[...] The assurances of earnest and urgent sympathy contained in your recent very flattering letter, induce me to write to you again, as I believe that your warm feeling for the King and his people, together with the favourable relation in which you are now placed with regard to a certain very influential Bavarian statesman, [...] opens a way for me to relieve myself of a burden hitherto self-imposed by the silence I felt bound to maintain, since I could find no one (without approaching my exalted friend himself) to whom I could speak of the matters which oppressed me.
You will already have heard that, at my earnest representation, His Majesty has consented that I should not see him again until after the Chamber has risen from session—sometime about the end of March. Similarly, I do not intend to respond to my patron's recently much-increased desire that I should return to, and settle permanently upon, the plot of land still reserved for me (against my wishes) in Munich. I am now obliged to explain my reasons for this course in writing, since discussion of the matter by word of mouth, though more suitable, might embarrass Prince Hohenlohe. I shall endeavour to give such motives for my refusal to comply with the royal wishes that no least shadow may fall upon Prince Hohenlohe or darken the confidence which it is so necessary that the King should repose in his Prime Minister. [...]
I hold a different view, however, of the task of the man who feels called upon to exert his will and all his faculties to help to restore to the Bavarian State the dignity which it has so shamefully lost. To such an one it must be obvious that the agitations directed eighteen months ago against my relations with the King of Bavaria concealed motives and facts which it is a duty not to ignore, nor to hush up, but on the contrary to bring to light and to the strictest requitals of justice. Or does the Prince von Hohenlohe believe that an invigorating and wholesome régime can be established in Bavaria if the shameless defamation and prostitution, which have for years done violence to the royal authority, the monarchical dignity, are not avenged in such wise that the King's Majesty is recognised as securely established, commanding respect, the sole and ultimate defence of the menaced Bavarian State?
There can be no doubt that this is not Prince von Hohenlohe's opinion [...]
During my visit to Hohenschwangau in November 1865 the Secretary, Lutz, explained to me the policy of His Majesty's Government at that time (with the undisguised object of getting my co-operation). This policy was governed by the fact that while it was impossible to rely on Austria, and still less was it desired to stand for a German Parliament, an agreement was in train with Bismarck and the new Prussian policy, in pursuance of which it was proposed to restore the Bavarian constitution as it was in 1848. Since this involved a restoration of the absolute power of the Crown, I, so Herr Lutz supposed, as a particular friend of the King, would no doubt be glad to support the Government in being. My sole reply was that these revelations were entirely objectless, since I had nothing whatever to do with politics, and more especially was ignorant of the interests of the Bavarian State; no doubt, however, I should think it desirable that, in time, at least enough power should be accorded to the King to enable him to raise the salaries of his poor Court musicians, of course only to a becoming amount. As I found very grave obstacles in this matter, I could only advise the King to look round for a special secretary to carry out his instructions in artistic matters. A Ministerial Secretary named Riedel, wholly unknown to me personally, came under consideration for this post. The wildest consternation now greeted my supposed interference with the structure of the Cabinet and revealed itself forthwith in the well-known Volksboten agitations, in the course of which, as you are aware, the King was audaciously held up to scorn and mockery. Against this really incredible impudence, unequalled as far as my knowledge goes in the history of any state, I perceived that there was nothing to be done but advise the King to reconstitute his staff of Cabinet secretaries entirely. As I knew no one whom I could propose to him for appointment, and as I saw that the young monarch was totally lacking in the necessary knowledge of persons, I ended by recommending him to make the attempt with Neumayr, the man whom these other gentlemen had succeeded in removing from the royal favour. Thereupon the King replied that this Neumayr had insulted him and that it was impossible to summon him. I said no more. You know what followed.
