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Frederick the Great, discussion post 5: or: Yuletide requests are out!
All Yuletide requests are out!
Yuletide related:
-it is sad that I can't watch opera quickly enough these days to have offered any of them, these requests are delightful!
-That is... sure a lot of prompts for MCS/Jingyan. But happily some that are not :D (I like MCS/Jingyan! But there are So Many Other characters!)
Frederician-specific:
-I am so excited someone requested Fritz/Voltaire, please someone write it!!
-I also really want someone to write that request for Poniatowski, although that is... definitely a niche request, even for this niche fandom. But he has memoirs?? apparently they are translated from Polish into French
-But while we are waiting/writing/etc., check out this crack commentfic where Heinrich and Franz Stefan are drinking together while Maria Theresia and Frederick the Great have their secret summit, which turns into a plot to marry the future Emperor Joseph to Fritz...
Master link to Frederick the Great posts and associated online links
Yuletide related:
-it is sad that I can't watch opera quickly enough these days to have offered any of them, these requests are delightful!
-That is... sure a lot of prompts for MCS/Jingyan. But happily some that are not :D (I like MCS/Jingyan! But there are So Many Other characters!)
Frederician-specific:
-I am so excited someone requested Fritz/Voltaire, please someone write it!!
-I also really want someone to write that request for Poniatowski, although that is... definitely a niche request, even for this niche fandom. But he has memoirs?? apparently they are translated from Polish into French
-But while we are waiting/writing/etc., check out this crack commentfic where Heinrich and Franz Stefan are drinking together while Maria Theresia and Frederick the Great have their secret summit, which turns into a plot to marry the future Emperor Joseph to Fritz...
Master link to Frederick the Great posts and associated online links
Oh Brother! More impressions of the Heinrich bio
Bits of interest I haven't already mentioned:
Heinrich was chief Prussian negotiatior in the Partitioning of Poland. He actually visited Catherine repeatedly, in St. Petersburg and elswhere, and they hit it off famously beyond negotiating; she made so much of him that people were confused because Heinrich being so obviously gay, he was the one man she showed such fondness to who never ever was suspected of having an affair with her. Heinrich was very into Catherine as well. When she died, he wore mourning for her, writing to brother Ferdinand: I am wearing (mourning) in memory of the friendship she's shown towards me, and of her genius. For losing it is a loss to the whole world. (...) She had supreme qualities. I can never forget her attention, her amiability and the power of her mind. What remains now is very small, compared to her. Of course, from a political point of view her death is a stroke of luck for us.
(In fact, in between negotiations, this had happened: Catherine to Fritz: Mind if I keep your brother as my personal satrap and make him King of Wallachia? Fritz: YES. NO HEINRICH FOR YOU.)
Other Catherine visits by Heinrich happened apropos the Swedes, as briefly mentioned at the tail of the Hohenzollern reunion saga. And you might remember she bought his paintings so he had cash to pay his boyfriend Kaphengst's debts.
Speaking of Heinrich's boyfriends, he seems to have had a thing for rough trade, with a few notable exceptions, such as the French Emigré count who was his last lover, and Mara who still fell into the charismatic money waster category most of the others did.
(Meanwhile, Lehndorff is going: "I'm right here! Would totally go for a more permanent thing! Dammit!What does he see in Krackow/Kaphengst/Tauentzien/ "50 others so far" that he doesn't see in me?)
Heinrch had the same "German literature? No such thing!" attitude Fritz did, and since he lived a while longer, his theatre at Rheinsberg ended up as one of the few places in the German states where French plays - in French - were still produced. During his first visit to Paris, he saw the 50th performance of "Figaro's Wedding", Beaumarchais' original play, not later Mozart opera, of course, and thought it hilarious. And
In another strange moment of deja vu, this happened:
Mirabeau: comes to Prussia during Fritz' last year and stays on for another year.
Heinrich: Such a wonderful example of a witty French intellectual! Let's spend time together!
Mirabeau: *publishes trashy tell all about the Prussian court, old and new, with particular highlights being "So, the supposedly "great" Fritz was an emo weakling, his successor is a dumb playboy run by his dick, and as for Prince Heinrich, he's an incompetent old homo who can't get over himself! Let me tell you all the sex tales I've heard!"
