Line of succession to the former Bavarian throne

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The Kingdom of Bavaria was abolished in 1918. The current head of its formerly ruling House of Wittelsbach is Franz, Duke of Bavaria .

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The succession is determined by Article 2 of Title 2 of the 1818 Constitution of the Kingdom of Bavaria, which states, "The crown is hereditary among the male descendants of the royal house according to the law of primogeniture and the agnatic lineal succession." [1] The succession is further clarified by Title 5 of the Bavarian Royal Family Statute of 1819. [2]

In 1948 and 1949 Crown Prince Rupprecht, with the agreement of the other members of the house, amended the house laws to allow the succession of the sons of princes who had married into comital houses. [3] In 1999 Duke Franz, with the agreement of the other members of the house, amended the house laws further to allow the succession of the sons of any princes who married with the permission of the head of the house.[ citation needed ]

Franz has never married. The heir presumptive to the headship of the House of Wittelsbach is his brother Prince Max, Duke in Bavaria. Because Max has five daughters but no sons, he is followed in the line of succession by his and Franz's first cousin (and second cousin in the male line) Prince Luitpold. [4] [ verification needed ]

Line of Succession on 13 November 1918

Current Line of Succession

In fiction

  • H.G. Wells, describing in "The Shape of Things to Come" the rise of a world government and its unification of the world, depicts a "Prince Manfred of Bavaria" as the leader of a widespread rebellion against that nascent government, occurring at the end of the 20th Century (see ).

Notes

  1. ↑ Constitution of the Kingdom of Bavaria, 1818 Archived 2009-12-12 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ↑ Hermann Schulze: die Hausgesetze der regierenden deutschen Fürstenhäuser. 1. Bd. Jena, 1862. pp. 337-47. Cited in Bavarian Royal Family Statute, 1819
  3. ↑ Dieter J. Weiss, Kronprinz Rupprecht von Bayern (1869-1955): Eine politische Biografie (Regensburg: Friedrich Pustet, 2007): 346.
  4. ↑ Genealogie des Hauses Wittelsbach. München: Verwaltung des Herzogs von Bayern, 2000.

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