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Frederick the Great discussion post 12
Every time I am amazed and enchanted that this is still going on! Truly DW is the Earthly Paradise!
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rheinsberg :)
All the good stuff continues to be archived at
rheinsberg :)
The Lehndorff Report: 1776
LOL. Our Editor, Dr. K.Ed. Schmidt-Lötzen, says in his preface that while Lehndorff’s diaries post retirement are mainly about his life in the countryside and his estate, our Lehndorff also keeps up an intense correspondence with all the obvious suspects. Editor thanks G. Volz - the very same - for helping him because the excentric ortography of some of those letters, and of the diaries themselves, are a trial, and Volz has gone through the hardcore school of decyphering Fritz letters. Also, our editor doesn’t know whether he’ll live long enough to publish all of Lehndorff’s journals, because looking at all those volumes still ahead, he doubts it. Aw. Editor, some of this material will go up in flames in 1945, so we’re grateful for anything you publish, you’re doing an intense public service, believe me.
Our editor by now is firmly attached to Lehndorff and tells us furtherly in the preface that he thinks Lehndorff would have made a great diplomat if Fritz had chosen to put him into the service (whether in England or elsewhere), and he, editor, can’t understand why Fritz didn’t, unless it was a bias against Lehndorff for being lame. The diaries as preserved in the year 1921 run from April 1st 1750 to October 8th 1806, just a few days before Prussia lost to Napoleon, big time, at Jena.
Now, onwards to what our Lehndorff wrote. Remember, when last we left him, he retired from EC‘s service, said goodbye to Heinrich and went home to Eastern Prussia to his estate Steinort. Which, btw, is in Poland today, along with most other locations I‘ve seen mentioned so far.
In the summer of 1775, there’s gossip in the provinces Fritz is at death’s door and gets wrapped in paper and lead for treatment. Lehndorff, who is corresponding with the capital, thinks it‘s all nonsense and probably inspired by Fritz suffering through a particularly painful attack of gout. Then there‘s this entry. The greatest princess is of course Catherine. The Count of St. Germain is one of the 18th century‘s most successful con men and adventurer‘s, pretending to be immortal. „Mariamme“ is a tragedy by Voltaire about Herod‘s wife.
February 1776: In this time, I make the aquaintance of the famous prince Orlov, the lover of the greatest princess of the world. He arrives in Königsberg under the alias of a Russian major, lodges in the inn „Prince of Prussia“ and remains unrecognized for the entire evening. The next morning, rumor of his arrival spreads, and I meet him at Countess Keyserlingk’s. I liked him a lot. He doesn’t show pride, but a natural behavior, still remembers his old friends and talks about his good fortune with modesty. He shows me the empress’ portrait which is uniquely precious; the painting itself is covered by a flat diamond the size of a dollar. I dine with him, and he shows himself so delighted at finding his old acquaintances again that he’d have liked to stay longer with us, if Prince Lobkovitz, the Viennese envoy at the court of St. Petersburg, hadn’t arrived at the same time. This disturbs him, since he’d wanted to arrive at St. Petersburg before Lobkovitz did, without the Empress knowing about it. He also meets Count Schwerin, colonel in the Regiment Krockow, who has been the cause of his good fortune, and talks with him without restraint.
Staying at Königsberg also allows me to make a charming aquaintance, with the famous Chevalier Sagramoso, the Maltese envoy in Warsaw. (...) He is a polymath with whom I‘ve spent ten agreeable days. He has known the infamous Count of St. Germain pretty well, the one who claims to be eternal and of whom he has told me the following anecdote: At a performance of the tragedy „Mariamme“, he declared he was doubly touched since he had known the amiable princess very well. A lady present who wanted to embarass him adressed him by saying: „Then you probably knew our Lord Jesus Christ as well?“. „Whether I knew him?“ he replied. „Why, so well that I told him after that business in the Temple had happened: My dear friend, this can‘t end well!“ (...)
And we‘re only a few pages into the start of this journal, when guess whose name makes a return appearance:
We talk most of all about the arrival of Prince Heinrich, who will stop in Königsberg on his way to Russia. He has written to me several times, and I could come with him on the journey if I wasn’t worried about leaving my wife, who is pregnant. My dear prince arrives on March 26th. I am endlessly glad to see him again and am always with him. He tells me a great deal strange and extremely interesting things, and I see him part from Königsberg with great regret. A few days later I travel to Steinort, but as I am disturbed by the news that my wife might give birth earlier than supposed, I return to Königsberg on April 28th. My wife immediately takes lodging at my house there, and we await her giving birth until the end of June.
In the meantime, I have made my preparations in order to follow Prince Heinrich to St. Petersburg, my clothes have arrived, and June 9th has been named as the day of my departure. I have received several letters by the Prince which promise me the most pleasing reception, and wherein he tells me there has already been an apartment prepared for me in Zarkoje Selo. But just as I enter the carriage and want to leave, a terrible fever attacks me, and I am -
(This is where the diary book ends, and Lehndorff starts a new volume thusly)
On June 21st at 3 am, my wife gives birth to a daughter in Königsberg most happily. At the same time, I receive a letter from Prince Heinrich announcing he will arrive at Königsberg in the company of the Grand Duke on July 10th. Thus I see myself forced to abandon the plan of a journey to St. Petersburg which I had carried with me through the entire summer. I must admit this is rather painful for me, for I will never have the chance again to get know this country under such pleasant circumstances as they would have been in the company of Prince Heinrich for me. But one cannot fight destiny!
