Frederick the Great, discussion post 6

[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

Comments

Re: Fredersdorf letters

[mildred_of_midgard]

Re Fritz as marriage enemy, I want to add that if I were a biographer, I would definitely not *assert* that the letter was Fritz being resentful of Fredersdorf's marriage. Just that it's a possibility.

Re: Fredersdorf letters

[selenak]

Incidentally, Lehndorff has gossip on Mrs. Fredersdorf in her widow years. Now I knew she ended up marrying again because she thus became the grandmother of Achim von Arnim (German poet, bff of Clemens Brentano, married to Bettine Brentano, all of whom are nominated characters in this Yuletide's German Literary RPF), and that's also why we still have the letters (the ones she didn't return to Fritz, that is - she left them to her grandkids who of course realised the historical value at once). What I hadn't known was that before marrying Mr. v. Arnim, she had an interlude with someone else. How reliable these stories are, I have no idea, they're not mentioned in any wiki entry, only her two marriages are.

It isn't long ago that a certain Labes, son of a miller, with nothing more than a pretty face had the fortune to please a woman with 160 000 Taler to her name. Good natured as she was, she became engaged to him and thus put him into possession of her entire fortune. One would assume the man to be happy now, but no, he is walking around with a sore face. The woman is the widow of the famous Fredersdorf.

Some months later:

The widow of the famous Fredersdorf, a rich banker's daughter, marries a Herr v. Aschersleben, without a penny to his name but who enables her for the 100 000 Taler she brings him to put a "von" in front of her name at last. (I take it this means Fredersdorf was never ennobled.) Now one should believe that this man was filled of love, joy and delighth for his wife. But nothing of the sort! Fourteen days after her wedding he tells her he wants to divorce her, that he's filled with an unsurmountable revulsion against her and wants to separate. She then decides to give him 10. 000 Taler and break with ihm entirely. People tell me she has become engaged again. This happened in a space of eight days.

Now, which of these stories are true? Both? Neither? Wiki tells me via the entry of her father - she doesn't have one of her own - that Caroline Fredersdorf married Johann Labes (future granddad of Achim von Arnim), and also that he was, wait for it... "Kammerherr", i.e. Chamberlain, of Frederick II. Lehndorff, old buddy, I do suspect you are not reporting proper gossip so much as you're channelling your inner snobbery towards commoners making it good. And getting the jobs you wanted.

Re: Fredersdorf letters

[mildred_of_midgard]

(I take it this means Fredersdorf was never ennobled.)

Well, Editor tells me historians have claimed that he was, but Editor can't agree; he thinks that contemporaries who wrote to him because they wanted something from Fritz used to flatter him by addressing him as though he were a noble (which, imo, probably made them feel better about themselves as well).

Which I guess makes as much sense as anything.

Lehndorff, old buddy, I do suspect you are not reporting proper gossip so much as you're channelling your inner snobbery towards commoners making it good. And getting the jobs you wanted.

Seems plausible!