Frederick the Great, discussion post 6
Dec. 2nd, 2019 02:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cahn...I think we need another one (seriously, you guys, this is THE BEST) and I'd better make it now before I disappear into the wilds of music performance.
(also, as of this week there are two Frederician fics in the yuletide archive and eeeeeeeeeee)
(huh, only one of them is actually tagged with Frederick the Great even though two with Maria Theresia and Wilhelmine, eeeeeee this is awesome I CAN'T WAIT)
Frederick the Great masterpost
(also, as of this week there are two Frederician fics in the yuletide archive and eeeeeeeeeee)
(huh, only one of them is actually tagged with Frederick the Great even though two with Maria Theresia and Wilhelmine, eeeeeee this is awesome I CAN'T WAIT)
Frederick the Great masterpost
Lehndorf
Date: 2019-12-05 09:13 am (UTC)Lehndorf had a background which makes it at once apparant why a younger Hohenzollern and he would hit it off: he, like F1, was mishandled as a small child and had a broken foot at age 4 as a result which didn’t properly heal, which meant he was lame for the rest of his life. (This is also why he couldn’t have an army career.) His mother always prefered his „healthy“ older brother. (Dad had died when Lehndorf was still a baby. He and his siblings were first raised by their grandmother as the newly widowed mother couldn’t cope with six kids, but then the grandmother died, too.) He had to go through various painful and ineffective attempts to correct his leg. (BTW, this made me flash forward to Wilhelm II, aka Willy – one of the very few things he has my sympathy for is that he went through hell as a child with all those attempts to correct the arm that had been crippled when he was born, as his mother, Queen Victoria’s daughter of the same name, absolutely couldn’t stand the idea of having a handicaped child. Willy’s dysfunctional relationship with his English relations started right there.)
Before I get to the „Heinrich and me: A Rokoko Queer as Folk AU“ aspect of the diaries, some more general tidbits. Before being hired as EC’s chamberlain, young Lehndorff did go and attend Franz Stephan’s coronation in Frankfurt, because Prussian patriot or not, second Silesian War or not, how many imperial coronations can you see in your life time? Also, he’s just into pomp and circumstance and Rokoko parties in general, so it doesn’t surprise me.
Speaking of FS, in later 1753 there’s a rumor he’s taken sick and will die. This immediately causes speculation as to whom MT will try to replace him with as Emperor – money is on his younger brother since Joseph is still a kid, and they don’t see her allowing the Imperial crown slip out of her grasp again. And everyone sees this as an opportunity for another war. They’re having very mixed feelings when it turns out the Austrian spies were wrong and Franzl is alive and well.
Earlier that year, though, Fritz asked the Austrian Ambassador for a MT portrait, I kid you not, and provides one of his own. How that went down in Vienna, I have no idea.
Secretary: …and our ambassador writes the King of Prussia wants to have your portrait. Will send you his own.
MT: To throw darts at?
The selection of the diaries starts in 1750, and there’s a lot of soap opera right from the get go. a) AW’s inammorata Sophie von Pannwitz gets married (since he’s told once and for all by Fritz he won’t be allowed to divorce his wife, and Sophie drew the consequences and got herself an alternate husband), b) Heinrich gets married to Mina, and c) Lehndorf is also supposed to get married, but refuses (this particular candidate, he’ll later cave). Since Lehndorf’s supposed marriage is only his mother’s idea, not that of the King, his refusal stands.
No less soapy is the Voltaire vs Maupertuis saga, aka the warm up for the big Voltaire/Fritz implosion. Lehndorf concludes that a great mind does not prevent one from being a jerk, and is utterly bewildered by Fritz and Voltaire being all buddies again after a previous argumentative bust up.
Lehndorf: I don't get it. Do you?
Heinrich: *studiously says Nothing*
He’s enjoying a lot of the cultural aspects – concerts, theatre, and when he’s with „my beloved/adored/worshipped Prince“, they at times read books to another – but he doesn’t seem to really like any of the big intellectuals as people. Including Algarotti. Yes, this is the first contemporary who finds Algarotti resistable. The relevant entry:
January 4th: Dinner with Prince Heinrich and his table round. In the evening, I visit the opera. There I see the one I was supposed to marry. I don’t regret for a moment having rejected this marriage. I also hear that Count Algarotti will go to Italy. He is an intellectual („Schöngeist“) who has made his fortune at our court. One enjoys hearing him talk but is afraid of seeing him; thus it is with all who are too enamored with their own wit.
