King Paul I. and Queen Friederike

[CyrilSebastian]

In 1950 King Paul and Queen Frederika received a visit from Prince Philip and Princess Elizabeth of Great Britain.   
King Paul was astonished that Prince Philip spent hours drafting his own letters and memos in pencil.

Really? Can I ask where you read that? King Paul's Memoirs?

     
 
Pavlos No Ordinary King by Nikos Politos   
http://www.royalbooknews....m/2015_07_01_archive.html

[fruela]

Thank you so much, CyrilSebastian. It's currently  unavailable ( it was a limited edition -- 1000 copies).

[Carreen]

Isn't it strange? Kaiser Wilhelm II was so obsessed with sons and primogeniture, he had so many of them! heirs and spares and more spares... and yet, the only descendant of his sitting on a throne was his great-granddaughter Sofia, daughter of a daughter of Wilhelm's daughter! That's funny.

(The Kaiser's daughter was his favourite child btw and her marriage to a Hanover prince a reconciliation within Germany, and the last event where the "royal mob" could come together... there are some nice little films of the event on Youtube...)

[anastasia beaverhausen]

Isn't it strange? Kaiser Wilhelm II was so obsessed with sons and primogeniture, he had so many of them! heirs and spares and more spares... and yet, the only descendant of his sitting on a throne was his great-granddaughter Sofia, daughter of a daughter of Wilhelm's daughter! That's funny.

(The Kaiser's daughter was his favourite child btw and her marriage to a Hanover prince a reconciliation within Germany, and the last event where the "royal mob" could come together... there are some nice little films of the event on Youtube...)

Yes, that is very strange indeed.

And, since he was a primary catalyst for the destruction of so many European monarchies, I wonder what he would make of it all now?

[Carreen]

He was a loving father to Viktoria Luise, and I guess/hope/wish he'd be very proud of her granddaughter :-)

My view of Wilhelm II has softened a bit over the years, after reading Christopher Clark, Christina Croft and Gareth Russell. He was without a doubt a difficult and troubled personality but he didn't start WWI and didn't want it. He didn't de-escalate in the years of the build-up, though, and his tactlessness was breathtaking. Both his sister Sophie and his granddaughter Frederica had to deal with the "Prussian reputation" when they came to Greece. I wonder btw whether Queen Sofia of Spain carries her beautiful name to commemorate Queen Sophie?

[anastasia beaverhausen]

He was a loving father to Viktoria Luise, and I guess/hope/wish he'd be very proud of her granddaughter :-)

My view of Wilhelm II has softened a bit over the years, after reading Christopher Clark, Christina Croft and Gareth Russell. He was without a doubt a difficult and troubled personality but he didn't start WWI and didn't want it. He didn't de-escalate in the years of the build-up, though, and his tactlessness was breathtaking. Both his sister Sophie and his granddaughter Frederica had to deal with the "Prussian reputation" when they came to Greece. I wonder btw whether Queen Sofia of Spain carries her beautiful name to commemorate Queen Sophie?

[/b]

She probably does, especially since her name was originally “Sophia”.

Just curious - after your reading about Wilhelm, what is your opinion of his mother, Kaiserin Victoria?  I’ve seen many divergent opinions about her.

[Carreen]

Oh, I love Vicky, she's among my favourite characters in history, I love reading her letters and feel horrible about the way she was treated in Germany. She was highly intelligent and forthright and nowadays would have become a high caliber academic like Mary Beard. She was a feminist of the first generation, a warm hearted, devoted daughter, wife and mother, and at the same time, a very difficult woman.

She has left as legacy a view of her three eldest children that is distorted by the conflicts she had with them - and her eloquence turned her words, often written in anger or frustration, into judgements written in stone. It's so wonderful to read her correspondence with her mother. When Queen Victoria was angry with Alice or anyone else, Vicky tried to calm her. And when Vicky was angry at her children, her mother tried to calm her in turn. They resembled each other in character - but Queen Victoria had an outlet for her energies and her will to rule, to move and change things. Her daughter never had.

