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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!
All the good stuff continues to be archived at![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
rheinsberg :)
All the good stuff continues to be archived at
rheinsberg :)
Re: Peter-Michael Hahn
(Which I note because one odd thing to me when I looked up reviews of the first volume’s republication in 2007 was that not a single review mentions the Heinrich aspect.)
whaaaat?
but why else would you start reading theseobviously there are more reasons to keep reading, but stillHahn’s vote for best general of the 7 Years War goes to EC’s brother Ferd(inand) of Braunschweig.
This was one of the guys where EC got the Terrible Horrible Condolence Letters (TM) when he died, right?
Poniatowski’s memoirs really bear checking out.
Yeah, I've been wanting to do this for a while in case Poniatowski gets requested for YT again (surely we can manage one fic between us if we read his memoirs??) -- Mildred, is it possible for you to run it through your OCR/translation interface?
https://archive.org/details/mmoiresdestanis00polagoog/page/n7/mode/2up
The left is Polish, but facing is the original French. On one hand the margins look fairly regular, yay, but on the other hand I bet the OCR will have more trouble with this than it did with your previous batch.
Re: Peter-Michael Hahn
This was one of the guys where EC got the Terrible Horrible Condolence Letters (TM) when he died, right?
No, those were Franz and Albert. Ferd(inand) survived, won fame in the war, and was the recipient of most of EC's letters home from her time as Crown Princess onwards. (Which change from "omg, my new husband is the best ever, I'm so in love!" to "I'm sitting like a prisoner here while everyone else is off to the countryside" to "...and now me and Louise didn't even get a condolence letter!"
The reviews of the 2007 publication: they're basically all advertising by "come for the two Fritz is rude to EC stories, stay for the Prussian court gossip, pen portraits of personalities and vivid descripton of the homefront in the 7 Years War". Now if it were me, I'd use the "stay for the "Heinrich and me: A Rokoko Queer As Folk AU" pitch, but hey...
More depressingly, I suspect several factors coming into play here, among these: a) potential readers only casually interested in Frederick the Great before reading the diaries might hardly remember he had siblings other than Wilhelmine, and b) among readers who are well versed enough in their Prussian history to be able to list most of Fritz' important battles in correct chronological order and know their Ziethen from their Seydlitz, there's probably a sizable continget who are still in homophobic denial and the type to write indignant "it was all Voltaire's slander!" comments. I doubt your avarage newspaper reviewer is aware there's a thriving Fritz slash fandom who'd be into a bi chamberlain in love with his younger brother.
Re: Peter-Michael Hahn
I admit that a year ago, before I started refreshing myself by reading bios and Wikipedia, and certainly before our salon, my "Quick: enumerate Fritz's siblings!" reaction would have been, "He had a brother whose son inherited! The brother must have had a name, but damned if I know what it is." I'm trying to remember if I would have remembered even Wilhelmine that many years after last reading up on Fritz. EC I knew about, but the siblings were all blanks in my mind.
(Truly, our salon is an earthly paradise.)
to "...and now me and Louise didn't even get a condolence letter!"
To the disappeared-from-the-archives "...and now I realize I didn't know how good I had it when I didn't get condolence letters!" inflammatory letter.
I doubt your avarage newspaper reviewer is aware there's a thriving Fritz slash fandom who'd be into a bi chamberlain in love with his younger brother.
Clearly this is a situation that needs to be remedied!
Re: Peter-Michael Hahn
And I had even seen some movies back in the day. But in "Der Thronfolger", the younger sibs are little kids, Amalie in "Mein Name ist Bach" had only registered as "Not Wilhelmine" and Heinrich in the scene from "Der große König" which I saw as part of a seminar about propaganda movies ("Der große König" was the most popular of the Nazi propaganda movies using Frederician subjects, and was the last time Otto Gebühr starred as Old Fritz) registered only as "the one who was in the army". That scene actually is on YouTube, btw, which is sort of illegal since it's one of the 22 Nazi movies still prohibited to be shown in Germany outside of a teaching context. (I.e. you can show them when doing university presentations where you discuss their propaganda strategies and the like, but you couldn't put them on tv or in the cinema.)