....yeah. Fritz, in one of those moments of emotional self awareness that make him such an interesting enigma, did refer to Heinrich as "l'autre moi-meme", "my other self" on more than one occasion. (He also called him "my brother Narcissus".) This was definitely the hateship of Heinrich's life, though. And one he turned out to be addicted to, because when, after yet another of their arguments post (not much of a)War of Bavarian Succession, he managed to keep up the "not talking to you" attitude for a record one and a half years, and in theory should have been happy at Rheinsberg, with a tolerable boyfriend, country at peace and no Fritz around... he discovered he was bored to tears. And lo:
Heinrich: *starts dropping hints in letters to mutual relations and aquaintances that he's got time at his hands*
Fritz: So, Amalie may have told me you're currently somewhat idle. Want to become weekly pen pals again, with the occasional bickering visit to Potsdam?
Heinrich: YES GOD YES. You bastard.
*weekly correspondance with lengthy letters about philosophy, politics, literature and bickering*: Resumes.
He was, of course, still planning for that obelisk. The last time Heinrich saw Fritz alive was in January 1786. Upon his return, he wrote to brother Ferdinand: If you go to Potsdam next week, you can see for yourself how the old man is doing. I await with resignation the inevitable. Amalie has assured me she would like to follow him into death. I can't say the same for myself. I don't know whether we'll be bedded on roses once he's gone, but one thing I know, there will be fewer thorns than during the last 46 years.
(Amalie survived Fritz for only a year. The big Mom argument aside, she got on very well with Heinrich, who when moving into Rheinsberg had several rooms furbished as her permanent guest rooms, and kept shopping for her whenever he was somewhere interesting, whether it was Meißen - where he bought her porcellan figurines - or Paris, or St. Petersburg. She also had a better relationship with Fritz than she does in Mein name ist Bach, who not only paid her debts on a regular basis but did actively seek out her company in their later years. Other than his personnel, she was one of the last people to see him alive.)
Back to Fritz' last months.
Heinrich to Ferdinand: "I know exactly that I won't be able to cry over the death of an evil man who was like the sword of Damocles over my entire life."
Fritz: *writes deeply sad letter*
Heinrich: I don't - fuck it. Want me to come to Berlin?
Fritz: Nope, not up to our usual sessions. Maybe next month. But I'm sending you some fruits, I hear you have a cold yourself.
Heinrich to Ferdinand: This is a cunning plan to keep me from feeling relieved once he kicks it. But it won't work. DAMMIT.
Fritz dies, the funeral happens, and Heinrich assumes that since he's gotten on pretty well with Son of Favourite Brother so far, he'll be asked for advice. He's even prepared several memoranda on various political aspects.
FW2: Don't get me wrong, Uncle Heinrich, I really like you. But. Ahem. I sort of want to start a new regime here.
Heinrich: With you there.
FW2: Without the most prominent reminder of the old regime I can imagine. I mean, you were his...
Heinrich: Don't say it.
FW2: Other self.
Heinrich: Fine. I'm visiting Paris again. Vive la France!
This turns out his last Paris visit, as he barely misses the storming of the Bastille when he leaves. It's still a good visit, except this happens:
Tauentzien (boyfriend du jour, son of Fritzian general of the same name): Guess what, the Comedie Francaise plays a German drama in French translation! Let's go!
Heinrich: Why would I want to watch a German drama?
Tauentzien: Come in, it'll be fun.
*German drama starring one Frederick the Great, with the actor personally coached by Tauentzien in Fritz mannerisms and voice intonation*: Ensues
Heinrich: *sits frozen in his seat for the rest of the play, but does not run out*
During Fritz' lifetime, Heinrich had advocated for easing up on the Austrians and maybe even an alliance, but that was when MT and Joseph were on the throne. Leopold ruled only two years after Joseph's death, and then his son Franz took back all reforms and became the most reactionary Emperor since a century at least. Simultanously, the French revolution happens and happens and happens. Heinrich keeps writing memoranda, though unlike his letters to Fritz, who always argued back, these get rarely replies beyond "there, there".
Heinrich: Don't join the alliance against revolutionary France, nephew. Prussia and France should ally against reactionary Austria, now they've given up on reforms altogether; we are the champions of the enlightnment! We should not fighting France, and I'm not just talking as a Francophile here!
FW2: Yeah, no. But you do do you in Rheinsberg, uncle.
