Fritz and Wilhelmine Correspondance
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rheinsbergThe summaries and excerpts from the correspondance between Friedrich and his favourite sister Wilhelmine I've made across several posts, as well as summaries and quotes from a biography about her, go here.
Source: website with letters to and from Wilhelmine during her 1754/1755 journey through France and Italy.
There are also a few letters about Wilhelmine from various family members during that era. All in the original French, in a German translation, and in a faksimile, so you can see what the actual letters look like. Fritz is the main other correspondant, but there are also three of her other siblings (August Wilhelm, Ulrike and Amalie).
Now, about that journey: Wilhelmine and her husband the Margrave - whose first name, btw, was Friedrich, which is just too confusing in this context, so I'll keep calling him the Margrave like she did - were travelling under the nome de plume "Count and Contess von Zollern" because if they'd travelled officially, it would have been a quasi royal state visit to to Wilhelmine being Fritz' sister, and more expensive both for them and their hosts. Wilhelmine was already sick (she only had a few more years to live) and traveled partly for the climate's sake, but wouldn't you know it, Europe collectively was suffering form one of the coldest years around, so it wasn't much warmer in France and only a bit in Italy. She also was a culture tourist, of course, and visiting France and Italy was fulfilling a life long dream.
The Fritz letters show him both at his best and worst. Best: he's worried for her (justly so, as it turns out, like I said, she was already sick), tenderly concerned and smacking down any criticism from people back home complaining that this journey was too expensive to make and the late FW would never have permitted it. (Context: Wilhelmine actually had to ask Fritz for permission to leave Prussian ruled or allied territories because the 7 years war was just around the corner and neither France nor the Italian states, which were mostly Austrian ruled, were considered friendly at this point.) Worst: bear in mind that what was Wilhelmine was doing was actually filfilling a life long dream for both of them. And he never got to do it, and he never would. So a part of him must have found it impossible to let her enjoy it without him. He keeps lecturing her on the note of: "Of course, you can't possibly enjoy Italy because it's just like a stale old whore looking back on her young sexpot days, right? I mean, Caesar would hate it if he came back, right? And yeah, sure, so you have the chance to check out the new diggings at Pompeiji, the most sensational archaelogical discovery of the age, but you can't possibly enjoy it, can you, because surely those unworthy current day Italians suck so much? And as for seeing Michelangelo's statues and Caravaggio's paintings in the original, surely they have only second rate examples left in Italy, and anyway, did I mention my new gallery has some great paintings which are much better than anything you can possibly see in Italy?" (He is, however, also aware of his sour grapping and apologizes, I'll get to this.)
There are about 80 letters Wilhelmine/Fritz letters in that collection (to and from), versus ca. 11 to brother August Wilhelm (he also got some from her husband and wrote back to both her and her husband, but only the letters to her husband are preserved). These are more affectionate (though he's only her cher frère whereas Fritz is tres cher frère) than I'd have thought, even taking into account the style of the day (after all, FW had been mon cher père as well); August Wilhelm gets just about the only landscape descriptions (whereas Fritz gets antiques, the people she's met, and concert descriptions) in addition to some chit-chat about the people she meets (btw, she doesn't copy the descriptions from her Fritz letters into her August Wilhelm letters, each brother gets different descriptions, i.e. she took the time to write individual letters, which, if you consider how long writing by hand took, and hers weren't dictated, they're in her handwriting, says something about her emotions for them, too), and she keeps asking about Heinrich and Amelie, and reminds him to give them her love, begging forgiveness for basically writing to the three of them together). At one point, August Wilhelm has reported that Fritz has had a riding accident, knocking out two teeths, and Wilhelmine basically writes back: "OMG! Thank God he's okay! You know, you sound so honestly concerned in your letter that you should allow me to let Fritz read it, because it would fortify relations between you two. He likes you, I swear he does, he just needs reminding you care for him, too. I told you he's just sooo sensitive!" ("I have always told you the King is very sensitive" is the literal quote.)
(Speaking of Fritz the sensitive, Wilhelmine did visit Voltaire en route and gives his love to Fritz, swearing Voltaire is sorry for every none to swell behaviour, honest he is, and missing Fritz dreadfully.) The footnote to Wilhelmine's report on her meeting Voltaire and how very sorry he is for all he's done wrong and how he sends Fritz his love is priceless, because Voltaire, of course, presented the whole visit very differently in his own letters: "The Margravaine visited me yesterday, trying her best to make up for the damage her brother the king did to our relationship. From this, you can conclude women are better than men."
Also on the endearing side: early in the travel correspondance, Fritz sends a pineapple to Wilhelmine from Potsdam. Bear in mind that pineapples otherwise don't exist in Germany at this point, by and large; Fritz had some of the earliest grown for him in garden house, it was a rare and precious thing. He also after one visit left a poem he'd written for her decoratively hidden.
Both on the good and bad side, and to be fair to Fritz: Wilhelmine could be just as needy. This was the most intense emotional relationship she had with anyone in her life. Anyway, here's a letter from Wilhelmine to Fritz, not dated, when apparantly the mail was late. It's a rare critical outburst and at the same time a passionate love declaration:
"My dearest brother, I write today solely to scold you. You are unbearably lazy, and one has to kill oneself writing letters before you bother to reply. I already can guess what you will reply to this letter: that there is nothing new to report, that you were too busy and didn't have a moment to spare, and what other lousy excuses you can offer. If you wrote to me a thousand times, I love you, my sister, my sister, I love you, then I will be full of joy, and it will more than make up for any news which you could possibly tell me. As for my part, since I have the pleasure to tell you that I love you, I am not so scrupulous, and if you get bored by this - your problem, for I permit you to throw my letters away unread, as long as you leave me the satisfaction of writing them. Now who of us does love the other one more?"
Back to the journey.
Wilhelmine and Fritz were "Who was the Man in the Iron Mask?" geeks. So when she's travelling along the Cote d'Azure (having lunch in "a little town named Cannes"), she's visiting the Island St. Marguerite where the Man in the Iron Mask was supposedly kept, visits his cell and interviews people who swear their parents interacted with him. And gets this bit of sensational news: "(Feri) and others who saw him say that they believe it was a woman, that he had tiny and smallboned hands, and that the skin was very smooth and soft, despite being a bit bronze." The woman in the Iron Mask! That's a new one for me. Wilhelmine finishes her interview report to Fritz by saying the common most featured theories are that it was either the Comte de Vermandois (illegitimate son of Henri IV, i.e. Louis XIV bastard uncle, literally) or "the first Dauphine", by which she means this Lady.
Ulrike, Queen of Sweden, (mother of Gustavo/Riccardo of Verdi opera fame) comes across as something of a scheming minx, writing to their mother first that surely, it's not true Wilhelmine is off to France, surely Fritz would see that as gross betrayal, right, and need consoling from his other sisters, and later "so I figure Wilhelmine surely will visit you on her way back, she won't be as hard-hearted as neglecting the chance to see her poor old mother again, I surely wouldn't!". Wilhelmine writes one time to say she'll write to Ulrike when she gets back but she's so overwhelmed with correspondance already that she can't during the journey. Otoh, Wilhelmine's letter to Ulrike when she IS back is actually informative and contains something the boys don't get, i.e. a gender-related observation about the French. Not surprisingly, she's found the French countryside and the villages are very poor (there's a revolution brewing, after all) and most of the culture is absolutely Paris focused. Surprisingly, though, Wihelmine tells Ulrike that what cultured people are in Avignon and other non-Paris towns she's visited are much better acknowledging women have brains and carrying conversations with them whereas the male Parisians are patronising idiots to women and only take other men seriously.
The Margrave sounds as if he's very careful and a bit scared when writing to Fritz - it's all "Sire" and expressions of fealty - but is a bit more relaxed when writing to August Wilhelm (whom Fritz has writing back, when he's not letting his secretary write to the Margrave, acknowledging the letters - he himself only writes directly to Wilhelmine, though this he does a lot). For his part, August Wilhelm - who was Wilhelm to his family - comes across as genuinely nice. Example:
"I just received your letter, dear brother, and I wish you a happy journey with all of my heart. You'll have the joy of living in a warm climate while the winter will reduce the rest of us to trembling knees and grinding teeth. And I do hope my sister's health will get better; I've always noticed that the winters were damaging to her. Please give her my love and don't the two of you forget me during such a long journey! P.S. I hope you aren't irritated when I'm writing to you without having been adressed." (Since the previous letter by the Margrave had been adressed to Fritz.)
Wilhelmine, like many a tourist after her, told all her siblings she'd bring souvenirs and do shopping for them (first in France, then Italy) if they told her what they wanted. What we don't have is a letter from her to her mother offering the same thing. Here's the letter which made me come to certain conclusions about Ulrike in the famliy context. Ulrike to Sophia Dorothea:
"Gossip here talks of a journey which my Bayreuth sister undertakes to France. I cannot believe it. Maybe my disbelief hails from my wish that this news should be false. It seems to me that her rank and status cannot allow such an enterprise. And I fear that the King, my brother, would never condone the role which she would play on such an occasion. My heart always beats in affectionate sympathy with my dear, dear family. And it greatly distresses me if there is the slightest semblance of a disagreement. All the more so since it cannot but displease my beloved Mama. And your contentment is the aim of all my wishes. May God always answer your prayers, and may I never have the misfortune of displeasing you, and may I be able to flatter myself that my beloved Mama takes a benevolent view towards me."
