Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 23

[cahn]

aaaaaand it's time for a new discussion post! :D (you guys are so fast!)

Comments

Re: MT and FS

[felis]

Oh, man, that phonetically spelled language mix is amazing!

Re: coronation - was there such a thing as a Prussian crown and did Fritz ever wear it? I realized that I have no idea.

Re: MT and FS

[selenak]

I don't, either, other that there is no portrait of him or FW with such a thing. Now F1 I'd be 99% sure willing to bet had a crown made for the occasion of crowning himself as King of in Prussia, but otoh I wouldn't put it past FW to have melt it down and/or sold out of thriftiness. And there was no old inheritable crown jewelry for Prussia predating F1, so....

(Whereas the two other Princes Elector who became Kings could of course use ancient crowns, i.e. August the Strong the Polish crown, and G1 one of the English ones.)

Coming to think of it, there's a Menzel painting showing Wilhelm I. being crowned as King of Prussia in Königsberg in 1861 - that's the same Wilhelm who'll later became the first Emperor of the Bismarck-created German empire - here, but it's far too impressionistic to show whether there's a crown involved.

Prussian crown

[mildred_of_midgard]

This picture shows a crown in 1861, the first time it was used since 1701.

Ah, googling F1's coronation gets me this article on F1's crown, which he did indeed have made, and which is the same one used by Wilhelm I (and it even looks the same as the one in the painting I just linked to, so that checks out). Apparently on display in Charlottenburg to this day. So FW did not melt it down!

English wiki says:

The crown was also used for the coronation of Frederick William I and his son, Frederick II (better known as Frederick the Great). He was a very frugal monarch, and although the crown was present at his coronation, he did not wear it.

Which is probably an accurate account if you translate it as "FW and Fritz had homage ceremonies rather than proper coronations."

I see German wiki quotes our guy Johann von Besser, F1's kickboxing master of ceremonies, describing the crown circa 1712. I like the way we keep getting to know all these obscure characters. :D

Re: Prussian crown

[selenak]

The Royal Detective strikes again! Well, that answers Felis' question - there was a crown, and he didn't wear it. And ha, I knew F1 would not have passed by the opportunity to have one made for him.

...I wonder whether the crown is one of those things the current Head Hohenzollern wants either money for or back?

ETA: Yes, they do. (And that's a great close-up photo of the crown in question.) Go figure.

Re: Prussian crown

[mildred_of_midgard]

And ha, I knew F1 would not have passed by the opportunity to have one made for him.

F1: You should see me in a crown. :D

But seriously, I was like 100% sure. How else could he hold his head up among the other crowned heads of Europe? Fritz and FW did it with an army, but this is F1!

Re current Hohenzollerns: my first reaction was, "It probably is, yeah," and sure enough. Nothing if not predictable, this latest generation!