So I think it's a huge huge pity that Vicky and her husband couldn't bring their ideas, the Coburg plan, to fruition - German, European, world history might have developed differently if Germany had turned into a constitutional monarchy and the historic union between Britain and Germany might have given a stable foundation to European power politics. (All speculation of course!) I admire her very much. The cold criticism of the Prussian court would have crushed me. I don't know how she could go on with all the good work she did, snubbed at every corner.

But her flaws, her uncompromising and harsh words about her son William have done much damage to her own position, to their relationship and to the way he was perceived in England and Germany. Obviously, William and Auguste Victoria, his wife, did nothing to undo the damage when they were in power.

She was a complex woman, fascinating, clever, sometimes very tactless, a sharp observer with a number of blind spots.

I think among her most complex actions were her matchmaking efforts. She pushed the marriage between her brother Bertie and Alix of Denmark - she couldn't know that this marriage would put a wedge into the BRF (but obviously the friendship between the two women shows that they both were able to appreciate each other above and beoynd political power games, and the marriage turned out well, thanks to Alix's supernatural ability to ignore her husband's antics).

Vicky also supported William's courtship of Auguste Victoria, her goddaughter - who really treated her mother-in-law shabbily as soon as she herself was Empress (and never listened to Vicky's advice, what a pity). And the Battenberg marriage scheme for her daughter Moretta made so much bad blood... but shows how she, like her mother, was above royal blood-snobbism.  

I've been her fan for many years so probably others can answer more objectively ;-)


SORRY if this was too long and OT! Couldn't manage any shorter!!!

[anastasia beaverhausen]

No, not too long at all!  Thank you! 

I read “An Uncommon Woman” by Hannah Pakula many years ago and still remember feeling extremely sorry for Victoria for the horrible environment she was placed into in Prussia. She had almost no control over her own life.

But her marriage seems to have been very happy. Very tragic that Friedrich was only Kaiser for 3 months. 

[Kaiserin]

Vicky spent the rest of her live close to where I live - she made Kronberg / Taunus her widow seat.


The castle fell to the House of Hesse after her death (one of her daughters was married into that House). They still own it, and run a Hotel there (part of the "Small luxury hotel of the world"-group) with a very high class restaurant.
The views from the terrace of the restaurant towards Frankfurt are magnificent, especially on summer evenings. *)

"Kaiserin Friedrich" as she called herself in honour of her husband is thus still very present here in the area. Several schools & streets in Kronberg and Bad Homburg bear her name.

She was certainly a mind ahead of her times and highly engaged in social projects ... unfortunately, the Prussians didn't honour that. She would have made a wonderful and supporting consort, a pity that she had only 99 days to prove that.


___
*) That is, by the way, the same castle where the Hessians had hidden their House jewels during WII, which were stolen after '45 (during the time the US Army made the castle one of their headquarters) by the manager of the Officer's club and her husband. Part of this million dollar treasure could never be found again.

[getafix]

Kaiserin 


great info 

but I think the castle looks like the one Adams family used to live in 

G

[Carreen]

I'm reading Andrew Morton's 17 Carnations right now. Morton says that Friederike was one of the candidates for the Prince of Wales' hand (David - later Edward VIII) as her mother had been before her. Viktoria Luise was older than David and the idea was dropped quickly. Years later, when Hitler brought up the idea of Friederike, her daughter was too young for him.

Morton:

"As keen as Hitler was on seeing this royal match take place, the Duchess of Windsor's biographer Charles Higham is perhaps stretching a point when he argues that if Edward and Friederike had married and Wallis Simpson had remained a "backstreet mistress" it is "doubtful whether World War II could have occurred".

Perhaps... ;-)

[Kaiserin]

Kaiserin 


great info 

but I think the castle looks like the one Adams family used to live in 

G

LOL, yes.
Contrary to so many of our German castles, it's not as old as it looks. It was built late 19th Century only (making it about 130 years old only), albeit in neo gothic Tudor style.
And yes, Addams family IS the epitome of "gothic" ...