Frederick the Great discussion post 12

[cahn]

Every time I am amazed and enchanted that this is still going on! Truly DW is the Earthly Paradise!

All the good stuff continues to be archived at rheinsberg :)

Comments

Re: Trenck discussion

[selenak]

Reading through the original documents makes me feel for the put upon Austrian officials, starting with Abramson the resident in Danzig. They do their best, Trenck has zero common sense, and is ungrateful to boot, and there are the Prussians to deal with. Also the documents mention that the brother-in-law‘s brother, Trenck‘s arch nemesis, was in town along with the other Trenck siblings because Mom died and there was an inheritance, and did have a grudge against Trenck for owing him money and refusing to repay him, so Trenck might not be completely fantasizing about that guy having it in for him. However, writes Abramson to Kaunitz:

The Rittmeister (i.e. Trenck) showed no restraint whatsoever and told everyone his name, rank and service, he visited me day in and day out. Yesterday this officer showed up in the middle of the night around twelve, delivered a letter signed by the King in (!) Prussia‘s own hand to the City Council, and thus two officers and several grenadiers were sent to his quarters, which were at the boatsmen‘s guildhouse, to arrest him, and he was brought to a local prison via a Porte-Chaise. An hour later, this was told to me through his servant.

Then Abramson protested with the city fathers, etc., to no avail. In the next letter to Kaunitz, he describes further attempts to provent Trenck getting sent to Prussia, and sighs: I do not know what on earth made the Baron of Trenck consider this journey, all the more so since I have reminded him of the danger he was in many times during my daily interactions with him. Still he believed himself safe, and did not want to show the least bit of caution. After his arrest, his servant, named Kayser, who along with a hunter and a footman of his is still here, has told me that he (Trenck) didn‘t have any money with him and that this had been the reason why he had to remain in Danzig for so long; he (Kayser) had advised him repeateadly to open up to me about this. But (Trenck) supposedly replied every time that he wasn‘t afraid of anything and was utterly safe here. By now I‘ve discovered that a brother of his brother-in-law, named v. Meyerentz, who is staying here as a Polish Lt. Colonel, has denounced him to Berlin as a revengfe for the refused payment of 200 Ducats which the Baron of Trenck owes him as well as due to various quarrels from their time in Vienna, thus causing this arrest. I‘ve written all of this with today‘s mail to the Marquis de La Puebla. I await the Empress-Queen‘s orders how to behave towards the city council from now on.

As we‘ve said before, it‘s a miracle Trenck lived long enough to get beheaded in Paris when in his 70s.

Re: war tribunals - yes, one after the escape from Glatz, but not before that. So whatever cousin Austrian Trenck wrote might not have been available as evidence? Or maybe Fritz just didn‘t bother. Incidentally, for all his lying, the documents do prove Trenck did make a couple of inventive escape attempts from both prisons before in one case succeeding and in the other not so much, so if nothing else, he was a terrier, too.

Another quote, this one from Ried to Finckenstein in 1763: Le cas de Trenck est differént: S.M. L‘Impératrice, par un simple mouvement de pitíe, m‘a recommandé fortement de tacher d‘ effectuer sa liberté. Ma souveraine est bien éloignée de contredire S.M. Le Roi sur la conduite et la charactère de Trenck. Tout le monde connait que c‘est un mauvais garnement. Cependant à tout pécheur rémission! Si on considère la longueuer du temps qu‘ il est déjà en prison, et qu, lorsqu‘il fut arrété a Danzig, il était actuellement dans le service de L‘Impératrice, il pairait qu‘il ne devrait pas etre impossible de fléchir S.M. Le Roi.

At the same time, Ried writes to Kaunitz in German: Regarding Trenck, (...) it just depends on finding a good moment to petition the King. For now, I haven‘t achieved anything beyond making his imprisonment somewhat more bearable for him, and gotten permission to allow him to improve his conditions through third parties sending him money now and then. This man‘s regular behavior, however, is so badly that one can‘t take his party in public, for as soon as he sees the slightest hope to expect some help, he starts with his debaucheries. Not withstanding this, I still hope to free him; for those who have his fate in their hands are as much invested in his cause as I am.

Now I knew noble prisoners paid for their imprisonment (food, creature comfort etc.), but - debaucheries? And Ried writes „Ausschweifungen“ ? What is going on in Magdeburg? I mean, beyond Prades cleaning everyone out with card games. (BTW, Trenck did not make up being chained to a wall, there is among the documents a Fritz signed order to that effect after his first three escape attempts.)

Also, I do wonder what he did for the Austrians to deserve all this, or maybe I‘m too cynical and Mt did just feel sorry for him. I mean, it‘s not like even if he got letters from Austrian Trenck and wrote back „yep, on your side now!“, they got much out of this. And since he got arrested at the end of June, and Soor wasn‘t until the end of September, he can‘t have told them that Eichel and the war chest would be around, either...

Re: Trenck discussion

[mildred_of_midgard]

Now I knew noble prisoners paid for their imprisonment (food, creature comfort etc.), but - debaucheries? And Ried writes „Ausschweifungen“ ? What is going on in Magdeburg?

Now I'm curious too!

Re: Trenck discussion

[selenak]

I mean, maybe I'm overcomplicating things, and it was simply:

Ried (via messenger, he was in Berlin, after all, not Magdeburg): Trenck, good news! We're working on your case, and here's some money from your sister and other friends so you can buy yourself some nice cushions and maybe some books.

Trenck: Cushions nothing. I haven't gotten laid in nine years. Get me some Magdeburg working girls, stat.

Then again: as Lehndorff's diaries constantly tell me, (war time) imprisonment for nobles who weren't Trenck didn't prevent them from getting visits (like he shows up at old Seckendorff's) and to a degree socialize with the local Prussian nobility, at least the officers. (Hence lots of Austrian and French officers flirting with the Prussian court ladies and dancing with them at balls before being returned to their fortresses.) Now peace time imprisonment is probably a different issue, not to mention that someone like Trenck, with his jail break record, probably would be suspected to make a run for it even in his last few months if they let him out of Magedburg Fortress, but maybe he was allowed to hang out with the other prisoners now?