Well, then. More about Ulrike in other posts. Back to the two oldest Hohenzollern siblings:
W: My dearest brother, the days appear years to me since I have lived for five weeks without news from you. Despite all the entertaining experiences I have had here, I wish I was in Rome right now, where your letters are adressed to. The interests of my heart will always outweigh everything for me me, and there, my dear brother rules like an absolute despot, so that one line from him weighs more than all the largesse I am seeing every day. We will leave Florence in two days.
I am like a person born blind who is learning to see bit by bit, and learns new concepts with this. All I have seen from Italy so far surpasses everything I've been told about it. I often feel myself enchanted and believe I must be living in an illusion.
F: My dearest sister, I had the pleasure of receiving your letter from Florence. It contains, dearest sister, any beautiful churches, monuments and antiques, but I must confess to be thoroughly saddened not to find the one thing I truly searched for: the restoratio of your health. In moderation, I believe movement could help you. But I am afraid that the burdens of a long journey will exhaust you too much. You will find Italy as an old coquette who fancies herself as beautiful as in her youth and who may bear some traces that allow a conclusion of how she must have been.
*lengthy rant about how and why the Italy of today and nearly all Italians of today must truly suck and can't possibly be enjoyed, but then*
I ask for a thousand pardons about my idle chatter. Maybe I am like the fox who found the grapes sour which he could not consume, or like the galley slave who has gotten into the habit of rowing his galley and looks with scorn at those enjoying their freedom. I beg you, do not forget the teutonic inhabitants on the shores of the Eastern sea. And may the beautiful climate of Italy not cause you aversion to the freeze of the climate at home.
W: My dearest brother, I must admit to being very sad today. I have just lost a dear friend who always cheered me up and was more fond of me than any humans. My poor Folichon has died in Bayreuth of old age. I had left him there, for I was afraid he would suffer an accident on this journey, for which he was too old in any case. You, my dearest brother, know how much pain such a loss can cause while most of the world makes fun of it. But it seems to me that once one knows what human beings are like, one should try to distance oneself from them, for how many more virtues can we find at those we call animals than with the beings gifted with reason! I see those with reason talk nonsense on a daily basis, and favour evil. There could not have been a more sincere and faithful friend - People came, dear brother, and have stopped me moralizing.
Next, she's off to Naples.
W: I'm here since the 27th. The street that leads here seems to be the way to hell. I could never stand the Appii, but right now, I hate them with a vengeance, having travelled on the terrible road they've constructed. I was sick and couldn't walk for days.
(The famous Appian Way was indeed in a terrible state at that point, but come on, Wilhelmine, it was 1700 years old!)
(...) The King here spends his days hunting and fishing while the Queen runs all state business. Yesterday I was in Pozzuoli, in Baja and Cumuae. Rarely have I felt such vivid pleasure. I have visited all the living spaces of the Ancients. There can be nothing more admirable than the Piscina of Lucullus which is still preserved.
(Description ensues. Wilhelmine actually means the "piscina mirabilis", the gigantic underground water cisterns through which the Romans supplied the city with water - and which still supplied Naples with water when she was there. They were active until a mid 19th century earthquake. Today, you can still sightsee there, and they're truly amazing.)
La Condamine and I crawled on all fours inside and climbed back on ladders. In short, we are now adventures immortal by our research and have called this our descent into the underworld. (...) Herculaneum, on the other hand, does not live up to its descriptions. It is like a quarry, with lava walls. One doesn't see anything. While I was there, though, two beautiful mosaic floors were discovered. (...) If we had tools, we'd have taken them with us. I'd have acted like St. Francis in order to send them to you.
(Wilhelmine is confusing St. Francis with St Crispin who stole leather in order to make shoes for the poor.)
F: My dearest sister, (...) I must admit that I would consider it glorious to have travelled on the Via Appia and that there is nothing I wouldn't give, including a broken rib, in order to be in this earthly paradise. Well, it is not given to everyone to travel to Corinth.
(Editor's footnote: "Travel to Corinth: French saying for making an expensive or morally questionable journey.)
You, my dearest sister, must feel the joy of seeing Italy more than anyone else; you, who knows the history so well and who can treasure antiques. For those Spaniards and Saxons transported to Naples the ancient names are just fancy words. (...) Such a poor species of people lives in this beautiful land now; Julius Caesar, if he came back, would be amazed to find such Iroquois as the owners of his country.
And so forth. Then he reports their mother will visit him in Potsdam, because guess what? There's an English marriage to be arranged! (Between Charlotte's oldest daughter and the current Prince of Wales, though actually Charlotte was supposed to bring ALL her daughters to Hannover for inspection)
It was demanded that she should bring her daughters to Hannover where she'll have the honour of getting face to face with his Britannic Majesty, an honour I do not envy for the world.
Wilhelmine is back in Rome
W: I must, my dear brother, report a miraculous, extraordinary, strange adventure which you won't have expected. You will have a saint in your family, and that saint is myself. I am now a martyr of our holy religion. This pillar of the true faith has not bent her knees to the antichrist. The Roman ladies are terrified and will not see or receive Satan's helper, to wit, me. Discreetly, the Pope does what he can in order to calm everyone down. Like the Cardinal Valenti, who thus is a kind of romantic go between, he tries to be agreeable to me as much as he can, for not a day passes when he doesn't tell me compliments from the Pope. And thus you have my confession. If I could have seen his Holiness, I may have made him my Cicisbeo, for I admit to you I am a bit attracted to the fantastic. But alas, our love was not to be. Now I'm not seeing anyone, which suits me well, since all these visits were killing me. (...) I am up and about all day in the town, though, in order to discover the traces of ancient Rome. One has to get up on montains or into ruined buildings or sometimes descend into the earth, but it is possible. (...) Yesterday I have read a delightful Italian sonnet about you, my dearest brother. In it, you get compared to Julius Caesar. At the end, it says that Caesar wrote his life anew, and that only you were worthy of writing yours. Now you have caused me to make so many bowings and pleasantries that I'll get my hips out of joint, for people talk so much about you to me, knowing this is an assured way to prologne a conversation with me, for no one is dearer to me than my dear brother, whose devoted and obedient sister I shall aways be - Wilhelmine.
Biography:
I‘ve now read Uwe Oster‘s biography of Wilhelmine from 2007, which is, at 352 pages, pretty short, concise, and fluently written. Most importantly, it provides me with a few useful dates and some more background info I didn‘t have before, as well as with more quoted letters from various family members, and adds to my speculation as to the reason why Wilhelmine, despite things being already strained with Fritz, risked meeting MT in person when she had to know how he‘d take it. (The rest of the family didn‘t take it any better, more about this in a moment.) After all, she could have pretended to be ill and let the Margrave do the lunch, which would still have pissed Fritz off, but not nearly to the same degree.
Also I found out who the Erlangen journalist was (who wrote the Fritz-critisizing articles in 1745 which Ulrike pointed out to Fritz). And where he went after escaping arrest. Naturally, he went to Vienna. :)
Okay, letter quotes: Cahn, as Mildred mentioned, SD and FW had to try a few times before having a surviving male child, and there were in fact two more boys born between Wilhelmine and Fritz, who both died. Grandpa F1 (the maligned by his grandson baroque party boy) was still alive then, and thus has the honor of being the first to report on the Wilhelmine/Fritz relationship. When reporting this latest grandson is still surviving, F1 writes in a letter from February 8th 1712 on his grandchildren: „Our children are still all healthy, especially the prince of Prussia, and it is strange that the princess loves him so dearly, for she despised her first two brothers.“
Bear in mind we’re talking about a toddler here (Wilhelmine was three years older than Fritz.) Now given Wilhelmine was the oldest, and was left in no doubt that she should have been a boy and the boys born after her were the ones to really count, which presumably meant they were also getting the majority of attention in the nursery, I‘m not surprised baby Wilhelmine didn‘t like the other babies; it‘s more surprising three-years-old Wilhelmine should take to the latest arrival. But apparantly she did, without question. (And since F1 isn‘t a later biographer blessed with hindsight but writing in his present with no knowledge this newest boy would survive, he can‘t have made it up.)
I confess I tended to take Wilhelmine‘s memoir claims to having been a clever, admired child early on with a grain of salt, but no, the English ambassador (admittedly with the awareness SD was pushing the English marriage and thus keeping an extra eye on her) reports in 1716: „The oldest princess is one of the most charming children I‘ve seen. She dances very well, her attitude surpasses her years, and so does her mind.“ Alas, grandfather George I was less impressed; that scene in „Der Thronfolger“ when he says to SD „she‘s tall for her age“ and otherwise mainly talks to Fritz is confirmed by ambassador as well.
