Catharina von Wartenberg ''née'' Rickert (
Emmerich, 1674 –
The Hague
The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...
, 1734), known as "Catharina, Reichsgräfin von Wartenberg" or ''Madame'' de Wartenberg, was the official royal mistress of king
Frederick I of Prussia
Frederick I (german: Friedrich I.; 11 July 1657 – 25 February 1713), of the Hohenzollern dynasty, was (as Frederick III) Elector of Brandenburg (1688–1713) and Duke of Prussia in personal union ( Brandenburg-Prussia). The latter function h ...
between 1696 and 1711.
Life
Catharina von Wartenberg was of middle-class origin, as the daughter of a tax collector for the Brandenburg court to the
Duchy of Cleves
The Duchy of Cleves (german: Herzogtum Kleve; nl, Hertogdom Kleef) was a State of the Holy Roman Empire which emerged from the medieval . It was situated in the northern Rhineland on both sides of the Lower Rhine, around its capital Cleves and ...
in Emmerich am Rhein. She came to
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
as wife to ''Kammersekretär'' Peter Biedekap, where she became the lover of the court official
Baron von Kolbe, called Minion and one of the favorites of Frederick I. After the death of her spouse in 1696, von Kolbe married her, and the same year, he introduced her to Frederick I, and she became his official mistress.
Royal favorite
It is unconfirmed whether she ever actually functioned as the mistress of Frederick I in a physical sense, but it was very fashionable at the time for a monarch to have an official mistress at his court, in the manner of
Louis XIV of France
, house = Bourbon
, father = Louis XIII
, mother = Anne of Austria
, birth_date =
, birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France
, death_date =
, death_place = Palace of Versa ...
, and Frederick I made a point of spending time with her every day and appear with her openly at court. She was also given the title Countess of Wartenberg. Though they may not have consummated their relationship sexually, Catharina von Wartenberg reportedly did have some influence over the king, as well as she had influence over her spouse, himself an influential favorite of the king, and she was at the time resented as "the daughter of a tavern-keeper who rules Prussia". She was described as politically ambitious and her position made her controversial, particularly in the eyes of the king's male favorites, such as the English ambassador, Lord Raby. The queen,
Sophia Charlotte of Hanover
Sophia Charlotte of Hanover (30 October 1668 – 1 February 1705) was the first Queen consort in Prussia as wife of King Frederick I. She was the only daughter of Elector Ernest Augustus of Hanover and his wife Sophia of the Palatinate. Her eld ...
, reportedly snubbed her on several occasions.
When queen Sophia Charlotte died, von Wartenberg was awarded the estate of Woltersdorf. Catharina von Wartenberg reportedly had the pretensions of replacing her, caused women of the nobility to boycott the king's royal assemblies three times a week and "the Court became a perfect desert."
[Atkinson, Emma Willsher: ]
Memoirs of the queens of Prussia
', London : W. Kent In 1708, the king asked her for advice whether he should marry again, but she declined to answer.
Prior to marriage of the king to
Sophia Louise of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
Sophia Louise of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (Sofie Luise; 6 May 1685 – 29 July 1735) was Queen consort in Prussia by marriage to King Frederick I of Prussia. She was famed for her beauty.
Life
Sophia Louise was the fourth child of Frederick, Duke ...
in 1708, Catharina von Wartenberg bought the right to take precedence of all unmarried Princesses, and even of all married ones whose husbands were not reigning Princes, from the Duchess of Holstein Beck for 10,000 Thalers (which the King paid), and wished to use this right at the procession of the christening of princess Wilhelmine in 1709: when the procession passed the chapel door, however, Madame de Lintelo, the wife of the Dutch ambassador, attempted to take her place, which resulted in a physical fight in which the master of the ceremonies, Besser, tried to separate them, and von Wartenberg eventually came out as the winner. The king demanded of the Dutch Ambassador that his wife apologized to von Wartenberg and that he would withdraw his troops from Flanders otherwise.
During an absence by the king at the Jahr Markt at
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...
in 1710, the queen summoned the ladies at court to assist her embroidering a gift for the king, among them Catharina von Wartenberg. During this, they were interrupted by the valet of Catharina von Wartenberg, bringing her coffee, which was a great offence to etiquette, and when the queen commanded von Wartenberg to leave, she commented: "I think I see myself doing so",
with a laugh, which added to the etiquette offence and infuriated the queen so that she ordered von Wartenberg to be thrown out of the window; before anyone could be found to do so, von Wartenberg hastily left.
The queen complained to the king, who ordered von Wartenberg to apologize, which she consented to, though she managed to avoid doing so. This incident weakened her position, as did her intimacy with the English ambassador, Lord Raby, who was known and disliked for his extreme arrogance, and because he had managed to become informed in many private affairs of the
Prussian court
The Kingdom of Prussia (german: Königreich Preußen, ) was a German kingdom that constituted the state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Re ...
through his association with von Wartenberg; by which he was referred to as the "favourite's favourite".
Downfall
Catharina von Wartenberg on several occasions caused difficulty in the relations to foreign powers because of her ambitions on precedence. On a banquet arranged by the Russian ambassador de Lith, the ambassador asked the king to command her to attend, but when she was informed that she would not take precedence before the ambassador's spouse Madame de Matuoff, she refused to attend.
This resulted in a formal complaint presented to the king by all the foreign ambassadors in Berlin except the English.
The king demanded that von Wartenberg make a public apology to de Matuoff, and she was forced to read her apology, standing to the seated Matuoff; after which she tore up the apology, but it was nevertheless printed in a gazette by the ambassadors and publicly circulated.
Shortly after, the king told her that if she kept causing diplomatic incidents, "he would find means to put a stop to it."
After this incident, von Wartenberg advised her spouse to leave the court, but he did not take her advice. The crown prince and his favorite Grumbkow, the foreign minister Ilgen and the two courtiers Kamecke the Elder and Younger, took the incident as a pretense to accuse von Wartenberg for being an English agent through her association with Raby and investing in English securities;
after undermining her influence, they proceeded to implicate her spouse, who lost his position in January 1711.
Later life
Catharina von Wartenberg followed her spouse to in exile to Frankfurt, bringing with her jewels valued at 500,000 Thalers. Her spouse was soon offered to return to service, on condition that he leave her behind, but he replied that he could not agree to that term. She became a widow in 1712, and remarried the French noble Marschall d’Huvelles, with whom she settled in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
. The final years of her life, she lived in
The Hague
The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...
.
References
* https://www.preussenchronik.de/person_jsp/key=person_catharina_rickert.html
* Wolfgang Ribbe, Hansjürgen Rosenbauer, Preussen: Chronik eines deutschen Staates,Nicolai, 2001
* Max Bauer, Deutscher Fürstenspiegel, Bilder aus der deutschen Vergangenheit nach den Quellen geschildert mit zahlreichen authentischen Abbildungen im Text, Kaden, 1928
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wartenberg, Catharina von
1674 births
1734 deaths
German countesses
Mistresses of German royalty
18th-century Prussian people
18th-century Prussian women