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rheinsbergI.e. family letters between Sophia of Hanover, most enterprising of great grandmothers, her daughter Sophie Charlotte, the first Queen of Prussia, her son-in-law Friedrich I., first King, her grandson Friedrich Wilhelm (aka Tiny Terror FW, not yet graduated to paternal horrow show FW), and grand daughter Sophia Dorothea.
First, some notes on the edition, preface and person of the editor.
He's Georg Schnath, one of the top experts on Hannover history, who lived for a hundred years (literally) before dying in the 1980s. I know because some of the things he said in the preface to the Sophie letters made me check out his life dates. We'll get to this in a moment. What he says re: the state of the source material is that sadly, only roughly a third of the letters we know to have existed survives. Partly because Sophie Charlotte had asked for hers to be burned after her death (only twelve of hers to her mother were still known to be of existence as of the year of publication, and these only courtesy of Leipniz making copies, bless), partly because of bad preservation habits in the past (humid archives make for moldy paper and some indecyphrable letters), and some are just lost. Thankfully, Team Brandenburg had better preservation archives than Team Hannover, and also everyone wrote hundreds and hundreds of letters, so even with only a third surviving, there are a lot - mostly Sophie's to F1, SC, FW and SD. The last part of the book are neary exclusively letters from Sophie to granddaughter SD; the very last letter was written two days before Sophie's death (by stroke, in the garden of Herrenhausen), proving she was indeed a sprighly, bright women in her 80s till the very end. Schnath very much regrets, btw, that no one managed to recover the letters from Sophie to Liselotte to compliment Liselotte's letters to her aunt, because that would have been the powerhouse correspondence of the age, between two fabulous letter writers. Unlike Liselotte, though, Sophie wrote for the greater part in French.
Which brings me to Schnath informing his readers that because the French letters were translated in contemporary German, he had to adjust the Baroque/Rokoko German of the German letters somewhat so the difference wouldn't be so great. This was hardly necessary with F1, but Sophie (who grew up in the Netherlands, remember) had a terrible spelling and a less fluent sentence structure in her German letters, compared to the French ones. This "adjusting" would be severely side-eyed today. I'm in two minds myself. On the one hand, having worked through Rokoko and Baroque German myself, I empathize, and it sure as well makes the letters more quickly readable. Otoh, I don't quite trust Schnath. Why not? Well, mes amies, he also informs us that he's made cuts to the letters for the following reasons:
- getting rid of all the formal hellos and goodyes except for one or two representatives examples (understandable)
- "irrelevant" news (hm)
- cuts to spare the decency of the modern reader, because as anyone who has read the uncut edition of Liselotte's letters, says Schnath, would know that there is a "naive coarseness" in even the ladies of this era which is just too much for our more refined decency.
This is what made me look up when the edition was published. Not in the 19th century, no. It was published in 1927. Schnath, said I, you want to spare a reader from the freaking Roaring Twenties? A 1920s reader couldn't take Sophie's baroque explicitness? What kind of person were you?
I asked wikipedia, and it turns out and our Mr. Schnath was among the so-called "March Violets", which was the nickname for the many civil servants, teachers and professors who joined the Nazi Party in the March of 1933. (Reminder: Hitler became Chancellor in January.) Either because they hadn't dared before, because during the Weimar Republic a servant of the state wasn't supposed to, or because they wanted to keep their jobs and by March realised that the Nazis hadn't been kidding. Schnath may have had either motive, but in the 1940s he also had a job in occupied Paris and used it to rob the local archives of stuff which had to be restituted post 1945.
Back to 1927, when he's presenting Sophie & family to the chaste reader. For the most part, he thinks Sophie was great, except for the "unfeminine desire to rule", which is also discernable in her daughter Sophie Charlotte. (In a rare exception among Hohenzollern historians of that era, he doesn't see SD as power hungry, though, and on the contrary says the letters prove young SD being an excellent dedicated wife to FW.) He also thinks that Sophie, via her mother the last Protestant Stuart, managed to beat the Stuart curse and instead through her person created two great dynasties (the Hanoverians on the British throne and the post-F1 Hohenzollerns), which include the one, the only, the greatest King of all time (give you three guesses) and continue to bless the world to this day.
(Here I went ? again. Seriously. If you still consider the Hohenzollern a blessing in the 1920s, after WWI, what's wrong with you, Schnath?)
He also has the usual double standards. When mentioning that SD's imprisoned mother SD the older never ever gets mentioned in the letters between Sophie and SD, he says that his preface isn't the place to get into the tale of the unfortunate SD the older, whose infidelity can't be excused by her husband's cheating. Look, Schnath, if even Fritz the misoginyst has a more enlightened view on this regard... Not that Schnath is a fan of the Georges 1 and 2. G1 is "a cold and unsympathetic character, but a very competent Prince Elector" . G2 is has the faults of FW without having the virtues, and thus it's not surprising that SD and FW were Sophie's favourite grandkids.
So much for the editor and the edition. Now to the content.
The selection of letters starts in the 1680s when future F1, still a Kurprinz, has just proposed to SC, which means the letters in a way work like a sequel to Sophie's memoirs. They end with the one from Sophie to SD two days before her death. While one should always keep in mind Schnath made cuts to focus on what he deems interesting and/or to spare the reader from "naive coarseness", they do paint a vivid picture of everyone involved. F1 evidently did see Sophie as a replacement mother (remember, he loathed his stepmother), and they remain close after her daughter's death, though there are two points of tension - one is about both Hannover and Brandenburg having claims on Hildesheim, so whenever future G1, Sophie's son who is still Prince Elector Georg Ludwig at this point, and F1 are having it out about this, F1 is disgruntled Sophie won't take his side; the other comes when future G2/Caroline become an item, which F1 thinks Sophie arranged despite his son FW wanting Caroline which means she likes future G2 better. Sophie managed to mollify him by steering him towards FW/SD as the much more suitable match for all parties concerned. (Ahem. Not that she wasn't right about G2/Caroline, but knowing how FW/SD would end up...)
(On Sophie's part, she was disgruntled when F1 decided to marry again, though way too tactful to show it in her letters to him. Instead, she snarks occasionally in her letters to SD, whether it's telling SD to not given inch of precedence to the new Queen after the wedding, or, when she hears F1 is sick, speculating that maybe the new wife isn't good for his health, given the late SC has told her F1 slept better when not having sex.)
The main emotional note in Sophie's letters is one of optimism and fondness, though. She is also a very active grandmother and great grandmother, reporting the progress (or lack of same) little Fritzchen, future Fritz of Wales the first child of Caroline and future G2, makes, from standing on his own to feet to running into her arms to greeting her with his first French speech when she returns from a trip to Berlin. Since Liselotte doesn't just provide her with hot Versailles insider gossip (which she shares occasionally with Team Brandenburg) but with new technological marvels, like "moving pictures" and other little automata, Fritzchen is much fascinated with these. Otoh he's not nearly as quick to learn as SD reports Wilhelmine of being. Sophie wants paintings of all her great grandchildren, and there is something very sad and touching in the fact she had those not just of Wilhelmine and Fritz, but of SD's dead babies born within her life time as well - the two first Friedrichs (Ludwig and Wilhelm), and dead little Charlotte Albertine. (Whenever one of the children gets sick, Sophie sends recipes, too.) The dead babies paintings are reprinted in the book, and I noticed that the painting of one of them has a little black boy holding an umbrella over him. Either this is the same one who later, noticably a few years older, will be depicted in the painting of toddlers Fritz and Wilhelmine, or Pesne just liked the trope. But since there is actually an age difference, it might have been the same black boy, most likely a slave.
The young FW letters are intriguing in that they start it not different from those of any other prince of the era (and in French), and only later do FWisms creep in, like saying he'd be fine with less parties apropos his wedding and the money be put to better use elsewhere. Either his secretary wrote them, or teen FW was still wililng to go with the social conventions. Also, this is how Sophie the tactful works in unvoiced observations re: now grown up FW's manners in family letters.
FW: OMG I want to go soldiering with Marlborough and Eugene! Can't wait!
F1: Do not want my only son go off soldiering with Marlborough and Eugene. I'll fret the whole time he's away. Any tips how to talk him out of it?
Sophie: I'm not sure you should. There are advantages for FW if he gets to hang out with Eugene in particular. Also, he'll see the world this way.
F1: I can't believe you. See the world? This is war we're talking about! He could die! My son! This is another example of you prefering future G2, is it - HE is still in Hannover, isn't he?
Sophie: Look. Eugene isn't a handsome man, but he's a wonderful example of how one can be a military hero AND a man of culture and of MANNERS. It might be INSTRUCTIVE to observe that close up. I'm just saying.
F1: ...on second thought, I think I can see your point. But I'll still worry the entire time.
F1: last Prussian King to not have drunk the Kool-Aid. He's also big into, drumroll, predestination. When SC dies, which he's absolutely heartbroken about, he tries to comfort himself and Sophie with this. (He still mentions years later that every time he visits the gardens of Charlottenburg he imagines she's there and he'll find her again.) His grief doesn't stop him from noticing that Louis XIV doesn't go into mourning for SC but only refers to her as "our cousin". This is significant because it means France hasn't recognized Prussia as a kingdom yet; thus Louis is treating SCs death as that of a minor German relation of his sister-in-law's, not as the death of the wife of a reigning monarch, which would have demanded different etiquette. You can bet that F1 knows all about the significance of etiquette! On the more touching side again, in the letter where he announces his third marriage to Sophie, he swears it won't make a difference to FW and SD because he'll never, ever allow anyone no matter their standing to mistreat his children, he knows what a stepmother is and Sophie knows he knows, and the new wife won't be a stepmother, she'll be a mother.
Sophie isn't just diplomatic when saying FW and SD are her favourite grandchildren, btw. (As SC was her favorite child.) Remember, she raised SD and G2 after her son locked up his wife, and in the first letter she writes to SD after SD has left Hannover, she tells her how not yet G1 finally unfreezes to show that he's missing his daughter, and that he does love SD, it just was hard for his nature to show it but he does. For all that she was for the marriage, Sophie is at first somewhat cool on Caroline (her description of Caroline as a lying liar who lies is almost exactly the phrase Wilhelmine uses in her memoirs, which makes me conclude Wilhelmine had it from SD who has it from Sophie), and compares future G2 to his disadvantage to FW in terms of them as attentive grandsons. Later, she warms up somewhat to Caroline and allows that G2 is at least a good husband, writing to his wife two or three times a week when away, but SD is the best of granddaughters and surely FW is an even better husband than G2, keeping SD always with him!
