![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenak posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
rheinsbergFriedrich Wilhelm I. and Sophia Dorothea of Hannover had thirteen children in their extremely dysfunctional marriage, ten of whom made it into adulthood. Here, I’m collecting summarizings and quotes about and from younger sisters Ulrike (Queen of Sweden) and her family as well as of Amalie, the sole unmarried and youngest Hohenzollern sister. Some crossover with earlier posts is inevitable. Sources are wikipedia entries, the various biographies of their brothers already posted about so far, and the correspondances as well as, in Amalie’s case, her maybe-boyfriend’s memoirs.
Ulrike, or: Sweden was the Dallas of the Rokoko Age
As mentioned in the Voltaire post, just before her marriage tot he Swedish crown prince, Ulrike briefly engaged in a flirtation with Voltaire during the later’s second visit to Prussia, which mostly was a pretense for her brother to write love poetry in her name to Voltaire. She was quite clear on whom this literary exercise was about:
M. de Voltaire will not regret having started a correspondence with me, when he receives the charming reply in verse for which I cannot thank your majesty enough. If he could believe that I was its author, though, his heart would fail him most dreadfully; but he has too much discernment not to know which Apollo inspired me. It is a consolation for the Marquise that I would not always dare to have recourse to this god, since only thus she is sure of keeping her reign.
For all that Sophia Dorothea tried her utmost to make Wilhelmine Queen of England, the only one of her daughters to sit on a throne was Ulrike. Originally, the Swedes showed interest in going for either of Friedrich’s still unmarried sisters (Ulrike and Amalie) in the early 1740s. Says Wiki:
The Swedish envoy in Berlin, Carl Rudenschöld, inspected them and recommended that the proposal be made to Ulrika. Frederick the Great himself preferred Amalia for the Swedish marriage: he described Amalia for the Swedish representatives as goodhearted and more suitable for Sweden, while Ulrika was arrogant, temperamental and a plotting intriguer. It has been suggested that Fredrick's judgment was given because he believed that Amalia would be easier to control as a Prussian agent in Sweden than the strong willed and dominant Ulrika. After having consulted Adolf Frederick, however, the Swedes chose Ulrika, and her brother gave his consent on 1 March 1744. She was given tuition about Sweden, was advised not to get involved in politics, and converted to Lutheranism 28 June.
This, shall we say, did not work out quite the way the Swedes had hoped, and not because Ulrike didn’t have a head of her own. Quite the contrary.
Ulrike’s favourite brother was August Wilhelm. Ulrike was just two years older than AW, so he was the brother she'd grown up with most, and when she married - but I need to paint a larger picture here.
So: Sweden was actually a parliamentary monarchy at that time, meaning the role of Swedish royalty was mainly to represent, whereas true power was in the hand of parliament, with both nobles and middle class representatives.
U: Dear beloved brother Wilhelm, my new husband is alright, but would you believe bloody Fritz hasn't seen it fit to pay me my dowry yet? Dad left 30 O00 Taler to me in his last will. That's my money. Please make him forward my money!
AW: Fritz says he's fighting the second Silesian War and has no money to spare. I'll keep trying, but in the meantime, if your husband is fine and is about to become King, surely there are no financial worries?
U: Ha. You know who runs the show here? Nobles and peasants in parliament. They're deciding the budget for our household, not the King. And they keep cutting it down, because for some reason, they think I'm arrogant. I'm thinking I need to buy me some noble support. Now, is Fritz more willing to give me my money? Over here, we hear he's building himself a new palace!
AW: Sorry, couldn't write for a while, had to write to Heinrich and Wilhelmine instead. There's some family drama going on. I, um, let's just say you can try for yourself with Fritz regarding the money, but if you like, I'd totally take up credit with the banks to lend you some.
U: You're sweet, and yes, let's. Now, nobles of Sweden: I know you're for some weird reason into this parliament system, but what makes you think that if you keep treating burghers as if they actually had the same rights as you in government, they won't end up treating you like they do us already? All representation, no power? Think long and hard.
*new party in Sweden with nobles sympathetic to the Queen, or so she thinks* developes.
*some years later*
U: Dearest darling brother Wilhelm, you won't believe what just happened. Parliament insisted on examining my oldest kid Gustav, age 10, for his education. And now they've decided to fire his teacher and take over the education of all my kids, appointing teachers of their own. Could you PLEASE tell Fritz I need money to overthrow parliament?
AW: That's truly rotten. I'm horrified. And worried for you. Don't you have anyone to speak for you in parliament? Am, as ever, willing to lend you some of my own money.
U: Don't talk to me of parliament, some ingrates I financed in the past have just turned their back on me. If I send you the crown jewels as well as my own personal jewelry, could you sell it for me? I'm thinking I need money to raise an army. This is clearly a Charles I and Crowmell situation. I'm not losing my head to the bloody peasants.
(She did use those historical examples.)
AW: Charles I and Cromwell, seriously? "Dearest sister, I should hope that your cause is more just than that of Charles, and that you are far from the tyrannical frame of mind of Cromwell, who under the name of protector became one of the worst tyrants England ever had." (Literal quote.) Look, it sucks, but you did marry into a freedom-loving nation, and honestly - (Literal non paraphrased quote follows again): "If I was a Swedish senator, I would give the King the power to do good, but I would also use the laws to limit his authority to stop him from committing injustices. I would wish he'd be the first servant of the state, the most useful man of the kingdom, and if he worked the hardest, then he would be rewarded accordingly." This is not at all a hint for your husband to be more like Fritz and work harder. But I am sorry for that bit with your kids' teachers, and I promise I'll pawn your jewels for you. Not the crown jewels, though. I just think this is a bad idea.
U: *sends jewels, which get duly pawned by Wilhelm for her, except it turns out some of the jewelry consists of fakes, and the jeweller goes public with this*
Sweden: Scandal! What is the Queen up to pawning her jewelry in Prussia? Could she want to raise an army against parliament? And aren't those our jewels anyway?
U: No, they're mine, given to me at the time of my marriage. Unlike my bloody dowry, Fritz! I hate you all. Except you, Wilhelm. You're a bit naive, but you've been my only sympathetic ear in all of this.
Seven Years War: *breaks out*
U: Dear Wilhelm, please tell Fritz that parliament decided to join the alliance against him, and that it would never have happened if only he'd given me the money to overthrow them and reintroduce absolute monarchy in Sweden, so it is all HIS FAULT.
Naturally, she had also asked Fritz himself. (The war she mentions is Silesia 2):
My dearest brother,
It is not without endless pain that I find myself obliged by the disturbance of my business and by the expenses occasioned for the support of the party to beg you, my dear brother, for the payment of the thirty thousand ecus that the late King left in the will to me, as well as to my other sisters. You will have the grace to remember, my dear brother, that, during the whole time that the war lasted, I never spoke of it, and I dare to assure you that it is only the last extremity which obliges me to do so. But the excessive expenses that I was obliged to make this summer, during the trip that the Prince Royal made for magazines, put me in an essential necessity to have recourse to your justice. I dare to flatter myself, my dear brother, that, addressing me directly to you, you will not take it badly, and that this step will not diminish the kindnesses that you have always shown me. Be convinced, my dear brother, that I would rather give up everything than lose your friendship, nothing in the world could not be more dear to me. I flatter myself, my dear brother, that you will be convinced of these feelings and of the inviolable connection with which I will not cease to be all my life, etc
This, as mentioned, had zero results in terms of actual money transfer, hence AW needing to pawn jewelry.
Ulrike's "where's my money and my support?" thing of course also provides context for Ulrike's needlings in Wilhelmine's direction. From her pov: Wilhelmine's house burns down? Fritz provides money and art. Wilhelmine wants to travel to France and Italy, the very thing Fritz didn't allow his brothers and which is also expensive? Wilhelmine gets to do it, with Fritzian support. Wilhelmine pisses off Fritz by meeting with his arch nemesis? She gets forgiven. Meanwhile, Ulrike is nominally a queen and thus should be the most important sister, but has to pawn her jewelry, and then it even turns out either her father or her brother had given her fake jewelry back in the day.
