LOUIS II., king of Bavaria (1845-1886), son of his predeces sor Maximilian II. and Maria, daughter of Prince William of Prussia, was born at Nymphenburg on Aug. 25, 1845. With his brother Otto, Louis received a simple and serious education mod elled on that of the German Gymnasien. Military instruction, physical exercises and sport, in spite of the crown prince's strong physique, received little attention. He developed a taste for soli tude, which was combined with the romantic tendencies and musical and theatrical tastes traditional in his family.
Louis succeeded to the throne on March I o, 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 had not the material forces necessary effectively to resist 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 (Aug. 22) Bavaria had, in addition to the surrender of certain small portions of her terri tory, to agree to the foundation of the North German Confedera tion under the leadership of Prussia. The king's Bavarian patriot ism, one of the few steadfast ideas underlying his policy, was deeply wounded, but he faced the inevitable, and wrote a letter of reconciliation (Aug. 1o) to King William of Prussia. The defeat of Bavaria in 1866 showed the necessity of army reform. Under the new Liberal ministry of Hohenlohe (Dec. 29, 1866—Feb. 13, 187o) and under Prauckh as minister of war, a series of reforms were carried through which prepared for the victories of 1870. In his ecclesiastical policy Louis strove for a greater independence of the Vatican, and maintained friendly relations with Doflinger (q.v), but without extending his protection to the anti-Roman movement of the Old Catholics. Early in 187o Louis formed 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 not 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.
In the early years of his reign Louis formed an intimate friend ship with Richard Wagner, whom from May 1864 to Dec. 1865 he had constantly in his company. He paid 18,000 gulden of debts for him, and granted him a yearly income of 4,00o gulden (after wards increased to 8,000). A series of performances of the Wag nerian 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 resist ance of the local circles interested, Louis 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, and there is extant a series of emotional letters of the king to Wagner. Public opinion in Bavaria turned against Wagner. 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 had to give him up. But in 1866, in the midst of the preparation for war, the king hastened in May to Triebschen, near Lucerne, in order to see Wagner again. 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 brief friendship with Joseph Kainz the actor. In Jan. 1867 he became betrothed to Duchess Sophie of Bavaria (afterwards Duchesse d'Alencon), daughter of Duke Max and sister of the empress of Austria ; but the betrothal was dissolved in October of the same year.
Louis presently showed serious signs of an ill-balanced mind, and when ministers sought to check his wild extravagance, which included the building of many magnificent castles, he became violent. The unfortunate king was declared insane on June 8, 1886, and his uncle, Prince Luitpold, assumed the regency. Louis was placed under restraint. On June 13, 1886, he was drowned 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. Louis's brother Otto, who succeeded him as king of Bavaria, was also incurably insane.