Otoh, I bet you could have listed key battles and generals, whereas yours truly, having gone to school after the "no more glorification of the military!" change of mind had come about, could not have said more "and then he invaded Silesia, and then there was another war in Silesia, and then there was the Seven Years War. And I definitely could not have named anyone from the Sanssouci intellectual circle other than Voltaire, with the awareness that this had ended badly (somehow).
Re: Peter-Michael Hahn
Wilhelmine: I have one *brother*, and also I occasionally see some rugrats running around that I'm told I'm related to.
Otoh, I bet you could have listed key battles and generals
Twenty years ago, absolutely. One year ago, without having refreshed myself on Old Fritz since then? ...Definitely Mollwitz and Schwerin, in detail, and I would have remembered some of Leuthen but possibly forgotten the name if you put me on the spot (though as soon as I saw it, it would have triggered a flood of memories).
And I definitely could not have named anyone from the Sanssouci intellectual circle other than Voltaire, with the awareness that this had ended badly (somehow).
He had an intellectual circle other than Voltaire? And same, it ended badly because two prima donnas sharing the same stage is a bad thing, is what I remember from high school days (and I would have used that metaphor). Anything about shady financial deals with Hirschel or pamphlets with Maupertuis, whooosh, gone.
Re: Peter-Michael Hahn
SO TRUE
*was confused the entire time as to whom she was talking about at any given moment; I should go back and read it again now*
Poniatowski
Mmmyyyeaahh, between that unsourced Fredersdorf anecdote in which his rival commits suicide, and those "but the kids provoked him!" I have no confidence in his facts or his opinions. But the historiography write-up was super interesting, and he definitely has his uses. (MacDonogh has his uses too! You have to read the problematic biographers, or you'll never be allowed to read anything.)
Mildred, is it possible for you to run it through your OCR/translation interface?
Haha, I knew you were going to ask this. :P
The good news is, there's no writing in the margins, so it doesn't matter whether they're regular or not, since I don't need to crop them. The other good news is that the OCR did a pretty good job overall, and it was only 50 pages, so I was able to do a decent job of manual cleanup in just a couple of hours.
So that file is now in the library. *bows* Your wish is my command!
Possible bad news, and definitely not what we were expecting...that volume is extremely short. Only 50 pages of French (and 50 of Polish). I wondered if it was abridged, since I don't remember seeing anything about the Elector of Brandenburg during my cleanup, and I went looking to see if there were other copies.
Now I'm just confused. archive.org has both a 200-page Mémoires secrets et inédits, and a 400-page Die Memoiren des letzten Königs von Polen, Stanisaw August Poniatowski. After Thiebault, I'm scarred for life in trusting 19th century memoirs to be the real thing.
A couple of notes for
1) Kayserlingk is not to be confused with Fritz's Keyserlingk ("Caesarion"), the governor assigned to him as a teenager by FW, one of the "six whom he loved the most," and the one who went to Cirey to visit Voltaire and couldn't get the Pucelle out of Émilie the Very Wise. We've seen both Fredersdorf and Lehndorff write about his daughter. He died in 1745 and is not Poniatowski's Kayserlingk. (I haven't figured out how they're related yet, but they probably are.)
2) A.S. after some of the dates is "Ancien Style," called Old Style and abbreviated O.S. in English. That refers to the Julian calendar. By the Middle Ages, inaccuracies had caused it to drift several days off from reality. (Leap years weren't quite fine-tuned enough, basically.) Pope Gregory XIII made some adjustments and issued a new calendar, called the Gregorian calendar. It was introduced in 1582, when it was 10 days off the Julian calendar. So countries adopting it had to skip 10 days ahead.
Adoption varied by country. Generally speaking, Catholic countries were the first to adopt, because the Pope said so. England didn't adopt until 1752, at which point they were 11 days off. Russia didn't adopt until 1918 (obvious date is obvious, as
This means that if you're dealing with 18th century history, you'd better know what day it was in what country! And when dealing with international affairs, it's not uncommon to write two dates, or to specify that one was using the Old Style (O.S.) or New Style (N.S.). This also means that sometimes you'll see an event that happened around the turn of the new year written as 1761/1762. This doesn't mean we don't know what year it happened, this means it was a different year in different countries.
