Prince Wilhelm Karl
Mindaugas II
Duke of Urach
Reign17 July 1869 – 24 March 1928
PredecessorPrince Wilhelm
SuccessorPrince Karl Gero
King-elect of Lithuania
Reign11 July – 2 November 1918
Born(1864-03-03)3 March 1864
Monaco
Died24 March 1928(1928-03-24) (aged 64)
Rapallo, Kingdom of Italy
Burial
Ludwigsburg Palace Church
SpouseDuchess Amalie in Bavaria
Princess Wiltrud of Bavaria
IssuePrincess Marie-Gabriele
Princess Elisabeth of Urach
Princess Karola
Prince Wilhelm
Karl Gero, Duke of Urach
Princess Margarete
Albrecht von Urach
Prince Eberhard
Princess Mechtilde
Names
Wilhelm Karl Florestan Gero Crescentius
HouseUrach
FatherWilhelm, 1st Duke of Urach
MotherPrincess Florestine of Monaco

Prince Wilhelm of Urach, Count of Württemberg, 2nd Duke of Urach (Wilhelm Karl Florestan Gero Crescentius; German: Fürst Wilhelm von Urach, Graf von Württemberg, 2. Herzog von Urach; 3 March 1864 – 24 March 1928), was a German prince who was elected in June 1918 as King of Lithuania, with the regnal name of Mindaugas II. He never assumed the crown, however, as German authorities declared the election invalid;[1] the invitation was withdrawn in November 1918. From 17 July 1869 until his death, he was the head of the morganatic Urach branch of the House of Württemberg.

Early life

Born as Wilhelm Karl Florestan Gero Crescentius, Count of Württemberg, he was the elder son of Wilhelm, 1st Duke of Urach (the head of a morganatic branch of the Royal House of the Kingdom of Württemberg), and his second wife, Princess Florestine of Monaco, occasional Regent of Monaco and daughter of Florestan I, Prince of Monaco.

At the age of four, Wilhelm succeeded his father as Duke of Urach. He was born and spent much of his childhood in Monaco, where his mother Florestine often managed the government during the extended oceanographic expeditions of her nephew, Prince Albert I. Wilhelm was culturally francophone.

Candidate for various thrones

Through his mother, Wilhelm was a legitimate heir to the throne of Monaco. Wilhelm's cousin Prince Albert I of Monaco had only one child, Prince Louis, who was unmarried and had no legitimate children. The French Republic, however, was reluctant to see a German prince ruling Monaco. Under French pressure, Monaco passed a law in 1911 recognising Louis's illegitimate daughter, Charlotte, as heir; she was adopted in 1918 by her grandfather Prince Albert I as part of the Monaco Succession Crisis of 1918. Wilhelm was relegated to third in line to Monaco's throne, behind Louis and Charlotte. Furthermore, in July 1918 France and Monaco signed the Franco-Monegasque Treaty; it required all future princes of Monaco to be French or Monegasque citizens and secure the approval of the French government to succeed to the throne.[2] After the accession of Prince Louis II in 1922, Wilhelm renounced his rights of succession to the throne of Monaco in favour of distant French cousins, the counts de Chabrillan, in 1924.

In 1913, Wilhelm was one of several princes considered for the throne of Albania.[3] He was supported by Catholic groups in the north and attended the Albanian Congress of Trieste. In 1914 Prince William of Wied was selected instead.

In 1917, as a newly retired general, Wilhelm sounded out the possibility of being made Grand Duke of Alsace-Lorraine after the war was over.[4] In 1918, he accepted the short-lived invitation to reign as Mindaugas II of Lithuania. His claims were published in a 2001 essay by his grandson-in-law, Sergei von Cube.[5]

