powerful than the king, and of these the greatest was Hugh le Grand,
father of the celebrated Hugh Capet from whom all the French kings
traced their descent. Him Bernard count of Senlis sought, and implored
his aid on behalf of Richard, which Hugh readily promised; but the
compact did not last long, for when Louis offered him half of Normandy
as a bribe, Hugh abandoned Richard's cause, and made ready for the
invasion of the duchy. Bernard turned white with rage when he learnt
what had happened, but he did not waste words, and after going to Rouen
in order to consult with Bernard the Dane, a swift little ship sailed
down the Seine and steered for the coast of Denmark. At the same time a
messenger was secretly sent to Paris, where Richard was in hiding, and
by night he was brought down the Seine and into Rouen. Three weeks later
a fleet with Viking prows, commanded by the famous warrior Harold
Blue-tooth, appeared off the Norman coasts and lay at anchor in a quiet
bay, till the men they carried were needed. Not many hours later a
watchman on one of the towers perceived a large army approaching from
the north-east. When within a mile of the city, it halted, and a herald
was sent out, summoning the duke to surrender, in the name of the king
his sovereign lord. Instead of the duke, Bernard the Dane came forth to
speak with him, and bade him return to his master and tell him the only
conditions on which the gates would be opened. They were not hard, but
chief amongst them was the stipulation that Louis should enter attended
only by his pages, and that his army should remain outside. So well did
Bernard act, that he not only contrived to set at rest Louis' suspicions
of himself by paying him all the honour possible, but when he was safe
in the palace contrived to instil into his mind doubts of Hugh, till the
king agreed to break the alliance between them. After he had
accomplished this, Bernard threw off the mask, and bade Harold
Blue-tooth march from Cherbourg and join the Normans in an attack on the
French, who were easily defeated. Harold's next step was to take
possession of the duchy on behalf of Richard, but, instead of remaining
in it himself as the real governor, merely assisted the Normans to
obtain the freedom of their country from the captive king. At a meeting
between Louis, Hugh and Richard on the banks of the Epte, the king was
forced to surrender the rights he had illegally assumed, and Normandy
was declared independent. Then they all went their ways, Louis to Laon,
which had undergone a siege from Hugh, and Harold to Denmark, while
grand preparations were made for the state entry of Richard into Rouen.
Crowds lined the streets through which Richard was to pass, and from the
city gate to the cathedral the whole multitude was chattering and
trembling with excitement. After many false alarms the banner of
Normandy was seen in the distance framed in the doorway, while brightly
polished armour glittered in the sun. A little in advance of his
guardians rode Richard on a white horse, prouder of wearing for the
first time a coat of mail and a helmet than even of taking possession of
his duchy and receiving the homage of his subjects. He was barely
thirteen, tall for his age, handsome, with a kind heart and pleasant
manners. He had more book-learning, too, than was common with princes of
his time, and on wet days could amuse himself with chess, or in reading
some of the scrolls laid up in his palace of Rouen. Young though he was,
his life had been passed in a hard school, and already he was skilled in
judging men, and cautious how he trusted them.
Through the streets he rode smiling, winning as he went the love which
was to stand by him to the end of his long life. At the west door of the
cathedral he dismounted, and, unfastening his helmet, walked, amid cries
of 'Long live Richard our Duke,' 'Hail to the Duke of Normandy',
straight up to the High Altar. There he knelt and prayed, while the
shouting multitudes held their peace reverently. Then at length he rose
from his knees and turned and faced them.
'Four years ago,' he said, 'you swore oaths of loyalty to me, and now I
swear them to you. In war and in peace we will stand together, and with
my people by my side I am afraid of nobody. From over the seas the
fathers of many of you came with my fathers, but whether you be Bretons,
Normans, or Danes, I love you all, and will deal out justice to all of
you.'
'Bretons, Normans, and Danes are we,
'But of us all Danes in our welcome to thee'
was their answer.
_FREDERICK AND WILHELMINE_
IT is often very hard to believe that grown-up people were ever little
children who played with dolls or spun tops, and felt that they could
never be happy again when the rain came pouring down and prevented them
from going to a picnic, or having the row on the lake which had been
promised them as a birthday treat.
