_ (Munich, 1860); S. Riezler, _Die
literarischen Widersacher der Päpste zur Zeit Ludwigs des Bayern_
(Leipzig, 1874); C. Mühling, _Die Geschichte der Doppelwahl des Jahres
1314_ (Munich, 1882); R. Döbner, _Die Auseinandersetzung zwischen
Ludwig IV. dem Bayern und Friedrich dem Schönen von Oesterreich_
(Göttingen, 1875); W. Altmann, _Der Römerzug Ludwigs des Bayern_
(Berlin, 1886); A. Chroust, _Beiträge zur Geschichte Ludwigs des
Bayern und seiner Zeit_ (Gotha, 1877); K. Müller, _Der Kampf Ludwigs
des Bayern mit der römischen Curie_ (Tübingen, 1879-1880); W. Preger,
_Der Kirchenpolitische Kampf unter Ludwig dem Bayern_ (Munich, 1877);
Sievers, _Die politischen Beziehungen Kaiser Ludwigs des Bayern zu
Frankreich_ (Berlin, 1896); Steinberger, _Kaiser Ludwig der Bayer_
(Münich, 1901); and Ueding, _Ludwig der Bayer und die
niederrheinischen Städte_ (Paderborn, 1904). (A. W. H.*)
LOUIS (804-876) surnamed the "German," king of the East Franks, was the
third son of the emperor Louis I. and his wife Irmengarde. His early
years were partly spent at the court of his grandfather Charlemagne,
whose special affection he is said to have won. When the emperor Louis
divided his dominions between his sons in 817, Louis received Bavaria
and the neighbouring lands, but did not undertake the government until
825, when he became involved in war with the Slavonic tribes on his
eastern frontier. In 827 he married Emma, daughter of Welf I., count of
Bavaria, and sister of his stepmother Judith; and he soon began to
interfere in the quarrels arising from Judith's efforts to secure a
kingdom for her own son Charles, and the consequent struggles of Louis
and his brothers with the emperor Louis I. (q.v.). When the elder Louis
died in 840 and his eldest son Lothair claimed the whole Empire, Louis
in alliance with his half-brother, king Charles the Bald, defeated
Lothair at Fontenoy on the 25th of June 841. In June 842 the three
brothers met on an island in the Sâone to negotiate a peace, and each
appointed forty representatives to arrange the boundaries of their
respective kingdoms. This developed into the treaty of Verdun concluded
in August 843, by which Louis received the bulk of the lands of the
Carolingian empire lying east of the Rhine, together with a district
around Spires, Worms and Mainz, on the left bank of the river. His
territories included Bavaria, where he made Regensburg the centre of his
government, Thuringia, Franconia and Saxony. He may truly be called the
founder of the German kingdom, though his attempts to maintain the unity
of the Empire proved futile. Having in 842 crushed a rising in Saxony,
he compelled the Abotrites to own his authority, and undertook campaigns
against the Bohemians, the Moravians and other tribes, but was not very
successful in freeing his shores from the ravages of Danish pirates. At
his instance synods and assemblies were held where laws were decreed
for the better government of church and state. In 853 and the following
years Louis made more than one attempt to secure the throne of
Aquitaine, which the people of that country offered him in their disgust
with the cruel misrule of Charles the Bald. But though he met with
sufficient success to encourage him to issue a charter in 858, dated
"the first year of the reign in West Francia," treachery and desertion
in his army, and the loyalty to Charles of the Aquitanian bishops
brought about the failure of the enterprise, which Louis renounced by a
treaty signed at Coblenz on the 7th of June 860.
In 855 the emperor Lothair died, and was succeeded in Italy by his
eldest son Louis II., and in the northern part of his kingdom by his
second son, Lothair. The comparative weakness of these kingdoms,
together with the disorder caused by the matrimonial troubles of
Lothair, afforded a suitable opening for the intrigues of Louis and
Charles the Bald, whose interest was increased by the fact that both
their nephews were without male issue. Louis supported Lothair in his
efforts to divorce his wife Teutberga, for which he received a promise
of Alsace, while Charles opposed the divorce. But in 865 Louis and
Charles meeting near Toul, renewed the peace of Coblenz, and doubtless
discussed the possibility of dividing Lothair's kingdom. In 868 at Metz
they agreed definitely to a partition; but when Lothair died in 869,
Louis was lying seriously ill, and his armies were engaged with the
Moravians. Charles the Bald accordingly seized the whole kingdom; but
Louis, having recovered, compelled him by a threat of war to agree to
the treaty of Mersen, which divided it between the claimants. The later
years of Louis were troubled by risings on the part of his sons, the
eldest of whom, Carloman, revolted in 861 and again two years later; an
example that was followed by the second son Louis, who in a further
rising was joined by his brother Charles. A report that the emperor
Louis II. was dead led to peace between father and sons. The emperor,
however, was not dead, but a prisoner; and as he was not only the
nephew, but also the son-in-law of Louis, that monarch hoped to secure
both the imperial dignity and the Italian kingdom for his son Carloman.
