Luise, Queen, consort of Frederick William III, King of Prussia, 1776-1810; Queens -- Germany -- Prussia -- Biography
The Crown-prince, who was now burning to distinguish himself and to
prove worthy of his beloved, was particularly valiant in the siege of
Landau, at which he had command of the royal guard. However, two months
later, November 27, 1793, he and his brother were recalled from the
field by the King, who had grown tired of the war in consequence of
disagreements among the Allies. In the meantime the Crown-prince’s
palace, in which Frederick William, as Crown-prince and as King, lived
and died, was being newly furnished and made ready to receive the young
pair.
Chapter II
Louise as Crown-princess of Prussia
On the seventeenth of December, Louise and her sister left Darmstadt,
which had become like home to them. Accompanied by their father and the
widowed Landgravine, their grandmother, they travelled by way of
Würzburg, Hildburghausen, Weimar, Leipzig, and Wittenberg to Potsdam,
where they arrived on the twenty-first of December. In the outskirts of
this city of Frederick the Great, they were met by bands of citizens on
horseback, carrying the Prussian and Mecklenburg colors, and there
sixteen postilions gave them the first salute of welcome. The
Brandenburg arch in Potsdam had been furnished with a special gate of
honor by the citizens. The street leading westward from this gateway was
renamed in honor of the Princess, and the open square before it was
called Louise Square. On their arrival, toward evening, all the windows
were illuminated and the streets lighted with torches. The guild of
butchers in Potsdam particularly distinguished itself. The masters, in
brown coats with gold shoulder-straps, red, gold-bordered vests, and
high, three-cornered hats with gold tassels, cockades, and red pompons,
carried curved hussar sabres and bestrode horses decked with red
trappings, and were preceded by three lusty trumpeters and the waving
banner of their guild. In memory of this occasion, when (in 1804) the
old banner was discarded, Queen Louise presented the honorable guild
with a handsome new one.
The entry of the Princesses into Berlin took place on the twenty-second
of December. Both Princes escorted their brides-to-be from Potsdam. The
guilds and societies of Berlin assembled in the village of Schöneberg,
an hour distant, in order to ride in front of the carriage of state. Six
postal secretaries, at the head of forty trumpeters in new festal
garments, led the torch-light procession from Schöneberg. Next to these
came the company of carters in blue; next, the Berlin guild of butchers
in blue; the sharpshooters in green with peach-colored trimmings; a
company of Berlin citizens in old knightly costumes; the brewers and
maltsters in blue; two companies of young clerks; and at the end, the
merchants of the three guilds in red and blue.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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