without any other assistance than that of the king and
of a single waiting- woman. There was neither linen
nor cradle ready, and the confusion was general.
The king sent for me at four o'clock in the morning.
I never saw him in a better humour, the recollection
of the office he had performed to the queen made him
laugh heartily. The duke of Gloucester, my brother,
the princess Amelia of England, and myself, were se-
lected as sponsors to the infant. I stood godmother
in the afternoon, when my sister was christened Anna-
Amelia.

The king set off the next day. As he travelled
very fast, he arrived in the evening at the Ghoer,
where the greatest uneasiness had prevailed about
him ; the English monarch having expected him the
day before. He was very much surprised on hearing
the cause of his delay. Grumkow was in my father's
retinue. He had quarrelled some time before with
the prince of Anhalt, and was endeavouring to re-
concile himself with the English monarch : but as he
wished that all affairs should pass through his hands,
and the queen opposed his pretensions, he did not fail
to sow fresh seeds of discord between the queen and
my father. I have already observed that the latter
was excessively jealous. Grumkow availed himself
of this foible, and by some vague and artful discourses



64 MEMOIRS OF THE

he instilled into his mind ideas very injurious to the
virtue of his consort.

After a fortnight, the king returned to Berlin in a
great rage. He received his children very well, but
he would not see the queen. He went across her
bed-room to the supper-room without saying a word.
This behaviour filled the queen and us with cruel
anxieties. She at length spoke to him, and expressed
in the most tender terms the sorrow she felt at this
treatment. He answered her with reproaches, up-
braiding her with her pretended infidelity ; and had
not madame de Kamken prevailed with him to with-
draw, his rage, might have led him to a fatal violence.
The following day he assembled the physicians, Holt-
zendorf the surgeon of his regiment, and madame de
Kamken, to enquire into the conduct of the queen.
They all warmly espoused -the part of her majesty.
Madame de Kamken even treated the king with great
severity, and declared to him the injustice of his sus-
picions. Indeed the virtue of the queen was superior
to reproach, and the blackest calumny never could
assert the contrary. The king gave way to reflection ;
he implored ^the queen's pardon with a flood of tears,
which shewed the goodness of his heart, and peace
was restored.

I have mentioned the enmity of the two favourites
of the king. As it broke out in the year 1724, it is
proper to give an account of it here. Ever since the
disgrace of madame de Blaspil, and the good harmony
of the English and Prussian courts, the prince of
Anhalt had lost much of his favour. He lived at
Dessau, and came but seldom to Berlin. The king,
however, had still a very great regard for him, and
treated him with distinction on account of Sis military
talents. Grumkow, on the contrary, had retained his
favour unimpaired. He was entrusted with both the
home and foreign affairs.

The prince of Anhalt had stood godfather to one of
his daughters, and had promised her a portion of five



MARGRAVINE OF BAR^EITH. 65

thousand dollars. As this daughter was about to be
married, her father wrote to the prince to remind him
of his promise. Dissatisfied with Grumkow's con-
duct, who had no longer any regard for him, and
possessed alone the king's favour, the prince denied
having made any such engagement. Grumkow an-
swered; the prince rejoined; and at last they re-
proached each other with their villanies. The dis-
course became so abusive, that the prince of Anhalt
determined to settle their quarrel in a single combat.
Grumkow, with all his great merits, passed for an
arrant coward : he had given proofs of his valour in
the battle of Malplaquet, by remaining in a ditch all
the time the action lasted : he had also distinguished
himself at Stralsund, when he put one of his legs^out
of joint in the beginning of the campaign, which pre-
vented his serving in the trenches : he had the same
misfortune as a certain king of France, who could
not see a naked sword without fainting : but still he
was a brave general. The prince sent him a challenge.
Grumkow, trembling with courage, and arming him-
self with the laws of religion and of the country,
answered that he would not fight ; that duels were
prohibited both by divine and human laws ; and that
he was not inclined to transgress either. This is not
all : he wished to merit a crown in heaven by suffer-
ing insults with patience : he made every possible
apology to his antagonist, by which he the more in-
curred his contempt. The prince continued inexora-
ble. The business .at length got to the knowledge of
the king, who used all his efforts to reconcile them,
but in vain ; the prince of Anhalt could not be ap-
peased. It was therefore determined that they should
settle their quarrel in the presence of two seconds.
The prince's second was a colonel Korf, in the Hes-
sian service ; and Grumkow's, count Sekendorff, a
general in the Austrian service, Grumkow's intimate
friend. The scandalous chronicle reported, that in
their youth they had been partners at play, and had