Meeting his daughter Engelberga, the wife of Louis II., at Trent in 872,
Louis made an alliance with her against Charles the Bald, and in 874
visited Italy doubtless on the same errand. The emperor, having named
Carloman as his successor, died in August 875, but Charles the Bald
reached Italy before his rival, and by persuading Carloman, when he did
cross the Alps, to return, secured the imperial crown. Louis was
preparing for war when he died on the 28th of September 876 at
Frankfort, and was buried at Lorsch, leaving three sons and three
daughters. Louis was in war and peace alike, the most competent of the
descendants of Charlemagne. He obtained for his kingdom a certain degree
of security in face of the attacks of Normans, Hungarians, Moravians and
others. He lived in close alliance with the Church, to which he was very
generous, and entered eagerly into schemes for the conversion of his
heathen neighbours.
See _Annales Fuldenses_; _Annales Bertiniani_; Nithard, _Historiarum
Libri_, all in the _Monumenta Germaniae historica_. _Scriptores_,
Bände i. and ii. (Hanover and Berlin, 1826 seq.); E. Dümmler,
_Geschichte des ostfränkischen Reiches_ (Leipzig, 1887-1888); Th.
Sickel, _Die Urkunden Ludwigs des Deutschen_ (Vienna, 1861-1862); E.
Mühlbacher, _Die Regesten des Kaiserreichs unter den Karolingern_
(Innsbruck, 1881); and A. Krohn, _Ludwig der Deutsche_ (Saarbrücken,
1872). (A. W. H.*)
LOUIS I., king of Bavaria (1786-1868), son of the then prince,
afterwards duke and elector, Max Joseph of Zweibrücken and his wife
Princess Augusta of Hesse-Darmstadt ( -1796), was born at Strassburg on
the 25th of August 1786. He received a careful education at home,
afterwards (in 1803) going to the Bavarian national university of
Landshut and to Göttingen. As a young man he was drawn into the Romantic
movement then at its height; but both the classics and contemporary
classical poetry took hold upon his receptive mind (he visited Goethe in
1827). He had himself strong artistic tendencies, though his numerous
poems show but little proof of this, and as a patron of the arts he
proved himself as great as any who had ever occupied a German, throne,
and more than a mere dilettante. His first visit to Italy, in 1804, had
an important influence upon this side of his development.
But even in Italy the crown prince (his father had become elector in
1799 and king of Bavaria in 1805) did not forget his nationality. He
soon made himself leader of the small anti-French party in Bavaria.
Napoleon sought in vain to win him over, and Louis fell more and more
out of favour with him. Napoleon was even reported to have said: "Qui
m'empêche de laisser fusiller ce prince?" Their relations continued to
be strained, although in the campaigns of 1807 and 1809, in which
Bavaria was among the allies of France, Louis won his laurels in the
field.
The crown prince was also averse from a Napoleonic marriage, and
preferred to marry (October 12, 1810) the Princess Therese of
Saxe-Hildburghausen (1792-1854). Three daughters and four sons were born
of this marriage, one of whom succeeded him as Maximilian II., while
another, Luitpold, became prince regent of Bavaria on the death of Louis
II.
During the time that he was crown prince Louis resided chiefly at
Innsbruck or Salzburg as governor of the circle of the Inn and Salzach.
In 1815 he attended the Congress of Vienna, where he was especially
occupied in endeavouring to obtain the restoration of Alsace and
Lorraine to Germany; and later in the year he was with the allies in
Paris, using his influence to secure the return of the art treasures
carried off by the French.
