Still on the road (for today, back home this night) and with intermittent email access, but: I‘ve now read Uwe Oster‘s biography of Wilhelmine from 2007, which is, at 352 pages, pretty short, concise, and fluently written. Most importantly, it provides me with a few useful dates and some more background info I didn‘t have before, as well as with more quoted letters from various family members, and adds to my speculation as to the reason why Wilhelmine, despite things being already strained with Fritz, risked meeting MT in person when she had to know how he‘d take it. (The rest of the family didn‘t take it any better, more about this in a moment.) After all, she could have pretended to be ill and let the Margrave do the lunch, which would still have pissed Fritz off, but not nearly to the same degree.
Also I found out who the Erlangen journalist was. And where he went after escaping arrest. Naturally, he went to Vienna. :)
Okay, letter quotes: Cahn, as Mildred mentioned, SD and FW had to try a few times before having a surviving male child, and there were in fact two more boys born between Wilhelmine and Fritz, who both died. Grandpa F1 (the maligned by his grandson baroque party boy) was still alive then, and thus has the honor of being the first to report on the Wilhelmine/Fritz relationship. When reporting this latest grandson is still surviving, F1 writes in a letter from February 8th 1712 on his grandchildren: „Our children are still all healthy, especially the prince of Prussia, and it is strange that the princess loves him so dearly, for she despised her first two brothers.“
Bear in mind we’re talking about a toddler here (Wilhelmine was three years older than Fritz.) Now given Wilhelmine was the oldest, and was left in no doubt that she should have been a boy and the boys born after her were the ones to really count, which presumably meant they were also getting the majority of attention in the nursery, I‘m not surprised baby Wilhelmine didn‘t like the other babies; it‘s more surprising three-years-old Wilhelmine should take to the latest arrival. But apparantly she did, without question. (And since F1 isn‘t a later biographer blessed with hindsight but writing in his present with no knowledge this newest boy would survive, he can‘t have made it up.)
I confess I tended to take Wilhelmine‘s memoir claims to having been a clever, admired child early on with a grain of salt, but no, the English ambassador (admittedly with the awareness SD was pushing the English marriage and thus keeping an extra eye on her) reports in 1716: „The oldest princess is one of the most charming children I‘ve seen. She dances very well, her attitude surpasses her years, and so does her mind.“ Alas, grandfather George I was less impressed; that scene in „Der Thronfolger“ when he says to SD „she‘s tall for her age“ and otherwise mainly talks to Fritz is confirmed by ambassador as well.
Leti, for all that she was an abusive fright, also managed to give Wilhelmine a first class education. Wilhelmine started with not yet five years of age to write letters to her father, with only a few days interruption, at this point not solely in French but also in German, which is interesting since Leti was Italian and her other teacher, Monsieur de Croze, was French (so who did talk German to her?), but later exclusively in French. (Which, remember, FW for all his later rants at Fritz was fluent in since it had been his first language as well, courtesy of his own French governess.) These early letters are by Wilhelmine (i.e. not in the handwriting of the governess) and show her as a child eager to impress her father and longing for his affection; on May 8th 1717 she reports proudly that she‘s been brave as two of her (milk) teeth have been pulled and includes them in her letter (they still exist). She swears five years Fritz is doing really really well with the military drill he‘s supposed to undergo, FW can be proud of him, but she also reports on more harmless stuff: „On Sunday a man will come who has a dog who can talk to his master in German, French and English!“
There‘s one of these letters from child!Wilhelmine, though, which shows that much as she loved Fritz, she had her moments of resenting having to take second place to him, too. In May 1719, she writes to FW:
„I am very hurt that you have done my brother the honor of writing to him whereas I, who have written 100 000 letters to you, have never received a single one from you in return. I know very well that my brother deserves more acknowledgement as he is a boy, but it is not my fault that I am not, and I am my dear Papa‘s daughter, too, and I love him. I have been told that my dear Papa only writes to officers, and if this is true, I would like to have a military rank as well. Mademoiselle Leti says I could be a good dragooner‘s captain, if my dear Papa would accept one who wears a dress, but I believe she is making fun of me when she says this.“
