The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-11 00:00:00

Death of the King of Bavaria,

A telegraphic despatch from Munich announces
the death of Maximilian Joseph, King of Bavaria.
His Majesty was taken ill the day before yesterday,
his malady being erysipelas on the left 'mast, and
he died yesterday at a quarter past 12 o'clock, after
receiving the last sacraments prescribed by the
Roman Catholic Communion. The telegraphic des-
patches speak of " consternation" as prevailing at
Munich. No doubt when a liberal and personally
popular Sovereign was stricken with dangerous sick-
ness there was a consternation—a panic. The good
King, who was loved by all classes of his people, the
affable and accessible prince, could not be seriously
ill without creating grief and alarm in Munich.

Maximilian 11., who, besides being King of
Bavaria, was Count Palatine of the Rhine, Duke of
Bavaria, of Franconia, and of Swabia, was born
Nov. 28, 1811, He was the eldest son of King
Louis of Bavaria (Charles Louis Auguste) by The-
resa Charlotte Louisa Frederica Amelia, daughter
of Frederic Duke of Saxe-Altenburg. King Louis
is still alive, throneless, but happy—" procul
negotiis ; Solutus omni fcenore." His Queen died
on.the 26th of October, 1854. Prince Maximilian
was educated at Schelling, and subsequently at
Gottingen (1829.31). He then travelled in Italy
and Greece, which countries he revisited six
years later, extending his tour over throe years
1837-40.

The young prince was made a major-general in,
the Bavarian army in 1830, and was nominated a
Councillor of State in 1836, but he seems to have
abstained from any interference in political matters,
and in fact to have kept altogether aloof from affairs
of State till 1848, when serious events called him to
the throne.

King Louis, who is still alive at the age of 77,
an accomplished patron of the arts and literature,
but a very mistaken Sovereign, had incurred much
unpopularity in consequence of the intrigues in
which his mistress, Lula Montes, had engaged. In
the middle of March, 1818, the popular displeasure
came to a height ; Lola Montes was said to be
hidden in a police-office, and all the windows were
thereupon broken; the magistrates officially an-
nounced, to allay the mob, that " the Countess do
Landsfeld (the perpetual and abominable Lola
Montes)'thad left Bavaria. The public confidence
in King Louis's " good intentions" was said to be
restored by his two decrees—one declaring the
Coantess de Landsfeld unworthy of the rights of
Bavarian citizenship (inch,qnat reacht), and the
other ordering all police magistrates to arrest the
countess forthwith should she ever appear in the
Bavarian dominions.

On the 21 of March the King, worried out, re-
signed his crown in favour of his son, adopting the
title of King Ludwig (Majesty). He issued an
address to his people, declaring his belief that a
" new state of feeling had commenced—a state
which differed essentially from that embodied in
the international code agreeably to which he had
governed for nearly 23 years." He had " adminis-
tered the publie property and the public money as
if he had been a Repub:ican officer"—a remark
which, considering our recent experience of Repub-
lican administrative honesty, would hardly at this
time of day seem matter of boasting. King Maxi-
milian, in his address to the people on his accession,
said he " deeply felt his responsibility, ascending,
as he did, the throne at an epoch which was mightily
convulsed with infinite requirements at home and
abroad." Great excitement prevailed at Munich
when the abdication of King Louis was known; it
was said to be the " resua of intrigue," and the
burghers had some intention of protesting, and
taking the part of King Louis, who had transacted
business and given audience to several deputations
on the morning of the day at the close of which he
announced that he no longer reigned. •
The new King professed great liberalism—an
amnesty for political offences was to be granted—
Ministers were to be responsible—the press were to
be free, and so forth. In 1849 his liberalism col-
lapsed under the pressure of a disturbance in the
Palatinate of the Rhine, which resulted in the dis-
solution of the Diet, and the expulsion of certain
obnoxious deputies by his Majesty. Still, the King
was not, on the whole, a bigot or a despot. He op-
posed the Ultramontanes, and endeavoured (1855),
in vain, to carry a Jewish relief bill.
He advocated tha independence of his country
against the menaces of Prussia, but afterwards
wanted to make one (a little one) in a triumvirate
whereof his two big brothers of Prussia and Austria
were to form the other two-thirds. One memorable
saying is recorded of him—" I wish to be at peace
with my people." Happy the people that are in
such a case! The King has unluckily taken the
greatest interest in the outrageous proceedings of
the Frankfort Diet in regard to Denmark. It is said
that his Majesty's anxiety on behalf of the Father-
land which covets the Naboth's vineyard of the
Duchies has prevented him from sleeping for .many
weeks. Persons who have an abnormai taste for
diving into the secrets which are not within the
province of mortals might find in the deceased King
the first victim of the retributive Nemesis which
always waits on highhanded aggression.
It is more pleasant to turn from the King's
politics to his literary end social habits, which
were such as do " befit a king." Plain and simple
in his life, unostentatious, affable, and kindly, he
and all his family ware universally popular in
Muuich. He walked and drove about freely and
without any show of dignity ; rose early, dined
early, and went to bed early. Beer (Bavarian) is
the popular liquor; Prince Charles once boasted,
"I, too, am a bre ver " (nos etiani in Arcadia),
which was' a fact.