Politics: boo on Louis and his endless wars; Sophie writes respectful and friendly about all three Emperors during the relevant time span - Leopold, Joseph and Charles - but openly pities Elisabeth Christine the first for marrying into the über Catholic Habsburg clan when hitching up with Charles. She's rather pleased when British parliament makes her heir but realistic about her chances to outlive cousin Anne, though she can't resist saying at some point that she wouldn't want Anne's three kingdoms if she'd have to have Anne's (lack of) health as well. (Sophie's own constitution is such that at 80, she still can dance with Peter the Great during one of his last Western Europe tours.) Also, this happens:
British parliament: starts to integrate the Hannover clan by giving future G2 the title of Duke of Cambridge.
Sophie: Hang on, that means grandson is a British peer, right? Which means he has a seat in the House of Lords. I therefore suggest that he takes his place there at the next parliamentary session. This way, he can learn stuff about the country he'll one day rule, and won't be in Hannover to argue with his Dad.
Anne: NO HANNOVERS IN BRITAIN IN MY LIFETIME.
Sophie: Oh for God's sake.
Sophie has her own red buttons. Among them: Old Young Dessauer, about whom she feels like Liselotte does, and WHY is favorite grandson hanging out with this creature? (Another reason why hanging out with Eugene instead would be good for him.)
And now have some actual quotes:
S to SC, February 1688, about Marie-Louise, wife to the genetic wonder Charles II in Spain, whom teen SC crushed upon when visiting France: I'm forwarding you a letter from the charming Queen of Spain (...). She writes that the King loves her very much and that she is lacking nothing but a child. Balati tells me she enjoyes herself by riding out, visiting the theatre and receiving favors, for the King does everything she wants. But she is not allowed to talk to anyone, unless it's in secret and in her immediate environment, for in public the royal couple has to behave like statues. One day the King was thirsty and drank, holding his hat in front of him, against which the Grandes protested that no King of Spain had ever done so. The Queen wanted to adjust some ribbons to her Spanish dress; the King was agreeable, but the entire council forbade it. She only has 500 pistols a month for herself, half of which she has to donate to the poor. After the custom of the country, she gets served by the daughters of dukes who are so arrogant that they believe themselves to be the Queen's equal. This good princess has to go to bed at 9 pm already, and the King gets up at 7 am. The King is a measly little fellow, small and fragile, very much in love with the Queen, and she's more beautiful than ever.
S to SC, October 1788, about cousin James II of England, about to be dethroned by his daughter Mary and son-in-law William III:
The King of England supposedly said at supper that my brother the Prince Elector and I didn't have any religion, and another time when he thought a letter I had written to him amusing, he added: "My cousin has wit, but not much religion." One could only wish this worthy prince that he wouldn't have such a loose tongue which will probably end costing him his throne.
SC who was in a tug-of-war against Danckelmann, former governor of F1 and then his PM, has finally won and FW has dismissed him. This leads this this gem of an announcement to Mom, providing us with a glimpse at young FW:
SC to S, November 1697: (F1) now - thanks be to God - has seen so much through him that he has confided all of (Danckelmann's) slander which the later kept muttering against me, firstly by claiming I was more concerned with the house form which I hail than with the one into which I married; secondly he claims I'm arrogant and power mad and yet entirely susceptible to the influences of my surroundings, especially by Count Dohna and Frau von Bülow; and furthely, that nothing good could come out of my son's education if Count Dohna conducted it in the Hannover way. (...) And it wasn't just my son's education where he acted like a true criminal! For he has given him to a governor, who neglected him in accordance with Danckelmann's son and counteracted all the efforts of Count Dohna. Instead of teaching (FW) something good, they both took every effort to encourage his bad moods, and then in order to wash their hands in innocence claimed my son was so viciously disposed that one couldn't possibly achieve anything with him. He's been so neglected in his education that until eight weeks ago he couldn't read or write!
Tiny Terror FW was nine at the time. Take your pick as to whom to believe. When SC dies in February 1705, F1 and Sophie write to each other almost daily trying to comfort each other.
Sophie also adds: The one thing I will ask most humbly from your Majesty is that I'll be allowed to embrace the dear Crown Prince here again after a while, for he is all that is left of the blessed Queen. And in a letter two days later: I will always seek in your Majesty and the dear Crown Prince what I have lost so painfully and unexpecdetly and what will never leave my heart. However, yet two days later there's a little push there amidst the affection and sorrow, for: Her late Majesty's thought and concern was always that the Crown Prince, as virtuously and well he's been raised, should practice writing somewhat more, which he can learn best of your Majesty as your Majesty excels in it.
Yet three days after that, February 28th 1705, we get our canon on teenage FW's romantic affections for Caroline, future Queen of England, which means I apologize to Klepper and Morgenstern for believing they led their romantic imagination carry them away on this subject:
S to F1: <>The heart is always heavy, and each day it seems harder to think of what I've lost. I shouldn't write to your majesty about this anymore, but I still can't think of anything else. But it will be a comfort to me if, as your majesty makes me hope, I can receive you and the Crown Prince here. Your Majesty will now probably look for a bride for the Crown Prince. God may provide a good outcome. His royal hignesses' affection was last year very much taken by the Princess of Ansbach, who seems to be of a good disposition. I'm just writing anything which comes to my mind to your majesty and seek my comfort in you...
FW seems to have been told to write to his grandmother already at this point. This is young FW, March 7th 1705:
Your grace's last letter was all the more dear to me as I found good teachings for my writing style in it. I have taken them with the same respect and affection as if they had come from my dear, most honored and blessed mother, and I promise to put all my energy into improving in this and anything else your grace may teach me. I wish I'd find more people to tell me the truth. All the world knows I can't tand flattery, and yet the number of people who don't try it on me is very small. Therefore I ask your grace to continue as you've begun. I am afraid, though, thought my handwriting will continue to hurt your eyes somewhat. Therefore I ask you to have a bit more patience and hope it will get better in time, and that I will always justify the good opinion which my dear late mother had of my good heart.
(Sophie writes delightedly to F1 that grandson wrote her a lovely letter. Schnath the editor thinks his secretary wrote it for him or at least drafted it. Sophie suggests letting young FW travel to educate him. F1 replies that if SC hadn't died, FW would have traveled to England, but now he'll have to marry as soon as he turns 18 before any leisure travelling because he wants to have grandkids in which SC can live again.
FW to S, March 28th, after the first preliminary burial of his mother had taken place (a second, more ceremonial and final burial would take place in June): You will forgive me if I don't say anything about this so terrible day for me, when I had to see the dearest person in the world to me in a coffin, for this would only renew your opain and mine. (...) The King tells me he will invite your grace to the burial which has been announced for 29th June; your appearance would be a great joy for me for I am afraid I won't get permission to present myself to you in Hannover, as much I would like it, and I'm also afraid that it will be very difficult to get the King's permission for a longer journey at all. The King has now repeatedly talked to me about marrying me off, but most recently he has promised me that he would give me another year for this and would not force me to take a woman whom I don't love (...).
(Obvious irony in terms of events a few decades later is obvious.)
A typical example of Sophie forwarding Versailles news from Liselotte to entertain Team Brandenburg: The King (i.e. Louis XIV) isn't sick as has been claimed, he's just suffering from the podagra. He's letting himself transported in a char with three wheels, two in the back and one in front, which is made like a steering wheel, which means the King himself can turn it when two follows are pushing the chair.
Emperor Leopold dies in May. Young FW is not impressed by Habsburg burial habits:
I share the opinion of youor grace that as to what all this fuss about the burial of the Emperor is good for. It seems to make no sense to me, for I can't comprehend why this poor body gets quartered like a criminal's so he can be buried in so many different places. This seems even less sense making to me than our own custom where one believes one honors the dead through a gigantic financial waste at their burial, despite it not being of any use to them. The King only does it to give a public proof of his love to the late Queen and of his pain at her passing.
While young FW is thus distracted, young future G2 pounces. This is how Sophie announces it to F1, on July 27th 1705 (Caroline came from the line Ansbach-Brandenburg, which means F1 as the ultimate boss of her family):
(...)My grandson the Kurprinz shall have the happiness to marry the dear Princess of Ansbach from your Majesty's royal House. One has to believe in predestination there, for a year ago these two had very different plans. My son, the Prince Elector, has urged his son to choose a princess wherever he wanted, but his impulses drove him completely incognito to Ansbach where he talked ot the Princess for an hour unrecognized under the alias of "von Busche", and fell so much in love in her that he didn't want to look for another. It seems that he had been set on her because of her good reputation anyway. So it seems the Princess is to have one of my grandsons in any case, for she has also pleased my dear Crown Prince; but I believe your Majesty would have found her too old for the dear Prince, otherwise you surely would have put some effort into winning her. May God find a match for the dear Crown Prince so that your Majesty and all of us can delight in it.
F1 is NOT CONVINCED. You are right to say she would have been too old for my son; but that predestination played a part, I seriously doubt, and anyway the Lutherans don't care for predestination. Your Grace would be more honest to say that this marriage has been plotted in Charlottenburg already, and I would like to ask you not to take me for a fool, but to believe I let things pass I do see.
Editor comments: Supposedly the late SC, who had co-raised Caroline, had suggested Caroline/future G2 two years earlier already, hence "in Charlottenburg".
It takes several letters for Team Brandenburg to be mollified. In November, young FW, future "No Whores!" utterer, reacts in an amazing way to Granny sharing the (not yet true) news about legendary French courtesan Ninon de Lenclos dying (she would die soon (and leave young Voltaire money for books) but at this point, she's still alive):
The story of the famous Ninon is entertaining. If a courtesan lives into her 89th year in splendour and joy and thinks about one of her lovers in her deathbed, one can but state that despite her conduct she must have been happy.
1705 was a year of horrors for F1, since in December, his daughter from his first marriage, who had married the Prince of Hesse-Kassel, dies the day before Christmas. In the next spring, an alchemist promising to have the secret of gold making shows up in Berlin, leading young FW to sensibly comment to Granny that if a man could make gold, surely he wouldn't have to live on the road trying to win the favor of princes, and why people who shall be Dad don't get that is a mystery to him. In the summer, F1 and FW of 1706 come to Hannover again to visit Sophie, and she uses the opportunity to propose her alternate match for young FW, which is, of course, SD.
This is the official letter F1 writes asking for SD's hand for his son:
As I have done so well in the marriage between me and the late Queen, my dearest, unforgettable wife, I have decided to arrange for a similar one between the Crown Prince my son and the daughter of my brother the Prince Elector. My arrival in this place gave me the opportunity to see and admire the qualities and virtues of this princess, which has confirmed my intention. As your grace as the Grandmother has to agree as well, I therefore ask it of you and do not doubt you will do so happily. I pray to God that you and I will be able to enjoy the happiness for many years which must inevitably result from such a union (...)