a 2



66 MEMOIRS OF THE

won considerable sums. Be this as it may, Sekendorff
was the living picture of Grumkow, except that he
affected to be more religious, and was brave as his
sword. Nothing was so laughable as the letters which
Sekendorff wrote to Grumkow, to inspire him with
courage. The king, however, attempted once more
to interfere.

In the beginning of the year 1/25, he assembled at
Berlin a council of war, composed of all the generals
and colonels commanding regiments of his army.
Most of the generals were of the queen's party.
The fine promises given by Grumkow, to remain
firmly attached to her majesty, dazzled her; she in-
clined the balance in his favour, or else he was in
danger of being cashiered. He got off with an arrest
of a few days, which was a kind of satisfaction the
king gave to prince Anhalt. As soon as he was re-
leased from his arrest, the king clandestinely advised
him to fight. The field of battle was near Berlin :
the two combatants repaired to the spot, attended by
their seconds. The prince drew his sword, using
some abusive language towards his adversary. Grum-
kow cast himself at his feet, which he embraced, soli-
citing his pardon, and requesting to be restored to
his favour. The prince, instead of replying, turned
his back upon him. Ever since they were sworn
enemies, and their animosity ceased only with life. It
caused a total change for the better in the prince ;
most of whose bad actions have generally been attri-
buted to the detestable counsels of Grumkow. The
same might be said of prince Anhalt as was said of
cardinal de Richelieu: " He has been guilty of too
many bad actions to be well spoken of, and he has
done too many good actions to be ill spoken of."

The king of England crossed the sea this year, to
visit his German dominions. The king my father did
not neglect to go to him, in hopes of concluding my
marriage. As the queen had been so useful in this
business, she was charged with the commission. She



MARGRAVINE OF BAREITH. 6?

went to Hanover, where she was received with open
arms. With regard to the alliance of the two houses,
she found her father in the same disposition in which
he had been the preceding years : he even spoke affec-
tionately of me ; but he observed, that two obstacles
opposed his wishes ; the first, that he could not marry
us without having first proposed the matter to his
parliament ; the second, that we were both very
young : I was but sixteen, arid the duke only eigh-
teen. To soften these difficulties, he assured the
queen he should settle these things in such a manner,
that our marriage might be solemnized the first time
he should return to Germany. The queen constantly
flattered herself she should obtain more. She had
never before been on such good terms with her
father ; he even appeared to have a particular affec-
tion for her ; and it is certain that he paid her very
great attentions. She asked leave of the king her
consort to stay some time longer; " engaging (she
wrote) to succeed in her designs." The king my
father granted her request, and allowed her to remain
at Hanover as long as her affairs should require it.

In the mean time I was at Berlin in great favour
with the king. I passed every afternoon in conversa-
tion with him, and he used to sup in my room. He
even shewed me some confidence, and often spoke of
state affairs. To give me a still greater mark of dis-
tinction, he ordered me to hold a drawing-room like
the queen. The governesses of my sisters were placed
under my command, and had orders not to stir a step
without my knowledge. I did not abuse the king's
favour. Young as I was, there was as much solidity
in my conduct then, as there can be now ; and I
might have superintended the education of my sisters :
but I did myself justice, and clearly perceived that it
did not become me ; neither would I hold a drawing-
room. I contented myself with inviting a few ladies
every day.

