Mad King of Bavaria.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 22 March 1910, Page 4

Mad King of Bavaria.

IX A CLOSELY GUARDED CASTLE. King Otto of Bavaria, the mad monarch who has never won his crown, is reported better of the serious illness which lately befell him. The unfortunate prince is a younger brother of the demented King Ludwig IT., whose tragicdeath in a mountain lake in Bavaria has never been quite cleared up. The King is confined to the Castle of Furstenried, a lovely place in the Bavarian highlands. His whole Court consists of two nobles, acting as gentlemen-in-waiting, and two physicians, who take it in turn to wait on him. He eats, drinks and sleeps mechanically, _ preserving a total silence, and sitting for the most part on the floor. His attendants are forbidden on pain of instant dismissal to reveal any of the secrets of Furstenried, and the military guards who keep sentinel around the grounds arc also under a strict vow of secrecy. Latterly they have been excused from paying military honours to the King oii his rare appearances in the grounds. Once a year the Prince Regent sends a responsible member of the Government to Fiirstenried to report on the King's condition, from which all moments of lucidity have finally vanished.