She was ten when she wrote this, and it was, of course, (near the end of) a time when she didn‘t actually seee much of her father; a more present FW and the developing warfare between him and SD, complete with first row sight on what it actually meant for Fritz to have FW's full attention, was a cure against longing for his presence, but the longing for acknowledgement and affection despite the simultanously growing resentment because of how abusive he got never completely went away. And this letter from ten-years-old Wilhelmine along with quotes I was already familiar with re: her birth in her memoirs, or that quote in a letter to Fritz about her granddaughter („of that gender first despised and then put on a pedestal and bartered away“) feed into my theory that for that she was of course a product of her time and accepted a great many of its attitudes, some sense of injustice at the way she was regarded as lesser, because female, never went away. And I do think this lay at the heart of her wanting to meet MT in person (and her lame „no, I don‘t admire the Queen of Hungary, I just acknowledge her abilities like those of everyone else“ defense to Fritz afterwards). Because MT, with one and three quarters Silesian Wars behind her, might not have been able to keep Silesia from Fritz but she‘d managed to keep the rest of her Empire intact when basically everyone had expected it would get carved up, she had defied everyone‘s predictions and was proving that a woman could, in fact, rule and get obeyed, not in far away England or Russia, but in the HRE. And this was the one chance in a lifetime to meet her.
(The political reason for someone from Bayreuth to receive MT at all was obvious. Due to her deal with Max von Wittelsbach - Bavaria back vs FS as Emperor - the small principality of Bayreuth know was surrounded by pro-Habsburg countries, not to mention that since FS was about to be crowned, MT was about to be Empress and thus at least nominally the Margrave's liege lady. But like I said - Wilhelmine could have played sick - given the number of times she actually was sick, it wouldn't have been that much of a stretch - and she didn't.)
Oster, as mentioned, is mostly good with dates, and also with keeping in mind circumstances of writing and pointing out contraditctions (between memoirs and letters, for example), and when he quotes from the various ambassadors, he always mentions the then current interests of whichever country the ambassador in question represents. So, the dates for Wilhelmine's estrangement from plus reconciliaton with Fritz:
Summer of 1743: Württemberg trouble with the Dowager Duchess and Wilhelmine appearing, in Fritz' eyes, lukewarm about marrying her daughter to Carl Eugen
January 1744: L'Affaire Marwitz heads towards its climax as Wilhelmine pushes for the Marwitz/Burghaus marriage; this is when Fritz switches from the usual "dearest sister" greeting in the letters to "Madam Sister" (ouch), while Wilhelmine doesn't confess why she wants to marry Marwitz off (and out of the country) so urgently and instead counters the Fritzian argument of "when you left Berlin, you promised Dad you wouldn't marry off any of the Marwitz daughters to a non-Prussian" with "any promise I had to make to Dad was blackmailed and died with him, and I can't believe you're using that argument with me"
July 1744: Johann Gottfried Groß, chief editor of the "Christian-Erlangisches Zeitungs-Extrakt" starts to publish articles with a lot of Fritz critique
12. November 1744: Fritz writes to Wilhelmine that he would never allow any scribbler to print insulting things about his family in HIS country, and in his next letter includes two copies of particularly offensive to him editions of said newspaper
January 1745: Wilhelmine writes that Groß has been arrested, but when Fritz writes back that fine, the guy can go free if he is never allowed to publish again, she has to confess that in fact Groß hightailed it out of Bayreuth before an arrest could be made.
20. January 1745: Karl VII, the former Karl Albrecht of Wittelsbach dies; MT offers her "Bavaria vs vote for FS" deal to Max of Wittelsbach and starts to campaign among the other princes for votes
13. September 1745: FS is officially voted in as Emperor by all the German princes elector (minus Fritz who has a votes Prince Elector of Brandenburg; eventually, as part of the second Silesian peace treaty, he'll provide his belated vote as well))
20. September 1745: Coronation of FS in Frankfurt; en route to said coronation, but the biography does not specify on which day exactly, MT passes through Emskirchen which is Bayreuth principality territory, and there has lunch with Wilhelmine
=> all hell breaks loose.
