I assume this means he is appropriately gushing toward Heinrich?
Interestingly, Lehndorff doesn't report a single comment of Hotham's about Heinrich (or anyone else from the royal family). And Hotham definitely met the lot. (Well, those in and around Berlin, anyway.) Now it could be that Hotham, nephew of a diplomat and at the Prussian court when a crucial new treaty between Fritz and Cousin George is being concluded, knows better, even at the age of 21 and towards a new friend/lover, than to make potentially dicy remarks. Or maybe he makes remarks, be they either gushing or criticial, and Lehndorff doesn't record them, because he's first too busy being newly in love and filled with hopes for an English elopement and then too angsty. Or maybe, being somewhat ticked off at Heinrich in the relevant time span yet still visiting, he doesn't want to hear either praise or dissing of him, and Hotham is intuitive enough to avoid the subject.
Eichel having friends: good for him. Also, I like the characterisation "the Mazarin of our country". I guess this makes Fritz Louis XIV, and Heinrich Philippe d' Orleans? (Since AW is the onle royal brother Lehndorff is never angry towards, and also I can't see him as Philippe in any way.)
Fritz, you missed your chance to actually have a paternal relationship with someone! Oh, wait, you are doing a paternal relationship--exactly as you learned how to do it. Sigh.
Quite. Mind you, I don't think that Lehndorff's collection of slights - losing his cousin to the Kattes, being stuck with a job he doesn't want, being refused permission to travel abroad with his lover, and being generally ignored - was in any way about him from Fritz' pov; he could have been three or four separate people, and the same decisions would still lhave been made. (The Kattes get the heiress because they're Hans Herrman's family, someone has to be EC's chamberlain who isn't a gambler, like Müller, and who comes across as being generally reliable and not using the position to rob her or try to play spy, no one gets to elope to England with their lover and especially not someone who could inherit East Prussian estates. (Though I was wrong that Lehndorff was already the heir in 1756 - his older brother doesn't die until the battle of Hochkirch, news that will reach him about a week after the news about Keith, Prince Franz and Wilhelmine have arrived at court.) Though that argument probably would have made it worse for Lehndorff - at least if the King personally singles you out for his enmity, it proves he noticed you.
...still, if/when I get around to writing a Heinrich story, I'll have to include a scene where Lehndorff says something about hoping the King would be a father to him and Heinrich mentally going "....you know, I do like you, a lot, and that's why I'm not going to comment that ever, because you really really don't want to know what I'm thinking right now".
Btw, have come across this letter from Fritz to Grumbkow in 1737. So: Katte dead for seven years, Crown Prince rehabilitated and given estates and a regiment, but, as I know from the correspondance with Wilhelmine as well (and from that with young AW where Fritz asks his brother to tell him all FW says about him, Fritz), this by no means FW doesn't rant about him now and then: You, dear Field Marshal, generously took over my defense when the king came to speak of me. Never has an artist had such a bad opinion of his own creation as the king of me. If it is artistic modesty on his part, I must confess that it goes a little far. Rather, I tend to believe that an unfortunate prejudice that he has always cherished against me, and which is rooted by age, makes him judge so badly about my character. Who can say that you cannot go to war with France because you speak French, read the good writers who wrote French, and love the polite and witty people that this nation has produced? I know nothing but my honour. Anything that can be beneficial to her will always be the guiding principle of my actions, and no consideration can dissuade me from doing so.
The artist - piece of art metaphor and Fritz as FW's creation: ouch. Also wow. In many ways he was (and he was his own creation as well, of course, thankfully), though, never more than when he interacts with the younger part of his own family (or valets), and Lehndorff rather lucked out in not getting his wish there, is what I'm saying. Also clearly 1737 Crown Prince Fritz has definite political plans, correspondance with Voltaire about how it's a mystery that Peter I. can be a reformer and a tyrant at the same time and how Machiavelli is the worst not withstanding.
