Catharina Rickert

Catharina Rickert (Emmerich, 1674 - The Hague, 1734), known as "Catharina, Reichsgräfin von Wartenberg", was the official royal mistress of king Frederick I of Prussia between 1696 and 1709.

Life

Catharina Rickert was the daughter of an innkeeper in the Duchy of Cleves by the Rhine. She married a servant by the name Biedekap and followed him to Berlin, were she became the lover of the court official Baron von Kolbe, called Minion and one of the favorites of Frederick I. After the death of her spouse in 1696, von Kolbe married her, and the same year, he introduced her to Frederick I, and she became his official mistress.

It is unconfirmed whether she ever actually functioned as the mistress of Frederick I in a physical sense, but it was very fashionable at the time for a monarch to have an official mistress at his court, in the manner of Louis XIV of France, and Frederick I made a point of spending time with her every day and appear with her openly at court. She was also given the title countess of Wartenberg. Though they may not have consummated their relationship sexually, Catharina Rickert reportedly did have some influence over the king, as well as she had influence over her spouse, himself an influential favorite of the king, and she was at the time resented as "the daughter of a tavern-keeper who rules Prussia". She was described as politically ambitious and her position made her controversial, particular in the eyes of the king's male favorites, such as the English ambassador, Mylord Raby. The queen, Sophia Charlotte of Hanover, reportedly snubbed her on several occasions.

In 1709, her spouse baron von Kolbe lost his position at court, she was dragged along in his fall and had to follow him in exile to Frankfurt. She became a widow in 1712, and remarried the French noble Marschall d’Huvelles, with whom she settled in Paris. The final years of her life, she lived in The Hague.

References

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