Frederick the Great, the famous king of Prussia, would have played if he
could in his childhood, and if his father would have let him. But,
unfortunately for Frederick and his elder sister Wilhelmine, and indeed
for all the other little princes and princesses, the king of Prussia
thought that time spent in games was time wasted, and when, in 1713, he
succeeded his old father, everything in the kingdom was turned upside
down. Some of his reforms were very wise, some only very meddlesome, as
when he forbade the applewomen to sit at their stalls in the market
unless they had knitting in their hands, or created an order of Wig
Inspectors, who had leave to snatch the wigs off the heads of the
passers-by, so as to make sure they bore the government stamp showing
that the wigs had paid duty. Another of the king's fancies was to allow
only the plainest food to be cooked in the palace, while he refused to
permit even the queen to have any hangings that attracted dust. For this
second king of Prussia was very clean, in days when washing was thought
dangerous, and all through his life he frequently accuses the crown
prince Frederick of being dirty.
[Illustration: The Wig-inspector at Work]
But king Frederick William's real passion was soldiering. He had served
in the Netherlands under Marlborough and prince Eugene when he was a
mere boy, and the roar of the guns sounded always in his ears, as his
poor little son found to his cost. Unlike other kings, who were always
dressed in the finest silks and brocades, Frederick William wore a
uniform of blue, with red collar and cuffs, while his breeches and
waistcoat were of buff. By his side hung his sword, and in his hand he
carried a cane, which he did not scruple to use on the head of any man
whom he caught idling in the streets. Most of his spare moments were
spent in drilling his soldiers, and he took particular delight in a
regiment of Potsdam Guards, formed of the tallest men that could be
found, either in Prussia or elsewhere. To his great delight, the Tsar
Peter the Great sent him, in the year 1717, a hundred and fifty giants,
from seven to eight feet high, in return for the hospitality he had
received from the court of Berlin; and every autumn a certain number
were regularly expected. The foolish king never guessed that these poor
creatures had not half the strength of men of ordinary size, and would
never be able to stand the hardships of war. The regiment was his pride,
and if he could not enlist soldiers for it by fair means, he would do so
by foul. There is a story of a very tall young carpenter, whom the king
heard of as living in the town, and was of course very anxious to
recruit. So two of his ministers went to the shop, and ordered a coffin
of a special length. The carpenter inquired the name of the house to
which it was to be sent, but the gentlemen answered that they would call
that evening and see it for themselves. About dusk they appeared with
some men in attendance, and were shown into the workshop, where the long
black thing lay on the ground, with its lid leaning against the wall
close by.
'You have made it much too short,' exclaimed one of the gentlemen.
'Six feet six inches was the length you said, sir?' replied the
carpenter.
'Yes; but that does not measure more than six feet four! You will have
to make another.'
'Pardon me, sir,' answered the young man. 'You will find that the full
length. I know, for it is just my height'; and so saying he laid himself
in the coffin. In an instant the lid was placed upon it and fastened
down, and the coffin carried off by the attendants to a safe place.
There the screws were undone and the lid lifted, but the man within did
not stir.
'Here, get up, my good fellow,' cried one of the gentlemen; but there
was no answer.
'He has fainted,' said someone uneasily, 'he wants a taste of brandy';
but when the brandy was brought he could not swallow it. What had
happened was plain: the carpenter had died from want of air.
---------------------
It would have been much happier both for little Fritz and Wilhelmine his
sister if the drilling of the army had entirely occupied king Frederick
William's time and thoughts; but, unluckily, he felt it to be his duty
to lay down rules for the daily life of the crown prince. When he was
six, and still in the hands of governesses, a regiment consisting of a
hundred little boys was formed, of which Fritz was the captain, and a
real colonel commander-in-chief. They were all dressed in a uniform of
blue with red facings, and wore cocked hats, and for two years were
drilled by a youth of seventeen, till Fritz had learnt his drill
properly, and could really command them himself. When this event took
place he had already been about a year under three tutors—Duhan (who
always remained his friend); von Finkenstein, and Kalkstein; while an
old soldier named Von Senning, who had served in Marlborough's wars,
taught him fortifications and mathematics.
