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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
Re: Sibling Correspondance
ZOMG, mes amies, could he have been afraid she'd stay in Italy and he wouldn't see her again?
ZOMG. He had *just* lost Algarotti to Italy for health or "health" reasons. He couldn't know this, but he'd never see Algarotti again, and he was clearly starting to worry. The language he uses to her is much the same as he uses to Algarotti. "J'aimerais mieux que vous fussiez à Pise pour autre chose que pour y soigner votre santé, comme dit la chanson du pape. Vous obligera-t-elle de renoncer à l'Allemagne et aux climats hyperboréens?"
It makes so much sense if he's worrying about losing Wilhelmine there forever.
Omg, *hugs all of them*. You don't know how often I fantasize about giving them proper medical care to go with their therapists. Fritz has already gotten gene therapy in my head!
I went !! at the bit where Fritz actually had the self-awareness to pick up that he might be sour-graping :D
Same here, when I first read it. I was also struck by the second image he uses, of the galley slave.
Same! He has his moments of self-awareness, but then his behavior is such that you're always surprised when you see one.
The galley slave analogy is telling, agreed. He has another one (I think in that physical bio I flip through once in a while, but can't find quotes on demand) saying that he would go to Italy, but he's tethered like a goat (iirc?) to Prussia.
Okay, bed now, really. If you see me commenting again in the next 10 hours, tell me sternly to go away. :P
Re: Sibling Correspondance - I
Also I found out who the Erlangen journalist was. And where he went after escaping arrest. Naturally, he went to Vienna. :)
Okay, letter quotes: Cahn, as Mildred mentioned, SD and FW had to try a few times before having a surviving male child, and there were in fact two more boys born between Wilhelmine and Fritz, who both died. Grandpa F1 (the maligned by his grandson baroque party boy) was still alive then, and thus has the honor of being the first to report on the Wilhelmine/Fritz relationship. When reporting this latest grandson is still surviving, F1 writes in a letter from February 8th 1712 on his grandchildren: „Our children are still all healthy, especially the prince of Prussia, and it is strange that the princess loves him so dearly, for she despised her first two brothers.“
Bear in mind we’re talking about a toddler here (Wilhelmine was three years older than Fritz.) Now given Wilhelmine was the oldest, and was left in no doubt that she should have been a boy and the boys born after her were the ones to really count, which presumably meant they were also getting the majority of attention in the nursery, I‘m not surprised baby Wilhelmine didn‘t like the other babies; it‘s more surprising three-years-old Wilhelmine should take to the latest arrival. But apparantly she did, without question. (And since F1 isn‘t a later biographer blessed with hindsight but writing in his present with no knowledge this newest boy would survive, he can‘t have made it up.)
I confess I tended to take Wilhelmine‘s memoir claims to having been a clever, admired child early on with a grain of salt, but no, the English ambassador (admittedly with the awareness SD was pushing the English marriage and thus keeping an extra eye on her) reports in 1716: „The oldest princess is one of the most charming children I‘ve seen. She dances very well, her attitude surpasses her years, and so does her mind.“ Alas, grandfather George I was less impressed; that scene in „Der Thronfolger“ when he says to SD „she‘s tall for her age“ and otherwise mainly talks to Fritz is confirmed by ambassador as well.
Leti, for all that she was an abusive fright, also managed to give Wilhelmine a first class education. Wilhelmine started with not yet five years of age to write letters to her father, with only a few days interruption, at this point not solely in French but also in German, which is interesting since Leti was Italian and her other teacher, Monsieur de Croze, was French (so who did talk German to her?), but later exclusively in French. (Which, remember, FW for all his later rants at Fritz was fluent in since it had been his first language as well, courtesy of his own French governess.) These early letters are by Wilhelmine (i.e. not in the handwriting of the governess) and show her as a child eager to impress her father and longing for his affection; on May 8th 1717 she reports proudly that she‘s been brave as two of her (milk) teeth have been pulled and includes them in her letter (they still exist). She swears five years Fritz is doing really really well with the military drill he‘s supposed to undergo, FW can be proud of him, but she also reports on more harmless stuff: „On Sunday a man will come who has a dog who can talk to his master in German, French and English!“
There‘s one of these letters from child!Wilhelmine, though, which shows that much as she loved Fritz, she had her moments of resenting having to take second place to him, too. In May 1719, she writes to FW:
„I am very hurt that you have done my brother the honor of writing to him whereas I, who have written 100 000 letters to you, have never received a single one from you in return. I know very well that my brother deserves more acknowledgement as he is a boy, but it is not my fault that I am not, and I am my dear Papa‘s daughter, too, and I love him. I have been told that my dear Papa only writes to officers, and if this is true, I would like to have a military rank as well. Mademoiselle Leti says I could be a good dragooner‘s captain, if my dear Papa would accept one who wears a dress, but I believe she is making fun of me when she says this.“
She was ten when she wrote this, and it was, of course, (near the end of) a time when she didn‘t actually seee much of her father; a more present FW and the developing warfare between him and SD, complete with first row sight on what it actually meant for Fritz to have FW's full attention, was a cure against longing for his presence, but the longing for acknowledgement and affection despite the simultanously growing resentment because of how abusive he got never completely went away. And this letter from ten-years-old Wilhelmine along with quotes I was already familiar with re: her birth in her memoirs, or that quote in a letter to Fritz about her granddaughter („of that gender first despised and then put on a pedestal and bartered away“) feed into my theory that for that she was of course a product of her time and accepted a great many of its attitudes, some sense of injustice at the way she was regarded as lesser, because female, never went away. And I do think this lay at the heart of her wanting to meet MT in person (and her lame „no, I don‘t admire the Queen of Hungary, I just acknowledge her abilities like those of everyone else“ defense to Fritz afterwards). Because MT, with one and three quarters Silesian Wars behind her, might not have been able to keep Silesia from Fritz but she‘d managed to keep the rest of her Empire intact when basically everyone had expected it would get carved up, she had defied everyone‘s predictions and was proving that a woman could, in fact, rule and get obeyed, not in far away England or Russia, but in the HRE. And this was the one chance in a lifetime to meet her.
