LUDWIG II. OF BAVARIA.*

THE story of Ludwig IL holds so many temptations for the historian who is merely prying and irresponsible that the sensitive reader may well think that, on the whole, he has come off easily at the hands of Madame Clara Tschudi, of whose Norwegian original Mrs. Hearn has made a workmanlike translation. The narrative is compact, and as complete as is necessary, and if it is not very penetrating, it is interesting because Ludwig's history is interesting. It is something that the author has not dragged in superfluous scandals, excusing herself, according to a fashion of the day, by saying—as though that were any excuse—that the facts are "mainly true," or that the story is "based on fact."

Ludwig II., King of Bavaria, in whom what some thought was heightened emotion and others genius was the presage of gradually approaching madness, had a rather chilling and ominous childhood. His father was Maximilian Joseph, Crown Prince of Bavaria, and his mother the beautiful Princess Marie of Prussia. He was born in 1845. At that time Ludwig I. was still reigning, and was still popular, as Monarchs always have been with the almost super- stitiously loyal Bavarians,—unless, of course, they did something rather too outrageous. Ludwig I. went beyond the limit in the opinion of his subjects when he installed the dancer Lola Montez in his capital of Munich, and their anger was shaped and intensified in 1848 by the great wave of demo- cratic feeling which involved so many countries of Europe. He was compelled to abdicate, and Maximilian Joseph came to the throne as Maximilian Jr. The new King kept his two sons, Ludwig and Otto, short of money, and made their lives unnecessarily forlorn. Boyish joys did not often come their way, and the King and Queen neither understood nor sympathised with the poetical fancies, romanticism, and passion for music which consumed Ludwig. Ludwig might conceivably have been tamed by this very love of music, wisely sanctioned and directed. Instead of that he was allowed to feel completely isolated in his tastes ; he was driven back upon himself, and the poverty imposed upon him as a discipline caused in later years the stupendous extravagance against which he had never been, as it were, inoculated. But the boys, who were singularly handsome, were adored by the Bavarians. Curiously enough, within the stern conditions of Ludwig's education the King and Queen were only too lax, and it is related of Ludwig that unrebuked he used sometimes

• Ludwig the Second, King of Bavaria. By Clara Tschudi. Translated from the Norwegian by Ethel Harriet Hearn. With Coloured Portrait. London : Swan Sonnensehein and Co. [7s, 6cL]

to roll his teacher on the floor. He developed a narrow pride and a dangerous egotism. In March, 1864, Maximilian died, and Ludwig II. came to the throne. The proposal that he ' should marry the Archduchess Maria of Russia was only one of the several schemes for saving him from his dark and rest- less introspection which came to naught. The Archduchess subsequently married the Duke of Edinburgh.

Ludwig had hardly reigned a month when he sent for Richard Wagner, whose music had so often soothed his moodiness, and the extraordinary incident of the sojourn of Wagner in Munich began. In his preface to the Nibelungen- lied Wagner had written : "Is the Prince to be found who will make possible the representation of my work P" Ludwig sent an emissary to Wagner with a ruby ring, and the message that as the ruby glowed so did he burn with longing to behold him. Wagner came, was soon installed as the pensioner of the King, and Munich became the first home of regular per- formances of the Wagnerian operas. The friendship between the King and Wagner was extravagantly conducted,—extrava- gant in professions of regard, extravagant in the money which the King disbursed to him. Here is an example of the King's overwrought letters to his friend. It was written after the first performance of Tristan and Isolde

"UPLIFTED, DIVINE FRIEND,

I can hardly wait for the morrow, I long so already for

the second performance Is it not so my very dear friend, the courage to create new things will never leave you I ask you never to lose heart. I ask it of you in the name of those whom you fill with joy—a joy which otherwise only. God grants You and God !

To death and after death. In the kingdom on the other side I remain, Your faithful, LUDWIG."

The outcry of the Bavarians in Munich against the brilliant but petted stranger had no effect upon Ludwig for some time, but at last he suddenly decided to make the demand of his people his own. Wagner was dismissed, though with every expression of regard.

The friendship was never broken, and when Ludwig was harassed by the coming Austro-Prussian War of 1866 his thoughts turned to Wagner for solace. At the moment when it was of vital importance for him to be in his capital to decide momentous questions he bolted, and after a search was found in Switzerland at Wagner's villa. A decision had to be taken as to Bavaria's policy, for all his biding, and in the disastrous war the fortunes of Bavaria of course fell with those of Austria. As Ludwig took no part its this war, so did he refuse to take any in the Franco-Prussian War, when Bavaria fought alongside the other States of modern Germany. The astonishing thing is that his people never accused him of shirking. He was outrageously uncon- cerned in the affairs of his country, but whenever he made one of his rare appearances before his subjects they seemed to remember only that he was extraordinarily handsome and their enthusiasm approached a frenzy.

