Beethoven's brother Kaspar Karl died on 15.11.1815. Originally in his will he had appointed his wife Johanna van Beethoven and his brother Ludwig as his son's guardians, although he later removed his wife Johanna. Ludwig van Beethoven definitely wanted to be the 9-year-old child's sole guardian. In this draft for the petition for the Lower Austrian Court Beethoven describes his sister-in-law Johanna van Beethoven as being lazy and having a bad character. She had for instance borrowed money without the knowledge of her dying husband.
Furthermore Beethoven describes how his brother's will came about. Johanna van Beethoven had tried to hide Kaspar Karl's will from Beethoven. However, he had seen it and insisted on several changes while his brother was still alive. In this way he had seen to it that the mother was removed from the will as co-guardian of her child, as he "definitely did not want to be bound to such a bad woman in such an important matter as the bringing up of a child". In the same way he was also concerned that the trustee of his brother's estate should not be made a guardian, because it also seemed to Beethoven that he was too much on the side of the composer's sister-in-law.
