Wowwwwww. That is just... Fritz and Katte :((((((( It sounds very much like Friedrich wasn't actually serious about it and mostly was using it as a cry for attention from his dad. Which clearly backfired MASSIVELY. (added later: lol, I skimmed over the paragraph where you said the exact same thing, but caught it on reread. But wow, it's hard to escape that conclusion! I mean, I can imagine there was other stuff going on as well, but wow. What do you think were the other things going on?)
The arresting official was reported to have been extremely shocked and disappointed that Katte was still there to be arrested three hours later.
:(((((( I wonder, like you, whether maybe he didn't want to leave Fritz to deal with his dad alone?
(also, lol the third conspirator. Personally I am totally with the third conspirator, though mad respect for Katte.)
She records that there were 1,500 such letters... Interesting thought: if Schiller was having his characters play games with letters, he may have based that on this episode.
Holy cow. That's... a lot of letters.
Schiller does more with letters (I think there are three intercepted letters? one may be a message rather than an actual letter, I can't remember? there are a lot of letters and letter-related plot) but Verdi's libretto writers definitely honed it down to a single packet of letters, written by Carlo, that are explicitly treasonous (they have to do with the Matter of Flanders). These are the letters Posa takes and frames himself with in the opera (though in the play Posa writes his own framing treasonous I-am-in-love-with-the-queen letter). I always liked the opera version of the letters better, although I always thought it was a bit odd that Carlo is randomly hanging out writing treasonous letters, especially since it is clearly Posa who is the one who is super invested in Flanders. But if Mery/du Locle (the libretto writers) were thinking about this episode with Fritz and Katte, then it makes perfect sense that Carlo is the one who has these letters (since in "source" Fritz-and-Katte canon they had to do with escaping rather than freeing Flanders (*), and that being the treasonous thing) and that Posa bears the brunt of the contents of them. Wow.
(*) Actually it's escaping at least metaphorically in Schiller and Verdi too, of course -- you probably remember that in that clip Carlo says he wants to escape from the court and be sent to Flanders. To which, of course, Philip responds that he is a crazy idiot.
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The arresting official was reported to have been extremely shocked and disappointed that Katte was still there to be arrested three hours later.
:(((((( I wonder, like you, whether maybe he didn't want to leave Fritz to deal with his dad alone?
(also, lol the third conspirator. Personally I am totally with the third conspirator, though mad respect for Katte.)
She records that there were 1,500 such letters... Interesting thought: if Schiller was having his characters play games with letters, he may have based that on this episode.
Holy cow. That's... a lot of letters.
Schiller does more with letters (I think there are three intercepted letters? one may be a message rather than an actual letter, I can't remember? there are a lot of letters and letter-related plot) but Verdi's libretto writers definitely honed it down to a single packet of letters, written by Carlo, that are explicitly treasonous (they have to do with the Matter of Flanders). These are the letters Posa takes and frames himself with in the opera (though in the play Posa writes his own framing treasonous I-am-in-love-with-the-queen letter). I always liked the opera version of the letters better, although I always thought it was a bit odd that Carlo is randomly hanging out writing treasonous letters, especially since it is clearly Posa who is the one who is super invested in Flanders. But if Mery/du Locle (the libretto writers) were thinking about this episode with Fritz and Katte, then it makes perfect sense that Carlo is the one who has these letters (since in "source" Fritz-and-Katte canon they had to do with escaping rather than freeing Flanders (*), and that being the treasonous thing) and that Posa bears the brunt of the contents of them. Wow.
(*) Actually it's escaping at least metaphorically in Schiller and Verdi too, of course -- you probably remember that in that clip Carlo says he wants to escape from the court and be sent to Flanders. To which, of course, Philip responds that he is a crazy idiot.