Leti, for all that she was an abusive fright, also managed to give Wilhelmine a first class education. Wilhelmine started with not yet five years of age to write letters to her father, with only a few days interruption, at this point not solely in French but also in German, which is interesting since Leti was Italian and her other teacher, Monsieur de Croze, was French (so who did talk German to her?), but later exclusively in French. (Which, remember, FW for all his later rants at Fritz was fluent in since it had been his first language as well, courtesy of his own French governess.) These early letters are by Wilhelmine (i.e. not in the handwriting of the governess) and show her as a child eager to impress her father and longing for his affection; on May 8th 1717 she reports proudly that she‘s been brave as two of her (milk) teeth have been pulled and includes them in her letter (they still exist). She swears five years Fritz is doing really really well with the military drill he‘s supposed to undergo, FW can be proud of him, but she also reports on more harmless stuff: „On Sunday a man will come who has a dog who can talk to his master in German, French and English!“
There‘s one of these letters from child!Wilhelmine, though, which shows that much as she loved Fritz, she had her moments of resenting having to take second place to him, too. In May 1719, she writes to FW:
„I am very hurt that you have done my brother the honor of writing to him whereas I, who have written 100 000 letters to you, have never received a single one from you in return. I know very well that my brother deserves more acknowledgement as he is a boy, but it is not my fault that I am not, and I am my dear Papa‘s daughter, too, and I love him. I have been told that my dear Papa only writes to officers, and if this is true, I would like to have a military rank as well. Mademoiselle Leti says I could be a good dragooner‘s captain, if my dear Papa would accept one who wears a dress, but I believe she is making fun of me when she says this.“
She was ten when she wrote this, and it was, of course, (near the end of) a time when she didn‘t actually seee much of her father; a more present FW and the developing warfare between him and SD, complete with first row sight on what it actually meant for Fritz to have FW's full attention, was a cure against longing for his presence, but the longing for acknowledgement and affection despite the simultanously growing resentment because of how abusive he got never completely went away. And this letter from ten-years-old Wilhelmine along with quotes I was already familiar with re: her birth in her memoirs, or that quote in a letter to Fritz about her granddaughter („of that gender first despised and then put on a pedestal and bartered away“) feed into my theory that for that she was of course a product of her time and accepted a great many of its attitudes, some sense of injustice at the way she was regarded as lesser, because female, never went away. And I do think this lay at the heart of her wanting to meet MT in person (and her lame „no, I don‘t admire the Queen of Hungary, I just acknowledge her abilities like those of everyone else“ defense to Fritz afterwards). Because MT, with one and three quarters Silesian Wars behind her, might not have been able to keep Silesia from Fritz but she‘d managed to keep the rest of her Empire intact when basically everyone had expected it would get carved up, she had defied everyone‘s predictions and was proving that a woman could, in fact, rule and get obeyed, not in far away England or Russia, but in the HRE. And this was the one chance in a lifetime to meet her.
(The political reason for someone from Bayreuth to receive MT at all was obvious. Due to her deal with Max von Wittelsbach - Bavaria back vs FS as Emperor - the small principality of Bayreuth know was surrounded by pro-Habsburg countries, not to mention that since FS was about to be crowned, MT was about to be Empress and thus at least nominally the Margrave's liege lady. But like I said - Wilhelmine could have played sick - given the number of times she actually was sick, it wouldn't have been that much of a stretch - and she didn't.)
Oster, as mentioned, is mostly good with dates, and also with keeping in mind circumstances of writing and pointing out contraditctions (between memoirs and letters, for example), and when he quotes from the various ambassadors, he always mentions the then current interests of whichever country the ambassador in question represents. So, the dates for Wilhelmine's estrangement from plus reconciliaton with Fritz:
Summer of 1743: Württemberg trouble with the Dowager Duchess and Wilhelmine appearing, in Fritz' eyes, lukewarm about marrying her daughter to Carl Eugen
January 1744: L'Affaire Marwitz (female) heads towards its climax as Wilhelmine pushes for the Marwitz/Burghaus marriage; this is when Fritz switches from the usual "dearest sister" greeting in the letters to "Madam Sister" (ouch), while Wilhelmine doesn't confess why she wants to marry Marwitz off (and out of the country) so urgently (Marwitz’ affair with her husband) and instead counters the Fritzian argument of "when you left Berlin, you promised Dad you wouldn't marry off any of the Marwitz daughters to a non-Prussian" with "any promise I had to make to Dad was blackmailed and died with him, and I can't believe you're using that argument with me"
July 1744: Johann Gottfried Groß, chief editor of the "Christian-Erlangisches Zeitungs-Extrakt" starts to publish articles with a lot of Fritz critique
12. November 1744: Fritz writes to Wilhelmine that he would never allow any scribbler to print insulting things about his family in HIS country, and in his next letter includes two copies of particularly offensive to him editions of said newspaper
January 1745: Wilhelmine writes that Groß has been arrested, but when Fritz writes back that fine, the guy can go free if he is never allowed to publish again, she has to confess that in fact Groß hightailed it out of Bayreuth before an arrest could be made.
20. January 1745: Karl VII, the former Karl Albrecht of Wittelsbach dies; MT offers her "Bavaria vs vote for FS" deal to Max of Wittelsbach and starts to campaign among the other princes for votes
13. September 1745: FS is officially voted in as Emperor by all the German princes elector (minus Fritz who has a votes Prince Elector of Brandenburg; eventually, as part of the second Silesian peace treaty, he'll provide his belated vote as well))
20. September 1745: Coronation of FS in Frankfurt; en route to said coronation, but the biography does not specify on which day exactly, MT passes through Emskirchen which is Bayreuth principality territory, and there has lunch with Wilhelmine
=> all hell breaks loose.
Before Fritz fires off his letter, though, everyone else does, starting with SD, who writes to brother AW: "Your Bayreuth sister has committed a new idiocy by going to Emskirchen to see the Queen of Hungary. I have written a deservedly angry letter to her about this affair. I don't know what the King will say to this latest extravaganza of hers, but I am deeply distressed", and adds that Friederike Luise, who is married to the Margrave of Ansbach (next door to Bayreuth, so to speak, in terms of principalities) has to be stopped from committing the same "madness". Ulrike from Sweden joins in with a letter to Wilhelmine along the same "how could you be so foolish and treacherous?" lines.
22. November 1745: Fritz invades Saxony (the first time). This basically ends the second Silesian War, with MT agreeing to letting Fritz have Silesia, Fritz belatedly voting for FS as Emperor and writes to Wilhelmine the "have made peace with YOUR FRIEND THE QUEEN OF HUNGARY" letter I already mentioned, along with Wilhelmine's "yay peace! she's not my friend, though cool" reply. Or, to quote it in the original phrasing: "Regarding the Queen of Hungary, I have never had a preference for her or a particular attachment to her interests. I simply do justice to her good qualities and consider it permitted to esteem all people who possess these." (Countered with "you are a traitor and a miscreant" type of letters.)
First half of 1746: Wilhelmine writes a lot of apology and explanation letters.
July 1746: Fritz starts to sound somewhat mollified in his "my heart will speak in your favour even if my head doesn't" letter. More cautious correspondance ensues.
Summer of 1747: Wilhelmine gets sent to a spa by her doctors again. There, she meets a lady-in-waiting to Elisabeth Christine and conspires with her to a coup that will bring the definite reconciliation with her brother: a surprise visit to Berlin. She goes back with the lady to Berlin.
15. August 1747: Wilhelmine sees Fritz for the first time in years. Hugs, tears and happiness ensue.
(She stayed for a while. The English ambassador to Prussia (a new one, who hadn't met her before and thus reports on her to London) writes home re: Wilhelmine at this point in her life: "She regards all time as wasted which isn't spent with books or with people who interest her. She spends all her time by conducting witty conversations with her brother, writing voluminous books and has other books read to her."
Oktober 1747: Wilhelmine is back in Bayreuth and kicks out Marwitz, or tries to. This is when Marwitz pulls the "make your brother pay me my inheritance, or I'll continue to screw your husband" gambit and Wilhelmine has to to explain all. (Marwitz then, upon receiving the money from Fritz, at last leaves Bayreuth in early 1748 with her Austrian husband.)
Worthy of note and unknown to me before: she explains it to AW as well as Fritz. Because during the time of estrangement, Fritz to convey his displeasure had made AW write to her in his place occasionally, which is when Wilhelmine's actual relationship to this younger brother starts. He also argued in her favour (the only family member to do so), as she will plead for him in the last year of her life and his. Heinrich, she properly meets as an adult for longer when he and youngest brother Ferdinand (they were 22 and 18 at that point) come to her daughter's wedding (September 1748).
The biography offers a bit more of a picture of the Margrave: he was on his Grand Tour when summoned back by his father to marry (which meant he got to see France and the Netherlands but no more). FW did a 180 on his opinion on him; at first, when he didn't know the young man, the future Margrave was simply a means to an end (get Wihelmine married to a non-English minor prince once and for all), and then when he actually got to know him he found out to his displeasure young Friedrich (!) didn't like hunting (!!), played the flute (!!!) and when FW made him drink an entire big cup of beer in one go (you know, the thing that had had unfortunate results with another Friedrich before), was angry enough about this treatment to actually tell his father-in-law just this. (Well, future Margrave had not grown up with FW and thus did not know you do not call out the King on being a bully and a boor.) This happened during Wilhelmine's first post-wedding and birth of daughter visit home to Berlin, and for the not yet Margrave, it was the last visit to his father-in-law as well. Unfortunately, they were financially dependent on FW. Not least because FW, as one last humililiation before the wedding, had Wilhelmine not just renounce her claims to the Prussian succession (as was the custom for all the pincesses once they married) but all claims to her mother's inheritance (i.e. money), which meant she was basically without a dowry. And her father-in-law had only wanted that marriage because of FW's famously filled treasury, what with Bayreuith being a small and indebted principality.
