Frederick the Great discussion post 11

[cahn]

In our last installment, our heroes found that Henri de Catt's memoirs, a major source for current biographers of Frederick the Great, are not to be trusted!!

rheinsberg

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Peter Keith

[mildred_of_midgard]

Yes, yet another thread from me titled "Peter Keith"!

Remember back when 1860 editor of Thiebault said third edition editor had this wild and unsourced story about Peter Keith dying of humiliation when Fritz burned the letter he'd kept all those years? I found the source for one small part of that!

Kloosterhuis quotes from a letter by Peter's son in 1820 in which Keith fils says that Fritz originally invited Peter back to Prussia with promises of great rewards, and then those promises kept getting downgraded, until Peter finally had to produce a letter written when Fritz was Crown Prince, promising great things. Fritz took it about as well as you'd expect Fritz to take such a thing, and the upshot was that Peter came back to Berlin as a lieutenant-colonel and stable master with a pension of 1200 thalers.

Now, that's interesting, because it suggests there might have been a letter and more direct conflict at the beginning than I'd imagined. Reasons I have niggling doubts:

- According to the contemporary documentary evidence I have, Peter wasn't given the lieutenant-colonel commission until 1742, he had to ask for it, and he had to make a case for why he wanted to join the army. It appears that Fritz took a former Prussian officer and current Portuguese officer and gave him a prestigious if not highly paid civilian job in Berlin at the start of his war. Either Fritz is so mad at Peter he doesn't want him in his army, or he's trying to keep him safe, *I* think. And since he ends up giving Peter the commission in 1742, either he got over his hissy fit, or it was never because he didn't want Peter in his army, but because he was trying to protect him.

- Peter was certainly disappointed with his salary in 1742 and made it known, but Fritz didn't have to be displeased with you to make you feel underpaid. Peter didn't actually ask for more in the documentation I have, though; he said one reason he wanted to leave Berlin and join the army was that Berlin was too expensive on his current income. Now, implicitly he's saying he wants more money, but since he's volunteering to help fight Fritz's war, that's going to come across rather differently.

- Fritz didn't have a problem making him an honorary member of the Academy in 1744. Now, maybe that's just an empty title and doesn't mean anything, but I don't see a lot of contemporary evidence that Fritz is actually mad at him, as opposed to Peter thinks he is and Peter is disappointed. And this is significant, since Peter is his son's source, directly or indirectly (assuming wife wasn't pregnant when they married, the kid can't have been more than 13 when Peter died, so Mom and/or other relatives are probably the main source here).

- I have reason to believe Keith fils is wrong about the chronology of the escape attempt as well. The sources I have that follow contemporary documentation most closely agree that Peter deserted Wesel and went to the Hague on August 6, as part of the original escape plan. There is a parallel story that's evidently not supported by the evidence that first Fritz's part in the escape attempt was uncovered, Peter's life was in danger from FW, and Peter was warned by someone in Wesel and fled to the Netherlands just ahead of the pursuit. This is in Wilhelmine, who obviously wasn't there, and constantly gets her dates wrong. It also, of course, makes for a much more dramatic story! (Plus the narrative parallels of both Peter and Katte getting warned and one acting in time and one not.)

Just from the evidence I have examined myself, it appears that FW found out about the escape attempt on August 6 from Robert Keith, didn't think it was a huge deal, then on August 12 discovered Peter had already deserted, and *then* freaked out about conspiracies. So it's unlikely that Peter was a hunted man in Wesel before FW even knew he was part of the plan.

So younger Keith's family history seems to be less than rock-solid.

Furthermore, I would add that one story of Peter's escape involves confusing letters Fritz sent to Peter. The real story seems to be that during the trip with FW, Fritz discovered Katte couldn't get leave and meet him in the west, so he needed Keith to go to the Hague instead. So he sent a message to Peter telling him to meet him there (and look for a Count d'Alberville, Fritz's planned alias when traveling incognito, which he'd told Katte about previously). Peter gets the letter, and goes to the Hague on August 6. That's the same day that younger page Keith fesses up to FW.

Now, there's a story that Fritz managed to dash off a note to Peter reading, "Sauvez-vous, tout est decouvert," on the trip north to Wesel. Whether or not that's true, the part where Peter deserted after getting Fritz's letter has been taken to mean *this* letter rather than the "meet me in the Hague" letter. It probably also doesn't help that Catt has Fritz saying that Katte didn't escape because Fritz wasn't able to warn him in time, unlike Keith.

So what I'm saying is, Peter's life story is not exactly known in great detail in the late 18th and 19th centuries, and there are variants floating around.

But maybe there was a letter. Katte's last letter says Fritz was planning to raise him to high office. (Which may be true, but I always felt that Katte played up the role of ambition in his desire to help Fritz, because he couldn't exactly say, "Actually, it was because the King is abusive as hell and I wanted to stop seeing my bf crying and talking about wanting to die.")

So if there was a letter, maybe Peter showed it to Fritz and they had some conflict, and maybe he didn't. If he did, we can assume Fritz wouldn't react well. But it's also possible that there was a letter and that Peter talked about it to his wife in terms of bitter disappointment, but didn't actually get into a showdown with Fritz over it. Considering Fritz seems pretty benignly disposed toward him, if not hugely enthusiastic. And Fritz has a number of reasons to be less than enthusiastic in 1740-1742, without there being a showdown.

Anyway, I thought it was interesting to know that there may have been a letter from Crown Prince Fritz after all. Of course, it may also have been a verbal promise that got upgraded in family oral history to a letter, for dramatic effect, just like the alleged showdown.

Tangentially, one thing that broke my heart was Koser saying that when Peter first arrived at the Hague, he started asking everywhere for the Count d'Alberville. Most accounts I've seen have him going straight to hiding, but of course, if it's only the 6th, FW's only just found out about the plan hundreds of miles away, and won't know about Peter's involvement for 6 more days, he has no reason to hide immediately and will of course start looking for Fritz.

I think what broke my heart was the idea of him having hope and looking and looking for someone who's not coming. Then the loss of hope and the flight for his life, when he *did* evidently go into hiding with Chesterfield and then get his help sneaking over to London while the Prussians were after him. And then FW had a reward out for him even in London.

:-(

He was 19. Probably also could use a therapist, or at least a few sessions with a counselor. I'm glad it looks like the marriage at least worked out, Peter. <3

Re: Peter Keith

[selenak]

I think what broke my heart was the idea of him having hope and looking and looking for someone who's not coming. Then the loss of hope and the flight for his life, when he *did* evidently go into hiding with Chesterfield and then get his help sneaking over to London while the Prussians were after him. And then FW had a reward out for him even in London.

That is heartbreaking. Poor Peter.

Re: Peter Keith

[mildred_of_midgard]

There is a parallel story that's evidently not supported by the evidence that first Fritz's part in the escape attempt was uncovered, Peter's life was in danger from FW, and Peter was warned by someone in Wesel and fled to the Netherlands just ahead of the pursuit.

I just realized I neglected to spell this out, but this is the tradition that Peter's son follows, and that makes him a less than reliable source for the events of 1730 and 1740...writing in 1820 about someone who's been dead since 1756.