See also

Family of Louis II and Anna of GLOGAU

Husband: Louis II (1229-1294)
Wife: Anna of GLOGAU (1250-1271)
Children: Maria (1261- )
Ludwig (1267- )

Husband: Louis II

Name: Louis II
Sex: Male
Father: Otto II (1206-1253)
Mother: Agnes of PALATINATE (1201-1267)
Birth 13 Apr 1229
Occupation Duke of Upper Bavaria
Death 2 Feb 1294 (age 64)

Wife: Anna of GLOGAU

Name: Anna of GLOGAU
Sex: Female
Father: -
Mother: -
Birth 1250
Title frm 1260 to 1271 (age 9-21) Duchess of Upper Bavaria
Occupation Duchess of Upper Bavaria
Death 25 Jun 1271 (age 20-21)

Child 1: Maria

Name: Maria
Sex: Female
Birth 1261

Child 2: Ludwig

Name: Ludwig
Sex: Male
Birth 13 Sep 1267

Note on Husband: Louis II

Duke Louis II of Bavaria (German: Ludwig II der Strenge, Herzog von Bayern, Pfalzgraf bei Rhein) (13 April 1229 – 2 February 1294) was Duke of Bavaria and Count Palatine of the Rhine from 1253. Born in Heidelberg, he was a son of duke Otto II and Agnes of Palatinate. She was a daughter of the Welf Henry V, Count Palatine of the Rhine, her grandfathers were Henry XII the Lion and Conrad of Hohenstaufen.

 

The young Louis supported in 1246 his brother-in-law King Conrad IV of Germany against the usurpation of Heinrich Raspe. In 1251 Louis was at war again against the bishop of Regensburg.

 

Louis succeeded his father Otto as Duke of Bavaria in 1253. When the Wittelsbach country was divided in 1255 among Otto's sons, Louis received the Palatinate and Upper Bavaria, while his brother duke Henry XIII of Bavaria received Lower Bavaria. This partition was against the law and therefore caused the anger of the bishops in Bavaria who allied themselves with king Otakar II of Bohemia in 1257. In August 1257 Ottokar invaded Bavaria, but Louis and Henry managed to repulse the attack. It was one of the rare concerted and harmonious actions of the two brothers, who often argued.

 

Louis resided in Munich and Heidelberg Castle. As one of the Prince-electors of the empire he was strongly involved in the royal elections for forty years. During the German interregnum after King William's death in 1256 Louis supported King Richard of Cornwall. Together with his brother, Louis also aided his young Hohenstaufen nephew Conradin in his duchy of Swabia, but it was not possible to enforce Conradin's election as German king. As a result of his support for the Hohenstaufen, Louis was banned by the pope in 1266. In 1267 when his nephew crossed the Alps with an army, Louis accompanied Conradin only to Verona. After the young prince's execution in Naples in 1268, Louis inherited some of Conradin's possessions in Swabia and supported the election of the Habsburg Rudolph I against Ottokar II in 1273. On 26 August 1278 the armies of Rudolph and Louis met Otakar's forces on the banks of the River March in the Battle of Dürnkrut and Jedenspeigen where Otakar was defeated and killed. In 1289 the electoral dignity of Bavaria passed to Bohemia again, but Louis remained an elector as Count Palatine of the Rhine. After Rudolph's death in 1291 Louis could not enforce the election of his Habsburg brother-in-law Albert I against Adolf of Nassau.

 

Louis died at Heidelberg. His eldest surviving son Rudolf succeeded him, with Adolf of Nassau becoming his father-in-law a few months later. Louis was buried in the crypt of Fürstenfeld Abbey.

 

[edit] Family and children

Louis II with his first two wives Marie of Brabant (middle) and Anna of Glogau (right), 16th centuryLouis II was married three times.