Sophie is all FW/SD = OTP! Of course. The engagement does make F1 happier, but he's still griefstricken:
Through this note I shall report your grace that I have arrived happily here in Charlottenburg; alas I cannot find my beautiful Queen here anymore, but what can one do against God? One must accept his will, and must comfort oneself that the Crown Princess will soon take her place, which I long to see most urgently. By now I have given the order to have her rooms made presentable, which I'll organize. May I ask your grace to write to me how my son's clothing must be tailored, for I would love them to be exactly like the Dauphin's (...)!
So FW gets to marry dressed up like a French Prince. Thanks, Dad. SD also gets her wardrobe ordered from France, for which she is much happier. Of ceremonial interst:
F1 to S: I myself shall put the crown on the Crown Princess' head, for she can receive it from none but God and myself; just so I have put the crown on the blessed Queen's head. Afterwards the Crown Princess shall be lead by my son to the chapel in order to be married, where the bishop shall again ask both of them whether they will confirm what they have promised each other in Hannover. Then there will be the blessing. Afterwards one goes to the dining hall; after the meal, there will be dancing in torchlight, and the young couple will be brought to bed. I have arranged the entire ceremony, and we're only awaiting the person.
More expectant father-in-law bliss:
Everyone is in ecstasy here, and does everything to prepare for the bride. She has now written three times to me already, and I am nearly as much in love with her royal highness as my son is. I wish to God I knew how else I can prove my paternal friendship to her, for then I would do it! I ask you to assure his highness the Prince Elector that I will love the Crown Princess like my own daughter and will treasure her; God who has taken my daughter from me through death has given me another to put in her place. Thus one can see that God does not leave those who trust in him..
And the groom?
FW to S: All letters which your grace have honored me with are me incredibly dear, but none so pleasant as those which my dearest princess brought to me. She arrived here in complete health; the bad weather on this day is at fault for the progression not achieving its full splendor, though there were more than a hundred carriages. The colorful magnificence of the beautiful costumes, the great number of servants and horses, all this made much of an impression and was very splendid for the King wanted to receive my princess in due honor. As for me, I can only repeat that I do feel glad to possess her and with with all my heart that God may keep us this happy for all our life. One does get tired of all this unending parties, though, I just hope one doesn't get sick of them before they are over.
SD, on the other had, reports to Grandma that she has the impression she ended up in fairy tale palaces, and loves every bit of it. This is so how she wanted her life to be! And everyone is lovely and kind. Bliss!
In Sophie's reply letter, we get a glimpse at SD's relationship with her father, future G1 of England, the one I already mentioned, which is telling:
S to SD, December 4th 1706: In all the letters I have received, I saw with delight that the King and the Crown Prince adore you, which I esteem much higher than all the beautiful jewelry and presents you have received. (...)No one hears the details of it with more pleasure than me, for I am so glad from the bottom of my heart that everything has now turned out well and can assure your Royal Highness that I have often suffered in sympathy with you, without saying something, and that I now could see with all the more gladness how much your father does love you - for what his frosty nature has disguised until now reveals itself everywhere. He was afraid that his presents would be ascribed to another, which is why repeatedly showed me the jewelry destined for you. He might have payed a bit too much for it, but you will treasure it because of the hand of the donor.
Something I learned from this correspondence: SD, animal lover, or, Fritz came by his dislike for hunting honestly:
SD to S, December 13th 1706: We also attended an animal fight. As your grace knows I don't care for blood, so I withdrew to the fireplace so I wouldn't have to see all the poor animals die. As I heard afterwards, the wild bull has killed many of them. At the firework, too, accidents happened, a man was lethally wounded at the head through a rocket, and a poor woman was squeezed to death with both children she was carrying on her arms.
But in general, the happy moments still dominate. SD to S during carnival the following year: I think your grace would never have imagined that I once would call an army of knights my own - but I have received them today, and the King is their commander. For I had lost a ribbon from my coat; the King picked it up, put it on and named it "Order of the Purity". I had to give one to the Margrave (of Brandenburg-Schwedt, F1's half brother) as well. I think the next time I visit Hannover you will find me very spoiled.
Meanwhile, young FW has his own ideas about royal style.
FW to S, March 1707: I am eternally grateful to you for wishing me well in wearing my own hair. I do it because I find it more comfortable than wearing a wig; but I am not imitating the King of Sweden in this. (...) I agree with your grace's view that one can only be for war if it serves the happiness of one's subjects and defends one's realm against attacks, but it is also true that a true man has to learn the art of war. I would love to join the field in order to learn soldiering, but I don't want to start a war, against whomever. Thus your grace will approve instead of disagree with my intention to see the world, for I believe it doesn't suit a prince well if he takes only part in pleasures at home and has not gone on any campaigns. It seems to me one educates oneself better if one sees a lot, and I hope the King will wish as little as your grace does that I should care for leisure more than for glory.
(Fashion note: in 1707 the wig young FW doesn't want to wear is the periwig typically associated with Louis XIV, not the much smaller and easier to cope with wig about to repace it, which he'll wear often enough in the future.)
One constant theme is that Sophie is distrustful of coffee and thinks it's not healthy to drink it, but everyone does so more and more anyway. And here's an example of Sophie versusOld Young Dessauer when hearing the fake news that he has died in 1707:
I hear form Paris that Langalerie has killed the Prince of Anhalt in a duel (...) and so freed the world of a brutal prince who has ruined so many peple's lives that God has punished him for it. One day the Duke of Savoy said during a meal that he was worried because of the wounds of his brother-in-law, the Duke of Orleans. The Prince of Anhalt interjected: "If I had met this bastard, I'd have rammed him through with my sword and would have exterminated his entire family!" The Duke was much insulted, but Prince Eugen said loudly: Don't pay attention to him, he has no idea what he's talking about" and thus calmed down the affair by making it look ridiculous.
Remember, in Liselotte's version, he threatened to shoot her son, not stab him. But whatever he said: clearly neither Sophie nor Liselotte have any intention of getting over it.
VIP visits in Hannover - Sophie meets Winston Churchill's ancestor:
Mylord Duke of Marlborough yesterday came for supper and will leave this afternoon. Among the four Kings whom he's met, he has liked the King of Prussia most, I think, and I can't believe the others have made him as beautiful a present, for our King surpasses them all in this. Grumbkow adresses Mylord Duke as "your highness" in every third word - I don't know, whether he has been given this title by the Emperor, but I don't think he'd be allowed to use it in England.
(Marlborough had indeed been made Reichsfürst of Mindelheim by a grateful Emperor.)
FW sends presents, causing this praise (and diss of G2/Caroline):
I owe my dear, lovely grandson the Crown Prince a thousand thanks for thinking of me before leaving for Wusterhausen. He shows me much kindness, which I'm not used to from my local grandchildren. The pair of them has become indifferent to me and have lost all my respect, for that good lady doesn't say a word which is true (which is very disagreeable). As soon as she says something, one has to assume the opposite to be true, but this must remain among ourselves, my dearest Princess.
However, Sophie does like Fritzchen, aka her first grandchild by Caroline and G2 doomed to be hated by his parents in the future, and she does feel sorry for Caroline getting smallpox (which G2, nursing her, caught from her):
Last Sunday I saw the lovely Fritzchen and then visited the Princess. Larose promises she won't maintain any scars, but one can't yet tell as her entire face is red, which will only pass in time. Then I went to the Prince whom I met taking a stroll in his nightcap and dressing gown; he doesn't look like he'd have had smallpox, one would rather suspect flees to have eaten his face.
The birth of SD/FW's first son makes everyone happy as well and causes Grandpa F1 to make a farting joke which passes Schnath's censorship:
The Prince of Orange recommends himself to his Great Grandmother, and lets her know he has inherited from the House Palatine the art of shooting without powder, specifically from his lady Great Grandmother, who when walking lets off one after another... but I shall interrupt this highminded greeting here.
The baby, alas, dies the next year, and the portrait SD had ordered to be painted so she can send it to her grandmother arrives only after the boy is dead:
S to SD: I received your two lovely letters, my dearest, one of them somewhat later with the postal carriage together with the portrait of the late little prince, which I can't look at without pain. I know it is a weakness, and I know I should act like Frau v. Overkeken, who was irritated when Frau Howe lamented about her husband's dangerous illness: "So what," she said, "he'll arrive earlier in paradise, he's not to be pitiied." But I don't have this strength of soul. I would have loved to keep the little prince with us so much; he looks like his father, and I find he was tall. Little Fritzchen isn't as tall yet, a pretty child, but not very developed yet, he only knows starts to speak a little but can't properly stand yet. I have much risen in his favor after feeding him with cookies.
Future G2 gets to be with Marlborough at Oudenarde, while FW, now that the baby is dead, is clung extra hard to by fretting F1. This does not make FW happy.
Because of Sophie's correspondence with Liselotte, she gets news from the French as well as from the Allied Side in the War of Succession:
S to SD: Madame isn't allowed to write me about the Battle (of Oudenaarde): but she says she believes the Princes would have done better to remain at Fontainebleau where the court currently stays in order to hunt. Since now the Picardie gets scorched hopefully peace will arrive soon.
I know the Crown Prince wants to have the chance to prove his bravery, but I tell him no one doubts it - this is like a decent woman's chastity and belongs to the whole like a nose to a face. But some agree with the army more than others, and I would like that he learns this and learns from the good people with the army, who have changed (future G2) much for the better.
Future G2 writes so many letters home to Caroline that Sophie warms up to them as a couple again. Otoh, this is when F1 decides he has to marry again. Sophie is not a happy camper. Meanwhile, FW tries to get grandmotherly support to make Dad let him join the allied army already:
FW to S, September 1708: I can assure your grace thath I would much prefer a war campaign to all possible gallant endeavours and pleasures! I would like to be in a good mood, but the thought that I have to remain among courtiers while brave men are standing in the field eats me up. I'm fine with whatever the King chooses to do as long as he lets me go to the war as he has promised.
S to SD (snark alert): I am very much concerned about the King, my dear daughter; I'm always afraid this marriage may not be good for his health; for hte late Queen was convinced he was better off when not spending the night with her.(...) I would be delighted if Prince Eugene would visit your court in order to prove that heroes can be polite and always keep their calm, without flying into a temper all the time. The Duke of Marlborough is like that as well; and this is why they are popular and honored everywhere, and show that they are well educated and not such riff raff as Margrave Albrecht who beats and kicks people to prove his authority.