And it wasn’t as if Big Bro eased up on her. In the 1760s, he has this to say to her ceaseless efforts to reintroduce absolutism to Sweden:
I am very glad to see you in the feelings of tranquility to which I have exhorted you for twenty years. I have always repeated to you the danger and the uselessness of your ambition; I knew the Swedish nation and I knew that you can’t take easily freedom away from a free nation. I felt that all those who gave you hopes for this were deceiving you. As for what you are asking about the political system, I am unfortunately unable to tell you anything, because I do not know any politics in Europe. But for the rest, as it seems to me that Sweden above all needs money, I advise you to stick to the power in which you have found resources of this kind for so long. Pull in the foot or wing, because the one I deal with will never give you a crown.
and also:
.... You understand, my dear sister, how sensitive it would be to my heart and hard to yours to see you one day reduced to coming to Berlin with all your family to ask for asylum, for not having wanted to follow the advice that my tender friendship and the purest interest in your rest and your glory only have dictated me in this answer.
Her match-making efforts for youngest sister Ulrike weren’t appreciated by Fritz, either:
I thank you, my dear sister, for your good intentions for my sister Amalie, but we are in no hurry to marry her. If the King of Denmark requests it, then we will have to see what we can advise, but the party is not at all as advantageous as it seems, there are children from the first marriage, and my sister will not have all the credit you seem to think, not to mention that these kind of alliances often lead to greater embarassment than they are useful. Besides, I do not like to throw my sisters at people.
Says the man who encouraged Ulrike to keep flirting with Voltaire so he can write love poetry to him, and married her to the Swedes where she's been seething about being stuck in a constitutional monarchy ever since.
And we’re not even touching on the fact that when his nephew Henricus Minor (Heinrich the Younger, son of the late AW) died, he wrote to her that said nephew had all his father’s – that would be her favourite brother, whom he could be said to have driven in an early grave – good qualities without AW’s bad ones.
So, the 7 Years war is long over, we're in the 1770s.
Gustav the newly III, Ulrike’s oldest son: I'm on my Grand Tour, and have just heard my old man has kicked it. Might as well say to hi to Uncle Fritz, Most Famous Monarch Of Europe while I'm on my way back. I've got plans, people! Visiting Paris just illustrated to me how much absolute monarchy rocks.
Fritz to Heinrich: Ulrike's kid is coming. Mind dropping by? "For I believe the two of us are not too many to preach restraint to him, or at least quench his initial fire."
Heinrich: Okay. Gustav, you don't know how rare an event this is, but the two of us agree on something, and that something is that a coup d'etat in Sweden IS A REALLY BAD IDEA.
Fritz: Which I'm not willing to finance. Ever.
Gustav: Whatever. Bye, Uncles!
Ulrike: I am womanfully ignoring your dastardly letter about Henricus Minor, Fritz, if you finance a state visit for me. For some reason, newly crowned Gustav thinks he doesn't need my advice anymore and calls me "interfering" and "arrogant".
Heinrich: Come on, invite Ulrike. Who knows whether we'll ever see her again otherwise?
Fritz: Fine. Ulrike, you're invited.
Ulrike: *arrives with one of her daughters, gets state visit reception in Potsdam; her sister Charlotte comes from Braunschweig, which means all three of the surviving sisters as well as all surviving brothers are together at the same place at the same time*
Ulrike: Boys, I've just got a wonderful idea! Why don't we make a family trip to darling old Wusterhausen, where dear old Dad used to spend the summer holidays with us! I missed that place so much in Sweden, I can't tell you.
Fritz: You mean the house of horrors where I spent some of the worst times of my life, only made bearable by Wihelmine WHO IS NO LONGER THERE! Nope. Not coming.
Heinrich: Come on. "We will remember every corner where we were scolded and sometimes hit. But even the sufferings one remembers from one's childhood cause joy in one's advanced years."
Fritz: To you, maybe. NOT COMING.
Heinrich: Have it your way. Girls, Ferdinand, off we go.
Hohenzollern Sisters: Wow. That place brings memories. Dad was - well. But you know, Mom was worse.
Hohenzollern Brothers: WTF? Dad was way worse than Mom!
Family quarrel: *ensues*
(No really, they have a giant sibling face off about which of their parents was worse. In the end, Ulrike and Charlotte as well as Ferdinand give up, whereas Heinrich and Amalie still keep going, with Heinrich insisting FW was worst and Amalie insisting SD was worst until they swear never to talk to each other again.)
Fritz: Had a good time in dear old Wusterhausen, did we?
Heinrich: Shut up.
Ulrike: So, Heinrich, I'm hearing wonders about Rheinsberg. Why don't I visit your place next?
Heinrich: By all means. I have these wonderful musicians, including Mara the very hot Cellist, my current boyfriend. Party time for my royal sister! Fritz, mind if I borrow Gertrud Elisabeth Schmeling? Ulrike deserves to hear the best soprano of our time while she's visiting me.
Fritz: You know....
Heinrich: You're not getting thrifty, are you?
Fritz: Sure, you can have her.
Reinsberg visit by Ulrike with lots of Rokoko parties: *ensues*
Mara/Schmeling love affair: *ensues*
Heinrich: I'm not sure how that was a plot by Fritz, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was. Ah well. Mara was getting expensive. At least now La Schmeling can pay his bills.
Fritz: Ulrike, the six months I promised to finance your state visit for are almost over. Just saying.
Ulrike: Heinrich, you've got to help me with my kid. That was so touching, you defending Mom to Amalie. I'm just like her! There is no end to a mother's love!
Heinrich: Dear Nephew Gustav, be nice to your mother. "Forget the many little misunderstandings that have caused your quarrel. (...) The Queen loves you with all her heart. She talks of you with tears in her eyes, and since she loves you so much, her vulnerability is the greatest."
Gustav: Fine. Mom, you can come home. Incidentally - I've just successfully reintroduced absolute monarchy to Sweden. Next thing on my to do list: get an heir!
Ulrike: GUSTAV, I AM PROUD OF YOU. Okay, brothers, sisters, lovely to have seen you again. Farewell! Off I go to Sweden.
Fritz: Did our nephew just...
Heinrich: He did. Brace yourself, I'm still agreeing with you that this is not a good idea.
Fritz: In that spirit of rare fraternal unity, please go visit Catherine in St. Petersburg. Because I don't think she'll like an all powerful Swedish king next door.
Heinrich: *takes off to visit Catherine*
Becuase there’s no crazy like Hohenzollern crazy, unless it’s Hohenzollern-Holstein-Vasa crazy, things got only more melodramatic from here. For verily, this happened (look it up at Wikipedia!), starring the following players:
Gustav III: Ulrike’s oldest son. Future Verdi tenor. Married, but lacking an heir.
Fredrik Munck: Finnish sex machine with ambitions. Currently getting it on with, among others, the chambermaid of...
Sophia Magdalena: Gustav’s unhappy queen. Definitely not liked by...
Ulrike: Gustav’s mother, not very happy about being Queen Dowager and sidelined.
Charles: Ulrike’s second son. Suffers from chronic second son ombition.
In minor roles: Ulrike’s even younger kids.
If you think you’ve guessed where this is going, think again. Because Gustav is also bff with one Axel von Fersen, handsome Swedish count, in love with Marie Antoinette (whether or not they ever had sex is still disputed, but in future years, he’ll certainly go above and beyond trying to save her). I’m guessing Fersen told him that the French Royal couple also had problems getting it on and getting an heir for years, and solved this by getting third party counselling. Gustav must have misunderstood something, because what he decides to do is this:
G: So, Munck. I hear you’re really, really good at sex. Clearly the go to person to tell me and the Queen how to get an heir.
M: Sure, why not.
G: In a practical, hands- on fashion.
M: Say what?
G: I‘m talking manual instructions, my man. To both of us at the same time. You, me, her in the Royal Bedchamber.
M: I‘m so putting it in writing that this was your idea and leaving the document to the Swedish National Archive where it is to this day.
*nine months later, an heir is had*
Charles: Hi, Mom. I‘m just paying a visit with even younger bro Fredrick Adolf, ever so casually mentioning that other than you, every woman in Sweden is a slut and has lovers.
U: You do remind me of my brother Fritz at times. Surely not every woman? How about your sister-in-law?
C: Total slut, getting it on with the Finnish sex nmachine.
U: Say what? You mean that kid does not have Hohenzollern blood?
C: That kid which has been taking my place as Gustav‘s heir? Kinda doubt that. Rumor has it Gustav is getting it on with him, too.
U: Charles, stop kidding around. This is serious. If that kid is a bastard, it‘s your royal duty to make that known. Get the Finnish guy to confess!
C: Thanks, Mom, I knew you‘d see it like that. Munck, spill the dirty details and restore my place in the succession.
M: Gustav, remember how this was all your idea? Your brother is getting on my case, big time. I need royal protection!
G: Charles, what the hell do you think you‘re doing?
