Christopher McIntosh - The swan king : Ludwig II of Bavaria

I n the period of nearly three decades since the first edition of this book was published, the figure of King Ludwig II has exerted an ever more powerful fascination and attracted an increasing number of admirers. He features in books, articles, television programmes, films, plays and even a musical. And, in the age of the internet, a search under his name will reveal thousands of entries. At the same time, research on him has advanced considerably since this book first appeared. This new edition gives me the opportunity to present a fuller and more up-to-date view of Ludwig and the various areas of controversy connected with him.

There are four areas of his life that are particularly controversial. First, there has been a persistent rumour that his father was not Crown Prince (later King) Maximilian but rather the dashing royal adjutant Baron Ludwig von der Tann or possibly the Italian Joseph Tambosi, who was a butler in the royal household. According to one theory, Maximilian was not in possession of full potency and von der Tann was asked to ensure the succession. These theories are highly speculative, but I have mentioned them briefly in the chapter on Ludwigs birth and childhood.

The second area of controversy is Ludwigs supposed homosexuality, which is widely taken for granted, although many of his devotees deny it vehemently. Again, this subject has been much written about lately, and much new alleged evidence has come to light. While I have already written about this question in the earlier edition, I now do so more fully in .

A third topic of controversy is the question of whether Ludwig was mad or not, and, if so, what the cause of his madness might have been. The story has often been told of his dethronement on the grounds of a psychological assessment that pronounced him insane, but there are many who reject the madness theory and dismiss the assessment as part of a plot against him. The possibility that his condition was due to syphilis has been aired a number of times, but one recent author on Ludwig who rejects this theory is Heinz Hnfer, Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Heidelberg, who has examined this question very thoroughly in his book Ein Knig wird beseitigt. Ludwig II von Bayern (A King is Removed. Ludwig II of Bavaria). In I shall return to the subject of Ludwigs mental and physical health, examining the question in greater detail than in the earlier edition.

The fourth and perhaps most hotly debated issue concerns the cause and circumstances of his death in Lake Starnberg on 13 June 1886. Essentially the speculations on this subject boil down to three basic theories: (a) the murder theory; (b) the theory that Ludwig died accidentally while trying to escape; (c) the suicide theory. The murder theory is a favourite among Ludwigs devotees, but I find it unconvincing for the reasons I give in . The second theory has a romantic quality, but there is little solid evidence to support it. On balance, I continue to believe that Ludwig entered the lake with the intention of committing suicide. This seems to me his most probable motive, given the intensely humiliating and hopeless situation in which he had been placed. Clearly a struggle then took place between the King and his doctor. I have suggested what might have ensued in the struggle, ending in the deaths of both men, but I do not claim that this is anything more than speculation. I have not changed my position on this since the earlier edition, but I have reported on various recent pronouncements on the subject.

A further area where I felt some updating was necessary was in connection with the legend of Ludwig, which even in his lifetime had begun to outgrow the man himself and since his death has grown continuously. Herein lies one of the main reasons why I was attracted to the subject of Ludwig in the first place. I have long been fascinated by the borderland between history and myth by the way in which history turns into myth and myth in turn influences history. This is a process which is not yet sufficiently understood, although it continually propels historical events and shapes the way we perceive them. One way in which it manifests itself is with national heroes or heroines, who often assume a mythical dimension out of proportion to the reality. We saw this, for example, towards the end of the last century with the near deification of Princess Diana to the point where a Pakistani waiter in a Hamburg restaurant told me that, out of grief over her death, he had taken two days sick leave. Royalty are, of course, especially likely to be objects of this sort of mythologizing because of the exalted aura that their role gives them. If you add, as in the case of Ludwig, a highly eccentric personality to the point of suspected madness, a passion for creating astonishing buildings, a key role in the life of a great composer (Wagner), alleged homosexual leanings, rumours concerning his parentage, and a mysterious, tragic and premature death, then you have a recipe for a legend of enduring fascination. Accordingly, I have extended the Epilogue to take account of the continuing cult of Ludwig. At various other points in the book I have made changes and corrected what I felt to be omissions in the earlier version.