If it's any comfort, Carlyle's reputation - well, not the general one, but the one of his Fritz biography as THE biography - has been going downhill througout the last century, even before most people detoxed on the Great Man of History dogma. But speaking of Wilhelmine's issues with her brothers' boyfriends (i.e. Katte and to a letter degree Keith), my own theory is that it's mostly a case of close siblings jealeaousy issues. Meaning: she and Fritz had arguably been each other's most important emotional relationship (and the only non-abusive one within their family), then post puberty they were cast into mostly separate social spheres, and he started to form intense emotional ties to other people. Which she couldn't consciously blame him for, of course it's good to have friends, but still, it makes for a sense of getting emotionally left behind or at best having to share, and so her subconscious decided that first Keith, then Katte were suspicious characters, so she'd have some reason she could articulate to herself for her resentment.
(Carlysle, of course, has no such excuse.)
I'm currently re-listening to the audio version of the Fritz/Wilhelmine correspondance which I own, and it reminded me that it really does back up Wilhelmine's descriptions not just of her father's but her mother's behaviour years later in the memoirs. In 1733 when the question is whether she should come back to Potsdam for a visit, she writes to Fritz "the Queen hates me, I have been called 'the vomit of humanity'" and that she's not up for an encore of that in combination of their father's behavior if Fritz is simultanously kept away (as he was during the last time she was in Berlin).
It also struck me that the two of them don't appear to have been close to any of their other siblings at any point. I mean, in one letter Fritz reports, re: their father, "Sophie is now the favourite, but only in contrast of her married siblings, and it will only last till her own marriage, while Charlotte is in disgrace", but otherwise they hardly mention their sisters and brothers at all, and never seem to have considered trusting them with their respective secrets, asking for their opinions etc. It's basically a "you and me against the world" thing formed early on.
Re: Tragic ship
(Carlysle, of course, has no such excuse.)
I'm currently re-listening to the audio version of the Fritz/Wilhelmine correspondance which I own, and it reminded me that it really does back up Wilhelmine's descriptions not just of her father's but her mother's behaviour years later in the memoirs. In 1733 when the question is whether she should come back to Potsdam for a visit, she writes to Fritz "the Queen hates me, I have been called 'the vomit of humanity'" and that she's not up for an encore of that in combination of their father's behavior if Fritz is simultanously kept away (as he was during the last time she was in Berlin).
It also struck me that the two of them don't appear to have been close to any of their other siblings at any point. I mean, in one letter Fritz reports, re: their father, "Sophie is now the favourite, but only in contrast of her married siblings, and it will only last till her own marriage, while Charlotte is in disgrace", but otherwise they hardly mention their sisters and brothers at all, and never seem to have considered trusting them with their respective secrets, asking for their opinions etc. It's basically a "you and me against the world" thing formed early on.