Lehndorff, I dare say your wife would have had something to say about you leaving her just after she’s given birth to go holidaying in Russia with the crush of your life! Though at least she fares better than the other pregnant woman mentioned in these pages. The Grand Duke is Catherine‘s son Paul. Nominally also the late Peter IIII‘s son. Paul is very touchy about the question mark on his paternity and thus is making a point of being as much like (P)Russian Pete as he possibly can, including being a Fritz fan. Prussia cultivates him, of course, since no one has forgotten what it‘s like to be at war with Russians. The following passage also illustrates Heinrich‘s own streak of political ruthlessness, less bloody than that of Fritz but no less cold if needs must. (The need in case being keeping the next Czar in the family.) „We both have the same coldness“, as Fritz would put it.
At July 6th, the serene Prince Heinrich arrives. He shows himself so pleased to see me that I am delighted. We think about a thousand preparations to receive the Grand Duke in the entire country. I am spending the entire day in the company of my adored prince, who tells me a thousand anecdotes about Russia, about the Empress and her entire court which I have to write down at once. The prince was in a very strange situation there. Just after his arrival, he found the Empress full of attitude against us, because the Polish General Branicki has helped Potjemkin to influence her against us. Additionally, he found the Grand Duchess, the sister of our Princess of Prussia, to be dying due to a pregnancy which took a fateful course. For this reason, the Prince spent several days alone without getting to see the Empress. The envoys of other courts were already triumphant and flattered themselves that the prince would not be as successful this time as during his first journey. But then, Prince Heinrich used an opportune moment to get a message through the Empress via General Kaskin to tell her that nothing was more of concern to him than her distress, and that he asked her to use him as she saw fit if he could be of any service to her. Very pleased about the offer, the Empress replies that she appreciates his sincere friendship in her sad situation, and that she asks him to come to her as soon as possible and to take the Grand Duke under his wing, who was wrecked with pain over his dying wife. At once, the Prince follows suit, and he manages to talk the Grand Duke out of the room of the dying woman. He behaves so well that (...) this misfortune is an occasion to win the trust of the Empress and the Grand Duke so thoroughly that even before the later’s wife has expired, there has already been a new spouse arranged, the charming princess of Würtemberg, the great niece of our King and daughter of the most estimable parents of the world. (...) At last after ten days of the most terrible suffering, the unfortunate princess dies without having given birth as the child, a boy, was still attached to her. She bore all the operations with the greatest endurance and died in the same way. (...)
So this entire day passes very agreeable for me; the joy of the prince at my company is so sincere and his conversation is so interesting that the hours pass as in flight. In the evening, he has the kindness to ask me to come with him to meet the Grand Duke the next morning.
So Lehndorff might not have had the chance to travel with Heinrich to Russia, but he gets to travel with him and Grand Duke Paul through the newly aquired Poland, err, even Easterner Prussia. This, btw, is of additional political importance since the inhabitants of Danzig - Gdansk - used to be HRE subjects, Danzig having been a Free City, and are less than thrilled that they‘re now Prussians. Extra bonus for Lehndorff: he gets to lord it over one of Heinrich‘s exes, to wit, Kalckreuth.
(...) On the 9th, we drive through the most beautiful area of the world to Insterburg, always through arches of honor. (...) About a mile away from Isenburg, I see Lieutenant Colonel Kalckreuth whose anger I can spot on his face, as this is the first time that he, who had once been Prince Heinrich‘s big favourite, will see the later after his disgrace. He has written to the Prince and his royal highness has asked me to tell him that he would not treat him badly, but also that there was nothing left between them in his favor. At last, I arrive in Insterburg, where I enjoy meeting Madame General Platen again. She entertains me with all types of outbursts Kalckreuth has made in her presence.
Life is sweet for Lehndorff. (One hopes also for Mrs. Lehndorff and the baby, still at Königsberg.)
On to Danzig, aka Gdansk:
The way to the town Danzig is beautiful, the view of the gigantic crowd splended; all the public stairs, all windows are full of women wearing their most beautiful dresses who greet us in the most amiable way. This is true in all the suburbs of Danzig as well. One has put up tents and prepared a great picknick for the Prince; but the Grand Duke didn‘t want to have anything to do with this, since he declared he does not want to be polite to people who are unkind to the King of Prussia. He really seems to be that attached to our royal house. As he is greeted by the city council with a speech, he only replies with a bow, while Prince Heinrich takes care to speak with such friendliness with them that they are delighted.
That would be why Paul, once he‘s Czar, will end up just about as popular as his legal Dad. He won‘t end much more happily, too. But for now, all is smiles.
18th July. At 8 am, the entire noble company leaves Oliva, and I have to take leave of my amiable prince who has asked me urgently to come with him till Berlin. But I remain firm! Prince Heinrich now gives me a beautiful gift; he presents me with a box of gold, decorated with emeralds and diamonds. Once all the carriages have left, I am amazed to find myself alone at a place which I had seen overcrowded with people just a moment earlier. Since I had spent the night rather badly in a tiny room, I go to the suit where the Grand Duke has been lodging, lie down on a comfortable chaiselongue and sleep there for three or four hours. Then I take my dinner with the Chamberlain Keyslerlingk and the abbot of Oliva.
Bless. After a few more days in Danzig, he goes back to Königsberg to reunite with Mrs. Lehndorff and the baby. Scheming Kalkreuth continues to be a thing, btw, since he‘s in a mini war with the Platens, and Lehndorff, of course, is Team Platen. (And also Team Muwahaa, Whom Is Heinrich Still Fond of Now, Kalkreuth?) And there I must leave him for the weekend.
Re: The Lehndorff Report: 1776
Volz has gone through the hardcore school of decyphering Fritz letters.
"If you can decipher those, you can decipher anything!"
--Fritz's ministers, probably. #InaccurateHistoryQuotes
Also, our editor doesn’t know whether he’ll live long enough to publish all of Lehndorff’s journals, because looking at all those volumes still ahead, he doubts it.
Wow. So can you tell if this is the last volume of the published journals? It was the last one I could find, but admittedly I haven't done a deep dive.
