Birth of a Future (Neglected) Queen on 8 November, 1715

It was on this day 303 years ago that Elizabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel-Bevern was born. Her parents were Ferdinand Albert II, the reigning Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel-Bevern, and his wife, Duchess Antoinette. Among her numerous siblings was another future queen, Juliana, who would grow up to marry Frederick V of Denmark.

Elizabeth Christine’s own queenship came about because one of her paternal aunts, also Elizabeth Christine, was the wife of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI. It was through Austrian influence that the younger Elizabeth Christine was selected as a bride for the then Crown Prince Frederick of Prussia. What the young woman probably didn’t know was that Frederick, desperate to get out from under his father’s roof, only wanted to marry as a way of getting his own household. The young couple were duly wedded in June of 1733, but lived separately for a time since Frederick’s regiment was stationed in Ruppin, some distance from Berlin. In 1736, husband and wife moved into the newly built palace at Rheinsberg near Ruppin, where they remained until Frederick’s accession in 1740. Elizabeth Christine later remembered these years as the happiest of her life, but there were no children. Frederick displayed little interest in women before he came to the throne, and none at all afterwards.

As soon as Frederick became king, he moved back to Berlin. After the completion of Sans Souci, his little palace in Potsdam, he spent most of the year there when he wasn’t at war. Elizabeth Christine was assigned the palace of Schönhausen as a summer residence. He never visited it, nor did he ever invite his wife to Sans Souci. Frederick also avoided court life in Berlin. After his mother’s death in 1757, Elizabeth Christine upheld ceremonial court life in Berlin on her own. It became Frederick’s custom to dine with his wife once a year. Often he didn’t speak to her during these dinners. Legend has it that one year he astonished everyone by going up to her and inquiring after her health.

Though he neglected her, Frederick saw to it that Elizabeth Christine was duly honoured as Queen of Prussia. Her good works — she gave away more than half her income in charity — won her popularity with the people, and she was popular with the other members of the royal family. Elizabeth Christine survived her husband by 11 years, dying in 1797.

This week’s musical monarch, Frederick the Great, was not only a music lover, but a proficient flautist and composer.

Frederick the Great.  Credit: Wikipedia.

Prussia’s future third king developed his musical tastes and talent early.  In the little Crown Prince Frederick’s household was one Rentzel, who was not only Frederick’s drill master but a flautist.  Nancy Mitford, in her biography of Frederick, says of Rentzel that “it was he who started Frederick on music and taught him to play the flute, an accomplishment which was to mean so much to him.”  Frederick’s father, King Frederick William I, was not keen on the flute playing, which he regarded as effeminate, and at times attempted to ban his son from pursuing this past time.  He was not successful.

Today we have the final instalment of Frederick II’s incognito visit to Strasbourg in the summer of 1740, soon after his accession, as remembered by the Marquis de Valfons in his memoirs.

Frederick has now definitely been recognized and the local military governor, the Maréchal de Broglie, wants to entertain him.

In this instalment of our tale, translated by me from the memoirs of the Marquis de Valfons, Frederick, traveling as ‘Count Dufour,’ realizes that his cover has been blown:

‘Count Dufour was not yet in bed when I called at the Maréchal (Marshal) de Broglie’s to tell him what I had seen and what the innkeeper, in the know despite the silence of the count’s suite, had told me.  The Maréchal sent M de Laigle, his wife’s nephew, to offer the noble foreigner lodgings in his own house and everything that he could desire.  Count Dufour, afraid of being recognized, was very annoyed by this message and thanked M de Laigle, then Colonel d’Enghien, who let him go to bed.

François-Marie de Broglie (1671-1745), Marshal of France, created Duke in 1742. Credit: Wikipedia.

If you look for Prussia on a map of Europe, you won’t find it.  It’s gone.  In the 18th century, however, it was very much there, and growing.

This map illustrates Prussia’s expansion before, during, and after the Versailles Century (1682-1789).

Map of Prussia, 1600-1795. Credit: Wikipedia.

In the beginning, two different branches of the House of Hohenzollern ruled Brandenburg (centre) and Prussia (right, in green).  The Margrave of Brandenburg, as you might remember from the previous post, was one of the 9 electors empowered to select the Holy Roman Emperor.  He was generally called the Elector (German: Kurfürst) of Brandenburg.   Berlin was his capital.  Prussia up to the mid-17th century was a vassal duchy of Poland.  Its capital was Königsberg, nowadays known as Kaliningrad.  In 1618, the Elector of Brandenburg married his last surviving Prussian cousin, the Duchess Anna, and henceforward the two states were in personal union.  In other words, the same man was both Elector of Brandenburg and Duke of Prussia, but the two states were administered separately.  A similar situation happened in Britain, with the personal union of England and Scotland after the death of Elizabeth I and the accession of James VII of Scotland as James I of England.