Wilhelm I
King of Prussia [future Emperor of Germany]
Menu dated 26th November 1870
Dinner at the Palace of Versailles, location of the Prussian Royal Headquarters during the Franco-Prussian War, for His Majesty King Wilhelm I of Prussia during the siege of Paris.
Just one month before this dinner, Emperor Napoléon III of France had been embarrassingly captured by the King of Prussia, but despite the capture, France’s new republican government decided to keep the Franco-Prussian war going in the hope they could defeat the advancing Prussian forces.
Things were not going well for the French though. By the night of this dinner the French capital had been under siege for over two months with the good citizens of Paris forced to scramble for every scrap of food; even forced to feast on animals from the local zoo or try to outbid each other for rat-meat on the black market .
In the sharpest of contrasts the King of Prussia, whose forces had laid the siege, ensconced himself in the Palace at Versailles, on the outskirts of Paris, and made it his home and headquarters where he was able to satisfy his royal appetite with a seven course meal.
The King’s guest at this dinner was the British Ambassador, Russell Odo, who had been urgently dispatched at the express wish of Queen Victoria to resolve some outstanding issues relating to relations between Britain, Prussia and the Tsar of Russia. Back in Britain The Times informed its readers of this dinner: “At five o’clock Mr. Russell dined at the Royal table at the Prefecture, and it was remarked that the King was very gracious, and took occasion several times to enter into conversation with him”.
King Wilhelm would remain at his Versailles headquarters for another two months as his Prussian forces edged their way towards ultimate victory. The Franco-Prussian war had started out as a tiff between the royal house of Prussia and the imperial house of France over, of all things, who should become the King of Spain.
Two months after this dinner, on 18 January 1871, King Wilhelm would use his victory to be proclaimed Emperor of Germany at a special ceremony in the Hall of Mirrors, inside the Palace of Versailles, calculated to add extra humiliation to the French.
This dinner menu is embossed with the royal seal of the King of Prussia which incorporates the family’s Hohenzollern crown and includes the royal motto Gott Mit Uns: God With Us.