Our editor by now is firmly attached to Lehndorff
After three volumes, who wouldn't be?
he, editor, can’t understand why Fritz didn’t, unless it was a bias against Lehndorff for being lame.
Ha. I think you were right about Fritz not wanting to have to replace a chamberlain doing an adequate (even if he does spend most of his time with the Divine Trio) job in a dead-end position. Also, I don't think there was anything about Lehndorff's personality or association with EC and Heinrich calculated to make Fritz think of him as a candidate for important jobs.
„Why, so well that I told him after that business in the Temple had happened: My dear friend, this can‘t end well!“ (...)
LOL, St. Germain! I should read up on him more at some point. He's definitely full of gossipy sensationalism.
At last after ten days of the most terrible suffering, the unfortunate princess dies without having given birth as the child, a boy, was still attached to her.
Yikes, poor girl.
(And also Team Muwahaa, Whom Is Heinrich Still Fond of Now, Kalkreuth?)
Heee! This is awesome. I'm Team Lehndorff. <3
Looking forward to the next installment from our sparkly hearts hero.
Re: The Lehndorff Report: 1776
No. It's titled "Volume I" (of the retirement journals), but then if Schmidt-Lötzen died of a stroke in 1922, it still would be titled this, because he had intended to publish more. A quick googling doesn't tell me when he died, btw, but it did reveal to me where Lehndorff's original manuscripts, both the still preserved diaries and the still saved correspondance and notes, are kept these days. Not in the Prussian State Archive in Berlin, but in the Saxon state archive in Leipzig, along with all the Lehndorff family papers (i.e. including the globetrotter who named himself after the Wandering Jew and thus brought the moniker "Ahasverus" in the family). A quick look in the subsection of our Lehndorf shows me that in the subdepartment "notes, exercise books and diaries", which is here, shows me that in addition to being an avid diary writer, Lehndorff did what we do - he excerpted interesting quotes from historical letters and diaries in notebooks (what with not having the internet at his disposal). And evidently filled two notebooks with quotes from letters by Liselotte (of the Palatinate, d'Orleans, the Liselotte), which were already published in his day. Lehndorff, your taste in whose quotes to be fascinated by can't be faulted. You're one of us! There's also one item titled Brautwerbung Ernst Ahasverus Heinrich von Lehndorffs bei der Oberburggräfin von Tettau um ihre Enkelin Catharine du Rosey from the year 1749, i.e. young Lehndorff asking the Countess von Tettau for the hand of her granddaughter Catharine du Rosey (later to become Frau von Katte instead). Summary description "contains among other things description of intrigues", presumably why the match faltered and the family handed her over to the Kattes instead. The dating of 1749 - as opposed to Lehndorff later mention of it as 1751 - is interesting; either he proposed in 1749 and they were an item until 1751, which is unlikely, I mean, one year between proposal and engagement is the done thing, but not two unless you're a royal and there are endless negotiations -, or he's just misremembering. If the later, it might be because his mother quickly proposed an alternate match in 1751 which he rejected.
If all of this sounds like a quick to the Leipzig State Archive would be great: yeah, if one were able to read unorthodox spelling in Rokoko era French hand written letters and note books with the occasional German sentence! As it is, I am really profoundly grateful for Schmidt-Lötzen's translations and editions.
I don't think there was anything about Lehndorff's personality or association with EC and Heinrich calculated to make Fritz think of him as a candidate for important jobs.
Depressingly, the few times Lehndorff rates messages from the King - via third parties like Eichel or some post 7 Years War official - are rebuffs, as when Eichel told him the King wouldn't grant his request to be allowed to travel with Hotham, or when he's told in 1764 just after the Borck firing the King doesn't want him to hang out so much with young future FW2, either. (1964: remember, also a fraternal year of silence because Heinrich has refused the saluting at the head of his regiment business at the Spandau revue. Being Heinrich's long term friend with benefits and also hanging out with Crown Prince Junior = not a way to endear yourself to Fritz that year!)
Re: would Lehndorff been able to do the job, I'll put my thoughts on this in my reply to Cahn.
I loved the St. Germain quip, too. He was definitely one of the most colourful people of the era.
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Clearly, we need to attract someone with this skill set into our salon!
As it is, I am really profoundly grateful for Schmidt-Lötzen's translations and editions.
As am I, as well as profoundly grateful to you for translating the translation for us!
Lehndorff did what we do - he excerpted interesting quotes from historical letters and diaries in notebooks (what with not having the internet at his disposal)
Alas, no earthly paradise of DW for him. But he's definitely one of us!
The dating of 1749 - as opposed to Lehndorff later mention of it as 1751 - is interesting; either he proposed in 1749 and they were an item until 1751,
The whole dating is interesting, because it's in late 1748 that the Hans Heinrich male line goes extinct. And Kloosterhuis doesn't have du Rosey cousin marrying Ludolf August von Katte until 1755. If Lehndorff had the misfortune of proposing to her in 1749, just as Fritz was getting interested in finding the Katte cousins an heiress, and then she remained unmarried for 6 more years...that's interesting. Any thoughts on what took so long? I know there were "intrigues," but that's a long intrigue.
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a) Kloosterhuis - or Martin von Katte, whom he's after all using as a main source - is simply wrong about the marriage date. As far as I know, marriages are not easy to track down to in that era because unlike deaths and births, they aren't usually entered in the church registry. Either Martin or Kloosterhuis could be basing this simply on the birth date of the first child. (BTW, one reason why I think Lehndorff isn't just talking out of his own bias when saying his cousin is unhappily married is that he writes down that one of her two children dies, she's in despair and doubly so because she despises her husband too much to have another child with him. And Ludolf von K. indeed had only two children, which Lehndorff, writing this in the middle of the 7 Years War, can't have known.
b) Or: Lehndorff was quite young (for the era, and his station) to propose in 1749, 22. He was also a youngest son without land of his own. Yes, he had a job that sounded great - chamberlain of the Queen's is nothing to sneeze at if you're provincial nobility - but it hardly paid huge sums. (By comparison, when he does marry almost a decade later, he's 30, and his older brother has died, which means he's inherited the family estate. It could be that Grandma fron Trettau said he was too young for a marriage, and maybe so was Catharine (since I'm assuming she's definitely younger than him, perhaps only 16 or 17), and they should wait some years until Lehndorff has secured another source of income and has become somewhat older. And then, ca. 1751-ish at the latest and probably earlier, the Katte clan strikes.