The Italian journey: if Fritz was, in fact, afraid of her staying in Italy in that letter I quoted, he wasn't being paranoid. She was tempted, because she was happy there, the climate while at first not as warm as was typical agreed with her, and she liked a great many of the people she encountered. She loved exploring antiques, debating the new discoveries - at one point, they even paid her the compliment of calling her "Dotoressa di Bayreuth" (this isn't something Wilhelmine herself reports but Winckelmann does, who was the formost German expert on this of his day and met her in Italy) - and Protestant-turned-Deist or not, admired a great many of the churches and paintings she saw. But whether or not her husband would have been okay with her staying there (and unless she left him, he'd have to be, and even then, because someone would have to pay her living expenses), she also knew that if she did stay, she'd never see her brother again. So no permanent move to Italy. She did meet Algarotti in Venice, btw, writing to Fritz about it on July 25th 1755: "I met Algarotti, whom I hardly recognized, so much older and changed did he look. His health is still very damaged, but his mind is as quick as ever. He was very, very considerate of us and promised me he was only waiting for his complete recovery in order to return to Berlin. I esteem him higher than ever, for he proved his attachment to you on every occasion."
7 Years War: After the AW/Fritz break up, Fritz informed Wilhelmine of it (and told her what he told everyone at the time, that AW was guilty of the near catastrophe): To which Wilhelmine replied, urging Fritz to forgive him: "He has written two letters to me about his losses. He believes to have lost his honor and reputation. Maybe his behaviour was wrong; he is passionate and at times rules by his passions, but he is assuredly good natured."
She also wrote to AW: "You have no idea what evil results the estrangement between the both of you has. (...) Remember, the one you feel so much bitterness for is your brother, your blood and more. Please forget what has happened. I am convinced the King will then do the same. I'd give my life for all of you to be reconciled."
Then SD died; Fritz told Wilhelmine in his letter "We don't have a mother anymore", but at that point she already knew via their youngest sister Amalie, whose letter had reached her first. And then Fritz started to write despairing letters with a sort of suicidal sub (or not so sub) text ("If I had followed my inclination, I'd have made an end immediately after the unfortunate battle I lost (Kolin)") ; she wrote encouraging and loving letters back, but she was already very sick and definitely very worried, though she tried to keep the former from Fritz as long as she could (though she did write to Amalie about it). He started to win battles again in late 1757. AW died on June 12th 1758; Heinrich visited Wilhelmine in Bayreuth in July, but did not tell her, because he was deeply shocked when he saw her, recognizing at once she was dying herself, and wrote to Fritz "I am very much afraid that she will not recover from this illness". Fritz finally told her in his letter from July 12th, but the Margrave - who'd already been told by Heinrich - kept the letter from Wilhelmine for a while, fearing this would finish her. Naturally, not getting news from Fritz instead made her afraid something had happened to him, so the Margrave finally forwarded the letter after all. The last letters from Fritz thereafter are all frantic pleas with her not to die: "I was more dead than living when I received your letter. My god, your writing! (...) I beg you - avoid all efforts, so your illness does not get worse. As sick and miserable as you are, you still think about my miseries? That is going too far. PLease think of yourself instead and tell yourself that without you, there is no more happiness in life for me, and my life depends on yours."
(BTW, Voltaire, who had kept up his correspondance with her post their encounter in France again, urged her to stay alive for peace in Europe, as he hoped she'd be able to mediate between Fritz and the other powers: "Never, Madame, did you have so much cause to live as right now." No pressure, Voltaire.)
Oster also quotes Henri de Catt quoting Fritz after he learned about her death: "How shall I get back my sister!" (It's a much longer outburst than that Oster quotes, but the first sentence struck me the most, because it's very King Lear - no more, no more. Oster says Wilhelmine died in the arms of her daughter (who'd left her husband Carl Eugen for good at that point and was living with her parents again) and husband, so she was not alone. She'd known she wouldn't recover for a while at that point, and had written to Fritz in her last letter: "I have accepted my fate. I will live and die content as long as I know you will be happy again."
Letters from 1757/1758:
The "Want to commit suicide with me?" letter. Explanation: Wilhelmine had made the mistake of sending a depressed letter earlier because she was already very sick. This was a mistake, because:
Erfurt, 17 September 1757:
Your dear letters, dearest sister, are my only consolation. Could heaven reward you for so much nobleness and heroic spirit! Since my last letter, misfortune has been piling up on misfortune. It seems that fate wants to unload all its angry indignation on to my poor state.
I still would bless heaven for its goodness if he only gives me the favor of falling with the blade in my fist. If this hope deceives me, then, you'll admit to me, it would be too hard, I would have to crawl in the dust of this gang of traitors, who are now able to dictate their will to me through their successful crimes. Dearest, incomparable sister, how can I help feelings of revenge and bitterness against all my neighbors, among whom is not one who would not have helped to speed up my fall and did not take his share of the robbery and rejoiced? Can a prince survive his state, the glory of his nation, the honor of his own name? No, dear sister, you are of too noble a mind to reccommend such cowardice to me. Should the precious privilege of freedom be less dear to the crowned heads of the eighteenth century than it once was to Roman patricians? And where is it written that Brutus and Cato would pre-empt princes and kings in high spirits? (...)
Gratitude, my intimate attachment to you, our tried and tested friendship, which never denies itself, all these oblige me to be completely frank to you. No, splendid sister, I do not want to keep any of my steps secret from you, I want to inform you of everything. My thoughts, the heart of my heart, my resolutions, everything. You will find out in good time. I will not rush anything, but on the other hand it will also be impossible for me to change my mind. After the Battle of Prague, the situation of the Queen of Hungary seemed to be of concern to her, but she has powerful allies and still significant sources of aid; I have neither. An accident alone would not throw me to the ground, I have already survived so many: the defeats at Kolin and Jägersdorf in East Prussia; the unfortunate withdrawal of my brother - that would be AW getting court martialed - and the loss of the magazine of Zittau, the loss of all my Westphalian provinces, the misfortune and death of Winterfeldt, the burglary in Pomerania, the Magdeburg and Halberstadt, the infidelity of my allies. And in spite of all these blows, I rise up against the misfortune, so that I can believe that my attitude is still free of any weakness to this day. I am determined to fight against the calamity, but at the same time I am determined never to subject my name and that of my house to shame.
Now you know everything, dear sister, which is basically what is going on in my soul; there you have my general confession. As far as you are concerned, incomparable sister, I do not have the heart to dissuade you from your resolutions. Our way of thinking is quite the same; impossible to condemn feelings that I myself have every day. Life was given to us by nature as a boon; as soon as it is no longer such, the contract expires, every person becomes masters of putting an end to their misfortune at the moment they think it is advisable. An actor who stays on stage when he has nothing more to say is whistled out. The unhappy is pitied by the world only in the first moments; soon it becomes tired of its compassion; then the invective of men sits in judgment, and finds that all that has happened to the unfortunate happened due to their own fault. They are condemned, and finally despised. If I also leave myself to the ordinary course of nature, the sorrow and my poor health will shorten my days in a few years. That would mean surviving myself and cowardly condoning what is in my hands to avoid. Except for you, there is no one left in the wide world who still ties me to this world; my friends, my dearest relatives rest in the grave – in a word: I have lost everything. If your decision is the same as mine, we end together our misfortune, our miserable fate. Those who remain in the world may then come to terms with the worries that will weigh on them, and take on all the heaviness that has been pushing our shoulders for so long.
This caused a prompt reply:
For God's sake, calm down, dearest brother! Your military situation is desperate, but there is a prospect of peace. For heaven's sake, banish all dark thoughts. Do you want to kill so many subjects who place their only hope in your person?
(She also wrote to Voltaire and told him he needed to write some philosophical Fritz-cheering up letters poste haste.) Nearly a year later:
Camp at Skalitz, 4. August 1758. (After he got Heinrich's letter about how she's likely to die and the news about AW will finish any hope she has):
As I hear, dear sister, you are in a very bad state. You can imagine how great my concern, my sorrow, my despair is. If I have ever demanded a proof of friendship from you, if you have ever felt love for me, so I now ask you to put it to the test. Keep yourself alive, and if it is not for your own sake, think: it happens for a brother who worships you, who sees you as the friend of his heart, as his sole comfort. Remember that of all my surviving relatives, you are the one most dear to me. I will find ways and means to get rid of all my enemies; I will, if heaven pleases, save the state from danger; but if I lose you, it is irreparable, and you yourself thrust the dagger into my heart. Everything in the world can change, but the loss of a person like you is an incurable devastation. By all that you hold dear: seek to overcome your own great sorrow, and also to overcome the one we share; but above all, keep yourself alive! My life is tied to yours; without you it becomes unbearable to me. You are my consolation, only to you alone I can open my heart wholeheartedly. Yes, dear sister, either you know me badly, or if you know me, you will gather all your strength to recover. You will appease your worries, you will defeat your body and do everything for your health.
Don't you worry for my sake. You know that business never goes smoothly; but I assure you, you shall receive good news about our war operations. I'm fine and will be fine if I only hear about your improvement. But if I receive bad news from Bayreuth, I will be crushed by my sins.
