This prospect is why I'm also not 100% sure she'd have done it. If she believed Fritz would otherwise die or commit suicide out of desperation over FW's treatment of him, then yes. But give up the brother who was her main source of affection, possibly forever, and face a future of becoming Dad's favourite punishment target, when there's still a chance that if Fritz holds out some years more, FW dies and Fritz becomes King? Not sure.
Yeah, that's also why I'm not sure, and why I am sure she was a very reluctant conspirator. (I think I've said this before: his willingness to leave and her reluctance to let him go, I think *must* have fed into some kind of repressed and even subconscious mutual resentment after the fact, no matter how much they understood the other's motives.)
But as for dying: she does record that scene where Fritz tells her FW was trying to strangle him with a cord and had to be pried off him by (invisible and very brave) servants). So maybe?
Re: why Katte remained in Berlin, Fontane is with you, as you might recall. He thinks Katte remained because of his knightly instincts and because he was just too busy to make a getaway in time.
I absolutely remember. :) He was a victim of his knightly disposition. Fontane also thinks Mitchell's "on account of some girl he was fond of" can't be right, because it hasn't occurred to Fontane that "some girl" might be Wilhelmine. ;)
Katte boasting of Fritz' favor: also ties with the part in his letter to his father about having had ambitions etc.
Yep, I always connect those two things too. And while those letters can't be trusted, I have always believed, like you, that he was in no way immune to Fritz being the Crown Prince. Plus that other letter (the Puncta one, written by Müller), where Katte says Fritz had promised him great things someday when he was king (and thus Katte's death shows the vanity of human plans, etc., etc.).
Now, that letter *really* can't be trusted, but given who Katte's father and grandfather were, I imagine he would expect some kind of preferment as a matter of course, and that's not mutually exclusive with him having real feelings for Fritz. (Which I'm sure he did: the fact that he was repeatedly asking to talk to Fritz at Küstrin and was reassuring him that he didn't blame him tells me that, motives for religion and pleasing Dad and going to a "good death" aside, he actually cared about Fritz's feelings after his death.)
Btw, now that I've seen the exchanges between Fritz and AW in the 1730s, I'm more willing to believe in the existence of that letter that Peter Keith is supposed to have carried with him for 10 years, saying that Fritz will always be grateful and stating or implying that there will be rewards someday.
Re: Wilhelmine's Memoirs
Yeah, that's also why I'm not sure, and why I am sure she was a very reluctant conspirator. (I think I've said this before: his willingness to leave and her reluctance to let him go, I think *must* have fed into some kind of repressed and even subconscious mutual resentment after the fact, no matter how much they understood the other's motives.)
But as for dying: she does record that scene where Fritz tells her FW was trying to strangle him with a cord and had to be pried off him by (invisible and very brave) servants). So maybe?
Re: why Katte remained in Berlin, Fontane is with you, as you might recall. He thinks Katte remained because of his knightly instincts and because he was just too busy to make a getaway in time.
I absolutely remember. :) He was a victim of his knightly disposition. Fontane also thinks Mitchell's "on account of some girl he was fond of" can't be right, because it hasn't occurred to Fontane that "some girl" might be Wilhelmine. ;)
Katte boasting of Fritz' favor: also ties with the part in his letter to his father about having had ambitions etc.
Yep, I always connect those two things too. And while those letters can't be trusted, I have always believed, like you, that he was in no way immune to Fritz being the Crown Prince. Plus that other letter (the Puncta one, written by Müller), where Katte says Fritz had promised him great things someday when he was king (and thus Katte's death shows the vanity of human plans, etc., etc.).
Now, that letter *really* can't be trusted, but given who Katte's father and grandfather were, I imagine he would expect some kind of preferment as a matter of course, and that's not mutually exclusive with him having real feelings for Fritz. (Which I'm sure he did: the fact that he was repeatedly asking to talk to Fritz at Küstrin and was reassuring him that he didn't blame him tells me that, motives for religion and pleasing Dad and going to a "good death" aside, he actually cared about Fritz's feelings after his death.)
Btw, now that I've seen the exchanges between Fritz and AW in the 1730s, I'm more willing to believe in the existence of that letter that Peter Keith is supposed to have carried with him for 10 years, saying that Fritz will always be grateful and stating or implying that there will be rewards someday.