MAD KING DEAD.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 219, 18 December 1916, Page 6

MAD KING DEAD.

An official telegram from Berlin states that King Otto of Bavaria died suddenly at Fuerstenried Castle, near Munich, in October last. The above announcement is the end of an amazing story. For over forty years has the existence of the miserable mad king dragged along. (It will be remembered that Ludwig 111 was proclaimed king just three years ago). King Otto's first symptoms of brain decay was manifested during the Franco-German war, when, at the siege of Paris, he called out a squad of cavalry and ordered them to charge straight at a stone wall, which he insisted was a body of the enemy's infantry. He began declaring the necessity of concluding peace with France at'any price, and letters which he was sending secretly to the enemy were intercepted. Then the old Kaiser sent for him, decorated him with the Order of the Hon Cross for services rendered, and packed him off under medical escort for a holiday in It/dy and Spain. He had a horror of soap and water, and of having his hair and his nails cut, so that his servants had to wait a favourable day for these operations He was 70 years of age.