Princess Elisa Radziwiłł – The considerations of rank and birth (Part six)

Read part five here.

After receiving his father’s decision, Wilhelm wrote to his sister, “My dearest, precious Charlotte! Oh! Why can’t I be with you in this terrible moment? Why can’t I rush to you right now, to weep my heart out against your sensitive heart, which understands me so completely! It’s all over! – If you are not alone, don’t read any further in this letter! Yes! The long-feared, the most painful thing, has happened!! – Like a bolt from the blue, the terrible thing struck me yesterday. What I considered impossible until autumn has come to pass, and with all its pain and its harshness! Not just a notification of what could lead to a decision, no, but accompanied by a letter such as a father has perhaps never written to his child, so gracious, loving, tender, yet firm! […] So, therefore, is my fate, the fate of unfortunate Elisa, decided! For the second time, the future seems desolate and joyless to me. Alas! Never, never would I have thought it possible that God, after testing us so severely once, would bring about such a terrible outcome a second time!”¹

To Elisa and her mother, he wrote, “God’s will is revealed on earth through the decisions and the destinies brought about by them in humankind! Before me lies the open letter that will decide Elisa’s fate, my fate! Shattered and deeply, utterly shaken, I seize the pen—for what a letter! The Lord will give me strength to speak the hardest thing in my life!

“The bond on earth that Elisa’s and my hearts had forged before God is broken! Where has a love ever been purer, more tender, more steadfast than between us?… God’s will is done! At this moment, I stand before Elisa in spirit and give her back—her heart, which belonged to me through the purest and highest feelings! I tear it away from my own because relentless fate so wills; but her image remains eternally indelible in my heart!… In this solemn, fateful moment, I stand before God; He sees and knows my heart, and my conscience is at peace, for I am conscious of no guilt by which I have transgressed against the being who was everything to me!… I was to be the one who would bring a heavy, dark fate upon Elisa, upon all of you!… This is the greatest grace that God shows me, that I can have this conviction before Elisa; indeed, that he also gave me a receptive heart to heavenly truths and consolations.

“How weak the word of thanks sounds in its so very heavy moment! And yet I must utter it. With a torn heart, I step before Elisa and stammer my thanks for the unspeakable bliss I enjoyed through possessing her heart. It was she to whom I owe the higher direction of myself; she, therefore, brought about my true salvation—can words possibly express gratitude for that?! Thanks to her for every unspeakably precious moment I owe her; oh! It was the most beautiful time of our lives, now behind us! Desolate and joyless lies the future before me…

“So I take my leave of you, of Elisa, and so ends my relationship that has been the happiness of my life! The bond of love is broken between Elisa and me; may her friendship remain with me until death!”²

Elisa wasn’t told the news until the family had moved from Poznań to the hunting lodge Antonin.³ On 28 July, Elisa finally wrote to Wilhelm, “Surely I may still be granted just a few words, as if at the edge of the grave—for it is indeed the grave of our love? Into these few words I wish to pour everything that fills my heart: thanks for your faithful, blissful love, for the farewell contained in one of your dearest letters since the decision! How unspeakably blessed you make me by assuring me that I have had an influence on the salvation of your dear soul! I can ask no more of God’s grace… I also ask for your friendship and promise you mine; may it spring from the grave of our love, as the soul soars to the Lord after our bodies have been buried. May this be the last thing you do to the remaining mementoes—it was very difficult for me to read the passage where you speak of parting with the ring, the hair, the token—that was very bitter… Farewell!”⁴

Elisa’s mother tried to distract her daughter from the broken engagement. Elisa wrote, “It is very peaceful here in the woods. I often sit by the water and rest on the clear, blue expanse. I close my eyes and think of God. On the first day, I cried an extraordinary amount. Not anymore.”⁵ Wilhelm kept in touch with both Elisa and her mother, but he managed to enrage them when he wrote about Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, believing he had already found a replacement for Elisa.⁶ In reality, Wilhelm was already on the hunt for another bride.

