Special Sub-Topic: Royal Madness Click Here To Play: Royal Madness

One such mad family was the 19th Century royal house of Bavaria. Princess Alexandra of Bavaria harboured an unusual belief throughout her life. What was she convinced that she had swallowed as a child?

Grand Piano. Unbelievably yes, her belief she had swallowed the piano stayed with her her whole life and nothing could shake her from the idea.

Alexandra's nephew, Ludwig II of Bavaria (1846-86), was most notable for his decision to reverse night and day. He would take epic mountain journeys at the dead of night in a golden sleigh. What was the nickname attributed to him?

Dream King. He dressed his coachmen in the style of Louis XIV of France and built astonishingly expensive fairy-tale castles. He was eventually declared unfit to rule and was replaced.

Another in this mad family was Ludwig II's younger brother, Otto. The only way the prince thought he could keep his sanity was by doing what every day?

Shooting a peasant. He would take pot shots at the peasants working in his garden every morning. When numbers drastically reduced, one servant was given the task of loading the prince's gun with blanks whilst another servant dressed up as a peasant and pretended to drop down dead when he shot.

Moving on from the mad Bavarians. True or False now. Catherine the Great of Russia (1729-96) was so enchanted by a butterfly that she made it her king.

f. In the realms of this quiz, she was pretty sane. She was enchanted, however, by a primrose and posted a sentry to guard it day and night. Also, when she discovered that she had dandruff, she imprisoned her hairdresser for three years to stop the news spreading.

King Henry Christophe (1767-1820) ordered his guards to prove their loyalty to him by marching over a 200ft cliff. Of which nation was he king?

Haiti. Those who obeyed plunged to their deaths and those who refused were tortured and executed. The king ended up shooting himself.

A certain King of England was being driven through Windsor Great Park when he ordered his carriage driver to stop. He got out and began talking to an oak tree for several minutes and shaking hands with one of it's branches. Which mad king was this? Clue: A famous film was made about him.

George III. He believed he was talking to the King of Prussia. King George ended up being declared insane and locked away.

True of False again. Mad King Charles VI of France (1368-1422) was convinced he was made of glass and hated travelling by coach in case the vibration shattered him into a thousand pieces.

t. He also started prowling the corridors of the royal palace howling like a wolf much to his queen's consternation.

Charles VI of France's wife, Queen Isabeau, grew tired of him when he began wandering the royal palace's corridors howling like a wolf. To avoid sharing the king's bed she came up with idea to get out of it?

She got a lookalike to take her place. The lookalike was Odette de Champdives and every night for 30 years she wore the Queen's clothes and slept in the royal bed with Charles never spotting the deception.

Prussian Field Marshall, Prince Gebhard Leberecht von Blucher, whose intervention at Waterloo sealed Wellington's triumph was himself quite insane. What did he believe he was for part of his life?

Pregnant with an elephant. Yes, he believed it had been fathered to him by a French soldier. He would also tiptoe around everywhere believing the French had heated the floor to a greater temperature than human flesh could endure.

Not actually a royal but he was quite mad was 19th Century naturalist, Frank Buckland. He used to serve his guests bizarre meals including roast parrot, stewed sea slug and mice on buttered toast. Animals ran amok in his house and one lady guest, on her way to the powder room, stumbled across what dead animal on the stairs?

Hippopotamus. How he didn't realise it was missing is unknown and what must you think finding that on the stairs? His pet monkeys were given a glass of beer at night and a tot of port on Sundays. He even tried to make elephant trunk soup but the trunk was too tough to eat, even after boiling it for 3 days.