For example, the second Miracle of the House of Brandenburg, when Elizaveta of Russia died? Dec. 25, 1761 in Russia, where she lived, but January 5, 1762 in much of the rest of Europe. So you may see her death written as 1761/2, or December 25, 1761 (O.S.), or just January 5, 1762, because we're all on the Gregorian calendar today.
Just in case things weren't confusing enough!
Re: Poniatowski
ETA: So far, P's memoirs in general are quite entertaining. He's often sarcastic, with an ego of his own, of course, but there's plenty of quotable stuff. Mind you, I could excerpt the Prussia-related bits, if that's all you're after, since it's really not his main subject. But fun. Very simplified:
Fritz: Overrated and so forcing himself to be witty. Also a cheapskate in terms of his Queen's budget. (Had to have lunch there one day.) Spotted a rich French waistcoat at Sanssouci when I went touristing there; typical. Modest soldier my ass.
MT: if I were a subject, I'd want her to be my monarch. Less of an ego, more of a common sense, pious, true, but not a hypocrite about it. All three wars of hers were for defense. Footnote: I wrote this in 1772.
So disappointed in you, MT!British people: Think they're God's gift to mankind when their schools are all about whipping instead of actual education. It shows.
Catherine: My love! My destiny!I saved myself for her. Yes, reader, I do mean she deflowered me, which as a Rokoko man I feel free to tell you. If you're wondering how a stud like me was still a virgin until Catherine, look, I was raised a Polish Catholic, and then I was ambitious. Anyway: Catherine/Me OTP, still, despite all that happened later.
Elisaveta: still surprisingly attractive when I met her, though not in profile, more of a front woman. Great dancer.
(P)Russian Pete: Ugh. And I do mean ugh. Yes, I'm completely unbiased here. Incidentally, re: his Fritz fanboying, whom he really fanboyed was FW; he had them mixed up on terms of what he thought Fritz was like. Proof no.1: he loved pipe smoking.
Re: Poniatowski
What IS IT with this fandom and memoirs??! At least by this point when I realized there were three of them, I was jaded enough to assume at least some of them were fake. :P
consulted the same doctor, Lieberkühn, who prescribed Fritz his first glasses (the later isn't mentioned, I just noticed because Hahn had given me the name of the doctor
Look at us getting to know all the minor characters!
ETA: So far, P's memoirs in general are quite entertaining. He's often sarcastic, with an ego of his own, of course, but there's plenty of quotable stuff. Mind you, I could excerpt the Prussia-related bits, if that's all you're after, since it's really not his main subject. But fun.
I am here for anything and everything Poniatowski says that you think is interesting, and I think I can speak for
Spotted a rich French waistcoat at Sanssouci when I went touristing there; typical. Modest soldier my ass.
That's our Fritz. Sparta in public, Athens when no one is looking. :P
Elisaveta: still surprisingly attractive when I met her, though not in profile, more of a front woman. Great dancer.
Interesting! These "hot or not" reports are always fun.
If you're wondering how a stud like me was still a virgin until Catherine, look, I was raised a Polish Catholic, and then I was ambitious.
HA. Poniatowski, I can already tell your memoirs are going to be fun.
(P)Russian Pete: Ugh. And I do mean ugh. Yes, I'm completely unbiased here. Incidentally, re: his Fritz fanboying, whom he really fanboyed was FW; he had them mixed up on terms of what he thought Fritz was like. Proof no.1: he loved pipe smoking.
That's hilarious.
Speaking of (P)Russian Pete, we were wondering about his portrait of Fritz practices at one point. Blanning reports,
As the French complained, the new tsar had not so much an attachment as an "inexpressible passion" for Frederick, whom he hailed in a personal letter "one of the greatest heroes the world has ever seen." He often wore the uniform of a Prussian major-general, displayed in his apartment all the portraits of his hero he could find and repeatedly kissed Frederick's image on a ring sent from Potsdam as a present.
