Fritz would have had to know that either Fredesdorf or Voltaire were holding out on him re: their linguistic knowledge.
I don't think Voltaire was holding out on him necessarily, because he sent that German language letter directly to him early in 1751, I'm assuming to demonstrate his knowledge so soon after coming to Prussia...?
Sending his right hand man who supposedly doesn't speak French and at any rate is bound to be seen as an enforcer of the royal will rather than a diplomat? Not so much, if Fritz really did want to make nice at this point.
Yeah, Fritz was definitely counting on Fredersdorf's presence impressing on Voltaire to act in whatever way. Expanding a bit on Fred's role in the resignation business -
From the resignation letter Voltaire sent to Friedrich on January 1st:
"Mr. Federsdoff [sic] who comes to console me in my disgrace makes me hope that your majesty would deign to listen to the goodness of your character towards me, and that it could repair by its benevolence (if possible) the stigma with which it showered me.
He sent this resignation letter at half past 3, then Fredersdorf is sent to his room at 4. From Voltaire's letter later on the 1st of Jan to Charles Nicolas de La Touche, who he had apparently made his advocate:
"He sent me Federsdoff at four to tell me to do nothing, that he would fix everything, that I write him another letter. I wrote to him, but without denying the first, and I will take no resolution without your kindness and without your advice. As I had the honor of taking you to witness my feelings in my first letter, and as the king knows that according to my duty I have entrusted my procedures to you, it will be up to you to be an arbitrator. You are currently a Minister of Peace, we are proposing it, dictate the conditions."
"I sent back to the Solomon of the North his New Year's gifts, the bells and the hobby horse that he had given me, and that you reproached me for so much. I wrote him a very respectful letter, and I asked him for my leave. Do you know what he did? He sent me his large/tall/great [could be any of these for grand] Federsdoff factotum, who brought back my brimborions. He wrote to me that he preferred to live with me, than with Maupertuis. What is certain is that I do not want to live with one or the other. I know it is difficult to get out of here, but there are still hippogriffs to escape from Madame Alcine. I absolutely want to leave, that's all I can tell you, my dear child. I have been saying it for three years now, and I should have done it. I told Federsdoff that my health did not allow me to live in such a dangerous climate any longer."
Friedrich seems accustomed to using Fredersdorf's presence as "encouragement" by March 1753, though whether the following event happened is noted by the E-Enlightenment editor as dubious ("was this a verbal message? or is the text of [Fritz letter] incomplete? or is this merely a little flourish?"):
"The King of Prussia sent me cinchona during my illness; that is not what I need: it is my leave. He wanted me to go back to Potsdam. I asked for his permission to go to Plombières: I give you a hundred to guess the answer. He made me write by his factotum that there were excellent waters at Glatz, towards Moravia."
Not sure if Fredersdorf was a physically imposing person, but his position certainly was.
Re: Lucchessini, Catt and Fredersdorf, oh, my
I don't think Voltaire was holding out on him necessarily, because he sent that German language letter directly to him early in 1751, I'm assuming to demonstrate his knowledge so soon after coming to Prussia...?
Sending his right hand man who supposedly doesn't speak French and at any rate is bound to be seen as an enforcer of the royal will rather than a diplomat? Not so much, if Fritz really did want to make nice at this point.
Yeah, Fritz was definitely counting on Fredersdorf's presence impressing on Voltaire to act in whatever way. Expanding a bit on Fred's role in the resignation business -
From the resignation letter Voltaire sent to Friedrich on January 1st:
"Mr. Federsdoff [sic] who comes to console me in my disgrace makes me hope that your majesty would deign to listen to the goodness of your character towards me, and that it could repair by its benevolence (if possible) the stigma with which it showered me.
He sent this resignation letter at half past 3, then Fredersdorf is sent to his room at 4. From Voltaire's letter later on the 1st of Jan to Charles Nicolas de La Touche, who he had apparently made his advocate:
"He sent me Federsdoff at four to tell me to do nothing, that he would fix everything, that I write him another letter. I wrote to him, but without denying the first, and I will take no resolution without your kindness and without your advice. As I had the honor of taking you to witness my feelings in my first letter, and as the king knows that according to my duty I have entrusted my procedures to you, it will be up to you to be an arbitrator. You are currently a Minister of Peace, we are proposing it, dictate the conditions."
Fredersdorf had returned the chamberlain's key and Pour le Mérite to Voltaire after he had first tried to give them back to Friedrich, enclosed with his resignation letter, so he could leave Prussia. Voltaire recounts on the 13th of January 1753 to Denis:
"I sent back to the Solomon of the North his New Year's gifts, the bells and the hobby horse that he had given me, and that you reproached me for so much. I wrote him a very respectful letter, and I asked him for my leave. Do you know what he did? He sent me his large/tall/great [could be any of these for grand] Federsdoff factotum, who brought back my brimborions. He wrote to me that he preferred to live with me, than with Maupertuis. What is certain is that I do not want to live with one or the other. I know it is difficult to get out of here, but there are still hippogriffs to escape from Madame Alcine. I absolutely want to leave, that's all I can tell you, my dear child. I have been saying it for three years now, and I should have done it. I told Federsdoff that my health did not allow me to live in such a dangerous climate any longer."
Friedrich seems accustomed to using Fredersdorf's presence as "encouragement" by March 1753, though whether the following event happened is noted by the E-Enlightenment editor as dubious ("was this a verbal message? or is the text of [Fritz letter] incomplete? or is this merely a little flourish?"):
"The King of Prussia sent me cinchona during my illness; that is not what I need: it is my leave. He wanted me to go back to Potsdam. I asked for his permission to go to Plombières: I give you a hundred to guess the answer. He made me write by his factotum that there were excellent waters at Glatz, towards Moravia."
Not sure if Fredersdorf was a physically imposing person, but his position certainly was.