Meet Louise of Prussia. Politician, diplomat and beloved queen and wife. Rode into battle while pregnant. One of my heroes.
Famously described by Napoleon famously as "the only real man in Prussia"
Gonna ask you to think a bit about that in a sec, but first you need to know about her life. /1 🧵
Famously described by Napoleon famously as "the only real man in Prussia"
Gonna ask you to think a bit about that in a sec, but first you need to know about her life. /1 🧵
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From the stage to the kitchen…
https://longreads.com/tag/queens-of-infamy/
https://longreads.com/2019/03/28/queens-of-infamy-josephine-bonaparte-part-one/
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/656996
Louise's childhood wasn't great. At all. Her mother died when Louise was 6, then her equally beloved step-mother died when she was 8. /2
What I was trying to get across was that her family were more 'doers' than we tend to picture princes and princesses as being.
Hence things like the governor-generalship.
This turned out to be a blessing. Her grandmother was the formidable Countess Maria Louise Albertine.
Granny recognised Louise was SERIOUSLY bright. She encouraged her to learn, flourish and think for herself. /3
At 17, she caught the eye of Fredrich William, Crown Prince of Prussia. They married in 1794, legit fell in love, and had 9 kids. Louise threw herself into charity work and they lived happily outside politics /4
Suddenly, Louise went from reading Shakespeare to her husband, to being queen of a country on the verge of war with France, and battling the politics of court.
Fredrich William wasn't very good at this. Out of his depth, he turned to Louise /5
As Prussia bounced between neutrality or going to war, Louise became an important political and diplomatic player. Her husband wasn't a natural decisionmaker. Louise was. She deftly worked the factions for him.
It earned her enemies. Including Napoleon. /6
They started rumours of infidelity. That the king was simply her pawn. The standard awfulness thrown at every woman, in power, for centuries.
Louise weathered it.
Then war with France broke out. It went badly for Prussia /7