Source: website with letters to and from Wilhelmine during her 1754/1755 journey through France and Italy.
There are also a few letters about Wilhelmine from various family members during that era. All in the original French, in a German translation, and in a faksimile, so you can see what the actual letters look like. Fritz is the main other correspondant, but there are also three of her other siblings (August Wilhelm, Ulrike and Amalie).
Now, about that journey: Wilhelmine and her husband the Margrave - whose first name, btw, was Friedrich, which is just too confusing in this context, so I'll keep calling him the Margrave like she did - were travelling under the nome de plume "Count and Contess von Zollern" because if they'd travelled officially, it would have been a quasi royal state visit to to Wilhelmine being Fritz' sister, and more expensive both for them and their hosts. Wilhelmine was already sick (she only had a few more years to live) and traveled partly for the climate's sake, but wouldn't you know it, Europe collectively was suffering form one of the coldest years around, so it wasn't much warmer in France and only a bit in Italy. She also was a culture tourist, of course, and visiting France and Italy was fulfilling a life long dream.
The Fritz letters show him both at his best and worst. Best: he's worried for her (justly so, as it turns out, like I said, she was already sick), tenderly concerned and smacking down any criticism from people back home complaining that this journey was too expensive to make and the late FW would never have permitted it. (Context: Wilhelmine actually had to ask Fritz for permission to leave Prussian ruled or allied territories because the 7 years war was just around the corner and neither France nor the Italian states, which were mostly Austrian ruled, were considered friendly at this point.) Worst: bear in mind that what was Wilhelmine was doing was actually filfilling a life long dream for both of them. And he never got to do it, and he never would. So a part of him must have found it impossible to let her enjoy it without him. He keeps lecturing her on the note of: "Of course, you can't possibly enjoy Italy because it's just like a stale old whore looking back on her young sexpot days, right? I mean, Caesar would hate it if he came back, right? And yeah, sure, so you have the chance to check out the new diggings at Pompeiji, the most sensational archaelogical discovery of the age, but you can't possibly enjoy it, can you, because surely those unworthy current day Italians suck so much? And as for seeing Michelangelo's statues and Caravaggio's paintings in the original, surely they have only second rate examples left in Italy, and anyway, did I mention my new gallery has some great paintings which are much better than anything you can possibly see in Italy?" (He is, however, also aware of his sour grapping and apologizes, I'll get to this.)
There are about 80 letters Wilhelmine/Fritz letters in that collection (to and from), versus ca. 11 to brother August Wilhelm (he also got some from her husband and wrote back to both her and her husband, but only the letters to her husband are preserved). These are more affectionate (though he's only her cher frère whereas Fritz is tres cher frère) than I'd have thought, even taking into account the style of the day (after all, FW had been mon cher père as well); August Wilhelm gets just about the only landscape descriptions (whereas Fritz gets antiques, the people she's met, and concert descriptions) in addition to some chit-chat about the people she meets (btw, she doesn't copy the descriptions from her Fritz letters into her August Wilhelm letters, each brother gets different descriptions, i.e. she took the time to write individual letters, which, if you consider how long writing by hand took, and hers weren't dictated, they're in her handwriting, says something about her emotions for them, too), and she keeps asking about Heinrich and Amelie, and reminds him to give them her love, begging forgiveness for basically writing to the three of them together). At one point, August Wilhelm has reported that Fritz has had a riding accident, knocking out two teeths, and Wilhelmine basically writes back: "OMG! Thank God he's okay! You know, you sound so honestly concerned in your letter that you should allow me to let Fritz read it, because it would fortify relations between you two. He likes you, I swear he does, he just needs reminding you care for him, too. I told you he's just sooo sensitive!" ("I have always told you the King is very sensitive" is the literal quote.)
(Speaking of Fritz the sensitive, Wilhelmine did visit Voltaire en route and gives his love to Fritz, swearing Voltaire is sorry for every none to swell behaviour, honest he is, and missing Fritz dreadfully.) The footnote to Wilhelmine's report on her meeting Voltaire and how very sorry he is for all he's done wrong and how he sends Fritz his love is priceless, because Voltaire, of course, presented the whole visit very differently in his own letters: "The Margravaine visited me yesterday, trying her best to make up for the damage her brother the king did to our relationship. From this, you can conclude women are better than men."
Also on the endearing side: early in the travel correspondance, Fritz sends a pineapple to Wilhelmine from Potsdam. Bear in mind that pineapples otherwise don't exist in Germany at this point, by and large; Fritz had some of the earliest grown for him in garden house, it was a rare and precious thing. He also after one visit left a poem he'd written for her decoratively hidden.
Both on the good and bad side, and to be fair to Fritz: Wilhelmine could be just as needy. This was the most intense emotional relationship she had with anyone in her life. Anyway, here's a letter from Wilhelmine to Fritz, not dated, when apparantly the mail was late. It's a rare critical outburst and at the same time a passionate love declaration:
"My dearest brother, I write today solely to scold you. You are unbearably lazy, and one has to kill oneself writing letters before you bother to reply. I already can guess what you will reply to this letter: that there is nothing new to report, that you were too busy and didn't have a moment to spare, and what other lousy excuses you can offer. If you wrote to me a thousand times, I love you, my sister, my sister, I love you, then I will be full of joy, and it will more than make up for any news which you could possibly tell me. As for my part, since I have the pleasure to tell you that I love you, I am not so scrupulous, and if you get bored by this - your problem, for I permit you to throw my letters away unread, as long as you leave me the satisfaction of writing them. Now who of us does love the other one more?"
Back to the journey.
Wilhelmine and Fritz were "Who was the Man in the Iron Mask?" geeks. So when she's travelling along the Cote d'Azure (having lunch in "a little town named Cannes"), she's visiting the Island St. Marguerite where the Man in the Iron Mask was supposedly kept, visits his cell and interviews people who swear their parents interacted with him. And gets this bit of sensational news: "(Feri) and others who saw him say that they believe it was a woman, that he had tiny and smallboned hands, and that the skin was very smooth and soft, despite being a bit bronze." The woman in the Iron Mask! That's a new one for me. Wilhelmine finishes her interview report to Fritz by saying the common most featured theories are that it was either the Comte de Vermandois (illegitimate son of Henri IV, i.e. Louis XIV bastard uncle, literally) or "the first Dauphine", by which she means this Lady.
Ulrike, Queen of Sweden, (mother of Gustavo/Riccardo of Verdi opera fame) comes across as something of a scheming minx, writing to their mother first that surely, it's not true Wilhelmine is off to France, surely Fritz would see that as gross betrayal, right, and need consoling from his other sisters, and later "so I figure Wilhelmine surely will visit you on her way back, she won't be as hard-hearted as neglecting the chance to see her poor old mother again, I surely wouldn't!". Wilhelmine writes one time to say she'll write to Ulrike when she gets back but she's so overwhelmed with correspondance already that she can't during the journey. Otoh, Wilhelmine's letter to Ulrike when she IS back is actually informative and contains something the boys don't get, i.e. a gender-related observation about the French. Not surprisingly, she's found the French countryside and the villages are very poor (there's a revolution brewing, after all) and most of the culture is absolutely Paris focused. Surprisingly, though, Wihelmine tells Ulrike that what cultured people are in Avignon and other non-Paris towns she's visited are much better acknowledging women have brains and carrying conversations with them whereas the male Parisians are patronising idiots to women and only take other men seriously.
The Margrave sounds as if he's very careful and a bit scared when writing to Fritz - it's all "Sire" and expressions of fealty - but is a bit more relaxed when writing to August Wilhelm (whom Fritz has writing back, when he's not letting his secretary write to the Margrave, acknowledging the letters - he himself only writes directly to Wilhelmine, though this he does a lot). For his part, August Wilhelm - who was Wilhelm to his family - comes across as genuinely nice. Example:
"I just received your letter, dear brother, and I wish you a happy journey with all of my heart. You'll have the joy of living in a warm climate while the winter will reduce the rest of us to trembling knees and grinding teeth. And I do hope my sister's health will get better; I've always noticed that the winters were damaging to her. Please give her my love and don't the two of you forget me during such a long journey! P.S. I hope you aren't irritated when I'm writing to you without having been adressed." (Since the previous letter by the Margrave had been adressed to Fritz.)
Wilhelmine, like many a tourist after her, told all her siblings she'd bring souvenirs and do shopping for them (first in France, then Italy) if they told her what they wanted. What we don't have is a letter from her to her mother offering the same thing. Here's the letter which made me come to certain conclusions about Ulrike in the famliy context. Ulrike to Sophia Dorothea:
"Gossip here talks of a journey which my Bayreuth sister undertakes to France. I cannot believe it. Maybe my disbelief hails from my wish that this news should be false. It seems to me that her rank and status cannot allow such an enterprise. And I fear that the King, my brother, would never condone the role which she would play on such an occasion. My heart always beats in affectionate sympathy with my dear, dear family. And it greatly distresses me if there is the slightest semblance of a disagreement. All the more so since it cannot but displease my beloved Mama. And your contentment is the aim of all my wishes. May God always answer your prayers, and may I never have the misfortune of displeasing you, and may I be able to flatter myself that my beloved Mama takes a benevolent view towards me."