(I'm again Fontane the novelist influenced here, not by the Wanderungen. Effi's husband Geert von Innstetten in Effie Briest first proposed to her mother when they were both 20 and was declined in favour of Herr von Briest who is way older and the owner of an estate. When Innstetten is proposing to Effi - who is 16 - 17 yars later, in his late 30s and working in the Prussian administration, he's considered an excellent match.)
Re: The Lehndorff Report: 1776
BTW, one reason why I think Lehndorff isn't just talking out of his own bias when saying his cousin is unhappily married is that he writes down that one of her two children dies, she's in despair and doubly so because she despises her husband too much to have another child with him. And Ludolf von K. indeed had only two children, which Lehndorff, writing this in the middle of the 7 Years War, can't have known.
If you had mentioned this before, I'd forgotten it. That's really interesting.
Speaking of Ludolf, I was looking up the marriage date, and found that Kloosterhuis says Ludolf "sich an den Eskapaden Hans Hermanns fleißig beteiligte." Took part diligently in Hans Hermann's escapades? This is coming in a footnote to a passage that talks about that intriguing-sounding initiation rite thing involving horses, champagne, the female gender, and the number 3, which I had seen cited around the internet before we got our hands on the volume itself, and also that apocryphal tale about him riding his horse into cousin Sophie Charlotte's parlor. So I guess Ludolf, five years younger than Cool Older Cousin Hans Hermann, took part in all these antics. Which was news to me.
I'm sorry about the bad marriage and the one who got away, but Lehndorff and cousin du Rosey, you missed your chance for so many Hans Hermann anecdotes! Apparently your husband was along for the ride when all the crazy stuff happened.
Unpublished Lehndorff retirement journal: Lehndorff gets all these anecdotes from Ludolf and du Rosey's surviving kid, who takes after his mom and thus bonds with Lehndorff. The anecdotes languish in the Saxon archives to this day, waiting to be read. :P
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Yes.
Unpublished Lehndorff retirement journal: Lehndorff gets all these anecdotes from Ludolf and du Rosey's surviving kid, who takes after his mom and thus bonds with Lehndorff. The anecdotes languish in the Saxon archives to this day, waiting to be read. :P
LOL. I hope so, for otherwise we're reduced to hoping for time travel body switch with Fontane again. :) Don't forget, though, Lehndorff would have been entirely capable of asking that kid: Ah, but did your Dad know the real hero of 1730, Peter Keith?
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LOL. I would LOVE Keith anecdotes, but I would advise against saying "real hero" to a von Katte. :P Body switch with Fontane it is!
Kattes
Now, I could be wrong, but even if Hans Heinrich is currently stationed outside of Wust, which he usually is, it probably would be difficult to have outdoor concerts in the gardens in this small village of Wust and get your portrait painted if you were trying to keep your flute-playing secret from your father, the lord of Wust.
Which means, I think it's reasonable to conclude Hans Heinrich knew about his son's flute playing and was, at the very least, okay with it. Now that I know that Grandpa Wartensleben was the old-school Baroque guy who was responsible for most of Hans Hermann's raising, he may have bankrolled the university attendance and Grand Tour, so that doesn't necessarily reflect on Hans Hermann one way or the other. But if two of Hans Heinrich's children, one of whom isn't even descended from Hans Hermann's maternal grandfather Wartensleben, are getting painted in Hans Heinrich territory, that suggests to me that Roes is probably way off the mark in making Hans Heinrich opposed to flute-playing in Zeithain. I mean, aside from the question of whether it's narratively a good idea to work out your own issues with your father by giving every character a Bad Dad.
Re: Kattes
Re: Kattes
Re: The Lehndorff Report: 1776
„I participate in a dinner at the Queen’s. At first, it proceeds smoothly. But when supper is finished, her majesty approaches Count Wartensleben in order to tell him that she’ll take a couple of additional pages into her household. Wartensleben explains to her that this is impossible since he doesn’t have the budget to support them. The queen replies heatedly. Wartensleben gets even noisier, and thus a complete spectacle proceeds. The queen hits him with her fan, her fan breaks into a hundred pieces, she throws them into his face and stalks off angrily. He calls after her that he can’t hold any marshal’s staff without having any wine. (?) In short, the scandal is complete. As far as I’m concerned: I’m playing the amazed spectator, withdraw into a corner with the honored and highly esteemed Countess Camas and talk to her about a new book which has just been published under the title of „Candide“ and supposedly was written by Voltaire. In it, he makes fun oft he people who claim we live in the best of all possible worlds, lists the many sufferings which oppress us, but does so in such a funny and unexpected way that one has to laugh heartily about it.