(The political reason for someone from Bayreuth to receive MT at all was obvious. Due to her deal with Max von Wittelsbach - Bavaria back vs FS as Emperor - the small principality of Bayreuth know was surrounded by pro-Habsburg countries, not to mention that since FS was about to be crowned, MT was about to be Empress and thus at least nominally the Margrave's liege lady. But like I said - Wilhelmine could have played sick - given the number of times she actually was sick, it wouldn't have been that much of a stretch - and she didn't.)
Oster, as mentioned, is mostly good with dates, and also with keeping in mind circumstances of writing and pointing out contraditctions (between memoirs and letters, for example), and when he quotes from the various ambassadors, he always mentions the then current interests of whichever country the ambassador in question represents. So, the dates for Wilhelmine's estrangement from plus reconciliaton with Fritz:
Summer of 1743: Württemberg trouble with the Dowager Duchess and Wilhelmine appearing, in Fritz' eyes, lukewarm about marrying her daughter to Carl Eugen
January 1744: L'Affaire Marwitz heads towards its climax as Wilhelmine pushes for the Marwitz/Burghaus marriage; this is when Fritz switches from the usual "dearest sister" greeting in the letters to "Madam Sister" (ouch), while Wilhelmine doesn't confess why she wants to marry Marwitz off (and out of the country) so urgently and instead counters the Fritzian argument of "when you left Berlin, you promised Dad you wouldn't marry off any of the Marwitz daughters to a non-Prussian" with "any promise I had to make to Dad was blackmailed and died with him, and I can't believe you're using that argument with me"
July 1744: Johann Gottfried Groß, chief editor of the "Christian-Erlangisches Zeitungs-Extrakt" starts to publish articles with a lot of Fritz critique
12. November 1744: Fritz writes to Wilhelmine that he would never allow any scribbler to print insulting things about his family in HIS country, and in his next letter includes two copies of particularly offensive to him editions of said newspaper
January 1745: Wilhelmine writes that Groß has been arrested, but when Fritz writes back that fine, the guy can go free if he is never allowed to publish again, she has to confess that in fact Groß hightailed it out of Bayreuth before an arrest could be made.
20. January 1745: Karl VII, the former Karl Albrecht of Wittelsbach dies; MT offers her "Bavaria vs vote for FS" deal to Max of Wittelsbach and starts to campaign among the other princes for votes
13. September 1745: FS is officially voted in as Emperor by all the German princes elector (minus Fritz who has a votes Prince Elector of Brandenburg; eventually, as part of the second Silesian peace treaty, he'll provide his belated vote as well))
20. September 1745: Coronation of FS in Frankfurt; en route to said coronation, but the biography does not specify on which day exactly, MT passes through Emskirchen which is Bayreuth principality territory, and there has lunch with Wilhelmine
=> all hell breaks loose.
Before Fritz fires off his letter, though, everyone else does, starting with SD, who writes to brother AW: "Your Bayreuth sister has committed a new idiocy by going to Emskirchen to see the Queen of Hungary. I have written a deservedly angry letter to her about this affair. I don't know what the King will say to this latest extravaganza of hers, but I am deeply distressed", and adds that Friederike Luise, who is married to the Margrave of Ansbach (next door to Bayreuth, so to speak, in terms of principalities) has to be stopped from committing the same "madness". Ulrike from Sweden joins in with a letter to Wilhelmine along the same "how could you be so foolish and treacherous?" lines.
22. November 1745: Fritz invades Saxony (the first time). This basically ends the second Silesian War, with MT agreeing to letting Fritz have Silesia, Fritz belatedly voting for FS as Emperor and writes to Wilhelmine the "have made peace with YOUR FRIEND THE QUEEN OF HUNGARY" letter I already mentioned, along with Wilhelmine's "yay peace! she's not my friend, though cool" reply. Or, to quote it in the original phrasing: "Regarding the Queen of Hungary, I have never had a preference for her or a particular attachment to her interests. I simply do justice to her good qualities and consider it permitted to esteem all people who possess these." (Countered with "you are a traitor and a miscreant" type of letters.)
First half of 1746: Wilhelmine writes a lot of apology and explanation letters.
July 1746: Fritz starts to sound somewhat mollified in his "my heart will speak in your favour even if my head doesn't" letter. More cautious correspondance ensues.
Summer of 1747: Wilhelmine gets sent to a spa by her doctors again. There, she meets a lady-in-waiting to Elisabeth Christine and conspires with her to a coup that will bring the definite reconciliation with her brother: a surprise visit to Berlin. She goes back with the lady to Berlin.