Lehndorf hangs out with all three of the Hohenzollern princes so often that one wonders when on earth he’s doing his job with EC. And then you get entries like, when he’s returning from a trip to Rheinsberg: „The Queen is displeased with me. Ah well, no rose without thorns!“
One read thread through the first three years is him becoming unexpected pals with the Countess Bentick, aka the enterprising lady of Mission: Seduce Heinrich fame. She’s married, left her husband and is currently living with her lover (apparantly that’s cool with Fritz as long as you’re not a Hohenzollern), none of which is stopping her from trying to score with L’Autre Moi-Meme. In vain, but it means she and Lehndorf spend a lot of time together, including doing things like climbing on top of the highest Charlottenburg palace tower to enjoy the view, and he actively seeks out her company after a while because she’s clever and fun. And of Course he can empathize with her Heinrich thirst.
In these early stages, he’s careful with his criticism of the actual royals. When „Sulla“, the opera for which Fritz has written the libretto, is premiered apropos SD’s birthday, Lehndorf comments „it is not the best opera I have heard“, which is about the amount of dissing he does re: Fritz and his brothers in the early 50s. He’s a bit more critical about the sisters, though stuff like, say, complaints about Amalie being moody are forgotten when she gives him a letter from Heinrich. (He describes her in general as smart, charming if she wants to be, scathing when not, with intense beautiful eyes and a bit overweight. You can see where all the „she resembles Fritz“ claims hail from.)
ETA: almost forgot: he's most critical of Wilhelmine and her husband when they come to visit. The Margrave may appear as "large and healthy", but he's not really refined in Lehnsdorff's opion. Wilhelmine, otoh, is too refined:
November 12th: The entire Bayreuth court leaves. They say the Margravine would have prefered to stay for the winter. This princess is adored by some and despised by others. She does have qualities for which she deserves to be loved: she is generous, a patroness of scholars and treats her servants well. But she plays at being a wit, thinks herself superior to the rest of humanity and only truly respects her own family; thus, she's always ready to build altars to the King. /and of ETA.
Meanwhile, he practically draws sparkly hearts around Heinrich’s name every time he mentions him. The quotes Mildred already gave are fairly representative. Of course, at some point it dawns to our good Count that Heinrich might favour him with his company but has those other guys besides. If either have you have watched the original UK Queer as Folk: the relationship between Stuart and Vince is what this reminds me most. Have some excerpts from the diary for a conclusion of this comment, all from 1753:
September 9th: the King shows an extraordinary generosity towards all his officers. What pleases all decent folk especially is that Oberstleutnant Keith receives 5000 Taler. It is the very same Keith who when the King was faring badly while being Crown Prince had to escape, and lived at times in the Netherlands, at others in England, at last in Lissabon. It seemed for quite a while that His Majesty had forgotten him; but now he received, in addition to the money, a most gracious letter and the invitation to join his Majesty at the camp.
September 18th: The Queen goes with all her Braunschweig relations to Schönhausen to dine. I am terribly bored.
September 19th: My prince talks most graciously with me, but it is not the tone I am used to hearing from him. In the end, I regard this as a hint from heaven to liberate me from my passion for him.
September 29th: My poor prince is sick, which worries me more than anything else. Oh, how wise would a man be to be content with his position in life and not chase after having something which at first appears beautiful, charming and delicious but in the end causes only pain!
September 30th: At evening with Prince Heinrich again, who is still sick. Oh my God, how much willpower is necessary to tear out a passion of one’s heart which has taken root there so strongly! It is a hard fate, having to make such sacrifices.
December 3rd: We participate in the great hunt. (…) I note with joy how disgusted the Prince of Prussia - aka AW - is by hunting. He says he cannot find joy in attacking creatures which have no chance to defend themselves. Prince Ferdinand shoots carelessly and hits a farmer.
December 10th: I dine alone with my dear Prince Heinrich, whom I love with all my heart.
December 21st: Diner at Prince Heinrich’s. I am surprised to encounter Stillfried here, with whom I used to correspond. He is an amiable young man. I have a long conversation with Prince Heinrich which saddens me. I always find that one moment of pure joy is followed by ten days of grief!
December 22nd. Prince Heinrich arrives in tight riding pants and beautiful like an angel for dinner.
Re: Lehndorf
Date: 2019-12-05 08:58 pm (UTC)Man, I am loving how every day I basically get a new crackfic for this fandom. Only most of them actually happened.
he’d have cut it but for historical considerations, for lo, it seems that (Fritz-derived) image historians had of the Prussian court only turning sensual and adulterous once FW2 the playboy got on the throne? Is wrong! The Fritzian court was not a bastion of chaste stoic Prussian masculinity after all.
LOL awwww I love Overly Earnest Editor Historian -- seriously, I'm not joking, I understand that it's because of people like this not cutting things that we HAVE it, but at the same time I kind of want to pat him on the head.
everyone is emo in those days, so Lehndorf bursting into tears when his beloved Heinrich isn’t around for a few days is UTTERLY NORMAL.
okay, now I Definitely want to pat Editor on the head
Secretary: …and our ambassador writes the King of Prussia wants to have your portrait. Will send you his own.