I throw a ball for the Wreech family on the occasion of one of their daughters to Herr v. Schack. The amiable Frau v. Katt attends. She seems in despair about her marriage which forces her to withdraw to the countryside. Every time I meet this woman, mournful thoughts about our destiny plague me. We would have been happy together. Bad people have torn us apart, after the impossibility of our marriage became clear. We keep meeting and sense clearly we have been meant for each other. This, too, proves we don’t live in the best of all possible worlds! (…)
We bring poor Katt to her carriage which will bring her to Wust and her despicable husband, and return to Berlin, sad about losing the company of this charming woman. On my way back, I have a funny encounter. On the bridge leading to my apartment, I meet my mother. I immediately tell my driver to stop, and so does she. I address her with an innocent face, but then she becomes furious, tells me that she won’t be at home today, despite the fact she had invited me to dinner, and tells her driver to drive. I am thunderstruck and return home slowly, and tell myself that one has to approach the weaknesses of one’s parents with respect. Doubtlessly, she is angry because I socialize with the Wreech family despite them being in extreme disfavour with her because the Dönhoff mentioned her age the other day. That same evening, I attend the Queen where the ladies V. Morien and v. Bredow sing an aria of a wonderful opera.
Re: The Lehndorff Report: 1776
EC? Saint EC??
We keep meeting and sense clearly we have been meant for each other. This, too, proves we don’t live in the best of all possible worlds!
You definitely don't. None of you.
. I am thunderstruck and return home slowly, and tell myself that one has to approach the weaknesses of one’s parents with respect. Doubtlessly, she is angry because I socialize with the Wreech family despite them being in extreme disfavour with her because the Dönhoff mentioned her age the other day.
LOL. So Lehndorffian.
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Re: The Lehndorff Report: 1776
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Our editor by now is firmly attached to Lehndorff
As are we all :D
and tells us furtherly in the preface that he thinks Lehndorff would have made a great diplomat
LOL. I gotta say that as much as I adore Lehndorff, I don't think he would have made a good diplomat at all. He doesn't strike me as the type to be able to on the fly come up with a good way to tell various people that Fritz didn't really mean that obnoxious thing he said about Franzl! (Or whomever.)
„Why, so well that I told him after that business in the Temple had happened: My dear friend, this can‘t end well!“
I laughed pretty hard at this!
Thus I see myself forced to abandon the plan of a journey to St. Petersburg
You know, I like that he did abandon his plan. I mean, he could have gone and I dare say no one would have thought much about it except his wife (and least of all Heinrich himself) but he didn't, even though it was something he really wanted to do. I mean, maybe my 18th C standards are terribly low at this point, but still :)
„We both have the same coldness“, as Fritz would put it.
This is going in a Fritz/Heinrich dysfunctional siblings fic, right??
He behaves so well that (...) this misfortune is an occasion to win the trust of the Empress and the Grand Duke so thoroughly that even before the later’s wife has expired, there has already been a new spouse arranged, the charming princess of Würtemberg, the great niece of our King and daughter of the most estimable parents of the world. (...) At last after ten days of the most terrible suffering, the unfortunate princess dies without having given birth as the child, a boy, was still attached to her. She bore all the operations with the greatest endurance and died in the same way.
Holy cow. Yeah, Heinrich is cold. Also, that poor princess :(
(And also Team Muwahaa, Whom Is Heinrich Still Fond of Now, Kalkreuth?)
Aww, I'm so glad Lehndorff and Heinrich are still buddies (with benefits??), I have all the sparkly hearts feelings for them <3
Thank you for this!!
(And, seriously, if you do not have hours to spend reading about sparkly hearts, we totally understand. RL is RL! But thank you for doing this!)
Re: The Lehndorff Report: 1776
I think what he'd been able to do is what we'd more likely call a "cultural attaché" these days. Befriending the locals, with genuine interest in their cultural pursuits, while also advertising what's great about Prussia. (Lehndorff: "We have the best princes in the world!") Now, while serving with EC for decades while finding her very boring - and being present on those rare occasions when Fritz shows up and is rude, like the infamous "Madame has grown corpulent", but also a pre war occasion when Fritz said that all the pretty women had already left the court and what was left were stupid ugly geese - has schooled him in pretense and making a bland face, but on those occasions he wasn't required to say anything. I agree that issueing convincing denials when being put to the spot by some foreign court official, let alone the foreign monarchs themselves, doesn't strike me as something Lehndorff would have been good at. As for hardcore treaty negotiations, trying to get the best deal for your country, good lord. Nope.
I laughed pretty hard at this!
So did I, hence me sharing it. :)
You know, I like that he did abandon his plan. I mean, he could have gone and I dare say no one would have thought much about it except his wife (and least of all Heinrich himself) but he didn't, even though it was something he really wanted to do. I mean, maybe my 18th C standards are terribly low at this point, but still :)
I know what you mean, though I have to point out he was already in the carriage when a fever struck the first time around.
This is going in a Fritz/Heinrich dysfunctional siblings fic, right??
Probably, though it's already in "Promises to Keep". It's something Fritz wrote to 19 years old Heinrich after Heinrich had given him the silent treatment for six months post Marwitz.
But yes, Heinrich being able to talk the husband of a dying woman into an alternate match that keeps young Paul tied to Prussia before she's exhaled her last breath is a pretty good illustration for that. I mean, the original marriage hadn't been a love match, it had been arranged, too, but still. As I told you: just because he was a different type of general than Fritz and was into sparing lives when he could doesn't mean he didn't have that kind of ruthlessness and capacity for inner ice in him as well.
(In conclusion: marriage and childbirth in the 18th century = life threatening and often life ruining enterprise for the women. Hence my letting MT explode when Fritz says to her "what do you know of death?" in AU No.3.)
ETA: I'm also reminded of Heinrich, when Catherine dies, writing to Ferdinand, a letter in wich on the one hand he's sincerely sorry for her death, mourns for her, talks about how amazing she was and isn't too impressed by son Paul, for that matter - "what remains now is very small" -, but on the other hand also notes "Politically, her death is a stroke of luck for us", since Catherine never let being born Prussian herself get in the way of prioritizing a led-by-her-Russia. (Whereas Paul thinks starting where legal Dad left off is just the ticket. Including making the army switch from Russian uniforms to Prussian uniforms. Paul: dead four years later.) Heinrich, like Catherine herself, was quite capable of differentiating between personal relationships and political use of same. Which makes the Hamilton-Pangels "he had no politics beyond "Yay, France!" and only liked the French Revoluton because it was French" such a dumb thing to say. /end of ETA
Aww, I'm so glad Lehndorff and Heinrich are still buddies (with benefits??)
