Louis II, Grand Duke of Hesse
Ludwig II of Hesse and by Rhine ( born December 26, 1777 Darmstadt, † June 16, 1848 ibid ) was 1830-1848 Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine.
Life
Ludwig was the eldest son of Grand Duke Ludwig I of Hesse and by Rhine (1753-1830) from his marriage to Louise (1761-1829), daughter of Prince Georg Wilhelm of Hesse- Darmstadt. The crown prince studied since 1795 at the University of Leipzig.
He married on 19 June 1804 in Karlsruhe Princess Wilhelmine of Baden ( 1788-1836 ), daughter of the Hereditary Prince Karl Ludwig of Baden. In the same year he took part in the coronation of Napoleon I in Paris. Following the increase of his father in 1806, Hereditary Grand Duke Ludwig was called. Ludwig lived at Erfurt and the Congress of Vienna. At the coronation of Louis XVIII. he stayed again in Paris.
Due to the constitution of the Grand Duchy of Hesse was Prince Ludwig from 1820 until his inauguration as Grand Duke in 1830 with a Grand-Ducal Prince member of the First Chamber of the Estates of the Grand Duchy of Hesse.
The prince lived up to his throne on April 6, 1830 mostly withdrawn in Darmstadt. An actual government affairs, he could take no part, he took part only in the meetings of the First Chamber and was from 1823 a member of the State Council.
His demand to assuming his considerable debt to the State Sinking Fund brought him immediately after his accession to the stands in conflict which lasted his whole reign because of its growing reactionary direction. Shortly after his government takeover had occurred in Upper Hesse uprisings, but these were put down by Louis brother Emil. Essentially sat Ludwig, in close cooperation with the Prime Minister Karl du Thil, the reform activity of his father.
The events of the March Revolution, he felt unable to cope and therefore rendered on March 5, 1848 his son Louis III. the co-regency.
Progeny
Of the seven children of Louis survived him three sons and a daughter.
- Ludwig III. (1806-1877), Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine
- Karl (1809-1877)
- Elisabeth (1821-1826)
- Alexander (1823-1888), later called Battenberg
- Marie (1824-1880)
It is peddled, Elizabeth, Alexander and Marie came from an extramarital relationship of his wife and had been accepted by Ludwig merely as children of their own. Although the illegitimate filiation has a certain probability, it is not secure and is not based on a written document or on an oral statement.