M: It was all Mom‘s idea. I‘m totally innocent.
G: WTF, Mom?
U: I raised you better. In my family, boys who can‘t get it on with their wives make their brothers and their brother‘s kids their heirs. Your uncle Fritz would NEVER have gone for the bastard option.
G: That kid is mine. You want to go to Pomerania into exile?
U: Is not. Make Charles your heir! To me, my other children! Remember, the slut‘s kid is barring you all from succession!
Ulrike‘s younger children: *side with her*
G: Okay, now it‘s war. Mom, if you don‘t sign a public statement that you withdraw your accusation against my wife and son, I‘m sending you home to Prussia. Without a retirement fund. You really want to find out whether Uncle Fritz will take you back? As for you, younger bros and sisters, I‘m still holding the purse string. No more income for you unless you co-sign Mom‘s statement. For good measure, I‘ll have six Swedish MPs co-sign it as well.
U: I curse you to suffer the fate of a Verdi tenor and die not too long after signing the statement.
M: That was surely the most troublesome threesome I ever had.
G: Time for a Masque Ball, anyone?
(Gustav III. got assassinated at a Masque Ball – well, wounded, he died of the wounds and 17th century medicine days later ; see also Verdi’s opera on the subject, hence all the Verdi tenor jokes.)
Amalie
Since she was the unmarried sister who more or less lived with Fritz, there are plenty of quotes about her in Lehndorff’s diary, see the post there for additional material on Amalie. Like Big Bro and Big Sister, she had serious musical skills, composed and ended up with the best collection of Bach (both Johann Sebastian and his sons, one of whom worked for Fritz) manuscripts around. There is a big question mark about her younger days, which has inspired gossip and speculation ever since the 18th century. The question mark comes into the shape of one Friedrich von Trenck. (Memoirs available at Gutenberg.)
The Mysterious Trenck Affair, Summarized According To Trenck
Important to know apart in this very confusing tale:
Friedrich von der Trenck (aka Prussian Trenck): future bestselling memoir writer, definitely an influence on Dumas (in Count of Monte Christo) and Mark Twain (in Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn) who name check him both; this is a subtle literary pop quiz for you, as it'll make you guess what Prussian Trenck will be most famous for
Franz von der Trenck (aka Austrian Trenck): his cousin, famous for his temper, derring-do, courageous soldiering but sadly also cruelty (both towards civilians and his own men) which will be his doom
Prussian Trenck: „Let me give you a short version of my famously bestselling three volume memoirs, currently at Gutenberg in a one volume edition in German at least; the editor dares to say my Rokoko feelings and rants are too much for the modern reader, so nothing was lost when severely cutting them down, and a decent adventure novel gained. Bah.
Anyway: I was born to a noble Prussian family with Austrian relations. In 1740, when Fritz came on the throne, I joined his army. By 1744, I was his batman. He totally had a really warm fatherly regard for me -
(Self: When he was 32? If you say so...)
- and despite the later turn of events, I spent the first bit of my memoirs raving about how charismatic Fritz was, how much it rocked serving under him. When his sister Ulrike got married, I was part of the festivities, and there I met a An Unmarried Lady Of The Highest Rank whom I, being a gentleman, will not identify by name until volume 3 gets published, but we're talking Highest Family here, wink, nudge. I scored! So basically, life was sweet. Then the Second Silesian War started. Totally not the fault of Fritz this time. I swear, he only wanted to protect the poor, helpless Prince Elector of Bavaria, who had cruelly lost his dukedom and hometown when becoming Emperor - I mean, who could have predicted MT would do that, amirite?
Speaking of Austrians: So, I had this cousin. Austrian Trenck was an early supporter of MT's and distinguished himself in her service by fighting for her from Day 1 in 1740, like I distinguished myself in the service of Fritz and his family. Shut up, this is not a double entendre. We had never met, but we heard from another. And one time, when our horses got captured and Fritz nearly was captured, my cousin sent the horses back to me. So there was talk among the chaps. And then I got this letter, which I thought was from my cousin but which actually now I think was a forgery by some bastard who wanted to do me in, asking me switch sides. Which of course I refused! I mean, why would I go to the Austrians? I had a sweet deal as Fritz' batman and secret lover of A Certain High Ranking Lady! However. I was slandered. By more anonymous letters claiming I was spying for the Austrians. And woe, but Fritz listened! There may or may not have been also something about me and Very High Ranking Lady, I'm too discreet to say. Anyway, Fritz, ignoring my loyal service so far, cruelly locked me up at the fortress Glatz. He even had me sit on my gravestone! I escaped a year later. Whereto, faithful reader? Well, naturally to Vienna. Not because I was a spy. Because I had heard my cousin Austrian Trenck had made me his universal heir, and was in severe trouble himself. Naturally, I wanted to help!
My cousin Austrian Trenck really was in trouble. Several of his men as well as some civilians had accused him of war crimes, and he'd been condemned to death. MT's brother-in-law, under whom he had served, reminded her she owed him, and so she allowed a retrial. Which, however, didn't exonorate him, because brave as he was, he actually was guilty as charged. Since this was apparant in the later part of the trial, aka when I arrived in Vienna, she told him that if he pled guilty, she'd commute his sentence out of gratitude and mercy, he refused and insisted on being completely cleared, and the trial went on. So he wasn't in a good mind frame, is what I'm saying, and he turned out to be a bastard. I, a naive innocent, believed it was cousinly feeling that made him make me his heir, but really, it was because he knew Fritz would never believe I was innocent if I accepted the heritage! Also, one condition for the heritage was that I had to join Austrian service and swear not to work for Prussia again. Prussia, my beloved home country, where my beloved King and High Ranking Lady were! Naturally, I refused. At first.
So anyway, my cousin: got condemned to death again, MT commuted the sentence to life long imprisonment, my cousin took sick and died. Leaving me his heir, as promised. That was a legal nightmare, I can tell you. All part of the evil plan. The part where I had to go from one clerk to the next sounds positively out of Kafka, which fits since Kafka was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. So VERY relluctantly, I joined Austrian service. Went to Rusisa for a while, to the court of the Czarina Elizabeth where I scored again with another High Ranking Lady I Will Not Name. Some years later, 1753, I had to travel to Danzig on some family business. And would you believe it, but Fritz still held a grudge! I got arrested and imprisoned again. Which is where the worst part of my life started. Locked up in a cell in Magdeburg, and after my first escape attempt there, even chained to a wall.
(Self: Okay, Trenck, that does sound awful.)
This went on until the end of the Seven-Years-War, when MT personally asked for my release as part of the peace negotiations, and got it. So here I was, free. Went to Vienna again, where I thought MT & Co. would be overwhelmingly grateful and shower me with riches for all my sufferings. I did get an audience with her, and but would you believe it, her idea of showering me with riches was suggesting a rich widow for me to marry! ME! As if I'd marry some Austrian broad two years older than me who wasn't even a virgin. I told her that was a no go, and she was all, have it your way, and that, dear readers, was the end of Habsburg gratitude. After all I had gone through while being UNFAIRLY suspected of spying for them!
I had enough and went to Aachen, aka Aix-La-Chapelle, where I married the mayor's daughter and opened a trade with Hungarian wine. I also started publishing these memoirs. When Fritz died, his successor FW2 granted me a pension - I don't care what anyone says, you're cool with me, FW2! - , and I met my First Mysterious Lady again whom I can now reveal in the last volume was totally Princess Amalie, because sadly, she's now gone as well. We had a tearful reunion just before she died, though.
Not covered in my memoirs for obvious reasons is my ending. I went to Revolutionary Paris. Some claim to spy for the Austrians, but as if, I mean, I never did, and I had enough of Royals, I thought I'd fit right in the place where they had just gotten rid of theirs. Now, some may claim that given Prussia and Austria, allied for the first time, were in a state of war with Revolutionary France it was a bad idea for me to go there, but hey! Did anything so far make you think I have common sense? Naturally, once I was there, I started to name drop. And got arrested. I mean, I TOLD them that I was completely in sympathy with their goals, that I was a victim of both Hohenzollerns and Habsburgs and knew how much royalty sucks, but I might have mentioned that MT personally asked for my release from Prussian imprisonment as part of an explanation as to why I wasn't suffering in Prussian prison anymore. So they were all, what, MT, as in, mother of MA the Austrian bitch we just beheaded? Off with your head!
