THE MAD BAVARIAN KING, an article in the Harper's Weekly — June 26, 1886

THE MAD BAVARIAN KING.

HARPER's WEEKLY of January 30 contained a picture of the gorgeous sleigh in which the romantic and now lamented monarch Ludwig or Louis II., King of Bavaria, was pleased to travel be tween the palace at Munich and his royal country-seats (if so ordinary a term may be applied) among the mountains, together with an account of the eccentricities and extravagances which had won for him the name of the “Mad King.” At the time of that publication it was evident that the affairs of the King were on the verge of a crisis, but it was impossible that any one should have anticipated then the misfortunes which were to follow fast upon him, culminating in a dreadful tragic death. However much may be said in derision of the dreamy and romantically im practicable notions by which this unhappy ruler was actuated, it cannot be denied that he was wise in a period when the fate and future welfare of his country hung in the balance; that he care fully fostered and developed the art interests which have made Munich a recognized art centre since the reign of Ludwig I. ; that the music-loving world is under lasting obligations to him for the part which he took in securing to the world the full measure of WAGNER's wondrous talents by aiding that composer in carrying out his fondest hopes and ambitions; and that the people of his country were devotedly attached to him.

The news of the deposition of King Ludwig, and the proposed assumption of the Regency by his uncle, Prince Luitpold, which was received in this country on June 11, was followed in three days by the news of the King's death by suicide in Lake Starnberg. The court physicians had no sooner pronounced that the mental condition of the King was such as to incapacitate him from governing properly than the uncle, with what appears to have been un seemly haste, assumed the Regency, and, supported by the ministers, despatched Count Holstein to ask the King to authorize the ap pointment of a Regency Council, which was practically soliciting his consent to a downfall that had already been precipitated upon him. The King, who was intrenched at his castle of Hohen schwangau, repelled the deputation from Prince Luitpold and the ministry, and ordered the arrest of Count HolsTEIN. Backed by his devoted subjects among the mountain peasantry, there is no telling to what extremes of civil warfare the attitude of the King, had he preserved it, might have led; but it is clear that, whether of unsound mind or not, his spirit was broken by the charge of insanity that had been brought against him, and he presently sub mitted to be removed by his physicians to Berg Castle, on Lake Starnberg. There, at six o'clock on the evening of June 13, he was drowned. There was but one known witness of his death, Dr. Gudden, his devoted physician; and as the body of this witness was also found in the lake, the particulars of the tragedy can only be a matter of speculation. Whatever the secret of his taking off, it is apparent that the death of King Ludwig has caused a complete revolution in the political affairs of Bavaria, and the Ultra montane party, by which the King was cordially disliked, is now in the ascendency. By the right of succession Prince Otto, the younger brother of King Ludwig, who was born on April 27, 1848, succeeds to the crown, but for many years this prince has been a lunatic, and although he becomes King of Bavaria in name, Prince Luitpold, as Regent, is the actual sovereign, and the house of Wittelsbach is now in power. The practical transfer of the crown from the branch of MAXIMILIAN II, the father of Ludwig, to that of LUITPOLD, the uncle of Ludwig, has an unmistakable tendency to unite the interests of Bavaria and Austria, and to remove Bavaria from sympathy with the German Confederation. The deceased King was born on the 25th of August, 1845, at the Castle of Nymphenburg, and while still in his eighteenth year was called to the Bavarian throne, upon the death of his father on March 10, 1864. His boyhood had been passed in deep seclusion, and amid surroundings sufficiently romantic to develop the poetic al side of a nature which, if not altogether weak in the element of character, was essentially emotional, and averse to grappling with the practical problems of life. The stories of the adventures and eccentric performances of the dead King have no doubt been exaggerated; but they were sufficient to cause wonder and astonishment wherever they were read. Regardless of expense he erected magnificent castles on the mountain-tops, and caused artificial lakes to be made where, beneath artificial moonlight, he could listen to the music he loved best. He concealed himself by day, and at night, in splendid chariots, the wheels of which were covered with rubber tires, rode swiftly and noiselessly over the mountain roads, preceded by many outriders bearing torches in their hands. And yet when the emergency arose, this dreamer awoke from his dreams, and by allying Bavaria with the German cause when the Franco-German war broke out in 1870, disappointed the hopes of Napoleon, who had expected in South Germany to find a powerful ally. As has been said else where, “Bavaria's example was electrical in Germany, and when King Ludwig gave the order for his soldiers to move, German unity was essentially an accomplished fact.”