Re: Poniatowski: Totally Objective Assessment of (P)Russian Pete
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.
Re: Poniatowski: Totally Objective Assessment of (P)Russian Pete
Re: Poniatowski: Totally Objective Assessment of (P)Russian Pete
Re: Poniatowski: Totally Objective Assessment of (P)Russian Pete
Re: Poniatowski: Totally Objective Assessment of (P)Russian Pete
Re: Poniatowski: Totally Objective Assessment of (P)Russian Pete
Re: Poniatowski
Nooooo I want it all. [Hilarious edit: the first thing I wrote was actually "I want it tall." Typo or channeling FW? You choose.] Also what I'm after is that someone should write
Fritz: Overrated and so forcing himself to be witty. Also a cheapskate in terms of his Queen's budget. (Had to have lunch there one day.)
HAHAHAHAHA omg this is gold.
Footnote: I wrote this in 1772. So disappointed in you, MT!
...okay, sorry, what happens to MT after 1772 that he didn't like? Are you talking about the policing of sex stuff?
Catherine: My love! My destiny!I saved myself for her. Yes, reader, I do mean she deflowered me, which as a Rokoko man I feel free to tell you. If you're wondering how a stud like me was still a virgin until Catherine, look, I was raised a Polish Catholic, and then I was ambitious. Anyway: Catherine/Me OTP, still, despite all that happened later.
OMG. This is hilarious and I love it.
Elisaveta: still surprisingly attractive when I met her, though not in profile, more of a front woman. Great dancer.
HAHAHAHA lol
Yes, I'm completely unbiased here
Hee, I bet you are!
Re: Poniatowski
Re: Poniatowski
Re: Poniatowski
Re: Poniatowski: Mobster indeed
The usual income of Saxony was then around nine million Taler; one can assume the King of Prussia extorted through additional taxes three times as much. 7 x 9 is 63, 3 x 63 is 189 - as many million Taler was Saxony worth to the King of Prussia; additionally, he received 700 000 Pound Sterling of annual English subsidies; and that made it possible what had seemed impossible: that an Elector of Brandenburg resisted for seven years the united countries Russia, Austria, France and Sweden.
Moreover, this prince gained a profit one can't understimate by inventing - as the first among all rulers - the custom of clipping coins with the stamp of another monarch; but he wasn't content with making the Saxon coinage print coins with the image of August III., no, he even had the stamps imitated in his own states and reduced the content bit by bit, to a degree that the coins at last didn't have a third of the worth they were supposed to have.
Since the main field of this war was in Saxony and since he, armed by weapons, only bought what he didn't deign to take for free anyway, he made up for his expenses with a third of the usually assumed sum.
But he didn't only damage Saxony by this; Poland suffered as much, which happened thusly: the treaty of Wehlau had added to the advantages which the House of Brandenburg already possessed in East Prussia yet another, which was that both states should dictate the coinage after agreeing to it. This of course was disregarded; the ruling princes of the House of Brandenburg were content to print coins in their own right which were bearing the same names as the Polish Tymphs and Sixes and were supposed to carry the same worth; consequently, these Prussian coins were used in Poland as much as Polish coins were. (...)
Using the pretense of simply continuing the Saxon print and the prints of his own Prussian Tympths and Sixes, the King of Prussia managed to bring about a hundred million of his devalued coins into circulation in Poland, before the majority of my countrymen (...) even wanted to believe in the possibility of a devaluement. They got into circulation so quickly becuase Poland was to the King of Prussia a store; he bought corn, horses, cattle, salpeter, rough linnen and even cloth, nearly everything he needed. Silesia and the other states ruled by the King of Prussia had been exposed to so many attacks and devastations in the course of this war that Poland was back then able to replace all he used to get from Silesia in the last two listed items. When the Poles finally realized that they had been deceived regarding the value of these Prussian coins, they heightened the prices of their articles, but the substance of theese coins was lessened even more for about the same sum, and always a time passed until one had realised the renewed and even greater deception, so that by the year 1763, at the end of this war, over 200 million Gulden of these false coins were circulating in Poland.
