In the mean time another Idol of Fortune rose upon the ruin of Dankelman. This was John Casimir de Kolbe, a Gentleman originally of the Palatinate: His first appearance at Court was in the time of Frederic-William the Great, in the retinue of the Princess-Palatine de Simmeren, Sister of the first Electoress, who having desir'd the Elector to give Kolbe some Employment; he made him a Privy-Counsellor, but gave him liberty to attend the Princess as much as ever, who was so good to him that she was reproach'd with caring for no body else. He went with her into the Palatinate, where that Princess died soon after, and then Kolbe return'd to Court, where he was a meer Stranger, without Relations, Acquaintance or Protection; and 'twas a long time before any the least notice was taken of him. But after the death of Frederic-William, he made his Court to Frederic his Son who succeeded him, and to Dankelman his Minister. Being always humble,
and a Flatterer into the bargain, he quickly gain'd their Friendship by his Assiduity, and by his study'd Affectation not to meddle or make in any Affairs. Dankelman, as crafty a Man as he was, did not perceive the Snare, but contributed most of all to his Favor, thinking all the while that he was promoting a Creature from whom he had nothing to fear. But Kolbe no sooner perceiv'd the Elector's Coldness to his Minister than he resolv'd to make his Advantage of it. He did not alter his Measures immediately, but seeming to have as little Concern in Affairs as ever, his only Aim was to feed and propagate the ill Humors which the Elector was often in with his Favorite. This Prince was inconstant, suspicious and choleric; and when those three Passions were stirr'd up and managed, he was to be persuaded to any thing. Kolbe who for a long time had made his Temper his only Study, plainly perceiv'd his Foible, artfully wrought upon it, and in the sequel made it subservient to the Accomplishment of his Designs. He soon attain'd to the highest Degree of Favor; the Elector made him his Great Chamberlain and First Minister; all the Court was oblig'd to truckle to him; and as it always happens in the Changes of Government, the Minister in Disgrace was regretted. Indeed Kolbe did not want for personal Qualities enough to make him belov'd; but the worst on't was, they were eclips'd by an astonishing Fondness for his Wife, to whom he was so blindly complaisant, that all the good People at Court despis'd and hated him.
This Lady has play'd so extraordinary a Part in the World, that I can't avoid giving you some Account of her Origin and Character. Her Father,
one Rickers, was a Bargeman at Emmerick, a Town in the Duchy of Cleves, where for better Subsistance he kept a sort of Tavern. He had two Daughters, who pass'd for fine Women, that brought a good deal of Company to his House, and in a Journey which the Elector made to Cleves, Bidekan his Valet de Chambre fell in love with the eldest, the Lady I am speaking of, marry'd her and took her with him to Berlin, where she fell so passionately in love with Kolbe, that after having been his Mistress in her Husband's Life-time, he was hardly cold in his Grave but she became his Wife. The Wedding was kept at the House of one Commesser, another of the Elector's Valets de Chambre, where that Prince was present, with seven or eight Persons in his Company; and from that very Juncture he began to shew such great Marks of Complaisance to the Lady, that several People thought she ow'd them to something more than to the Friendship he had for his Favorite. Nevertheless I am very well persuaded they were mistaken; and I remember, that when I was Gentleman of the Bed-chamber to the Elector, he said to me in one of his ill Humors with his Favorite and his Wife (and in these sort of Pets he was not capable of dissembling) I know the Notion that prevails of my being under certain Tyes to Kolbe's Lady, but there is nothing in it; and the Wrong is greater to me than to her. For really was it not enough for a Woman of such mean Extraction, Parts and Beauty too, to be the Wife of a Minister, but she must also be ambitious to be the Mistress of a Sovereign? Yet it must be confess'd, that whether it was meer Humor, or a weak Attachment to the Favorite, the Elector heap'd Wealth and Honors upon this Lady, insomuch that nothing would serve him but she must be admitted
to the Electoress's Circle, who at that time indeed obstinately refus'd it; for who is there would not have been disgusted to have seen the Daughter of Rickers the Bargeman mixing with Ladies of Quality that had a Right to be in the Circle? However, some time after, the Electoress was oblig'd to wave all the Pleas of Decorum, for the sake of the Need she stood in of the Great Chamberlain; and his Wife had the Honor of the Circle.
The same Year that Kolbe was declared Prime Minister, the Emperor made him a Count of the Empire. He then chang'd his Name for that of Count de Wartemberg, which was the Name of a ruinous Castle that he had in the Palatinate. His Lady, when she became a Countess, had a mind that her Children by her first Marriage should be promoted to the Dignity of Barons; and they were accordingly call'd Barons of Asbach. But these new Titles of the Count and Barons compleatly turn'd the Head of Madame de Wartemberg, and she was every day guilty of Extravagancies which were disgusting and ridiculous.
Such, Madame, was the State of our Court in my early years. It began to shew its Superiority over almost all the Courts of Germany, by the Influence it had upon the Affairs of Europe: But that which added new Lustre to it, was the erecting the Duchy of Prussia into a Kingdom. The first Hint of this was given by France to Frederic-William; but that Elector, whether it was owing to some Obstacles that he foresaw, or to the little Advantage he thought to reap from it, was not willing to put the Project in execution. His Son too perhaps would have miscarried in it, had it not been for the Situation of Affairs in Europe, on account of the Spanish Succession. Kolbe, whom I shall hereafter call the Count of
Wartemberg, had all the Honour of this Event, because it happen'd in his Ministry. I had some Particulars, Madame, from his own Mouth, which I think important enough to have a place in these Memoirs. The Affair is moreover so weighty of it self that I shall trace it from its very beginning.
Great Events commonly have their Source in Trifles. This was owing to nothing more than the Refusal of the Prince of Orange, who was King of England, to give an Arm-Chair to the Elector in a Conference betwixt those two Princes at the Hague in 1695. The Elector cou'd not bear that the Prince of Orange, who had always been his Inferior, shou'd carry it to him in such a lofty manner, after Fortune had rais'd him to the Throne of England; and from that time he resolved to be a King too.
Dankelman the then Prime Minister, who cou'd not foresee the Situation that Europe was in some Years after, would fain have diverted the Elector from a Project which he thought a perfect Chimæra; he put him in mind of the Difficulties Frederic-William met with in it, and of the Reasons he had to refuse the Offers which France made to him on that head; he shew'd him that the same Reasons were still subsisting, and reinforc'd by yet greater Difficulties; and that it was Madness to attempt a Thing, the Success whereof was neither certain nor advantageous, his Rank being so near a-kin to Royalty, that he would be never the better for the Title. But the Elector had the refusal of the Arm-chair too much at heart to hearken to any Reasons that could be brought against his Design, and sent Dankelman, his Minister's Brother, to Vienna,