The King Who Loved Bling!

Once upon a time there was a king who loved bling ............! King Ludwig (Louis) II of Bavaria, born in 1845, certainly adored glitter and gilt; his idol being Louis XIV. Eccentric and reclusive, he adored opera and the arts, sponsoring Wagner for many years and building fairytale palaces like Neuschwanstein which can be seen in the sketch. The beautiful bed is from his palace in Herrenchiemsee, which is based on Versailles, if you get a chance to visit Bavaria, these alongside Schloss Linderhof, are a "must see"! The bed with it's blue orb really stuck in my memory.

And so to our fairytale (Ludwig is known appropriately as The fairytale king, or the Swan king or sometimes as Mad king Ludwig!)

In 1867, Ludwig (much to the surprise of everybody) decided he needed a queen. A whirlwind engagement followed in January to Sophie Charlotte in Bayern, his cousin. The couple's eccentric behaviour, such as watching opera performances at 4am (performed for them alone) caused a bit of consternation, but Bavaria and her parents were consoled with the thought of a queen. Sophie, on the right, would have worn the crown seen in the sketch, on display in the Schatzkammer of the Munich Residenz, it is very unusual being covered in pearls (it reminded me somehow of on octopus!) and would have slept on one of the many mattresses that Ludwig had in his many palaces. However one month into the engagement, Ludwig started to have second thoughts ......... the wedding was postponed and in October the engagement was broken off. I personally believe that she hadn't passed the "pea test" very necessary for princesses and future queens ..........! ( Believe me as a child I tried it out in many variations! Fresh peas, frozen peas dried peas ..... one mattress, 10 mattresses) Sophie just wasn't "tender" enough to be a true princess (neither was I).

Unfortunately neither lived happily ever after either, Ludwig was deposed for insanity and died in a dubious suicide/murder with his doctor in the Starnburger See at the age of 40. Sophie after a quick affair with a non-royal was married off to Ferdinand of Alecon, so she did become a princess, however as the pea test showed, she was not good princess material and she decided to divorce her husband because she had fallen in love with the doctor who was treating her for insanity. Declared "morally insane, she was sent to a sanitorium and later died in a hospital fire.