After 1815 also the crown prince maintained his anti-French attitude,
and it was mainly his influence that in 1817 secured the fall of
Montgelas, the minister with French sympathies. Opposed to absolutism,
Louis took great interest in the work of organizing the Bavarian
constitution (1818) and defended it against Metternich and the Carlsbad
Decrees (1819); he was also one of the most zealous of the ardent
Philhellenes in Germany at the time. He succeeded to the crown of
Bavaria on the 12th of October 1825, and at once embarked upon a
moderate constitutional policy, in which he found himself in general
agreement with the parliament. Although he displayed a loyal attachment
to the Catholic Church, especially owing to his artistic sympathies, he
none the less opposed all its more exaggerated pretensions, especially
as represented by the Jesuits, whom he condemned as un-German. In the
year of his accession he abolished an old edict concerning the
censorship. He also furthered in many ways the internal administration
of the state, and especially that of the finances. His personal tastes,
apart from his activities as a Maecenas, being economical, he
endeavoured also to limit public expenditure, in a way which was not
always a benefit to the country. Bavaria's power of self-defence
especially was weakened by his economies and by his lack of interest in
the military aspect of things.
He was a warm friend of learning, and in 1826 transferred the university
of Landshut to Munich, where he placed it under his special protection.
Prominent scholars were summoned to it, mostly belonging to the Romantic
School, such as Goerres, Schubert and Schelling, though others were not
discouraged. In the course of his visits to Italy he formed friendships
with famous artists such as Thorwaldsen and Cornelius. He was especially
anxious to obtain works of art, mainly sculpture, for the famous Munich
collections which he started, and in this he had the advantage of the
assistance of the painter Martin Wagner. He also set on foot movements
for excavation and the collection of works of art in Greece, with
excellent results.
Under the influence of the July revolution of 1830, however, he also
began to be drawn into the current of reaction; and though he still
declared himself openly against absolutism, and never took up such a
hostile attitude towards constitutional ideas as his brother-in-law King
Frederick William IV., he allowed the reactionary system of surveillance
which commended itself to the German Confederation after 1830 to be
introduced into Bavaria (see BAVARIA: _History_). He continued, on the
other hand, to do much for the economic development of the country. As a
follower of the ideas of Friedrich List, he furthered the foundation of
the Zollverein in the year 1833 and the making of canals. Railways he
looked upon as a "necessary evil."
In external politics peace was maintained on the whole after 1825.
Temporary diplomatic complications arose between Bavaria and Baden in
connexion with Louis's favourite project of winning back the part then
belonging to Baden of the old Palatinate, the land of his birth, which
was always very dear to him.
Of European importance was his enthusiasm for the liberation of Greece
from the rule of Turkey. Not only did he erect the _Propyläen_ at Munich
in her honour, but he also helped her in the most generous way both with
money and diplomatic resources. And after his second son Otto had become
king of Greece in 1832, Greek affairs became from time to time the
central point of his foreign policy. In 1835 he made a visit to Greece,
partly political, partly inspired by his old interest in art. But his
son proved unequal to his task, and in 1862 was forced to abdicate (see
OTHO, KING OF GREECE). For this unfortunate issue Louis was not without
blame; for from the very first, owing to an exaggerated idealism and
love of antiquity, he had totally misunderstood the national character
of the Greeks and the problems involved in the attempts to govern them
by bureaucratic methods.
In Bavaria, too, his government became more and more conservative,
especially after Karl Abel became the head of the ministry in 1837. The
king had not yet, it is true, altogether committed himself to the
clerical ultras, and on the occasion of the dispute about the bishops in
Prussia in the same year had taken up a wise attitude of compromise. But
in Bavaria itself the strict Catholic party influenced affairs more and
more decisively. For a while, indeed, this opposition did not impair the
king's popularity, due to his amiable character, his extraordinary
services in beautifying his capital of Munich, and to his benevolence
(it has been reckoned that he personally received about 10,000 letters
asking for help every year, and that the money he devoted to charity
amounted to about a fifth of his income). The year 1846, however,
brought a change which had sad consequences. This was due to the king's
relations with the Spanish dancer Lola Montez, who appeared in Munich in
October 1846, and soon succeeded by her beauty and wit in fascinating
the king, who was always susceptible to feminine charms. The political
importance of this lay in the fact that the royal mistress began to use
her great influence against the clerical policy of the Abel ministry. So
when the king was preparing the way for ennobling her, in order to
introduce her into court circles, which were unwilling to receive her,
the ministry protested in the famous memorandum of the 11th of February
1847 against the king's demand for her naturalization as a Bavarian, the
necessary preliminary to her ennoblement. The position was still further
embittered by the fact that, owing to an indiscretion, the memorandum
became known to the public. Thereupon the king, irritated and outraged,
replaced Abel's Clerical ministry by a more accommodating Liberal one
under Zu Rhein under which Lola Montez without more difficulty became
Countess Landsberg. Meanwhile, the criticism and opposition of the
people, and especially of the students, was turned against the new
leader of the court of Munich. On top of this came the revolutionary
movement of 1848. The king's position became more and more difficult,
and under the pressure of popular opposition he was forced to banish the
countess. But neither this nor the king's liberal proclamation of the
6th of March succeeded in establishing peace, and in the capital
especially the situation became increasingly threatening. All this made
such a deep impression on the king, that on the 20th of March 1848 he
abdicated in favour of his son Maximilian.
