If you assumed that I was the one who nominated King Ludwig II of Bavaria for The Biggest Weirdo, running the whole bracket as an excuse to get people to learn about some weird guy I have an interest in…you were wrong! But I appreciate you thinking that about me. I actually don’t know who King Ludwig II of Bavaria is. I have a hunch on what his dad’s name was, and I think I know where he lived, and his occupation was probably ‘king,’ but all of that’s normal. I want to know what made him weird, and I think you did too.
Let’s see what we can learn.
As usual, our source is Wikipedia, which opens in unassuming fashion: “Ludwig II (Ludwig Otto Friedrich Wilhelm; 25 August 1845 – 13 June 1886) was King of Bavaria from 1864 until his death in 1886.”
It gets better.
Right away.
“He is sometimes calle the Swan King or der Märchenkönig (‘the Fairy Tale King’); outside Germany, however, he is more commonly called “the Mad King” or “Mad King Ludwig”.
Damn.
This guy sounds dope.
In article order, here’s what I can find. Only the weird stuff.
- King Ludwig II of Bavaria built a lot of fancy palaces. He also liked music. Artsy boy. In a big ol’ embodiment of a popular trope, this made people assume there was something wrong with him. A man? Who enjoyed the finer things? You can guess what people have speculated.
- King Ludwig II of Bavaria was “effectively deposed” after using all his own money on the art stuff, namely the palaces and supporting Richard Wagner’s music. His ministers said he was insane. He might have been a little bit insane. Or a lot. But it seems like a little is more likely, based on what Wikipedia is saying. A little, if at all.
- I was wrong about King Ludwig II of Bavaria’s dad’s name. It was Maximilian. It was not King Ludwig I of Bavaria. Hand up, that’s on me, I forgot how royal names work. If my dad was a king he’d be John II, because there was already a John in the lineage even if it wasn’t his dad. Thankfully, my dad isn’t a king, so this confusing process doesn’t apply to him.
- King Ludwig II of Bavaria was closer to his grandpa than his dad, though, and his grandpa? King Ludwig I of Bavaria! We’re back on track. Wikipedia calls him “deposed and notorious.” It sounds cool, yes, but he also put a tax on beer, which led to the “beer riots,” which is an oddly generic name to be capable of referring to a specific incident.
- King Ludwig II of Bavaria didn’t seem like he really wanted to be king. He liked to make art happen, but he didn’t want to do the social stuff and he seemed to get presents wrong, preferring to give them to the commonfolk he met while traveling Bavaria rather than receive them from his loyal serfs.
- King Ludwig II of Bavaria was king of Bavaria during German unification. Not really weird, but felt noteworthy. Probably stressful. Although, given how many wars we all used to fight, maybe this wasn’t stressful at all. Relatively speaking. I would imagine war has always been stressful.
- Actually, wait. “Homosexuality had not been punishable in Bavaria since 1813, but the unification of Germany under Prussian hegemony in 1871 instated Paragraph 175, which criminalized homosexual acts between males.” King Ludwig II of Bavaria was gay. I swear, I swear, I swear: This was not what made us admit him as a weirdo. We don’t think being gay is weird. We didn’t even know he was gay when we built the bracket! The anonymous nominators? I can’t speak to their beliefs, but I’m guessing it’s more that King Ludwig II of Bavaria was named the Swan King. Gay? Not weird. Being named the Swan King? A little weird. Cool, but unusual. There are not a lot of Swan Kings out there.
- Without King Ludwig II of Bavaria, Richard Wagner’s career probably would have gone nowhere. Wagner lived a chaotic life (also a big antisemite, but I’m not seeing anything about King Ludwig II of Bavaria and antisemitism), but King Ludwig II of Bavaria liked his work and financed him. The modern equivalent of this, unfortunately, probably comes back to Kid Rock. Let’s move on.
- King Ludwig II of Bavaria “saw himself as the ‘Moon King’, a romantic shadow of the earlier ‘Sun King’, Louis XIV of France.” So, there’s that. That’s weird.
- King Ludwig II of Bavaria was deposed in what was pretty much a coup. He was, though, in gigantic debt and was showing no signs of slowing down. King Ludwig II of Bavaria seems to have realized that money is, in a way, not real, and that people can’t make you do pretty much anything without the employment of force. Then, people employed force. His ministers employed force. They did a coup.
- King Ludwig II of Bavaria was said to have killed himself while in captivity but there are theories that he was murdered and there’s even a theory that he died in an accident while trying to escape.
- All those castles King Ludwig II of Bavaria paid for have more than paid for themselves by now through tourism dollars. For what it’s worth.
Knowing all of that:
Was the guy that weird?
I’m voting for Jay Leno’s car collection in the first round.
That car collection is wacky.