15. August 1747: Wilhelmine sees Fritz for the first time in years. Hugs, tears and happiness ensue.
(She stayed for a while. The English ambassador to Prussia (a new one, who hadn't met her before and thus reports on her to London) writes home re: Wilhelmine at this point in her life: "She regards all time as wasted which isn't spent with books or with people who interest her. She spends all her time by conducting witty conversations with her brother, writing voluminous books and has other books read to her."
Oktober 1747: Wilhelmine is back in Bayreuth and kicks out Marwitz, or tries to. This is when Marwitz pulls the "make your brother pay me my inheritance, or I'll continue to screw your husband" gambit and Wilhelmine has to to explain all. (Marwitz then at last leaves Bayreuth in early 1748 with her Austrian husband.)
Worthy of note and unknown to me before: she explains it to AW as well as Fritz. Because during the time of estrangement, Fritz to convey his displeasure had made AW write to her in his place occasionally, which is when Wilhelmine's actual relationship to this younger brother starts. He also argued in her favour (the only family member to do so), as she will plead for him in the last year of her life and his. Heinrich, she properly meets as an adult for longer when he and youngest brother Ferdinand (they were 22 and 18 at that point) come to her daughter's wedding (September 1748).
The biography offers a bit more of a picture of the Margrave: he was on his Grand Tour when summoned back by his father to marry (which meant he got to see France and the Netherlands but no more). FW did a 180 on his opinion on him; at first, when he didn't know the young man, the future Margrave was simply a means to an end (get Wihelmine married to a non-English minor prince once and for all), and then when he actually got to know him he found out to his displeasure young Friedrich (!) didn't like hunting (!!), played the flute (!!!) and when FW made him drink an entire big cup of beer in one go (you know, the thing that had had unfortunate results with another Friedrich before), was angry enough about this treatment to actually tell his father-in-law just this. (Well, future Margrave had not grown up with FW and thus did not know you do not call out the King on being a bully and a boor.) This happened during Wilhelmine's first post-wedding and birth of daughter visit home to Berlin, and for the not yet Margrave, it was the last visit to his father-in-law as well. Unfortunately, they were financially dependent on FW. Not least because FW, as one last humililiation before the wedding, had Wilhelmine not just renounce her claims to the Prussian succession (as was the custom for all the pincesses once they married) but all claims to her mother's inheritance (i.e. money), which meant she was basically without a dowry. And her father-in-law had only wanted that marriage because of FW's famously filled treasury, what with Bayreuith being a small and indebted principality.
Re: Sibling Correspondance - I
Why doesn't anyone want to translate a biography of Wilhelmine to English?? Why? No, don't tell meRe child!Wilhelmine and baby!Fritz: Huh! I wonder if Wilhelmine was just the right age to think babies were cute and want to bond with a baby, or something. (My 4-year-old has just asked for a new baby. No new baby is forthcoming
since I am not a royal person in the 18th Century oh my GOD)And I do think this lay at the heart of her wanting to meet MT in person
This makes total sense to me and I really like your ideas here. (I'd say I wish to subscribe to your newsletter, but... I think I already do :D )
Waaaaait, I didn't realize that W meets MT right after she's been crowned Empress! (Or FS has been crowned emperor, whatever.) Not surprising Fritz is upset, being Fritz.
(Also, man, SD and Ulrike, can you let up for one minute?)
I went to look at those letters around the time of all hell breaking loose. HOLY COW. My French is not good enough to translate easily or well, but it's good enough to get a general sense of Fritz being Fritz and Wilhelmine trying really hard not to set him off. (And setting him off.) Eek.
Whoa, that's interesting about the Margrave. Hopefully he and Wilhelmine got along (besides the mistresses)? I gave up on the memoirs before there was too much about him, although it was pretty clear she didn't get along with the father-in-law, and rather better with her husband.
Re: Sibling Correspondance - I
Technically Wilhelmine met her after FS had been voted in as Emperor (September 13th) and before his coronation (September 20th), MT was en route to same. Which is why SD in her letters is all "don't you dare meeting that woman on her way back to Austria as well!!!"
Hopefully he and Wilhelmine got along (besides the mistresses)?
As noble/royal marriages went, they had a reasonably good one. Their best time was just after that disastrous visit to Berlin where FW gave her husband the Fritz treatment. When they returned to Bayreuth and were reunited with their baby daughter (whom they hadn't brought along, because bringing a baby on the long way from Bayreuth to Berin was basically inviting death to the kid), the future Margrave turned out to be an a loving dad. (Obvious comparisons to FW and SD being obvious.) Writes Wilhelmine to Fritz: He spends the entire day with the child and rises two hours earlier than usual to go to her. He considers her a masterpiece of nature, like the owl in the fable who thinks its young far more beautiful than any others. He basically asked me on his knees not to tell you, for he is ashamed of this, but I ask you to tease him about it, for I consider it adorable. As he has admitted to me, he prefers the child's cries to the most beautiful music.