I got beheaded just ten days before Robespierre did. I guess I was a drama guy to the finish. Now, for SOME reason, historians were a bit sceptical about some of my claims. Especially the one where I scored with Amalie. But in 2008, they found a letter from me to her, written in 1787, the year of her death, which "at least indicates great familiarity", which is their way of phrasing I totally scored! Now, how my treatment at the hands of her brother made her feel about her brother is anyone's guess, but seriously, I could never figure that family out. I mean, if Fritz hadn't been listening to these ABSURD claims I was an Austrian spy and responsible for his near capture, I could have gone on being his batman and scoring with his youngest sister forever!“
Since no statement by Amalie on Trenck survives, we really have no idea what, if anything, she felt. A later Fritz reader, Thiébault, believed the affair had happened and this was the key to her unhappiness, but it’s worth noting that he didn’t join the Prussian court until the mit 1760s, doesn’t claim he has this from Amalie or Fritz, and didn’t write his memoirs until after Trenck’s memoirs had been published. Lehndorff, who is usually good with gossip about the Hohenzollern, doesn’t mention Trenck once.
In any event, Amalie during the 7 Years War was the only one of the sisters whom Fritz repeatedly asked to join him for a brief visit. Since the war aside, she mostly lived near him, I wasn‘t surprised that there aren‘t many letters preserved (or at least available, not necessarily the same thing) between them, but what there is does allow us a glimpse at Fritz and his younger siblings (plural, because there are repeated comments on Heinrich, not to mention that Amalie witnessed AW‘s death), especially the 7 Years War letters.
Youngest Sister, oldest Brother, other brothers
First, there‘s a shared one to Amalie and Charlotte at the same time, from very early in the war, Fritz is about to take Prague:
My dear sisters,
I received your letters in the most violent crisis, which prevented me from answering you earlier. I am writing to both of you, not having time to write more than one letter. We have now sketched the work here; it will take a few more knocking shots to complete it. My brother Heinrich has done wonders, and has distinguished himself beyond what I can say; my two other brothers were not at all in the battle; they found themselves in Marshal Keith's army. We have lost the worthy Marshal Schwerin and many brave officers. I have lost friends whom I will mourn all my life; finally, my dear sisters, if happiness favors us now, we will succeed. All the generality, and, according to the say of the deserters, sixty thousand men are confined in Prague; I undertake to induce them to make themselves prisoners of war. It's a terrible business; it takes luck to succeed. My dear Lottine, Duchess of Braunschweig, and you, my dear sister the Abbess, I embrace you both with all my heart.
Here is a letter for our dear mother.
If the year 1758 was awful for Fritz, it was terrible to Amalie, too, who was witness to two of the family deaths, SD and AW both. We know from Lehndorff‘s diary about the arguments with her mother in the weeks before SD‘s death (no food for Amalie from SD‘s kitchen anymore, etc.), but we also know that in the days immediately before the death they‘d reconciled and Amalie was at her mother‘s side when SD died. Her letters to Fritz on this of course do not mention the earlier arguments. Here‘s what she writes and what he replies:
My dearest brother,
I find myself again in the sad situation of increasing your worries. The Queen's weakness always gets worse; she has a little fever every evening; last night, her mind began to wonder, and she didn't stop talking until the morning. I have already had the honor of telling you about the swelling of her legs; the body also begins to grow, and even much, which makes me fear it is dropsy. Her strength diminishes, so to speak, visibly, and the whole state of her health threatens ruin. We can no longer flatter ourselves, my dear brother, that it is possible to keep her with us. Prepare, please, for this awful blow; it will come sooner than we think; it is an inevitable misfortune, which is advancing with great strides. I tried to delude myself for a long time; but now I have lost all hope, and all those who see and surround her are in the same case. I am in despair, my dear brother, to write you such news; my heart is heavy, but I am forced to. Deign to continue honoring me with your memory, this is the only consolation that remains to me, and be persuaded of the most submissive attachment and respect with which I will not cease to be, my very dear brother, etc.
My dearest brother,
I am in despair to write to you that we no longer have a mother. The Queen’s life has just expired. Yesterday evening, feeling very weak, she ordered me to thank you for all the friendship you had shown her; that she would die grateful, and that she would take her tenderness for you to the grave. She also said to me that she hoped that you would be true to this friendship with her beyond her death, by taking care of her court and her servants; that she would die with this confidence that you would not abandon them. I was obliged to promise her that I would write it to you immediately. I can't tell you more; seized and altered as I am, it is almost impossible for me to hold the pen. I will write all the circumstances tomorrow, and commend myself to the honor of your gracious protection, my very dear brother, etc.
My dear sister,
All misfortunes overwhelm me at the same time. O my dear mother! O good God, I will no longer have the consolation of seeing you! O God, O God, what a fatality for me! I'm more dead than alive. I received a letter from the reigning queen, which tells me all this. Perhaps heaven has taken away our dear mother so that she does not see the misfortunes of our house. My dear sister, I am unable to tell you more.
I kiss you with all my heart.
The „letter from the reigning queen“ came from Elisabeth Christine, nominally his wife.
Now, the Ziebura biographies mention that Amalie wrote to Fritz about AW‘s death, the second family death she attended within the space of months, but there are in fact two letters at Trier, one written immediately after the event itself and one somewhat later. The replies from Fritz aren‘t there.
My dearest brother,
my brother is no longer living; death, a dreadful death has just taken him away from us. A suffocative catarrh ripped him from this world. I cry for a brother, I grieve for a friend. Death was most painful. I did not leave him until the last moment. That is all I can tell you in such a cruel and sensitive moment. I have the honor to be, my very dear brother, etc.
My dearest brother,
It seems that nothing interests as much as knowing the last circumstances of the life of a person whom one has loved dearly, and of whom one bitterly mourns the loss. This is why, my dear brother, I have already had the honor to warn you in one of my letters about the details that you ask me for. But to show you my obedience, I will tell you again. Twenty-three hours of suffering killed my brother. He retained all his presence of mind; he only lost feeling about half an hour before his death. At the height of his anxieties, ready to suffocate at any moment, he made no complaint; his soul was calm in the midst of his pains; resigned to the will of the Supreme Being, he invoked this God who alone could help him. The minister, having made the prayer, asked him several questions to which, not being able to speak any more, he replied with signs and frightful groans which I hope demonstrated the interior satisfaction which he felt from the consolations he had just heard. Finally, this brother in whose place I would have liked to die died. Cruel separation! I was there, I saw it, and I lost him forever. Shortly before he fell ill again, he ordered that he wanted his body to be opened, which was done the next day; the doctors gave me in writing the reasons they suppose to be the cause of his death. This is the paper that I have the honor to send you. I plan to leave for Schwedt tomorrow, to see my sister, to mourn my misfortunes, and to beg Heaven to stop its anger. Yes, we all invoke it for the preservation of your days; live, be happy, my dear brother, do not give in too much to your affliction, think of your health, and be persuaded of the tender attachment with which I have the honor to be, my very dear brother, etc.
As I said, the direct replies from Fritz aren‘t there, but some later letters, including one from September that refers to the day visit he thanked Heinrich for in the Heinrich correspondance:
I begin to calm down; it is not yet a rest assured, but I am in the situation of the sea after a strong storm: the waves are still moved, although the great movements have subsided. I found my brother Heinrich very well; I did not speak of any unfortunate matter. You understand me. The wound is too new for the pain to be aroused by touching it. We beat here a certain Loudon, who fancies himself a Fabius Maximus, who, to well deserve this title, let himself be beat without this bothering him. Here, you would say, a great feat! What do you want, my dear sister? it is a farce after the tragedy. I can only speak to you about events. We take care of it all day long, and things that strike the senses leave more impression on them than reflections. I'm afraid I have already bored you too much. Deign to forgive me, and may the friendship which you show me make you bear my ramblings in favor of the feelings and tenderness with which I am, my very dear sister, etc
No letter post Wilhelmine‘s death, but that may be because he actually ordered Amalie to him post Hochkirch & Wilhelmine as we know from Lehndorff. Lastly, there‘s a 1759 letter:
My dear sister,
Your letter served me as a tonic to strengthen myself against the dangers that surround me. I'm sorry to know you have a fever. I flatter myself that it will only be a slight attack of a temporary illness, which will strengthen your health. Tomorrow we cross the Elbe and march for Görlitz, where we will be on the 8th, to be the 13th in order to confront Loudon, in Silesia. Heaven grant that this much-desired peace will come, even if it is only in the middle of summer! Maybe this month I will hear from you again. If the Russians get involved, our correspondence will be intercepted from the beginning of July. God be conducive to us! I took leave of my brother Heinrich; he accomplishes deeds above and beyond. I can say that I really love him, and that I am grateful to him for his good will. I rely on him. He has spirit and ability, two things very rare to find, and much sought after in present times. Farewell, my angel; forgive me if I don't write you longer; but I am tired, and I have a huge task to accomplish. Kindly receive assurances of the tenderness with which I am, my dear sister, etc.
