Neither of these two seems to have any common sense at all, which is how they both end up in and out of prisons and death sentences.
No kidding. It strikes me as a not so minor miracle that Prussian Trenck lived long enough to get himself beheaded by French Revolutionaries after name dropping how MT personally got him out of prison.
Austrian Trenck made it into the movies as well, btw, though not as often as Prussia Trenck. Otoh, Austrian Trenck's movie has him played by the (very unAustrian and NorthGerman) Hans Albers, the male sex symbol of his day, so there was that.
How famous was Prussian Trenck for his shenanigans and his memoirs (which, as I'll remind you, he started publishing during the last years of Fritz' life), though? So famous that Lorenzo da Ponte, in his memoirs half a century later, thinks he can throw shade at Casanova by (wrongly) claiming Casanova shamelessly ripped off Trenck's story and even titled his memoirs "The Second Trenck".
(DaPonte had a (one sided) competitive thing going on with Casanova in general, more on Da Ponte below because it belongs in the Mozart/Salieri thread.)
Basically the one thing Prussian Trenck undoubtedly achieved was making later 17th century readers, out of and in Prussia, going "OMG! What a gallant fellow! How could Fritz be so heartless? And that's totally one of the sisters, amirite?" Which is probably what FW2 gave him the pension for, along with feeling for the guy because those years chained to a wall in Magdeburg truly do sound horrid.) (I guess that's why MT asked for his release as part of the peace talks.)
One more Trenck thing: he hadn't completely given up on his idea of getting money out of the Habsburgs that did not come in the shape of a rich widow by the time he settled down in Aachen and got married. He then tried to pull this one:
Trenck: Dear Joseph, congratulations on your mother's death and finally achieved single rule, your majesty! Now, it just so happens I've become a Dad, and you know what I've decided my boy will be called? JOSEPH! Of course, you'll totally become his godfather and send appropriate gifts and MONEY on a regular basis, right?
Joseph: Dear Baron Trenck, congratulations on the birth of your son, thanks for the unasked for honor of naming him after me. I wish you two all the best for the future. Yours not at all, Joseph.
Trenck: ...and that, dear readers, was that from Joseph. WHAT A HEARTLESS BASTARD!
Re: Trenck affair, continued
No kidding. It strikes me as a not so minor miracle that Prussian Trenck lived long enough to get himself beheaded by French Revolutionaries after name dropping how MT personally got him out of prison.
Austrian Trenck made it into the movies as well, btw, though not as often as Prussia Trenck. Otoh, Austrian Trenck's movie has him played by the (very unAustrian and NorthGerman) Hans Albers, the male sex symbol of his day, so there was that.
How famous was Prussian Trenck for his shenanigans and his memoirs (which, as I'll remind you, he started publishing during the last years of Fritz' life), though? So famous that Lorenzo da Ponte, in his memoirs half a century later, thinks he can throw shade at Casanova by (wrongly) claiming Casanova shamelessly ripped off Trenck's story and even titled his memoirs "The Second Trenck".
(DaPonte had a (one sided) competitive thing going on with Casanova in general, more on Da Ponte below because it belongs in the Mozart/Salieri thread.)
Basically the one thing Prussian Trenck undoubtedly achieved was making later 17th century readers, out of and in Prussia, going "OMG! What a gallant fellow! How could Fritz be so heartless? And that's totally one of the sisters, amirite?" Which is probably what FW2 gave him the pension for, along with feeling for the guy because those years chained to a wall in Magdeburg truly do sound horrid.) (I guess that's why MT asked for his release as part of the peace talks.)
One more Trenck thing: he hadn't completely given up on his idea of getting money out of the Habsburgs that did not come in the shape of a rich widow by the time he settled down in Aachen and got married. He then tried to pull this one:
Trenck: Dear Joseph, congratulations on your mother's death and finally achieved single rule, your majesty! Now, it just so happens I've become a Dad, and you know what I've decided my boy will be called? JOSEPH! Of course, you'll totally become his godfather and send appropriate gifts and MONEY on a regular basis, right?
Joseph: Dear Baron Trenck, congratulations on the birth of your son, thanks for the unasked for honor of naming him after me. I wish you two all the best for the future. Yours not at all, Joseph.
Trenck: ...and that, dear readers, was that from Joseph. WHAT A HEARTLESS BASTARD!