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Re: My Englishmanm, or: Heinrich Who?
Date: 2020-01-07 08:18 am (UTC)Interestingly, Lehndorff doesn't report a single comment of Hotham's about Heinrich (or anyone else from the royal family). And Hotham definitely met the lot. (Well, those in and around Berlin, anyway.) Now it could be that Hotham, nephew of a diplomat and at the Prussian court when a crucial new treaty between Fritz and Cousin George is being concluded, knows better, even at the age of 21 and towards a new friend/lover, than to make potentially dicy remarks. Or maybe he makes remarks, be they either gushing or criticial, and Lehndorff doesn't record them, because he's first too busy being newly in love and filled with hopes for an English elopement and then too angsty. Or maybe, being somewhat ticked off at Heinrich in the relevant time span yet still visiting, he doesn't want to hear either praise or dissing of him, and Hotham is intuitive enough to avoid the subject.
Eichel having friends: good for him. Also, I like the characterisation "the Mazarin of our country". I guess this makes Fritz Louis XIV, and Heinrich Philippe d' Orleans? (Since AW is the onle royal brother Lehndorff is never angry towards, and also I can't see him as Philippe in any way.)
Fritz, you missed your chance to actually have a paternal relationship with someone! Oh, wait, you are doing a paternal relationship--exactly as you learned how to do it. Sigh.
Quite. Mind you, I don't think that Lehndorff's collection of slights - losing his cousin to the Kattes, being stuck with a job he doesn't want, being refused permission to travel abroad with his lover, and being generally ignored - was in any way about him from Fritz' pov; he could have been three or four separate people, and the same decisions would still lhave been made. (The Kattes get the heiress because they're Hans Herrman's family, someone has to be EC's chamberlain who isn't a gambler, like Müller, and who comes across as being generally reliable and not using the position to rob her or try to play spy, no one gets to elope to England with their lover and especially not someone who could inherit East Prussian estates. (Though I was wrong that Lehndorff was already the heir in 1756 - his older brother doesn't die until the battle of Hochkirch, news that will reach him about a week after the news about Keith, Prince Franz and Wilhelmine have arrived at court.) Though that argument probably would have made it worse for Lehndorff - at least if the King personally singles you out for his enmity, it proves he noticed you.
...still, if/when I get around to writing a Heinrich story, I'll have to include a scene where Lehndorff says something about hoping the King would be a father to him and Heinrich mentally going "....you know, I do like you, a lot, and that's why I'm not going to comment that ever, because you really really don't want to know what I'm thinking right now".
Btw, have come across this letter from Fritz to Grumbkow in 1737. So: Katte dead for seven years, Crown Prince rehabilitated and given estates and a regiment, but, as I know from the correspondance with Wilhelmine as well (and from that with young AW where Fritz asks his brother to tell him all FW says about him, Fritz), this by no means FW doesn't rant about him now and then:
You, dear Field Marshal, generously took over my defense when the king came to speak of me. Never has an artist had such a bad opinion of his own creation as the king of me. If it is artistic modesty on his part, I must confess that it goes a little far. Rather, I tend to believe that an unfortunate prejudice that he has always cherished against me, and which is rooted by age, makes him judge so badly about my character. Who can say that you cannot go to war with France because you speak French, read the good writers who wrote French, and love the polite and witty people that this nation has produced? I know nothing but my honour. Anything that can be beneficial to her will always be the guiding principle of my actions, and no consideration can dissuade me from doing so.
The artist - piece of art metaphor and Fritz as FW's creation: ouch. Also wow. In many ways he was (and he was his own creation as well, of course, thankfully), though, never more than when he interacts with the younger part of his own family (or valets), and Lehndorff rather lucked out in not getting his wish there, is what I'm saying. Also clearly 1737 Crown Prince Fritz has definite political plans, correspondance with Voltaire about how it's a mystery that Peter I. can be a reformer and a tyrant at the same time and how Machiavelli is the worst not withstanding.