Ulrike, or: Sweden was the Dallas of the Rokoko Age
As mentioned in the Voltaire post, just before her marriage tot he Swedish crown prince, Ulrike briefly engaged in a flirtation with Voltaire during the later’s second visit to Prussia, which mostly was a pretense for her brother to write love poetry in her name to Voltaire. She was quite clear on whom this literary exercise was about:
M. de Voltaire will not regret having started a correspondence with me, when he receives the charming reply in verse for which I cannot thank your majesty enough. If he could believe that I was its author, though, his heart would fail him most dreadfully; but he has too much discernment not to know which Apollo inspired me. It is a consolation for the Marquise that I would not always dare to have recourse to this god, since only thus she is sure of keeping her reign.
For all that Sophia Dorothea tried her utmost to make Wilhelmine Queen of England, the only one of her daughters to sit on a throne was Ulrike. Originally, the Swedes showed interest in going for either of Friedrich’s still unmarried sisters (Ulrike and Amalie) in the early 1740s. Says Wiki:
The Swedish envoy in Berlin, Carl Rudenschöld, inspected them and recommended that the proposal be made to Ulrika. Frederick the Great himself preferred Amalia for the Swedish marriage: he described Amalia for the Swedish representatives as goodhearted and more suitable for Sweden, while Ulrika was arrogant, temperamental and a plotting intriguer. It has been suggested that Fredrick's judgment was given because he believed that Amalia would be easier to control as a Prussian agent in Sweden than the strong willed and dominant Ulrika. After having consulted Adolf Frederick, however, the Swedes chose Ulrika, and her brother gave his consent on 1 March 1744. She was given tuition about Sweden, was advised not to get involved in politics, and converted to Lutheranism 28 June.
This, shall we say, did not work out quite the way the Swedes had hoped, and not because Ulrike didn’t have a head of her own. Quite the contrary.
Ulrike’s favourite brother was August Wilhelm. Ulrike was just two years older than AW, so he was the brother she'd grown up with most, and when she married - but I need to paint a larger picture here.
So: Sweden was actually a parliamentary monarchy at that time, meaning the role of Swedish royalty was mainly to represent, whereas true power was in the hand of parliament, with both nobles and middle class representatives.
U: Dear beloved brother Wilhelm, my new husband is alright, but would you believe bloody Fritz hasn't seen it fit to pay me my dowry yet? Dad left 30 O00 Taler to me in his last will. That's my money. Please make him forward my money!
AW: Fritz says he's fighting the second Silesian War and has no money to spare. I'll keep trying, but in the meantime, if your husband is fine and is about to become King, surely there are no financial worries?
U: Ha. You know who runs the show here? Nobles and peasants in parliament. They're deciding the budget for our household, not the King. And they keep cutting it down, because for some reason, they think I'm arrogant. I'm thinking I need to buy me some noble support. Now, is Fritz more willing to give me my money? Over here, we hear he's building himself a new palace!
AW: Sorry, couldn't write for a while, had to write to Heinrich and Wilhelmine instead. There's some family drama going on. I, um, let's just say you can try for yourself with Fritz regarding the money, but if you like, I'd totally take up credit with the banks to lend you some.
U: You're sweet, and yes, let's. Now, nobles of Sweden: I know you're for some weird reason into this parliament system, but what makes you think that if you keep treating burghers as if they actually had the same rights as you in government, they won't end up treating you like they do us already? All representation, no power? Think long and hard.
*new party in Sweden with nobles sympathetic to the Queen, or so she thinks* developes.
*some years later*
U: Dearest darling brother Wilhelm, you won't believe what just happened. Parliament insisted on examining my oldest kid Gustav, age 10, for his education. And now they've decided to fire his teacher and take over the education of all my kids, appointing teachers of their own. Could you PLEASE tell Fritz I need money to overthrow parliament?
AW: That's truly rotten. I'm horrified. And worried for you. Don't you have anyone to speak for you in parliament? Am, as ever, willing to lend you some of my own money.
U: Don't talk to me of parliament, some ingrates I financed in the past have just turned their back on me. If I send you the crown jewels as well as my own personal jewelry, could you sell it for me? I'm thinking I need money to raise an army. This is clearly a Charles I and Crowmell situation. I'm not losing my head to the bloody peasants.
(She did use those historical examples.)
AW: Charles I and Cromwell, seriously? "Dearest sister, I should hope that your cause is more just than that of Charles, and that you are far from the tyrannical frame of mind of Cromwell, who under the name of protector became one of the worst tyrants England ever had." (Literal quote.) Look, it sucks, but you did marry into a freedom-loving nation, and honestly - (Literal non paraphrased quote follows again): "If I was a Swedish senator, I would give the King the power to do good, but I would also use the laws to limit his authority to stop him from committing injustices. I would wish he'd be the first servant of the state, the most useful man of the kingdom, and if he worked the hardest, then he would be rewarded accordingly." This is not at all a hint for your husband to be more like Fritz and work harder. But I am sorry for that bit with your kids' teachers, and I promise I'll pawn your jewels for you. Not the crown jewels, though. I just think this is a bad idea.
U: *sends jewels, which get duly pawned by Wilhelm for her, except it turns out some of the jewelry consists of fakes, and the jeweller goes public with this*
Sweden: Scandal! What is the Queen up to pawning her jewelry in Prussia? Could she want to raise an army against parliament? And aren't those our jewels anyway?
U: No, they're mine, given to me at the time of my marriage. Unlike my bloody dowry, Fritz! I hate you all. Except you, Wilhelm. You're a bit naive, but you've been my only sympathetic ear in all of this.
Seven Years War: *breaks out*
U: Dear Wilhelm, please tell Fritz that parliament decided to join the alliance against him, and that it would never have happened if only he'd given me the money to overthrow them and reintroduce absolute monarchy in Sweden, so it is all HIS FAULT.
Naturally, she had also asked Fritz himself. (The war she mentions is Silesia 2):
My dearest brother,
It is not without endless pain that I find myself obliged by the disturbance of my business and by the expenses occasioned for the support of the party to beg you, my dear brother, for the payment of the thirty thousand ecus that the late King left in the will to me, as well as to my other sisters. You will have the grace to remember, my dear brother, that, during the whole time that the war lasted, I never spoke of it, and I dare to assure you that it is only the last extremity which obliges me to do so. But the excessive expenses that I was obliged to make this summer, during the trip that the Prince Royal made for magazines, put me in an essential necessity to have recourse to your justice. I dare to flatter myself, my dear brother, that, addressing me directly to you, you will not take it badly, and that this step will not diminish the kindnesses that you have always shown me. Be convinced, my dear brother, that I would rather give up everything than lose your friendship, nothing in the world could not be more dear to me. I flatter myself, my dear brother, that you will be convinced of these feelings and of the inviolable connection with which I will not cease to be all my life, etc
This, as mentioned, had zero results in terms of actual money transfer, hence AW needing to pawn jewelry.
Ulrike's "where's my money and my support?" thing of course also provides context for Ulrike's needlings in Wilhelmine's direction. From her pov: Wilhelmine's house burns down? Fritz provides money and art. Wilhelmine wants to travel to France and Italy, the very thing Fritz didn't allow his brothers and which is also expensive? Wilhelmine gets to do it, with Fritzian support. Wilhelmine pisses off Fritz by meeting with his arch nemesis? She gets forgiven. Meanwhile, Ulrike is nominally a queen and thus should be the most important sister, but has to pawn her jewelry, and then it even turns out either her father or her brother had given her fake jewelry back in the day.
And it wasn’t as if Big Bro eased up on her. In the 1760s, he has this to say to her ceaseless efforts to reintroduce absolutism to Sweden:
I am very glad to see you in the feelings of tranquility to which I have exhorted you for twenty years. I have always repeated to you the danger and the uselessness of your ambition; I knew the Swedish nation and I knew that you can’t take easily freedom away from a free nation. I felt that all those who gave you hopes for this were deceiving you. As for what you are asking about the political system, I am unfortunately unable to tell you anything, because I do not know any politics in Europe. But for the rest, as it seems to me that Sweden above all needs money, I advise you to stick to the power in which you have found resources of this kind for so long. Pull in the foot or wing, because the one I deal with will never give you a crown.
and also:
.... You understand, my dear sister, how sensitive it would be to my heart and hard to yours to see you one day reduced to coming to Berlin with all your family to ask for asylum, for not having wanted to follow the advice that my tender friendship and the purest interest in your rest and your glory only have dictated me in this answer.
