1740 and All That

...by Matthew Dennison. A very readable and recent biography of Queen Caroline. Dennison would get the Horowski seal of approval: he spells all the German names correctly (which is a true challenge in the case of the Countess of Schaumburg-Lippe-Bückeburg), is aware that the Countess of Kielmansegg was G1's half sister, not mistress, and while sympathetic to his main subject is able to investigate her less than stellar sides as well. (Though he thinks Wilhelmine has no idea what she's talking about with her powerhungry-as-Agrippina comparison, since she never met Caroline.) This is especially notable in the description of the increasingly toxic breakdown of the (non-)relationship between Caroline and her oldest son, but more about this in a moment.

The bibliography is impressive. (No books in German, but he's read all the English translations of Sophie's various correspondences he got his hands on, for example, as well as translated into English or French biographies.) I haven't come across an immediately noticeable error save one, and because he's so good otherwise, I'm now actually confused and uncertain whether he could have been right.

( Just which Hannover Princess did Fritz pledge himself to marry in the English Marriage Project? )

On to the life of Caroline.

( Ansbach Cinderella makes it to the Prussian Court )

But back to Caroline, young princess of tiny Ansbach with no big heritage (remember, product of second marriage) hanging out a lot at Berlin. She was a youthful beauty by the standards of her age - bright blond hair, white, luminous skin, a good figure which only later would get heavy, but would almost to the end be perceived as voluptous -, and an impressive conversationalist. Given the lack of a dowry, the amazing thing is that her first proposal should come from a very impressive source - young Archduke Charles, future Dad of Maria Theresa.

( How Caroline rejects an Empire and becomes a heroine to Protestants everywhere )

On to the Georges: in order to make it always clear who is who, Dennison calls G1 George Louis both before and after his becoming King, and G2 George Augustus (ditto). Why was Caroline's attachment to the Protestant faith a good selling point to convince George Louis she could make a good match for his son, despite the lack of a dowry? Because at this point, the prospect of the British succession became increasingly real. Cousins William and Mary had produced no living offspring. Cousin Anne's children had all died. And the reason why the ca. 50 people between Sophie and Anne were disqualified from the succession in the eyes of Protestant England was that they were all Catholics. Now, George Louis and Sophie cunningly let young George Augustus believe this was all his idea, and he went through that romantic undercover mission where he under a pseudonym showed up at Ansbach (Caroline after Figuelotte's death had gone to her half brother's court) and fell in love at first sight. But there was a lot of stage management behind the scenes there.

( Young George falls in love, but what did Caroline feel? )

When the British parliament produced the Act of Settlement (which made it law that any successor to Anne had to be Sophie or a PROTESTANT descendant of Sophie), Caroline, who definitely had the brains of the marriage, inmmediately started an Anglisation project, learning English, cultivating the increasing number of British visitors now showing up at Hannover, reading up on English literature, and on English history. (She became an early member of Tudor fandom, which the poets cultivating her later noted, pleasing her by comparing her to Elizabeth, not more recent Queens like Anne or Mary II.) Among the Brits showing up at Hannover were the Howards. Charles Howard was a louse, and a physically abusive husband, and his wife, Henrietta, had come here with one aim in mind: get a job from the future British monarchs that would get her away from her husband. Her original idea had been becoming lady in waiting to Caroline, which she did, but she also ended up as future G2's first mistress.

( The Caroline-Henrietta-G2 triangle )

Back to the Hannover days when they were all still young.

( G2 wants to join the army; Sophie argues with Anne )

( Caroline and her oldest son: First act of a train wreck )

( George Louis becomes G1 while Caroline hits on a winning strategy to make herself and her husband popular )

So much for the fun part. Meanwhile, the G1 vs future G2 father/son cold war had become a hot one.

( Almost Murder in the Cathedral: G1 kicks G2 and Caroline out of the palace )

This treatment of Caroline has the effect that Europe, which might otherwise have sided with the patriarch, now sides with the young couple, because cutting off Caroline from her children just because she's a loyal wife looks terrible. It also does lasting damage.

( Caroline loses at motherhood and wins at queendom )

Fritz of Wales arrives without public fanfare through the back entrance of the St. James Palace and is presented with a family who hasn't been missing him. Things go downhill from there.