For of course the king's one idea was to make the crown prince follow in
his own footsteps, and to that end he must be strong and hardy. When
Frederick William went out to hunt, or to review his troops, the boy was
either galloping behind him or seated with a dozen men astride a long
pole on wheels, on which it was very difficult to keep your seat when
jolting over a rough country. Beer soup was his chief food, whether he
liked it or not; and if the king had had his way the child would have
been cut off with very little sleep; but this, happily, the doctors
would not suffer. As to his lessons, Fritz was to learn all history,
especially the history of Brandenburg, and of England and
Brunswick—countries which were connected with his illustrious house;
French and German, but no Latin; arithmetic, geography, economy 'to the
roots,' a little ancient history, and something of the laws of every
kingdom. To these strategy and fortification were shortly added; 'For,'
writes the king, 'there is nothing which can bring a prince so much
honour as the sword, and he would be despised of all men if he did not
love it and seek his sole glory in it.' Fritz's religious duties were
also strictly attended to, and he was to be brought up a Protestant.
'Every morning (except Sunday) he is to get up at 6 o'clock,' writes his
father, 'and after saying his prayers he is to wash his face and hands,
but not with soap.' This sounds rather odd, as the king was so
particular as to cleanliness, and we are told that he washed himself
five times a day. But most likely he was afraid of the expense, for at
eleven, when his son appears in his presence, the boy is expressly
ordered to 'wash his face with water, and his hands with soap and water,
and to put on a clean shirt.' The third washing of hands took place at
five, but on this occasion soap is not mentioned.
It must have been very difficult to have been as 'clean and neat' as
Frederick William required in the few minutes he allowed to his son for
dressing himself—for as soon as possible Fritz was taught to do without
help. To begin with, however, a valet combed out his hair, and tied it
into a pig-tail or 'queue' with a piece of tape, but no powder was put
on till his morning lessons were over. This must have been a comfort,
considering he was to eat his breakfast and drink his tea while the
hair-dressing was going on, and that by half-past six everything was to
be finished. From eleven to two he remained with the king, amusing
himself—if he could—and dining with his Majesty at twelve o'clock. At
two his afternoon lessons began, and lasted till five, when he was
permitted to go out and ride. He also had half holidays, on Wednesdays
and Saturdays, when his morning's work was over, provided that his
'repetition' had been satisfactory; and these free hours we may be sure
that Fritz spent with his sister Wilhelmine, who, though three years
older, was always his loyal companion and friend. Poor little princess,
she was small for her age and very delicate, and in years to come she
suffered almost as much as Fritz from the harsh treatment both of her
father and mother; but do what they might, nothing could break her
spirit, or force her to betray her brother's confidence. Wilhelmine was
a pretty child, and could use her eyes as well as her tongue. She was
also a very good mimic, and could even pretend to faint so cleverly that
she frightened those about her so much that the doctor would be sent for
to see if she was really dead. This, of course, was exactly what the
naughty girl wanted, and the more she took them all in the better she
was pleased. No one could be more agreeable than Wilhelmine when she
chose, but she was very vain, and it was therefore easy to wound her
feelings. When she was nine years old she had a sharp illness, from
which she was not expected to recover. At length, however, she took a
turn for the better; and the first thing she did was to beg the king to
allow her to wear grown-up dresses, and to put on the mantle which in
those days meant that a young lady had 'come out.' Her interest in her
new clothes did as much to cure her as the medical treatment of the
time, which was so severe that it was a miracle that anyone ever lived
through it; and as soon as she could stand she ordered her maids to
dress her hair high over a cushion, and to put on her gown of white silk
heavy with embroidery, and the much coveted purple velvet mantle.
[Illustration: Good Gracious what a figure
Why she looks like a little dwarf]
'I looked at myself in the mirror,' she writes in her memoirs, 'and
decided that they really became me wonderfully well. I next practised
moving and walking, so that I might play the part of a great lady. Then
I entered the queen's apartments, but unluckily, directly her Majesty
saw me she burst out laughing, and exclaimed: "Good gracious, what a
figure! Why she looks like a little dwarf."' Perhaps the queen's remarks
were true; but, none the less, the little girl's feelings were deeply
wounded. The two children were very much afraid of the king, and never
scrupled to deceive him whenever it was possible. As they grew older,
Wilhelmine encouraged her brother in all kinds of disobedience,
especially in playing the flute, which his father hated, and in reading
and studying French books, which were likewise forbidden. The king
wanted him to be a German and a soldier, and nothing more; but to the
end of his life Fritz could neither spell nor write his own language
properly. The breach thus early made grew always wider by reason of the
vexed question of the marriage of both Fritz and Wilhelmine.