Her match-making efforts for youngest sister Ulrike weren’t appreciated by Fritz, either:
I thank you, my dear sister, for your good intentions for my sister Amalie, but we are in no hurry to marry her. If the King of Denmark requests it, then we will have to see what we can advise, but the party is not at all as advantageous as it seems, there are children from the first marriage, and my sister will not have all the credit you seem to think, not to mention that these kind of alliances often lead to greater embarassment than they are useful. Besides, I do not like to throw my sisters at people.
Says the man who encouraged Ulrike to keep flirting with Voltaire so he can write love poetry to him, and married her to the Swedes where she's been seething about being stuck in a constitutional monarchy ever since.
And we’re not even touching on the fact that when his nephew Henricus Minor (Heinrich the Younger, son of the late AW) died, he wrote to her that said nephew had all his father’s – that would be her favourite brother, whom he could be said to have driven in an early grave – good qualities without AW’s bad ones.
So, the 7 Years war is long over, we're in the 1770s.
Gustav the newly III, Ulrike’s oldest son: I'm on my Grand Tour, and have just heard my old man has kicked it. Might as well say to hi to Uncle Fritz, Most Famous Monarch Of Europe while I'm on my way back. I've got plans, people! Visiting Paris just illustrated to me how much absolute monarchy rocks.
Fritz to Heinrich: Ulrike's kid is coming. Mind dropping by? "For I believe the two of us are not too many to preach restraint to him, or at least quench his initial fire."
Heinrich: Okay. Gustav, you don't know how rare an event this is, but the two of us agree on something, and that something is that a coup d'etat in Sweden IS A REALLY BAD IDEA.
Fritz: Which I'm not willing to finance. Ever.
Gustav: Whatever. Bye, Uncles!
Ulrike: I am womanfully ignoring your dastardly letter about Henricus Minor, Fritz, if you finance a state visit for me. For some reason, newly crowned Gustav thinks he doesn't need my advice anymore and calls me "interfering" and "arrogant".
Heinrich: Come on, invite Ulrike. Who knows whether we'll ever see her again otherwise?
Fritz: Fine. Ulrike, you're invited.
Ulrike: *arrives with one of her daughters, gets state visit reception in Potsdam; her sister Charlotte comes from Braunschweig, which means all three of the surviving sisters as well as all surviving brothers are together at the same place at the same time*
Ulrike: Boys, I've just got a wonderful idea! Why don't we make a family trip to darling old Wusterhausen, where dear old Dad used to spend the summer holidays with us! I missed that place so much in Sweden, I can't tell you.
Fritz: You mean the house of horrors where I spent some of the worst times of my life, only made bearable by Wihelmine WHO IS NO LONGER THERE! Nope. Not coming.
Heinrich: Come on. "We will remember every corner where we were scolded and sometimes hit. But even the sufferings one remembers from one's childhood cause joy in one's advanced years."
Fritz: To you, maybe. NOT COMING.
Heinrich: Have it your way. Girls, Ferdinand, off we go.
Hohenzollern Sisters: Wow. That place brings memories. Dad was - well. But you know, Mom was worse.
Hohenzollern Brothers: WTF? Dad was way worse than Mom!
Family quarrel: *ensues*
(No really, they have a giant sibling face off about which of their parents was worse. In the end, Ulrike and Charlotte as well as Ferdinand give up, whereas Heinrich and Amalie still keep going, with Heinrich insisting FW was worst and Amalie insisting SD was worst until they swear never to talk to each other again.)
Fritz: Had a good time in dear old Wusterhausen, did we?
Heinrich: Shut up.
Ulrike: So, Heinrich, I'm hearing wonders about Rheinsberg. Why don't I visit your place next?
Heinrich: By all means. I have these wonderful musicians, including Mara the very hot Cellist, my current boyfriend. Party time for my royal sister! Fritz, mind if I borrow Gertrud Elisabeth Schmeling? Ulrike deserves to hear the best soprano of our time while she's visiting me.
Fritz: You know....
Heinrich: You're not getting thrifty, are you?
Fritz: Sure, you can have her.
Reinsberg visit by Ulrike with lots of Rokoko parties: *ensues*
Mara/Schmeling love affair: *ensues*
Heinrich: I'm not sure how that was a plot by Fritz, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was. Ah well. Mara was getting expensive. At least now La Schmeling can pay his bills.
Fritz: Ulrike, the six months I promised to finance your state visit for are almost over. Just saying.
Ulrike: Heinrich, you've got to help me with my kid. That was so touching, you defending Mom to Amalie. I'm just like her! There is no end to a mother's love!
Heinrich: Dear Nephew Gustav, be nice to your mother. "Forget the many little misunderstandings that have caused your quarrel. (...) The Queen loves you with all her heart. She talks of you with tears in her eyes, and since she loves you so much, her vulnerability is the greatest."
Gustav: Fine. Mom, you can come home. Incidentally - I've just successfully reintroduced absolute monarchy to Sweden. Next thing on my to do list: get an heir!
Ulrike: GUSTAV, I AM PROUD OF YOU. Okay, brothers, sisters, lovely to have seen you again. Farewell! Off I go to Sweden.
Fritz: Did our nephew just...
Heinrich: He did. Brace yourself, I'm still agreeing with you that this is not a good idea.
Fritz: In that spirit of rare fraternal unity, please go visit Catherine in St. Petersburg. Because I don't think she'll like an all powerful Swedish king next door.
Heinrich: *takes off to visit Catherine*
Becuase there’s no crazy like Hohenzollern crazy, unless it’s Hohenzollern-Holstein-Vasa crazy, things got only more melodramatic from here. For verily, this happened (look it up at Wikipedia!), starring the following players:
Gustav III: Ulrike’s oldest son. Future Verdi tenor. Married, but lacking an heir.
Fredrik Munck: Finnish sex machine with ambitions. Currently getting it on with, among others, the chambermaid of...
Sophia Magdalena: Gustav’s unhappy queen. Definitely not liked by...
Ulrike: Gustav’s mother, not very happy about being Queen Dowager and sidelined.
Charles: Ulrike’s second son. Suffers from chronic second son ombition.
In minor roles: Ulrike’s even younger kids.
If you think you’ve guessed where this is going, think again. Because Gustav is also bff with one Axel von Fersen, handsome Swedish count, in love with Marie Antoinette (whether or not they ever had sex is still disputed, but in future years, he’ll certainly go above and beyond trying to save her). I’m guessing Fersen told him that the French Royal couple also had problems getting it on and getting an heir for years, and solved this by getting third party counselling. Gustav must have misunderstood something, because what he decides to do is this:
G: So, Munck. I hear you’re really, really good at sex. Clearly the go to person to tell me and the Queen how to get an heir.
M: Sure, why not.
G: In a practical, hands- on fashion.
M: Say what?
G: I‘m talking manual instructions, my man. To both of us at the same time. You, me, her in the Royal Bedchamber.
M: I‘m so putting it in writing that this was your idea and leaving the document to the Swedish National Archive where it is to this day.
*nine months later, an heir is had*
Charles: Hi, Mom. I‘m just paying a visit with even younger bro Fredrick Adolf, ever so casually mentioning that other than you, every woman in Sweden is a slut and has lovers.
U: You do remind me of my brother Fritz at times. Surely not every woman? How about your sister-in-law?
C: Total slut, getting it on with the Finnish sex nmachine.
U: Say what? You mean that kid does not have Hohenzollern blood?
C: That kid which has been taking my place as Gustav‘s heir? Kinda doubt that. Rumor has it Gustav is getting it on with him, too.
U: Charles, stop kidding around. This is serious. If that kid is a bastard, it‘s your royal duty to make that known. Get the Finnish guy to confess!
C: Thanks, Mom, I knew you‘d see it like that. Munck, spill the dirty details and restore my place in the succession.
M: Gustav, remember how this was all your idea? Your brother is getting on my case, big time. I need royal protection!
G: Charles, what the hell do you think you‘re doing?
M: It was all Mom‘s idea. I‘m totally innocent.
G: WTF, Mom?
U: I raised you better. In my family, boys who can‘t get it on with their wives make their brothers and their brother‘s kids their heirs. Your uncle Fritz would NEVER have gone for the bastard option.
G: That kid is mine. You want to go to Pomerania into exile?
