Bavaria’s favourite monarch ‘Mad’ King Ludwig, who liked to build fancy castles, and whose body was found in a lake in June 1886, along with that of Dr Bernhard von Gudden of the Munich Asylum.

His death was declared suicide by drowning but as the story slides further into history, the conspiracy theories grow – murdered by whom and for what purpose?

The composer Richard Wagner appears to have played Ludwig like an orchestra violin, and there were rumours of sexual relationships with Paul Maximillian Lamoral, Prince of Thurn and Taxis, chief equerry Richard Hornig, the Hungarian theatre actor Josef Kainz, and courtier Alfons Weber.

And then there was Karl Hesselschwerdt, quartermaster of the Royal Stables, who allegedly procured young cavalrymen for Ludwig’s pleasure.

Alas, Ludwig Otto Friedrich Wilhelm, King of Bavaria, also known as Count Palatine of the Rhine, Duke of Bavaria, Duke of Franconia and Duke in Swabia, was probably no madder than the rest of us. His extravagance used against him to declare his insanity.