18th-Century Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 37

[cahn]

More diaries of our favorite 18th-century Prussian diary-keeper have been unearthed and have been synopsized!

January 18th: Blessed be thou to me! Under your light, my Prince Heinrich was born!

Comments

[cahn]

Wilhelmine did find a young adorer marrying her (a pal of E.T.A. Hoffmann's, btw) there, but once Napoleon had kicked Prussian backsides, she petitioned L'Empereur for the return of her property and the clearing of her name, and what do you know but the French obliged.

Well, I'm glad it worked out for her in the end, I guess!

(I'M also reminded of the Duc de Croy calling her "the Queen of Hungary" in his diaries right until the Diplomatic Revolution, after which point she's the Empress.)

Hee!

My point is, while Heinrich had no reason to feel particularly fond of her, he did see her and her court up close and thus presumably had an opinion on whether she was simply spending too much money or whether she was another case of MESSALINA (tm).

Ohhhh, of course, that makes total sense!

Lastly, here's a question for salon: what do we think Fritz' motives for denying Lehndorff's spring of 1756 request to emigrate with Charles Hotham Jr. were:

Hee, well, I must defer to mildred as the one who has the most insight into Fritz, but I definitely thought that it was consciously (b) and unconsciously (a) :) (With (c) as the one that he would use if he had ever had to justify himself to Lehndorff, which of course he did not.)