ABSTRACT
The Wittelsbach restorationists in Weimar Bavaria enjoyed the great advantage over their Hohenzollern counterparts in Prussia of having one clearly legitimate royal candidate held in great esteem by most Bavarians. Rupprecht Maria Luitpold Ferdinand von Wittelsbach, Crown Prince of Bavaria, Count Palatine, Duke of Bavaria and Franconia, Duke in Swabia, was the eldest son of King Ludwig III. Many Bavarians reportedly awaited the Crown Prince’s return to Munich to lead loyal forces against the insurgents: Rupprecht later asserted in private that this was indeed his intention. The Crown Prince’s painstaking political reserve engendered the perception even among some of his partisans that he lacked the courage and decisiveness to stand up for the royalist cause. The Crown Prince’s entourage drew charges from time to time from some royalist as well as non-royalist circles that they were timid, incompetent courtiers intent primarily on their own selfish interests.
