Franz, Duke of Bavaria

Who is Franz, Duke of Bavaria?

Franz, Duke of Bavaria, styled as His Royal Highness, The Duke of Bavaria, Duke of Franconia and in Swabia, Count Palatine of the Rhine, is head of the House of Wittelsbach, the former ruling family of the Kingdom of Bavaria. His great-grandfather King Ludwig III was the last ruling monarch of Bavaria and was deposed in 1918.

Franz was born in Munich. During the Second World War, the Wittelsbachs were anti-Nazi. The family initially left Germany for Hungary, but were eventually arrested when Franz was aged eleven. He spent time in several Nazi concentration camps including Oranienburg and Dachau. After the war, he was a student at the University of Munich and became a collector of modern art.

Franz succeeded as head of the House of Wittelsbach, and as pretender to the Bavarian throne, on the death of his father in 1996. He lives at the Nymphenburg Palace.

Franz is also the current heir-general of King Charles I of England and Scotland, and thus as "Francis II" is considered by Jacobites to be the legitimate heir of the Stuart kings of England, France, Scotland and Ireland.