Basically the one jerk move he made in the marriage was to make his first mistress a woman Wilhelmine had until then considered a close friend, and that's as much on Marwitz' shoulders as on his. (Post-Marwitz, he still cheated occasionally, but with one night stands, not with another maitresse en titre.) He does come across as concerned for her (that trip to France and Italy was for her, and at some risk to him due to the "they're going to convert to Catholicism!" rumors), and certainly put up with his wife's insane family reasonably well (FW excepted), corresponding not just with the purse-string holding oldest brother but the younger ones as well. And he loved music and literature enough so they really had shared interests. Given Wilhelmine had to pick between him and two other candidates post-Katte's death when FW bullied her into it, and the two other candidates later turned out to be lousy husbands to the wives they did get, she certainly made the right choice.
Re: Sibling Correspondance - I
Yeah, one of the reasons I was hoping he was OK was because I hadn't managed to read enough in the memoirs to figure out how they made out, but it was pretty clear already that the two other candidates were awful and she didn't like them At All.
Re: Sibling Correspondance - I
Re: Sibling Correspondance - II
7 Years War: After the AW/Fritz break up, Fritz informed Wilhelmine of it (and told her what he told everyone at the time, that AW was guilty of the near catastrophe): To which Wilhelmine replied, urging Fritz to forgive him: "He has written two letters to me about his losses. He believes to have lost his honor and reputation. Maybe his behaviour was wrong; he is passionate and at times rules by his passions, but he is assuredly good natured."
She also wrote to AW: "You have no idea what evil results the estrangement between the both of you has. (...) Remember, the one you feel so much bitterness for is your brother, your blood and more. Please forget what has happened. I am convinced the King will then do the same. I'd give my life for all of you to be reconciled."
Then SD died; Fritz told Wilhelmine in his letter "We don't have a mother anymore", but at that point she already knew via their youngest sister Amalie, whose letter had reached her first. And then Fritz started to write despairing letters with a sort of suicidal sub (or not so sub) text ("If I had followed my inclination, I'd have made an end immediately after the unfortunate battle I lost (Kolin)") ; she wrote encouraging and loving letters back, but she was already very sick and definitely very worried, though she tried to keep the former from Fritz as long as she could (though she did write to Amalie about it). He started to win battles again in late 1757. AW died on June 12th 1758; Heinrich visited Wilhelmine in Bayreuth in July, but did not tell her, because he was deeply shocked when he saw her, recognizing at once she was dying herself, and wrote to Fritz "I am very much afraid that she will not recover from this illness". Fritz finally told her in his letter from July 12th, but the Margrave - who'd already been told by Heinrich - kept the letter from Wilhelmine for a while, fearing this would finish her. Naturally, not getting news from Fritz instead made her afraid something had happened to him, so the Margrave finally forwarded the letter after all. The last letters from Fritz thereafter are all frantic pleas with her not to die: "I was more dead than living when I received your letter. My god, your writing! (...) I beg you - avoid all efforts, so your illness does not get worse. As sick and miserable as you are, you still think about my miseries? That is going too far. PLease think of yourself instead and tell yourself that without you, there is no more happiness in life for me, and my life depends on yours."
(BTW, Voltaire, who had kept up his correspondance with her post their encounter in France again, urged her to stay alive for peace in Europe, as he hoped she'd be able to mediate between Fritz and the other powers: "Never, Madame, did you have so much cause to live as right now." No pressure, Voltaire.)
Oster also quotes Henri de Catt quoting Fritz after he learned about her death: "How shall I get back my sister!" (It's a much longer outburst than that Oster quotes, but the first sentence struck me the most, because it's very King Lear - no more, no more. Oster says Wilhelmine died in the arms of her daughter (who'd left her husband Carl Eugen for good at that point and was living with her parents again) and husband, so she was not alone. She'd known she wouldn't recover for a while at that point, and had written to Fritz in her last letter: "I have accepted my fate. I will live and die content as long as I know you will be happy again."
Re: Sibling Correspondance - II
two of her (milk) teeth have been pulled and includes them in her letter (they still exist)
Wooow. Are they on display somewhere?
Which reminds me, I have read (unreliable source) that Katte's grave was robbed by souvenir-hunters over the years, and people have helped themselves to teeth, the burial shroud, the cracked vertebra (how's that for gruesome?), and I forget what else. I say unreliable, but that's pretty damn typical of human beings, and Fritz memorabilia being in such high demand after 1786, so...I consider it plausible at the very least.
young Friedrich (!) didn't like hunting (!!), played the flute (!!!)
Wilhelmine: I can work with this.
FW made him drink an entire big cup of beer in one go (you know, the thing that had had unfortunate results with another Friedrich before)
Ahahahahaaa. Well, from FW's perspective, it didn't work out too badly! He did get to hear about how he was a bully and a boor first, but then he seemed just a bit disconcerted but generally pleased when Fritz started crying and kissing his hands.
(Go home, Fritz, you're drunk.)
Fritz to convey his displeasure had made AW write to her in his place occasionally
Wow. That was unknown to me. That's...some serious displeasure.
The Italian journey: if Fritz was, in fact, afraid of her staying in Italy in that letter I quoted, he wasn't being paranoid. She was tempted, because she was happy there, the climate while at first not as warm as was typical agreed with her
It's interesting seeing the same events from multiple perspectives. You mentioned a while back, in the first description you made of her trip, that Italy was unseasonably cold that year. When I went to read through the Algarotti/Fritz correspondence, I got to 1753/1754 and saw Algarotti complaining to Fritz, "We're getting about as much sun here as you would get in London," and I thought of Wilhelmine.