MT: To throw darts at?
LOL, probably??
There I see the one I was supposed to marry. I don’t regret for a moment having rejected this marriage. I also hear that Count Algarotti will go to Italy. He is an intellectual („Schöngeist“) who has made his fortune at our court. One enjoys hearing him talk but is afraid of seeing him; thus it is with all who are too enamored with their own wit.
AHAHAHA I love this. Also... I wonder if there was some jealousy working there? What did Heinrich think of Algarotti?
Lehndorf hangs out with all three of the Hohenzollern princes so often that one wonders when on earth he’s doing his job with EC. And then you get entries like, when he’s returning from a trip to Rheinsberg: „The Queen is displeased with me. Ah well, no rose without thorns!“
*facepalm* LEHNDORF. IT'S YOUR JOB, DUDE.
Countess Bentick, aka the enterprising lady of Mission: Seduce Heinrich fame
ooh, I'm glad you mentioned who she was, because while of course I remember Mission: Seduce Heinrich I'd forgotten what her name was
because only cameo roleI note with joy how disgusted the Prince of Prussia - aka AW - is by hunting. He says he cannot find joy in attacking creatures which have no chance to defend themselves. Prince Ferdinand shoots carelessly and hits a farmer.
I gotta say this made me laugh out loud. I knooooow it wasn't funny for the farmer, but at centuries of remove I'm just, okay, Hohenzollerns, you can't even go hunting without making someone's life super miserable! (Also, AW <3 )
Also also, after all the self-aware people who still can't help but mess up their lives in all these posts, I'm finding Lehndorf's lack of awareness in all your comments to be totally hilarious.
Re: Lehndorf
Date: 2019-12-06 04:09 am (UTC)Yeeess! And Team Frederician Fandom is the best! I love how my bloodhound instincts dovetailed with
Man, I am loving how every day I basically get a new crackfic for this fandom. Only most of them actually happened.
ME TOO. It's like Yuletide every day! I thought nothing could top the Wusterhausen family reunion, but then there was the "other self; YES GOD YES. You bastard; last twelve years" ALL IN ONE FIC. And they just keep coming! Trenck! Lehndorf! Grandpa F1 prequel!
The Fritzian court was not a bastion of chaste stoic Prussian masculinity after all. On the other hand, we’re told to keep in mind everyone is emo in those days, so Lehndorf bursting into tears when his beloved Heinrich isn’t around for a few days is UTTERLY NORMAL.
ZOMG. Catt's English translator, a Stiff Upper Lip Brit circa 1917, does the same thing! He urges his readers to remember that Continentals are more emo than Brits, and that the 18th century was a different time, and assures them that they can still take Old Fritz seriously, even when he's bursting into tears every time he declaims something from one of his favorite poets.
Now, the Catt translator hates Fritz otherwise, but at least he's being scrupulously fair and excusing the constant waterworks.
Wilhelmine's translator, otoh, is such a Fritzian he produces this gem that made me laugh out loud: "To Seckendorff, Voltaire maintains that Frederick owed his life, when, with great difficulty, the arch-conspirator kept Frederick William from beheading him...he adds that Frederick requited Seckendorff's kindness by inserting a hideous caricature of him in certain copies of his Memoirs of Brandenburg...The reader of the Margravine's autobiography will probably feel that when Seckendorff saved Frederick's life the account between them was about even, and that Frederick might proceed to new injuries with a clear conscience."
And remember how Lady Mary's editor was falling all over himself to excuse her Rococo frankness? "She was totally a lady! They could talk like that back then with perfect propriety. DON'T TAKE THIS THE WRONG WAY, readers."
LOL awwww I love Overly Earnest Editor Historian -- seriously, I'm not joking, I understand that it's because of people like this not cutting things that we HAVE it, but at the same time I kind of want to pat him on the head.
Lol, me too.
Secretary: …and our ambassador writes the King of Prussia wants to have your portrait. Will send you his own.
MT: To throw darts at?
Somewhere, in a back storage room of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, curators are scratching their heads. "Where did all these holes come from?"
Meanwhile, Fritz is trolling visitors in his bedroom.
Yes, this is the first contemporary who finds Algarotti resistable.
Woow. He's attracted to men AND he finds Algarotti resistable? That must really be a first! I wonder if Algarotti did a satire of Heinrich that delighted Fritz and not so much Lehndorf. :P
What did Heinrich think of Algarotti?
OOH GOOD QUESTION. Maybe other-Fritz liked Algarotti too and Lehndorf was Not Amused.