Your guess is as good as mine. They're now in their 50s, which hardly makes them impotent, but more restrained, one would imagine. Also, Lehndorff is married. Whether that translates to marital physical fidelity in this 18th century nobleman - I honestly can't say. There's no mention of having sex with anyone else, but then, he doesn't explicitly write "and then I had sex with Heinrich" in those stormy infatuated 1752 entries, either, it's just that I find it hard to interpret "what little reason I have leaves me when he touches me" and similar phrasings otherwise.
On Heinrich's side, 1776 is two years after Fritz told him "in unprintable language" to dump Kaphengst and Heinrich responded by indeed dismissing Kaphengst officially from his services but also by buying him a palace close to Rheinsberg and writing Fritz his "I hereby report I did dismiss Kaphengst" annoucement from said palace. This means Kaphengst is still sort of there, but only sort of, and he's at any rate not along for the second Russia trip. (Would you bring a good looking hard-partying skilled at sex boytoy along when visiting Catherine the Great? Only at the risk of her keeping him.) And I don't think Tauentzien (son of Fritzian general, will come along on Heinrich's second Paris trip and play that theatre "prank" on Heinrich) is on the horizon yet. So chances are Heinrich travels as a single man on that occasion. "I was with him all day" might or might not mean more than talking happened, but then again, Lehndorff doesn't write "I was alone with him all day", and he does make that distinction in his diaries. This wasn't a private pleasure trip on Heinrich's part, but a political journey, and he wasn't travelling even nominally incognito, as Wilhelmine had done or as Joseph did on his marriage counselling in Paris did. Which meant lots of constant visits by every town official ever.
All of which goes to say: a reunion kiss or several was probably in the cards, but I doubt more happened. Then again: we just don't know!
Re: The Lehndorff Report: 1776
(I recently watched The Merry Widow (in English translation, hence the English title) -- I swear I have opera posts in the queue, someday -- and Lehndorff might make a good Pontevedran ambassador along the lines of Count Danilo's job? :P :) )
Ah, yes, it's in "Promises to Keep," though it didn't immediately ping to me because it's between Wilhelmine and Heinrich -- I would love a Fritz/Heinrich fic where they both got to be cold :D
but also by buying him a palace close to Rheinsberg and writing Fritz his "I hereby report I did dismiss Kaphengst" annoucement from said palace
lolololol, I'm sure you told me about this before but I didn't have the context to remember it then, this is HILARIOUS, Heinrich I <3 your dedication to upsetting your brother!
I'm just glad Lendorff got to hang out with his prince <3
Re: The Lehndorff Report: 1776
Oh,
Prussia and the Polish partitions
This made me laugh, but just to clarify for
It's a little bit confusing, because there's the historic region of Prussia, which is in modern Poland, and there's the kingdom of Prussia, which is everything ruled by the Hohenzollerns after Grandpa F1 got permission to call himself a king. And F1, FW, and Fritz, as part of their Kingdom of Prussia, rule only part of historic Prussia and a lot of stuff that isn't Prussia.
Okay, you know what, it's extremely confusing. Let me begin at the beginning. I'll give territories speaking parts, just to keep things readable.
Middle Ages
Brandenburg: I'm the area around Berlin! I'm part of the Holy Roman Empire.
Hohenzollerns: I'm the family that rules Brandenburg. We're electors, which means we get to vote on who gets to be the Holy Roman Emperor.
Prussia: I'm a territory in Poland! I'm not part of the Holy Roman Empire. Oops, now it's 1466 and I'm two territories.
Early Modern period
Duchy of Prussia: I'm the eastern half of Prussia. Check out approximately where I live on this map.
Royal Prussia: I'm the western half. I didn't like how Prussia was being run, so I seceded! I'm an autonomous Polish dependency, which means my Facebook relationship status is "in a relationship with Poland" and also "it's complicated." Check out approximately where I live on this map.
Hohenzollerns: Still here, still in charge of Brandenburg, and busy inheriting, purchasing, and conquering new territories wherever I can. Oh, what's this? It's 1618 and I just inherited the Duchy of Prussia? Sweet.
Royal Prussia: But you still have to pass through me in order to get from one of your territories to another, which means you'd better stay on the good side of the Poles. Which may mean the Saxons, when the Elector of Saxony is King of Poland.
1701
Grandpa F1: Being an elector is nice and all, but I just can't wait to be king! After all, the elector of Hanover is set to inherit England in a few years, and Saxony's got Poland, and I've got to keep up with the Joneses.
Holy Roman Emperor: No kings in the Holy Roman Empire on my watch. You have any territory you inherited outside the HRE, like the Hanovers?
F1: Yup, I got East Prussia right here. Is it okay if I'm Elector of Brandenburg and King of Prussia?
Royal Prussia: King of what?
F1: Okay, King "in" Prussia. Everyone down with that?
Prince Eugene of Savoy: No!
HRE: Yes.
Eugene: Boss!
HRE: Sssh. What could go wrong?
F1: *goes to Königsberg, capital of East Prussia, to get crowned King in Prussia*
Everything owned by F1: *is now called the Kingdom of Prussia*
1713
FW: Coronations are expensive.
East Prussia: You want want the title or not?
FW: Fine. I will go to East Prussia, where I'm technically king, and have an HOMAGE CEREMONY, which is much cheaper, and then I'm coming back to Berlin, where I live, and I will continue to act like a king here.
FW: Also, have you noticed that the Kingdom of Prussia looks like this? How the fuck are you supposed to defend that? With no natural borders, the only way to do it is with a
really tallarmy.Europe: Are you implying if you had a single cohesive territory, you'd be less militaristic?