For six whole months I had been tormented with



(38 MEMOIRS UF TliE

a dreadful head- ache ; it was so violent, that I fre-
quently fainted : yet I dared not keep my room, as
the queen opposed it. Her majesty, who was of a
very strong constitution, did not know what it was to
be sick. Her severity in this respect was excessive ;
though dying, I must be cheerful, or else she would
fall into a terrible passion against me. The day be-
fore her return, 1 had a kind of brain fever, accom-
panied with such aching pains in the head, that my
cries were heard in the palace yard : six persons were
obliged to hold me, night and day, to prevent my
killing myself. Madame de Sonsfeld immediately sent
expresses to the king and queen to acquaint them
with my situation. The queen arrived in the evening :
she was much alarmed at seeing me so ill ; the physi-
cians were despairing of my life. An abscess in the
head, which broke on the third day, saved me : for-
tunately the matter ran through the ear, else I could
not have recovered. The king carne to Berlin two
days after, and immediately paid me a visit. He was
moved to tears at the miserable state in which he found
me. He did not go to the queen, and caused all the
communications of his apartments with hers to be
barricadoed, so great was his irritation at her having
beguiled him with false promises. He had placed so
much reliance on her influence over the mind of the
English monarch, that he thought my marriage would
have taken place that very year : he imagined she
had merely wished to protract her stay at Hanover.
This storm lasted six weeks ; at the end of which the
royal 'couple were reconciled. My recovery, in the
meantime, was very slow : I was confined to my room
for two months.

The narrow mind of the queen my mother inclines
her to jealousy. The great distinction with which I
was honoured by the king excited her displeasure
against me ; she was besides influenced by one of her
ladies, a daughter of the countess Fink, whom I shall
henceforth call countess Amelia, to distinguish her



MARGUAVINE OF KARE1TH. 69

from her mother. This young person had, unknown
to her parents, formed an intrigue with the Prussian
minister at the court of London : his name was Wall-
roth. He was a true coxcomb, of a short clumsy
figure ; who served the Prussian interests merely by
his buffoonery. She had secretly contracted herself
to this envoy ; and her plan was to become my go-
verness, and to accompany me to England. To in-
sure her success, she had used her best efforts to in-
gratiate herself with the duke of Gloucester, and had
made believe she was my favourite ; on which account
he had shewn her great attention. But it was also
necessary to get rid of my governess ; and to effect
this, she incessantly strove to irritate the queen against
her and me.

Countess Amelia had an all-powerful influence over
the queen, and availed herself of her foibles to obtain
her own ends. Every day I was ill-used, and the
queen constantly upbraided me for the kind attentions
which the king shewed me. I no longer dared to
caress him without trembling, and in fear of being
harshly dealt with : the case was the same with my
brother; it was enough that the king ordered one
thing, for the queen to forbid it. Sometimes we were
absolutely at a loss to know what to do ; but as we
both felt more affection for the queen, we agreed to
obey her commands. This was the source of all our
misfortunes, as will be seen by the sequel of these
memoirs. My heart bled, however, at not being al-
lowed to express the vivacity of my sentiments to the
king : I sincerely loved him ; he had done me a thou-
sand kindnesses ever since I was born : but as I was
to live with the queen, I was obliged to conform to
her will.

The queen presented the king, in the beginning of
the year 1726, with a prince, who was christened
Henry. As soon as she was recovered, we went to
Potsdam, a small town near Berlin. My brother was
not of the party : the king was displeased with him,



70 MEMOIRS Ui' THE

because he would not submit to his will. He inces-
santly scolded him, and his animosity became so in-
veterate, that all the well-disposed courtiers advised
the queen to make the prince submit to his father,
which she never would allow before : this gave occa-
sion to a rather ludicrous scene.

The queen ordered me to write many things to my
brother, that the king was not to know of, and to send
him the draught of a letter which he was to address
to his father. I was sitting between two Indian ca-
binets writing these letters, when I heard the king
coming : a skreen, which was placed before the door,
gave me time to thrust my papers behind one of those
cabinets. Madame de Sonsfeld took the pens, and
seeing the king already approaching, I put the ink-
stand into my pocket and held it carefully, lest it
might be overturned. After having addressed a few
words to the queen, the king suddenly turned to-
wards those cabinets, and said, " They are very
beautiful ; they belonged to my late mother, who valued
them very much." At the same time, he went up
to open them. The lock was spoiled : he pulled
the key as much as he could, and I every moment
expected my letters would appear. The queen de-
livered me from this apprehension, to throw me
into another. She had a beautiful little Bolognese
dog, and I had one also : the two animals were
in the room. " Will you decide our dispute ?" said
she to the king. " My daughter says her dog is
prettier than mine ; and I maintain the contrary."
The king laughed, and asked whether I was fond
of mine ? " Heartily (answered I) ; for he is very
clever, and of an excellent disposition." The king,
pleased with my reply, embraced me several times ;
which obliged me to let go my inkstand. The black
liquid immediately ran all over my clothes, and was
beginning to drop about the room. I did not dare to
stir from the place, lest the king should perceive it.
I was half dead with fear : but the king at length



