It was on this day in the Versailles Century (1682-1789), 16 December 1740, that Frederick II of Prussia, not yet called ‘the Great,’ invaded the Austrian-held duchy of Silesia, thus launching the First Silesian War, which formed one theatre of the wider  War of the Austrian Succession.

Silesia, which bordered Prussia, Saxony, and Poland, had hitherto belonged to the crown of Bohemia, i.e. to the Habsburgs. On the death of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI in late October without a male heir, Frederick — himself only King of Prussia for less than half a year — saw his chance. Without a declaration of war, the invasion was a complete surprise and a complete success, blindsiding both the Austrians and the Saxons, who also had their eyes on the duchy. Within weeks, Frederick established complete control over the largely Protestant territory. Though a freethinker himself, he was not above posing as the protector of his nominal co-religionists, who welcomed his rule.

Meanwhile, the Habsburg heiress, Maria Theresa, was outraged by the highjacking of her duchy. Unfortunately, she was facing opposition on all fronts and could not properly respond to Frederick’s aggression. Gritting her teeth, she signed the Treaty of Breslau in 1742, recognizing Frederick’s sovereignty over most of Silesia in exchange for his support of her husband’s candidacy to the imperial throne and some financial considerations.

Needless to say, the story does not end here. It took 2 further wars to settle the matter. Maria Theresa started the Second Silesian War (1745-1748) in attempt to win the duchy back after she had gotten her consort, Francis Stephen of Lorraine, elected Holy Roman Emperor as Francis I, and established control over Bohemia.  The Third Silesian War (1756-1763), which was the local name for the global Seven Years War,  finally forced her to renounce her claim to Silesia forever. It seems she never got over it.

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.

Though in modern times he’s acquired a reputation for Spartanism, Frederick the Great (1712-1786) did himself proud at table.

Die Tafelrunde by Adolph von Menzel (1850), once in the National Gallery of Berlin, where it was burned during the bombing that the museum sustained.  Fortunately, numerous copies and prints exist.   Credit: Wiki Commons.

On this day, 24 January, occurred the birth of the future Frederick II, called the Great, King of Prussia from 1740 to 1786.  The year was 1712, the last full year of the reign of his grandfather, Frederick I, the first king not only of his name, but of the kingdom of Prussia, which until a decade before had been only a duchy.

Two baby princes had already been born to Frederick I’s heir, Frederick William, and his consort, Sophia Dorothea of Hannover, whose own father would soon become king of England.  Both of the little princes had been sickly and died in infancy.  Only baby Frederick’s elder sister, Wilhelmina, had survived of the the crown princely couple’s early brood.  This pair of children would be close for their rest of their lives.

The newly born Frederick was puny, but proved to be quite hardy.  In the end, he lived to be 74, which was a very respectable age in the Versailles Century.

Frederick the Great in old age.  Credit: Wikipedia.

In maturity, he would be a statesman, general, writer, philosopher, art collector, composer, dog lover, devoted friend, doting brother and uncle, and neglectful husband.  Here at Versailles Century, we consider him fascinating and he’s one of our favourite historical characters.

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.

Frederick II (1712-1786) of Prussia, called the Great, was avowedly francophile.  Raised by a French governess and always more comfortable speaking French than German, he read and wrote almost exclusively in the language of Molière.  It’s perhaps surprising, therefore, to realize that he only ever set foot in France once in his long life.

In August of 1740, a few months after his accession to the throne, he went on a tour of his Rhenish possessions, tantalizingly close to the French frontier.  He couldn’t resist slipping into Strasbourg incognito.  Not only was Strasbourg a French city, it was a garrison town, thus allowing Frederick to combine business with pleasure: he could visit the fabled country of which he’d heard so much and at the same time gather military intelligence. Fortunately for us, a young French officer who encountered the King left an eyewitness account of this unofficial visit in his memoirs.  More fortunately still, I picked up a copy of the newly issued edition of these memoirs, Souvenirs du Marquis de Valfons, in the bookshop at Versailles on my visit there in late March, 2016.

I had never heard of this Valfons before.  Born in 1710, he served in Louis XV’s army for several decades.  Apparently very handsome, he also cut a swathe through the court and high society in Paris.  In 1740, he was serving in the Piedmont regiment, which at that time was stationed in Strasbourg.  As far as I can make out, his memoirs have never been published in English.  What follows, therefore, is my own translation of the pages about Frederick’s brief sojourn in Strasbourg.

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.

Germany as we know it today did not exist in the Versailles Century (1682-1789).  The second German Empire (1871-1918), which brought the various German states together into the single national structure that we now call Germany, did not come into being until many decades after the final departure of Louis XVI and his family from Versailles in October, 1789.

In the Versailles Century, Germany was more a geographical region than a country.  It was part of the Holy Roman Empire, which also included the territory of the countries that we now know as Belgium, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Slovenia, as well as parts of present day France, Italy, and Poland.

Here is a map of the Empire in 1789:

The Holy Roman Empire in 1789. Credit: Wikipedia.

By this time, the Emperor had little authority outside his own hereditary territories.  As Voltaire quipped, the Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor even a real empire.