FW: Well, no. The whole thing just kind of gives me a hard-on. But it's also politically necessary!
1731
Fritz: Fine. If I'm going to be stuck in Küstrin while you force me to learn boring things like whether my ancestors acquired Magdeburg in a game of cards or whatever, instead of useful things like Aristotle's rules of poetics, lemme have a look at this map here.
Fritz: Oh, holy fuck that map. We need to fill in some gaps! See that big gap between Brandenburg and East Prussia. We need that for so many reasons.
Royal Prussia: *stinkeye*
Fritz: Don't you stinkeye me. You think I'm an effeminate poetry-writing peacenik now, just you wait.
1740
Fritz: *goes to Königsberg, capital of East Prussia, to get an homage ceremony recognizing him as King in Prussia*
Algarotti: *rides in the carriage and trades poems about orgasms and bums*
Hans Heinrich: *rides in a different carriage*
Europe: Hmm, lotta military preparations there, Fritz! You thinking about grabbing the rest of Prussia? Juliers and Berg? Silesia? Something else?
Fritz: Can you keep a secret?
Europe: Yes!
Fritz: Well, so can I!
Fritz: *invades Silesia*
Reader: Wait a minute! That doesn't fill in any gaps! I thought you were an expansionist because of your scattered territory.
Fritz: Also because it gives me a hard-on. And Silesia is so much wealthier and at least as strategically important as Polish Prussia.
Ghost of Eugene: THAT. THAT could go wrong!
1742, 1745, 1748
MT: *signs over control of Silesia*
Fritz: I'm Frederick the Great, and I'm King OF Prussia. Deal with it.
Royal Prussia: Still here? Still not yours?
Fritz: THE GREAT HAS SPOKEN.
1763
MT: FINE. You get to keep Silesia. But the rest is mine.
Fritz: I get to keep Silesia? Wow, was that harder than I thought. I'd like to not do that again.
Europe: HARD SAME.
Early 1770s
Trouble: *is brewing*
Europe: *does not want war*
Fritz: Even I don't want war! And I won the last one. By which I mean my map looks the same as it did before the war started.
Heinrich: Interested in changing that? I hear you've been eyeing the rest of Prussia since I was 5 years old.
Fritz: Does it lead to getting involved in a land war in Asia?
Heinrich: Nah, my BFF Catherine says as long as she gets a share of Poland, she's on board with it. We'll have to let Austria get a share, of course.
MT: The poor Poles! What did they ever do to deserve this?
MT: Also, which part is mine?
Fritz: *snark*
1772
First Polish Partition: *takes place*
Fritz to Royal Prussia: Come to papa!
West Prussia: I used to be Royal Prussia, but now I'm part of the Kingdom of Prussia. Old Fritz made me into a province called West Prussia, because I'm west of East Prussia. That last bit is the only non-confusing part of the whole deal.
Kingdom of Prussia: I now look like this.
Hohenzollerns: We no longer have to make nice to the King of Poland to get from one part of our kingdom to the other!
Danzig: Go look carefully at West Prussia on that map. See that little white piece along the Baltic coast that *didn't* make it into the partition? That's me! I'm a major port city, I'm super important, and I used to be part of the Hanseatic League, a commercial trading alliance among economically important cities during the Middle Ages. Twenty-first century readers may know me as Gdansk. I'm one of the cool kids.
Fritz: *scowl* I wanted to get you as part of my deal, but everyone else said noooo.
Danzig: Can't touch this! Ha.
1793
Second Polish Partition: *takes place*
Danzig: I'm part of Prussia now.
Ghost of Fritz: Ha!
Danzig: :-(
1795
Third Polish Partition: *takes place*
Poland: I'm Sir-Not-Appearing-On-This-Map any more.
East Prussia: I'm the white spot on that map that didn't get divvied up, because I already belonged to the Hohenzollerns.
FW2: Technically, Uncle who always said I was a good-for-nothing, have you noticed I acquired more territory than you and your brother put together? Including Danzig?
Ghost of Fritz: THE GREAT HAS SPOKEN.
Coda
Pomerania: This is all blatant Pomeranian erasure!
This, btw, is of additional political importance since the inhabitants of Danzig - Gdansk - used to be HRE subjects, Danzig having been a Free City
Is that what Lehndorff and/or the editor says? I was under the impression that although it was a Hanseatic League city, it was a Royal Free City of Poland, not an Imperial Free City, and Wikipedia agrees with my memory. I'm seeing no evidence that it was ever part of the HRE. But I'm open to new evidence.
are less than thrilled that they‘re now Prussians.
In 1776? My memory and every source I've checked tell me that it wasn't acquired by Prussia until the 1790s. (My memory said second or third partition; internet is telling me second, 1793.)
Re: Prussia and the Polish partitions
Splendid Prussian historical-geographical run down!
re: Danzig - what the footnote (to Paul not wanting to talk to any Danzigers because they're not nice to Fritz) said was "Friedrich was unhappy with Danzig not wanting to be part of Prussia", and I, typing and translating during my two hours, didn't look up when Danzig actually came under official Prussian control and just made an assumption. Ditto for Hanse city vs free city of the HRE, I just recalled that it had special city status while typing without looking it up. Hanse city makes much more sense, though.
Pomerania: LOL.
Maikäfer flieg/dein Vater ist im Krieg/ die Mutter ist in Pommerland/Pommerland ist abgebrannt/ Maikäfer flieg
(Maybug fly/ your father is in the war/ your mother is in Pomerania/Pomerania has been burned down/ Maybug fly)
(The first recorded instant of someone writing that down is in 1800, but whether it came into being in the 30 Years War or in the 7 Years War has been debated ever since. Pomerania got scorched in both wars. (And then again in WWII.) I sang that song as a child, too, without knowing where the hell Pomerania was, since even Vorpommern was in East Germany behind the Iron Curtain.
