Oh, it’s quite possible that they were a scandal that never happened simply due to Fritz’ orientation. And/or Wilhelmine having a low sex drive herself; I mean, she never cheated on her husband even after he started cheating on her, and granted, she’d been raised as the daughter of He Who Believed In Marital Fidelity, but she had no problem rebelling against Dad otherwise. I’m inclined to believe her when she’s replying from that spa where all the other ladies have their beaus and Fritz goes You Are Not Like Other Girls at her again: Eh, it’s no virtue if there’s no temptation.
I also suspect all those illnesses, migraines etc. in her later years were her body rebelling against a state she didn’t want but which she consciously couldn’t object to. After all, providing a male heir was a wife’s first duty, she’d been raised to believe that, her mother, no matter how terrible her parents’ marriage, had provided thirteen children, and the Margrave was a far more agreeable husband than FW had ever been. There was no reason she could have voiced, even to herself, for not continuing to have sex with him in order to produce a son after all, especially since her having a daughter proved they could have children.
But emotionally, certainly, she loved Fritz above and beyond (remember that “you could just write ‘my sister, I love you, I love you, my sister’ and I’d be content” outburst I quoted a few posts back) in whatever fashion, and their interactions certainly had at times romantic overtones (secret meeting when Fritz was with Prince Eugen’s army and FW had expressedly forbidden any side trips to Bayreuth, or that time he left a love poem for her to find after another visit to Bayreuth (post estrangement and reconciliation), oh, and he wrote her on his wedding night to EC, dated as such, “I never loved you as much as now, and I want you to believe me”). Also, if you look at their estrangement, all the triggers - Wilhelmine sympathizes with the widowed Duchess of Württemberg about wanting custody of her sons back (and may or may not consider alternative matches for her daughter than the one Fritz wants her to make), the Erlangen journalist writes anti-Fritz articles without immediately getting flung into the dungeon, the Marwitz affair and finally the MT meeting near the end of the second Silesian War - come, in Fritz’ reactions, down to the complaint that she’s prioritizing other people and hence can’t love him anymore. And he gets finally over it when believing her not just on “Marwitz: here’s what happened, and why”, but “of course I still love you more than anyone, please believe me for you are my life”.
Now we do have to take into account that the style of the period was overwrought, and people wrote “your servant, always” and “be assured of my utter devotion” to each other even when having no deep connection at all. There’s at least one Deconstructing Fritz biographer I’ve read who is of the “he didn’t love any of his siblings, including Wilhelmine, he was just being rethorical and obeying the emo letter writing mode of the era” conviction. Which, okay. If you think so, biographer. But I think when he’s writing that suicidal letter mid 7 years war after the defeat of Kolin 1757 that everyone is free to end their misfortunes and “you alone tie me to this earth”, he’s voicing the truth as he feels it at that point. And he’s writing it to someone whom this very suspicious man does believe to feel the same way about him.
Re: Wilhelmine
I also suspect all those illnesses, migraines etc. in her later years were her body rebelling against a state she didn’t want but which she consciously couldn’t object to. After all, providing a male heir was a wife’s first duty, she’d been raised to believe that, her mother, no matter how terrible her parents’ marriage, had provided thirteen children, and the Margrave was a far more agreeable husband than FW had ever been. There was no reason she could have voiced, even to herself, for not continuing to have sex with him in order to produce a son after all, especially since her having a daughter proved they could have children.
But emotionally, certainly, she loved Fritz above and beyond (remember that “you could just write ‘my sister, I love you, I love you, my sister’ and I’d be content” outburst I quoted a few posts back) in whatever fashion, and their interactions certainly had at times romantic overtones (secret meeting when Fritz was with Prince Eugen’s army and FW had expressedly forbidden any side trips to Bayreuth, or that time he left a love poem for her to find after another visit to Bayreuth (post estrangement and reconciliation), oh, and he wrote her on his wedding night to EC, dated as such, “I never loved you as much as now, and I want you to believe me”). Also, if you look at their estrangement, all the triggers - Wilhelmine sympathizes with the widowed Duchess of Württemberg about wanting custody of her sons back (and may or may not consider alternative matches for her daughter than the one Fritz wants her to make), the Erlangen journalist writes anti-Fritz articles without immediately getting flung into the dungeon, the Marwitz affair and finally the MT meeting near the end of the second Silesian War - come, in Fritz’ reactions, down to the complaint that she’s prioritizing other people and hence can’t love him anymore. And he gets finally over it when believing her not just on “Marwitz: here’s what happened, and why”, but “of course I still love you more than anyone, please believe me for you are my life”.
Now we do have to take into account that the style of the period was overwrought, and people wrote “your servant, always” and “be assured of my utter devotion” to each other even when having no deep connection at all. There’s at least one Deconstructing Fritz biographer I’ve read who is of the “he didn’t love any of his siblings, including Wilhelmine, he was just being rethorical and obeying the emo letter writing mode of the era” conviction. Which, okay. If you think so, biographer. But I think when he’s writing that suicidal letter mid 7 years war after the defeat of Kolin 1757 that everyone is free to end their misfortunes and “you alone tie me to this earth”, he’s voicing the truth as he feels it at that point. And he’s writing it to someone whom this very suspicious man does believe to feel the same way about him.