 

[edit] The execution of Marie of BrabantHe had his first wife Marie of Brabant —a daughter of Henry II, Duke of Brabant and Marie of Hohenstaufen— executed in Donauwörth in 1256 due to mistaken suspicion of adultery; back in those days the punishment for an adulterous wife was beheading. Any actual guilt on her part could never be validated. As expiation Louis founded the Cistercian friary Fürstenfeld Abbey (Fürstenfeldbruck) near Munich.

 

Different sources tell varying tales about how this terrible mistake could happen in the first place: In 1256 Louis had been away from home for an extended time, due to his responsibilities as a sovereign in the area of the Rhine. His wife wrote two letters, one to her husband, and another to the earl of Kyburg at Hunsrück, a vassal of Louis. Details about the actual content of the second letter vary, but according to the chroniclers the messenger who carried the letter to Ludwig had been given the wrong one, and Louis came to the conclusion that his wife had a secret love affair.

 

Over time a great many tales of folklore sprang up around Louis' bloody deed, most of them written long after his death: Ballad-mongers embellished the tale into a murderous frenzy, during which Louis allegedly not only killed his wife after having ridden home for five days and nights, but also stabbed the messenger who brought him the wrong letter, then upon entering his castle stabbed his own castellan and a court lady and threw his wife's maid from the battlements, before he massacred his wife either by stabbing her or cutting off her head.

 

Several more restrained chronicles support the account of Marie's execution on January 18, 1256 in Donauwörth at castle Mangoldstein by ducal decree for alleged adultery, but nothing beyond that.

 

[edit] Later marriages

Louis' third wife, Matilda of HabsburgIn 1260 Louis married his second wife Anna of Glogau. They had the following children:

 

1.Maria (b. 1261), a nun in Marienburg abbey.

2.Ludwig (13 September 1267–23 November 1290, killed at a tournament at Nuremberg.

He married his third wife Matilda of Habsburg, one of king Rudolph's daughters, on 27 October 1273. Their children were:

 

1.Agnes (ca. 1267/77–1345), married to:

1.1290 in Donauwörth Landgrave Henry II of Hesse;

2.1298/1303 Heinrich I "Ohneland" ("Lackland"), Margrave of Brandenburg.

2.Rudolf I (4 October 1274, Basle–12 August 1319).

3.Mechthild (1275–28 March 1319, Lüneburg), married 1288 to Duke Otto II of Braunschweig-Lüneburg.

4.Ludwig IV (1 April 1282, Munich–11 October 1347, Puch bei Fürstenfeldbruck).

Louis II was succeeded by his oldest son Rudolf.

Note on Wife: Anna of GLOGAU

Anna of Glogau (1250/52 – 25 June 1271) was the eldest child of Konrad I, Duke of Silesia-Glogau and his first wife Salome of Greater Poland. Anna was a member of the House of Piast.

 

[edit] FamilyAnna's paternal grandparents were, Henry II the Pious and his wife, Anna of Bohemia. Anna's maternal grandfather was, Wladyslaw Odonic, King of Poland. Anna's siblings included: Henry III, Duke of Silesia-Glogau; successor to their father, Euphemia of Glogau; she was married to Albert I of Gorizia, Konrad II the Hunchback and Przemko of Scinawa; he was killed in battle.

 

[edit] MarriageIn 1260, Anna married Louis II, Duke of Bavaria. This was Louis' second marriage after his violent first marriage to Marie of Brabant, Louis murdered Marie because he believed she was having and affair. Louis' first marriage was childless.

 

Louis and Anna had two children, they were:

 

1.Maria (born 1261, date of death unknown), a nun in Marienburg abbey.

2.Ludwig (13 September 1267 – 23 November 1290), killed at a tournament at Nuremberg.

Anna's son, Ludwig would have probably become Duke of Bavaria, but died at a tournament and he died before his father. Anna herself died in 1271, she was in her late teens or early twenties, when she died. Her husband married one more time, to Matilda of Habsburg. Matilda bore Louis two surviving sons, their younger son was Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor.