King Ludwig II: The Mad King

 By Kathy Kovach

In this third and last installment of King Ludwig II’s life, I'll explore yet another name he was known for. If you missed the first two, please click on these links: The Fairytale King, because of his fanciful and romantic nature, and The Moon King, due to his adoration of King Louis XIV, known as the Sun King. Now, let’s delve into what made the Mad King appear insane. Or was he? The jury is still out on that. At any rate, Ludwig had such a large personality, one name simply couldn't contain his many facets.

Herrenchiemsee

Boat to Herrenchiemsee with Fraueninsel Island and Frauenworth Abbey in the background.

He'd built three castles, two of which he barely lived in. Please follow the links where I've written about Neuschwanstein, and Linderhof. Herrenchiemsee, (pronounced hare-en-keem-say,) the third one Ludwig commissioned, sits on the large island known as Herreninsel in Lake Chiemsee. The only way to this most opulent edifice was, and still is, by boat. As I stated in the previous articles, my husband, two sons, and I vacationed in Bavaria while hubs was serving in the Air Force and stationed at Frankfurt. Not only did we travel to the island by boat, but we also took a carriage ride three-and-a-half miles to the castle. However, we did walk back through the beautiful countryside.

Hall of Mirrors Herrenchiemsee

Domed ceiling in the Herrenchiemsee Hall of Mirrors

To contrast, this is the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles

Construction on Herrenchiemsee started in May of 1878 and was his most ambitious venture yet. He modeled the architecture and the grounds after the Palace of Versailles as a tribute to King Louis XIV. The most prominent feature was the Hall of Mirrors where twenty-five frescos with paintings of his idol’s most glorious days were framed by mirrors. Lots of mirrors. The Hall of War is on one side, and the Hall of Peace is on the other, with each having six windows. The domed ceiling also has paintings of the French king.

Smaller than Versailles, Herrenchiemsee is notably the largest of the three castles Ludwig built. It was never meant to become a government seat nor to be home to the royal court. Its purpose was to be a personal residence for the reclusive king who thought a palace set in a forest in the middle of an island the ideal retreat. As is the case with Neuschwanstein, this third of Ludwig’s efforts also remained unfinished. In fact, Ludwig only spent a total of ten days in his new residence.

Memorial Cross at the site where the body of Ludwig II was found in Lake Starnberg

Wikipedia

Among King Ludwig’s numerous monikers, the Mad King of Bavaria is what clung on like the smell of sauerkraut. The question of the ages, however: Was he really insane or simply eccentric? His enemies would say the former as they worked to bring him down, which seemed the case when he was eventually deposed and put under the care of a psychiatrist who declared him insane. Both men met their end in a mysterious manner after taking a walk around a lake. Ludwig’s supporters seemed to enable his quirkiness and attributed it to his past. The boy prince with a sad family life—overbearing Bavarian father and distant Prussian mother—became the boy king much too young at the age of eighteen.

Then two years later, he suffered a devastating defeat when Prussia conquered Austria and Bavaria. Bavaria’s foreign policy was then dictated solely by the dominant government, leaving Ludwig at the mercy of his Prussian uncle. Is it any wonder he succumbed to his childhood means of escape and lost himself in a fantasy world he could control?

King Louis XIV of France

His obsession with King Louis XIV and the opera composer Richard Wagner didn’t help his case as he spent millions on expensive tributes, including Versailles-like castles and a large grotto dedicated to one act of an opera.

Even though he was friendly enough to those he ruled, often handing out cash to those who befriended him, he was also reclusive—to the point of bizarre. In both Linderhof and Herrenchiemsee, he had installed a “wishing table” based on a Grimm fairytale where the dining table disappeared into the floor and reappeared fully set. In the castle, gears and mechanisms lowered the elevator table to the kitchen where servants set it and then raised it up to the dining hall. This was to prevent Ludwig from having to see his servants, thus perpetrating the illusion of solitude. However, they were instructed to set the table for three or more people so the king could imagine himself feasting with people of importance, no doubt the king of France and his favorite composer would be “in attendance” at the fictional dinner.

Ludwig and Wagner

Speaking of Wagner, Ludwig started to fancy himself as characters in the operas he loved. He dressed like them and then would venture out in the night in costume. This, of course, led to the habit of sleeping only in the day. The fairytale king allowed himself to be consumed by his fancy.

King Ludwig II of Bavaria once told his governess, "I want to remain an eternal mystery to myself and others." It seems he made good on that promise, and the world has created its own obsession with the Mad King of Bavaria.

PLEASE VISIT THE BLOG TO COMMENT ON THIS POST

Titanic: Legacy of Betrayal

A TIME-SLIP NOVEL

A secret. A key. Much was buried on the Titanic, but now it's time for resurrection.

Follow two intertwining stories a century apart. 1912 - Matriarch Olive Stanford protects a secret after boarding the Titanic that must go to her grave. 2012 - Portland real estate agent Ember Keaton-Jones receives the key that will unlock the mystery of her past... and her distrusting heart.

To buy: Amazon

Kathleen E. Kovach is a Christian romance author published traditionally through Barbour Publishing, Inc. as well as indie. Kathleen and her husband, Jim, raised two sons while living the nomadic lifestyle for over twenty years in the Air Force. Now planted in northeast Colorado, she's a grandmother—and soon-to-be great-grandmother—though much too young for that. Kathleen has been a longstanding member of American Christian Fiction Writers. An award-winning author, she presents spiritual truths with a giggle, proving herself as one of God's peculiar people.

Website
Blog With A Giggle
CraftCinema

Facebook

Goodreads

King Ludwig II: The Moon King of Bavaria

By Kathy Kovach

Last month, I introduced King Ludwig II, who ascended to the throne at the tender age of eighteen in 1864. He ruled for twenty-two years until his mysterious death in 1886. The first of three castles he had built was Neuschwanstein. If you missed my take on it, you can find it HERE.

Today, I take you on a tour of the second of his three castles, Schloss Linderhof, the only one he saw to completion. Located near his first masterpiece in the Bavarian alps, Linderhof was where Ludwig would spend most of his childhood at his father’s hunting lodge, or Königshäuschen (King’s Cottage). Once he ascended to the throne after his father’s untimely death due to sepsis, he proceeded to tear down much of the lodge. He created a relatively small building, taking inspiration from his idol, King Louis XIV and his Petit Trianon of Versailles. This was a Neoclassical style château located on the grounds of the Palace of Versailles.

Ludwig’s garden designer created a sculpted park that swept up to the white palace walls. Behind the castle, a waterfall cascaded down thirty marble steps to a Neptune fountain.

The grounds and the interior were designed in the Neo-Rococo expression. Wikipedia defines this as “an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpted moulding, and trompe-l'œil frescoes to create surprise and the illusion of motion and drama. It is often described as the final expression of the Baroque movement.” The rooms were smaller than Ludwig’s previous grand castle up the hill but no less grandiose.

Ludwig must have been nocturnal, as he would stay up all night and sleep during the day. Louis XIV was known as the “Sun King”, but Ludwig proclaimed himself a “Moon King”, a shadow of the French monarch. He was known to take long carriage rides at night through the beautiful Bavarian forest surrounding his home. In addition, he would use the Hall of Mirrors as a drawing room where he’d sit in the niche and read until dawn, enjoying the light of countless candles and their infinite reflections.

Hall of Mirrors

Tapestry Room

Dining Room

King's Bedroom

Second Bedroom

Music Room

Venus Grotto

Another person with whom Ludwig obsessed was the operatic composer, Richard Wagner. The king built a grotto just to showcase the first act of his opera Tannhäuser. The man-made cave contained a small lake upon which he rode in a gold-gilded swan boat to the middle where he could watch the performers on a stage. The grotto was the first in Germany to utilize electricity, and colored lights glowed on artificial stalactites hanging from the thirty-three-foot ceiling. A moon was also illuminated that could change colors upon the whim of the king himself. A wave machine created movement upon the water below. These effects were possible due to the first electrical station built in Bavaria with Ludwig being the initial one to utilize it. Heated bricks kept the space warm for the comfort of the king. Pictures can’t even begin to capture the beauty of this grotto, or even of the castle itself. I feel so blessed to have visited Linderhof, as well as the other two castles, in person. As for the purpose of the synthetic cavern, here is an excellent description.

Dr. Michael Petzet, writing in Wilfrid Blunt’s book The Dream King: Ludwig II of Bavaria, describes the grotto’s space as one which allows the visitor an encircled mirage where “stage and auditorium are blended into one,” creating a total theatre as it “did not separate the onlooker from the stage.” -White Hot Magazine 

Beyond the experience of theater-in-the-round, this technique of entertainment only emphasized Ludwig’s desire to immerse himself in the dream and to live outside of his reality.

Of which I identify. The writers reading this article are no doubt nodding their heads. Nocturnal tendencies and the desire to escape reality? It’s why I became an author.

PLEASE VISIT THE BLOG TO COMMENT ON THIS POST

Titanic: Legacy of Betrayal

A TIME-SLIP NOVEL

A secret. A key. Much was buried on the Titanic, but now it's time for resurrection.

Follow two intertwining stories a century apart. 1912 - Matriarch Olive Stanford protects a secret after boarding the Titanic that must go to her grave. 2012 - Portland real estate agent Ember Keaton-Jones receives the key that will unlock the mystery of her past... and her distrusting heart.

To buy: Amazon

Kathleen E. Kovach is a Christian romance author published traditionally through Barbour Publishing, Inc. as well as indie. Kathleen and her husband, Jim, raised two sons while living the nomadic lifestyle for over twenty years in the Air Force. Now planted in northeast Colorado, she's a grandmother—and soon-to-be great-grandmother—though much too young for that. Kathleen has been a longstanding member of American Christian Fiction Writers. An award-winning author, she presents spiritual truths with a giggle, proving herself as one of God's peculiar people.

Website
Blog With A Giggle
CraftCinema

Facebook

Goodreads