Franz, Duke of Bavaria, and his partner Thomas Greinwald enjoyed day 1 of the Oktoberfest in Munich today, September 16:
** Pic **
What made the Bavarians less eager to change the succession laws to their defunct throne in comparison to some other former royals, such as the Italians? In Italy, the senior branch of the House of Savoy recently allowed female succession (though this move was certainly NOT recognized by all Italian monarchists!) due to the fact that they were going to run out of males, but in Bavaria, even though Crown Prince Rupprecht's male line is going to end within the next couple of decades or so, there does not appear to be any desire to change the succession laws to the defunct Bavarian throne. Rather, the senior branch of the Bavarian royal family seems perfectly content to allow the male line of Crown Prince Rupprecht's younger brother Franz, Prince of Bavaria ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Franz_of_Bavaria ) to inherit the Bavarian throne after the senior branch of the Bavarian royal family will become extinct in the male line--even though Prince Max, Duke in Bavaria actually does have five daughters:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Max,_Duke_in_Bavaria
Können Sie sich vorstellen, dass einmal eine Frau dem Haus Wittelsbach vorsteht?
Das wird die Zukunft zeigen.
Es ist nicht vorgesehen.
Ich glaube, da kann man sich nicht auf ein Prinzip festlegen, das muss sich ergeben.
Interviewer: Can you see a woman at the head of the House of Wittelsbach one day?
Franz: The future will show.
Interviewer: It is not expected.
Franz: I believe you can't lay down a principle, it needs to develop on its own.
Duke Franz was asked about female headship during an interview in April this year:
https://www.abendzeitung-muenchen.d...-das-recht-im-land-zu-polarisieren-art-890367
Which I think roughly translates to:
I hope a German speaker can clarify his meaning, but I assume he meant that he believes it should not happen until the family as a whole is willing to accept a woman as their head.
If that is the case, did he follow this principle by obtaining the agreement of family members when he amended the family's marriage rules, or did he simply lay down that change unilaterally?
'I think that it cannot be laid down as a principle, it is something that evolves.'
In the name PIN Party what does PIN stand for?
A simple question:
Is Duke Max the only Duke IN Bavaria and why ??
I believe he is, yes.
The original line of the Dukes in Bavaria started by Duke William (b. 1752) died out in the male line in 1973. The last head of that line adopted Max as his heir. Since Max has no sons, there is currently no other man who lawfully bears the surname 'Herzog in Bayern' - just him.
It could perhaps be argued that other male members of the extant royal line are still entitled to be known as Herzog in Bayern, but I believe they have long since given up using this style and now stick to either Herzog von Bayern or Prinz von Bayern.
This article on Wikipedia has a good overview of the topic : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_in_Bavaria
It will be interesting to see what happens to the title once Max dies - if it will go to Luitpold along with the headship of the royal line, or to someone else.