The letters of Paul to Ludwig are all cited from Desmond Chapman-Huston’s book. He lived in Bavaria in the 1930s and became close to María del Pilar Princess of Bavaria (1891–1987), daughter of Ludwig Ferdinand of Bavaria. Through this connection to the Wittelsbach Family, he was able to get access to the Secret Archives before they were heavily destroyed during World War II.
Chapman-Huston went also to the Regensburg Archives of the Thurn und Taxis Family, but couldn’t find any trace of Paul there (see page 42 of his book).
Some references to Paul can be found in the letter exchanges between Ludwig and Cosima Wagner, with Ludwig once calling Paul’s wife ‘ugly’, although in other references she was cited as very beautiful.
I doubt that Heinrich is really Paul’s son since his birth date is June 30, 1867, but Edir Grein mentioned that both met in middle of November 1866 only. Heinrich was obviously left behind with his father when Elise eloped with a Prussian officer in 1878:
“Now among the mediatized princes, no member of the reigning house may marry without the consent of the Family Council. A good many years later, in the winter of 1877-8, we were at Freiburg. At the theatre the prima donna was a Frau von Fels. Her husband was actually a Prince Thurn u. Taxis. He had fallen in love with a Jewess who sang in the Opera, and only obtained leave of his family to marry her, on condition that he renounced his title and name, and agreed that his children, if any, should have no claims on the family estates. He agreed to these harsh terms and married her. After a while he fell into a decline, and went with her to Lugano, where he grew worse, and took to his bed. She formed a liaison with a Prussian officer, staying at the same hotel, and eloped with him, leaving her husband, who had given up so much for her, to die unbefriended, and her little son—motherless” Early Reminiscences, Baring-Gould
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:Early_Reminiscences.djvu/80 Baring-Gould mentions her again in his “Further Reminiscences 1864 to 1894 “
…(Freiburg, 1877)….Acting in the theatre as a prima donna was a Frau von Fels. She was a handsome Jewess. Herr von Fels was actually a Prince of Thurn und Taxis, but forfeited his title so as to marry her. I have told the story in the fifth chapter of my Early Reminiscences . She exacted from her husband that, whenever she acted, he should throw a bouqet on to the stage at her feet, and get his friends to do the same. “
Earlier, Paul tried to get rehabilitated by his family and visited his father together with his wife on August 3, 1869 (
http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno?apm=0&aid=nfp&datum=18690811&seite=14&zoom=2 newspaper clipping from Vienna), but obviously to no avail.
I found another newspaper clipping of 1874 (from New Zealand!), which states that Helene of Thurn und Taxis tried to connect Paul to Ludwig again for him to become the future Marshal of the Royal Palace and Master of the Revels of castle Herrenchiemsee, but obviously this didn’t push through (see
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=BH18741204.2.4&l=mi&e=-------10--1----0-all for the whole article).
I was able to trace his grave site in Cannes, but unfortunately, the grave was abandoned in 1998 and then retaken by another family. I tried to investigate who paid for the grave and maintained it over the years, but wasn’t given an answer since I am not a family member.
There are many more traces of Paul still to be discovered.
I am deeply touched by the story of his live – he became a victim of Ludwig’s erratic and immature emotional condition, a victim of his family who deprived him of his name and title, and - in the end - a victim of his wife who - despite of all the sacrifices he suffered for her - abandoned him in the final weeks of his life when he needed her most.
