page_title: Bavarian Auxiliary Corps
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Bavarian Auxiliary Corps / Background
context_page_description: The Royal Bavarian Auxiliary Corps was a military force formed in 1832 to accompany the Bavarian prince Otto to the newly independent Kingdom of Greece, after he was chosen as the country's first king. As part of the treaty provisions of Otto's accession, a Bavarian-staffed volunteer military corps was to be formed to replace the forces maintained there by the Great Powers—chiefly the French troops of the Morea Expedition—as well as the remnants of the Greek forces organized during the Greek War of Independence, and provide cadres and training for the new Hellenic Army. Because not enough volunteers could be found in time, regular Bavarian Army troops formed much of the actual corps that arrived with Otto in Greece in early 1833. The Bavarian Army regulars were gradually replaced by volunteers until 1834. These came chiefly from Bavaria, but also included men from diverse nations, and often of non-military background. Most of the Bavarians left by 1837, but many remained behind, dominating the Greek army and the administration.
context_section_description: Article 14 of the 1832 Treaty of London, where Britain, France, and Russia, agreed on the establishment of the Kingdom of Greece, under the Bavarian prince Otto, stipulated that Otto's father, King Ludwig I of Bavaria, would recruit a force of up to 3,500 soldiers, at the expense of the Greek treasury, to replace the allied troops (i.e., the French expeditionary corps). The latter would remain under the disposition of the King of Greece until the arrival of the Bavarian troops. In Article 15, the King of Bavaria promised to supply Bavarian officers for the establishment of a national army in Greece. 
  The Philhellene professor Friedrich Thiersch and Colonel Carl Wilhelm von Heideck, who had served in Greece under Governor Ioannis Kapodistrias and was now a member of Otto's regency council, reported on the situation in Greece to King Ludwig. Following the assassination of Kapodistrias in 1831, Greece was in near-constant civil war. The regular and irregular military forces organized by Kapodistrias were practically dissolved, but many thousands of their members retained their weapons and lived off the countryside. The Bavarians distrusted the irregular fighters who had fought the civil war, and wanted to avoid being drawn into the local factional struggles. Therefore it was decided early on that Otto's new regime could rely solely on the Bavarian troops, who would enforce the new government's policies. To that end, all Greek military formations, chiefly composed of irregulars, would be disbanded, and Greeks were to be excluded from all senior positions in the administration and the military.
caption: King Otto of Greece, by Joseph Karl Stieler
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