SD is expecting again (Wilhelmine, as it happens), and with this pregnancy, FW gets permission to join the Allied campaign. However, certain rumors about FW are making the rounds and even have reached Liselotte in France. Who writes to Sophie. Who in a not quoted letter must have brought this up to FW. Who writes to Grandma:
FW to S, February 1709: I am much indebted to your grace for the sympathy you show for all concerning me and for confiding in me what is said about me in this world. I don't know through which misfortune I've become a topic of conversation in France; at any rate the description which Madame the Duchess of Orleans has heard of me isn't to my advantage. I don't believe someone can be as impudent as to claim that I abused him or just beaten him, for I know very well how a prince should act. And thus your grace can't begrudge me saying: these are lies and idle gossip!
FW, kicking and beating people? NEVER. There was a fire in the palace and pregnant SD had to run away and stay with the new Queen for the night, so everyone is worried (because of the pregnancy, too). But all is well. I don't know whether Sophie believed young FW's denials, because once he's off to join the army, Dad F1 writes thusly in reply to a not printed letter from Sophie:
F1 to S, March 1709: I don't understand what your grace means that my son would learn in Brussel to have a better opinion of ladies than he currently has. I must complain to you if you think this is something one can only learn in Brussels and not in Berlin?
S to F1: The Crown Prince doesn't hide having a bad opinion of most women; and thus I thought that his royal highness would see in Brussels that while the ladies live there in much greater liberty than in Berlin it still does not mean they have a bad reputation. The Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene have attended their societies and balls on a daily basis, an dI can't help but think it would be good for a young gentleman to see that in the field there are people who still know how behave in society as well.
On to reveals of FW/SD early married life. Now, en route to the front FW will pass through Hannover and visit Grandma.
S to SD: I count the days until I'll have the honor and joy of seeing my dear Crown Prince again. I saw Eversmann from his entourage who told me that you still share a bedroom with your prince, which pleases me a lot, for there shouldn't be any false embarrassment between man and wife. A true wife has great affection for her husband, and I don't share the opnion of Countess Luise when she says one shouldn't be in love with one's husband, for it is only natural to be so. That's idle spinster talk.
SD to S: Your grace will now have the pleasure of having the prince with you; though as he has told me he won't be able to stay for long. I feel his absence more every day, and must admit I can't get used to it. I am so sorry for not being able to follow him to Hannover - because of the pregnancy - where I could have greeted your grace and could have seen him a few days longer. (...) I thought the Countess was already with your grace (...) But I see that she has no idea of the tenderness which a true wife feels for her husband, and that she talks about it as a blind man does of colors. I would be curious to see her married; I think she would then change her tune like everyone else and would love her husband. True, before my marriage I have talked like she does, but I now see I was wrong, for one can't love the Prince more than I do. Everyone talks about peace, and to tell you the truth, I wish it would come, for I am very worried about my dear Prince.
S to SW: We truly did have much joy to see my dear Crown Prince here. (...) Your letter was most opportune, because he didn't receive one; the one you've sent probably was carried by another messenger, which would have worried him if the letter adressed to me hadn't been there, which has caused him much joy. He saw from it how much you love him and how you judge the silly views of the Countess. I also told him it had been the Countess' fault that you were cold towards him during your engagement. He told me that your behavior back then did lead him to believe you did not love him; for he often found your door closed in the evening, and you were not friendly to him despite being his fiancee. I blamed the Countess and her idea that one should not love one's husband, and said that he could see from your letter to me that you were now passionately in love with him, about which he was very satisfied. His first impression of you thus has wronged you; he swore to me his heart was yours now, but, my dear daughter, one has to get used to not always be together. We all found our dear prince to be very amiable; and I don't doubt he'll be even more so once he's seen a bit more of the world, for he certainly has the intelligence for it. I hope there will be peace and thus he won't be in any danger. Thanks be to God he's welll, but he is not how he used to be, for he wants me to let my old head be portrayed, a painting which certainly will be a greater fright as that of Frau v. Harling, who was younger then than I am now.
Meanwhile, worried Dad:
F1 to S: That my son conducts himself well is a great joy to me, and I will not keep him from seeing the world, for I know he's born for it - but why is (future G2) kept at home always? This, you don't mention; I thus have to conclude that my son is not as dear to you as that other boy, for your grace always encourages me to send him away.
Wilhelmine is a girl.
S to SD: I am very glad, my dearest daughter, that you have lost your burden so easily, and if it was only a daughter, you may believe I will love her no less fervently. If good Frau von Harling was still alive, I would urge you to send her to me, but now that I don't have anyone good at raising children anymore, she is probably better of where she is now. Frau v. Sacetot says the baby looks like the blessed Queen, which must endear her to you even more.
1710: I'm enjoying walking through the gardens with Fritzchen when the weather is nice. His little sister is turning out pretty, too, and your little Princess is said to be a beauty! I'm so sorry not being able to embrace her yet. I hope I will see your royal highnesses again here.
Caroline has a stillbirth, and gets entertained by a Saxon musician of future world renown:
I visit daily our princess who now is better and doesn't lie in bed anymore; she delights in the music of a Saxon which surpasses everything that I've heard on the cembalo and in any composition. He has been much celebrated in Italy already. He would be very suitable as a master of the chapel; if the King were to hire him, his music would be much finer than it is today.
F1 doesn't hire him, but Sophie's son does: this was Georg Friedrich Händel who would move to Britain with Team Hannover later. When the three Ws fall in 1711, Sophie wonders why in Prussia, one can't just sack a minister, why someone allways goes to prison and it's such a great drama. Anyway: grandson FW is good with money, maybe let him help F1 reorder the finances. Sophie meets Countess Cosel, then still in power:
Kosel was here, and has caused general admiration even more through her conduct than through her beauty. She is cheerful and talkes a lot and very well with elegant phrases, both in German and in French, and I find the Crown Prince has good taste if he has told you a lot of good about her. But she praised him a lot, too, which could make your royal highness jealous, if this lady wasn't so much in love with the King of Poland, of whom she talks as her husband. For my part, I told her that the responsibility for her relationship with the King was their affair, and not my business, and that I found her very charming.
SD is pregnant again (with Fritz) and the portrait of Wihelmine as a baby is ready. Art critique:
S to SD: I look at the portrait of the pretty little princess every day. But the size which Weidemann has given her she'll reach only in three years.
SD's second son dies:
S to SD: One must accept God's will, though it is very hard to lose your children, as I know all too well through my sad experience. (...) With all my heart, I wish God will give you another son who will be as dear to you and will cause more joy. This is the fervent wish of your old grandmother.
Fritz enters the worldl, which F1 reports to Sophie immediatlely in a letter written the same day. That same year, Sophie mentions in a letter something that happened during one of Peter the Great's earlier European travels, and future G2 and SD were still children.
If you recall the time, my dear, when the Czar took your head and kissed you, you may recall Prince Menchicov who was then standing at the door and against whom your brother wanted to draw his sword since he wouldn't let him pass. Even then it was said the Czar highly esteemed him, but he hadn't raised him as highly as now. I heard of the grateful reception the King of Poland has given him. The Emperor has appointed him a Reichsfürst.
(All for beating Charles XII of Sweden.)
And lastly: Sophie, alas, ships Wilhelmine/Fritzchen (the other one), in a letter for August 27th 1712:
Meanwhile, I'm delighting with you that your little prince is teething without a problem. All the world reports well of the little princess; she is supposed to be adorable. I am always afraid, though, that she shows too much esprit for her age. One can't say as much of her little lover, for he is still very confused in his babblings; his figure, however, isn't unpleasant, even very well formed.
(If anyone cares, proud Grandpa F1's letter to Sophie is even more detailed, he says Fritz has six teeth as of Augusts 30th.)
felis contributes quotes from the simultaneous early marriage correspondence between SD and FW:
I don't know through which misfortune I've become a topic of conversation in France
I admit, I had to laugh at this. But more seriously, between this:
always keep their calm, without flying into a temper all the time
and this:
The Crown Prince doesn't hide having a bad opinion of most women; and thus I thought that his royal highness would see in Brussels that while the ladies live there in much greater liberty than in Berlin it still does not mean they have a bad reputation.
I'm really wondering how much SD told Sophie about her relationship with FW, i.e. his jealousy and his suspicions of infidelity, even talk of separation, even this early in the marriage. Having just re-read some of the SD letters to FW, it's really interesting to get this additional perspective on it. Droysen actually includes a quote from Wilhelmine's memoirs to explain what was going on in these letters - FW "had such a bad opinion of all women that his prejudices caused great sorrow to the Princess Royal, of whom he was jealous to all excess [...] This poor Princess Suffered martyrdom by the outbursts of the Prince Royal." - which basically covers both aspects even Sophie mentions more diplomatically.
Some quotes from SD to FW directly:
Undated, but Droysen puts it early on, shortly after they were married: „Your letter surprises me so much that I ask the grace of you to reply to me. If you find it good for the King and the Elector; I will consider myself too happy to have them as judges. I can assure YRH that I do not feel in any way guilty against you, that I have had, since I have the honor of being your wife, all the respect and all the tenderness that an honest woman should and can to have. I flatter myself that YRH will come back from all his false suspicions or you will not be able to find the slightest basis... It is not enough to say that you have complained about me, please say what and the complaining subjects you say you have. As for the ring that you gave me in public and before God in the midst of the Church, it must also be restored publicly, if it is necessary to return it. I know only death that can put separation between us, and we have a long time to live before this one.
November 18th, 1708: You talk to me about separation; I would like you to tell the King, who is your father, about it, and we will see after the examination, which of us is right or wrong. It is very sad to see me treated as you treat me; I have nothing to reproach myself with, neither for the tenderness I have for you, nor against my honor. [...] If Mr. Elector knew, he would be surprised. You should get rid of all these chimeras.
(Interestingly, she refers not just to F1 but also to her father in both of these, as two people who might vouch for / protect her.)
And another letter from the same day, which is really sad given the fate of her mother (I'm wondering how much FW was influenced in his paranoia by said fate): When will you end all the sorrows you give me? [...] You make me see that you hate me. I have told you several times that you must have my conduct examined and if I am wrong, I agree to be locked up for the rest of my life, but I am not afraid, having nothing to reproach myself with. You are not the same, because you do me injustices which cry vengeance before God and before the world, of which you will soon have remorse of confidence.
Given the next thread with all the talk about love, this is quite remarkable. As always, FW, upon seeing SD's letter to Sophie, seems to have mellowed somewhat for a while, but we know the paranoia came back, even though SD never did cheat on him. But "you don't love me as I want you to, so I'll treat you like shit until you do" is a pattern with SD as well it seems - and yet, she still found sides of him to love apparently?
First, some notes on the edition, preface and person of the editor.