.MARGRAVINE OF BAttEITII. 71

delivered me from my embarrassment by retiring.
The ink had penetrated through ail my garments :
we were forced to have them bleached ; and we
laughed very much at the occurrence. Meanwhile
the king was reconciled to my brother, who joined
us at Potsdam. He was the most amiable prince that
could be seen'; handsome, well made, of an under-
standing superior to his years, and possessed of every
quality that forms a perfect prince. But I am now
arrived at more serious events, and at the source of
all the misfortunes which that beloved brother and
myself have undergone.

In the year 1/17, the emperor had established an
East India Company at Ostend, a seaport town of the
Netherlands. The trade had begun with two vessels
only; and, notwithstanding the obstacles opposed by
the Dutch, the success was so great that the emperor
granted the company the privilege of trading to
Africa and the East Indies for thirty years, excluding
all his other subjects from that trade. As commerce
contributes most to render a country flourishing, the
emperor had entered into a secret treaty with Spain
in the year 17-5, by which he engaged to oblige
England to restore Gibraltar and Port Mahcn to
Spain. Russia afterwards acceded to that treaty.
It was not long ere the maritime powers became
sensible of the secret intrigues of the court of Vienna ;
to oppose the ambitious views of the house of Austria
which tended only to ruin their commerce, their
principal strength, they concluded an alliance be-
tween themselves; to which France, Denmark,
Sweden, and Prussia, afterwards acceded. This is
the very treaty which was signed at Charlotten-
burgh, and which I have already mentioned.

The emperor, seeing that he could not maintain
himself against so formidable a league, was obliged
to take other measures, and to attempt to break this
league. General Sekendorff appeared extremely
proper for the execution of bis designs at the court



72 MEMOIRS OF THE

of Berlin. It has already been observed, that this
minister was intimate with Grumkow ; he knew the
selfish and ambitious disposition of his friend, and
had no doubt he should bring him over to the in-
terests of the emperor. He began by writing to him,
and endeavoured to penetrate into his sentiments ;
he even made him some overtures respecting the cir-
cumstances in which his sovereign was placed. This
correspondence had begun the year before, and
SekendorfPs letters had been accompanied with very
handsome presents and liberal promises. The venal
soul of Grumkow was not long in yielding to such
great advantages. Circumstances favoured his de-
sign. The alliance of the courts of Berlin and Hano-

^

ver was beginning to decline. The king my father
was highly offended at my marriage being delayed;
to this were added other matters of complaint. The
Prussian monarch delighted in increasing his regi-
ment of giants : his recruiting-officers took, nolens
volens, every tall man whom they found in foreign
dominions.

The queen had obtained from the king her father,
that the electorate of Hanover should furnish a cer-
tain number every year. The Hanoverian ministers,
bribed perhaps by the anti-Prussian party, at the head
of which was lady Arlington, neglected to execute
the orders of the king of England. The queen often
remonstrated on this subject; but was answered by
some frivolous excuses. The king was highly of-
fended at the little attention that was shewn to him ;
and Grumkow instigated him to such a degree, that,
to be revenged, he ordered his officers to carry off
from the electorate of Hanover every man they should
meet of a size proper to serve in his regiment. This
violence excited a violent outcry. The king of Eng-
land demanded satisfaction, and required that his
subjects should be set free : but the king of Prussia
persisted in keeping them ; which caused a misun-
derstanding between the two courts, that soon in-