Before Fritz fires off his letter, though, everyone else does, starting with SD, who writes to brother AW: "Your Bayreuth sister has committed a new idiocy by going to Emskirchen to see the Queen of Hungary. I have written a deservedly angry letter to her about this affair. I don't know what the King will say to this latest extravaganza of hers, but I am deeply distressed", and adds that Friederike Luise, who is married to the Margrave of Ansbach (next door to Bayreuth, so to speak, in terms of principalities) has to be stopped from committing the same "madness". Ulrike from Sweden joins in with a letter to Wilhelmine along the same "how could you be so foolish and treacherous?" lines.
22. November 1745: Fritz invades Saxony (the first time). This basically ends the second Silesian War, with MT agreeing to letting Fritz have Silesia, Fritz belatedly voting for FS as Emperor and writes to Wilhelmine the "have made peace with YOUR FRIEND THE QUEEN OF HUNGARY" letter I already mentioned, along with Wilhelmine's "yay peace! she's not my friend, though cool" reply. Or, to quote it in the original phrasing: "Regarding the Queen of Hungary, I have never had a preference for her or a particular attachment to her interests. I simply do justice to her good qualities and consider it permitted to esteem all people who possess these." (Countered with "you are a traitor and a miscreant" type of letters.)
First half of 1746: Wilhelmine writes a lot of apology and explanation letters.
July 1746: Fritz starts to sound somewhat mollified in his "my heart will speak in your favour even if my head doesn't" letter. More cautious correspondance ensues.
Summer of 1747: Wilhelmine gets sent to a spa by her doctors again. There, she meets a lady-in-waiting to Elisabeth Christine and conspires with her to a coup that will bring the definite reconciliation with her brother: a surprise visit to Berlin. She goes back with the lady to Berlin.
15. August 1747: Wilhelmine sees Fritz for the first time in years. Hugs, tears and happiness ensue.
(She stayed for a while. The English ambassador to Prussia (a new one, who hadn't met her before and thus reports on her to London) writes home re: Wilhelmine at this point in her life: "She regards all time as wasted which isn't spent with books or with people who interest her. She spends all her time by conducting witty conversations with her brother, writing voluminous books and has other books read to her."
Oktober 1747: Wilhelmine is back in Bayreuth and kicks out Marwitz, or tries to. This is when Marwitz pulls the "make your brother pay me my inheritance, or I'll continue to screw your husband" gambit and Wilhelmine has to to explain all. (Marwitz then at last leaves Bayreuth in early 1748 with her Austrian husband.)
Worthy of note and unknown to me before: she explains it to AW as well as Fritz. Because during the time of estrangement, Fritz to convey his displeasure had made AW write to her in his place occasionally, which is when Wilhelmine's actual relationship to this younger brother starts. He also argued in her favour (the only family member to do so), as she will plead for him in the last year of her life and his. Heinrich, she properly meets as an adult for longer when he and youngest brother Ferdinand (they were 22 and 18 at that point) come to her daughter's wedding (September 1748).
The biography offers a bit more of a picture of the Margrave: he was on his Grand Tour when summoned back by his father to marry (which meant he got to see France and the Netherlands but no more). FW did a 180 on his opinion on him; at first, when he didn't know the young man, the future Margrave was simply a means to an end (get Wihelmine married to a non-English minor prince once and for all), and then when he actually got to know him he found out to his displeasure young Friedrich (!) didn't like hunting (!!), played the flute (!!!) and when FW made him drink an entire big cup of beer in one go (you know, the thing that had had unfortunate results with another Friedrich before), was angry enough about this treatment to actually tell his father-in-law just this. (Well, future Margrave had not grown up with FW and thus did not know you do not call out the King on being a bully and a boor.) This happened during Wilhelmine's first post-wedding and birth of daughter visit home to Berlin, and for the not yet Margrave, it was the last visit to his father-in-law as well. Unfortunately, they were financially dependent on FW. Not least because FW, as one last humililiation before the wedding, had Wilhelmine not just renounce her claims to the Prussian succession (as was the custom for all the pincesses once they married) but all claims to her mother's inheritance (i.e. money), which meant she was basically without a dowry. And her father-in-law had only wanted that marriage because of FW's famously filled treasury, what with Bayreuith being a small and indebted principality.