Algarotti: I'm getting out of here before I can become the next Marwitz. Bye, Hohenzollern brothers! I'll be nice to your sister when she shows up in Italy, but you all can keep your crazy in Prussia.
Lehndorf hangs out with all three of the Hohenzollern princes so often that one wonders when on earth he’s doing his job with EC. And then you get entries like, when he’s returning from a trip to Rheinsberg: „The Queen is displeased with me. Ah well, no rose without thorns!“
*facepalm* LEHNDORF. IT'S YOUR JOB, DUDE.
Dude. I'm with Lehndorf. I would totally be ditching EC and hanging out with the brothers. :PP If you have a thick enough skin, it's worth it!
I gotta say this made me laugh out loud. I knooooow it wasn't funny for the farmer, but at centuries of remove I'm just, okay, Hohenzollerns, you can't even go hunting without making someone's life super miserable! (Also, AW <3 )
Was talking with my wife today about our messed-up fandom, and she quoted, "Comedy is tragedy plus time," which has never felt so relevant.
Meanwhile, he practically draws sparkly hearts around Heinrich’s name every time he mentions him.
I laughed out loud at this. Of course he does!
We participate in the great hunt.
What great hunt? Does Fritz mandate an annual hunt? (Who else can make AW do something he doesn't want to?) I mean, King Fritz did many things Crown Prince Fritz would have been horrified by, but I thought the greater sympathy for animals than for humans was something he hung onto. If he is having to Prove Things to long dead FW again when he haaaates hunting, I am just so...ugh. Hugs and family therapy and NO WEAPONS for you guys. (The farmers and shepherds will thank you.)
ETA:
We have suppressed some names and cut the worst passages, though.
Also, dammit. Give me all the dirt, editor!
Re: Lehndorf
Date: 2019-12-06 05:07 am (UTC)All the Editors of the late 19th and early 20th century: What a weird time it was when men were allowed to cry all the time, oh Reader - please be understanding!
Mind you, Lehndorff's has lost something of my favour because he makes a really weird editorial choice. We get until about a year after AW's death in detailed entries, and then the next few years till the end of the 7 Years War are just summarized by the editor who doesn't let Lehndorff himself report again until Fritz has won the war.
Editor in these summaries, upon first longer Lehndorff reunion with Heinrich post AW's death: "Lehndorff was satisfied that the Prince told him many interesting things." Oh yeah? Like what? Look, maybe you don't want your 1907 readers to be shocked by a fraternal rant about Frederick the Great, but your 2019 readers want to hear it!
Woow. He's attracted to men AND he finds Algarotti resistable? That must really be a first! I wonder if Algarotti did a satire of Heinrich that delighted Fritz and not so much Lehndorf
Possible, but if so, he would have mentioned it. He always does when someone is rude to his faves, and the editor isn't cutting yet at this point.
Maybe other-Fritz liked Algarotti too and Lehndorf was Not Amused.
Algarotti: I'm getting out of here before I can become the next Marwitz.
Now that sounds moreo plausible to me. Lehndorff doesn't like any of Heinrich's boyfriends, after all.
Who ordered the hunt? Not mentioned. Lehndorff just starts that entry with "we went hunting". I mean, there are Braunschweig and Hessen guests at court to be entertained, so that might have been the reason.
Re: Lehndorf
Date: 2019-12-06 05:13 am (UTC)Oh, that's true, it might have been protocol. I hear Fritz used to send out the hunt at Rheinsberg whenever his father's guests came to spy on him, so they couldn't pick up on the musical shenanigans he was getting up to.
Maybe other-Fritz liked Algarotti too and Lehndorf was Not Amused.
Algarotti: I'm getting out of here before I can become the next Marwitz.
Now that sounds moreo plausible to me. Lehndorff doesn't like any of Heinrich's boyfriends, after all.
It is Algarotti's doom to be plagued by love triangles wherever he goes. Being ultra-attractive has its downsides, kids! <-- new headcanon
then the next few years till the end of the 7 Years War are just summarized by the editor who doesn't let Lehndorff himself report again until Fritz has won the war.
WHAT? But the Seven Years' War is exciting! (I mean, I'm so glad we have Catt from 1758-1760, those are the juicy years. I mean, yes, I wish we also had 1757, but I'll take what I can get.)
Re: Lehndorf
Date: 2019-12-06 05:16 am (UTC)Re: Lehndorf
Date: 2019-12-06 05:21 am (UTC)I wonder if the "best of" 2007 version is a best of this published version, or if it goes back to the original sources and does its own selection? If so, might it have gotten the good stuff from 1759-1763?
Re: Lehndorf
Date: 2019-12-06 06:52 am (UTC)Re: Lehndorf
Date: 2019-12-06 06:55 am (UTC)Re: Lehndorf
Date: 2019-12-10 04:24 am (UTC)Re: Lehndorf
From:Re: Lehndorf
Date: 2019-12-06 12:45 pm (UTC)Meanwhile, Fritz is trolling visitors in his bedroom.