He's Georg Schnath, one of the top experts on Hannover history, who lived for a hundred years (literally) before dying in the 1980s. I know because some of the things he said in the preface to the Sophie letters made me check out his life dates. We'll get to this in a moment. What he says re: the state of the source material is that sadly, only roughly a third of the letters we know to have existed survives. Partly because Sophie Charlotte had asked for hers to be burned after her death (only twelve of hers to her mother were still known to be of existence as of the year of publication, and these only courtesy of Leipniz making copies, bless), partly because of bad preservation habits in the past (humid archives make for moldy paper and some indecyphrable letters), and some are just lost. Thankfully, Team Brandenburg had better preservation archives than Team Hannover, and also everyone wrote hundreds and hundreds of letters, so even with only a third surviving, there are a lot - mostly Sophie's to F1, SC, FW and SD. The last part of the book are neary exclusively letters from Sophie to granddaughter SD; the very last letter was written two days before Sophie's death (by stroke, in the garden of Herrenhausen), proving she was indeed a sprighly, bright women in her 80s till the very end. Schnath very much regrets, btw, that no one managed to recover the letters from Sophie to Liselotte to compliment Liselotte's letters to her aunt, because that would have been the powerhouse correspondence of the age, between two fabulous letter writers. Unlike Liselotte, though, Sophie wrote for the greater part in French.
Which brings me to Schnath informing his readers that because the French letters were translated in contemporary German, he had to adjust the Baroque/Rokoko German of the German letters somewhat so the difference wouldn't be so great. This was hardly necessary with F1, but Sophie (who grew up in the Netherlands, remember) had a terrible spelling and a less fluent sentence structure in her German letters, compared to the French ones. This "adjusting" would be severely side-eyed today. I'm in two minds myself. On the one hand, having worked through Rokoko and Baroque German myself, I empathize, and it sure as well makes the letters more quickly readable. Otoh, I don't quite trust Schnath. Why not? Well, mes amies, he also informs us that he's made cuts to the letters for the following reasons:
- getting rid of all the formal hellos and goodyes except for one or two representatives examples (understandable)
- "irrelevant" news (hm)
- cuts to spare the decency of the modern reader, because as anyone who has read the uncut edition of Liselotte's letters, says Schnath, would know that there is a "naive coarseness" in even the ladies of this era which is just too much for our more refined decency.
This is what made me look up when the edition was published. Not in the 19th century, no. It was published in 1927. Schnath, said I, you want to spare a reader from the freaking Roaring Twenties? A 1920s reader couldn't take Sophie's baroque explicitness? What kind of person were you?
I asked wikipedia, and it turns out and our Mr. Schnath was among the so-called "March Violets", which was the nickname for the many civil servants, teachers and professors who joined the Nazi Party in the March of 1933. (Reminder: Hitler became Chancellor in January.) Either because they hadn't dared before, because during the Weimar Republic a servant of the state wasn't supposed to, or because they wanted to keep their jobs and by March realised that the Nazis hadn't been kidding. Schnath may have had either motive, but in the 1940s he also had a job in occupied Paris and used it to rob the local archives of stuff which had to be restituted post 1945.
Back to 1927, when he's presenting Sophie & family to the chaste reader. For the most part, he thinks Sophie was great, except for the "unfeminine desire to rule", which is also discernable in her daughter Sophie Charlotte. (In a rare exception among Hohenzollern historians of that era, he doesn't see SD as power hungry, though, and on the contrary says the letters prove young SD being an excellent dedicated wife to FW.) He also thinks that Sophie, via her mother the last Protestant Stuart, managed to beat the Stuart curse and instead through her person created two great dynasties (the Hanoverians on the British throne and the post-F1 Hohenzollerns), which include the one, the only, the greatest King of all time (give you three guesses) and continue to bless the world to this day.
(Here I went ? again. Seriously. If you still consider the Hohenzollern a blessing in the 1920s, after WWI, what's wrong with you, Schnath?)
He also has the usual double standards. When mentioning that SD's imprisoned mother SD the older never ever gets mentioned in the letters between Sophie and SD, he says that his preface isn't the place to get into the tale of the unfortunate SD the older, whose infidelity can't be excused by her husband's cheating. Look, Schnath, if even Fritz the misoginyst has a more enlightened view on this regard... Not that Schnath is a fan of the Georges 1 and 2. G1 is "a cold and unsympathetic character, but a very competent Prince Elector" . G2 is has the faults of FW without having the virtues, and thus it's not surprising that SD and FW were Sophie's favourite grandkids.
So much for the editor and the edition. Now to the content.
The selection of letters starts in the 1680s when future F1, still a Kurprinz, has just proposed to SC, which means the letters in a way work like a sequel to Sophie's memoirs. They end with the one from Sophie to SD two days before her death. While one should always keep in mind Schnath made cuts to focus on what he deems interesting and/or to spare the reader from "naive coarseness", they do paint a vivid picture of everyone involved. F1 evidently did see Sophie as a replacement mother (remember, he loathed his stepmother), and they remain close after her daughter's death, though there are two points of tension - one is about both Hannover and Brandenburg having claims on Hildesheim, so whenever future G1, Sophie's son who is still Prince Elector Georg Ludwig at this point, and F1 are having it out about this, F1 is disgruntled Sophie won't take his side; the other comes when future G2/Caroline become an item, which F1 thinks Sophie arranged despite his son FW wanting Caroline which means she likes future G2 better. Sophie managed to mollify him by steering him towards FW/SD as the much more suitable match for all parties concerned. (Ahem. Not that she wasn't right about G2/Caroline, but knowing how FW/SD would end up...)
(On Sophie's part, she was disgruntled when F1 decided to marry again, though way too tactful to show it in her letters to him. Instead, she snarks occasionally in her letters to SD, whether it's telling SD to not given inch of precedence to the new Queen after the wedding, or, when she hears F1 is sick, speculating that maybe the new wife isn't good for his health, given the late SC has told her F1 slept better when not having sex.)
The main emotional note in Sophie's letters is one of optimism and fondness, though. She is also a very active grandmother and great grandmother, reporting the progress (or lack of same) little Fritzchen, future Fritz of Wales the first child of Caroline and future G2, makes, from standing on his own to feet to running into her arms to greeting her with his first French speech when she returns from a trip to Berlin. Since Liselotte doesn't just provide her with hot Versailles insider gossip (which she shares occasionally with Team Brandenburg) but with new technological marvels, like "moving pictures" and other little automata, Fritzchen is much fascinated with these. Otoh he's not nearly as quick to learn as SD reports Wilhelmine of being. Sophie wants paintings of all her great grandchildren, and there is something very sad and touching in the fact she had those not just of Wilhelmine and Fritz, but of SD's dead babies born within her life time as well - the two first Friedrichs (Ludwig and Wilhelm), and dead little Charlotte Albertine. (Whenever one of the children gets sick, Sophie sends recipes, too.) The dead babies paintings are reprinted in the book, and I noticed that the painting of one of them has a little black boy holding an umbrella over him. Either this is the same one who later, noticably a few years older, will be depicted in the painting of toddlers Fritz and Wilhelmine, or Pesne just liked the trope. But since there is actually an age difference, it might have been the same black boy, most likely a slave.
The young FW letters are intriguing in that they start it not different from those of any other prince of the era (and in French), and only later do FWisms creep in, like saying he'd be fine with less parties apropos his wedding and the money be put to better use elsewhere. Either his secretary wrote them, or teen FW was still wililng to go with the social conventions. Also, this is how Sophie the tactful works in unvoiced observations re: now grown up FW's manners in family letters.
FW: OMG I want to go soldiering with Marlborough and Eugene! Can't wait!
F1: Do not want my only son go off soldiering with Marlborough and Eugene. I'll fret the whole time he's away. Any tips how to talk him out of it?
Sophie: I'm not sure you should. There are advantages for FW if he gets to hang out with Eugene in particular. Also, he'll see the world this way.
F1: I can't believe you. See the world? This is war we're talking about! He could die! My son! This is another example of you prefering future G2, is it - HE is still in Hannover, isn't he?
Sophie: Look. Eugene isn't a handsome man, but he's a wonderful example of how one can be a military hero AND a man of culture and of MANNERS. It might be INSTRUCTIVE to observe that close up. I'm just saying.
F1: ...on second thought, I think I can see your point. But I'll still worry the entire time.
F1: last Prussian King to not have drunk the Kool-Aid. He's also big into, drumroll, predestination. When SC dies, which he's absolutely heartbroken about, he tries to comfort himself and Sophie with this. (He still mentions years later that every time he visits the gardens of Charlottenburg he imagines she's there and he'll find her again.) His grief doesn't stop him from noticing that Louis XIV doesn't go into mourning for SC but only refers to her as "our cousin". This is significant because it means France hasn't recognized Prussia as a kingdom yet; thus Louis is treating SCs death as that of a minor German relation of his sister-in-law's, not as the death of the wife of a reigning monarch, which would have demanded different etiquette. You can bet that F1 knows all about the significance of etiquette! On the more touching side again, in the letter where he announces his third marriage to Sophie, he swears it won't make a difference to FW and SD because he'll never, ever allow anyone no matter their standing to mistreat his children, he knows what a stepmother is and Sophie knows he knows, and the new wife won't be a stepmother, she'll be a mother.
Sophie isn't just diplomatic when saying FW and SD are her favourite grandchildren, btw. (As SC was her favorite child.) Remember, she raised SD and G2 after her son locked up his wife, and in the first letter she writes to SD after SD has left Hannover, she tells her how not yet G1 finally unfreezes to show that he's missing his daughter, and that he does love SD, it just was hard for his nature to show it but he does. For all that she was for the marriage, Sophie is at first somewhat cool on Caroline (her description of Caroline as a lying liar who lies is almost exactly the phrase Wilhelmine uses in her memoirs, which makes me conclude Wilhelmine had it from SD who has it from Sophie), and compares future G2 to his disadvantage to FW in terms of them as attentive grandsons. Later, she warms up somewhat to Caroline and allows that G2 is at least a good husband, writing to his wife two or three times a week when away, but SD is the best of granddaughters and surely FW is an even better husband than G2, keeping SD always with him!
Politics: boo on Louis and his endless wars; Sophie writes respectful and friendly about all three Emperors during the relevant time span - Leopold, Joseph and Charles - but openly pities Elisabeth Christine the first for marrying into the über Catholic Habsburg clan when hitching up with Charles. She's rather pleased when British parliament makes her heir but realistic about her chances to outlive cousin Anne, though she can't resist saying at some point that she wouldn't want Anne's three kingdoms if she'd have to have Anne's (lack of) health as well. (Sophie's own constitution is such that at 80, she still can dance with Peter the Great during one of his last Western Europe tours.) Also, this happens:
British parliament: starts to integrate the Hannover clan by giving future G2 the title of Duke of Cambridge.
