#frederick i

prussiansuggestions:

Nearly poison yourself by swallowing obscure powders and potions in an attempt to fend off your family’s imaginary attempts at poisoning you 

After his younger brother died unexpectedly, the future Frederick I of Prussia became convinced his stepmother was trying to poison him in an attempt to make her eldest son the heir to the throne. This suspicion might also have been reinforced by the less than enthusiastic attitude of Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg, to his son and heir, including comments made to foreign envoys that he was “good for nothing”. Trying to protect himself from said supposed ploy, Frederick I promptly proceeded to flee to his wife’s family in Hanover, where he spent the next six months, and regularly ingested a number of dodgy remedies which left him suffering from severe stomach pains. In the end the intervention of the Emperor and various Brandenburg-Prussian officials was required to motivate Frederick to return to Berlin.

Barbarossa’s awakening by Hermann Wislicenus

“Legend says he is not dead, but asleep with his knights in a cave in the Kyffhäuser mountain in Thuringia, and that when the ravens cease to fly around the mountain he will awake and restore Germany to its ancient greatness. According to the story, his red beard has grown through the table at which he sits. His eyes are half closed in sleep, but now and then he raises his hand and sends a boy out to see if the ravens have stopped flying.”