Re: Poniatowski: Mobster indeed
Re: Poniatowski: Mobster indeed
Re: Poniatowski: Mobster indeed
Re: Poniatowski: Enter Catherine
She was twenty five years old. Only a short time ago, she'd risen from giving birth the first time, and her beauty was in full bloom at this point which to most women graced with beauty means the highest peak. Her white skin and vivid colours contrasted with her black hair; she had large blue and very expressive eyes, black and very long lashes, a thin nose, a mouth inviting kisses, completely beautiful hands and arms; she was slender, more tall than small, her walk was graceful and yet full of majesty, the sound of her voice pleasant and her laughter as bright as her mood; with ever balanced ease she returned from childish games to communicating in cyphres, she was never afraid of the physical demand of deycphring chiffere or of the text, no matter how important or dangerous the message.
The oppression she'd been subjected to since her marriage, the lack of any equal-minded company had led her to the joy of reading. She knew much; gifted with a seductive nature, she could assess anyone's weaknesses, and she was already accumulating the love of the people who would be her way to the throne which was later to surround with so much glamour.
This was the woman who was to rule my destiny; my whole life was dedicated to her, far more literally than by what people usually mean when they make such claims in a similar position. And through an odd circumstance, I, despite being twenty two years of age, could give her something which no one had had before she did.
Firstly, a strict education had kept me from any debauched company; on my travels, my ambition to rise in so-called "good society" had protected me, and despite the many liasons I had started abroad, at home and even in Russia, several accidents of fate had made it possible that I had inadvertendly saved myself for the woman who was to govern my fortune later.
I cannot abstain from the pleasure of describing even the dress she was wearing when I met her that day; a simple dress made of white satin, with pink ribbons and some lace as its only decoration.
Re: Poniatowski: Enter Catherine
Re: Poniatowski: Enter Catherine
Re: Poniatowski: Enter Catherine
Re: Poniatowski: Enter Catherine
Re: Poniatowski: Enter Catherine
Re: Poniatowski: Enter Catherine
Re: Poniatowski: Enter Catherine
And through an odd circumstance, I, despite being twenty two years of age, could give her something which no one had had before she did...
HAHAHAHAHA I mean, your synopsis above does... accurately describe this passage!
I cannot abstain from the pleasure of describing even the dress she was wearing when I met her that day
LOL, Poniatowski :D
Re: Poniatowski: Enter Catherine
Re: Poniatowski - Rule Britannia
The most amazing thing is their education; contrary to what I've seen everywhere else, where people try to raise their children well, a sense of honor seems to be neglected entirely in English schools. The whip and only the often used whip seems to be the deciding instrument there, and experience speaks of success to the English. (...) When they have finally completet their eighteenth year, sometimes even earlier than that, they should, so everyone there agrees on, go travelling(...). So they go forward, the brain packed with good Latin and some English classics and the conviction that government, the earth, the morals, the taste, and practically everything is better in England than anywhere else in teh world. Thus equipped and full of disregard for all the nations they visit, they are very amazed when they are stared at like one stares at savages whereever they go, because they can't even greet anyone properly, they don't know how to enter a room and how to leave it; since they always have regarded the "shallow French exercises" with contempt and usually can't talk in any language but their own, they by necessity become a burden to everyone, and consequently to themselves as well.
Re: Poniatowski - My (Not Yet Problematic) Austrian Fave(s)
It can be regarded as one of the great qualities of Maria Theresia's character and government that she knew how to esteem Herr von Kaunitz rightly and to put him into the correct position, on her own initiative and despite of all the voices talking against him, and that she has kept him there, without him having tried in particular to win the favour of his fellow noblemen; nor did he fake a hypocritical devotion in order to keep the favour of his pious princess. She tried a few times to make him feel her displeasure at him keeping actresses as mistresses. He replied: I have to give my Empress and Queen account regarding my attitude as her minister, as her subject, but in no other way. If my princess is not content with my service, I will gladly give up my work and business and withdraw to my estate of Rietberg."