In religion the King was a Roman Catholic,
though, we believe, his wife was of the Rifornaed
religion. He never recognised the kingdom of
Italy, though he apologised to the Emperor of the
French for allowing the Austrian troops to pass
through Munich; not apologising, however, for the
notorious fraternisation of the Munichers with the
Austrians, and for the enthusiastic toasts in honour
of the latter.

The King was a traveller. It hes been said that
ho visited, in early life, Italy and Greece. I❑ 1853
he visited Naples and Sicily, and in 1857 Paris.
But the chief honour which ought to be paid to
the deceased Sovereign is one which can be paid to
very few European Sovereigns indeed. Like his
father, King l‘lazimilian was a patrin of science
and art, and yet not a patron in that sense of the
term which in England implies ignorance and
wealth on one side, and poverty and cringing on
the other. It was this King who attracted to Munich
the greatest and noblest intellects of Germany.
Liebig was made professor of chemistry ; Siebold
professor of physiology, anatomy, and zoology at
the Munich Institute; and among other great men
whom the late King patronised may be named
Pfeiffer, Carriere, and Giebel. The illustrious
Ranke was appointed by the Kin to preside over a
commission ordered to make researches into the
history of the country, a commission which has been
of immense benefit to historical students.

The King was " Proprietaire" of the 2d Regiment
of Austrian Cuirassiers and of a regiment of Rus-
sian Lancers ; also chief of the Ist Regiment of
Prussian Hussars of Westphalia (No. 8).
The King of Bavaria married, by proxy, at Berlin,

October 5, and personally at Munich, October 12,
1842, her Royal Highness Frederica Frances
Augusta Marie Hedwige, daughter of the late

Prince FredericWilliamCharles, uncle of the pre-
sent King of Prussia. By her ho leaves issue two
sons—Louis Otho Frederic William, born August
25, 1845, now King of Bavaria, and Okho William
Leopold Adalbert Waldemar, born April 27, 1848.
The new King is Colonel and " Proprietaire" of the
2d Regiment of Infantry, and his brother is a sub-
lieutenant in the (Bavarian) Guards.
The brothers and sisters of the late King are
numerous. next brother was Otho, born in 1815,
elected King of Greece 1832, married to a Princess
of Oldenburg-, a strong-minded Queen, who was
unable, unfortunately, to keep the troublesome
crown on her husband's vacillating and very weak
shoulders : as all the world knows, King Otho was
expelled from his kingdom by a bloodless revo-
lution, and the Bavari in dynasty was excluded from
the throne. Prince Adaibert"William George Louis,
another brother, was the heir to the throne of Greece,
but the Greeks took the liberty of disputing his

inheritance after the mishap of King Otho, and, so
far as Greece is concerned, he is Adalbert "Lack-
land." Of the sisters of the deceased King one
(Mathilde) is married to the reigning Grand Duke of
Hesse; another (Adelgonda) to Duke Francis V,,
formerly of Modena; another (Hildegarde) to the
Archduke Albert Frederick Rodolph of Austria.