MANIAC KING

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 2, 27 January 1909, Page 4

MANIAC KING

OFFICIAL UEVELATIONS. ATTEMPTED BARCAINJi IN KINfI'IJOJLS. Berlin, December (i. To justify- the. incarceration of King Lndwig 11. of I'iivnrhi, lis uiinadnian in Ifune, 18811, three days before he drowned himself in the Lake of Starnberg, publication lias been begun in Munich of a •remarkable report nuulc by the Bavarian Cabinet to a secret session of the Diet. This report gives new details of the eccentricities which led to his Majesty's dethronement. I King Jjiidwig, the report states, desided to exchange his kingdom of Bavaria for the island of Cyprus. He had given orders to find a country where absolutist government was possible. The orders were carried out and the King 'caused a letter to be written to the Turkish Sultan offering to exchange Bavaria for Cyprus. From his earliest childhood the King •evinced signs of insanity, as did his 'brother, the still living and insane King Otto. Luilwig began to arouse comment ■in 18IH through his disinclination to reI'civo foreign rulers or diplomats. His Majesty \ras so obsessed by his literary •studies that lie would interrupt audiences willi Ministers with quotations •from Schiller. Later he developed a dislike of meet-

•iug people, declined to attend church, and built himself a. luxurious private •chapel. The presence of the public in 'theatres also disturbed 'him, and he commanded operas and plays to be performed to him alone.

> Between 1870 and 1881 the King insisted on living in seclusion in his country: house for months at a time, and when he returned to the Munich castle regarded it as a prison.

THUNDEROUS MUSJC. • Ai Court banquets 'the King believed •he was on his way to the scaffold, and insisted upon being hidden behind banks •of flowers. The music had to be of a thunderous character, and when it was not loud enough the King would strike tile floor violently with his sword. He •was, by the way, a great patron of Richard Wagner. His Majesty was once seized with a fancy for giving entertainments to stable boys, with whom he played the ■most childish games. He once feasted •the boys in the Turkish room of his superb palace of Liuderhof, built on the model of Versailles in the time of Louis iXI.V.. who, the, King declared, was his ■ideal. Finally, the mad ruler declined to associate with anybody but his servants, flu the last year of his reign he gave mo Court dinners and 110 audiences, and abandoned all direct intercourse with ■the Cabinet. Commands' and messages had lobe transmitted Hi rough servants, li'iuallv, roval decries were issued .through locked doors, the servants being ■required to indicate that they undeistooil bv scratching the door. Anybody who entered' the King's presence haif lo keep his head bowed so low 4,1 ml he could not see the King, while nobody was permitted lo address him, nail messages could only be communicated by gestures. , Once the King drove out clad ill a golden and purple Louis XIV. costume and surrounded by an enormous guard of mounted gendarmes "to shield him from assassination." .

. It was his Majesty's unparalleled extravagance which caused his dethronement, lie spent millions of pounds in building gorgeous castles and embellishing them in the most costly style. He constantly demanded increases in tho Civil List and dismissed or ordered the arrest of Ministers who declined to carry <out his wishes. Frequent loans were made to cover the deficits caused by the King's habits. ■