Prussian forces along with other forces: keep suffering humiliating defeats against revolutionary France
Napoleon: *starts to get noticed*
Heinrich: Nephew, please read my memos for once, "he'll make our Fritz look like an amateur"!
Heinrich: *keeps getting ignored as advisor, with only literary or family matters talked about*
Heinrich by now was too old to scuttle between Rheinsberg and Berlin, and with great regret decided to to settle closer to Berlin for his main residence. (He didn't want to move permanently into town.) Now, in his last will, FW1 had specified that if Fritz died without an heir and was succeeded by AW or AW's heirs, Wusterhausen should go to Heinrich. Which meant:)
Heinrich: Dear Ferdinand, have moved into Wusterhausen after all, put up AW's portrait in the room we used to share as kids and pretend the last twelve years never happened. Have installed a guest room for you, too.
(No, really. He moved in in March 1799. I have preserved as much of the old days as I could. I believe I can forget here what happened in the last twelve years, and I don't want to think of what will happen in the fuiture. I have put up the portrait of our mother next to my bed, and the portrait of our brother Wilhelm at the opposite wall where I can see it always. I indulge in illusions about the past and push away the present. One can't burden the mind too much with matters one cannot change.)
Ferdiand: *counts* Twelve years? Counting back from March 1799? You mean, when...
Heinrich: Don't you dare.
Moving into Wusterhausen did mean he got more family visits from the younger relations and could go and visit Berlin without that much effort. Sadly, Ziebura doesn't say, or it's not known, what the Comte de La Roche-Aymon, aka Heinrich's last boyfriend, made of exchanging Rheinsberg for Wusterhausen and AW's portrait on the wall. In 1801, when he was sick enough to know he die, Heinrich returned to Rheinsberg, though. He'd methodically organized his own funeral and tomb, and unlike Fritze's, his last instructions were obeyed.
Re: Oh Brother! More impressions of the Heinrich bio
Fritz called Heinrich his other self??!!* Heinrich picked back up a correspondence with him because he needed someone to bicker with?? Heinrich moved to Wusterhausen in 1799 so he could forget about the last twelve years??!!
??!!!???!!!???!!!
Woooow, this just keeps getting better. I guess you need your other-self hateship in your life so you can have someone who will at least argue back. FW2 really *was* committed to doing things differently. :P I mean, I think a key part of the whole Fritz/Voltaire addiction was the fact that both of them would at least argue back.
* This just goes to show that having self-awareness does not equal knowing what to do about it, which is consistent with my experiences with other highly intelligent, self-aware people with severe trauma, even in the twenty-first century.
Also, if the correspondence resumption was post Bavarian Succession, then Voltaire had recently died, and Fritz must have been feeling a void where there was once a hateship. :P More seriously, Maria Antonia died around this time as well, and he cut off Catt, and I can imagine he was desperate for someone to talk to as well.
FW2: Without the most prominent reminder of the old regime I can imagine. I mean, you were his...
Heinrich: Don't say it.
FW2: Other self.
Ferdiand: *counts* Twelve years? Counting back from March 1799? You mean, when...
Heinrich: Don't you dare.
OMG, this is Fritz/Voltaire levels of hateshipping, wow. This may even put them to shame. Wow wow wow.
Heinrich: YES GOD YES. You bastard.
I may have choked on my drink here. You seriously do the best write-ups.
Heinrich: Nephew, please read my memos for once, "he'll make our Fritz look like an amateur"!
He kinda did, yeah. I can't remember if I've mentioned that the epic rap battle perfectly and concisely encapsulates the fact that Alexander, like Napoleon, was a specialist, while Fritz was a polymath.
I brought foes to their knees in Phoenicia/breezed through Gaza to Giza/had the Balkans, Persia, Syria, Iraq, and Pakistan in my expansion pack
I've got creative talents and battle malice/hard as steel on the field, genteel in the palace
Silesia. He conquered Silesia. He couldn't even hold onto Bohemia or Saxony. But he did keep it all from falling apart at his death. And I think everyone agrees his poetry was mediocre, his flute-playing excellent on slower tempos but wobblier on faster tempos, his compositions decent, and so on, such that he wasn't the best at any one thing, but he was good enough at a wide range of things to make people sit up and pay attention. Algarotti and I can relate, Fritz. *hugs*
*German drama starring one Frederick the Great, with the actor personally coached by Tauentzien in Fritz mannerisms and voice intonation*: Ensues
Heinrich: *sits frozen in his seat for the rest of the play, but does not run out*
What. Why would you do that to your boyfriend? Do you know him at ALL? I'm with Lehndorff, Heinrich, you need better boyfriends. I'm glad the setting sun cast a final beam of warming light on you, because seriously. Hohenzollern relationships are fucked up. Other self indeed.
