Another thing re chronology for Soor and the aftermath - that's when he must have heard Wilhelmine had met MT en route to Frankfurt for the coronation. (And he didn't hear it from Wilhelmine herself.) Yes. Sorry, Trenck, you picked a really bad time to be framed (?) as a spy.
(To recapitulate: Fritz, that week: wins battle, war Looks good for him, but...
- dogs gone - flute gone - older sister met with arch nemesis - younger sister has been getting it on with batman - batman possibly Austrian spy - MT Empress now due to having crowned FS at Frankfurt.
Looking up Soor in Trenck's memoirs, Gutenberg edition (i.e. the one shorn of emo rokoko rants), I find he says the first letter slandering him arrived "a few days" after the battle. (No more definite time frame than this.) He also says that his cousin Austrian Trenck was later accused of having failed to capture Fritz on that occasion and that this was total slander as well, because:
"Was das anbetrifft, so bin ich Augenzeuge, daß der wachsame König nicht überfallen werden konnte, besonders da er wußte, daß man ihn überfallen wollte. Ich selbst bin von Mitternacht bis gegen vier Uhr früh mit ihm im Lager herumgaloppiert, wo die Anstalten, den Feind zu empfangen, gemacht wurden. Und um fünf Uhr sprengten wir schon zum Einhauen heran. Der Trenck konnte folglich den König nicht im Bette fangen. Die Schlacht war bereits entschieden, da er erst mit seinen Panduren in das Lager fiel und des Königs Equipage erbeutete."
Regarding this, I am an eye witness that the wakeful King couldn't have been overwhelmed during a raid, especially since he knew a raid on him was planned. I myself have been on horseback with him from midnight till 4 in the morning in the camp, where the preparations to receive the enemy were made. And at five am we rode to attack. Consquently, (Austrian)Trenck would not have been able to capture the King in his bed. The battle was already decided when he arrived with his pandurs at the camp and captured the King's equipage.
I also looked at the afterword, and have to share two gems. One is Trenck's self assessment:
"Wenn ich so überdenke, was ich in meinem Leben alles gewesen bin: Liebling des einzigen Königs, Soldat dreier Monarchen, jetzt von allen Freunden umdrängt, dann nur der düstere Freund einer philosophischen Spinne, heute von Fürsten gesucht, morgen mit Geschenken überhäuft, daß ich nur wieder gehen möchte, jetzt ein glücklicher Landwirt, dann ein Schriftsteller, und hier wieder Proteus – – in jeder Lage ein so kauderwelsches Quodlibet, daß ich oft selbst nicht weiß, ob ich mich lieben oder verabscheuen, entschuldigen oder strafen soll.«
"If I think about all I've been in my life - favourite of the One King, soldlier of three monarchs, at one moment surrounded by friends, then only the friend of a philosophical spider, today sought out by princes, tomorrow so overwhelmed with presents I just want to run, now a happy farmer, then a awriter, and now Proteus again - in every situation such a weird Quodlibet that I often don't know myelf whether I should love or loathe me, apologize or seek punishment.")
The other is that the editor claims Trenck had Amalie's miniature with him and after getting his death sentence in Paris, looked at it silently, and later died with it next to his heart. Which is very romantic indeed, but sadly the Editor neglects to tell us who told him this. Seeing as Trenck was surrounded by French revolutionaries at the time.
Re: Fredersdorf letters
Another thing re chronology for Soor and the aftermath - that's when he must have heard Wilhelmine had met MT en route to Frankfurt for the coronation. (And he didn't hear it from Wilhelmine herself.) Yes. Sorry, Trenck, you picked a really bad time to be framed (?) as a spy.
(To recapitulate: Fritz, that week: wins battle, war Looks good for him, but...
- dogs gone
- flute gone
- older sister met with arch nemesis
- younger sister has been getting it on with batman
- batman possibly Austrian spy
- MT Empress now due to having crowned FS at Frankfurt.
Looking up Soor in Trenck's memoirs, Gutenberg edition (i.e. the one shorn of emo rokoko rants), I find he says the first letter slandering him arrived "a few days" after the battle. (No more definite time frame than this.) He also says that his cousin Austrian Trenck was later accused of having failed to capture Fritz on that occasion and that this was total slander as well, because:
"Was das anbetrifft, so bin ich Augenzeuge, daß der wachsame König nicht überfallen werden konnte, besonders da er wußte, daß man ihn überfallen wollte. Ich selbst bin von Mitternacht bis gegen vier Uhr früh mit ihm im Lager herumgaloppiert, wo die Anstalten, den Feind zu empfangen, gemacht wurden. Und um fünf Uhr sprengten wir schon zum Einhauen heran. Der Trenck konnte folglich den König nicht im Bette fangen. Die Schlacht war bereits entschieden, da er erst mit seinen Panduren in das Lager fiel und des Königs Equipage erbeutete."
Regarding this, I am an eye witness that the wakeful King couldn't have been overwhelmed during a raid, especially since he knew a raid on him was planned. I myself have been on horseback with him from midnight till 4 in the morning in the camp, where the preparations to receive the enemy were made. And at five am we rode to attack. Consquently, (Austrian)Trenck would not have been able to capture the King in his bed. The battle was already decided when he arrived with his pandurs at the camp and captured the King's equipage.
I also looked at the afterword, and have to share two gems. One is Trenck's self assessment:
"Wenn ich so überdenke, was ich in meinem Leben alles gewesen bin: Liebling des einzigen Königs, Soldat dreier Monarchen, jetzt von allen Freunden umdrängt, dann nur der düstere Freund einer philosophischen Spinne, heute von Fürsten gesucht, morgen mit Geschenken überhäuft, daß ich nur wieder gehen möchte, jetzt ein glücklicher Landwirt, dann ein Schriftsteller, und hier wieder Proteus – – in jeder Lage ein so kauderwelsches Quodlibet, daß ich oft selbst nicht weiß, ob ich mich lieben oder verabscheuen, entschuldigen oder strafen soll.«
"If I think about all I've been in my life - favourite of the One King, soldlier of three monarchs, at one moment surrounded by friends, then only the friend of a philosophical spider, today sought out by princes, tomorrow so overwhelmed with presents I just want to run, now a happy farmer, then a awriter, and now Proteus again - in every situation such a weird Quodlibet that I often don't know myelf whether I should love or loathe me, apologize or seek punishment.")
The other is that the editor claims Trenck had Amalie's miniature with him and after getting his death sentence in Paris, looked at it silently, and later died with it next to his heart. Which is very romantic indeed, but sadly the Editor neglects to tell us who told him this. Seeing as Trenck was surrounded by French revolutionaries at the time.