He now retired entirely into private life, and continued to play the
Maecenas magnificently, frequently staying at his villa in Rome, the
Villa Malta, and enjoying extraordinary vigour of mind and body up to
the end of his days. His popularity, which had been shaken by the Montez
affair, he soon recovered, especially among artists. To him Munich owes
her finest art collections and most remarkable buildings. The monarch's
artistic sense led him not only to adorn his house with a number of
works of antique art, but also to study German medieval art, which he
did to good effect. To him Munich owes the acquisition of the famous
Rhenish collection of the Boisserée brothers. The king also worked with
great zeal for the care of monuments, and the cathedrals of Spires and
Cologne enjoyed his special care. He was also an unfailing supporter of
contemporary painting, in so far as it responded to his romantic
tendencies, and he gave a fresh impulse to the arts of working in metal
and glass. As visible signs of his permanent services to art Munich
possesses the Walhalla, the Glyptothek, the two Pinakotheken, the Odeon,
the University, and many other magnificent buildings both sacred and
profane. The rôle which the Bavarian capital now plays as the leading
art centre of Germany would have been an impossibility without the
splendid munificence of Louis I.
He died on the 28th of February 1868 at Nice, and on the 9th of March
was buried in Munich, amid demonstrations of great popular feeling.
The chief part of Louis's records is contained in seven sealed chests in
the archives of his family, and by the provisions of his will these were
not to be opened till the year 1918. These records contain an
extraordinarily large and valuable mass of historical material,
including, as one item, 246 volumes of the king's diary.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Of the numerous pamphlets, especially of the years
1846-1848, we need only mention here: P. Erdmann, _Lola Montez und die
Jesuiten_ (1847); _Geheimbericht über Bayern_ (1847), published by
Fowmier in _Deutsche Revue_, vol. 27. See also F. v. Ritter, _Beiträge
zur Regierungsgeschichte König Ludwigs I._ (1825-1826) (2 vols.,
1853-1855); Sepp, _Ludwig I. Augustus, König von Bayern und das
Zeitalter der Wiedergeburt der Künste_ (1869; 2nd ed., 1903); Ottokar
Lorenz, _Drei Bücher Geschichte_ (1876; 2nd ed., 1879); K. Th. v.
Heigel, _Ludwig I._ (1872; 2nd ed., 1888); "Ludwig I. und Martin
Wagner," _Neue historische Vorträge_ (1883); "Ludwig I.," _Allgemeine
deutsche Biographie_ (1884); "Ludwig I. als Freund der Geschichte" and
"Kronprinz Ludwig in den Feldzügen von 1807 und 1809," in _Historische
Vorträge und Studien_ (1887); _Die Verlegung der Universität nach
München_, Rektoratsrede (1887); "Ludwig I. und die Münchener
Hochschule," _Quellen und Abhandlungen zur Geschichte Bayerns_, n.s.
(1890); "Ludwig I. als Erzieher seines Volkes," ib.; Reidelbach,
_Ludwig I. und seine Kunstschöpfungen_ (1887; 2nd ed., 1888); L.
Trose, _Ludwig I. in seinen Briefen an seinen Sohn, den König Otto von
Griechenland_ (1891); L. v. Kobell, _Unter den vier ersten Königen
Bayerns_ (1894); A. Fournier, "Aus den Tagen der Lola Montez," _Neue
Deutsche Rundschau_ (1901); M. Doeberé, "Ludwig I. und die deutsche
Frage," _Festgabe für Heigel_ (1903); E. Füchs, _Lola Montez in der
Karrikatüre_ (1904); L. Brunner, _Nürnberg 1848-1849_ (1907).
(J. Hn.)