U: Is not. Make Charles your heir! To me, my other children! Remember, the slut‘s kid is barring you all from succession!
Ulrike‘s younger children: *side with her*
G: Okay, now it‘s war. Mom, if you don‘t sign a public statement that you withdraw your accusation against my wife and son, I‘m sending you home to Prussia. Without a retirement fund. You really want to find out whether Uncle Fritz will take you back? As for you, younger bros and sisters, I‘m still holding the purse string. No more income for you unless you co-sign Mom‘s statement. For good measure, I‘ll have six Swedish MPs co-sign it as well.
U: I curse you to suffer the fate of a Verdi tenor and die not too long after signing the statement.
M: That was surely the most troublesome threesome I ever had.
G: Time for a Masque Ball, anyone?
(Gustav III. got assassinated at a Masque Ball – well, wounded, he died of the wounds and 17th century medicine days later ; see also Verdi’s opera on the subject, hence all the Verdi tenor jokes.)
Amalie
Since she was the unmarried sister who more or less lived with Fritz, there are plenty of quotes about her in Lehndorff’s diary, see the post there for additional material on Amalie. Like Big Bro and Big Sister, she had serious musical skills, composed and ended up with the best collection of Bach (both Johann Sebastian and his sons, one of whom worked for Fritz) manuscripts around. There is a big question mark about her younger days, which has inspired gossip and speculation ever since the 18th century. The question mark comes into the shape of one Friedrich von Trenck. (Memoirs available at Gutenberg.)
The Mysterious Trenck Affair, Summarized According To Trenck
Important to know apart in this very confusing tale:
Friedrich von der Trenck (aka Prussian Trenck): future bestselling memoir writer, definitely an influence on Dumas (in Count of Monte Christo) and Mark Twain (in Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn) who name check him both; this is a subtle literary pop quiz for you, as it'll make you guess what Prussian Trenck will be most famous for
Franz von der Trenck (aka Austrian Trenck): his cousin, famous for his temper, derring-do, courageous soldiering but sadly also cruelty (both towards civilians and his own men) which will be his doom
Prussian Trenck: „Let me give you a short version of my famously bestselling three volume memoirs, currently at Gutenberg in a one volume edition in German at least; the editor dares to say my Rokoko feelings and rants are too much for the modern reader, so nothing was lost when severely cutting them down, and a decent adventure novel gained. Bah.
Anyway: I was born to a noble Prussian family with Austrian relations. In 1740, when Fritz came on the throne, I joined his army. By 1744, I was his batman. He totally had a really warm fatherly regard for me -
(Self: When he was 32? If you say so...)
- and despite the later turn of events, I spent the first bit of my memoirs raving about how charismatic Fritz was, how much it rocked serving under him. When his sister Ulrike got married, I was part of the festivities, and there I met a An Unmarried Lady Of The Highest Rank whom I, being a gentleman, will not identify by name until volume 3 gets published, but we're talking Highest Family here, wink, nudge. I scored! So basically, life was sweet. Then the Second Silesian War started. Totally not the fault of Fritz this time. I swear, he only wanted to protect the poor, helpless Prince Elector of Bavaria, who had cruelly lost his dukedom and hometown when becoming Emperor - I mean, who could have predicted MT would do that, amirite?
Speaking of Austrians: So, I had this cousin. Austrian Trenck was an early supporter of MT's and distinguished himself in her service by fighting for her from Day 1 in 1740, like I distinguished myself in the service of Fritz and his family. Shut up, this is not a double entendre. We had never met, but we heard from another. And one time, when our horses got captured and Fritz nearly was captured, my cousin sent the horses back to me. So there was talk among the chaps. And then I got this letter, which I thought was from my cousin but which actually now I think was a forgery by some bastard who wanted to do me in, asking me switch sides. Which of course I refused! I mean, why would I go to the Austrians? I had a sweet deal as Fritz' batman and secret lover of A Certain High Ranking Lady! However. I was slandered. By more anonymous letters claiming I was spying for the Austrians. And woe, but Fritz listened! There may or may not have been also something about me and Very High Ranking Lady, I'm too discreet to say. Anyway, Fritz, ignoring my loyal service so far, cruelly locked me up at the fortress Glatz. He even had me sit on my gravestone! I escaped a year later. Whereto, faithful reader? Well, naturally to Vienna. Not because I was a spy. Because I had heard my cousin Austrian Trenck had made me his universal heir, and was in severe trouble himself. Naturally, I wanted to help!
My cousin Austrian Trenck really was in trouble. Several of his men as well as some civilians had accused him of war crimes, and he'd been condemned to death. MT's brother-in-law, under whom he had served, reminded her she owed him, and so she allowed a retrial. Which, however, didn't exonorate him, because brave as he was, he actually was guilty as charged. Since this was apparant in the later part of the trial, aka when I arrived in Vienna, she told him that if he pled guilty, she'd commute his sentence out of gratitude and mercy, he refused and insisted on being completely cleared, and the trial went on. So he wasn't in a good mind frame, is what I'm saying, and he turned out to be a bastard. I, a naive innocent, believed it was cousinly feeling that made him make me his heir, but really, it was because he knew Fritz would never believe I was innocent if I accepted the heritage! Also, one condition for the heritage was that I had to join Austrian service and swear not to work for Prussia again. Prussia, my beloved home country, where my beloved King and High Ranking Lady were! Naturally, I refused. At first.
So anyway, my cousin: got condemned to death again, MT commuted the sentence to life long imprisonment, my cousin took sick and died. Leaving me his heir, as promised. That was a legal nightmare, I can tell you. All part of the evil plan. The part where I had to go from one clerk to the next sounds positively out of Kafka, which fits since Kafka was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. So VERY relluctantly, I joined Austrian service. Went to Rusisa for a while, to the court of the Czarina Elizabeth where I scored again with another High Ranking Lady I Will Not Name. Some years later, 1753, I had to travel to Danzig on some family business. And would you believe it, but Fritz still held a grudge! I got arrested and imprisoned again. Which is where the worst part of my life started. Locked up in a cell in Magdeburg, and after my first escape attempt there, even chained to a wall.
(Self: Okay, Trenck, that does sound awful.)
This went on until the end of the Seven-Years-War, when MT personally asked for my release as part of the peace negotiations, and got it. So here I was, free. Went to Vienna again, where I thought MT & Co. would be overwhelmingly grateful and shower me with riches for all my sufferings. I did get an audience with her, and but would you believe it, her idea of showering me with riches was suggesting a rich widow for me to marry! ME! As if I'd marry some Austrian broad two years older than me who wasn't even a virgin. I told her that was a no go, and she was all, have it your way, and that, dear readers, was the end of Habsburg gratitude. After all I had gone through while being UNFAIRLY suspected of spying for them!
I had enough and went to Aachen, aka Aix-La-Chapelle, where I married the mayor's daughter and opened a trade with Hungarian wine. I also started publishing these memoirs. When Fritz died, his successor FW2 granted me a pension - I don't care what anyone says, you're cool with me, FW2! - , and I met my First Mysterious Lady again whom I can now reveal in the last volume was totally Princess Amalie, because sadly, she's now gone as well. We had a tearful reunion just before she died, though.
Not covered in my memoirs for obvious reasons is my ending. I went to Revolutionary Paris. Some claim to spy for the Austrians, but as if, I mean, I never did, and I had enough of Royals, I thought I'd fit right in the place where they had just gotten rid of theirs. Now, some may claim that given Prussia and Austria, allied for the first time, were in a state of war with Revolutionary France it was a bad idea for me to go there, but hey! Did anything so far make you think I have common sense? Naturally, once I was there, I started to name drop. And got arrested. I mean, I TOLD them that I was completely in sympathy with their goals, that I was a victim of both Hohenzollerns and Habsburgs and knew how much royalty sucks, but I might have mentioned that MT personally asked for my release from Prussian imprisonment as part of an explanation as to why I wasn't suffering in Prussian prison anymore. So they were all, what, MT, as in, mother of MA the Austrian bitch we just beheaded? Off with your head!