EC, visiting Sanssouci for the first and last time during the evacuation of Berlin: That's IT. His mother, I would have expected. Wilhelmine, I would have understood, what else is new. But freaking MARIA THERESIA?!?
Re: Lehndorf
Date: 2019-12-07 12:59 am (UTC)Hahahaha.
Fritz: A+ troll.
I mean, this is one of his harmless trolleries; there are much worse reported, like teasing someone at his dinner table and making them watch him eat while they were starving, then sending them away hungry, solely for the entertainment value. (Ugh, Fritz.)
seeing as he accepted 4000 Taler from Seckendorff as a bribe in his Crown Prince years.
Bribe to do what? Be nice to Austria when he inherited? Money well spent, Seckendorff. :-P I don't think it counts as bribery if you take the money, invade Silesia, and never pay it back. Double-dealing, yes.
Oh, man. I had missed this: I remembered that Seckendorff was in prison when Fritz inherited in 1740 (MT then released him), but Wikipedia is telling me Fritz had him abducted during the Seven Years' War, when he was evidently minding his own business, retired, and sickly on his own estate. Yeeaaahhh, Fritz. Revenge is a dish best served cold?
Which reminds me, remember when we were discussing Wilhelmine's depiction of Grumbkow in her memoirs as plotting against FW's life? And decided that was probably overstating the matter? Well, I just realized Catt reports Fritz saying that Grumbkow advised FW to execute him, during his trial. Do we know anything about this?
Re: Lehndorf
Date: 2019-12-07 01:01 pm (UTC)Wiki also says Fritz had Seckendorff brought to Magdeburg (other prisoners in Magdeburg during the same time: Trenck), German wiki says "under the suspicion of having conducted a correspondance to Prussia's disadvantage with Austria", and that MT exchanged him against Moritz von Anhalt-Dessau, who had been captured by the Austrians at Hochkirch. Aside from old hostility, might simply have been Fritz needed a high ranking prisoner for a switch?
Re: Lehndorf
Date: 2019-12-07 11:08 pm (UTC)Aside from old hostility, might simply have been Fritz needed a high ranking prisoner for a switch?
Maybe. I saw the switch, but couldn't tell from English wiki whether Fritz had captured him before or after Hochkirch, but German wiki gives me the month, and it was indeed after. Okay, Fritz. German wiki comes through for you.
Re: Lehndorf
Date: 2019-12-07 11:40 pm (UTC)Other prisoners carted off to Magdeburg a year later: Fritz, in his nightmares, for not loving his father enough. (Remembered the dream, had forgotten the prison was Magdeburg. Man.)
Re: Lehndorf
Date: 2019-12-08 05:43 am (UTC)Now, Magdeburg - Breslau: 390 km. Just saying.
Re: Lehndorf
Date: 2019-12-08 08:17 am (UTC)Not that I'm aware of. Wow. Was he thinking she was going to facilitate an escape attempt or what?
I would hope Lehndorff in his indignation feels at least a little for EC, but I fear it's mostly that if EC instead of Amalie had been invited, he'd have gotten to come along.
Yeah, I'm so sure EC is top of his mind right now. :P
Continuing with the theme of messed up...
Fritz to Catt: You know, I keep having this dream, and I don't know why. *recounts Magdeburg dream* Isn't that silly? Also I was extra harsh to some priests today. Why do I mention this? No reason.
Catt: "And perhaps, I said to myself, hearing this reflection, the dream, quite as much as the cold [that he'd suffered from on the road and which Catt has already observed has put him in a bad mood], was the cause of the tone in which he spoke this morning to the priests of the neighbourhood."
I'm also struck by the way he recounts his childhood abuse and Katte's execution, in the same conversation, and segues, without a pause for breath, into his campaign plans. Catt gives absolutely *no* comment on the Küstrin episode, either to Fritz or in his diary.
Now, we're at three removes from the actual conversation: Catt's diary, Catt's memoirs, the editor/translator, so I have to wonder how much that reflects the reality of the conversation. But it's perfectly possible Fritz vented while making it clear that he didn't want comment, or that Catt was at a complete loss for anything to say. Catt's known him for almost exactly one month at this point, which makes it interesting that Fritz is already recounting the execution from his perspective.
Also worth mentioning is that Fritz, after opening the topic with "I had during the night at Münsterberg a singular dream, and, I do not know why, I frequently have the same dreams," says near the end of the monologue, "As you may imagine, this scene made an impression on me which will never be effaced. See how it follows me in my dreams, and is continually representing my father as being angry with me and about to beat me."
