It was in the mess room, with his Prussian fellow officers, that young Hohenzollern felt happiest — in the mess room or on the parade ground riding at the head of his regiment. One of his proudest memories was standing, at the age of eighteen, in front of the old Emperor in the newly conferred mantle of the Most Noble Company of the Black Eagle, swearing to “maintain the honour of the Royal House, and to guard the Royal privileges.”
Wilhelm II