Re: Sibling Correspondance - I
Also I found out who the Erlangen journalist was. And where he went after escaping arrest. Naturally, he went to Vienna. :)
Okay, letter quotes: Cahn, as Mildred mentioned, SD and FW had to try a few times before having a surviving male child, and there were in fact two more boys born between Wilhelmine and Fritz, who both died. Grandpa F1 (the maligned by his grandson baroque party boy) was still alive then, and thus has the honor of being the first to report on the Wilhelmine/Fritz relationship. When reporting this latest grandson is still surviving, F1 writes in a letter from February 8th 1712 on his grandchildren: „Our children are still all healthy, especially the prince of Prussia, and it is strange that the princess loves him so dearly, for she despised her first two brothers.“
Bear in mind we’re talking about a toddler here (Wilhelmine was three years older than Fritz.) Now given Wilhelmine was the oldest, and was left in no doubt that she should have been a boy and the boys born after her were the ones to really count, which presumably meant they were also getting the majority of attention in the nursery, I‘m not surprised baby Wilhelmine didn‘t like the other babies; it‘s more surprising three-years-old Wilhelmine should take to the latest arrival. But apparantly she did, without question. (And since F1 isn‘t a later biographer blessed with hindsight but writing in his present with no knowledge this newest boy would survive, he can‘t have made it up.)
I confess I tended to take Wilhelmine‘s memoir claims to having been a clever, admired child early on with a grain of salt, but no, the English ambassador (admittedly with the awareness SD was pushing the English marriage and thus keeping an extra eye on her) reports in 1716: „The oldest princess is one of the most charming children I‘ve seen. She dances very well, her attitude surpasses her years, and so does her mind.“ Alas, grandfather George I was less impressed; that scene in „Der Thronfolger“ when he says to SD „she‘s tall for her age“ and otherwise mainly talks to Fritz is confirmed by ambassador as well.
Leti, for all that she was an abusive fright, also managed to give Wilhelmine a first class education. Wilhelmine started with not yet five years of age to write letters to her father, with only a few days interruption, at this point not solely in French but also in German, which is interesting since Leti was Italian and her other teacher, Monsieur de Croze, was French (so who did talk German to her?), but later exclusively in French. (Which, remember, FW for all his later rants at Fritz was fluent in since it had been his first language as well, courtesy of his own French governess.) These early letters are by Wilhelmine (i.e. not in the handwriting of the governess) and show her as a child eager to impress her father and longing for his affection; on May 8th 1717 she reports proudly that she‘s been brave as two of her (milk) teeth have been pulled and includes them in her letter (they still exist). She swears five years Fritz is doing really really well with the military drill he‘s supposed to undergo, FW can be proud of him, but she also reports on more harmless stuff: „On Sunday a man will come who has a dog who can talk to his master in German, French and English!“
There‘s one of these letters from child!Wilhelmine, though, which shows that much as she loved Fritz, she had her moments of resenting having to take second place to him, too. In May 1719, she writes to FW:
„I am very hurt that you have done my brother the honor of writing to him whereas I, who have written 100 000 letters to you, have never received a single one from you in return. I know very well that my brother deserves more acknowledgement as he is a boy, but it is not my fault that I am not, and I am my dear Papa‘s daughter, too, and I love him. I have been told that my dear Papa only writes to officers, and if this is true, I would like to have a military rank as well. Mademoiselle Leti says I could be a good dragooner‘s captain, if my dear Papa would accept one who wears a dress, but I believe she is making fun of me when she says this.“
She was ten when she wrote this, and it was, of course, (near the end of) a time when she didn‘t actually seee much of her father; a more present FW and the developing warfare between him and SD, complete with first row sight on what it actually meant for Fritz to have FW's full attention, was a cure against longing for his presence, but the longing for acknowledgement and affection despite the simultanously growing resentment because of how abusive he got never completely went away. And this letter from ten-years-old Wilhelmine along with quotes I was already familiar with re: her birth in her memoirs, or that quote in a letter to Fritz about her granddaughter („of that gender first despised and then put on a pedestal and bartered away“) feed into my theory that for that she was of course a product of her time and accepted a great many of its attitudes, some sense of injustice at the way she was regarded as lesser, because female, never went away. And I do think this lay at the heart of her wanting to meet MT in person (and her lame „no, I don‘t admire the Queen of Hungary, I just acknowledge her abilities like those of everyone else“ defense to Fritz afterwards). Because MT, with one and three quarters Silesian Wars behind her, might not have been able to keep Silesia from Fritz but she‘d managed to keep the rest of her Empire intact when basically everyone had expected it would get carved up, she had defied everyone‘s predictions and was proving that a woman could, in fact, rule and get obeyed, not in far away England or Russia, but in the HRE. And this was the one chance in a lifetime to meet her.