I got beheaded just ten days before Robespierre did. I guess I was a drama guy to the finish. Now, for SOME reason, historians were a bit sceptical about some of my claims. Especially the one where I scored with Amalie. But in 2008, they found a letter from me to her, written in 1787, the year of her death, which "at least indicates great familiarity", which is their way of phrasing I totally scored! Now, how my treatment at the hands of her brother made her feel about her brother is anyone's guess, but seriously, I could never figure that family out. I mean, if Fritz hadn't been listening to these ABSURD claims I was an Austrian spy and responsible for his near capture, I could have gone on being his batman and scoring with his youngest sister forever!“
Since no statement by Amalie on Trenck survives, we really have no idea what, if anything, she felt. A later Fritz reader, Thiébault, believed the affair had happened and this was the key to her unhappiness, but it’s worth noting that he didn’t join the Prussian court until the mit 1760s, doesn’t claim he has this from Amalie or Fritz, and didn’t write his memoirs until after Trenck’s memoirs had been published. Lehndorff, who is usually good with gossip about the Hohenzollern, doesn’t mention Trenck once.
In any event, Amalie during the 7 Years War was the only one of the sisters whom Fritz repeatedly asked to join him for a brief visit. Since the war aside, she mostly lived near him, I wasn‘t surprised that there aren‘t many letters preserved (or at least available, not necessarily the same thing) between them, but what there is does allow us a glimpse at Fritz and his younger siblings (plural, because there are repeated comments on Heinrich, not to mention that Amalie witnessed AW‘s death), especially the 7 Years War letters.
Youngest Sister, oldest Brother, other brothers
First, there‘s a shared one to Amalie and Charlotte at the same time, from very early in the war, Fritz is about to take Prague:
My dear sisters,
I received your letters in the most violent crisis, which prevented me from answering you earlier. I am writing to both of you, not having time to write more than one letter. We have now sketched the work here; it will take a few more knocking shots to complete it. My brother Heinrich has done wonders, and has distinguished himself beyond what I can say; my two other brothers were not at all in the battle; they found themselves in Marshal Keith's army. We have lost the worthy Marshal Schwerin and many brave officers. I have lost friends whom I will mourn all my life; finally, my dear sisters, if happiness favors us now, we will succeed. All the generality, and, according to the say of the deserters, sixty thousand men are confined in Prague; I undertake to induce them to make themselves prisoners of war. It's a terrible business; it takes luck to succeed. My dear Lottine, Duchess of Braunschweig, and you, my dear sister the Abbess, I embrace you both with all my heart.
Here is a letter for our dear mother.
If the year 1758 was awful for Fritz, it was terrible to Amalie, too, who was witness to two of the family deaths, SD and AW both. We know from Lehndorff‘s diary about the arguments with her mother in the weeks before SD‘s death (no food for Amalie from SD‘s kitchen anymore, etc.), but we also know that in the days immediately before the death they‘d reconciled and Amalie was at her mother‘s side when SD died. Her letters to Fritz on this of course do not mention the earlier arguments. Here‘s what she writes and what he replies:
My dearest brother,
I find myself again in the sad situation of increasing your worries. The Queen's weakness always gets worse; she has a little fever every evening; last night, her mind began to wonder, and she didn't stop talking until the morning. I have already had the honor of telling you about the swelling of her legs; the body also begins to grow, and even much, which makes me fear it is dropsy. Her strength diminishes, so to speak, visibly, and the whole state of her health threatens ruin. We can no longer flatter ourselves, my dear brother, that it is possible to keep her with us. Prepare, please, for this awful blow; it will come sooner than we think; it is an inevitable misfortune, which is advancing with great strides. I tried to delude myself for a long time; but now I have lost all hope, and all those who see and surround her are in the same case. I am in despair, my dear brother, to write you such news; my heart is heavy, but I am forced to. Deign to continue honoring me with your memory, this is the only consolation that remains to me, and be persuaded of the most submissive attachment and respect with which I will not cease to be, my very dear brother, etc.
My dearest brother,
I am in despair to write to you that we no longer have a mother. The Queen’s life has just expired. Yesterday evening, feeling very weak, she ordered me to thank you for all the friendship you had shown her; that she would die grateful, and that she would take her tenderness for you to the grave. She also said to me that she hoped that you would be true to this friendship with her beyond her death, by taking care of her court and her servants; that she would die with this confidence that you would not abandon them. I was obliged to promise her that I would write it to you immediately. I can't tell you more; seized and altered as I am, it is almost impossible for me to hold the pen. I will write all the circumstances tomorrow, and commend myself to the honor of your gracious protection, my very dear brother, etc.
My dear sister,
All misfortunes overwhelm me at the same time. O my dear mother! O good God, I will no longer have the consolation of seeing you! O God, O God, what a fatality for me! I'm more dead than alive. I received a letter from the reigning queen, which tells me all this. Perhaps heaven has taken away our dear mother so that she does not see the misfortunes of our house. My dear sister, I am unable to tell you more.
I kiss you with all my heart.
The „letter from the reigning queen“ came from Elisabeth Christine, nominally his wife.
Now, the Ziebura biographies mention that Amalie wrote to Fritz about AW‘s death, the second family death she attended within the space of months, but there are in fact two letters at Trier, one written immediately after the event itself and one somewhat later. The replies from Fritz aren‘t there.
My dearest brother,
my brother is no longer living; death, a dreadful death has just taken him away from us. A suffocative catarrh ripped him from this world. I cry for a brother, I grieve for a friend. Death was most painful. I did not leave him until the last moment. That is all I can tell you in such a cruel and sensitive moment. I have the honor to be, my very dear brother, etc.
My dearest brother,
It seems that nothing interests as much as knowing the last circumstances of the life of a person whom one has loved dearly, and of whom one bitterly mourns the loss. This is why, my dear brother, I have already had the honor to warn you in one of my letters about the details that you ask me for. But to show you my obedience, I will tell you again. Twenty-three hours of suffering killed my brother. He retained all his presence of mind; he only lost feeling about half an hour before his death. At the height of his anxieties, ready to suffocate at any moment, he made no complaint; his soul was calm in the midst of his pains; resigned to the will of the Supreme Being, he invoked this God who alone could help him. The minister, having made the prayer, asked him several questions to which, not being able to speak any more, he replied with signs and frightful groans which I hope demonstrated the interior satisfaction which he felt from the consolations he had just heard. Finally, this brother in whose place I would have liked to die died. Cruel separation! I was there, I saw it, and I lost him forever. Shortly before he fell ill again, he ordered that he wanted his body to be opened, which was done the next day; the doctors gave me in writing the reasons they suppose to be the cause of his death. This is the paper that I have the honor to send you. I plan to leave for Schwedt tomorrow, to see my sister, to mourn my misfortunes, and to beg Heaven to stop its anger. Yes, we all invoke it for the preservation of your days; live, be happy, my dear brother, do not give in too much to your affliction, think of your health, and be persuaded of the tender attachment with which I have the honor to be, my very dear brother, etc.
As I said, the direct replies from Fritz aren‘t there, but some later letters, including one from September that refers to the day visit he thanked Heinrich for in the Heinrich correspondance:
I begin to calm down; it is not yet a rest assured, but I am in the situation of the sea after a strong storm: the waves are still moved, although the great movements have subsided. I found my brother Heinrich very well; I did not speak of any unfortunate matter. You understand me. The wound is too new for the pain to be aroused by touching it. We beat here a certain Loudon, who fancies himself a Fabius Maximus, who, to well deserve this title, let himself be beat without this bothering him. Here, you would say, a great feat! What do you want, my dear sister? it is a farce after the tragedy. I can only speak to you about events. We take care of it all day long, and things that strike the senses leave more impression on them than reflections. I'm afraid I have already bored you too much. Deign to forgive me, and may the friendship which you show me make you bear my ramblings in favor of the feelings and tenderness with which I am, my very dear sister, etc
No letter post Wilhelmine‘s death, but that may be because he actually ordered Amalie to him post Hochkirch & Wilhelmine as we know from Lehndorff. Lastly, there‘s a 1759 letter:
My dear sister,
Your letter served me as a tonic to strengthen myself against the dangers that surround me. I'm sorry to know you have a fever. I flatter myself that it will only be a slight attack of a temporary illness, which will strengthen your health. Tomorrow we cross the Elbe and march for Görlitz, where we will be on the 8th, to be the 13th in order to confront Loudon, in Silesia. Heaven grant that this much-desired peace will come, even if it is only in the middle of summer! Maybe this month I will hear from you again. If the Russians get involved, our correspondence will be intercepted from the beginning of July. God be conducive to us! I took leave of my brother Heinrich; he accomplishes deeds above and beyond. I can say that I really love him, and that I am grateful to him for his good will. I rely on him. He has spirit and ability, two things very rare to find, and much sought after in present times. Farewell, my angel; forgive me if I don't write you longer; but I am tired, and I have a huge task to accomplish. Kindly receive assurances of the tenderness with which I am, my dear sister, etc.