She also had a better relationship with Fritz than she does in Mein name ist Bach
Oh, thank goodness. I mean, I knew it wasn't perfect, but that movie had me worried about them.
He'd methodically organized his own funeral and tomb, and unlike Fritze's, his last instructions were obeyed.
Oh, good. Is that like a first in this family? (ETA: rhetorical question)
Trenck, or: My Sister's Possible Boyfriend
Because this has nothing to do with Heinrich, but is a story of its own, I'm replying to it separately. Aside from the fact Amalie - who had some serious musical skills in various instruments and, like Big Brother and Big Sister, composed - did have a certified (musical) passion for all things Bach (Johann Sebastian and his sons), there is one other reason (I guess) why the scriptwriter included her the way he didi, one big question mark hanging around the relationship of the younger Amalie and Fritz, and that's the Mysterious Trenck Affair (tm).
Important to know apart in this very confusing tale:
Friedrich von der Trenck (aka Prussian Trenck): future bestselling memoir writer, definitely an influence on Dumas (in Count of Monte Christo) and Mark Twain (in Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn) who name check him both; this is a subtle literary pop quiz for you, as it'll make you guess what Prussian Trenck will be most famous for
Franz von der Trenck (aka Austrian Trenck): his cousin, famous for his temper, derring-do, courageous soldiering but sadly also cruelty (both towards civilians and his own men) which will be his doom
Prussian Trenck: Let me give you a short version of my famously bestselling three volume memoirs, currently at Gutenberg in a one volume edition in German at least; the editor dares to say my Rokoko feelings and rants are too much for the modern reader, so nothing was lost when severely cutting them down, and a decent adventure novel gained. Bah.
Anyway: I was born to a noble Prussian family with Austrian relations. In 1740, when Fritz came on the throne, I joined his army. By 1744, I was his batman. He totally had a really warm fatherly regard for me -
(Self: When he was 32? If you say so...)
- and despite the later turn of events, I spent the first bit of my memoirs raving about how charismatic Fritz was, how much it rocked serving under him. When his sister Ulrike got married, I was part of the festivities, and there I met a An Unmarried Lady Of The Highest Rank whom I, being a gentleman, will not identify by name until volume 3 gets published, but we're talking Highest Family here, wink, nudge. I scored! So basically, life was sweet. Then the Second Silesian War started. Totally not the fault of Fritz this time. I swear, he only wanted to protect the poor, helpless Prince Elector of Bavaria, who had cruelly lost his dukedom and hometown when becoming Emperor - I mean, who could have predicted MT would do that, amirite?
Speaking of Austrians: So, I had this cousin. Austrian Trenck was an early supporter of MT's and distinguished himself in her service by fighting for her from Day 1 in 1740, like I distinguished myself in the service of Fritz and his family. Shut up, this is not a double entendre. We had never met, but we heard from another. And one time, when our horses got captured and Fritz nearly was captured, my cousin sent the horses back to me. So there was talk among the chaps. And then I got this letter, which I thought was from my cousin but which actually now I think was a forgery by some bastard who wanted to do me in, asking me switch sides. Which of course I refused! I mean, why would I go to the Austrians? I had a sweet deal as Fritz' batman and secret lover of A Certain High Ranking Lady! However. I was slandered. By more anonymous letters claiming I was spying for the Austrians. And woe, but Fritz listened! There may or may not have been also something about me and Very High Ranking Lady, I'm too discreet to say. Anyway, Fritz, ignoring my loyal service so far, cruelly locked me up at the fortress Glatz. He even had me sit on my gravestone! I escaped a year later. Whereto, faithful reader? Well, naturally to Vienna. Not because I was a spy. Because I had heard my cousin Austrian Trenck had made me his universal heir, and was in severe trouble himself. Naturally, I wanted to help!