(The political reason for someone from Bayreuth to receive MT at all was obvious. Due to her deal with Max von Wittelsbach - Bavaria back vs FS as Emperor - the small principality of Bayreuth know was surrounded by pro-Habsburg countries, not to mention that since FS was about to be crowned, MT was about to be Empress and thus at least nominally the Margrave's liege lady. But like I said - Wilhelmine could have played sick - given the number of times she actually was sick, it wouldn't have been that much of a stretch - and she didn't.)
Oster, as mentioned, is mostly good with dates, and also with keeping in mind circumstances of writing and pointing out contraditctions (between memoirs and letters, for example), and when he quotes from the various ambassadors, he always mentions the then current interests of whichever country the ambassador in question represents. So, the dates for Wilhelmine's estrangement from plus reconciliaton with Fritz:
Summer of 1743: Württemberg trouble with the Dowager Duchess and Wilhelmine appearing, in Fritz' eyes, lukewarm about marrying her daughter to Carl Eugen
January 1744: L'Affaire Marwitz heads towards its climax as Wilhelmine pushes for the Marwitz/Burghaus marriage; this is when Fritz switches from the usual "dearest sister" greeting in the letters to "Madam Sister" (ouch), while Wilhelmine doesn't confess why she wants to marry Marwitz off (and out of the country) so urgently and instead counters the Fritzian argument of "when you left Berlin, you promised Dad you wouldn't marry off any of the Marwitz daughters to a non-Prussian" with "any promise I had to make to Dad was blackmailed and died with him, and I can't believe you're using that argument with me"
July 1744: Johann Gottfried Groß, chief editor of the "Christian-Erlangisches Zeitungs-Extrakt" starts to publish articles with a lot of Fritz critique
12. November 1744: Fritz writes to Wilhelmine that he would never allow any scribbler to print insulting things about his family in HIS country, and in his next letter includes two copies of particularly offensive to him editions of said newspaper
January 1745: Wilhelmine writes that Groß has been arrested, but when Fritz writes back that fine, the guy can go free if he is never allowed to publish again, she has to confess that in fact Groß hightailed it out of Bayreuth before an arrest could be made.
20. January 1745: Karl VII, the former Karl Albrecht of Wittelsbach dies; MT offers her "Bavaria vs vote for FS" deal to Max of Wittelsbach and starts to campaign among the other princes for votes
13. September 1745: FS is officially voted in as Emperor by all the German princes elector (minus Fritz who has a votes Prince Elector of Brandenburg; eventually, as part of the second Silesian peace treaty, he'll provide his belated vote as well))
20. September 1745: Coronation of FS in Frankfurt; en route to said coronation, but the biography does not specify on which day exactly, MT passes through Emskirchen which is Bayreuth principality territory, and there has lunch with Wilhelmine
=> all hell breaks loose.
