Otto, younger brother of Ludwig II, decided the only way to preserve his own sanity was to shoot a peasant each day. Every morning he would start taking pot-shots at the peasants working in the royal garden. As staff numbers dropped, one servant was given the task of loading the king's pistol with blanks while another dressed as a peasant and pretended to fall down dead when Otto shot him.
Queen Juana of Spain worshipped her husband Philip, who died in 1506, so much that she refused to allow him to be buried and had his coffin accompany her wherever she went.
Charles VI of France was convinced he was made of glass. So, he hated traveling by coach in case the vibration caused him to shatter into a thousand pieces. He also started prowling the corridors of the royal palace, howling like a wolf, causing Queen Isabeau to no longer want to share a bed with him. She found a lookalike, Odette de Champdivers, to take her place. Every night for 30 years, Odette wore the Queen's clothes in the royal bed and Charles never once spotted the deception.
Henry Christophe, King of Northern Haiti, ordered his guards to prove their loyalty to him by marching over a 200ft-high cliff. Those who obeyed plunged to their deaths; those who refused were tortured and executed. Henry Christophe ended up shooting himself.
Catherine the Great of Russia, discovering that she had dandruff, imprisoned her hairdresser in an iron cage for three years to stop the news spreading. Enchanted by a primrose in the royal garden, she posted a sentry to guard the plant day and night.
Philip, Prince of Calabria, the eldest son of Charles XIII of Spain, was mad about gloves and was known to wear 16 pairs at any one time.
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