His was an unprofitable life, but it well deserves the sympathy of a later generation. A strong passion disturbed his days up to his last hours. Mixed with a great love, a stream of gall penetrated into his heart, flowing unceasingly; his time, his money and all his talents were spent in the most sorrowful of all struggles--in family disputes. His brilliant youth gave great promise, yet how profitless to others, nay to himself, was his whole manhood. In his old age he dwelt in a foreign city, divided between his past and his new domestic life, to which he could never get thoroughly accustomed. His spirit, once so lively and active, and his unbending will, were so engrossed with his personal affairs, that when he became the real ruler of his country he no longer took an interest in doing his duty.
It was not unnatural that Anthony Ulrich should, from his own experience, entertain a repugnance to the pretensions of the lower nobility at court, and it was quite in accordance with his character, to display his hatred when opportunities offered. This he did shortly after the death of his first wife, to the bereaved court at Meiningen.
In the royal palace at Meiningen the Frau Landjägermeisterin, (wife of the Grand Master of the chase), Christiane Auguste von Gleichen held the highest rank. Among the other ladies who had a right to be there, was a Fran von Pfaffenrath, born Countess Solms, but yet only the wife of a councillor, who had only just been ennobled, and to whom she had been married in a not very regular way, for her husband had been tutor in her parents' house: she had eloped with him, and had after many troubles accomplished a reconciliation with her mother, and obtained a diploma of nobility for her husband. Now Duke Anthony Ulrich, who was residing at Frankfort, protected her, because, as the court whispered, her sister had the advantage of being in the good graces of the old gentleman. Naturally, she ought only to have ranked according to the patent of her husband, but alas! she raised pretensions because she was of high nobility. When therefore in October 1746, the doors of the dining-room were to be opened, and the page was standing ready to repeat grace, the Master-of-the-Horse entered and said to the Frau Landjägermeisterin: "His most Serene Highness has commanded that the Frau von Pfaffenrath shall take rank before all other ladies." Frau von Gleichen answered that she would never consent to that, but the Frau von Pfaffenrath had placed herself favourably and took the precedence of the Frau Landjägermeisterin before she could prevent it. Yet this determined lady was far from submitting tamely. She hastened round the table to the Duke's cabinet minister, and declared to him, as became a lady of character after such an insult: "If Frau von Pfaffenrath again goes before me to table, I will pull her back even to the sacrifice of her hooped gown, and will say a few words which will be very disagreeable to her." The cabinet minister was in a great embarrassment, for he knew the resolute character of Frau von Gleichen. At last he advised her to rise from the table before grace, then she would at all events go out first and so get the precedence. Thus the Landjägermeisterin maintained her place, but she was much offended, and so was the whole court, which split into two parties. This quarrel of the ladies made a commotion in the whole of the holy Roman Empire, occasioned a campaign between Gotha and Meiningen, and was only ended by Frederick the Great, in a manner which reminds one of the fable of the lion which took the royal share for himself.
Frau von Gleichen appealed to the absent Duke for reparation. She only received a strong and ungracious answer. Irritated at this, she made inquiries into the former life of her enemy, and propagated an anonymous writing, in which the love affairs of the Countess were described with more energy than delicacy. The Frau von Pfaffenrath complained of this lampoon to the sovereign at Frankfort, and afterwards began a course of proceedings against the Frau Landjägermeisterin which even then was considered harsh and cruel. She was called upon to crave pardon of the Frau von Pfaffenrath, on her knees entreating her most penitently for forgiveness; and when she refused with these words: "I would die first," she was taken in arrest to the council-house and there guarded by two musketeers; her husband also was put in an unhealthy prison. Unshaken by such great sufferings the Frau Landjägermeisterin, in a beautiful letter full of self-reliance and noble sentiments, petitioned the Duke for her husband's freedom, her own dismission from the service of the court, and permission to institute a legal defence against the Pfaffenrath. All this was denied her. She was on the contrary carried by two musketeers into the room of the Pfaffenrath in order to beg pardon, and when she again refused, she was taken into the market-place of Meiningen surrounded by a circle of soldiers, and the sheriff read aloud a decree, in which it was proclaimed to the people, that the lampoon was to be burnt before the eyes of the Landjägermeisterin by the hangman, and every one was forbidden, on pain of six weeks' imprisonment and a fine of a hundred thalers, ever to speak again on the subject. The letter was burnt by the hangman and Frau von Gleichen again taken back to prison.
But now the friends of the Gleichen brought a complaint before the Imperial chamber. But the repeated mandates of the Chamber to Duke Anthony Ulrich and his government, to give freedom to the Gleichens and to proceed according to law, were not obeyed. After that Duke Friedrich III. of Gotha, received a commission from the same tribunal to defend Frau von Gleichen and her husband from farther violence, and to deliver them from imprisonment in Meiningen, yet keep them in honourable custody. Duke Friedrich demanded the delivery of the prisoners from Meiningen, but his commissioners were not admitted into the city, nor his letter accepted; but it was signified to him, that if Gotha should attempt to free them by force, there was plenty of powder and shot at Meiningen. Betwixt Meiningen and Gotha there were endless quarrels and great bitterness.
Thereupon Duke Friedrich of Gotha prepared himself for armed intervention. He was a warlike Prince, who maintained a subsidiary force of six thousand infantry and fifteen hundred horse in the Dutch and Imperial service. He had, besides a large number of guns, a strong corps of officers and several Generals. On the other hand the military strength of Meiningen was small; it consisted almost entirely of the old fortifications and unskilled militia. These were assembled, and Meiningen was fortified as well as was possible in such haste. But it was not destined that Meiningen itself should become the scene of action, for the fury of war raged only about the town of Wasungen. It was indeed a remarkable coincidence that this place should become the theatre of war, for scandal says that it was considered the shield or place of refuge of Meiningen; and in the country there is a lying story about its councillors and a large gourd. The councillors mistook the gourd for the egg of a foreign horse which was to be hatched for the good of the town by the united powers of the councillors.
The struggle which then took place in the centre of Germany, between the Thuringian states of Gotha and Meiningen, is known by the name of the Wasunger war. In a military point of view it is of no importance, but is characteristic of the period. All the misery in the German Empire, the decaying state of the burgher life, the coarse immorality of the politics of that time, the meannesses, pedantry, and helplessness of the Imperial army, are shown to such an extent, that they might be a source of amusement, if they did not give rise to a more serious and better feeling, bringing to light the helplessness of the German Empire.
The narrative is here given by Lieutenant Rauch of Gotha, who took part in the war. He speaks in his diary as follows:--
"Early on the 15th of February, precisely at one o'clock, our whole division broke up from Tambach, and marched with burning torches through the wood beyond the so-called Rosengarten, in order that we might enter at break of day the Hessian village Flohe; we knew not whither we were going. We continued our march through the city of Smalkalden up to Middle Smalkalden.
"When the cavalry came to the Meiningen village Niederschmalkalden, a Lieutenant, with about four-and-twenty militia men, stood right across the road, and would not let us pass. Here all three corps were obliged to halt. Major von Benkendorf, together with the Lieutenant-Colonel, rode up to the Lieutenant who was commanding there; and the Major asked him what he meant by not letting us pass, and whether this was not a public road? The Lieutenant answered: 'Yes! it was a high road, but he had orders not to let us pass. Major Benkendorf might say what he liked, the Lieutenant would not listen to him.' The Major then took a letter out of his pocket which he wished to show him; but neither would he take that. Whereupon the Major said to the Lieutenant: if he would not let him pass with his people he would force his way.