My cousin Austrian Trenck really was in trouble. Several of his men as well as some civilians had accused him of war crimes, and he'd been condemned to death. MT's brother-in-law, under whom he had served, reminded her she owed him, and so she allowed a retrial. Which, however, didn't exonorate him, because brave as he was, he actually was guilty as charged. Since this was apparant in the later part of the trial, aka when I arrived in Vienna, she told him that if he pled guilty, she'd commute his sentence out of gratitude and mercy, he refused and insisted on being completely cleared, and the trial went on. So he wasn't in a good mind frame, is what I'm saying, and he turned out to be a bastard. I, a naive innocent, believed it was cousinly feeling that made him make me his heir, but really, it was because he knew Fritz would never believe I was innocent if I accepted the heritage! Also, one condition for the heritage was that I had to join Austrian service and swear not to work for Prussia again. Prussia, my beloved home country, where my beloved King and High Ranking Lady were! Naturally, I refused. At first.
So anyway, my cousin: got condemned to death again, MT commuted the sentence to life long imprisonment, my cousin took sick and died. Leaving me his heir, as promised. That was a legal nightmare, I can tell you. All part of the evil plan. The part where I had to go from one clerk to the next sounds positively out of Kafka, which fits since Kafka was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. So VERY relluctantly, I joined Austrian service. Went to Rusisa for a while, to the court of the Czarina Elizabeth where I scored again with another High Ranking Lady I Will Not Name. Some years later, 1753, I had to travel to Danzig on some family business. And would you believe it, but Fritz still held a grudge! I got arrested and imprisoned again. Which is where the worst part of my life started. Locked up in a cell in Magdeburg, and after my first escape attempt there, even chained to a wall.
(Self: Okay, Trenck, that does sound awful.)
This went on until the end of the Seven-Years-War, when MT personally asked for my release as part of the peace negotiations, and got it. So here I was, free. Went to Vienna again, where I thought MT & Co. would be overwhelmingly grateful and shower me with riches for all my sufferings. I did get an audience with her, and but would you believe it, her idea of showering me with riches was suggesting a rich widow for me to marry! ME! As if I'd marry some Austrian broad two years older than me who wasn't even a virgin. I told her that was a no go, and she was all, have it your way, and that, dear readers, was the end of Habsburg gratitude. After all I had gone through while being UNFAIRLY suspected of spying for them!
I had enough and went to Aachen, aka Aix-La-Chapelle, where I married the mayor's daughter and opened a trade with Hungarian wine. I also started publishing these memoirs. When Fritz died, his successor FW2 granted me a pension - I don't care what anyone says, you're cool with me, FW2! - , and I met my First Mysterious Lady again whom I can now reveal in the last volume was totally Princess Amalie, because sadly, she's now gone as well. We had a tearful reunion just before she died, though.
Not covered in my memoirs for obvious reasons is my ending. I went to Revolutionary Paris. Some claim to spy for the Austrians, but as if, I mean, I never did, and I had enough of Royals, I thought I'd fit right in the place where they had just gotten rid of theirs. Now, some may claim that given Prussia and Austria, allied for the first time, were in a state of war with Revolutionary France it was a bad idea for me to go there, but hey! Did anything so far make you think I have common sense? Naturally, once I was there, I started to name drop. And got arrested. I mean, I TOLD them that I was completely in sympathy with their goals, that I was a victim of both Hohenzollerns and Habsburgs and knew how much royalty sucks, but I might have mentioned that MT personally asked for my release from Prussian imprisonment as part of an explanation as to why I wasn't suffering in Prussian prison anymore. So they were all, what, MT, as in, mother of MA the Austrian bitch we just beheaded? Off with your head!
I got beheaded just ten days before Robespierre did. I guess I was a drama guy to the finish. Now, for SOME reason, historians were a bit sceptical about some of my claims. Especially the one where I scored with Amalie. But in 2008, they found a letter from me to her, written in 1787, the year of her death, which "at least indicates great familiarity", which is their way of phrasing I totally scored! Now, how my treatment at the hands of her brother made her feel about her brother is anyone's guess, but seriously, I could never figure that family out. I mean, if Fritz hadn't been listening to these ABSURD claims I was an Austrian spy and responsible for his near capture, I could have gone on being his batman and scoring with his youngest sister forever!
Re: Trenck, or: My Sister's Possible Boyfriend
At the very least, it's one of the cases where Fritz gets finger wagging from historians for locking someone up with so little transparency, no trial, no formal charges, etc. Bad enlightened monarch!