Sophie: Hang on, that means grandson is a British peer, right? Which means he has a seat in the House of Lords. I therefore suggest that he takes his place there at the next parliamentary session. This way, he can learn stuff about the country he'll one day rule, and won't be in Hannover to argue with his Dad.
Anne: NO HANNOVERS IN BRITAIN IN MY LIFETIME.
Sophie: Oh for God's sake.
Sophie has her own red buttons. Among them: Old Young Dessauer, about whom she feels like Liselotte does, and WHY is favorite grandson hanging out with this creature? (Another reason why hanging out with Eugene instead would be good for him.)
And now have some actual quotes:
S to SC, February 1688, about Marie-Louise, wife to the genetic wonder Charles II in Spain, whom teen SC crushed upon when visiting France: I'm forwarding you a letter from the charming Queen of Spain (...). She writes that the King loves her very much and that she is lacking nothing but a child. Balati tells me she enjoyes herself by riding out, visiting the theatre and receiving favors, for the King does everything she wants. But she is not allowed to talk to anyone, unless it's in secret and in her immediate environment, for in public the royal couple has to behave like statues. One day the King was thirsty and drank, holding his hat in front of him, against which the Grandes protested that no King of Spain had ever done so. The Queen wanted to adjust some ribbons to her Spanish dress; the King was agreeable, but the entire council forbade it. She only has 500 pistols a month for herself, half of which she has to donate to the poor. After the custom of the country, she gets served by the daughters of dukes who are so arrogant that they believe themselves to be the Queen's equal. This good princess has to go to bed at 9 pm already, and the King gets up at 7 am. The King is a measly little fellow, small and fragile, very much in love with the Queen, and she's more beautiful than ever.
S to SC, October 1788, about cousin James II of England, about to be dethroned by his daughter Mary and son-in-law William III:
The King of England supposedly said at supper that my brother the Prince Elector and I didn't have any religion, and another time when he thought a letter I had written to him amusing, he added: "My cousin has wit, but not much religion." One could only wish this worthy prince that he wouldn't have such a loose tongue which will probably end costing him his throne.
SC who was in a tug-of-war against Danckelmann, former governor of F1 and then his PM, has finally won and FW has dismissed him. This leads this this gem of an announcement to Mom, providing us with a glimpse at young FW:
SC to S, November 1697: (F1) now - thanks be to God - has seen so much through him that he has confided all of (Danckelmann's) slander which the later kept muttering against me, firstly by claiming I was more concerned with the house form which I hail than with the one into which I married; secondly he claims I'm arrogant and power mad and yet entirely susceptible to the influences of my surroundings, especially by Count Dohna and Frau von Bülow; and furthely, that nothing good could come out of my son's education if Count Dohna conducted it in the Hannover way. (...) And it wasn't just my son's education where he acted like a true criminal! For he has given him to a governor, who neglected him in accordance with Danckelmann's son and counteracted all the efforts of Count Dohna. Instead of teaching (FW) something good, they both took every effort to encourage his bad moods, and then in order to wash their hands in innocence claimed my son was so viciously disposed that one couldn't possibly achieve anything with him. He's been so neglected in his education that until eight weeks ago he couldn't read or write!
Tiny Terror FW was nine at the time. Take your pick as to whom to believe. When SC dies in February 1705, F1 and Sophie write to each other almost daily trying to comfort each other.
Sophie also adds: The one thing I will ask most humbly from your Majesty is that I'll be allowed to embrace the dear Crown Prince here again after a while, for he is all that is left of the blessed Queen. And in a letter two days later: I will always seek in your Majesty and the dear Crown Prince what I have lost so painfully and unexpecdetly and what will never leave my heart. However, yet two days later there's a little push there amidst the affection and sorrow, for: Her late Majesty's thought and concern was always that the Crown Prince, as virtuously and well he's been raised, should practice writing somewhat more, which he can learn best of your Majesty as your Majesty excels in it.
Yet three days after that, February 28th 1705, we get our canon on teenage FW's romantic affections for Caroline, future Queen of England, which means I apologize to Klepper and Morgenstern for believing they led their romantic imagination carry them away on this subject:
S to F1: <>The heart is always heavy, and each day it seems harder to think of what I've lost. I shouldn't write to your majesty about this anymore, but I still can't think of anything else. But it will be a comfort to me if, as your majesty makes me hope, I can receive you and the Crown Prince here. Your Majesty will now probably look for a bride for the Crown Prince. God may provide a good outcome. His royal hignesses' affection was last year very much taken by the Princess of Ansbach, who seems to be of a good disposition. I'm just writing anything which comes to my mind to your majesty and seek my comfort in you...
FW seems to have been told to write to his grandmother already at this point. This is young FW, March 7th 1705:
Your grace's last letter was all the more dear to me as I found good teachings for my writing style in it. I have taken them with the same respect and affection as if they had come from my dear, most honored and blessed mother, and I promise to put all my energy into improving in this and anything else your grace may teach me. I wish I'd find more people to tell me the truth. All the world knows I can't tand flattery, and yet the number of people who don't try it on me is very small. Therefore I ask your grace to continue as you've begun. I am afraid, though, thought my handwriting will continue to hurt your eyes somewhat. Therefore I ask you to have a bit more patience and hope it will get better in time, and that I will always justify the good opinion which my dear late mother had of my good heart.
(Sophie writes delightedly to F1 that grandson wrote her a lovely letter. Schnath the editor thinks his secretary wrote it for him or at least drafted it. Sophie suggests letting young FW travel to educate him. F1 replies that if SC hadn't died, FW would have traveled to England, but now he'll have to marry as soon as he turns 18 before any leisure travelling because he wants to have grandkids in which SC can live again.
FW to S, March 28th, after the first preliminary burial of his mother had taken place (a second, more ceremonial and final burial would take place in June): You will forgive me if I don't say anything about this so terrible day for me, when I had to see the dearest person in the world to me in a coffin, for this would only renew your opain and mine. (...) The King tells me he will invite your grace to the burial which has been announced for 29th June; your appearance would be a great joy for me for I am afraid I won't get permission to present myself to you in Hannover, as much I would like it, and I'm also afraid that it will be very difficult to get the King's permission for a longer journey at all. The King has now repeatedly talked to me about marrying me off, but most recently he has promised me that he would give me another year for this and would not force me to take a woman whom I don't love (...).
(Obvious irony in terms of events a few decades later is obvious.)
A typical example of Sophie forwarding Versailles news from Liselotte to entertain Team Brandenburg: The King (i.e. Louis XIV) isn't sick as has been claimed, he's just suffering from the podagra. He's letting himself transported in a char with three wheels, two in the back and one in front, which is made like a steering wheel, which means the King himself can turn it when two follows are pushing the chair.
Emperor Leopold dies in May. Young FW is not impressed by Habsburg burial habits:
I share the opinion of youor grace that as to what all this fuss about the burial of the Emperor is good for. It seems to make no sense to me, for I can't comprehend why this poor body gets quartered like a criminal's so he can be buried in so many different places. This seems even less sense making to me than our own custom where one believes one honors the dead through a gigantic financial waste at their burial, despite it not being of any use to them. The King only does it to give a public proof of his love to the late Queen and of his pain at her passing.
While young FW is thus distracted, young future G2 pounces. This is how Sophie announces it to F1, on July 27th 1705 (Caroline came from the line Ansbach-Brandenburg, which means F1 as the ultimate boss of her family):
(...)My grandson the Kurprinz shall have the happiness to marry the dear Princess of Ansbach from your Majesty's royal House. One has to believe in predestination there, for a year ago these two had very different plans. My son, the Prince Elector, has urged his son to choose a princess wherever he wanted, but his impulses drove him completely incognito to Ansbach where he talked ot the Princess for an hour unrecognized under the alias of "von Busche", and fell so much in love in her that he didn't want to look for another. It seems that he had been set on her because of her good reputation anyway. So it seems the Princess is to have one of my grandsons in any case, for she has also pleased my dear Crown Prince; but I believe your Majesty would have found her too old for the dear Prince, otherwise you surely would have put some effort into winning her. May God find a match for the dear Crown Prince so that your Majesty and all of us can delight in it.
F1 is NOT CONVINCED. You are right to say she would have been too old for my son; but that predestination played a part, I seriously doubt, and anyway the Lutherans don't care for predestination. Your Grace would be more honest to say that this marriage has been plotted in Charlottenburg already, and I would like to ask you not to take me for a fool, but to believe I let things pass I do see.
Editor comments: Supposedly the late SC, who had co-raised Caroline, had suggested Caroline/future G2 two years earlier already, hence "in Charlottenburg".
It takes several letters for Team Brandenburg to be mollified. In November, young FW, future "No Whores!" utterer, reacts in an amazing way to Granny sharing the (not yet true) news about legendary French courtesan Ninon de Lenclos dying (she would die soon (and leave young Voltaire money for books) but at this point, she's still alive):
The story of the famous Ninon is entertaining. If a courtesan lives into her 89th year in splendour and joy and thinks about one of her lovers in her deathbed, one can but state that despite her conduct she must have been happy.
1705 was a year of horrors for F1, since in December, his daughter from his first marriage, who had married the Prince of Hesse-Kassel, dies the day before Christmas. In the next spring, an alchemist promising to have the secret of gold making shows up in Berlin, leading young FW to sensibly comment to Granny that if a man could make gold, surely he wouldn't have to live on the road trying to win the favor of princes, and why people who shall be Dad don't get that is a mystery to him. In the summer, F1 and FW of 1706 come to Hannover again to visit Sophie, and she uses the opportunity to propose her alternate match for young FW, which is, of course, SD.
This is the official letter F1 writes asking for SD's hand for his son:
As I have done so well in the marriage between me and the late Queen, my dearest, unforgettable wife, I have decided to arrange for a similar one between the Crown Prince my son and the daughter of my brother the Prince Elector. My arrival in this place gave me the opportunity to see and admire the qualities and virtues of this princess, which has confirmed my intention. As your grace as the Grandmother has to agree as well, I therefore ask it of you and do not doubt you will do so happily. I pray to God that you and I will be able to enjoy the happiness for many years which must inevitably result from such a union (...)
Sophie is all FW/SD = OTP! Of course. The engagement does make F1 happier, but he's still griefstricken:
Through this note I shall report your grace that I have arrived happily here in Charlottenburg; alas I cannot find my beautiful Queen here anymore, but what can one do against God? One must accept his will, and must comfort oneself that the Crown Princess will soon take her place, which I long to see most urgently. By now I have given the order to have her rooms made presentable, which I'll organize. May I ask your grace to write to me how my son's clothing must be tailored, for I would love them to be exactly like the Dauphin's (...)!