Then there was the letter where Algarotti tells Fritz how he met Wilhelmine, and everyone in Venice was really nice to her, and Fritz replies, "So I heard!" Now we get to see Wilhelmine talking about Algarotti, and backing his "I'm super sick!" story. (Like I said, his decreased productivity and travel after 1753 really backs the idea to me that he wasn't just avoiding Fritz.)
Cahn: As you can tell from the letter, she'd met Algarotti before. This was in 1740, just after Fritz became king, when he decided to visit her and then dart over to Strasbourg, incognito, with Algarotti, in hopes of doing a full Paris trip. As you recall, the incognito thing fell apart immediately, and he went home. But Wilhelmine recording liking Algarotti a lot, as pretty much everyone did. He seems to have had incredibly winning ways. (A footnote in the Lady Mary correspondence says that he was described as a total people-pleaser, which I think played a role in his gift for amicable non-breakups.)
As sick and miserable as you are, you still think about my miseries? That is going too far.
Wow. "I'm exempting you from the usual rule of putting me and my wars first!" That's some true sibling love right there.
No pressure, Voltaire.
No pressure! Also wow, in a different way.
Anyway, thanks for this whole thing, it was all gold. You are compensating in a serious way for my inability to read 1) German, 2) physical books. <3
Go home, Fritz, you're drunk
* Saxon envoy to Berlin at the time, later to St. Petersburg. The same Suhm who was later Fritz's close friend at Rheinsberg, whose translation of Wolff for Fritz was set on fire by Fritz's monkey. Fritz's nickname for him was "Diaphane", which one of my sources says may be a play on "Durchlaucht", usually translated "Serene Highness" in English and used for minor German princes, but we're not sure.
** He of the 354 supposed illegitimate children, father of Orzelska.
Anyway, translation mine with help from the internet (Google Translate and some dictionaries). I've bracketed a few places where I could use clarification.
"October 21, 1728,
"Finally the St. Hubert's Hunt came. Etiquette dictates that the Crown Prince sit opposite the King at the table and act as host. I sat next to him and also across from the Queen. All the companions at table had to keep pace with the King in drinking; only I [And here I need either a clearer translation or else some cultural context for how Suhm got out of this requirement: 'nur mir liess er etwas darin nach, weil ich dazu begnadigt worden war, als ich nach Beendigung der Jagd die Taufe erhalten hatte']...
"The Crown Prince drank a lot, but only against his will [any further nuance of 'mit Widerwillen' would be appreciated], as he later confided to me. It meant that he would be sick the next day. Finally the wine began to have an effect on him. He spoke quite loudly of all the grounds that he had for being unhappy with his lot in life. The queen kept waving at me to signal me to make him be quiet, and I did everything I could. I asked him to use what little sense he had left.
"But it didn't help at all: on the contrary, he turned all the way toward me and said everything that came to his tongue...
"Suddenly, the King asked me, 'What is he saying?'
"I replied that the Crown Prince was drunk and couldn't stop himself any more.
"The King answered, 'Oh, he's just pretending. But what's he saying?'
"I replied that he had squeezed my arm the whole time and said that although the King made him drink too much, he still loved him.
"The King repeated that the Crown Prince was only pretending to be drunk. I replied that I could testify that he really was: he had squeezed me so hard in the arm that I couldn't move it.
"Then the Crown Prince suddenly became very serious about that. Then the wine got the upper hand again, and he started to talk again. The Queen was so embarrassed she left the table. Everyone stood up, but only to sit down again. General Keppel and I asked the Crown Prince to go to bed, since he really couldn't hold himself upright any more.
"To this, the Crown Prince began to cry ['schreien'] that he wanted to kiss the King's hand first. The others called out that this was right. The King laughed, when he saw the condition the Prince was in, and held out his hand across the table. But the Crown Prince also wanted to have the other, and he kissed them both, one after another, swore that he loved him with all his heart, and had the King bend over so he could hug him.
"Everyone called, 'Long live the Crown Prince!' This got the Crown Prince even more worked up; he stood up, walked around the table, embraced the King intimately, sank onto one knee, and stayed a long time in that position, all the while talking to the King.
"His Majesty was deeply affected and kept saying, 'Now, that's very good, just be an honest fellow, just be honest,' and so on. The whole proceeding was extremely moving and moved most of those present to tears.
"Finally, the Prince was lifted up. The King lifted up the table. ['hob die Tafel auf'--What? Why? Does this mean he released everyone by standing up?] Herr von Keppel, I, and several officers carried the Prince to his room and put him to bed."
Footnote in my source: "Eyewitnesses expressed the not entirely unfounded opinion that Friedrich's performance was a cleverly calculated comedy."
Okay, eyewitnesses. It's painful to think about either way.
Re: Go home, Fritz, you're drunk
Translation: "Only towards me he was more lenient, as I had been pardoned" - here in the sense of "had been given more leaveway" - "due to having gotten my baptism after the hunt was finished".
I'm assuming "baptism" means Suhm hadn't been hunting before, or at least not with FW. It puts me in mind of today's ceremonies when you cross the aequator for the first time, or travel with a balloon for the first time. Champagne is involved, and it's refered to as a baptism as well. Anyway, that's why Suhm hadn't to Keep pace with FW drinking.
