In anticipation of my forthcoming book, How Madness Shaped History, I have been detailing the lives of some of history's odd and tragic characters. Today, I turn to a story of forbidden sexuality and tragic death in the form of Bavaria's mad king, Ludwig II.
The life and career of Bavaria's king Ludwig II (ruled 1864-1886) is a fascinating story of forbidden love, encroaching mental illness and ultimate tragedy. To Ludwig, we owe a debt of gratitude for some of Germany's most beautiful architecture as well as his patronage of the composer Richard Wagner. Yet, during his lifetime, he was a controversial figure, reclusive and emotional, and increasingly out of touch with the political realities of his diminishing kingdom. Ludwig ruled (and the term is used loosely) at the end of Bavaria's independence, just as it was forcefully connected to the German Empire of the Kaisers.
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