Rupprecht , Crown Prince of Bavaria Rupprecht or Rupert , Crown Prince of Bavaria ( ) ( 18 May 1869 – 2 August 1955 ) was the last Bavarian Crown Prince . His full title was " His Royal Highness Rupprecht Maria Luitpold Ferdinand , Crown Prince of Bavaria , Duke of Bavaria , of Franconia and in Swabia , Count Palatine of the Rhine " . Life . Childhood . Rupprecht was born in Munich , the eldest of the thirteen children of Ludwig III , the last King of Bavaria , and of Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria - Este , a niece of Duke Francis V of Modena . He was a member of the lineage of both Louis XIV of France and William the Conqueror . His early education from the age of seven was conducted by Freiherr Rolf Kreusser , an Anglo - Bavarian . In his youth , he spent much of his time at " Schloss Leutstetten " , Starnberg , and at the family ' s villa near Lindau , Lake Constance , where he was able to develop a keen interest in sports . His education was traditional and conservative , but he became the first member of the royal house of Bavaria to spend time at a public school , when he was educated at the " Maximilian - Gymnasium " in Munich , where he spent four years . Apart from his academic studies and his training in riding and dancing , at school he was also obliged to learn a trade , and his choice fell on carpentry . Pre - first world war . Rupprecht ' s grandfather , Luitpold , became de facto ruler of Bavaria when King Ludwig II and his successor Otto both were declared insane in 1886 . Rupprecht ' s own position changed somewhat through these events as it became clear that he was likely to succeed to the Bavarian throne one day . After graduating from high school , he entered Bavarian Army ' s " Infanterie - Leibregiment " as a Second Lieutenant . He interrupted his military career to study at the universities of Munich and Berlin from 1889 to 1891 . He rose to the rank of a Colonel and became the commanding officer of the " 2nd Infanterie Regiment Kronprinz " but found enough opportunity to travel extensively to the Middle East , India , Japan and China . His early journeys were made with his Adjutant , Otto von Stetten . Later he was accompanied by his first wife . At the age of 31 , Rupprecht married his kinswoman Duchess Marie Gabrielle in Bavaria , with whom he had five children before her early death in 1912 at the age of 34 . In 1900 he became the 1 , 128th Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece in Austria . In 1906 , Rupprecht was made commander of the Bavarian I Army Corps , with the rank of lieutenant general of the infantry , promoted to full general in 1913 . In 1912 , Luitpold was succeeded in the position of " Prinzregent " by his son Ludwig . On 5 November 1913 , Ludwig was made king by vote of the Bavarian Senate , becoming Ludwig III . This decision also made Rupprecht the crown prince of Bavaria . First world war . He commanded the German Sixth Army at the outbreak of World War I in Lorraine . While part of the German army was participating in the Schlieffen plan , the Crown Prince led his troops on to the Battle of Lorraine . The appointment to command of the Sixth Army was as a result of his royalty , but the level of study he had performed before he took command was a factor behind his successful direction of the Sixth Army , and he proved to be a highly able commander . Rupprecht ' s army gave way to the French attack in August 1914 , in the Battle of Lorraine , and then launched a counteroffensive on the 20th . Rupprecht failed to break through the French lines . He was later in command of the 6th Army in Northern France and remained on the Western Front during the stalemate that would last until the end of the war . Rupprecht achieved the rank of field marshal ( Generalfeldmarschall ) in July 1916 and assumed command of Army Group Rupprecht on 28 August that year , consisting of the 1st , 2nd , 6th and 7th Army . Rupprecht has been considered by some to be one of the best Royal commanders in the Imperial German Army of World War I , possibly even the only one to deserve his command . Rupprecht came to the conclusion much earlier than most other German generals ( towards the end of 1917 ) , that the war could not be won , seeing an ever increasing material advantage of the allies . He also opposed the " scorched earth " policy during withdrawals , but his royal position made a resignation on those grounds impossible for him , even though he threatened it . He eventually resigned from his command on 11 November 1918 . He became engaged to the much younger Princess Antoinette of Luxembourg in 1918 , but Germany ' s capitulation delayed their marriage and the engagement was canceled again . Links to military aviation . Max Immelmann , one of the most famous of the German 1st World War Flying Aces , referred in a letter written on 25 June 1915 to a visit by Rupprecht to an airfield to inspect the new Fokker Eindecker aircraft . Primarily to see these fighting machines , yesterday the Crown Prince of Bavaria visited the field and inspected us and " Abteilung " 20 . Director Fokker , the constructor of the combat aircraft , was presented to him . Interwar years . Rupprecht lost his chance to rule Bavaria when it became a republic in the revolutions that followed the war . Although some royalists still referred to him as the King of Bavaria , the 738 years of Wittelsbach rule ended in 1918 . Rupprecht escaped to Tyrol in fear of reprisals from the brief communist regime in Bavaria under Kurt Eisner but returned in September 1919 . While away from Bavaria , he succeeded his mother , Maria Theresia of Austria - Este , the last Queen of Bavaria , as the Jacobite heir . This occurred upon her death on 3 February 1919 . As such , under his anglicized name he would be King Robert I ( or Rupert ) ( King of England ) and IV ( King