You do have a point. In his defense, he hadn't met Voltaire in person before inviting him?
Au contraire! He first met Voltaire in 1740, in Cleves, on his trip west to Bayreuth, western Prussian domains, and Strasbourg, right after becoming king. Then Voltaire spent a couple weeks at his court before the Silesian invasion. Voltaire was annoyed because he didn't get an invitation to stay on permanently on that occasion, and people like Maupertuis and Algarotti did.
And then he visited again in 1743, to spy on Fritz for the French court (and Fritz apparently suspected this and kept him away from anywhere he might acquire any useful information). And during this time, they visited Wilhelmine together.
And then Fritz spent years trying to lure him back, and finally got him in 1750, after his mistress Émilie Du Châtelet died in childbirth in 1749. (Poor Émilie. :-( )
So not only had he met Voltaire, Fritz was already snarking about his personality, and he knew Voltaire was willing to spy on him (on behalf of his at-the-time French allies, but still). And Fritz's approach to wooing Voltaire to his court involved publishing a scurrilous poem in Voltaire's name, in hopes of pissing off the French court so that he would need to flee to Prussia for asylum. (Voltaire found out and was not too impressed by the underhandedness.) And between spying on each other and betraying each other, they wanted each other badly enough that 1750-1753 happened.
I can hear you saying, "Good lord." This sort of thing is what their correspondence translator meant by "They so thoroughly deserve each other"!
(You know, this would actually make good fic if I could write at all. Someday.)
But yes, aside from Voltaire, Fritz seems to have had pretty good judgment in selecting partners, even if not always the relationship skills to back it (re Algarotti especially).
Alas, google brought me nothing about Hotham Jr. in terms of what he was like, so he could have been anyone between Mr. Perfect and soemone Lehndorff was better off without.
Agreed. I admit I didn't dig too deeply, but I was looking for what I could find on him, and it wasn't much. It took a fair bit of digging just to work out that he was the nephew of the double marriage Hotham.
Hotham Jr. could have been a great guy and still be forgiven for not clinging to a four-months love affair years later.
Agree completely.
Tentative speculation: as much as Lehndorff was in love with Hotham, maybe a part of him didn't want to go and thus subconsicously was holding him back?
Could be! It's an interesting question that hadn't occurred to me.
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Fritz and Voltaire
Date: 2019-12-10 10:05 pm (UTC)Au contraire! He first met Voltaire in 1740, in Cleves, on his trip west to Bayreuth, western Prussian domains, and Strasbourg, right after becoming king. Then Voltaire spent a couple weeks at his court before the Silesian invasion. Voltaire was annoyed because he didn't get an invitation to stay on permanently on that occasion, and people like Maupertuis and Algarotti did.
And then he visited again in 1743, to spy on Fritz for the French court (and Fritz apparently suspected this and kept him away from anywhere he might acquire any useful information). And during this time, they visited Wilhelmine together.
And then Fritz spent years trying to lure him back, and finally got him in 1750, after his mistress Émilie Du Châtelet died in childbirth in 1749. (Poor Émilie. :-( )
So not only had he met Voltaire, Fritz was already snarking about his personality, and he knew Voltaire was willing to spy on him (on behalf of his at-the-time French allies, but still). And Fritz's approach to wooing Voltaire to his court involved publishing a scurrilous poem in Voltaire's name, in hopes of pissing off the French court so that he would need to flee to Prussia for asylum. (Voltaire found out and was not too impressed by the underhandedness.) And between spying on each other and betraying each other, they wanted each other badly enough that 1750-1753 happened.
I can hear you saying, "Good lord." This sort of thing is what their correspondence translator meant by "They so thoroughly deserve each other"!
(You know, this would actually make good fic if I could write at all. Someday.)
But yes, aside from Voltaire, Fritz seems to have had pretty good judgment in selecting partners, even if not always the relationship skills to back it (re Algarotti especially).
Alas, google brought me nothing about Hotham Jr. in terms of what he was like, so he could have been anyone between Mr. Perfect and soemone Lehndorff was better off without.
Agreed. I admit I didn't dig too deeply, but I was looking for what I could find on him, and it wasn't much. It took a fair bit of digging just to work out that he was the nephew of the double marriage Hotham.
Hotham Jr. could have been a great guy and still be forgiven for not clinging to a four-months love affair years later.
Agree completely.
Tentative speculation: as much as Lehndorff was in love with Hotham, maybe a part of him didn't want to go and thus subconsicously was holding him back?
Could be! It's an interesting question that hadn't occurred to me.