Well, then. More about Ulrike in other posts. Back to the two oldest Hohenzollern siblings:
W: My dearest brother, the days appear years to me since I have lived for five weeks without news from you. Despite all the entertaining experiences I have had here, I wish I was in Rome right now, where your letters are adressed to. The interests of my heart will always outweigh everything for me me, and there, my dear brother rules like an absolute despot, so that one line from him weighs more than all the largesse I am seeing every day. We will leave Florence in two days.
I am like a person born blind who is learning to see bit by bit, and learns new concepts with this. All I have seen from Italy so far surpasses everything I've been told about it. I often feel myself enchanted and believe I must be living in an illusion.
F: My dearest sister, I had the pleasure of receiving your letter from Florence. It contains, dearest sister, any beautiful churches, monuments and antiques, but I must confess to be thoroughly saddened not to find the one thing I truly searched for: the restoratio of your health. In moderation, I believe movement could help you. But I am afraid that the burdens of a long journey will exhaust you too much. You will find Italy as an old coquette who fancies herself as beautiful as in her youth and who may bear some traces that allow a conclusion of how she must have been.
*lengthy rant about how and why the Italy of today and nearly all Italians of today must truly suck and can't possibly be enjoyed, but then*
I ask for a thousand pardons about my idle chatter. Maybe I am like the fox who found the grapes sour which he could not consume, or like the galley slave who has gotten into the habit of rowing his galley and looks with scorn at those enjoying their freedom. I beg you, do not forget the teutonic inhabitants on the shores of the Eastern sea. And may the beautiful climate of Italy not cause you aversion to the freeze of the climate at home.
W: My dearest brother, I must admit to being very sad today. I have just lost a dear friend who always cheered me up and was more fond of me than any humans. My poor Folichon has died in Bayreuth of old age. I had left him there, for I was afraid he would suffer an accident on this journey, for which he was too old in any case. You, my dearest brother, know how much pain such a loss can cause while most of the world makes fun of it. But it seems to me that once one knows what human beings are like, one should try to distance oneself from them, for how many more virtues can we find at those we call animals than with the beings gifted with reason! I see those with reason talk nonsense on a daily basis, and favour evil. There could not have been a more sincere and faithful friend - People came, dear brother, and have stopped me moralizing.
Next, she's off to Naples.
W: I'm here since the 27th. The street that leads here seems to be the way to hell. I could never stand the Appii, but right now, I hate them with a vengeance, having travelled on the terrible road they've constructed. I was sick and couldn't walk for days.
(The famous Appian Way was indeed in a terrible state at that point, but come on, Wilhelmine, it was 1700 years old!)
(...) The King here spends his days hunting and fishing while the Queen runs all state business. Yesterday I was in Pozzuoli, in Baja and Cumuae. Rarely have I felt such vivid pleasure. I have visited all the living spaces of the Ancients. There can be nothing more admirable than the Piscina of Lucullus which is still preserved.
(Description ensues. Wilhelmine actually means the "piscina mirabilis", the gigantic underground water cisterns through which the Romans supplied the city with water - and which still supplied Naples with water when she was there. They were active until a mid 19th century earthquake. Today, you can still sightsee there, and they're truly amazing.)
La Condamine and I crawled on all fours inside and climbed back on ladders. In short, we are now adventures immortal by our research and have called this our descent into the underworld. (...) Herculaneum, on the other hand, does not live up to its descriptions. It is like a quarry, with lava walls. One doesn't see anything. While I was there, though, two beautiful mosaic floors were discovered. (...) If we had tools, we'd have taken them with us. I'd have acted like St. Francis in order to send them to you.
(Wilhelmine is confusing St. Francis with St Crispin who stole leather in order to make shoes for the poor.)
F: My dearest sister, (...) I must admit that I would consider it glorious to have travelled on the Via Appia and that there is nothing I wouldn't give, including a broken rib, in order to be in this earthly paradise. Well, it is not given to everyone to travel to Corinth.
(Editor's footnote: "Travel to Corinth: French saying for making an expensive or morally questionable journey.)
You, my dearest sister, must feel the joy of seeing Italy more than anyone else; you, who knows the history so well and who can treasure antiques. For those Spaniards and Saxons transported to Naples the ancient names are just fancy words. (...) Such a poor species of people lives in this beautiful land now; Julius Caesar, if he came back, would be amazed to find such Iroquois as the owners of his country.
And so forth. Then he reports their mother will visit him in Potsdam, because guess what? There's an English marriage to be arranged! (Between Charlotte's oldest daughter and the current Prince of Wales, though actually Charlotte was supposed to bring ALL her daughters to Hannover for inspection)
It was demanded that she should bring her daughters to Hannover where she'll have the honour of getting face to face with his Britannic Majesty, an honour I do not envy for the world.
Wilhelmine is back in Rome
W: I must, my dear brother, report a miraculous, extraordinary, strange adventure which you won't have expected. You will have a saint in your family, and that saint is myself. I am now a martyr of our holy religion. This pillar of the true faith has not bent her knees to the antichrist. The Roman ladies are terrified and will not see or receive Satan's helper, to wit, me. Discreetly, the Pope does what he can in order to calm everyone down. Like the Cardinal Valenti, who thus is a kind of romantic go between, he tries to be agreeable to me as much as he can, for not a day passes when he doesn't tell me compliments from the Pope. And thus you have my confession. If I could have seen his Holiness, I may have made him my Cicisbeo, for I admit to you I am a bit attracted to the fantastic. But alas, our love was not to be. Now I'm not seeing anyone, which suits me well, since all these visits were killing me. (...) I am up and about all day in the town, though, in order to discover the traces of ancient Rome. One has to get up on montains or into ruined buildings or sometimes descend into the earth, but it is possible. (...) Yesterday I have read a delightful Italian sonnet about you, my dearest brother. In it, you get compared to Julius Caesar. At the end, it says that Caesar wrote his life anew, and that only you were worthy of writing yours. Now you have caused me to make so many bowings and pleasantries that I'll get my hips out of joint, for people talk so much about you to me, knowing this is an assured way to prologne a conversation with me, for no one is dearer to me than my dear brother, whose devoted and obedient sister I shall aways be - Wilhelmine.
Biography:
I‘ve now read Uwe Oster‘s biography of Wilhelmine from 2007, which is, at 352 pages, pretty short, concise, and fluently written. Most importantly, it provides me with a few useful dates and some more background info I didn‘t have before, as well as with more quoted letters from various family members, and adds to my speculation as to the reason why Wilhelmine, despite things being already strained with Fritz, risked meeting MT in person when she had to know how he‘d take it. (The rest of the family didn‘t take it any better, more about this in a moment.) After all, she could have pretended to be ill and let the Margrave do the lunch, which would still have pissed Fritz off, but not nearly to the same degree.
Also I found out who the Erlangen journalist was (who wrote the Fritz-critisizing articles in 1745 which Ulrike pointed out to Fritz). And where he went after escaping arrest. Naturally, he went to Vienna. :)
Okay, letter quotes: Cahn, as Mildred mentioned, SD and FW had to try a few times before having a surviving male child, and there were in fact two more boys born between Wilhelmine and Fritz, who both died. Grandpa F1 (the maligned by his grandson baroque party boy) was still alive then, and thus has the honor of being the first to report on the Wilhelmine/Fritz relationship. When reporting this latest grandson is still surviving, F1 writes in a letter from February 8th 1712 on his grandchildren: „Our children are still all healthy, especially the prince of Prussia, and it is strange that the princess loves him so dearly, for she despised her first two brothers.“
Bear in mind we’re talking about a toddler here (Wilhelmine was three years older than Fritz.) Now given Wilhelmine was the oldest, and was left in no doubt that she should have been a boy and the boys born after her were the ones to really count, which presumably meant they were also getting the majority of attention in the nursery, I‘m not surprised baby Wilhelmine didn‘t like the other babies; it‘s more surprising three-years-old Wilhelmine should take to the latest arrival. But apparantly she did, without question. (And since F1 isn‘t a later biographer blessed with hindsight but writing in his present with no knowledge this newest boy would survive, he can‘t have made it up.)
I confess I tended to take Wilhelmine‘s memoir claims to having been a clever, admired child early on with a grain of salt, but no, the English ambassador (admittedly with the awareness SD was pushing the English marriage and thus keeping an extra eye on her) reports in 1716: „The oldest princess is one of the most charming children I‘ve seen. She dances very well, her attitude surpasses her years, and so does her mind.“ Alas, grandfather George I was less impressed; that scene in „Der Thronfolger“ when he says to SD „she‘s tall for her age“ and otherwise mainly talks to Fritz is confirmed by ambassador as well.