of Scotland ) , although he never claimed these crowns and " strongly discouraged " anyone from claiming them on his behalf . He was styled " Duke of Cornwall and Rothesay " because of his mother ' s claim . The changed political situation however allowed him finally to marry Princess Antoinette of Luxembourg on 7 April 1921 . The ceremony was carried out by the nuncio to Bavaria , Eugenio Pacelli , later Pope Pius XII . Shortly after the 1922 Washington Naval Conference , he made a statement regarding the possible ban of aerial bombing , poison gas , sea blockades and long range guns , blaming them for a majority of civilian casualties during the last war . He also advocated Germany ' s participation in future peace conferences , and he dismissed claims that Kaiser Wilhelm II was to blame for the first world war . While opposed to the Weimar Republic and never having renounced his rights to the throne , Rupprecht envisioned a Constitutional monarchy for Bavaria . Upon his father ' s death in October 1921 , Rupprecht declared his claim to the throne since his father had never formally renounced his crown in the Anif declaration . While never crowned king , he did become the head of the House of Wittelsbach after his father ' s death . He formed the " Wittelsbacher Ausgleichfond " in 1923 , which was an agreement with the state of Bavaria leaving the most important of the Wittelsbach palaces , like Neuschwanstein and Linderhof , to the Bavarian people . He was never enticed to join the far right in Germany , despite Hitler ' s attempts to win him over through Ernst Röhm and promises of royal restoration . Hitler confided in private to a personal dislike of the Crown Prince . The Crown Prince in turn confessed to King George V at a lunch in London in the summer of 1934 that he considered Hitler to be insane . With the worsening of the Great Depression in 1932 , a plan was floated to give Rupprecht dictatorial powers in Bavaria under the title of " Staatskommissar " . The plan attracted support from a wide coalition of parties , including the SPD and the post - war Bavarian " Minister - President " ( " First Minister " ) Wilhelm Hoegner but the legal appointment of Hitler as " Reichskanzler " in 1933 by Hindenburg and the hesitant Bavarian government under Heinrich Held ended all hopes for the idea . Rupprecht continued to believe that restoration of the monarchy was possible , an opinion he voiced to the British ambassador Eric Phipps in 1935 . Second world war . Rupprecht was forced into exile in Italy in December 1939 ( the last straw being the confiscation of " Schloß Leutstetten " by the Nazis ) where he stayed as a guest of King Victor Emmanuel , residing mostly in Florence . He and his family were barred from returning to Germany . He continued to harbor the idea of the restoration of the Bavarian monarchy , in a possible union with Austria as an independent Southern Germany . In a memorandum in May 1943 , he voiced his opinion that Germany would be completely defeated in the war and hoped to spare the German people from the worst when the Nazi regime finally fell . He even mentioned his ambition for the German crown , which had been held by the House of Wittelsbach in the past . In October 1944 , when Germany occupied Hungary , Rupprecht ' s wife and children were captured , while he , still in Italy , evaded arrest . They were first imprisoned in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp at Oranienburg , Brandenburg . In April 1945 they were moved to the Dachau concentration camp , where they were liberated by the United States Army . Crown Princess Antoinette never recovered completely from the captivity , and died a few years later in Switzerland , having vowed never to return to Germany after her ordeal . She was buried in Rome but her heart was , complying with Wittelsbach tradition , enshrined in the " Gnadenkapelle " ( Chapel of the Miraculous Image ) at Altötting . Towards the end of the war , a US Army officer , Col . Albert Caswell Metts Jr . , assisted Rupprecht ' s five daughters in returning to Luxemburg . On May 16 he drove them to Schloss Hohenschwangau , then to Schloss Berg , and then to Schloss Leutstetten . Late at night they knocked on the door of the Samerhof , a house owned by the Royal Family across the street from the castle . At the door of the Samerhof the princesses were met by their uncle Franz with his sons Ludwig and Rasso ; they had managed to escape from Hungary and to bring with them some of the royal family ' s famous Sárvár horses . Later the princesses were driven to Augsburg from where they flew to Luxemburg . Post war . Rupprecht continued to advocate the restoration of the Bavarian monarchy upon his return but found no support from the US occupation authorities , who however treated him courteously . General Dwight D . Eisenhower provided a special plane to fly him back to Munich in September 1945 and he returned to " Schloss Leutstetten " . It is estimated that he had the support of 60 to 70 % of the Bavarian population in his goal to restore the monarchy in the post - war years . Of the 170 members of the Bavarian parliament , 70 declared themselves to be monarchists in September 1954 , a clear sign of support for the Crown Prince . Death . Upon his death in 1955 at " Schloss Leutstetten " at the age of 86 , he was treated like a deceased monarch , receiving a state funeral . He is buried in the crypt of the Theatinerkirche in Munich near his grandfather Prince Luitpold and great - great - grandfather King Maximilian I , between his first wife Duchess Maria Gabrielle and his oldest son Prince Luitpold . Children . Rupprecht married twice and had a total of eleven children : Decorations and honors . Among others , Rupprecht received the following Medals and Orders : Bavaria Kingdom of Prussia Other German states Other countries