MARGRAVINE OF BAREITH. 73

creased into open hatred. The state of affairs, at his
arrival at Berlin, was therefore such as Sekendorff
could wish. The pains which Grumkow had taken
heforehand to prejudice the mind of the king, facili-
tated his negociation. He was well received by the
king, who had particularly known him when he was
in the Saxon service, and had always manifested great
esteem for him. A numerous train of heiduks, or
rather of giants, whom the emperor sent to the king,
tended farther to secure to him a favourable recep-
tion, and the compliment he delivered from his master
completed the business. " As the emperor," said
he, " studies only to please your majesty on every
occasion, he allows yourmajesty to enlist in Hungary,
and has given orders to rind out the tallest men in his
dominions, to be offered to your majesty." This
obliging behaviour, so different from that of the king
his father-in-law, affected the Prussian monarch, but
not sufficiently. Sekendorff rightly judged, that some
time would be required to win him entirely from the
grand alliance. He endeavoured to insinuate him-
self gradually into the mind of the king, and knowing
his foible, he did not fail to draw him into the snare.
He almost every day gave him magnificent entertain-
ments, to which he admitted only his creatures and
those of Grumkow. The conversation constantly
turned upon the juncture of Europe at that time; and
the cause of the emperor was artfully pleaded. At
length, in the midst of wine and good cheer, the king
was induced to renounce some of the engagements
he had entered into with England, and to connect
himself with the house of Austria. He promised the
latter, that the troops he was to furnish to England
by virtue of one of the articles of the treaty of Hano-
ver, should not act against the emperor. This promise
was kept very secret. The king was not yet deter-
mined to break the grand alliance, as he still hoped
to conclude my marriage. It was only towards the
end of the following year, of which I am going to

VOL. I. H



74 MEMOIRS OF THE

speak, that he took off the mask. The queen was in
the utmost despair to witness the train which affairs
were taking ; she was a personal sufferer. The king
used her ill, and constantly reproached her with the
procrastination of my marriage ; he spoke of the king
her father in ahusive terms, and studied to mortify
her on every occasion.

SekendorfPs credit encreased daily. He obtained
so great an ascendancy over the king, that he ap-
pointed to all offices. The Spanish gold had gained
over to his interests most of the domestics and gene-
rals about the king ; so that he was informed of all
his proceedings. As the double marriage agreed
upon with the British monarch would have been a
serious obstacle to his views, he resolved to break it
off, by sowing discord in the family. For this pur-
pose he employed some of his secret emissaries. A
thousand false reports made every day to the king of
my brother and me, irritated him so much against
us, that he treated us very harshly, and made us
suffer martyrdom. My brother was represented to
him as an ambitious and intriguing prince, who
wished for his death that he might sooner be sove-
reign ; who had no affection for the army; and who
loudly declared that, when he should be master, he
would disband the troops ; who was prodigal in the
extreme, and, in short, of a disposition so opposite to
the king's, that it was but natural that this monarch
should hate him. I was not better treated : I was
painted as being insufferably haughty, intriguing,
and imperious ; serving as an adviser to my brother,
and speaking with very little respect of the king.
As he wished very much to see his daughters settled,
Sekendorff also insinuated himself in this respect.
He prevailed with the margrave of Anspach, a young
prince of seventeen, to come to Berlin to see my
second sister. This prince was then very amiable,
and excited great hopes. My sister was beautiful as
an angel, but she had a narrow mind and numberless



MA11GRAVINE OF BAREITH. 75

caprices. She had supplanted me in the favour of
the king, by whom she was spoiled. The bitter
sorrows which assailed her after her marriage have
corrected her faults. The youth of the parties pre-
vented the immediate solemnization of their mar-
riage ; it was celebrated two years after, as I shall
state in its time.

The queen had always flattered herself that the
arrival of the king of England, who was to revisit his
German dominions that year, would re-establish the
former harmony between the two courts ; but an un-
foreseen event destroyed all her hopes, for she received
the mournful intelligence of the death of her royal
father. He had left England in perfect health, and,
contrary to custom, had endured the voyage un-
commonly well. He felt indisposed near Osnabruck.
All the remedies that were administered proved use-
less ; and at the end of four and twenty hours he
expired, in an apoplectic fit, in the arms of the duke
of York, his brother.

This death plunged the queen into a profound
grief. The king himself appeared affected. Not-
withstanding all the prejudices which he had enter-
tained against the English monarch, he had always
considered him as a father, and even stood in awe of
him. This monarch had been careful of him in his