Re: Prussia and the Polish partitions
Aha, that makes sense. I would not have looked it up in my two hours in the library either! But you've surprised me with things like "chocolate: not just a beverage!" before, so I have to ask. Also, I did make a couple chronological mistakes during the initial write-up that I fortunately had time to catch and edit myself before you woke up and caught them. ;)
Maikäfer flieg/dein Vater ist im Krieg/ die Mutter ist in Pommerland/Pommerland ist abgebrannt/ Maikäfer flieg
(Maybug fly/ your father is in the war/ your mother is in Pomerania/Pomerania has been burned down/ Maybug fly)
Oh, wow, that *is* a creepy song. A surprising number of children's songs are, actually.
I sang that song as a child, too, without knowing where the hell Pomerania was, since even Vorpommern was in East Germany behind the Iron Curtain.
Lol!
Re: Prussia and the Polish partitions
Oh, ha! I just refreshed myself on the date of Trenck's capture, and it's 1753. Year of Fritz arresting people in free cities outside his territory, I guess! (The other one being Voltaire in Frankfurt, for those who may benefit from the chronology reminder.)
Geneaology-wise, I also spotted that Trenck's mother was a Derschau, and I've now found that he and the guy who interrogated Crown Prince Fritz and generally made him miserable before the interrogation, were first cousins once removed. Interrogator being of an older generation, of course.
Re: Prussia and the Polish partitions
re: Trenck, though: what I'm curious about - how did the Prussians know he'd come to Danzig to be arrested? Someone kept an eye on his mother just in case all those years? Trenck being Trenck, his whereabouts were known due to flamboyant scandals? (If he did get it on with someone at the Russian court in the meantime as claimed.)
I do find it interesting that no one writing in the 1750s of those testimonies I've read mentions Trenck's arrest and subsequent imprisonment sans trial. I don't just mean Lehndorff but the various foreign enovys. You'd think at the very least the Austrians would be interested, whether in a "thank God, now he's someone else's problem" or a "zomg, person who is actually now one of our citizens got arrested on neutral territory!" manner, but: crickets. Now if Voltaire got arrested that same year, it explains some of it, because the Fritz/Voltaire showdown by the very nature of the people involved is going to grab the most of everyone's attention, but it's still interesting that only memoirists writing well after Trenck's own memoirs were published, like Thiébault, bring him up.
Conclusion: as opposed to Voltaire in Frankfurt, or for that matter Glasow three years later when Lehndorff hears not only about the arrest but the accusations/suspicions because everyone gossips about them at Easter, this must have been handled in an absolutely hush-hush manner.
Re: Prussia and the Polish partitions
Now that we're getting to know all the minor characters, we can figure out how they're all related via those intra-nobility marriages! Even
how did the Prussians know he'd come to Danzig to be arrested?
That is an excellent question. Perhaps the Volz sourcebook on Trenck+Fritz that you're going to get from Stabi when it's open (right?) will tell us!
I do find it interesting that no one writing in the 1750s of those testimonies I've read mentions Trenck's arrest and subsequent imprisonment sans trial. I don't just mean Lehndorff but the various foreign enovys.
That's really interesting. Not having read the reports, I hadn't noticed that was missing. Is it possible our Fritz-sympathetic editors like Jessen have just edited those documents out? But you're right that Lehndorff doesn't seem to know, which means it must be less of a scandal than Glasow.
Conclusion: as opposed to Voltaire in Frankfurt... this must have been handled in an absolutely hush-hush manner.
Lol, now I'm trying to imagine handling Voltaire in a hush-hush manner. Even if you managed to lock him up in a place where he couldn't smuggle out polemics about how you are the ABSOLUTE WORST, I feel like the sudden silence in and of itself would be suspicious.
Europe: Hmm, it's been awfully peaceful on the Voltaire front lately. Only foul play could explain this.
Europe: *eyes swivel toward Fritz*
Europe: We're curious about all those visits to Magdeburg you've been making lately. Care to explain?
Fritz: What? Wha-yes, yes, I have lots of troops there. It's very important that I review them at least twice a month. Yes, this is a new practice I'm experimenting with. You say Voltaire's gone missing? I hadn't even noticed, frankly. Why would I pay attention to that SCUM OF THE EARTH?
Fritz: *publishes anonymous pamphlet in hopes people will attribute it to Voltaire*
Fritz: *fools no one*
Re: Prussia and the Polish partitions
(We don't have all those Seckendorf reports to Eugene about Junior's marriage plans that destroyed the legend of the evil Catholic plot thanks to Prussian archives, I don't think.)
Lol, now I'm trying to imagine handling Voltaire in a hush-hush manner.
Agreed that this would have been impossible, even if they were no witnesses to the abduction and Voltaire didn't manage any message smuggling, by the very nature of his silence.
(Voltaire: I've been locked up in the Bastille itself and used the opportunity for publicity. You think some second rate Saxon prison is going to shut me up... Luc? Do you?)
Re: Prussia and the Polish partitions
Re: Prussia and the Polish partitions
Ohhhhh! I forgot it was Pomerania, but I remember the backward part :)
Man, creepy songs for children are creepy. (I sang somewhat creepy songs too as a kid, but as far as I know they didn't have any historical basis.)
Re: Prussia and the Polish partitions
Prince Eugene of Savoy: No!
Ha!
MT: The poor Poles! What did they ever do to deserve this?
MT: Also, which part is mine?
LOL MT! My problematic fave! :D
Re: Prussia and the Polish partitions
This is characterization by geography! :)
Hee hee, yes it is. Also characterization *of* geography.
And I learned that Fritz did not do the snark that I thought he did! (Although let's be real, he probably snarked inside his own head, if nowhere else.)