However, some time after, the Electoress was oblig’d to wave all the Pleas of Decorum, for the sake of the Need she stood in of the Great Chamberlain; and his Wife had the Honor of the Circle. The same Year that _Kolbe_ was declared Prime Minister, the Emperor made him a Count of the Empire. He then chang’d his Name for that of Count _de Wartemberg_, which was the Name of a ruinous Castle that he had in the _Palatinate_. His Lady, when she became a Countess, had a mind that her Children by her first Marriage should be promoted to the Dignity of Barons; and they were accordingly call’d Barons of _Asbach_. But these new Titles of the Count and Barons compleatly turn’d the Head of Madame _de Wartemberg_, and she was every day guilty of Extravagancies which were disgusting and ridiculous. Such, _Madame_, was the State of our Court in my early years. It began to shew its Superiority over almost all the Courts of _Germany_, by the Influence it had upon the Affairs of _Europe_: But that which added new Lustre to it, was the erecting the Duchy of _Prussia_ into a Kingdom. The first Hint of this was given by _France_ to _Frederic-William_; but that Elector, whether it was owing to some Obstacles that he foresaw, or to the little Advantage he thought to reap from it, was not willing to put the Project in execution. His Son too perhaps would have miscarried in it, had it not been for the Situation of Affairs in _Europe_, on account of the _Spanish_ Succession. _Kolbe_, whom I shall hereafter call the Count of _Wartemberg_, had all the Honour of this Event, because it happen’d in his Ministry. I had some Particulars, _Madame_, from his own Mouth, which I think important enough to have a place in these Memoirs. The Affair is moreover so weighty of it self that I shall trace it from its very beginning. Great Events commonly have their Source in Trifles. This was owing to nothing more than the Refusal of the Prince of _Orange_, who was King of _England_, to give an Arm-Chair to the Elector in a Conference betwixt those two Princes at the _Hague_ in 1695. The Elector cou’d not bear that the Prince of _Orange_, who had always been his Inferior, shou’d carry it to him in such a lofty manner, after Fortune had rais’d him to the Throne of _England_; and from that time he resolved to be a King too.