Kingdom of Bavaria

The Kingdom of Bavaria was a German state that succeeded the Electorate of Bavaria in 1806 and lasted until the revolution of 1918. Its founder, Maximilian IV Joseph of the House of Wittelsbach, proclaimed himself King Maximilian I on 1 January 1806 after the Peace of Pressburg, and his minister Maximilian von Montgelas carried through sweeping reforms that abolished serfdom and gave Bavaria its first written constitution. Allied with Napoleonic France, the kingdom gained territory in the mediatisation of 1803-1806 but lost about 30,000 soldiers in the Russian campaign of 1812; the Treaty of Ried in October 1813 brought it into the Sixth Coalition. The Congress of Vienna confirmed Bavaria's gains of Wurzburg and Aschaffenburg while it ceded Tyrol and Vorarlberg to Austria, and most of the borders of the modern Free State date from this settlement. Bavaria joined the German Empire in 1871 as a federated state second only to Prussia in size and population, retaining its own army, railways and postal service. King Ludwig II patronised Richard Wagner and built Neuschwanstein before his deposition and death in 1886. In November 1918 the German Revolution forced the abdication of Ludwig III, and the kingdom was succeeded by the Free State of Bavaria.