In the Hohenzollerns' case, uh, there were witnesses.
*nods* Yup. Among others, the physical and verbal abuse of the older children is also mentioned in those spy reports that went to the Austrian court. (The Maria Theresia two parter early on has a not very historical case of Prince Eugen & Grumpkow scheming to to get those crazy kids - her and Fritz - together in a marriage alliance, difference of religion be damned, thereby solving the succession troubles, and young teenage MT basically is all "You want me to marry into that insane family with all the abuse? Thanks but no thanks, I'm marrying Franzl!") And of course, the post-Küstrin correspondence between Wilhelmine and Fritz still exists in large parts, and once he's out of immediate danger, you get the occasional "today another case of the Queen telling me I'm the worst" mention.
Still, when Wilhelmine's memoirs were finally published fifty years later, there was a lot of "no way that's true, this is evil anti-Prussian propaganda!", not because of her factual inaccuracies (which, btw, were to be expected - she wrote those memoirs in Bayreuth during her three years enstrangement from Fritz without access to state archives, the way today's memoirists would have, or anything to remind her other than her memories) but because half a century later, no one could imagine a king behaving like FW did. Once the original manuscript was produced, though, those "Forgery! Slander!" voices died down.
Btw, worth noting: by 1810 (publication date), Napoleon ruled most of continental Europe and had thoroughly defeated Prussia. Remembering the Fritz and FW eras of past glory as something superb and morally uplifting was consequently really important not just to the Prussians.
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Re: Fredersdorf
Date: 2019-09-10 08:24 am (UTC)In the Hohenzollerns' case, uh, there were witnesses.
*nods* Yup. Among others, the physical and verbal abuse of the older children is also mentioned in those spy reports that went to the Austrian court. (The Maria Theresia two parter early on has a not very historical case of Prince Eugen & Grumpkow scheming to to get those crazy kids - her and Fritz - together in a marriage alliance, difference of religion be damned, thereby solving the succession troubles, and young teenage MT basically is all "You want me to marry into that insane family with all the abuse? Thanks but no thanks, I'm marrying Franzl!") And of course, the post-Küstrin correspondence between Wilhelmine and Fritz still exists in large parts, and once he's out of immediate danger, you get the occasional "today another case of the Queen telling me I'm the worst" mention.
Still, when Wilhelmine's memoirs were finally published fifty years later, there was a lot of "no way that's true, this is evil anti-Prussian propaganda!", not because of her factual inaccuracies (which, btw, were to be expected - she wrote those memoirs in Bayreuth during her three years enstrangement from Fritz without access to state archives, the way today's memoirists would have, or anything to remind her other than her memories) but because half a century later, no one could imagine a king behaving like FW did. Once the original manuscript was produced, though, those "Forgery! Slander!" voices died down.
Btw, worth noting: by 1810 (publication date), Napoleon ruled most of continental Europe and had thoroughly defeated Prussia. Remembering the Fritz and FW eras of past glory as something superb and morally uplifting was consequently really important not just to the Prussians.