His grandmother was the sister of Charles XII, his mother the daughter of Peter the Great, and yet nature had made only a coward out of him, a wastrel and such a funny personality that one couldn't help but exclaim "Look there! the arlechino finto principe" when one saw him.
I suppose that his nurse and all his first teachers in his own country were Prussians, or otherwise bribed by the King of Prussia, for he had such an extraordinary and downright ridiculous veneration and tenderness for this prince from early childhood onwards that this passion - and it really was a passion - caused even the King of Prussia to remark: "I am his Dulcinea. He has never seen me, and yet he fell in love with me like Don Quichotte."
He had been twelve or thirteen years old when Elizabeth had hi brought to Russia, made him convert to the orthodox religion and appointed him her successor. But he always kept a strong attachment to the Lutheran faith in which he had been raised, a strong idea of the importance of his state of Holstein and the conviction that the troops which he had there and which he - as he claimed - had led to I don't know how many victories were after the Prussian troops the best in the world, and much more able than the Russians.
One day, he told Prince Esterhazy, the Viennese envoy at his aunt's court: "How can you hope for a success against the King of Prussia, when your troops can't even be compared to mine, and I myself have to admit that my soldiers are far less able than those of Prussia!"
And to me he said in one of those outpourings with which he often bothered me: "Don't you understand how unhappy I am! I should be in the service of the King of Prusisa; I would serve him with all my enthusiasm and all my vigour; I am sure that I'd be in possession of a regiment today, would have the rank of Generalmajor or even of a Generalieutenant. But no, they brought me here, made me Grandduke in this godforsaken country!"
Then he held a diatribe about the Russian nation in the grotesque way of speech which was his, though sometimes even amusingly so, for he didn't lake a certain type of wit; he wasn't stupid, he was just mad, and since he loved to drink, he contributed his share to the utter destruction of what little reason he was endowed to begin with. Additionally, he kept smoking tobacco, was of a very thin and measly figure, usually wore the uniform of Holstein and rarely anything else, and was in general dressed so ridiculous and tasteless that he ever looked like a Capitano or like something that escaped an Italian farce.
This was the heir presumptative chosen by Elizabeth.
He was always the target of mockery of his future subjects, sometimes also of dark prophecies and always the misfortune of his wife, who either had to suffer through him or die of embarassment about him. In his head, he confused everything which he had ever heard of the late King of Prussia (Grandfather of the currently ruling one, i.e. the one whom his brother-in-law, King George II England, used to call "King Corporal") with the idea he had of the then current King of Prussia. Consequently, he assumed one wronged the later if one claimed that he profered books to the pipe, and especially if one said that he loved to make verses. Whereas the Grand Duchess, like so many othres, couldn't stand the smell of tobacco smoke, and she was an avid reader; this was her husband's main complaint about her.
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Re: Poniatowski: Totally Objective Assessment of (P)Russian Pete
Date: 2020-03-05 02:52 pm (UTC)His grandmother was the sister of Charles XII, his mother the daughter of Peter the Great, and yet nature had made only a coward out of him, a wastrel and such a funny personality that one couldn't help but exclaim "Look there! the arlechino finto principe" when one saw him.
I suppose that his nurse and all his first teachers in his own country were Prussians, or otherwise bribed by the King of Prussia, for he had such an extraordinary and downright ridiculous veneration and tenderness for this prince from early childhood onwards that this passion - and it really was a passion - caused even the King of Prussia to remark: "I am his Dulcinea. He has never seen me, and yet he fell in love with me like Don Quichotte."
He had been twelve or thirteen years old when Elizabeth had hi brought to Russia, made him convert to the orthodox religion and appointed him her successor. But he always kept a strong attachment to the Lutheran faith in which he had been raised, a strong idea of the importance of his state of Holstein and the conviction that the troops which he had there and which he - as he claimed - had led to I don't know how many victories were after the Prussian troops the best in the world, and much more able than the Russians.
One day, he told Prince Esterhazy, the Viennese envoy at his aunt's court: "How can you hope for a success against the King of Prussia, when your troops can't even be compared to mine, and I myself have to admit that my soldiers are far less able than those of Prussia!"
And to me he said in one of those outpourings with which he often bothered me: "Don't you understand how unhappy I am! I should be in the service of the King of Prusisa; I would serve him with all my enthusiasm and all my vigour; I am sure that I'd be in possession of a regiment today, would have the rank of Generalmajor or even of a Generalieutenant. But no, they brought me here, made me Grandduke in this godforsaken country!"
Then he held a diatribe about the Russian nation in the grotesque way of speech which was his, though sometimes even amusingly so, for he didn't lake a certain type of wit; he wasn't stupid, he was just mad, and since he loved to drink, he contributed his share to the utter destruction of what little reason he was endowed to begin with. Additionally, he kept smoking tobacco, was of a very thin and measly figure, usually wore the uniform of Holstein and rarely anything else, and was in general dressed so ridiculous and tasteless that he ever looked like a Capitano or like something that escaped an Italian farce.
This was the heir presumptative chosen by Elizabeth.
He was always the target of mockery of his future subjects, sometimes also of dark prophecies and always the misfortune of his wife, who either had to suffer through him or die of embarassment about him. In his head, he confused everything which he had ever heard of the late King of Prussia (Grandfather of the currently ruling one, i.e. the one whom his brother-in-law, King George II England, used to call "King Corporal") with the idea he had of the then current King of Prussia. Consequently, he assumed one wronged the later if one claimed that he profered books to the pipe, and especially if one said that he loved to make verses. Whereas the Grand Duchess, like so many othres, couldn't stand the smell of tobacco smoke, and she was an avid reader; this was her husband's main complaint about her.