The question is: what place did members of the junior, ducal branch of the Wittelsbachs have in the Bavarian royal succession? Were at least the males in the actual line to the throne, or did they simply have dormant rights? It would be interesting to see past lines of succession to the kingdom.
If one saw Duke Maximilian Joseph in Bavaria (1808-1888) on the list, ranking right after the last male-line descendant of King Ludwig I, then one could say that the dukes in Bavaria were indeed in the succession to the kingdom.
The royal branch of the house was founded by King Maximilian I Joseph. However, he had only four sons, and only the eldest has a male line of descent surviving today. The other lines quickly became extinct (Prince Karl, the second son born to his first marriage, married morganatically and fathered only daughters; the two sons born to his second marriage both died in childhood).
As it is, King Ludwig I's descent in the male line is very much alive and kicking -- nowhere in danger of extinction -- despite the fact that the lines through his two eldest sons (King Maximilian II of Bavaria and King Otto of Greece) quickly became extinct.
So the place of females (who have dormant succession rights to the defunct kingdom) in the line to the throne remains moot. And I don't see any moves initiated to change the Wittelsbach house law -- as one has witnessed in the royal houses of Bourbon-Two Sicilies and Savoy.
I just checked an online version of the 1808 House laws and yes the Bavarian succession was semi-Salic. So if there were no male line Wittelsbach men left a princess could inherit.
Let me get this straight: the genealogically junior branch of the house of Wittelsbach has been called "non-reigning". Nevertheless, did members still have succession rights to the throne of Bavaria, following the royal branch?
I ask because of Brigitte Hamann's biography of Empress Elisabeth of Austria: the author stated that, as duchess in Bavaria, she was made to sign a renunciation of her rights to the throne of the kingdom -- for reasons that she was engaged to marry an enthroned foreign sovereign.
Of course, it was only her own rights in the Bavarian royal succession that were affected, on the occasion -- not those of her descendants. There have, in fact, been three intermarriages between the descendants of Emperor Franz Joseph and Empress Elisabeth of Austria and those of King Ludwig I of Bavaria. The first and third (Archduchess Gisela and Prince Leopold; Archduchess Theresa and Prince Rasso) were dynastic from the beginning, since they were clearly within the Wittelsbach house laws. The second (Countess Auguste von Seefried and Prince Adalbert) was originally morganatic, but eventually de-morganatized: Crown Prince Rupprecht recognized the union as dynastic in 1949.
Anyhow, I was just wondering about past lines of succession to the throne of Bavaria: were at least male descendants in the male line of the junior Wittelsbachs (which eventually became extinct in the 1970's) in it? If so, I would imagine that Duke Ludwig Wilhelm in Bavaria (Sissi's eldest brother) would have followed the "Spanish" Witteslbachs (descendants of King Ludwig I through his youngest son), but skip over to Duke Carl Theodor, because of the former's morganatic marriage.
Could women have successional rights in the Kingdom of Bavaria?
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