Note 180 — JOURNAL OF ELIZABETH LADY HOLLAND (continued 4)

Better known under the name of Wilhelmine, Comtesse de Lichtenau (1752–1820), the title bestowed on her by Frederick William II. The daughter of a musician, she became his mistress at the age of sixteen, probably under the promise of morganatic marriage, and for the sake of appearances was married to one of his body servants, Rietz. On the King’s death she suffered eighteen months’ imprisonment, besides the loss of all her belongings. Some of her property was restored to her by Napoleon in 1807.

Her daughter was called Comtesse de la Marche. Lord Bristol, in several letters to Lady E. Foster, published in The Two Duchesses, implores her assistance in persuading his second son, Frederick (who succeeded him), to marry the lady, and enumerates the benefits which would accrue to the whole family by the alliance. The young man in question, however, thought otherwise, and married, in February 1798, Elizabeth Charlotte, daughter of Clotworthy, first Lord Templetown.