---------------------
The princess Wilhelmine was still in the long clothes of a tiny baby
when her mother, like many mothers, began to dream of her future. She
was to be beautiful and clever and charming, and she must marry a prince
as beautiful and clever and charming as herself, and who could he be but
the queen's own nephew, son of her brother, George, prince of Hanover, a
boy just two years older than Wilhelmine, and known to us later as the
duke of Gloucester, then as the duke of Edinburgh, and lastly as
Frederick prince of Wales? And when, on a snowy January day of 1712, the
little crown prince entered the world, there was another child to plan
for, and was there not a small princess called Emily or Amelia, a
newcomer like himself, who would make a suitable bride, say eighteen
years hence, for the king of Prussia one day to be? The princess of
Hanover, Caroline of Anspach, was written to, and declared that she was
delighted to think that some day the bonds already uniting the two
countries should be drawn closer still; so the children sent each other
presents and pretty notes, and sometimes messages in their mothers'
letters when they were too lazy to write for themselves.
Now, in spite of all this, Fritz did not trouble his head much as to the
future; the present, he soon found, was quite difficult enough, and
besides, he thought much more about his flute—which he was forbidden to
play—than about Amelia. But Wilhelmine, who passed most of her time in
the palace of Wustershausen, a big castle twenty miles from Berlin, had
plenty of time to brood over her coming greatness. Often she was alone
there with her governess; but in the summer Fritz and his tutors spent
some months at the castle also, and the boy would remain for hours in
the day watching for strangers to cross the bridge that spanned the
moat.
'You never can tell,' he said to Wilhelmine, 'whether they will be most
frightened at the four eagles' (there were two black and two white)
'swirling about their heads, or at the black bears which come tumbling
towards them! It is always one or the other, and sometimes it is both;
and, anyhow, it is great fun.'
But in the year 1727, when Fritz was fifteen, these pleasant things came
to an end. No more Wustershausen or Berlin; no more talks with his
sister in the childish language they had invented for themselves, no
more fishing expeditions to the ponds in the sandy moor that surrounded
the palace. The crown prince was major now of the Potsdam Grenadiers,
and we may be quite sure that the king never suffered him to neglect his
work. Dressed in a smart uniform covered with gold lace, he was to be
seen at every muster and every review, leading his men; but, even now,
the boy who, thirty years later, was to prove one of the three greatest
generals of his century, had no love for war, and would hurry back to
Potsdam to exchange his uniform for a loose dressing-gown, and the
duties of drilling for a practice on the flute. In this year, too, an
event happened which had a great influence on the home life of both
Fritz and his sister. This was the sudden death of George I. on his way
to Hanover, without his having obtained the consent of Parliament to the
Double-Marriage Treaty, which the queen of Prussia, Sophia Dorothea, had
hoped to have obtained four years earlier. The new king of England,
George II., had no particular love for his brother-in-law of Prussia,
and for his part Frederick William, though at that time he desired the
marriages quite as much as his wife, amply returned his feelings. At
length the repeated delays drove him nearly out of his mind with fury,
and he vented his anger on the queen (who would have suffered any
humiliation rather than give up her project) and on the prince and
princess. Henceforth the life of the royal family was made up of
violence on the one part and deceit on the other. People began to take
'sides,' and the quarrel between father and son grew worse daily.
It was to keep him under his own eye, and not in the least to give him
pleasure, that, in 1728, Frederick William bade Fritz accompany him to
Dresden on a visit to August the Strong, elector of Saxony and king of
Poland, and even gave him leave to order a blue coat trimmed with gold
lace for himself, and six new liveries for his attendants. The crown
prince, who was only now sixteen, must have felt that he had indeed
entered into another world, when he contrasted the Saxon court, with its
splendid surroundings and incessant amusements, with the bare rooms and
coarse food of the palace of Berlin. Other comparisons might be made,
and Fritz did not fail to make them. Here he was treated as a welcome
guest, and as a person of importance, while at home he was scolded and
worried from morning till night. So, instead of the silent, sulky boy
Frederick William was accustomed to see about him, there appeared a
gracious, smiling young prince, with a pleasant word for everyone,
enjoying all the pleasures provided for him, the opera most of all.
