Historical Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 42

[cahn]

Last post, we had (among other things) Danish kings and their favorites; Louis XIV and Philippe d'Orléans; reviews of a very shippy book about Katte, a bad Jacobite novel, and a great book about clothing; a fic about Émilie du Châtelet and Voltaire; and a review of a set of entertaining Youtube history videos about Frederick the Great.

Comments

Re: Augustus Hervey I: Men, Women and Herveys

[selenak]

Frederick married and continued the family line, but he also (presumably when in Italy) fell in love with, drum roll, none other than Wilhelmine Encke, Countess of Lichtenau, chief mistress of FW2.

It's a small world! When would this have been?

His wiki entry doesn't say, and Erskine doesn't, either. Italy is my own guess, depending on how much Frederick travelled, he could have met her just as well in Berlin. However, even a Hervey might think twice before hitting on a King's official mistress when the King is nearby, whereas her journey to Italy provides much more relaxed opportunities. I don't know in which year she was there by heart, but it's in Horowski, and I don't have my copy at hand. Otoh any meeting after 1800 is less likely, because there FW3 had put her on trial, confiscated her property and banished her to Glogau where promptly a pal of E.T.A. Hoffmann's fell for her and married her, despite being decades younger.