"Widerwillen": actually means more "intense dislike", though the literal Translation of the word means "against one's will", that's true.
"Schreien" usually means more "scream" than "cry", but in this particular description I'd translate it as "cry" as well.
"Lifted up the table" made me laugh out loud, because it's one of those expressions that sound funny if you translate them literally - like "it's raining cats and dogs" sounds hilarious to us in German if you render it word by word. It simply means FW gave the signal that mealtime was over and everyone could go. It's an old fashioned expression these days, very occasionally still used.
Re: Go home, Fritz, you're drunk
"Baptism": that makes sense, thank you. I was trying to figure out how a literal Christian baptism would work at all in this context.
"Lifted up the table": good to see my guess from context was pretty much right.
Re: Sibling Correspondance - II
(Must have gone something like this: G: Mein Führer, let me impress you on your birthday with a bunch of letters of our heroic Frederick the Great who proves that you can emerge from a three front war covered in glory and success.
H: Just what I've been saying, but alas, if these are in French again, I can't read them.
G: Not so! These are authentic Frederick the Great letters in German! Proving his touching utterly platonic regard for his loyal servant. May they inspire you in these dark days!
...yep, being in a fandom with them is the worst.
Katte souvenir hunters: haven't heard that, but would believe it, because yes, people do that, and did.
That was unknown to me. That's...some serious displeasure.
No kidding. Have now ordered Eva Ziebura's AW biography from the library (it doesn't have her Heinrich one, alas); the reviews of same mention that because he was FW's favourite son, he used to be the mediator between his father and the other siblings, so that was one family role he was used to. (But presumably did not expect having to take between Fritz and Wilhelmine. The age gap between AW and the oldest two practically ensured he didn't really relate to them until years later - he was, what, eight when Katte died?) In case you're wondering, Oster along with other biographers says FW's favourite daughter was Friederike Luise. He also liked Ulrike a lot, but Friederike Luise was the one getting letters a few months after her wedding like "My dearest darling Ickerle, I haven't written to you for such a long, long time and have gotten so many letters from you. My dearest daughter, do not forget your father who loves you with all his heart and soul. God be praised you are well" and so forth, signing off with "I am, keeping my dearest daughter in my heart until death, your faithful father FW". (So yes, he could write to girls.)
Friederike Luise, who was the first of the siblings to get married - and that her marriage to the Margrave of Ansbach got negotiated quickly and went with minimum fuss while the English marriage negotiations for Wilhelmine and Fritz were simultanously in an endless loop must have made the later all the more irritating for FW - gets one memorable scene in Wilhelmine's memoirs shortly before her wedding. Friederike Luise, as a reminder is 15, the sibling born after Fritz. Her marriage will be truly miserable and she'll sink into depression (she also developed symptoms of porphyria, supporting the theory that both FW and Fritz could have had it), but as of yet, she's a spirited girl who actually talks back at FW thusly:
"(The King) asked my sister whether she was looking forward to her marriage and how she planned on conducting her household. My sister had established a footing with him where she told him everything frankly, even hard truths, without him getting enraged by it. Thus, she replied with her usual frankness that she would offer a good and richly decorated table at meals, which, as she added, "Shall be better than yours; and when I get chldren, I will not maltreat them as you do, nor force them to eat things that disagree with them." "What do you mean by this," the King asked, "what is lacking at my table?"
"It lacks," she said, "because one doesn't get full on it, and that the few things offered consist of heavy vegetables which we cannot stomach." The King was already indignant about the first reply, but the later caused him to explode, yet his entire fury fell on my brother and myself. First, he threw a plate in the direction of my brother's head who evaded the throw, and then he let one fly in my direction. I avoided it as well.These first hostilities were followed by a hailstorm of abuse."
That FW isn't angry with the child who actually backmouthed but his two older children demonstrates, among other things, that they've become his lightning rods at this time. (And btw, also worth noting that Fritz had to my knowledge a non-relationship - neither positive nor negative - with Friederike Luise, who was after all only as many years younger than him as Wilhelmine was older and in theory could have been close. Ansbach was next to Bayreuth, but he never visited her when visiting Wilhelmine. She was also not present at the wedding of Wilhelmine's daughter, which practically happened next door to her, but as Oster says, at this point she'd already succumed to depression and likely porphyria enough to become a total hermit.
"I'm exempting you from the usual rule of putting me and my wars first!" That's some true sibling love right there.
Indeed, and since we've quoted ample examples of his other tendencies, I thought it only fair to include this. He really did love her above and beyond.
Voltaire: quite. In the spirit of fairness as well, he did write an ode to her after her death he included in the first edition of Candide, and got tearful with Fritz years later about her; I don't think it was just because of what her brother might still do for him. Speaking of Voltaire and dead women, his remark about Madame de Pompadour after her death in a letter to a friend also sound genuine: : "I am very sad at the death of Madame de Pompadour. I was indebted to her and I mourn her out of gratitude. It seems absurd that while an ancient pen-pusher like me, hardly able to walk, should still be alive, a beautiful woman, in the midst of a splendid career, should die at the age of forty-two."