:(
Re: Lehndorf
From:Re: Lehndorf
From:Re: Lehndorf
From:Re: Lehndorf
From:Re: Lehndorf
Date: 2019-12-10 04:25 am (UTC)The Keiths
Date: 2019-12-06 06:24 am (UTC)I continue to be deeply interested in who takes whose side in the great "Who was ungrateful: Fritz or Peter Keith?" debate. This is the second contemporary who not only takes Keith's side, but says everyone else did too. It seems to be later historians who are all pro-Fritz who think Keith overrated what he deserved
because Fritz can do no wrong.Curiously, this seems to be almost identical to the anecdote that Hanway gives in his travel memoirs, only he dates it to August 15, 1750. Hanway's memoirs were published in 1753, so it's not like he's looking back at the end of his life and misdating things, like Wilhelmine did. Did Fritz just periodically give Keith a lump some of money and a nice letter, which made everyone at court happy? Autumn is bonus time?
Oh, wow. Lehndorf records Keith's death (of course, does not tell me how he dies, which I really want to know; since he doesn't say anything, I'm going to assume an unremarkable illness), and--according to Google Translate--says that the reason Fritz was so ungenerous was that as an adult, he disapproved of Keith encouraging his youthful indiscretions. I...seriously hope that's not the case. Admittedly, I've seen this claim before: that old Fritz thought young Fritz had no right to attempt to escape. I'm holding out hope until I see it from the horse's mouth. Though Fritz's Stockholm Syndrome was pretty strong, so it's far from impossible. Ugh.
Anyway, while I'm here, it has come to my attention that the plethora of Keiths is confusing to people who are not just me. So here is me sorting them out.
There are five Keiths in Fritz's life! Only four are important, thank goodness. And those are two pairs of brothers.
Brotherly pair one: Peter and Robert. They are Pomeranian Keiths. Of Scottish extraction, hence the name, but they've been living in Pomerania for generations now. Nobility, but without much property by this point.
Peter's story we know. Page to FW, bf to 16-yo Fritz, sent away to Wesel near the Dutch border after his affair with Fritz was discovered, implicated in the escape attempt, the only one of the trio to make it safely out of Prussia though hanged in effigy, ten years in exile before being recalled by Fritz. Infamously not happy with his reception on return. Married a woman of a Prussian noble family, no children that I can find. Died age 45 at the start of the Seven Years' War.
Younger brother Robert: page to the King, betrays the escape attempt to FW, plea bargains, gets sent in disgrace to an infantry regiment (the same one his brother just escaped from?), disappears from the pages of history. I don't have a birth date for him, but Peter's only 19 and Robert younger, so 18 at most. Perhaps younger if he's still a page, aka high school age. Obviously the consequences of this betrayal were terrible, but he was young, and he saved his own head from these consequences, and it must have been absolutely *terrifying* being caught between Fritz and FW, so I forgive him.
Then the other, more fortunate fraternal pair. They're both from Scotland, as in born and raised there. Both Jacobites (supporters of the exiled Stuarts against the Hanovers). Both fought in the 1715 Jacobite Rebellion, were stripped of their estates by the crown after the rebellion failed, and had to flee into exile, along with lots of other Jacobites.
James: The younger. Named James Francis Edward Keith, which tells you his parents were Jacobites too. If you're wondering how this tells you that, it's because James Francis Edward Stuart is the name of the Jacobite pretender to the throne, styling himself James VIII. (He's not "king" yet when our Keith is born, only the son of exiled James VII, but he will be.)
He went to Russia, where he had a more successful experience with a coup, managing to help put Elizabeth on the throne (she who hated Fritz, joined the League of Petticoats with MT and Pompadour against him, and whose death got him out of a tight spot in the Seven Years' War). After a lot of traveling around European courts and armies, he ends up with Fritz. Fritz has a high opinion of him, and is genuinely upset when he dies bravely at the battle of Hochkirch--one of Fritz's worst defeats, and probably the one he most clearly brought on himself.
George: The elder, the heir to the title. Fortunately, he mostly goes by the name Marischal in the histories, as in, George Keith, Earl Marischal. After he, like his brother, travels around Europe a lot after 1715, he ends up becoming BFFs with Fritz. He's one of the true close friends Fritz has late in life, and when he dies (1778), it hits Fritz pretty hard. At that point, he mostly only had pen pals left, and they were dying off too (Voltaire, Maria Antonia.)
Marischal ends up with the signal honor of being BFFs with Fritz for a long time and not ever being estranged from him. They even managed to be friends at very close range: Fritz gave him a plot of land from the Sanssouci park and helped design his house, which you can see today (and which you better believe I intend to next time I'm there).
