LOUIS I., king of Bavaria (1786-1868), son of the then prince, afterwards duke and elector, Max Joseph of Zweibriicken and his wife, Princess Augusta of Hesse-Darmstadt, was born at Strasbourg on Aug. 25, 1786. He was educated at home and at the universities of Landshut and Gottingen. Both the classics and contemporary classical poetry took hold upon his receptive mind (he visited Goethe in 1827). As a patron of the arts he proved himself as great as any who had ever occupied a German throne, and he was himself more than a mere dilettante.
The crown prince (his father had become elector in 1799 and king of Bavaria in 5805), became the 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. Their rela tions continued to be strained, although in the campaigns of 5807 and 5809, in which Bavaria was among the allies of France, Louis won his laurels in the field. He married in 1810 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. Louis resided chiefly at Inns bruck or Salzburg as governor of the circle of the Inn and Salzach. In 1815 he attended the congress of Vienna, where he sought 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 in 1817 his influence secured the fall of Comte Mont gelas. 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 an ardent Philhel lene. He succeeded to the crown of Bavaria on Oct. 52, 1825, and at once embarked upon a moderate constitutional policy, in which he found himself in general agreement with the parliament.
Although a loyal Catholic he none the less opposed ultramontanism and the Jesuits. He improved the internal administration of the State, and especially that of the finances. 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. In the course of his visits to Italy he formed friendships with famous artists, notably with Thorwaldsen and Cornelius. He had the assistance of the painter Martin Wagner in procuring works of art for the great Munich collections.
Under the influence of the July revolution of 1830 he began to be drawn into the current of reaction; and though he never took up such a hostile attitude towards constitutional ideas as his brother-in-law, King Frederick William IV., he allowed the re actionary system of surveillance which commended itself to the German Confederation after 1830 to be introduced into Bavaria (see BAVARIA: History). 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. Of European importance was his enthusiasm for the liberation of Greece from the rule of Turkey, and his generous financial assistance. After his second son Otho (q.v.), had become king of Greece in 1832, Greek affairs became the central point of his foreign policy. In 1862 Otho was forced to abdicate. For this unfortunate issue Louis was not without blame; for he had totally misunderstood the national character of the Greeks and the problems involved in the attempts to govern them by bureaucratic methods. After Karl Abel became the head of the ministry in 1837 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 at Munich, and to his lavish charity. But his disastrous liaison, beginning in 1846, with Lola Montez, the Spanish dancer, brought him into conflict with his people. She used her great influence against the clerical policy of Abel. The ministry protested against her proposed naturalization in the memorandum of Feb. 11, 1847. The king replaced Abel's Clerical ministry by a more accommodating Liberal one under Zu Rhein under which Lola Montez without more difficulty became Countess Landsberg. The revolutionary movement of 1848 and the pressure of the popular opposition compelled Louis to banish the countess. On March 20, 1848 he abdicated in favour of his son Maximilian.
In his retirement Louis continued to play the Maecenas mag nificently. His popularity, shaken by the Montez affair, was par tially recovered. To him Munich owes her finest art collections and most remarkable buildings, especially the acquisition of the famous Rhenish collection of the Boisseree brothers; also the Walhalla, the Glyptothek, the two Pinakotheken, the Odeon, the University, and many other magnificent buildings. The role of Munich as a great art centre would have been impossible without the splendid munificence of Louis I. He died on Feb. 28, 1868 at Nice, and was buried in Munich.