You also know of the agitation which supervened on the King's visit to Lucerne last May. Concerned simply for the welfare of my exalted friend, I advised him in the existing crisis to govern his conduct by the votes of the Bavarian Chamber then in session. I learned that the Chambers had allowed themselves to be persuaded to vote with acclaim for the "army of 150,000 men" pictured to them by Herr von der Pfordten, and I was forced to look on while the young monarch presented this man (whose Bismarckian tendencies had been revealed to me by Lutz eighteen months previously, and who in pure [...] was now involving Bavaria in a war which was to cause the country losses in territory, in honour and sixty millions of money) with an effusive panegyric, simply because—he was betrayed and cheated on all hands! I was silent—but I suffered more than any Bavarian subject could suffer. Then—after the peace—the King informed me by telegram—by telegram!—that he had decided to abdicate—and come to me! To this point all those wretched people had brought the one German monarch in whom those who know him best had been constrained to rest their last hopes for Germany!!—I told him I would withdraw myself from him for ever if he carried out his decision. In my despair I gave him one counsel only—to confide at once in Prince von Hohenlohe, disclose the situation and take his advice upon this and upon the affairs of the nation.—
This advice did not suit the King. The master-device of those who had attempted to rule him hitherto had been to prejudice him, not against principles and ideas—they were too ignorant and conceited for that—but against persons whom they supposed might threaten their power. I insisted on nothing, declared that the Prince was unknown to me personally, and that I had only named him because he had been named to me—favourably. Still, I pointed out afresh that what the young monarch was in need of was above all an independent man, one who really had an opinion and a will, and that such a man, apart from the emergence of our intellectual and moral genius, might be sought with some prospect of success only in the ranks of the genuine aristocracy, amidst those of high personal power and standing. What was indispensable to Bavaria, fallen so low through the bureaucratic régime, was just such a statesman, one who, if forced to take the outside world into consideration, had at the same time some claim upon the consideration of the outside world. Hereupon the King was silent. I foresaw the increasing degradation of Bavaria's political status and of the royal dignity. The pain of it overmastered me. I could no longer bear to see the King's affection for me and for my art designated, whether maliciously or innocently, in the public opinion of all Europe as the cause of the weaknesses of his rule, and I told my friend I should be forced to leave him for ever, renounce all part in his favours, and disappear utterly, if he did not rouse himself to make decisions which would save his country. You know the result of this. Prince Hohenlohe stands there now and the welfare of Bavaria is laid in his hand. If the enemy, repulsed, now designate me as the cause of this reverse, I would ask Prince Hohenlohe whether he has reason to be ashamed of my influence on the King's mind, and whether it does not rather become him, the Prince, to acknowledge frankly that I have done a service to Bavaria.
Nevertheless, it is no part of my intention to ask for thanks, recognition, even public notice of my services. I am purposely living in the most absolute retirement to avoid being enticed in the slightest degree into making known my share in the turn things have taken in Bavaria. For the same reason I have only made this confession to you after becoming aware that you have, by conviction, a similar interest to mine in preventing the affair from becoming public. Only you will probably understand that I am anxious to know that Prince von Hohenlohe has the facts. My object in wishing it is to strengthen his resistance to the discreditable machinations of the enemies of our most beloved King, and I believe that his strength for this purpose rests, not on anxious concealment of my relations with the King, but quite definitely on his power, in the right place and at the right time, to show the [...] how the matter really stands. Most of all, however, I hope that the Prince will get peace for the King and re-establish the lost esteem for the Throne. I consider it an enduring insult to the King, however, that the discharged traitors still stand in high places with every sign and token of the royal favour, instead of being sent where they belong, branded with the marks which are their due. How, I ask, is the nation to form its judgment when, instead of penalties, the highest rewards follow crime?—when opinions encouraged by the traitors are nourished on the fact that the true circumstances are left unproclaimed or undebated?
I adduce an instance. The King has still not ventured to accord even the least of his Orders as a mark of consideration to a great and meritorious artist, a blameless man of honour, a true nobleman—Herr Hans von Bülow—whereas the highest Orders are distributed elsewhere with most disastrous prodigality [...] What are the people to say to this? Will they not believe that H. von Bülow is a notorious person—or, if they cannot reasonably believe this, what will they think of the King and his advisers?—
Enough, though! I have sufficiently unburdened my heart of what lay upon it. It is now for Prince Hohenlohe, as the noble and distinguished gentleman who at last occupies the seat of the late diplomatic place-hunters, to use his own judgment in extracting from my communications whatever advantage may seem good to him for the honour of the King and of this land. [...]
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Vol. 2, selected and ed. Wilhelm Altmann, trans. M. M. Bozman (J. M. Dent & Sons, 1927), No. 622