ETA: Forgot, about future Margrave of Bayreuth going through the same hunt + having to empty a big cup of beer experience with FW, Oster frustratingly doesn't provide a literal quote, just a paraphrase, but he does make it sound as if FW had decided to give this son-in-law the (almost) full Fritz treatment. Re: the regiment, when marrying Bayreuth Friedrich had asked for a Prussian one in order to please his future father-in-law and his father at the same time (remember, Bayreuth was a small principality).
Oster: "(The drink) didn't agree with (Bayreuth Friedrich), which must have confirmed the King's opinion of him, especially since the drunken prince did not hold back with his opinion on the King's behavior. Friedrich Wilhelm then took to refering to his son-in-law as an "ass and simpleton". He said he would "educate him in his own style, or he wouldn't be FW". Openly, he demanded the officers of Friedrich's regiment should mock and taunt their superior. That was too much even for the Queen who otherwise didn't think much of her unwanted son-in-law, but now spiritedly made it clear to her husband that everything had its limits. "I tremble," Wilhelmine wrote on January 13th 1733 to her brother, "that he treats him the way he has treated you. I don't know what he holds against him."
Nothing, one might add, though Wilhelmine wasn't wrong in her fear: The King wanted to break his son-in-law the same way he'd broken his son. Every bit of pride, every will power was to be eliminated. But Wilhelmine's husband hadn't gone through Friedrich's childhood. He faced his father-in-law's behavior with utter disbelief. He had no intention of being broken and being censored."
(Future Margrave: WTF? What did I marry into? WTF is going on here????)
Re: Sibling Correspondance - II
Aw man, this is just classic golden-child scapegoat familial relations :(
I really like that quote from Voltaire <3 :(
Fredersdorf
...yep, being in a fandom with them is the worst.
I went on a scavenger hunt for Fredersdorf material today, found an article describing this episode, and it said the context was even worse: the letters were valued because they contained anti-Semitic comments from Old Fritz. Because while Fritz was often liberal for his time, he lived in dark times. *facepalm* Fucking out of my fandom now, Nazis! Nobody invited you.
Anyway. This article said something about 300 pages of Fritz/Fredersdorf letters. The University of Trier site has roughly 30 pages. And while I was churning through these letters in Google translate, I did not see a bunch of things I'd seen quoted elsewhere, leading me to believe Trier has only a small sample.
So I went and looked for the book that I keep seeing cited for the Fritz/Fredersdorf correspondence, and Amazon said it was 400+ pages. Amazon also said it was $5.48.
You can guess what happened.
Yes, mes amies, I ordered yet another hard copy of a book that I can't physically hold without pain, in a language I don't know, at a time when I'm not working and shouldn't be buying books (but it was only $5!). Because fandom plus bibliophilia really messes with your mind.
Anyway. It's on its way. Among other things, I want to see if it has any material on or post-dating the estrangement. Various of my sources say Fredersdorf was dismissed over financial irregularities in mid-1757, and he proceeded to die in January 1758, after a lengthy illness, wracked with grief over his disgrace. If you know your chronology, you may compare AW, who was dismissed over a military failure in mid-1757 and proceeded to die in mid-1758, after a somewhat less lengthy illness, wracked with grief over his disgrace.
Fritz, in mid-1757, was writing suicidal-sounding letters after a major military defeat. I'm guessing his mood and his interpersonal relations at this time had something of a chicken-and-egg effect on each other. Then everyone dies in 1757-1758, his sister on the day of an even bigger military disaster, and he becomes even more depressed. A year later, the ultimate military defeat happens, surviving loved ones are thin on the ground, and Fritz tells Catt, "You know, if I ever look like I'm about to be captured, I'm taking a fatal dose of opium so fast it'll make your head spin."
Speaking of Catt: interesting Fredersdorf parallels. Fritz meets Fredersdorf shortly after Katte's death. They're together for 26 years. During this time, Fredersdorf gets married, which makes Fritz unhappy. After 26 years, Fritz dismisses him for financial irregularities. Within a year, he's taken Catt on. Catt is with him for 24 years. During this time, Catt gets married, which makes Fritz unhappy (okay, this part was kind of a thing). After 24 years, Fritz dismisses him for financial irregularities. Catt does not proceed to die, but outlives Fritz by a good many years (being a good many years younger).
But what I really came here to say, is that I have to share this absolutely endearing, ship-writes-itself moment from the Fritz/Fredersdorf letters.
In April 1754, while Fredersdorf was extremely ill and housebound, and Fritz was frantically writing
touching utterly platonic"For God's sake, take care of yourself!" letters to him, Fritz wrote the following: "I'm planning on riding out today around noon. Come to the window, I want to see you; but keep the window shut and make sure there's a strong fire in your room."I AWWWed out loud. I'm still AWWWing. When you're traveling on business all the time, and you don't have FaceTime or WhatsApp, you have to get creative to see your sick loved ones. <3
Actual quote to Fredersdorf from the same year: "Monday I go to the camp in Spandau, Friday I'm back here, Monday to Berlin, then Tuesday to Silesia*."
Related quote, also from 1754, which made me laugh out loud: "Tomorrow I'm leaving, but on Monday I'm coming back, and then no devil will get me out of Potsdam, or the King of England will have to come here with his Russians to besiege me."
