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By Jesse Monteagudo
Ludwig II, King of Bavaria (1845-1886) was born too late and too
early. As a 17th century monarch, Ludwig could have built his castles and
patronized his artists without public criticism; had he lived today, he
would have been more relaxed about his homo-sexuality.
As it was, Ludwig got "the worst of both worlds." Posterity remembers him as the "Mad King of Bavaria": the monarch who wasted his time and his country's wealth on fairy-tale castles and on a series of controversial "friends". The House of Wittelsbach had ruled Bavaria for centuries when Ludwig became king at the age of 18 in 1864. According to Ludwig's biographer, Wilfrid Blunt (The Dream King), "ruling was as it were the family business of the Wittelsbachs, and Ludwig entered upon his new job much as a dutiful but reluctant son might join the family firm." However, being apolitical by nature, Ludwig soon neglected his royal duties, to the dismay of the Bavarian Cabinet.
Till he began to put on weight, Ludwig II was a handsome man. The Austrian author, Klara Tschudi, thought him "the best-looking boy I have ever seen. ... He resembled those splendid antique sculptures which first make us aware of what virile Greek manhood was like". Needless to say, the King was extremely vain, and fussy about his looks: "If I didn't have my hair curled every day, ... I couldn't enjoy my food." Even when he had to appear in full military uniform, Ludwig carried an open umbrella: "I've no intention of spoiling my coiffure." Ludwig II had more than his share of eccentricities. Modeling himself on the "Sun King", Louis XIV of France, the nocturnal Ludwig aspired to become the "Moon King". He was also known as the "Dream King" and the "Fairy King".
Ludwig II had no interest in women though, like many gay men, he idolized actresses and songstresses. His family and the Bavarian Cabinet urged the young King to marry his cousin Sophie, even though "he was in fact, much more nearly in love with Sophie's brother, Karl Theodor, known in the family as 'Gackl'." Ludwig never married. Instead, he had a series of male Friends who he showered with funds and affection. None of them lasted. The first of Ludwig's Friends was the composer Richard Wagner. Ludwig fell in love with the composer when, as a teen, he first saw Wagner's operas. As King (1864), Ludwig invited Wagner to Munich, gave him a pension and a house to compose in, and wrote him a series of passionate letters: "I love no woman, no parents, no brother, no relations, no one fervently and from the depths of my heart -- as I love you." Unfortunately, Wagner accepted Ludwig's gifts and set up house with Cosima von Bulow, who left her husband for the occasion. Within a year, the temperamental composer had alienated everyone and had to leave Munich. However, Ludwig remained, till his death, a "perfect Wagnerite". The King was more successful with Prince Paul von Thurn und Taxis, whom he called "My most beloved Angel". In the words of Desmond Chapman-Huston (Ludwigh II: The Mad King of Bavaria), "if Ludwig's favorites had all been like Paul, and if Ludwig himself could have exercised even a reasonable amount of circumspection, he might well have lived a happier and less frustrated life." Ludwig and Paul liked to dress up in Wagnerian costumes, as Barbarossa and Lohengrin. It is a shame that their relationship did not last.
Perhaps it was Ludwig's troubled nature that kept him from enjoying a durable relationship. His private diaries, which he kept from 1869 till shortly before his death, reveal a deeply religious man who regretted his constant "falls" into homoerotic activity. This did not keep the King from becoming a connoisseur of the male art form. We are told that Ludwig loved to watch strapping peasant lads, stripped to the waist, working in the fields. According to Hornig (and in Blunt's words), Ludwig sometimes held "Turkish-style parties ... to which troopers and stable-lads were invited...[and where] sometimes the better-looking young soldiers were made to strip and dance together naked." Though he was known as the "Mad King of Bavaria", Ludwig was perfectly sane. However, his mounting eccentricities and extravagances were more than the Bavarian Cabinet could stomach. In what Thomas Szasz called "the first psychiatric assassination committed successfully and in broad daylight on an important personality", Ludwig was taken into custody on June 10, 1886 and forced to abdicate in favor of his brother Otto, who was even crazier but more malleable. Three days later Ludwig was dead, having drowned along with his doctor, Bernhard von Gudden. Was it an accident, a murder, or a suicide? Nobody knows. The Empress Elisabeth of Austria, a cousin and friend of Ludwig II, knew the King better than the politicians who conspired against him. As she put it, "the king was not mad: he was just an eccentric living in a world of dreams." A century later, Ludwig's castles continue to delight us, a Dream King's dreams come true. |
The castle King Ludwig built at Neuschwanstein 
Richard Horning, King Ludwig's companion of 20 years 
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