Military career

Typical of his family, Wilhelm entered the army in 1883 and was a professional general by the outbreak of World War I in 1914 as commander of the 26th Infantry Division (1st Royal Württemberg) of the Imperial German Army.[6] Until November 1914 this division was part of the German assault on France, and then Belgium, where Wilhelm's sister-in-law Elisabeth of Belgium was queen. In December 1914, the division fought in the battle to cross the Bzura river in Poland. From June to September 1915, the division moved from north of Warsaw to positions close to the Neman River, an advance of hundreds of miles in the campaign in which Poland was taken (the Great Russian Retreat of World War I). In October–November 1915, the division took part in the Serbian Campaign, moving from west of Belgrade to Kraljevo in less than a month. The division served at Ypres in Belgium from December 1915 to July 1916, then was largely destroyed at the Somme battles from August to November 1916 while holding the Schwaben Redoubt (Swabia is part of Württemberg). Wilhelm retired as divisional general on 5 January 1917.[7]

In 1917–18, Wilhelm was General Officer Commanding of the 64th Corps (Generalkommando 64) on the western front; his aides de camp included Eugen Ott and Erwin Rommel.[8]

King of Lithuania

On 4 June 1918, the Council of Lithuania voted to invite Wilhelm to become the king of a newly independent Lithuania. Wilhelm agreed and was elected on 11 July 1918, taking the name Mindaugas II. His election can be explained by several factors:[9]

  • he was Roman Catholic (the dominant religion in Lithuania);
  • he was not a member of the House of Hohenzollern, the family to which belonged the German Emperor William II, who wanted Lithuania to be a monarchy in personal union with Prussia;
  • the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk of March 1918 had established Germany's power in the region, for the time being;
  • he had had a successful military career;
  • if the Central Powers were to win the war, Lithuania could have expected German protection in the event of future intrusions by Russia.

According to Wilhelm's agreement with the Council of Lithuania, he had to live in Lithuania and learn to speak its language.

Portrait 1918

In addition, he was also descended from Casimir IV Jagiellon, grand duke of Lithuania, through his daughter Barbara Jagiellon.

From the beginning, Wilhelm's reign was controversial. The four socialists of the twenty members of the Council of Lithuania left in protest. The German government did not recognize Wilhelm's selection as king, although the influential publicist and politician Matthias Erzberger, also a Catholic from Württemberg, supported the claim. Wilhelm never had the chance to visit Lithuania;[10] he remained instead at Lichtenstein Castle, his home south of Stuttgart. He did start to learn the Lithuanian language, however.[11] Within a few months of his election, it became clear that Germany would lose World War I, and on 2 November 1918, the Council of Lithuania reversed its decision.

In the tiny chapel of Lichtenstein Castle is a framed letter from Pope Benedict XV welcoming Wilhelm's selection as the future king of Lithuania.[12]

In 2009 Wilhelm's grandson Inigo was interviewed on television in Vilnius, and said: "...if he was honoured with a proposal to assume the throne of Lithuania, he would not refuse it."[13]

The German anti-war novelist Arnold Zweig set his 1937 novel Einsetzung eines Königs (The Crowning of a King) around the election of Mindaugas in 1918.[14]

Marriages and children

Wilhelm Karl and his family
Marriage of the Duke of Urach

Wilhelm was married twice. On 4 July 1892, he married firstly Duchess Amalie in Bavaria (1865–1912), daughter of Karl-Theodor, Duke in Bavaria, a niece of Empress Elisabeth of Austria, and a direct descendant of the Lithuanian princess Ludwika Karolina Radziwiłł of Biržai. Nine children were born of this marriage:

In 1924, Wilhelm married secondly Princess Wiltrud of Bavaria (1884–1975), daughter of King Ludwig III of Bavaria. This marriage was childless.