Marischal does a lot of diplomatic work during his lifetime, for Fritz and for others before him. My favorite anecdote: in 1751, Fritz sends him as diplomat to Versailles. One of Fritz's ministers asks him if maybe sending a Jacobite on such an important international mission might offend Uncle George over in Britain.
Fritz: *genuinely confused* And that's relevant how? Actual quote: "I don't give a fuck."
Fritz: *displaying the diplomatic genius that's getting him into a three-and-a-half front war as we speak*
Fortunately for Fritz, international power politics were more important to England during the Seven Years' War than Fritz's latest attempt to offend every single power in Europe before breakfast.
As a result of later, more successful diplomacy, Marischal gets pardoned by George, and gets permission to return to Scotland, and even get his title and estates back, but amazingly, decides he likes Fritz better and decides to live and die with his BFF. <3
The fifth Keith is also named Robert, but fortunately only gets a cameo appearance as British envoy to Vienna around the time of the War of the Bavarian Succession, so you can't confuse him with the others too much.
And there we have a confusion of Keiths.
Re: The Keiths
Date: 2019-12-06 10:14 am (UTC)re: the passage when Keith (Peter) dies, you may rest easier in that the phrasing in German is in the Conditionalis, i.e. Lehndorff speculates that this is why Fritz got out of touch, he doesn't say it as a statement. I assume the German translator rendered the original French here, since both French and German have the that grammatical possibility.
All this being said? Fritz still could have believed it. Then again, Lehnsdorff isn't a Fritz intimate, he never has a single conversation with him that's not part of a public occasion, and he doesn't say he has this theory from Fritz intimates, either. He probably drew his own conclusion out of the remote royal figure with the spectacular temper outbursts he knows. Who is not cool with people running off with their Lovers to England.
Re: The Keiths
Date: 2019-12-06 10:13 pm (UTC)But if you want to know what I think, speaking as a close confidant of Fritz who's had many private conversations with him
in my head... :PFirst, I think it's quite likely Fritz was doing to Peter what he did to almost everyone who wasn't Fredersdorf: signaling to him in the early days that there was no way he was going to let him have any influence, and also *nobody* could expect much money from Fritz, that was just a thing. That doesn't say anything about his attitude toward Keith; who *didn't* feel underpaid at his court? I think Hanway is right here.
But second, I think it's significant that Fritz treated Keith rather like he treated Algarotti, Maupertuis, and the other intellectual civilians he invited to his court: told him to sit tight in Berlin while Fritz went off and conquered a province. Well, nobody took that well, and also I think Fritz dramatically underestimated the five years it was going to take him before he could get started on the reign he and everyone had been expecting. Nobody's going to wait that long.
Interestingly, we know from Wilhelmine that young page Peter was intelligent but not educated, and that he got sent off to a regiment by FW as punishment. Like Keith and Fritz, I expect that Peter didn't want to join the army and was more or less forced into it by FW. My read on Peter is that he wanted to be a civilian intellectual.
Furthermore, Hanways reports that in the early days, Fritz "put [Peter] near the queen mother." That, to me, is a very telling signal of favor. I think Lehndorff is way off the mark here. And at the time Fritz is getting things going at the Academy in Berlin, mid 1740s, he makes Peter an honorary member. The more I learn, the more I think Fritz was really giving Peter the option to become the intellectual he'd wanted to be.
Only Peter was a young man, a Prussian (unlike, say, Algarotti), and a member, unwilling or not, of various armies for the last dozen or so years, and he would have been under a certain amount of pressure, external and probably internal, not to "shirk his duty." So he asked for a commission, and got it. Around this same time, he was also getting engaged, and complaining about his salary.
What I think is that Fritz and Peter got their signals mixed (because nobody can communicate). Fritz told Peter to stay in Berlin as a sign of favor, a rare exception to the "everyone has to support my wars in every way possible" rule. Fritz was probably absolutely planning to help Peter live his dream as an intellectual, the same way he invited Maupertuis to Berlin with promises of the presidency of the academy and then went, "But, wait, hold on one minute while I take care of Silesia; then we'll have money for all these awesome plans I have."
Everyone: *twiddles thumbs for significantly longer than one minute*
Everyone: *gets fed up*
Meanwhile, Peter, former personal page and boyfriend, returning to Prussia, might or might not expect a lot of money, but I think he expected to see Fritz. I think "you stay over here, far far away from me," did *not* feel like a mark of favor. It probably felt like, "I know I haven't seen you in twelve years, but, eh, I didn't really miss you, and also I don't respect your military service record, and also here's a pittance for your personal sacrifices for me." That had to hurt.
So Peter, in the absence of anything that felt like an emotional recognition that he was special, reacted with, "Fine. If you're going to try to pay me for what I went through, there's not enough money in the world for that.
