One winter day in 1859 the two princes were together in the so-called “English Garden,” in Munich. Otto was rolling a large snowball, and called out to his brother, in glee: “See, Ludwig, I have a snowball that is bigger than your head!” Ludwig took it from him. Otto began to cry. Their tutor came up and asked what was the matter. “Ludwig has taken my snowball,” sobbed Otto. “Your Royal Highness,” said the tutor, “if Prince Otto has made a snowball it belongs to him, and you have no right to take it.” “Have I no right to take the snowball? What am I Crown Prince for, then?” asked Ludwig in dudgeon.
A gentleman well known to Maximilian, and who was frequently invited to his shooting parties, informs me that he very seldom saw the little princes when he visited the King. Once when he was walking in the gardens of the castle of Hohenschwangau, however, he came upon an open space where the King’s sons happened to be playing. Ludwig had swung himself up on to a paling, and was running backwards and forwards on it. The visitor reminded him that he might fall and hurt himself. The boy, however, took no notice of the well-meant warning, and its only result was that he increased his antics. The gentleman, who was really afraid that an accident might happen, now took him by force in his arms and lifted him down. The Crown Prince glanced proudly at him; then began to play with his brother, as if no third person was present. Many years afterwards, long after Ludwig had become King, the same gentleman reminded him of this occurrence. “I remember very well,” answered his Majesty coldly, “that you touched me at that time,” and then turned the subject of conversation.
A strict system of economy formed a part of Maximilian’s curriculum. The royal princes were only allowed the plainest food. Sweetmeats the Crown Prince tasted only through the generosity of his nurse Liesi, who was in the habit of buying sweets for her favourite out of her own pocket—a kindness which Ludwig always remembered, and which he rewarded as soon as he became King. When the princes grew bigger they were allowed pocket-money, to the amount of about a shilling a week—hardly a princely appanage. Otto one day hit upon a means, as he hoped, of improving his financial position. Having heard that sound teeth fetched as much as ten guldens apiece, he betook himself to one of the Munich dentists, and offered him one of his best molars at that price. The dentist knowing who he was, did not, of course, accept the offer. When the occurrence became known to the King, the prince was severely punished. The episode, however, seems to have brought the Queen to reflection, and she caused the princes’ pocket-money to be augmented from that day.
On his eighteenth birthday Ludwig for the first time received a sum of any consideration, his father presenting him with a purse containing a specimen of every coin at that time current in Bavaria. The youth, who had never before had anything in his pocket but a few coppers, imagined that he had suddenly become a wealthy man, and hastened off to buy and present to his mother a locket, which she had admired in a jeweller’s shop. He made no inquiries as to the price, but when the jeweller observed that he would send the ornament and the bill to the Palace, said with importance, handing him his purse: “No, I have money of my own now. Here, pay yourself for the ornament!”
Between the Crown Prince and his father there was never any great feeling of tenderness, but he was without doubt very much attached to his mother. The circumstances attending the birth of Prince Otto had, however, given her a preference for her younger son; and when Ludwig in his childish years endeavoured to talk to her of his ideas and impressions, the very prosaic Queen showed a remarkable want of comprehension of his poet’s nature. Apart from occasional friction, the relations between the brothers were peaceful and good. The younger one always took the second place, and the modesty with which he did this was no doubt the chief reason why the two were good friends. The entire character and turn of mind of the Crown Prince, his ideas, pleasures, and sympathies, were absolutely different from those of Otto, and of any real confidence on his side there could consequently be no possibility. Ludwig preferred solitude. Otto was gay and sociable. Ludwig was interested in art, and occupied himself with flowers; his brother loved military matters, and was a keen sportsman. Two interests, however, they had in common: both were from childhood first-rate, almost foolhardy, riders, and both loved music and singing.
They had only two playmates, namely Prince Ludwig of Hesse, who spent part of his childhood at the court of his aunt Queen Marie, and Count Holstein, who now and then was allowed to visit them. The Crown Prince was considered to be highly gifted. From his earliest youth his memory was unusually good, and he often reduced his teachers to despair by the puzzling questions he would put to them. Meanwhile he was only diligent in the subjects which interested him, and lazy and indifferent concerning those which did not please him. His teachers were able and upright men, but towards the greater number of them he was very reserved. With a few exceptions they were powerless and at their wit’s end before this peculiar character, which perplexed them by its contradictions and alarmed them by its outbursts of violence.
Thus grew up the Bavarian Crown Prince; in surroundings which left him partly neglected and misunderstood and partly perverted his understanding, and in circumstances which were fitted to develop his already naturally marked egotism and feeling of self-esteem.
[1] Otto was born on the 27th of April 1848. He is the present bearer of the title of King of Bavaria. [↑]