LOUIS II., king of Bavaria (1845-1886), son of his predecessor
Maximilian II. and his wife Maria, daughter of Prince William of
Prussia, was born at Nymphenburg on the 25th of August 1845. Together
with his brother Otto, three years younger than himself, Louis received,
in accordance with the wishes of his learned father, a simple and
serious education modelled on that of the German _Gymnasien_, of which
the classical languages are the chief feature. Of modern languages the
crown prince learnt only French, of which he remained fond all his life.
The practical value of the prince's training was small. It was not till
he was eighteen years old that he received his first pocket-money, and
at that age he had no ideas about money and its value. Military
instruction, physical exercises and sport, in spite of the crown
prince's strong physique, received little attention. Thus Louis did not
come enough into contact with young men of his own age, and consequently
soon developed a taste for solitude, which was found at an early age to
be combined with the romantic tendencies and musical and theatrical
tastes traditional in his family.
Louis succeeded to the throne on the 10th of March 1864, at the age of
eighteen. The early years of his reign were marked by a series of most
serious political defeats for Bavaria. In the Schleswig-Holstein
question, though he was opposed to Prussia and a friend of Duke
Frederick VIII. of Augustenburg, he did not command the material forces
necessary effectively to resist the powerful policy of Bismarck. Again,
in the war of 1866, Louis and his minister von der Pfordten took the
side of Austria, and at the conclusion of peace (August 22) Bavaria
had, in addition to the surrender of certain small portions of her
territory, to agree to the foundation of the North German Confederation
under the leadership of Prussia. The king's Bavarian patriotism, one of
the few steadfast ideas underlying his policy, was deeply wounded by
these occurrences, but he was face to face with the inevitable, and on
the 10th of August wrote a letter of reconciliation to King William of
Prussia. The defeat of Bavaria in 1866 showed clearly the necessity for
a reform of the army. Under the new Liberal ministry of Hohenlohe
(December 29, 1866--February 13, 1870) and under Prauckh as minister of
war, a series of reforms were carried through which prepared for the
victories of 1870. As regards his ecclesiastical policy, though Louis
remained personally true to the Catholic Church, he strove for a greater
independence of the Vatican. He maintained friendly relations with Ignaz
von Döllinger, the leader of the more liberal Catholics who opposed the
definition of papal infallibility, but without extending his protection
to the anti-Roman movement of the Old Catholics. In spite of this the
Old Bavarian opposition was so aroused by the Liberalism of the
Hohenlohe ministry that at the beginning of 1870 Louis had to form a
more Conservative cabinet under Count Bray-Steinburg. On the outbreak of
the Franco-Prussian War he at once took the side of Prussia, and gave
orders for mobilization. In 1871 it was he who offered the imperial
crown to the king of Prussia; but this was not done on his own
initiative. Bismarck not only determined the king of Bavaria to take the
decisive step which put an end to a serious diplomatic crisis, but
actually drafted the letter to King William which Louis copied and
despatched without changing a word. Louis placed very few difficulties
in the way of the new German Empire under the leadership of Prussia,
though his Bavarian particularism remained unchanged.
Though up till the beginning of the year 1880 he did not cease to give
some attention to state affairs, the king's interests lay in quite other
spheres. His personal idiosyncrasies had, in fact, developed meanwhile
in a most unhappy direction. His enthusiasm for all that is beautiful
soon led him into dangerous bypaths. It found its most innocent
expression in the earliest years of his reign when he formed an intimate
friendship with Richard Wagner, whom from May 1864 to December 1865 he
had constantly in his company. Louis was entirely possessed by the
soaring ideas of the master, and was energetic in their realization. He
not only established Wagner's material position at the moment by paying
18,000 gulden of debts for him and granting him a yearly income of 4000
gulden (afterwards increased to 8000), but he also proceeded to realize
the ambitious artistic plans of the master. A series of brilliant model
performances of the Wagnerian music-dramas was instituted in Munich
under the personal patronage of the king, and when the further plan of
erecting a great festival theatre in Munich for the performance of
Wagner's "music of the future" broke down in the face of the passive
resistance of the local circles interested, the royal enthusiast
conceived the idea of building at Bayreuth, according to Wagner's new
principles, a theatre worthy of the music-dramas. For a time Louis was
entirely under Wagner's influence, the fantastic tendencies of whose art
cast a spell over him, and there is extant a series of emotional letters
of the king to Wagner. Wagner, on the whole, used his influence in
artistic and not in political affairs.[1] In spite of this the
opposition to him became permanent. Public opinion in Bavaria for the
most part turned against him. He was attacked for his foreign origin,
his extravagance, his intrigues, his artistic utopias, and last but by
no means least, for his unwholesome influence over the king. Louis in
the end was compelled to give him up. But the relations between king and
artist were by no means at an end. In face of the war which was imminent
in 1866, and in the midst of the preparation for war, the king hastened
in May to Triebschen, near Lucerne, in order to see Wagner again.[2] In
1868 they were seen together in public for the last time at the festival
performances in Munich. In 1876 Wagner's _Ring des Nibelungen_ was
performed for the first time at Bayreuth in the presence of the king.