I did it for you.And if you're going to treat me like any other subject, I'm going to act like any other subject, because I've gotten the message here. I'm on my own. So I want a bigger salary and a commission. Like anyone else."And Fritz hears, "You know how you decided to make an exception for me? Screw your exception, I want money. Woe is me, my sacrifices were so great and my reward small." When Fritz has just finished handing Katte's dad a promotion and a title, because he can't actually repay Katte for DYING. Without complaining. With a smile on his face. And I can't imagine Fritz reacting to that with, "Oh, yeah, no, you definitely deserve a bigger reward for all that sacrifice. My bad."
At this point, Keith deciding to get married like a normal 30-yo who had a fling with a guy in his teens whom he hasn't seen or communicated with since, and has totally moved on and built a life of his own that isn't just twiddling his thumbs while waiting on Fritz to have time for him, just sealed the deal of "You're not that special to me either."
And that's why I think, if there was any hope of picking up a teenage friendship again at age 30, it fell afoul of Fritz's wars and Fritz's issues. The sad thing is, between exempting him from the war, keeping him near SD, and later giving him an honorary Academy of Sciences membership and an administrative job if not an intellectual one (which reads to me like, "I know through no fault of your own, you never got that fancy education you wanted, but here I am recognizing and sharing your values and expressing my belief in you"), I think Fritz had good intentions here. But as usual, emotional intelligence fail.
After that, I think we saw a general, albeit temporary, increase in Fritz's chill between his wars. Both Lehndorff and Hanway speak well of Peter's personality, and I suspect once Fritz got the message that he wasn't going to make a power grab, and he wasn't at war, he was more willing to give him both money and responsibilities. Lehndorff tells me Fritz entrusted Peter with Amalia's trip the Abbey of Quedlinburg in 1755, which speaks of a certain amount of trust to me. I read in some secondary source that he was made aide-de-camp to Fritz, which is likely reflects what Lehndorff's report that Fritz invited Peter to camp in 1753. Given that it's autumn, I'm guessing it's camp in Silesia.
A couple
1) Lehndorff reports that Fritz gave Peter Jägerhof as a lifelong dwelling. Do we know where that is?
2) Can you translate "Er hatte ein schönes Gesicht und eine ehrliche Physiognomie, der sein etwas schielender Blick keinen Eintrag tat, wie das sonst beim Schielen oft der Fall ist"? My rough translation is "He had an attractive face and an honest-looking physiognomy, such that you didn't notice his somewhat cross-eyed gaze, unlike in most cases of squints*," but can you correct me where needed? I'd like to have this one right. (I've seen a secondary source reporting that Peter was cross-eyed, and I was wondering what the primary source was. Now we know.)
*Where I'm using the "cross-eyed" meaning of "squint" rather than the more common "voluntarily narrowed eyes" meaning.
Re: The Keiths
Date: 2019-12-07 06:36 am (UTC)Jägerhof: sorry, I have no idea, and googling doesn't help, I can tell you, because it's such a common name. It literally means "Hunter's Lodge" and all the many many German principalities had dozens and dozens of places named after those.
Your interpretation of cross communication between Peter Keith and Fritz sounds absolutely plausible and makes the most sense out of everything.
Re: The Keiths
Date: 2019-12-07 06:47 am (UTC)Woohoo, I translated a German sentence! :D
since Heinrich in his later years, post one blow to an eye at some Seven-Years-War battle, got somewhat crosseyed as well
Ooh, I knew he was a bit cross-eyed/boss-eyed, but didn't know it was due to a war wound. Well, that makes sense.
Jägerhof: sorry, I have no idea, and googling doesn't help, I can tell you, because it's such a common name. It literally means "Hunter's Lodge" and all the many many German principalities had dozens and dozens of places named after those.
That's exactly why I couldn't google it. Oh well.
Your interpretation of cross communication between Peter Keith and Fritz sounds absolutely plausible and makes the most sense out of everything.
It makes sense to me. I'm glad you agree.
Re: The Keiths
Date: 2019-12-07 06:59 am (UTC)This should read, "Like Katte and Fritz." And I meant to add that it's very plausible that Fritz at that age was drawn to people who didn't want to be in the army. So at age 30, his primary memory of Peter might be of someone like Katte, who didn't want to be an officer.
I also meant to include Lehndorff's quote about Keith being "almost completely forgotten" in the beginning. That must have been exactly how it felt, sitting in Berlin without even being summoned to see Fritz. It must have hurt. But that's also how Algarotti and company felt, and it's not because adult Fritz disapproved of their actions as teenagers.
which is likely reflects what Lehndorff's report that Fritz invited Peter to camp in 1753
Well, I apparently conflated two syntactical possibilities for that sentence, wow. And now I can't edit any more. You know what I mean. :P
Re: The Keiths
Date: 2019-12-10 04:36 am (UTC)