( Final acts of all sorts )

Caroline dies, after that painful illness, Händel composes a new work in her honor ("The Ways of Zion to Mourn"), G2 says "I never saw a woman worth to buckle her shoe" and at the Royal Exchange, a wit posts: "Death, where is thy sting? To take the Queen, and leave the King!" (As by this time, G2 had lost all the popularity he'd had as Prince of Wales, not least because by his trips to Hannover post ascension to the throne, he'd shown that he did not, as had been expected, "hate Germany and love England". Dennison thinks it's very unfair that Caroline is forgotten today, who'd been the first Princess of Wales since a young Katherine of Aragon and who'd been the most powerful Queen Consort in many a generation, too, doing more than any other single member of the Hannover royal family to assure it became largedly accepted in GB, and he opes his biography helps bringing her memory back at least somewhat.

Samuel Jacob Morgenstern's Über Friedrich Wilhelm I. was published postumously in 1793. He died in 1785, one year before Fritz, and it's not entirely clear when this memoir was written, but Richard Leineweber, who wrote his doctoral thesis about Morgenstern and this FW biography, narrowed it down to not earlier than 1766 and not later than 1782, due to various references in the text. More about this later. Morgenstern had a very interesting life, about which more below in the review of Leineweber's doctoral work; the preface to Morgenstern's biopgrahy by an anoymous editor yet to be identified touches on that, but manages to get most of it wrong, including the date of Morgenstern's journey to England, which the preface puts in the year 1739, and the reason for the journey, which the preface declares to have been making peace between a Prussia and Britain on the brink of war. (They weren't, not then.) The preface concludes that in his private life, Morgenstern distinguished himself by being a miser, stubborn, a cynic and through some excentricities as well as through considerable scholarly knowledge, and that one could add some well known anecdotes about him but won't because de mortuis nihil nisi bene. After this introduction, and given the key fact that Morgenstern was a successor to the unfortunate Jacob Paul Gundling (i.e. originally a scholar, hired by FW and treated as a court fool during the last four years of FW's life), you'd expect something critical. On the face of it, you'd be wrong. Leineweber has a fascinating theory about that, which he backs up, but first, my original impressions.


( FW: Misunderstood soul with a love tragically lost along with a crown, both to the same man )

( It's the parents' fault! )

( What FW looked for in a friend )

( Why FW wasn't cruel )

Now, at this point I thought I had Morgenstern's number, but he will surprise us, gentle readers, somewhat later, and massively so.

Keep also in mind Morgenstern only knew FW during the last four years of his life, too. Everything else he describes, he describes from hearsay. But what he writes about FW's daily routine and personnel in his last years, for example, I guess we can take at face value, and since it's the obvious model and yet a contrast to Fritz' daily routine, here you go:

( Days in the Life of FW )

And now we get to the surprise, i.e. where Morgenstern suddenly sounds... downright FW critical. Which made me wonder about my original estimation, because the following passage is anything but hagiographic:

( Attend the Tale of Gundling )


( FW as a father and some trivia )

Having finished the biography, I was in two minds; if it was simply meant as a hagiography, why then more than enough material for the FW prosecution along with all the praise, sometimes directly contradicting the praise? Mildred then discovered the estimable Richard Leineweber, whose dissertation proved to be quite illuminating. Starting with the biographical background on Morgenstern.

( The Life and Times of Jacob Samuel Morgenstern )

( Leineweber's critique of the FW biography as biography )

So: FW hagiography or subversive FW critique? Both, says Leineweber.

This biography, whose title says "Sophie Charlotte: Preußens erste Königin", is actually more the biography of two women, Sophie of Hannover and her daughter Sophie Charlotte. Partly because Sophie lived a far longer life - including outliving her daughter, who died at only 36 years of age - but also because Sophie left snarky memoirs and lots and lots of letters, whereas many of Sophie Charlotte's personal letters, aside of her correspondance with Leipniz, got disappeared over the years, which means we have a far more detailed picture of the first of the triad whom one historian referred to as "the three great Hannover Sophies" (the third one is of course SD).
( A Tale of Queens and Duchesses Ruling Their World )

Aka the results of a week spent in the Mark Brandenburg, post the first. I'm putting these not in the order in which I saw them, but in chronological order as they relate to the timeline of our antihero and relations.


( Dear old Wusterhausen: Aka The Hellhole )


On to Wust. Much as Wusterhausen today is called "Königs Wusterhausen" to differentiate it from other places bearing the name, Wust today is "Wust-Fischbeck", as there are other Wusts as well. This one was the family seat of the Katte clan, which is of course why I was there. You can read Mildred's guide here.

Limiting myself to some additional info and pictures, I give you:

( Dead Kattes Galore: the Pictures )