| Mindaugas II (Prince Wilhelm) |
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| Reign | 17 July 1869 - 24 March 1928 (58 years, 251 days) |
| Predecessor | Prince Wilhelm |
| Successor | Prince Karl Gero |
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| Reign | 11 July 1918 – 2 November 1918 (0 years, 114 days) |
| Spouse | Duchess Amalie in Bavaria Princess Wiltrud of Bavaria |
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| Princess Marie-Gabriele Princess Elisabeth Princess Karola Prince Wilhelm Karl Gero, Duke of Urach Princess Margarete Prince Albrecht Prince Eberhard Princess Mechtilde |
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| House | House of Württemberg |
| Father | Wilhelm, 1st Duke of Urach |
| Mother | Princess Florestine of Monaco |
| Born | 30 May 1864 Monaco |
| Died | 24 March 1928 (aged 63) Rapallo, Italy |
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; 30 May 1864 – 24 March 1928) was a German prince who was elected King of Lithuania with the regnal name Mindaugas II on 11 July 1918. He never assumed the crown however, as German authorities declared the election invalid[1] and the invitation was withdrawn in November 1918. From 17 July 1869 until his death he was head of the morganatic Urach branch of the House of Württemberg.
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Born as HSH Prince Wilhelm Karl Florestan Gero Crescentius of Urach, 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 then-Kingdom of Württemberg), and his second wife, Princess Florestine of Monaco, occasional acting Regent of Monaco (daughter of Prince Florestan I 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 while her nephew, Prince Albert I of Monaco, went on long oceanographic explorations. Wilhelm was culturally francophone.
Through his mother, Wilhelm was the legitimate heir to the throne of Monaco. Wilhelm's cousin Prince Albert I of Monaco had only one son 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. Wilhelm was relegated to third in line to Monaco's throne, behind Louis and Charlotte. Further, in July 1918 France and Monaco signed a treaty requiring that all future princes of Monaco must be French or Monegasque citizens, and must be approved by the French government.[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 of 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. In 1914 Prince William of Wied was selected instead.
In 1917, as a newly-retired general Wilhelm sounded out the possibility of being made Duke of Lorraine after the war was over. 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.[4]
Typical of his family, Wilhelm entered the army in 1883 and was a professional general by the outbreak of World War I in 1914, commanding the 26th Infantry Division.[5] Until November 1914 they were part of the German assault on France and then Belgium, where Wilhelm's sister-in-law 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. In October–November 1915 it took part in the assault on Serbia, moving from west of Belgrade to Kraljevo in less than a month. At Ypres in Belgium from December 1915 to July 1916, the division was largely destroyed in the Somme battles from August to November 1916, holding the Schwaben Redoubt (Swabia is part of Württemberg). Wilhelm retired as divisional general on 5 January 1917.[6]
In 1917-18 he was "Kommandierender General" of 64th Corps (Generalkommando 64) on the western front; one of his aide de camps was Erwin Rommel.[7]
On June 4, 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:[8]
According to Wilhelm's agreement with the Council of Lithuania he had to live in Lithuania and speak its language.
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, though the influential Mattias Erzberger supported the claim, being also a Catholic and from Württemberg. Wilhelm never had the chance to visit Lithuania,[9] remaining instead at Lichtenstein Castle his home south of Stuttgart; however he started to learn the Lithuanian language.[10] 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.[11]
In 2009 Wilhelm's grandson Inigo, the younger brother of the 5th duke, 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."[12]
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.[13]
Wilhelm was married twice. In 1892, he married 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 Louise Caroline Radvila of Biržai. Nine children were born of this marriage:
Though Wilhelm's first wife had died in 1912, two of her ancestors had been elected to rule the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 18th century; August III the Saxon and Stanisław Leszczyński. This may have been a contributory factor in his election as king of Lithuania.
In 1924, Wilhelm married 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.[14][15]
In 1921 the former king Wilhelm II of Württemberg died, without leaving a male heir. While the 2nd duke of Urach was technically the senior male descendant in the Württemberg royal family, it had already been decided that the succession would pass to his cousin Albrecht because of the morganatic marriage of the parents of the first duke of Urach.
| Wilhelm 2nd Duke of Urach a.k.a. Mindaugas II of Lithuania | Father: Wilhelm, 1st Duke of Urach |
Paternal Grandfather: Wilhelm, 1st Duke of Urach |
Paternal Great-grandfather: Frederick II Eugene, Duke of Württemberg |
| Paternal Great-grandmother: Margravine Friederike Dorothea of Brandenburg-Schwedt |
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| Paternal Grandmother: Baroness Wilhelmine von Tunderfeldt-Rhodis |
Paternal Great-grandfather: Friedrich-Karl von Tunderfeldt-Rhodis |
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| Paternal Great-grandmother: Therese Schilling von Canstatt |
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| Mother: Princess Florestine of Monaco |
Maternal Grandfather: Florestan I, Prince of Monaco |
Maternal Great-grandfather: Honoré IV, Prince of Monaco |
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| Maternal Great-grandmother: Louise d'Aumont Mazarin |
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| Maternal Grandmother: Maria Caroline Gibert de Lametz |
Maternal Great-grandfather: Charles-Thomas Gibert de Lametz |
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| Maternal Great-grandmother: Marie-Françoise Le Gras de Vaubercey |
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Mindaugas II
Born: 30 May 1864 Died: 24 March 1928 |
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| German nobility | ||
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| Preceded by Wilhelm, 1st Duke of Urach |
Duke of Urach 1869-1928 |
Succeeded by Karl Gero, 3rd Duke of Urach |
| Regnal titles | ||
| Vacant
Title last held by
Vytautas |
King of Lithuania 4 June 1918 - 2 November 1918 |
Succeeded by Republic established |