Later, in 1881, the king formed a similar friendship with Joseph Kainz
the actor, but it soon came to an end. In January 1867 the young king
became betrothed to Duchess Sophie of Bavaria (afterwards Duchesse
d'Alençon), daughter of Duke Max and sister of the empress of Austria;
but the betrothal was dissolved in October of the same year.
Though even in his later years he remained interested in lofty and
intellectual pursuits, as may be gathered, apart from his enthusiasm for
art and nature, from his wide reading in history, serious poetry and
philosophy, yet in his private life there became increasingly marked the
signs of moral and mental weakness which gradually gained the mastery
over his once pure and noble nature. A prominent feature was his blind
craving for solitude. He cut himself off from society, and avoided all
intercourse with his family, even with his devotedly affectionate
mother. With his ministers he came to communicate in writing only. At
the end he was surrounded only by inferior favourites and servants. His
life was now spent almost entirely in his castles far from the capital,
which irked him more and more, or in short and hasty journeys, in which
he always travelled incognito. Even the theatre he could now only enjoy
alone. He arranged private performances in his castles or in Munich at
fabulous cost, and appointed an official poet to his household. Later
his avoidance of society developed into a dread of it, accompanied by a
fear of assassination and delusions that he was being followed.
Side by side with this pathological development his inborn
self-consciousness increased apace, turning more and more to
megalomania, and impelling the weak-willed monarch to those
extraordinary displays of magnificence which can still be admired to-day
in the castles built or altered by him, such as Berg on the Starnberger
See, Linderhof, Herrenchiemsee, Hohenschwangau, Neuschwanstein, &c.,
which are among the most splendid buildings in Germany. It is
characteristic of the extravagance of the king's ideas that he adopted
as his model the style of Louis XIV. and fell into the habit of
imitating the _Roi Soleil_. He no longer stayed for any length of time
in one castle. Often he scoured the country in wild nocturnal rides, and
madness gained upon him apace. His mania for buying things and making
presents was comparatively harmless, but more serious matters were the
wild extravagance which in 1880 involved him in financial ruin, his fits
of destructive rage, and the tendency to the most cruel forms of
abnormal vice. None the less, at the time when the king's mental
weakness was increasing, his character still retained lovable
traits--his simple sense of beauty, his kindliness, and his highly
developed understanding of art and artistic crafts. Louis's love of
beauty also brought material profit to Bavaria.
But the financial and political dangers which arose from the king's way
of life were so great that interference became necessary. On the 8th of
June 1886 medical opinion declared him to be affected with chronic and
incurable madness and he was pronounced incapable of governing. On the
10th of June his uncle, Prince Luitpold, assumed the regency, and after
violent resistance the late king was placed under the charge of a mental
specialist. On the 13th of June 1886 he met with his death by drowning
in the Starnberger See, together with his doctor von Gudden, who had
unwisely gone for a walk alone with his patient, whose physical strength
was enormous. The details of his death will never be fully known, as the
only possible eye-witness died with him. An examination of the brain
revealed a condition of incurable insanity, and the faculty submitted a
report giving the terrible details of his malady. Louis's brother Otto,
who succeeded him as king of Bavaria, was also incurably insane.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--K. v. Heigel, _Ludwig II._ (1893); Luise v. Kobell,
_Unter den vier ersten Königen Bayerns_ (1894); C. Bujer, _Ludwig II._
(1897); Luise v. Kobell, "Wilhelm I. und Ludwig II." _Deutsche Revue,
22; Ludwig II. und die Kunst_ (1898); _Ludwig II. und Bismarck_ (1870,
1899); Anonym, _Endlich völlige Klarheit über den Tod des Königs
Ludwig II. ..._ (1900); Freiherr v. Völderndorff, "Aus meiner
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Gerard, _The Romance of Ludwig II. of Bavaria_; J. Bainville, _Louis
II. de Bavière_ (Paris, 1900); E. v. Possart, _Die
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