Swan King, The: Ludwig II of Bavaria;

The Swan King is the biography of one of the most enigmatic figures of the nineteenth

century, described by Verlaine as ‘the only true king of his century’. A man of wildly eccentric temperament and touched by a rare, imaginative genius, Ludwig II of Bavaria is remembered both for his patronage of Richard Wagner and for the fabulous palaces that he created as part of a dream-world to escape the responsibilities of state. In the realization of his fantasies, he created a ferment of creativity among artists and craftsmen, while his neglect of Bavaria’s political interests made powerful enemies among those critical of his self-indulgence

and excesses. At the age of 40, declared insane in a plot to depose him, Ludwig died in mysterious circumstances. What truly happened on that fateful night has never been discovered.