Prince Eberhard's son Inigo made a sentimental journey to Lithuania in November 2009, which was covered by the local media.[15][16]

Honours

Ancestors

See also

References

  1. ↑ Holborn, Hajo (1982). A history of Modern Germany. Princeton University Press. p. 429. ISBN 0-691-00797-7.
  2. ↑ 1918 Franco-Monegasque Treaty text Archived 19 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ↑ Arben Puto, L'indépendance albanaise et la diplomatie des grandes puissances: 1912–1914 (Tirana: Editions "8 Nëntori", 1982), 456.
  4. ↑ London Times. Düsseldorfer Nachrichten excerpt. 1918/11/5. p. 8.
  5. ↑ Von Cube Essay, 2000
  6. ↑ "Wilhelm II Herzog von Urach". home.comcast.net. Archived from the original on 4 November 2012. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
  7. ↑ Online history o the division
  8. ↑ "Erwin Rommel". Archived from the original on 4 November 2012.
  9. ↑ See von Cube's essay, op.cit.
  10. ↑ Page, Stanley W. (1959). The Formation of the Baltic States. Harvard University Press. p. 94.
  11. ↑ Mindaugas Peleckis and Tomas Baranauskas.Karališkojo kraujo paieškos: Lietuva ir šimto dienų karalius. Retrieved 20 June 2007
  12. ↑ Stuttgart archives, HStA. GU 117, file 847: copy of letter from Benedict XV dated 24 July 1918.
  13. ↑ "Lithuania - Official Gateway to Lithuania". Archived from the original on 18 July 2011.
  14. ↑ Eric Sutton (Translator); "The Crowning of a King", English edition; The Viking Press, 1938 ASIN: B00085BS08
  15. ↑ "TV coverage (in Lithuanian and English)". Archived from the original on 25 January 2010. Retrieved 7 May 2010.
  16. ↑ Lithuanian web page
  17. ↑ Württembergisches Militär-Verordnungsblatt (in German), No. 48, 30 July 1915, p. 413.
  18. ↑ Württembergisches Militär-Verordnungsblatt (in German), No. 49, 12 September 1916, p. 538.
  19. ↑ Württembergisches Militär-Verordnungsblatt (in German), No. 58, 16 October 1916, p. 611.
  20. ↑ Otto von Moser: Die Württemberger im Weltkriege (in German), 2nd Edition, Chr. Belser AG, Stuttgart 1928.
  21. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Preußisches Kriegsministerium: Rangliste der Königlich Preußischen Armee und des XIII. (Königlich Württembergischen) Armeekorps für 1914 (in German), E.S. Mittler & Sohn, Berlin 1914, p. 1160.
  22. 1 2 3 Justus Perthes, Almanach de Gotha 1921 (1921) page 111
  23. ↑ Hof- und Staats-Handbuch des Königreich Bayern (1906), "Königliche Orden" p. 9
  24. ↑ Württembergisches Militär-Verordnungsblatt (in German), No. 37, 31 August 1918, p. 306.
  25. ↑ "Rother Adler-orden", Königlich Preussische Ordensliste (supp.) (in German), vol. 1, Berlin, 1886, p. 8 – via hathitrust.org{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  26. ↑ Württembergisches Militär-Verordnungsblatt (in German), No. 68, 6 November 1915, p. 607.
  27. ↑ Württembergisches Militär-Verordnungsblatt (in German), No. 40, 15 September 1917, p. 318.
  28. ↑ Sachsen (1901). "Königlich Orden". Staatshandbuch für den Königreich Sachsen: 1901. Dresden: Heinrich. p. 5 – via hathitrust.org.
  29. ↑ Württembergisches Militär-Verordnungsblatt (in German), No. 23, 10 May 1916, p. 243.
  30. ↑ Bille-Hansen, A. C.; Holck, Harald, eds. (1923) [1st pub.:1801]. Statshaandbog for Kongeriget Danmark for Aaret 1923 [State Manual of the Kingdom of Denmark for the Year 1923] (PDF). Kongelig Dansk Hof- og Statskalender (in Danish). Copenhagen: J.H. Schultz A.-S. Universitetsbogtrykkeri. p. 51. Retrieved 2 November 2019 – via da:DIS Danmark.
  31. ↑ "A Szent István Rend tagjai" Archived 22 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  32. ↑ Württembergisches Militär-Verordnungsblatt (in German), No. 11, 10 March 1916, p. 145.
  33. ↑ Sovereign Ordonnance of 4 December 1883
  34. ↑ Württembergisches Militär-Verordnungsblatt (in German), No. 20, 15 May 1918, p. 178.
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