So FW gets to marry dressed up like a French Prince. Thanks, Dad. SD also gets her wardrobe ordered from France, for which she is much happier. Of ceremonial interst:
F1 to S: I myself shall put the crown on the Crown Princess' head, for she can receive it from none but God and myself; just so I have put the crown on the blessed Queen's head. Afterwards the Crown Princess shall be lead by my son to the chapel in order to be married, where the bishop shall again ask both of them whether they will confirm what they have promised each other in Hannover. Then there will be the blessing. Afterwards one goes to the dining hall; after the meal, there will be dancing in torchlight, and the young couple will be brought to bed. I have arranged the entire ceremony, and we're only awaiting the person.
More expectant father-in-law bliss:
Everyone is in ecstasy here, and does everything to prepare for the bride. She has now written three times to me already, and I am nearly as much in love with her royal highness as my son is. I wish to God I knew how else I can prove my paternal friendship to her, for then I would do it! I ask you to assure his highness the Prince Elector that I will love the Crown Princess like my own daughter and will treasure her; God who has taken my daughter from me through death has given me another to put in her place. Thus one can see that God does not leave those who trust in him..
And the groom?
FW to S: All letters which your grace have honored me with are me incredibly dear, but none so pleasant as those which my dearest princess brought to me. She arrived here in complete health; the bad weather on this day is at fault for the progression not achieving its full splendor, though there were more than a hundred carriages. The colorful magnificence of the beautiful costumes, the great number of servants and horses, all this made much of an impression and was very splendid for the King wanted to receive my princess in due honor. As for me, I can only repeat that I do feel glad to possess her and with with all my heart that God may keep us this happy for all our life. One does get tired of all this unending parties, though, I just hope one doesn't get sick of them before they are over.
SD, on the other had, reports to Grandma that she has the impression she ended up in fairy tale palaces, and loves every bit of it. This is so how she wanted her life to be! And everyone is lovely and kind. Bliss!
In Sophie's reply letter, we get a glimpse at SD's relationship with her father, future G1 of England, the one I already mentioned, which is telling:
S to SD, December 4th 1706: In all the letters I have received, I saw with delight that the King and the Crown Prince adore you, which I esteem much higher than all the beautiful jewelry and presents you have received. (...)No one hears the details of it with more pleasure than me, for I am so glad from the bottom of my heart that everything has now turned out well and can assure your Royal Highness that I have often suffered in sympathy with you, without saying something, and that I now could see with all the more gladness how much your father does love you - for what his frosty nature has disguised until now reveals itself everywhere. He was afraid that his presents would be ascribed to another, which is why repeatedly showed me the jewelry destined for you. He might have payed a bit too much for it, but you will treasure it because of the hand of the donor.
Something I learned from this correspondence: SD, animal lover, or, Fritz came by his dislike for hunting honestly:
SD to S, December 13th 1706: We also attended an animal fight. As your grace knows I don't care for blood, so I withdrew to the fireplace so I wouldn't have to see all the poor animals die. As I heard afterwards, the wild bull has killed many of them. At the firework, too, accidents happened, a man was lethally wounded at the head through a rocket, and a poor woman was squeezed to death with both children she was carrying on her arms.
But in general, the happy moments still dominate. SD to S during carnival the following year: I think your grace would never have imagined that I once would call an army of knights my own - but I have received them today, and the King is their commander. For I had lost a ribbon from my coat; the King picked it up, put it on and named it "Order of the Purity". I had to give one to the Margrave (of Brandenburg-Schwedt, F1's half brother) as well. I think the next time I visit Hannover you will find me very spoiled.
Meanwhile, young FW has his own ideas about royal style.
FW to S, March 1707: I am eternally grateful to you for wishing me well in wearing my own hair. I do it because I find it more comfortable than wearing a wig; but I am not imitating the King of Sweden in this. (...) I agree with your grace's view that one can only be for war if it serves the happiness of one's subjects and defends one's realm against attacks, but it is also true that a true man has to learn the art of war. I would love to join the field in order to learn soldiering, but I don't want to start a war, against whomever. Thus your grace will approve instead of disagree with my intention to see the world, for I believe it doesn't suit a prince well if he takes only part in pleasures at home and has not gone on any campaigns. It seems to me one educates oneself better if one sees a lot, and I hope the King will wish as little as your grace does that I should care for leisure more than for glory.
(Fashion note: in 1707 the wig young FW doesn't want to wear is the periwig typically associated with Louis XIV, not the much smaller and easier to cope with wig about to repace it, which he'll wear often enough in the future.)
One constant theme is that Sophie is distrustful of coffee and thinks it's not healthy to drink it, but everyone does so more and more anyway. And here's an example of Sophie versus
I hear form Paris that Langalerie has killed the Prince of Anhalt in a duel (...) and so freed the world of a brutal prince who has ruined so many peple's lives that God has punished him for it. One day the Duke of Savoy said during a meal that he was worried because of the wounds of his brother-in-law, the Duke of Orleans. The Prince of Anhalt interjected: "If I had met this bastard, I'd have rammed him through with my sword and would have exterminated his entire family!" The Duke was much insulted, but Prince Eugen said loudly: Don't pay attention to him, he has no idea what he's talking about" and thus calmed down the affair by making it look ridiculous.
Remember, in Liselotte's version, he threatened to shoot her son, not stab him. But whatever he said: clearly neither Sophie nor Liselotte have any intention of getting over it.
VIP visits in Hannover - Sophie meets Winston Churchill's ancestor:
Mylord Duke of Marlborough yesterday came for supper and will leave this afternoon. Among the four Kings whom he's met, he has liked the King of Prussia most, I think, and I can't believe the others have made him as beautiful a present, for our King surpasses them all in this. Grumbkow adresses Mylord Duke as "your highness" in every third word - I don't know, whether he has been given this title by the Emperor, but I don't think he'd be allowed to use it in England.
(Marlborough had indeed been made Reichsfürst of Mindelheim by a grateful Emperor.)
FW sends presents, causing this praise (and diss of G2/Caroline):
I owe my dear, lovely grandson the Crown Prince a thousand thanks for thinking of me before leaving for Wusterhausen. He shows me much kindness, which I'm not used to from my local grandchildren. The pair of them has become indifferent to me and have lost all my respect, for that good lady doesn't say a word which is true (which is very disagreeable). As soon as she says something, one has to assume the opposite to be true, but this must remain among ourselves, my dearest Princess.
However, Sophie does like Fritzchen, aka her first grandchild by Caroline and G2 doomed to be hated by his parents in the future, and she does feel sorry for Caroline getting smallpox (which G2, nursing her, caught from her):
Last Sunday I saw the lovely Fritzchen and then visited the Princess. Larose promises she won't maintain any scars, but one can't yet tell as her entire face is red, which will only pass in time. Then I went to the Prince whom I met taking a stroll in his nightcap and dressing gown; he doesn't look like he'd have had smallpox, one would rather suspect flees to have eaten his face.
The birth of SD/FW's first son makes everyone happy as well and causes Grandpa F1 to make a farting joke which passes Schnath's censorship:
The Prince of Orange recommends himself to his Great Grandmother, and lets her know he has inherited from the House Palatine the art of shooting without powder, specifically from his lady Great Grandmother, who when walking lets off one after another... but I shall interrupt this highminded greeting here.
The baby, alas, dies the next year, and the portrait SD had ordered to be painted so she can send it to her grandmother arrives only after the boy is dead:
S to SD: I received your two lovely letters, my dearest, one of them somewhat later with the postal carriage together with the portrait of the late little prince, which I can't look at without pain. I know it is a weakness, and I know I should act like Frau v. Overkeken, who was irritated when Frau Howe lamented about her husband's dangerous illness: "So what," she said, "he'll arrive earlier in paradise, he's not to be pitiied." But I don't have this strength of soul. I would have loved to keep the little prince with us so much; he looks like his father, and I find he was tall. Little Fritzchen isn't as tall yet, a pretty child, but not very developed yet, he only knows starts to speak a little but can't properly stand yet. I have much risen in his favor after feeding him with cookies.
Future G2 gets to be with Marlborough at Oudenarde, while FW, now that the baby is dead, is clung extra hard to by fretting F1. This does not make FW happy.
Because of Sophie's correspondence with Liselotte, she gets news from the French as well as from the Allied Side in the War of Succession:
S to SD: Madame isn't allowed to write me about the Battle (of Oudenaarde): but she says she believes the Princes would have done better to remain at Fontainebleau where the court currently stays in order to hunt. Since now the Picardie gets scorched hopefully peace will arrive soon.
I know the Crown Prince wants to have the chance to prove his bravery, but I tell him no one doubts it - this is like a decent woman's chastity and belongs to the whole like a nose to a face. But some agree with the army more than others, and I would like that he learns this and learns from the good people with the army, who have changed (future G2) much for the better.
Future G2 writes so many letters home to Caroline that Sophie warms up to them as a couple again. Otoh, this is when F1 decides he has to marry again. Sophie is not a happy camper. Meanwhile, FW tries to get grandmotherly support to make Dad let him join the allied army already:
FW to S, September 1708: I can assure your grace thath I would much prefer a war campaign to all possible gallant endeavours and pleasures! I would like to be in a good mood, but the thought that I have to remain among courtiers while brave men are standing in the field eats me up. I'm fine with whatever the King chooses to do as long as he lets me go to the war as he has promised.
S to SD (snark alert): I am very much concerned about the King, my dear daughter; I'm always afraid this marriage may not be good for his health; for hte late Queen was convinced he was better off when not spending the night with her.(...) I would be delighted if Prince Eugene would visit your court in order to prove that heroes can be polite and always keep their calm, without flying into a temper all the time. The Duke of Marlborough is like that as well; and this is why they are popular and honored everywhere, and show that they are well educated and not such riff raff as Margrave Albrecht who beats and kicks people to prove his authority.
SD is expecting again (Wilhelmine, as it happens), and with this pregnancy, FW gets permission to join the Allied campaign. However, certain rumors about FW are making the rounds and even have reached Liselotte in France. Who writes to Sophie. Who in a not quoted letter must have brought this up to FW. Who writes to Grandma:
FW to S, February 1709: I am much indebted to your grace for the sympathy you show for all concerning me and for confiding in me what is said about me in this world. I don't know through which misfortune I've become a topic of conversation in France; at any rate the description which Madame the Duchess of Orleans has heard of me isn't to my advantage. I don't believe someone can be as impudent as to claim that I abused him or just beaten him, for I know very well how a prince should act. And thus your grace can't begrudge me saying: these are lies and idle gossip!