But in 2008, they found a letter from me to her, written in 1787, the year of her death, which "at least indicates great familiarity", which is their way of phrasing I totally scored!
Ahahahaha, love it.
I could never figure that family out.
Join the club, Trenck. Every day, I wake up to new developments from this family to stare at in disbelief.
Re: Oh Brother! More impressions of the Heinrich bio
I know. You really couldn't make these people up. Or, to use a phrase coined by our other famous dyfunctional and intense brothers, the brothers Mann, "das brüderliche Welterlebnis". (Thanks, Tommy!)
This just goes to show that having self-awareness does not equal knowing what to do about it, which is consistent with my experiences with other highly intelligent, self-aware people with severe trauma, even in the twenty-first century.
Well, Fritz knew what to do about it, alright, it's just that his method of choice was to vary Larkin's famous "they fuck you up, your Mum and Dad, they may not mean to, but they do" into "and then you'll fuck up your brother, too". This isn't what Larkin meant by concluding that poem with "don't have any kids yourself", Fritz!
I would say at least Heinrich didn't hand down the trauma to the next generation, but taking it (at least somewhat) out on his wife isn't much better, so. Other self indeed.
OMG, this is Fritz/Voltaire levels of hateshipping, wow. This may even put them to shame. Wow wow wow
Well, it has that extra special family element. Also Fritz never did anything as serious to Voltaire as force him to marry, break the person Voltaire loves most who dies in his mind because of that, nor did he, conversely, form Voltaire's ideas about a great many things from literature to how to treat your unwanted wife. (Though I guess Voltaire did form several of Fritz' ideas by virtue of being his favourite writer.)
Silesia. He conquered Silesia. He couldn't even hold onto Bohemia or Saxony.
Which reminds me: as has been pointed out by biographers, Heinrich in his partition of Poland negotiations aquired more territory for Prussia diplomatically and thus without a single loss of (Prussian) life than Fritz managed in three Silesian wars. (I mean, it sucked for the Poles, and caused no end of trouble in European history, long term wise, but from a Prussian pov back then, this was awesome.) You can bet Heinrich pointed that out, too. Big Brother wasn't amused.
What. Why would you do that to your boyfriend?
My question exactly, which is why I had to share it. I assume T. thought Heinrich would consider it funny? Or maybe flattering, because the audience, when it noticed Heinrich was present, cheered both him and the Fritz actor with lots of Vive Frederic! Vive le frère du grand Frederic! calls. How that made Heinrich feel, I'll leave to your imagination.
That particular boyfriend also had managed the following saga:
T: So, I got my girlfriend, which yes, I had on the side, pregnant. We need money to marry. Pretty please?
H: ....Okay.
T's father and Fritz: WTF? Prussian nobles aren't allowed to marry without permission of the King! (See also: Marwitz, female edition.)
H: *keeps young T & pregnant wife from being punished, points out done is done and also there's an heir on the way, manages to achieve reconcilation*
Young Mrs. T: dies in childbirth, along with the baby
T: Woe! Comfort me!
H: *does so*
Anyway, Heinrich's romantic/sexual track record is the one thing which makes me at least consider the possibility Fritz wasn't acting purely out of spite in the four Marwitz (male) letters.
Oh, and not Ziebura, but older male historians going "why the very het Catherine and the very gay Heinrich went along so well is a complete mystery to us" clearly haven't heard of Elizabeth Taylor, which was the association I immediately had when reading about Heinrich's visits in Russia.
ETA: Meant to include this - when Fritz gave Heinrich permission to go to Paris the first time, it wasn't meant as a holiday, though of course both of them knew it would be a #lifegoal accomplished - Paris! -; Heinrich was actually there to try and woo the French away from their Austrian alliance, now that MT was dead.
(MA: come on. I know I'm not Mom, but I would never, ever, have let that happen! Joseph was counting on me!)
So, while they hash out final instructions and policies via letters, Fritz says, re: the French: "But let them come to you, don't fling yourself in their arms at the first sign of interest, the way you usually do."
Yep. That fraternal bitching is alive and well. (You can bet Fritz would have flung himself into proverbial French arms if he'd ever made it to Paris.)
