Should Charles Be Worried? Gay Pretender to British Throne Comes Out at 89
King Charles III walked the royal walk today not as a confident monarch, but with a deer-in-the-headlights expression. Was he afraid the late Princess Diana or mother was going to rise from the grave and snatch the crown from his head? Or was he afraid that another living pretender to the throne — a gay Bavarian royal — would turn up and demand his rightful place.
Throwing more rain on Charles' rainy parade, the British tabloid Daily Star reports that the "man hailed as the 'true king' of England is an 89-year-old Bavarian Duke — kept from his throne by a decision Parliament made 300 years ago. Franz, Duke of Bavaria, or to give him his full name, Franz Bonaventura Adalbert Maria Herzog von Bayern, could have been successor to the British and Irish crowns of the Stuart kings."
"A direct descendant of the House of Stuart, the Duke of Bavaria would have had a claim to the throne under the Jacobite succession had it not been ruled out by the Act of Settlement in 1701."
But Charles need not worry. The out Duke of Bavaria has no claims on the crown. "Franz, who lives with his life partner of 43 years Thomas Greinwald, has no interest in the throne," writes the Daily Star.
"While the Duke's spokesperson called the issue a 'hypothetical' one, in an alternative history Franz would have been crowned in 1996 after the death of his father."
The controversy stems from The Act of Settlement of 1701, which was designed to secure the Protestant succession to the throne, and to strengthen the guarantees for ensuring a parliamentary system of government, reads the website Royal.UK.
"The Act also strengthened the Bill of Rights (1689), which had previously established the order of succession for Mary II's heirs," reads the site. "The Act also laid down the conditions under which the Crown could be held. No Roman Catholic, nor anyone married to a Roman Catholic, could hold the Crown. The Sovereign now had to swear to maintain the Church of England (and after 1707, the Church of Scotland)."
The Catholic Jacobite's claim is that the crowns of England, Scotland, and Ireland should have descended to them since the deposition of James II and VII in 1688 and his death in 1701.
"Rumours of repealing the Act were aired in 2008, and had it been repealed the "whole Catholic line" would have been reinstated," adds the Daily Star.
Professor Daniel Szechi, speaking to The Telegraph at the time, said: "Franz becomes the rightful claimant to the throne. We would just exchange one German family for another one."
According to his Wiki, "Franz Bonaventura Adalbert Maria Herzog von Bayern (born 14 July 1933), commonly known by the courtesy title Duke of Bavaria, is the 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, being deposed in 1918."
His family opposed the Nazis and the young Franz spent time in a number of concentration camps, including Oranienburg and Dachau. At the end of April 1945, they were liberated by the United States Third Army. He went on to study business management and is known as an avid modern art collector with items from his private collection are on permanent loan to the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich.
In his personal life Franz has a life partner since 1980, Thomas Greinwald, although they have never married. In August 2011, the duke appeared at Prince George Frederick of Prussia's wedding, accompanied by Greinwald and his first cousin once removed (and future heir) Prince Ludwig. They first appeared publicly as a couple in Munich in 2023.
According to the German publication Rheinische Post, Franz officially announced his relationship last month at the age of 90. At an event at Munich's Ludwig Maximilian University, he introduced Greinwald as his life partner.
"The two are officially appearing as a couple for the first time. And that after 43 years of relationship, that's how long the two have been together. It is a coming-out of a special, touching kind. It has long been known that Franz von Bayern is gay. And that he has a partner, kind of an open secret," writes Rheinische Post.
"In Wittelsbacher circles, Greinwald was long considered a friend, a confidante, a kind of companion. In his book, Franz von Bayern writes about the fear of being outed and that his partner had to give up a lot more than he did because of the secret relationship for so long."
But don't expect the couple to be in the limelight. "It is not to be expected that the couple will now be in the limelight. Franz von Bayern is much too reserved for that. In conversation, the prevented king said some time ago that he is quite happy not to be a ruler. Only if the need were so great that the people were calling for him would he have to bow to his duty. Apart from a few royalists, nothing like that has been heard in the Free State.
"James Stuart's descendants, excluded from the throne because of their Roman Catholicism, continued to pursue their claim to the throne with a series of pretenders, most notably Charles Edward Stuart known as Bonnie Prince Charlie.
The death of Henry Benedict Stuart in 1807, the last of James Stuart's legitimate descendants, saw the Jacobite succession lose support and political importance. But had it not been for the Act of Settlement that prevented James II from ascending to the throne, the line would have brought Franz to the head of the Royal Family."