Of all the irresponsible actions of Ludwig, perhaps the best remembered is his treatment of his cousin, the Duchess Sophie Charlotte, sister of the late Empress of Austria. He became unexpectedly betrothed to her on a sudden impulse, repented at leisure, and eventually (after another mad bolt from his capital) refused to marry her. At least this is the version of the story given here ; but there is another story that it was the family of the Duchess Sophie who broke off the match, and this may be more creditable, or less creditable, to Ludwig, according to one's estimate of his character. Ludwig's life became more and more given up to himself; he made long, lonely sojcurns at his palace in the Bavarian highlands, and his behaviour to those who came in contact with him alternated between frosty reserve and freakish acts of generosity. There was a suggestion that he should marry Princess Emma of Waldeck-Pyrmont, but after a very

agreeable and promising meeting with her he went off waving friendly adieus and never saw her again.

At the end of the Franco-Prussian War it was most desirable from the Prussian point of view that the invitation to the King of Prussia to become the Emperor of the allied German States should come from the most powerful of them, Bavaria. Ludwig hesitated to say the word; he refused to go to Versailles, where the Monarchs of the German States clustered round the victorious Prussian King. The success with which Bismarck coaxed the temporising Ludwig into "a more coming-on disposition" will be an eternal monument to the Bismarckian touch. The enthusiastic letters which Ludwig signed were written by Bismarck himself. The back- wardness of Ludwig, fruit of the instability of his mind though it was, did not serve his country badly, as Bavaria was consoled with the privileges of the well-known "Bavarian clause" in the new Imperial Constitution.

One matter in which Ludwig played a consistently firm part was his resistance to Ultramontane influences, This culminated in the creditable incident when he defended the celebrated Dollinger (formerly his tutor), who had renounced the Pope's claim to infallibility. At last the King's madness became pronounced beyond concealment. He disliked the sight of most human faces, and communicated with his Court

through closed doors. He would scratch upon the door to show that be had understood information conveyed to him.

He made some of his servants wear masks. He was inflamed with a passion for building; he would be a Louie XIV., and have his Versailles; Tel eat notre bon plaisir was enough reason for him, and the cost was never dreamed of, much less counted. We come to the point where his schemes had to be accepted, or

he had to be restrained in ways which deprived Monarchy, as understood in Bavaria, of all meaning. Our own opinion is simply this,—that Ludwig was in many senses the attractive, handsome, and romantic figure which his people thought him to be, and that he encouraged the arts in a manner which would sit well on many of the sane rulers of Europe; but that, never- theless, the time had arrived when be was quite "impossible" for the prosaic affairs of State. Ludwig's Ministers had been ignored for years, and when they decided that it was time to put a check upon the King, they did so not a day too soon. One of the conspicuous faults of this book is that the author writes of the scheme for putting the King under restraint as though it were a treacherous plot When one is dealing with persons mentally deranged, the standard observed by men who are both sane and honourable in the discharge of ordinary obligations surely does not apply. Otherwise one would often have to substitute brutality for persuasiveness in the name of integrity. The ardour of the Bavarian peasants to defend their King does not mean a great deal ; their amiable loyalty to constituted authority is traditional and notorious. The soldiers never acclaimed Ludwig more enthusiastically than after the brief inglorious war of 1866, in which personally he had done nothing to stay disaster. The Ministers, however, had their way against the populace. If the King had wished to show that he was

sane, be should have visited Munich, and asserted himself as the sagacious Bismarck advised. He hesitated, and of course was lost. His end was a violent death. Those who remember

that sensation of 1886 have perhaps agreed to think that Ludwig was trying to escape by swimming across the lake when he was drowned. The author suggests suicide :—

" A fisherman was summoned; and upon rowing a short dis- tance from the shore in his boat the body of Dr. Gudden, in a half-sitting posture, with the back bent below the surface of the water, was discovered. A few feet farther out was found the King's lifeless body, the head downwards, and the arms bent forward. The lake was not so deep at this spot but he could have saved himself had he been so minded. What had happened at this spot will for ever remain unknown. The sorrowful incident took place without witnesses ; but the tracks along the shore, and in the bottom of the lake, which was examined, justify the following assumption. The King was walking on the right aide, Gudden on the left, until they reached the seat they had rested on before. The King must then have thrown down his umbrella and run towards the lake, for his footsteps could be seen on the damp moss-grown shore. Gudden had immediately rushed after him, and seized him by the coat-collar. His grasp must have been very firm, for the nail of one of his fingers was splintered. Ludwig, on the other hand, must have continued to press forward, for Gudden had retained both the coats of the King in his hand. Above the doctor's left eye there was a bruise, which undoubtedly resulted from a blow. A terrible struggle must have taken place."

It is a very sad but an engrossing story.