* It's August, so time for those autumn military reviews
which are going to pay off in a few years.You know...it occurs to me this might be the context for that galley slave comment to Wilhelmine. She's about to leave for Italy in a couple months, and Fritz is thinking, "I just want to see my sick boyfriend here in Berlin, and I can hardly even do that." :(
But seriously. Sick Fredersdorf coming to the window so Fritz can see him as he rides past his house, omg. <333 4ever
Re: Fredersdorf
Heinrich's boyfriends got married to, and not just when they left him, a la Mara; the last one, the beautiful French emigré count, picked up a wife who became part of the Rheinsberg circle and lived long enough for a young Theodor Fontane to meet her and get some first hand accounts of Heinrich in his old age. (And of her husband, which explains the enthusiastic description of his looks and charm in the Wanderungen!) The widow was a cat lover and died, Fontane says, in a Rococo way - one of her favored cats bit her on the lower lip, the wound got infected, and that was that.
Fredersdorff also makes it into the Wanderungen apropos Zernikow, the estate he managed and Fontane has this to say:
For eighteen years, from 1740 to 1758, Fredersdorff was in possession of Zernikow, to which fact we pose the question whether he was a blessing to the village and its inhabitants or not. The answer to the question is quite in his favor. While having ambition and an unmistakable desire for respect and wealth, he has been mainly of a kind and benevolent nature, and he turned out to be mild, indulgent, helpful, as a landlord. His farmers and day laborers fared well. And as for the inhabitants at the time, he was fortunate enough for the village itself. Most innovations, as far as they are not merely the beautification, can be traced back to him. He found a neglected piece of sand and left behind a well-cultivated estate, which he had given partly through investments of all kinds, partly through the purchase of meadows and forests, which he usually needed. The activity he developed was great. Colonists and craftsmen were consulted and weaving and straw-weaving were done by diligent hands. At the same time and with fondness he adopted the silk industry. Gardens and paths were planted with mulberry trees (as many as 8,000 by 1747), and the following year he had for the first time a net yield of the reeled silk. No sooner did he find a piece of good clay soil on his field-mark than a brick-work was already built, so that in 1746 he was able to build the still existing house from self-made stones. In the same year he introduced, as well as in Spandau and Köpenick, large brewery buildings in which the so-called "Fredersdorffer beer" named after him was brewed. In everything, he proved to be the eager disciple of his royal master, and in the whole manner in which he set things in motion, it became clear that he was to follow the king's organizational plans with understanding, and to use them as a model. Many tried, though he found it easier than most, especially with regard to the means of execution, since a king who could write to him: "If there was a means in the world to help you in two minutes, I wanted to buy it, be it as expensive as it may, " was probably prepared to help with gifts and advances of all kinds. It seems, however, that these aids always remained within a limited range, and that the improvements did not take until 1750 on a larger scale, where Fredersdorff had married Karoline Marie Elisabeth Daum, the wealthy heiress of Banquier Daum, who had died in 1743. At least starting from there from those purchases of goods, which I have already mentioned above. Fredersdorff lived with his young wife in a very happy but childless marriage. It is not to be supposed that he was in Zernikow all the time, but it seems that from 1750 onwards (ie after his marriage) he was at least as often as possible on his estate and liked to spend the summer months there. Whether he had practiced his alchemical arts and gold-making experiments even in rural seclusion, has not been determined. He died at Potsdam in the same year (1758), which brought so many heavy casualties to his royal master, and his body was transferred to Zernikow. Michael Gabriel Fredersdorff died on January 12, 1758.
Re: Fredersdorf's marriage, the internet tells me otherwise it was 1753, not 1750, and Fontane couldn't look it up?
Re: Fredersdorf
Re: Fredersdorf's marriage, the internet tells me otherwise it was 1753, not 1750, and Fontane couldn't look it up?
The internet tells me the same thing, but the internet also tells me Katte's birthday is several days later than Fontane says, and Fontane gives documentary evidence he personally inspected, while the internet doesn't cite any source at all, so I'm suspending judgment. However, a letter from Fritz concerning the upcoming marriage is cited, so once I have the volume containing their correspondence, I will look and see if I can find it.
Re: Fredersdorf
Re: Fredersdorf
Also, I refuse to write a book on Fritz until I can read both French and German, and that might take a while. :P
If we did convert these posts into a book, though, I think we could model it on 1066 and All That. 1740 and All That?
Re: Fredersdorf
Heh. There is that. (My French background is sufficiently strong that, as long as I don't have to pronounce anything, I could probably be pretty good at reading fairly quickly, but my German is nonexistent, and more to the point my history and everything else is nonexistent, although as a result of being in this fandom for... four months?? ... I feel like I now know more about it than the average person, at least :P Possibly more than some biographers :PP)
Re: Fredersdorf
I feel like I could get my French reading proficiency up to speed if I were sufficiently motivated and in better health, but German would take ages, and also they're just not high enough on my list that they're likely to happen, alas.
Re: Fredersdorf
(and, okay, I am now a sucker whenever anyone says that anyone was in a happy marriage! Regardless of whether it actually makes sense to believe them!)
Re: Fredersdorf
Also, if it was 1753, what else happened that year? Well, the big Voltaire implosion, and Algarotti scuttling away to Italy never to return. Once again, I feel like Fritz's mood and interpersonal relationships are having a chicken-egg effect here.
Re: Fredersdorf
Typo: "tomorrow," not "today." Today would be a little short notice.
Re: Sibling Correspondance - II
Except for Voltaire. SHUT UP VOLTAIRE :P