Sir Charles Hotham, 5th Baronet

Colonel Charles Hotham (died 1738) was a special British envoy entrusted by George II with the task of negotiating a double marriage between the Hanover and Hohenzollern dynasties. The failure of this mission led to Crown Prince Frederick's attempt to flee to Paris, ultimately resulting in the Prince's arrest.

The double marriage

Queen Sophia Dorothea had long cherished the prospect of marrying her daughter, Wilhelmina, to the Prince of Wales, and her son, the Crown Prince Frederick, to the British Princess Emily. Her husband, King Frederick William I of Prussia, saw the advantage of the union, but was torn between his desire to draw closer to Protestant England and his position as a subject of the Austro-Hungarian Emperor Charles VI.

The Austrians had for years heavily funded the efforts of General von Seckendorff to buy off Frederick William's closest associates and so influence the King towards a pro-Austrian and anti-British policy. [1] Colonel Hotham, who had been appointed a Groom of the Bedchamber in 1727 on the accession of George II, was empowered by the king with the authority to arrange for a double marriage between the two houses. He arrived in Prussia on 2 April 1730, armed with incriminating letters of Seckendorff's tactics.

The negotiations

The marriage talks, after some initial stumbling, held promise.[2] Frederick William approved wholly of the marriage of Wilhelmina to the Prince of Wales, and, while stating that the crown prince Frederick, at 18, was too young to marry, did let it be known that, within ten years, a marriage to a suitable English princess was acceptable. Then, on July 12, Hotham, in an attempt to strengthen his position by discrediting the Austrian contingent at court, produced letters incriminating Seckendorff and several of the King's associates. Frederick William flew into a rage at the tactic, threw the letter to the floor, and stalked out of the room.[3] Hotham took his treatment as an insult to the majesty of England, and immediately arranged for transport to take him back to England.

Consequences

The Crown Prince had long contemplated fleeing Prussia to avoid the continual physical and emotional abuse of his father, but had held off on his plans so long as the double marriage prospect was viable.[4] With the collapse of the negotiations, he contrived, with his close friend Hans von Katte, to flee to Paris. The plan was discovered, and Frederick was thrown in jail, his father forcing him to watch the execution of his friend Katte from his cell window, an event which stood as a psychological milestone in the life of the future Frederick the Great.

References

  1. ↑ Aspray, Robert (1986). Frederick the Great: The Magnificent Enigma. New York: Ticknor and Fields. pp. 27–28. ISBN 0-89919-352-8.
  2. ↑ Mitford, Nancy (1984). Frederick the Great. New York: E.P. Dutton, Inc. pp. 50–51. ISBN 0-525-48147-8.
  3. ↑ MacDonogh, Giles (2001). Frederick the Great: A Deed in Life and Letters. New York: St. Martin's Griffin. p. 60. ISBN 0-312-27266-9.
  4. ↑ Aspray, 61-62.

External links

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