Re: Oh Brother! More impressions of the Heinrich bio
What I meant was that he wanted to not have the anger management issues, and he repeatedly said he kept trying to get them under control, but repeatedly failed, because he'd been fucked up in childhood. And he *wanted* better quality relationships, including with various members of his family (not including EC), and couldn't always figure out how. The people I know and know of also want to get better, but even with medication and decades of therapy don't always manage it. Reprogramming your brain after the formative years is *hard*.
You can bet Heinrich pointed that out, too. Big Brother wasn't amused.
Yep, and nope.
Anyway, Heinrich's romantic/sexual track record is the one thing which makes me at least consider the possibility Fritz wasn't acting purely out of spite in the four Marwitz (male) letters.
Oh, yeah. That was definitely on my mind when I proposed that maybe Fritz was maybe trying to save him from himself (in the most unlikely-to-succeed possible way) and then had to give up when it didn't succeed (shocker).
clearly haven't heard of Elizabeth Taylor, which was the association I immediately had when reading about Heinrich's visits in Russia.
For those of us who've heard of her but live under a rock and don't know anything about her, would you care to elaborate? Look, knowing far more about the eighteenth century than the twentieth goes all the way back to childhood with me. :P ETA: See also these anecdotes.
Re: Oh Brother! More impressions of the Heinrich bio
Re: Oh Brother! More impressions of the Heinrich bio
heeee! but also this is super sweet <3
I can never forget her attention, her amiability and the power of her mind. What remains now is very small, compared to her. Of course, from a political point of view her death is a stroke of luck for us.
HAHAHAHA that is both moving and rather funny.
Catherine to Fritz: Mind if I keep your brother as my personal satrap and make him King of Wallachia? Fritz: YES. NO HEINRICH FOR YOU.
LOL!
Beaumarchais told Heinrich he wanted to work together with a composer working at Joseph's court, to wit: Salieri!
I am dying. That is just too much. (And glad that this... didn't happen? or did it? well, glad anyway that it also became a Mozart opera, because that Beaumarchais-daPonte-Mozart combination/collaboration is in my opinion one of the great things about Western civilization.
...And somewhere, Shaffer!Salieri is shaking his fist in his grave.)
Heinrich: YES GOD YES. You bastard.
Okay, this? This is endearing. <3333333333333 to both Fritz and Heinrich
Actually your whole writeup is definitely giving me "yes, your fave is totally cool" vibes, so I guess Ziebura succeeded <3 :D
Ferdiand: *counts* Twelve years? Counting back from March 1799? You mean, when...
Me: *counts*
Me: checks wikipedia, because super bad at dates
Me: Oh Heinrich. <33333333
OK... tell me more about Lehndorff? So I know from your previous posts that he was EC's chamberlain and Heinrich's friend-with-benefits and had a diary... did he write about Heinrich in his diary??
Re: Oh Brother! More impressions of the Heinrich bio
Me: checks wikipedia, because super bad at dates
Me: Oh Heinrich. <33333333
March 1799 - August 17, 1786 = 12 years, 6 months, some days. Just saying.
OK... tell me more about Lehndorff? So I know from your previous posts that he was EC's chamberlain and Heinrich's friend-with-benefits and had a diary... did he write about Heinrich in his diary??
Extensively, and it's even online...in German...in scanned pages...in Fraktur. *facepalm* Actually, the font is a lot less bad than most such examples, but omfg. Also, I can get copy-pastable OCRed text views, but only a couple sentences at a time without paying. I was looking him up recently for the Fredersdorf quotes.
Anyway, I'll give you what I can from various bios.
"His love life can be followed in some detail through the diaries of Count Lehndorff, who was himself besotted with the prince, as the following sample reveals:
"1 May 1753 the most miserable day of my life, because Prince Henry is leaving; I go to see him, my heart full of grief. I hurry to my dear prince, what a sorrowful meeting! I leave him without a word, I see tears pouring down his face, the dearest in the world, what a man to be worshipped, what a loss for me, I swear eternal devotion. I return to my home in sorrow and cannot sleep, I write my prince a letter.
"2 May I get a letter from him which makes me burst into tears. I jump on my horse and ride to meet him, but when I see his carriage approaching I get off and hide, otherwise my heart would have burst. I did not think that one person could be so devoted to another; in pagan times they would have made him a God.
"The sight of Prince Henry in tight riding breeches and looking 'as beautiful as an angel' was enough to send Lehndorff into erotic rapture."