---------------------
On his return to Berlin, Fritz fell suddenly ill, and for a while there
seemed to be a chance of reconciliation between him and his father. But
this reconciliation did not last, and the prince had, or pretended to
have, a relapse, in order to avoid going with his father on a tour
through Prussia. But, ill or well, he could not escape from the rules
the king laid down for him, and they were as strict now as they had been
nine years before. A lesson on tactics was to occupy two hours every
morning, after which, at noon, he was to dine in company with his tutors
major Senning and Colonel von Kalkstein, and the master of the kitchen
as well, which sounds rather strange to us. He might, however, invite
six friends of his own, and dine or have supper with them in return; but
he was always to sleep in the palace, and 'to go to bed the instant the
retreat sounded.' Then the king went away, sure that everything would go
on to his liking.
[Illustration: FREDERICK PRACTISES HIS FLUTE EVEN WHEN OUT HUNTING]
But no sooner had he turned his back on Berlin than a sort of holiday
spirit took possession of the palace. 'We were perfectly happy,' writes
Wilhelmine, in her memoirs, and there was no reason that they should
ever have been anything else, as the 'happiness' mainly consisted in
hearing as much music as they wished for, and for Fritz in also playing
the flute. From this instrument, which was fated to bring him into so
much trouble, the crown prince never parted, and even when hunting with
his father he would contrive to lose himself, and hiding behind a large
tree or crouching in a thicket, he would play some of the tunes which so
delighted his soul. During this memorable month, when the 'days passed
quietly,' the queen gave concerts, aided by famous musicians, Bufardin,
the flutist, and Quantz, who was not only a performer but a composer,
and others who were celebrated at the Saxon court (whence they came at
the queen's request) for their skill on spinet or violin. All this,
however, ceased on the reappearance of the king at Wustershausen, and
matters fell back into their old grooves: on one side there was
suspicion and tyranny, on the other lies and intrigues. Fritz tried to
break away from it all by persuading Kalkstein to ask his father's
permission to travel in foreign countries. But Frederick William
absolutely refused to let his son quit Prussia, and things were worse
than they need have been, owing to the smallness of the house where they
were all shut up together. Certainly never had a father and son more
different tastes.
'To-morrow I am obliged to hunt, and on Monday I am obliged to hunt
again,' writes Fritz. He is bored by the court jests and jesters, as
well as by the king's guests. As for the days, they seemed perfectly
endless, and well they might, seeing that it was no uncommon thing for
him to get up at five and go to bed at midnight! No wonder he exclaimed
'I had rather beg my bread than live any longer on this footing.' Once
again Fritz made an effort after a better state of things, and wrote to
his father to apologise for any offence he might unwittingly have
committed, and to assure him of his respectful duty. He had perhaps been
wiser to have let ill alone, for the king only replied by taunts of his
'girlishness,' and hatred of everything manly—which is all rather
funny, when we remember that the object of these reproaches was
Frederick the Great—and in general was so unkind and unjust, that both
Kalkstein and the other tutor Finkenstein resigned in disgust.
During this same autumn the discussion about the two English marriages
was re-opened. As regards the king, he was as anxious as the queen for
that of Wilhelmine with the prince of Wales, but, unlike her, he
considered Fritz too young and unsteady to take to himself a wife. This
did not please king George at all, and in answer to a letter from Sophia
Dorothea, queen Caroline wrote that _both_ marriages must take place—or
neither. This reply put Frederick William in a towering passion.
Wilhelmine should marry _somebody_, he said, and that at once. She was
nearly twenty now, and had five younger sisters for whom husbands would
have to be found. Indeed, he was not at all sure he should not prefer
the margrave of Schwedt for a son-in-law, than the stuck-up English
prince! So he stormed; and meanwhile the queen, Wilhelmine, and Fritz
kept up a secret correspondence with the court of St. James.