What exactly happened to Ludwig and Dr. von Gudden? Despite copious testimony of various quality and reliability, we do not know. No theory – and there have been plenty – can be confirmed or disproved since the relevant documents in the private Archives of the Bavarian State and of the Wittelsbach family were not available until the year 2000, and even then their contents remained secret. This fact in itself suggests direct family involvement in the affair.

However Ludwig died, it is clear that he was one of the most popular kings Bavaria has ever seen. His funeral was the largest in Bavaria’s history; mourners sank to their knees in despair, and the people looking on from the sidewalk sobbed openly. As the coffin was led into the crypt, the sky above suddenly clouded over and, without warning, a bolt of lightning split the sky, nearly striking the nearby Church of St. Michael. “The Heavens shed a tear,” one of Munich’s newspapers declared sadly.⁷

Ludwig’s Legacy

Undeniably, Ludwig left his legacy to Bavaria threefold:

1. In an ironic twist of fate, despite the fact that he nearly bankrupted Bavaria’s royal family with his construction projects, Ludwig’s palaces have now turned into hugely profitable tourist attractions for the State.
2. Walt Disney’s castle for Sleeping Beauty was based on Neuschwanstein, thus ensuring Ludwig’s immortality for generations to come.
3. His lavish patronage of Richard Wagner, and his funding of the construction of the Bayreuth Festispielhaus (Opera House of Bayreuth), bequeathed the music of Wagner to generations of lovers of opera.

Conclusion

Ludwig once wrote: “I feel so forsaken and lonely on this earth, like a left-over from better times, blown into the present which I hate, and where I shall always feel a stranger.”⁸ It is an outlook which describe the king’s life appropriately; like his cousin Elizabeth of Austria, Ludwig was always an outsider. It is Elizabeth, more than anyone else – more than Ludwig’s mother Marie, Wagner, or even Richard Hornig, Ludwig’s most constant and influential companion – who understood the king’s strange nature, his sentimental ideals and his renouncement of the realities of the 19th century for a world of dreams. She alone would have understood and empathised with her cousin’s famous words, which may, perhaps, serve as his bequest to history: “It is surely understandable that I am sometimes attacked by an absolute fever of anger and hatred, and that I turn away in disgust from the world around me which has so little to offer me. Perhaps one day I shall be at peace with this earth, when all the ideals whose sacred flames I cherish are destroyed. But I do not ever wish this. I wish to remain an eternal enigma, to myself and to others.⁹