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Letters of the Empress Frederick
LETTERS OF THE EMPRESS FREDERICK, a selection of correspondence from the Empress to her mother, Queen Victoria, was published in 1928. The former Princess Royal of England, who married Prince Frederick William of Prussia in 1858, had never been popular in court circles in Germany because of her liberal influence on her husband and was known behind her back as ‘die Engländerin’. When Emperor Frederick III ascended the throne in March 1888, he was fatally stricken with cancer and died after a reign of three months. Their eldest so, who became Emperor William II, the ‘Kaiser Bill’ of the First World War, had no respect for their ideals.
Sir Frederick Ponsonby, her godson, was entrusted with the safe keeping of her letters shortly before her death in 1901, and he took them back to England. His purpose in publishing them, in his words, was ‘to allow the Empress’s own words too provide the answer to those cruel and slanderous accusations from which her memory has suffered’.
This new edition includes the complete text, a Foreword by John Van der Kiste, and additional illustrations.
Sir Frederick Ponsonby, her godson, was entrusted with the safe keeping of her letters shortly before her death in 1901, and he took them back to England. His purpose in publishing them, in his words, was ‘to allow the Empress’s own words too provide the answer to those cruel and slanderous accusations from which her memory has suffered’.
This new edition includes the complete text, a Foreword by John Van der Kiste, and additional illustrations.
384 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 1, 2007
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March 17, 2010
In the summer of 1901, Frederick Ponsonby, then Private Secretary to King Edward VII, followed him to Germany to visit the King's dying sister, Vicky, Princess Royal and widow of the Emperor Frederick III. During their stay, the dying Empress invited Ponsonby for a private interview, and asked him to take all her private papers secretly to England. Vicky was sure that the second she died, her son, the Emperor Wilhelm II, would try to find all her papers and destroy them (which he did - and was pretty mad when he didn't find anything). It was risky, but Ponsonby succeeded, and nearly 30 years after the Empress' death, published a part of her letters, mostly the ones sent to her mother, Queen Victoria.
The published letters are mostly about political matters - with most of Vicky's family alive at the time, including the eldest son she had had so many problems with, Ponsonby couldn't make his selection any other way. Also, most of the book is dedicated to the period that starts with the illness of the Emperor Frederick until Vicky's death.
Having read biographies on Vicky and her family before, through her letters she comes out exactly as historians/biographers describe: an incomparably strong and intelligent woman, who was perhaps born before her time, and who led a life filled with tragedies with immense dignity.
Her letters are extremely interesting, giving the point of view of someone who was in the unique position of being (extremely happily) married to the heir of a growing Empire. Vicky gives accounts of the militaristic Prussian Court, of Prince Bismarck and of European wars. And in the family matters, we get a firsthand account of her husband Fritz's horrible illness and the whole debacle that involved the couple's preference for an English doctor over a German one. But most of the letters are dedicated to Vicky's troubled relations with her eldest son, Wilhelm II, especially after his father's death (my favourite letter was when she tells her mother she finally understands how Caesar must have felt when Brutus stabbed him). He causes her frequent pain and humiliation, and yet Vicky refuses to flatter him like his cronies just to be on good terms, when she knows that would be worse for his character.
I think this book is extremely valuable for anyone interested in not only Vicky herself but Queen Victoria's family, the German Empire and Europe in the XIXth century.
The published letters are mostly about political matters - with most of Vicky's family alive at the time, including the eldest son she had had so many problems with, Ponsonby couldn't make his selection any other way. Also, most of the book is dedicated to the period that starts with the illness of the Emperor Frederick until Vicky's death.
Having read biographies on Vicky and her family before, through her letters she comes out exactly as historians/biographers describe: an incomparably strong and intelligent woman, who was perhaps born before her time, and who led a life filled with tragedies with immense dignity.
Her letters are extremely interesting, giving the point of view of someone who was in the unique position of being (extremely happily) married to the heir of a growing Empire. Vicky gives accounts of the militaristic Prussian Court, of Prince Bismarck and of European wars. And in the family matters, we get a firsthand account of her husband Fritz's horrible illness and the whole debacle that involved the couple's preference for an English doctor over a German one. But most of the letters are dedicated to Vicky's troubled relations with her eldest son, Wilhelm II, especially after his father's death (my favourite letter was when she tells her mother she finally understands how Caesar must have felt when Brutus stabbed him). He causes her frequent pain and humiliation, and yet Vicky refuses to flatter him like his cronies just to be on good terms, when she knows that would be worse for his character.
I think this book is extremely valuable for anyone interested in not only Vicky herself but Queen Victoria's family, the German Empire and Europe in the XIXth century.
Displaying 1 of 1 review