King Joseph Clemens von Holstein
1678-1692
Now with wars raging on all sides the nobles went into a panic. War exhaustion was ever increasing and Ludwig did nothing to try and shorten the wars, choosing instead to fight them out to the fullest extent. Serbia was knocked out of the war quickly enough, being forces to release Wallachia as a sovereign nation, but this would still take an entire year to accomplish.
Discontent was in the air, and during the course of the war there were numerous rebellions at home, forcing Ludwig to dispatch armies both locally and abroad to subdue all enemies to his rule. Much to the chagrin of the nobility, it was now being sad that old Ludwig was now forcing servants and officials to refer to him as "Emperor" now.
In Northern Africa, success was made against the Mamluks, thanks mostly due to assistance from Bavaria's ally the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantines cut a swathe through the Mamluk Empire and Bavaria used this to her advantage and seized Asyut, just to the southwest of Cairo. Missionaries were immediately established by Ludwig's decree to wipe out the taint of Islam from the region.
The Ukraine was then assaulted at their capital and sole province of Kiev. With Kiev's downfall, the Ukrainians capitulated without further fighting. Ludwig demanded that they become proper God-fearing Catholics as part of his terms.
With most of Bavaria's enemies now finally out of the fight, Ludwig had his armies in the south turn their attention to Dulkadir and his armies in the north continue to focus on Sweden. With the help of the mighty Byzantines, Dulkadir was forced to submit to Bavaria and lost 2 precious coastal territories. The world looked on nervously as Bavarian infamy now knew almost no bounds, making King Luitpold's reign seem like a truly peaceful one.
With war exhaustion at an all time high, Bavaria's reputation around the globe in tatters, and internal rebellions against the state rising up monthly, the generals and nobles begged Ludwig to give up his mad quest of conquest. Ludwig however, refused, declaring that he would not stop until the Swedish heathens had been brought under his boot and made to fall to their knees in front of the Pope and beseech their Lord and Savior to forgive them for the error of their ways. It would take another year of fighting and the loss of blood from both Bavaria and her loyal allies before Sweden dared accept such an offer.
With Sweden now out of the war, her ally Polotsk, the initial catalyst for the war was left with her northern flanks dangerously exposed. Poland had offered assistance from the south, but was besieged by the Byzantine allies of Bavaria and also embroiled in a war with Great Britain, allowing her to only offer token resistance. Polotsk was soundly defeated and forced into a personal union with Bavaria. Unbeknownst to Joseph Clemens in Alexandria, he was now King of both Bavaria and Polotsk.
Polotsk's defeat was then followed by the vanquishing of Holland in the year 1688, who had been defender of the faith for the heretics, coming to their defense. In the ultimate irony, Ludwig made these so-called defenders renounce their heretical beliefs and accept that the Church of Rome had truly been right all along.
By this point, Bavaria had been embroiled in near constant warfare for an entire decade. Ludwig's actions at home and abroad were now straining the empire to its limits. He ordered more armies to be raised, but the time it took to gather up the necessary manpower was now longer than ever and his patience grew thin. His actions became ever more erratic and eccentric. He reportedly even began wearing King Luitpold's crown everywhere he went within the castle. The only nation left resisting Bavaria in war was Poland, and simply making them concede defeat was out of the question. His generals knew what Ludwig desired, and they hurried to try and end the war so that there might finally be some peace throughout the land. With Poland finally admitting defeat, mostly in part to the assistance of the Byzantines and various other allies, the Poles were forced to convert back to Catholicism.
Peace would only last two years though. Avignon, would go to war with the Teutonic Order and demand that Bavaria come to her aid as the leading member of the Holy Roman Empire. Against the wishes of his people, his administrators, and his generals, Ludwig accepted, throwing Bavaria back into war yet again.
The nobility had been waiting for Ludwig to die this entire time. The man had served on the Bavarian court for decades and was well into his 80s, but instead of his physical health failing, only his mind appeared to age. When he learned that the nobles were planning on sending for Joseph Clemens in Alexandria, Ludwig ordered the King to be poisoned. In March of 1692, King Joseph Clemens was found dead by a servant, and suspicions quickly grew. The palace cook in Alexandria was seized by nobles loyal to the royal family, and after several hours of "questioning" confessed that Ludwig had given him the order to kill the king. This was all the evidence that the nobles needed, and in the next few days they established a council of loyalists, raised a small army and stormed the capital of the Empire. Ludwig was found sitting on the King's throne defiant till the end, and it would take several gaping wounds from soldier's blades to turn his long flowing purple robes dark red with blood. With the death of the old tyrant, Bavaria was once again free, but her heir to the throne was but a child. And so, the council that had overthrown Ludwig became caretaker of the kingdom, until the time that Karl Theodor could rule properly.