FW, kicking and beating people? NEVER. There was a fire in the palace and pregnant SD had to run away and stay with the new Queen for the night, so everyone is worried (because of the pregnancy, too). But all is well. I don't know whether Sophie believed young FW's denials, because once he's off to join the army, Dad F1 writes thusly in reply to a not printed letter from Sophie:
F1 to S, March 1709: I don't understand what your grace means that my son would learn in Brussel to have a better opinion of ladies than he currently has. I must complain to you if you think this is something one can only learn in Brussels and not in Berlin?
S to F1: The Crown Prince doesn't hide having a bad opinion of most women; and thus I thought that his royal highness would see in Brussels that while the ladies live there in much greater liberty than in Berlin it still does not mean they have a bad reputation. The Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene have attended their societies and balls on a daily basis, an dI can't help but think it would be good for a young gentleman to see that in the field there are people who still know how behave in society as well.
On to reveals of FW/SD early married life. Now, en route to the front FW will pass through Hannover and visit Grandma.
S to SD: I count the days until I'll have the honor and joy of seeing my dear Crown Prince again. I saw Eversmann from his entourage who told me that you still share a bedroom with your prince, which pleases me a lot, for there shouldn't be any false embarrassment between man and wife. A true wife has great affection for her husband, and I don't share the opnion of Countess Luise when she says one shouldn't be in love with one's husband, for it is only natural to be so. That's idle spinster talk.
SD to S: Your grace will now have the pleasure of having the prince with you; though as he has told me he won't be able to stay for long. I feel his absence more every day, and must admit I can't get used to it. I am so sorry for not being able to follow him to Hannover - because of the pregnancy - where I could have greeted your grace and could have seen him a few days longer. (...) I thought the Countess was already with your grace (...) But I see that she has no idea of the tenderness which a true wife feels for her husband, and that she talks about it as a blind man does of colors. I would be curious to see her married; I think she would then change her tune like everyone else and would love her husband. True, before my marriage I have talked like she does, but I now see I was wrong, for one can't love the Prince more than I do. Everyone talks about peace, and to tell you the truth, I wish it would come, for I am very worried about my dear Prince.
S to SW: We truly did have much joy to see my dear Crown Prince here. (...) Your letter was most opportune, because he didn't receive one; the one you've sent probably was carried by another messenger, which would have worried him if the letter adressed to me hadn't been there, which has caused him much joy. He saw from it how much you love him and how you judge the silly views of the Countess. I also told him it had been the Countess' fault that you were cold towards him during your engagement. He told me that your behavior back then did lead him to believe you did not love him; for he often found your door closed in the evening, and you were not friendly to him despite being his fiancee. I blamed the Countess and her idea that one should not love one's husband, and said that he could see from your letter to me that you were now passionately in love with him, about which he was very satisfied. His first impression of you thus has wronged you; he swore to me his heart was yours now, but, my dear daughter, one has to get used to not always be together. We all found our dear prince to be very amiable; and I don't doubt he'll be even more so once he's seen a bit more of the world, for he certainly has the intelligence for it. I hope there will be peace and thus he won't be in any danger. Thanks be to God he's welll, but he is not how he used to be, for he wants me to let my old head be portrayed, a painting which certainly will be a greater fright as that of Frau v. Harling, who was younger then than I am now.
Meanwhile, worried Dad:
F1 to S: That my son conducts himself well is a great joy to me, and I will not keep him from seeing the world, for I know he's born for it - but why is (future G2) kept at home always? This, you don't mention; I thus have to conclude that my son is not as dear to you as that other boy, for your grace always encourages me to send him away.
Wilhelmine is a girl.
S to SD: I am very glad, my dearest daughter, that you have lost your burden so easily, and if it was only a daughter, you may believe I will love her no less fervently. If good Frau von Harling was still alive, I would urge you to send her to me, but now that I don't have anyone good at raising children anymore, she is probably better of where she is now. Frau v. Sacetot says the baby looks like the blessed Queen, which must endear her to you even more.
1710: I'm enjoying walking through the gardens with Fritzchen when the weather is nice. His little sister is turning out pretty, too, and your little Princess is said to be a beauty! I'm so sorry not being able to embrace her yet. I hope I will see your royal highnesses again here.
Caroline has a stillbirth, and gets entertained by a Saxon musician of future world renown:
I visit daily our princess who now is better and doesn't lie in bed anymore; she delights in the music of a Saxon which surpasses everything that I've heard on the cembalo and in any composition. He has been much celebrated in Italy already. He would be very suitable as a master of the chapel; if the King were to hire him, his music would be much finer than it is today.
F1 doesn't hire him, but Sophie's son does: this was Georg Friedrich Händel who would move to Britain with Team Hannover later. When the three Ws fall in 1711, Sophie wonders why in Prussia, one can't just sack a minister, why someone allways goes to prison and it's such a great drama. Anyway: grandson FW is good with money, maybe let him help F1 reorder the finances. Sophie meets Countess Cosel, then still in power:
Kosel was here, and has caused general admiration even more through her conduct than through her beauty. She is cheerful and talkes a lot and very well with elegant phrases, both in German and in French, and I find the Crown Prince has good taste if he has told you a lot of good about her. But she praised him a lot, too, which could make your royal highness jealous, if this lady wasn't so much in love with the King of Poland, of whom she talks as her husband. For my part, I told her that the responsibility for her relationship with the King was their affair, and not my business, and that I found her very charming.
SD is pregnant again (with Fritz) and the portrait of Wihelmine as a baby is ready. Art critique:
S to SD: I look at the portrait of the pretty little princess every day. But the size which Weidemann has given her she'll reach only in three years.
SD's second son dies:
S to SD: One must accept God's will, though it is very hard to lose your children, as I know all too well through my sad experience. (...) With all my heart, I wish God will give you another son who will be as dear to you and will cause more joy. This is the fervent wish of your old grandmother.
Fritz enters the worldl, which F1 reports to Sophie immediatlely in a letter written the same day. That same year, Sophie mentions in a letter something that happened during one of Peter the Great's earlier European travels, and future G2 and SD were still children.
If you recall the time, my dear, when the Czar took your head and kissed you, you may recall Prince Menchicov who was then standing at the door and against whom your brother wanted to draw his sword since he wouldn't let him pass. Even then it was said the Czar highly esteemed him, but he hadn't raised him as highly as now. I heard of the grateful reception the King of Poland has given him. The Emperor has appointed him a Reichsfürst.
(All for beating Charles XII of Sweden.)
And lastly: Sophie, alas, ships Wilhelmine/Fritzchen (the other one), in a letter for August 27th 1712:
Meanwhile, I'm delighting with you that your little prince is teething without a problem. All the world reports well of the little princess; she is supposed to be adorable. I am always afraid, though, that she shows too much esprit for her age. One can't say as much of her little lover, for he is still very confused in his babblings; his figure, however, isn't unpleasant, even very well formed.
(If anyone cares, proud Grandpa F1's letter to Sophie is even more detailed, he says Fritz has six teeth as of Augusts 30th.)
felis contributes quotes from the simultaneous early marriage correspondence between SD and FW: I don't know through which misfortune I've become a topic of conversation in France
I admit, I had to laugh at this. But more seriously, between this:
always keep their calm, without flying into a temper all the time
and this:
The Crown Prince doesn't hide having a bad opinion of most women; and thus I thought that his royal highness would see in Brussels that while the ladies live there in much greater liberty than in Berlin it still does not mean they have a bad reputation.
I'm really wondering how much SD told Sophie about her relationship with FW, i.e. his jealousy and his suspicions of infidelity, even talk of separation, even this early in the marriage. Having just re-read some of the SD letters to FW, it's really interesting to get this additional perspective on it. Droysen actually includes a quote from Wilhelmine's memoirs to explain what was going on in these letters - FW "had such a bad opinion of all women that his prejudices caused great sorrow to the Princess Royal, of whom he was jealous to all excess [...] This poor Princess Suffered martyrdom by the outbursts of the Prince Royal." - which basically covers both aspects even Sophie mentions more diplomatically.
Some quotes from SD to FW directly:
Undated, but Droysen puts it early on, shortly after they were married: „Your letter surprises me so much that I ask the grace of you to reply to me. If you find it good for the King and the Elector; I will consider myself too happy to have them as judges. I can assure YRH that I do not feel in any way guilty against you, that I have had, since I have the honor of being your wife, all the respect and all the tenderness that an honest woman should and can to have. I flatter myself that YRH will come back from all his false suspicions or you will not be able to find the slightest basis... It is not enough to say that you have complained about me, please say what and the complaining subjects you say you have. As for the ring that you gave me in public and before God in the midst of the Church, it must also be restored publicly, if it is necessary to return it. I know only death that can put separation between us, and we have a long time to live before this one.
November 18th, 1708: You talk to me about separation; I would like you to tell the King, who is your father, about it, and we will see after the examination, which of us is right or wrong. It is very sad to see me treated as you treat me; I have nothing to reproach myself with, neither for the tenderness I have for you, nor against my honor. [...] If Mr. Elector knew, he would be surprised. You should get rid of all these chimeras.
(Interestingly, she refers not just to F1 but also to her father in both of these, as two people who might vouch for / protect her.)
And another letter from the same day, which is really sad given the fate of her mother (I'm wondering how much FW was influenced in his paranoia by said fate): When will you end all the sorrows you give me? [...] You make me see that you hate me. I have told you several times that you must have my conduct examined and if I am wrong, I agree to be locked up for the rest of my life, but I am not afraid, having nothing to reproach myself with. You are not the same, because you do me injustices which cry vengeance before God and before the world, of which you will soon have remorse of confidence.
Given the next thread with all the talk about love, this is quite remarkable. As always, FW, upon seeing SD's letter to Sophie, seems to have mellowed somewhat for a while, but we know the paranoia came back, even though SD never did cheat on him. But "you don't love me as I want you to, so I'll treat you like shit until you do" is a pattern with SD as well it seems - and yet, she still found sides of him to love apparently?
Tags:
- caroline of ansbach,
- eugene of savoy,
- frederick prince of wales,
- frederick the great,
- friedrich i.,
- friedrich wilhelm i.,
- georg schnath,
- george i,
- george ii,
- hohenzollerns,
- john churchill duke of marlborough,
- peter the great,
- philippe ii d'orleans,
- sophia charlotte of hanover,
- sophia dorothea of celle,
- sophia dorothea of hannover,
- sophia of hanover,
- war of the spanish succession,
- wilhelmine of bayreuth