Before Fritz fires off his letter, though, everyone else does, starting with SD, who writes to brother AW: "Your Bayreuth sister has committed a new idiocy by going to Emskirchen to see the Queen of Hungary. I have written a deservedly angry letter to her about this affair. I don't know what the King will say to this latest extravaganza of hers, but I am deeply distressed", and adds that Friederike Luise, who is married to the Margrave of Ansbach (next door to Bayreuth, so to speak, in terms of principalities) has to be stopped from committing the same "madness". Ulrike from Sweden joins in with a letter to Wilhelmine along the same "how could you be so foolish and treacherous?" lines.
22. November 1745: Fritz invades Saxony (the first time). This basically ends the second Silesian War, with MT agreeing to letting Fritz have Silesia, Fritz belatedly voting for FS as Emperor and writes to Wilhelmine the "have made peace with YOUR FRIEND THE QUEEN OF HUNGARY" letter I already mentioned, along with Wilhelmine's "yay peace! she's not my friend, though cool" reply. Or, to quote it in the original phrasing: "Regarding the Queen of Hungary, I have never had a preference for her or a particular attachment to her interests. I simply do justice to her good qualities and consider it permitted to esteem all people who possess these." (Countered with "you are a traitor and a miscreant" type of letters.)
First half of 1746: Wilhelmine writes a lot of apology and explanation letters.
July 1746: Fritz starts to sound somewhat mollified in his "my heart will speak in your favour even if my head doesn't" letter. More cautious correspondance ensues.
Summer of 1747: Wilhelmine gets sent to a spa by her doctors again. There, she meets a lady-in-waiting to Elisabeth Christine and conspires with her to a coup that will bring the definite reconciliation with her brother: a surprise visit to Berlin. She goes back with the lady to Berlin.
15. August 1747: Wilhelmine sees Fritz for the first time in years. Hugs, tears and happiness ensue.
(She stayed for a while. The English ambassador to Prussia (a new one, who hadn't met her before and thus reports on her to London) writes home re: Wilhelmine at this point in her life: "She regards all time as wasted which isn't spent with books or with people who interest her. She spends all her time by conducting witty conversations with her brother, writing voluminous books and has other books read to her."
Oktober 1747: Wilhelmine is back in Bayreuth and kicks out Marwitz, or tries to. This is when Marwitz pulls the "make your brother pay me my inheritance, or I'll continue to screw your husband" gambit and Wilhelmine has to to explain all. (Marwitz then at last leaves Bayreuth in early 1748 with her Austrian husband.)
Worthy of note and unknown to me before: she explains it to AW as well as Fritz. Because during the time of estrangement, Fritz to convey his displeasure had made AW write to her in his place occasionally, which is when Wilhelmine's actual relationship to this younger brother starts. He also argued in her favour (the only family member to do so), as she will plead for him in the last year of her life and his. Heinrich, she properly meets as an adult for longer when he and youngest brother Ferdinand (they were 22 and 18 at that point) come to her daughter's wedding (September 1748).
The biography offers a bit more of a picture of the Margrave: he was on his Grand Tour when summoned back by his father to marry (which meant he got to see France and the Netherlands but no more). FW did a 180 on his opinion on him; at first, when he didn't know the young man, the future Margrave was simply a means to an end (get Wihelmine married to a non-English minor prince once and for all), and then when he actually got to know him he found out to his displeasure young Friedrich (!) didn't like hunting (!!), played the flute (!!!) and when FW made him drink an entire big cup of beer in one go (you know, the thing that had had unfortunate results with another Friedrich before), was angry enough about this treatment to actually tell his father-in-law just this. (Well, future Margrave had not grown up with FW and thus did not know you do not call out the King on being a bully and a boor.) This happened during Wilhelmine's first post-wedding and birth of daughter visit home to Berlin, and for the not yet Margrave, it was the last visit to his father-in-law as well. Unfortunately, they were financially dependent on FW. Not least because FW, as one last humililiation before the wedding, had Wilhelmine not just renounce her claims to the Prussian succession (as was the custom for all the pincesses once they married) but all claims to her mother's inheritance (i.e. money), which meant she was basically without a dowry. And her father-in-law had only wanted that marriage because of FW's famously filled treasury, what with Bayreuith being a small and indebted principality.