Also, Lehndorff fell in love with an English aristocrat, Sir. Charles Hotham, and wanted to join him in England. But as a Prussian, he had to ask the King's permission to leave the country. Fritz said no. "I cry, and I cry, and I cry," Lehndorff writes. No reason given for the refusal, but I think we all know the real reason is: "If *I* can't go to England with my lover, *nobody* gets to go to England with their lover."
The Maras: *sigh*
Lehndorff also records a masked party in January 1754 where AW dressed up as a woman as part of some general royal hijinks (with heavy anti-Semitic overtones that Lehndorff and all the Hohenzollern brothers thought was hilarious, and which I will refrain from recounting), and also later in the month, when a Countess Bentick more seriously dressed as a man, "in the forlorn hope that her male attire would win her the attention of the exclusively homosexual Prince Henry." No dice, Countess.
After Heinrich's forced marriage, Lehndorff wrote to him: 'Monseigneur, the king has built a palace for you with admirable arrangements: one may spend one’s life there without ever setting one's eyes on one's wife.'
I should add that on this occasion, Bielfeld referred to Heinrich as a "Potsdamite," saying that even though his wife was of more than mortal beauty, it would do her no good. Oh, those Potsdamites. :P
If I find an accessible translation, I'll let you know, but I doubt there is one, since even my biographers are using the German original, and they usually tell you about translations where they can.
Also, I just want to say that today the OCR + auto Google Translate function in Chrome seem to be behaving themselves, but last time I checked, Chrome persisted in translating "Dreissig Jahre am Hofe Friedrichs des Grossen" as "Thirty Years at the Pants of Frederick the Great," through what I suspect was a confusion between 'f' and old-fashioned 's', leading to "Dreissig Jahre am Hose Friedrichs des Grossen."
It made me laugh so much. So close but yet so far! It's "Thirty Years in the Pants of Frederick the Great's Other Self," Google!
Re: Oh Brother! More impressions of the Heinrich bio
German wiki, btw, mentions, as did Ziebura, that Lehndorf was married (twice) while all this was going on. Not of course unusual for someone in this era even when not being a Royal. He was also really bitter about Fritz never promoting him, realising chamberlain to EC was a dead-end job in that it paid well but really wasn't how you distinguished yourself and got some juicy or glorious promotion, and eventually retiring to the countryside.
"The sight of Prince Henry in tight riding breeches and looking 'as beautiful as an angel' was enough to send Lehndorff into erotic rapture."
ETA: This also proves how far gone Lehndorff must have been, because even when young, Heinrich was never more than avarage looking, and when older, usually people found him downright ugly when first meeting him (Most of them were however subsequently wowed by his charm, which he must have had in considerable degree if he tried - very useful in a diplomat -, so a typical description of Heinrich from French, Russian and Swedes - he visited Ulrike in Stockholm, too - goes "huh, at first I thought, this little dry wrinkly man is the hero of the 7 Years War, but then he opened his mouth and wow! So smart! So charming! So witty! Swoon!"
Re: small, he was literally smaller than the not tall Fritz and both his other brothers. There's a famous anecdote of Heinrich motivating the guys from his first serious command by jumping into the muddy river and saying "men, if I can cross this depite it going to my waist, then so can you!"
Lehndorff
Oh, noes! Oh, you're right, my link says "US access only." And I can only download one page at a time, even though it says it's public domain. Oh, well. Presumably when you get home, you can get your hands on a copy? Your write-ups are always awesome (thank you for Trenck, btw), and Lehndorff seems like he's full of the good stuff.
[ETA: I have asked a friend, but the friend may also not have access. We'll see.]
He was also really bitter about Fritz never promoting him, realising chamberlain to EC was a dead-end job in that it paid well but really wasn't how you distinguished yourself and got some juicy or glorious promotion, and eventually retiring to the countryside.
Yep, I almost quoted this but left it out because it wasn't about Heinrich: "It must have occurred to him that his senior position in the queen’s household was not calculated to endear him to Frederick."
This also proves how far gone Lehndorff must have been
Yes, I was going to say that, but I forgot! Thank you! Yes, Heinrich was no prize physically. Hey, he was Fritz's other self: of course he was short, far from good-looking, and charismatic when he wanted to be. :P
Re: Lehndorff
DMed you.
Salieri and Beaumarchais