Cyril, I recall reading that Ludwig II was a very good swimmer and his drowning was considered suspicious. He had bankrupted/was on his way to bankrupting Bavaria with his Castle-build programme and the powers that be were very concerned. He was a visionary.
There're several things fishy about this situation. Ludwig was in good condition at the time of his death. Dr. Gudden was an old man.
That basically rules out the thesis of the two fighting and Dr. Gudden winning.
Also Ludwig committing suicide doesn't make much sense to me. I think he would've done it much earlier.
Yes, he was a gambler, but he was also not totally alien to politics. I've read that he was very opposed to the idea of a Prussian unified German Empire. He feared that the Hohenzollern might become too powerful. Guess he wasn't this crazy after all. He refused to sign the document offering Wilhelm I. the german crown for a long time. As Bavaria was after Prussia itself, the most important Kingdom in Germany, that was quite something. If word got out, others might follow (like the Kings of Saxony and Württemberg). I believe Ludwig was finally bribed with money (most likely spent on his castles). Who knows what they (the government, Prussians) really feared about coming out and therefore declaring Ludwig insane. Yes, his spending was outrageous, but it hardly made up for him being cast away.
Also interesting: Prince regent Luitpold, although ruling on behalf of Ludwig and later his brother Otto, was careful enough not to call himself King (as the real King, even if being declared insane, was still alive).
His son, Ludwig III. was not so clever and made himself King, despite Otto being still alive. Sure the end of war and revolution would've most likely thrown him away anyway, but it was still a thing of unfidelity the people of Bavaria wouldn't forgive and forget. Ludwig III. was basically an imposter to them.
He was sane. He was a very good swimmer. He was killed.
Ludwig II ascended to the throne with 19 years after his father, King Maximilian II of Bavaria died. Ludwig was utterly unprepared for politics, and his interest veered to arts, architecture, and music all his life. He spend a lot of states money for his castles, building the Bayreuth Festspielhaus (Bayreuth Festival Theatre), where Wagner held is operas....etc. He overspend, and when the ministers started to critcise him, Ludwig II threatened to dismiss the entire cabinet and replacing them with new people.
The ministers started looked for causes to depose Ludwig II by constitutional means, and the only way they could was to declare him mentally ill, and unable to rule. And that's what they did. Parallel, the cabinet asked Ludwig II's uncle, Prince Luitpold, to replace Ludwig II once he was deposed.
Ludwig III is Luitpolds son.
Bavarians didn't like Ludwig III because he made himself king, but because his father Luitpold had an active participation in the deposition of his nephew, King Ludwig II, and took over the throne. So a non-ruling line deposed and stole the throne from the ruling line.
