Actually, it was not a particularly impressive dynastic match, at the time (1868), since the husband was not thought of as having much of a chance to ever sit in the Bavarian throne. He was third in line (the same position as of his birth in 1845; he moved up and got displaced a couple of times since). After all, his cousin and namesake, King Ludwig II, was still on the throne and expected to eventually marry and produce heirs (notwithstanding the fact that he had broken off his engagement to Duchess Sophie Charlotte in Bavaria, at the end of the preceding year). If not, it was hoped that his brother, Prince Otto, would fulfill the dynastic duty.

As it was, neither married or had any children: both were eventually diagnosed as insane and got deposed. It didn't help that the older brother was, in addition, gay as a goose. Insanity and homosexuality make a bad combination, when one is a king who needs to sire heirs to the throne ...

So the stock of their cousins, descendants of their uncles, did rise over the years, since it was likely that the dynastic line of their father (King Maximilian II) would eventually expire. Indeed, the said line officially became extinct with the death in 1916 of King Otto, who had reigned in name only for years.

But Archduchess Maria Theresia of Austria-Este, herself a member of only a deposed house (a cadet branch of the Habsburgs), married for love, rather than advantage. So the two were basically equally matched, in terms of status: although her husband was not direct in line to the throne, the house he belonged to was at least still reigning. Indeed, Emperor Franz Joseph was angered over the match, because he had wanted her to marry the widowed Grand Duke Ferdinando IV of Tuscany -- the head of another recently deposed house (another branch of the Habsburgs). If that had happened, she would never have sat on a throne.

Which she eventually did briefly, before the house of Wittelsbach got deposed. I've often wondered about the situation in the Bavarian royal court, prior to her husband's accession as the self-proclaimed King Ludwig III: after all, his brother Leopold married (in 1873) Archduchess Gisela of Austria, a daughter of a reigning emperor. Could this have created tension in the relations amongst the daughters-in-law of Prince Regent Luitpold (his youngest son married only a princess of Liechtenstein)? Which of them outranked the other?

I ask this because of the situation in the UK, with respect to the daughters and daughters-in-law of Queen Victoria. As it was, Bavaria from 1889 to 1913 was a kingdom with a number of princesses, but no queen. So the position of First Lady is not quite clear ...