Leti, for all that she was an abusive fright, also managed to give Wilhelmine a first class education. Wilhelmine started with not yet five years of age to write letters to her father, with only a few days interruption, at this point not solely in French but also in German, which is interesting since Leti was Italian and her other teacher, Monsieur de Croze, was French (so who did talk German to her?), but later exclusively in French. (Which, remember, FW for all his later rants at Fritz was fluent in since it had been his first language as well, courtesy of his own French governess.) These early letters are by Wilhelmine (i.e. not in the handwriting of the governess) and show her as a child eager to impress her father and longing for his affection; on May 8th 1717 she reports proudly that she‘s been brave as two of her (milk) teeth have been pulled and includes them in her letter (they still exist). She swears five years Fritz is doing really really well with the military drill he‘s supposed to undergo, FW can be proud of him, but she also reports on more harmless stuff: „On Sunday a man will come who has a dog who can talk to his master in German, French and English!“
There‘s one of these letters from child!Wilhelmine, though, which shows that much as she loved Fritz, she had her moments of resenting having to take second place to him, too. In May 1719, she writes to FW:
„I am very hurt that you have done my brother the honor of writing to him whereas I, who have written 100 000 letters to you, have never received a single one from you in return. I know very well that my brother deserves more acknowledgement as he is a boy, but it is not my fault that I am not, and I am my dear Papa‘s daughter, too, and I love him. I have been told that my dear Papa only writes to officers, and if this is true, I would like to have a military rank as well. Mademoiselle Leti says I could be a good dragooner‘s captain, if my dear Papa would accept one who wears a dress, but I believe she is making fun of me when she says this.“
She was ten when she wrote this, and it was, of course, (near the end of) a time when she didn‘t actually seee much of her father; a more present FW and the developing warfare between him and SD, complete with first row sight on what it actually meant for Fritz to have FW's full attention, was a cure against longing for his presence, but the longing for acknowledgement and affection despite the simultanously growing resentment because of how abusive he got never completely went away. And this letter from ten-years-old Wilhelmine along with quotes I was already familiar with re: her birth in her memoirs, or that quote in a letter to Fritz about her granddaughter („of that gender first despised and then put on a pedestal and bartered away“) feed into my theory that for that she was of course a product of her time and accepted a great many of its attitudes, some sense of injustice at the way she was regarded as lesser, because female, never went away. And I do think this lay at the heart of her wanting to meet MT in person (and her lame „no, I don‘t admire the Queen of Hungary, I just acknowledge her abilities like those of everyone else“ defense to Fritz afterwards). Because MT, with one and three quarters Silesian Wars behind her, might not have been able to keep Silesia from Fritz but she‘d managed to keep the rest of her Empire intact when basically everyone had expected it would get carved up, she had defied everyone‘s predictions and was proving that a woman could, in fact, rule and get obeyed, not in far away England or Russia, but in the HRE. And this was the one chance in a lifetime to meet her.
(The political reason for someone from Bayreuth to receive MT at all was obvious. Due to her deal with Max von Wittelsbach - Bavaria back vs FS as Emperor - the small principality of Bayreuth know was surrounded by pro-Habsburg countries, not to mention that since FS was about to be crowned, MT was about to be Empress and thus at least nominally the Margrave's liege lady. But like I said - Wilhelmine could have played sick - given the number of times she actually was sick, it wouldn't have been that much of a stretch - and she didn't.)
Oster, as mentioned, is mostly good with dates, and also with keeping in mind circumstances of writing and pointing out contraditctions (between memoirs and letters, for example), and when he quotes from the various ambassadors, he always mentions the then current interests of whichever country the ambassador in question represents. So, the dates for Wilhelmine's estrangement from plus reconciliaton with Fritz:
Summer of 1743: Württemberg trouble with the Dowager Duchess and Wilhelmine appearing, in Fritz' eyes, lukewarm about marrying her daughter to Carl Eugen
January 1744: L'Affaire Marwitz (female) heads towards its climax as Wilhelmine pushes for the Marwitz/Burghaus marriage; this is when Fritz switches from the usual "dearest sister" greeting in the letters to "Madam Sister" (ouch), while Wilhelmine doesn't confess why she wants to marry Marwitz off (and out of the country) so urgently (Marwitz’ affair with her husband) and instead counters the Fritzian argument of "when you left Berlin, you promised Dad you wouldn't marry off any of the Marwitz daughters to a non-Prussian" with "any promise I had to make to Dad was blackmailed and died with him, and I can't believe you're using that argument with me"
July 1744: Johann Gottfried Groß, chief editor of the "Christian-Erlangisches Zeitungs-Extrakt" starts to publish articles with a lot of Fritz critique
12. November 1744: Fritz writes to Wilhelmine that he would never allow any scribbler to print insulting things about his family in HIS country, and in his next letter includes two copies of particularly offensive to him editions of said newspaper
January 1745: Wilhelmine writes that Groß has been arrested, but when Fritz writes back that fine, the guy can go free if he is never allowed to publish again, she has to confess that in fact Groß hightailed it out of Bayreuth before an arrest could be made.
20. January 1745: Karl VII, the former Karl Albrecht of Wittelsbach dies; MT offers her "Bavaria vs vote for FS" deal to Max of Wittelsbach and starts to campaign among the other princes for votes
13. September 1745: FS is officially voted in as Emperor by all the German princes elector (minus Fritz who has a votes Prince Elector of Brandenburg; eventually, as part of the second Silesian peace treaty, he'll provide his belated vote as well))
20. September 1745: Coronation of FS in Frankfurt; en route to said coronation, but the biography does not specify on which day exactly, MT passes through Emskirchen which is Bayreuth principality territory, and there has lunch with Wilhelmine
=> all hell breaks loose.
Before Fritz fires off his letter, though, everyone else does, starting with SD, who writes to brother AW: "Your Bayreuth sister has committed a new idiocy by going to Emskirchen to see the Queen of Hungary. I have written a deservedly angry letter to her about this affair. I don't know what the King will say to this latest extravaganza of hers, but I am deeply distressed", and adds that Friederike Luise, who is married to the Margrave of Ansbach (next door to Bayreuth, so to speak, in terms of principalities) has to be stopped from committing the same "madness". Ulrike from Sweden joins in with a letter to Wilhelmine along the same "how could you be so foolish and treacherous?" lines.
22. November 1745: Fritz invades Saxony (the first time). This basically ends the second Silesian War, with MT agreeing to letting Fritz have Silesia, Fritz belatedly voting for FS as Emperor and writes to Wilhelmine the "have made peace with YOUR FRIEND THE QUEEN OF HUNGARY" letter I already mentioned, along with Wilhelmine's "yay peace! she's not my friend, though cool" reply. Or, to quote it in the original phrasing: "Regarding the Queen of Hungary, I have never had a preference for her or a particular attachment to her interests. I simply do justice to her good qualities and consider it permitted to esteem all people who possess these." (Countered with "you are a traitor and a miscreant" type of letters.)
First half of 1746: Wilhelmine writes a lot of apology and explanation letters.
July 1746: Fritz starts to sound somewhat mollified in his "my heart will speak in your favour even if my head doesn't" letter. More cautious correspondance ensues.
Summer of 1747: Wilhelmine gets sent to a spa by her doctors again. There, she meets a lady-in-waiting to Elisabeth Christine and conspires with her to a coup that will bring the definite reconciliation with her brother: a surprise visit to Berlin. She goes back with the lady to Berlin.
15. August 1747: Wilhelmine sees Fritz for the first time in years. Hugs, tears and happiness ensue.
(She stayed for a while. The English ambassador to Prussia (a new one, who hadn't met her before and thus reports on her to London) writes home re: Wilhelmine at this point in her life: "She regards all time as wasted which isn't spent with books or with people who interest her. She spends all her time by conducting witty conversations with her brother, writing voluminous books and has other books read to her."
Oktober 1747: Wilhelmine is back in Bayreuth and kicks out Marwitz, or tries to. This is when Marwitz pulls the "make your brother pay me my inheritance, or I'll continue to screw your husband" gambit and Wilhelmine has to to explain all. (Marwitz then, upon receiving the money from Fritz, at last leaves Bayreuth in early 1748 with her Austrian husband.)
Worthy of note and unknown to me before: she explains it to AW as well as Fritz. Because during the time of estrangement, Fritz to convey his displeasure had made AW write to her in his place occasionally, which is when Wilhelmine's actual relationship to this younger brother starts. He also argued in her favour (the only family member to do so), as she will plead for him in the last year of her life and his. Heinrich, she properly meets as an adult for longer when he and youngest brother Ferdinand (they were 22 and 18 at that point) come to her daughter's wedding (September 1748).
The biography offers a bit more of a picture of the Margrave: he was on his Grand Tour when summoned back by his father to marry (which meant he got to see France and the Netherlands but no more). FW did a 180 on his opinion on him; at first, when he didn't know the young man, the future Margrave was simply a means to an end (get Wihelmine married to a non-English minor prince once and for all), and then when he actually got to know him he found out to his displeasure young Friedrich (!) didn't like hunting (!!), played the flute (!!!) and when FW made him drink an entire big cup of beer in one go (you know, the thing that had had unfortunate results with another Friedrich before), was angry enough about this treatment to actually tell his father-in-law just this. (Well, future Margrave had not grown up with FW and thus did not know you do not call out the King on being a bully and a boor.) This happened during Wilhelmine's first post-wedding and birth of daughter visit home to Berlin, and for the not yet Margrave, it was the last visit to his father-in-law as well. Unfortunately, they were financially dependent on FW. Not least because FW, as one last humililiation before the wedding, had Wilhelmine not just renounce her claims to the Prussian succession (as was the custom for all the pincesses once they married) but all claims to her mother's inheritance (i.e. money), which meant she was basically without a dowry. And her father-in-law had only wanted that marriage because of FW's famously filled treasury, what with Bayreuith being a small and indebted principality.
