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Crown Prince Frederick of Prussia: Suez and syphilis. Un canard dévoilé

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 June 2007

Rae Duncan Laurenson*
Affiliation:
Aberdeen
*
Address for correspondence: Dr R. D. Laurenson, 2212 12 Avenue N.W., Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2N 1K2.

Abstract

Frederick III (Crown Prince of Prussia, and Emperor of Germany) died of cancer of the larynx in 1888. In Drame Imperial (1888) journalist Jean de Bonnefon asserted that the disease was not cancer but syphilis which the Crown Prince acquired in 1869 in Suez. What de Bonnefon wrote about the prince does not coincide with the prince's itinerary published in the London Times. This discrepancy is examined and the reason for de Bonefon's claim is considered. The report that Crown Prince Frederick of Prussia caught syphilis in Suez is a canard.

Type
Historical Article
Copyright
Copyright © JLO (1984) Limited 1995

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