Meanwhile, Elisa travelled to meet her friends. At Ruhberg, she found her brother Ferdinand seriously ill with consumption, also known as pulmonary tuberculosis. Despite the risk of infection, Elisa cared for him and stayed by his bedside. He died on 8 September 1827, at just 29.⁷ A devastated Elisa wrote, “All in all, I am quite unhappy, my Lulu; that is to say, often content in God, but I would like to be rid of earth, and apart from a few friends whom I love with all my heart, the whole world is indifferent to me. It holds no more joys for me.”⁸ More tragedy followed as Elisa’s sister-in-law, Helene, succumbed to the same illness, followed by her daughter, who was also Elisa’s goddaughter, a year later.⁹

In October 1828, Wilhelm became officially engaged to Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, and she told him, “I know whom I should replace for you. God grant that I can replace her for you to the best of my ability!”¹⁰  To Charlotte, he wrote, “One can only truly love once. But respect and love cannot and must not be denied Augusta.”¹¹

Shortly before the wedding, Wilhelm travelled to Antonin to meet the Radziwiłłs. He met with Elisa and assured her he was marrying only for reasons of state. Elisa’s mother later wrote, “Prince Wilhelm was already there at noon. I went to meet him. He was in such a state of agitation that I, too, lost my composure. He was so dissolved in tears and pain; it seems E. really still loves him so much that, ever since I think back on it, I tell myself: It was a good thing I didn’t see him or Berlin again. It would have started all over again….”¹²

Just minutes before his wedding on 11 June 1829, Wilhelm wrote a letter to Elisa’s mother, “Only a few hours remain before I experience the most important moment of my life through the church blessing! Where else could my thoughts be directed in these last moments but to Him who, from the very beginning, guided our destinies according to His inscrutable will? With a clear conscience, I have always stood before you and Elisa on this matter, and so I still do today, just as I did eight days ago! I have seen and felt what I could not construct in my mind: that there is a relationship in which I can continue to exist with a being to whom I otherwise belonged, to whom I was allowed to belong exclusively. A heart, a soul like Elisa, who came to meet me so readily, is visibly blessed and guided by the Lord. May He always grant her His peace and reward her for what she otherwise is, what she now is and may be to me! So farewell, dearest aunt! A new, important life begins for me! Remain, stay with me what you were to me, what you are to me! May He bless you! Eternally your most tenderly loving nephew, Wilhelm.”¹³

Part seven coming soon.

1. Prinz Wilhelm von Preußen an Charlotte: Briefe 1817-1860 p.111-112
2. Auf der ganzen Welt nur sie die verbotene Liebe zwischen Prinzessin Elisa Radziwiłł und Wilhelm von Preußen by Dagmar von Gersdorff p.175-176
3. Auf der ganzen Welt nur sie die verbotene Liebe zwischen Prinzessin Elisa Radziwiłł und Wilhelm von Preußen by Dagmar von Gersdorff p.179
4. Auf der ganzen Welt nur sie die verbotene Liebe zwischen Prinzessin Elisa Radziwiłł und Wilhelm von Preußen by Dagmar von Gersdorff p.180
5. Auf der ganzen Welt nur sie die verbotene Liebe zwischen Prinzessin Elisa Radziwiłł und Wilhelm von Preußen by Dagmar von Gersdorff p.181
6. Auf der ganzen Welt nur sie die verbotene Liebe zwischen Prinzessin Elisa Radziwiłł und Wilhelm von Preußen by Dagmar von Gersdorff p.181-182
7. Auf der ganzen Welt nur sie die verbotene Liebe zwischen Prinzessin Elisa Radziwiłł und Wilhelm von Preußen by Dagmar von Gersdorff p.194
8. Auf der ganzen Welt nur sie die verbotene Liebe zwischen Prinzessin Elisa Radziwiłł und Wilhelm von Preußen by Dagmar von Gersdorff p.194
9. Auf der ganzen Welt nur sie die verbotene Liebe zwischen Prinzessin Elisa Radziwiłł und Wilhelm von Preußen by Dagmar von Gersdorff p.196
10. Auf der ganzen Welt nur sie die verbotene Liebe zwischen Prinzessin Elisa Radziwiłł und Wilhelm von Preußen by Dagmar von Gersdorff p.204
11. Auf der ganzen Welt nur sie die verbotene Liebe zwischen Prinzessin Elisa Radziwiłł und Wilhelm von Preußen by Dagmar von Gersdorff p.203
12. Auf der ganzen Welt nur sie die verbotene Liebe zwischen Prinzessin Elisa Radziwiłł und Wilhelm von Preußen by Dagmar von Gersdorff p.208
13. Auf der ganzen Welt nur sie die verbotene Liebe zwischen Prinzessin Elisa Radziwiłł und Wilhelm von Preußen by Dagmar von Gersdorff p.208