The Italian journey: if Fritz was, in fact, afraid of her staying in Italy in that letter I quoted, he wasn't being paranoid. She was tempted, because she was happy there, the climate while at first not as warm as was typical agreed with her, and she liked a great many of the people she encountered. She loved exploring antiques, debating the new discoveries - at one point, they even paid her the compliment of calling her "Dotoressa di Bayreuth" (this isn't something Wilhelmine herself reports but Winckelmann does, who was the formost German expert on this of his day and met her in Italy) - and Protestant-turned-Deist or not, admired a great many of the churches and paintings she saw. But whether or not her husband would have been okay with her staying there (and unless she left him, he'd have to be, and even then, because someone would have to pay her living expenses), she also knew that if she did stay, she'd never see her brother again. So no permanent move to Italy. She did meet Algarotti in Venice, btw, writing to Fritz about it on July 25th 1755: "I met Algarotti, whom I hardly recognized, so much older and changed did he look. His health is still very damaged, but his mind is as quick as ever. He was very, very considerate of us and promised me he was only waiting for his complete recovery in order to return to Berlin. I esteem him higher than ever, for he proved his attachment to you on every occasion."
7 Years War: After the AW/Fritz break up, Fritz informed Wilhelmine of it (and told her what he told everyone at the time, that AW was guilty of the near catastrophe): To which Wilhelmine replied, urging Fritz to forgive him: "He has written two letters to me about his losses. He believes to have lost his honor and reputation. Maybe his behaviour was wrong; he is passionate and at times rules by his passions, but he is assuredly good natured."
She also wrote to AW: "You have no idea what evil results the estrangement between the both of you has. (...) Remember, the one you feel so much bitterness for is your brother, your blood and more. Please forget what has happened. I am convinced the King will then do the same. I'd give my life for all of you to be reconciled."
Then SD died; Fritz told Wilhelmine in his letter "We don't have a mother anymore", but at that point she already knew via their youngest sister Amalie, whose letter had reached her first. And then Fritz started to write despairing letters with a sort of suicidal sub (or not so sub) text ("If I had followed my inclination, I'd have made an end immediately after the unfortunate battle I lost (Kolin)") ; she wrote encouraging and loving letters back, but she was already very sick and definitely very worried, though she tried to keep the former from Fritz as long as she could (though she did write to Amalie about it). He started to win battles again in late 1757. AW died on June 12th 1758; Heinrich visited Wilhelmine in Bayreuth in July, but did not tell her, because he was deeply shocked when he saw her, recognizing at once she was dying herself, and wrote to Fritz "I am very much afraid that she will not recover from this illness". Fritz finally told her in his letter from July 12th, but the Margrave - who'd already been told by Heinrich - kept the letter from Wilhelmine for a while, fearing this would finish her. Naturally, not getting news from Fritz instead made her afraid something had happened to him, so the Margrave finally forwarded the letter after all. The last letters from Fritz thereafter are all frantic pleas with her not to die: "I was more dead than living when I received your letter. My god, your writing! (...) I beg you - avoid all efforts, so your illness does not get worse. As sick and miserable as you are, you still think about my miseries? That is going too far. PLease think of yourself instead and tell yourself that without you, there is no more happiness in life for me, and my life depends on yours."
(BTW, Voltaire, who had kept up his correspondance with her post their encounter in France again, urged her to stay alive for peace in Europe, as he hoped she'd be able to mediate between Fritz and the other powers: "Never, Madame, did you have so much cause to live as right now." No pressure, Voltaire.)
Oster also quotes Henri de Catt quoting Fritz after he learned about her death: "How shall I get back my sister!" (It's a much longer outburst than that Oster quotes, but the first sentence struck me the most, because it's very King Lear - no more, no more. Oster says Wilhelmine died in the arms of her daughter (who'd left her husband Carl Eugen for good at that point and was living with her parents again) and husband, so she was not alone. She'd known she wouldn't recover for a while at that point, and had written to Fritz in her last letter: "I have accepted my fate. I will live and die content as long as I know you will be happy again."
Letters from 1757/1758:
The "Want to commit suicide with me?" letter. Explanation: Wilhelmine had made the mistake of sending a depressed letter earlier because she was already very sick. This was a mistake, because:
Erfurt, 17 September 1757:
Your dear letters, dearest sister, are my only consolation. Could heaven reward you for so much nobleness and heroic spirit! Since my last letter, misfortune has been piling up on misfortune. It seems that fate wants to unload all its angry indignation on to my poor state.
I still would bless heaven for its goodness if he only gives me the favor of falling with the blade in my fist. If this hope deceives me, then, you'll admit to me, it would be too hard, I would have to crawl in the dust of this gang of traitors, who are now able to dictate their will to me through their successful crimes. Dearest, incomparable sister, how can I help feelings of revenge and bitterness against all my neighbors, among whom is not one who would not have helped to speed up my fall and did not take his share of the robbery and rejoiced? Can a prince survive his state, the glory of his nation, the honor of his own name? No, dear sister, you are of too noble a mind to reccommend such cowardice to me. Should the precious privilege of freedom be less dear to the crowned heads of the eighteenth century than it once was to Roman patricians? And where is it written that Brutus and Cato would pre-empt princes and kings in high spirits? (...)
Gratitude, my intimate attachment to you, our tried and tested friendship, which never denies itself, all these oblige me to be completely frank to you. No, splendid sister, I do not want to keep any of my steps secret from you, I want to inform you of everything. My thoughts, the heart of my heart, my resolutions, everything. You will find out in good time. I will not rush anything, but on the other hand it will also be impossible for me to change my mind. After the Battle of Prague, the situation of the Queen of Hungary seemed to be of concern to her, but she has powerful allies and still significant sources of aid; I have neither. An accident alone would not throw me to the ground, I have already survived so many: the defeats at Kolin and Jägersdorf in East Prussia; the unfortunate withdrawal of my brother - that would be AW getting court martialed - and the loss of the magazine of Zittau, the loss of all my Westphalian provinces, the misfortune and death of Winterfeldt, the burglary in Pomerania, the Magdeburg and Halberstadt, the infidelity of my allies. And in spite of all these blows, I rise up against the misfortune, so that I can believe that my attitude is still free of any weakness to this day. I am determined to fight against the calamity, but at the same time I am determined never to subject my name and that of my house to shame.
Now you know everything, dear sister, which is basically what is going on in my soul; there you have my general confession. As far as you are concerned, incomparable sister, I do not have the heart to dissuade you from your resolutions. Our way of thinking is quite the same; impossible to condemn feelings that I myself have every day. Life was given to us by nature as a boon; as soon as it is no longer such, the contract expires, every person becomes masters of putting an end to their misfortune at the moment they think it is advisable. An actor who stays on stage when he has nothing more to say is whistled out. The unhappy is pitied by the world only in the first moments; soon it becomes tired of its compassion; then the invective of men sits in judgment, and finds that all that has happened to the unfortunate happened due to their own fault. They are condemned, and finally despised. If I also leave myself to the ordinary course of nature, the sorrow and my poor health will shorten my days in a few years. That would mean surviving myself and cowardly condoning what is in my hands to avoid. Except for you, there is no one left in the wide world who still ties me to this world; my friends, my dearest relatives rest in the grave – in a word: I have lost everything. If your decision is the same as mine, we end together our misfortune, our miserable fate. Those who remain in the world may then come to terms with the worries that will weigh on them, and take on all the heaviness that has been pushing our shoulders for so long.
This caused a prompt reply:
For God's sake, calm down, dearest brother! Your military situation is desperate, but there is a prospect of peace. For heaven's sake, banish all dark thoughts. Do you want to kill so many subjects who place their only hope in your person?
(She also wrote to Voltaire and told him he needed to write some philosophical Fritz-cheering up letters poste haste.) Nearly a year later:
Camp at Skalitz, 4. August 1758. (After he got Heinrich's letter about how she's likely to die and the news about AW will finish any hope she has):
As I hear, dear sister, you are in a very bad state. You can imagine how great my concern, my sorrow, my despair is. If I have ever demanded a proof of friendship from you, if you have ever felt love for me, so I now ask you to put it to the test. Keep yourself alive, and if it is not for your own sake, think: it happens for a brother who worships you, who sees you as the friend of his heart, as his sole comfort. Remember that of all my surviving relatives, you are the one most dear to me. I will find ways and means to get rid of all my enemies; I will, if heaven pleases, save the state from danger; but if I lose you, it is irreparable, and you yourself thrust the dagger into my heart. Everything in the world can change, but the loss of a person like you is an incurable devastation. By all that you hold dear: seek to overcome your own great sorrow, and also to overcome the one we share; but above all, keep yourself alive! My life is tied to yours; without you it becomes unbearable to me. You are my consolation, only to you alone I can open my heart wholeheartedly. Yes, dear sister, either you know me badly, or if you know me, you will gather all your strength to recover. You will appease your worries, you will defeat your body and do everything for your health.
Don't you worry for my sake. You know that business never goes smoothly; but I assure you, you shall receive good news about our war operations. I'm fine and will be fine if I only hear about your improvement. But if I receive bad news from Bayreuth, I will be crushed by my sins.
