History of Frederick the Second, Called Frederick the Great.Abbott, John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot)
History
History of Frederick the Second, Called Frederick the Great.
Abbott, John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot)
Frederick II, King of Prussia, 1712-1786; Prussia (Germany) -- History -- Frederick II, 1740-1786
Fritz went in the royal carriage, with suitable escort, to meet the
young marquis on the Prussian frontier, as he came to his bridals.
They returned together in the carriage to Potsdam with great military
display. The wedding took place on the 30th of May, 1729. It was very
magnificent. Fritz was conspicuous on the occasion in a grand review
of the giant grenadiers. Wilhelmina, in her journal, speaks quite
contemptuously of her new brother-in-law, the Marquis of Anspach,
describing him as a foolish young fellow. It was, indeed, a marriage
of children. The bridegroom was a sickly, peevish, undeveloped boy
of seventeen; and the bride was a self-willed and ungoverned little
beauty of fifteen. The marriage proved a very unhappy one. There was
no harmony between them. Frederick writes: “They hate one another like
the fire” (_comme le feu_). They, however, lived together in incessant
petty quarrelings for thirty years. Probably during all that time
neither one of them saw a happy day.
Fritz had now attained eighteen years of age, and Wilhelmina
twenty-one. Fritz was very fond of music, particularly of his
flute, upon which he played exquisitely, being, however, careful
never to sound its notes within hearing of his father. A celebrated
music-master from Dresden, by the name of Quantz, was his teacher. He
came occasionally from Dresden and spent a week or two at Potsdam,
secretly teaching the young prince. The mother of Fritz was in warm
sympathy with her son, and aided him in all ways in her power in this
gratification. Still it was a very hazardous measure. The fierce
old king was quite uncertain in his movements. He might at any hour
appear at Potsdam, and no one could tell to what lengths, in case of
a discovery, he might go in the intensity of his rage. Fritz had an
intimate friend in the army, a young man of about his own age, one
Lieutenant Katte, who, when Fritz was with his music-teacher, was
stationed on the look-out, that he might give instant warning in case
there were any indications of the king’s approach. His mother also was
prepared, when Quantz was at Potsdam, promptly to dispatch a messenger
to her son in case she suspected his father of being about to turn his
steps in that direction.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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