Behind the Crowns: Unearthing the Strange Habits & Hidden Eccentricities of History’s Royalty

We often picture history’s monarchs as stoic figures of immense power, their lives dictated by duty, decorum, and divine right. We see them in portraits, draped in ermine and jewels, their expressions serene and commanding. But behind the carefully constructed facade of regality lies a world of human complexity. These were not just symbols of power; they were people, and like all people, they had their quirks, obsessions, and deeply strange habits. This article peels back the velvet curtain of history to reveal the bizarre eccentricities that flourished in the gilded cages of royal courts. From kings who believed they were made of glass to rulers who commanded armies of toy soldiers, we will unearth the hidden stories that make these figures far more fascinating than their crowns suggest.

Delusions of grandeur and glass bones

The immense pressure of absolute power, combined with the isolation of royal life, often took a significant toll on a monarch’s mental state. For some, this manifested in spectacular delusions that baffled their courts and altered the course of their reign. Perhaps the most famous case is that of King Charles VI of France, who earned the moniker “Charles the Mad.” Following a sudden, violent fever in 1392, the king began to suffer from episodes of psychosis. During these periods, he would forget his own name, fail to recognize his wife and children, and, most bizarrely, develop a terrifying glass delusion.

Charles became convinced that his body was made of glass and that he would shatter into a million pieces at the slightest touch. He had iron rods sewn into his clothing to prevent him from breaking and would refuse to let anyone approach him, often sitting motionless for hours on end. The governance of France was thrown into chaos, as power was passed to his ambitious relatives, directly contributing to the turmoil that would lead to the Battle of Agincourt.

While less dramatic, the eccentricities of Empress Elisabeth of Austria, known as “Sisi,” were just as consuming. Famed for her beauty, she developed obsessive rituals to preserve it. Her daily hair care routine alone took up to three hours, with her ankle-length tresses being tended to with a mixture of eggs and cognac. She was equally obsessed with her figure, lacing herself into corsets to maintain a 19-inch waist and subsisting on a meager diet of pressed meat juice and violet sorbet. These were not just acts of vanity but desperate attempts to exert control in a stifling Habsburg court that she despised.

The peculiar world of royal hobbies

When not ruling kingdoms or battling inner demons, monarchs pursued hobbies with a passion that often tipped into obsession. For Tsar Paul I of Russia, the son of Catherine the Great, this passion was for all things military. From a young age, he was fascinated by the rigid order and pageantry of the army, a stark contrast to the perceived chaos of his mother’s court. His eccentricity, however, was in the scale of his interest. He maintained an enormous collection of toy soldiers and would spend hours conducting elaborate drills and parades with them.

This was not mere child’s play. When he became Tsar, he imposed the same rigid, Prussian-style discipline on the real Russian army, forcing soldiers into uncomfortable uniforms and subjecting them to pointless, repetitive drills. His obsession with minute military detail over actual statecraft alienated the nobility and military elite, ultimately leading to his assassination in 1801, orchestrated by his own frustrated officers.

The strange etiquette of the court

Sometimes, a monarch’s personal quirks were not confined to their private chambers but became institutionalized as part of the very fabric of court life. No one perfected this art more than King Louis XIV of France. The “Sun King” transformed his daily routine into a series of highly coveted public rituals, turning mundane acts into powerful political statements.

His waking and bedtime ceremonies, known as the lever and coucher, were the centerpiece of court life at Versailles. Dozens of high-ranking nobles would vie for the incredible honor of being present as the king awoke, with the most privileged being granted tasks like holding his candle or handing him his shirt. By turning access to his person into a reward, Louis XIV kept the powerful French nobility occupied with courtly intrigue rather than plotting against him. His personal life became a theatrical performance of absolute power, where even a glance from the king held immense political weight.

A century later, Queen Victoria‘s personal grief would similarly shape an entire era. Following the death of her beloved husband, Prince Albert, in 1861, she plunged into a state of perpetual mourning that lasted for 40 years. Her personal sorrow became public policy. She wore black for the rest of her life, withdrew from public appearances, and insisted that Albert’s rooms at Windsor Castle and Osborne House be maintained exactly as he had left them, with hot water brought for his morning shave each day. This profound, extended mourning defined the aesthetics and social mores of the Victorian era, casting a somber shadow over the British Empire.

Castles of fantasy and kingdoms of dreams

For some rulers, the ultimate expression of their eccentricity was architectural. They used the vast resources at their disposal not to build fortresses or functional palaces, but to construct physical manifestations of their wildest fantasies. The most poignant example is King Ludwig II of Bavaria, often called the “Fairy Tale King.”

Deeply introverted and disdainful of politics, Ludwig retreated into a private world inspired by the epic German myths and the operas of Richard Wagner. He began pouring the state’s coffers into building a series of breathtaking, fantastical castles. The most iconic, Neuschwanstein, is a romanticized vision of a medieval knight’s castle, perched dramatically on a rugged hill. He also built the lavish Linderhof Palace, complete with an artificial grotto where he could be rowed in a golden seashell boat while listening to operas performed just for him. His ministers, fearing state bankruptcy, had him declared insane and deposed in 1886. He died mysteriously just a day later, leaving behind a legacy of dream-like castles that now draw millions of visitors a year.

In conclusion, the gilded pages of history are filled with more than just battles and treaties; they are colored by the deeply human and often bizarre eccentricities of its crowned heads. From the psychological fragility of King Charles VI to the obsessive rituals of Louis XIV and the fantasy worlds of Ludwig II, these quirks offer a unique window into their lives. They reveal how the unnatural pressures of monarchy, combined with unchecked power and profound isolation, could warp an individual’s reality. These strange habits remind us that beneath the crowns and the titles were complex people, grappling with their circumstances in peculiar ways. Their eccentricities are not mere historical footnotes; they are essential to understanding the true character of their reigns and the humanity behind the throne.

Image by: Bamgee photography
https://www.pexels.com/@bamgee-photography-2154163766