Such a reply would have caused Madame de Maintenon - mistress and morganatic wife of Louis XIV, very pious - to throw out whoever gave it. Herr von Kaunitz even has allowed himself to ignore courtly etiquette; to the officers who pointed this out to him because they thought he had simply forgotten (the dress code), he replied: "I won't go where my furcoat isn't welcome, either."
Since nineteen years, Kaunitz is in office and seems to be destined not to leave it any time soon. And if I was to be born a subject and could choose among any of the currently living rulers, Maria Theresia would be my Queen. When she ascended to the throne, she found the troops and the finances of her state in utter disarray. In the middle of three nearly always miserable wars, she has managed to restore both and to put them on a higher level than they have had under any of her ancestors, and yet her subjects do not get oppressed. She is generious; nearly all public buildings in vienna, nearly all the roads of her provinces have either been built by her or renewed by her, and she's still rich, and she proves it through making huge and regular presents; she is faithful, she has never given into the temptation to go against her principles, and yet she isn't just compassionate, let alone soft, but she has reduced the arrogance of the Church, she has improved the education of the youth in all her states. Her politics were skillful without being false; so far, she has only conducted war to defend herself. And thus she has experienced the happiness to be truly loved by her subjects. For thirty years of her government, no action of hers has been known to go against the principle of justice.
May such a beautiful example not fall from its pedestal and keep itself pure to be imitated by posterity! And may my fatherland never have to complain about the lack of consistency of human virtues!* *Footnote: I wrote these words in the February of 1772. (I.e. before the Polish Partitioning.)
P: as disappointed in MT as Voltaire was in Fritz when Fritz invaded Silesia!
Re: Poniatowski - My (Not Yet Problematic) Austrian Fave(s)
Wooooow, that's kinda great (and also great that MT respected it)
And may my fatherland never have to complain about the lack of consistency of human virtues!* *Footnote: I wrote these words in the February of 1772. (I.e. before the Polish Partitioning.)
Oooooooh.
Re: Poniatowski - Et in Borussia Ego: It's Fritztime
The courts of the queen mother and the queen shared twice weekly the duties of etiquette, to receive strangers of distinction, the ladies of the country and the small number of subjects of the King of Prussia who weren't members of the military. (...) Since the behavior of the women in Poland was back then much more restrained than it is now, I was amazed about the behavior of the women in Berlin: it seemed to me as if the Voltairemania everyone pretended more than actually feel, and their bold speeches which they thought were the expression of wit, as if all this gave them the aura of artifice, as if they wanted to appear much freeer than they actually were; perhaps all of this just resulted from the impulse caused by the writings and sayings of the philosopher of Sans-Souci.
He had been in Prussia when I arrived in Berlin, and returned there only three weeks later; I've seen him twice; both times, he adressed me. I thought he came across as awkward, and as feeling himself obliged to always talk better than anyone else in the room while being afraid he might fail at this. He had a restless gaze, disturbed eyes, an insecure attitude, unclean wardrobe and the entire figure not having much in the way of nobility. I've often heard others say similar things about him, but these are just external factors. This is neither the place or time to paint a complete and thorough portrait of this prince. Every day, I have heard his subjects of every social background talk out loud badly about him, which he knew very well, and which he had gotten used to so much that it didn't matter to him in the least.
Before he had returned from Prusisa, I had visited Charlottenburg, Potsdam, the little palace of Sans-Souci, and the room in which he lived and usually worked. It seemed to me an utter mess: books and writings thrown together, everywhere, on all sides, verses written by the King's own hand, a lot of furniture mixed together; the women who have been entrusted to show strangers the royal palaces of this country and whom one calls "Castellaines" there told me they had strict orders to leave everything in its place where they had found it when the master had left; so I saw in Charlottenburg a marble bust of Julius Caesar beneath a canapee, and the chatellaine assured me she'd never dare to remove it.
In all the bedrooms of the King of Prussia, I saw a richly endowed waistcoat tailored for the figure of the King, made of expensive clothing; but people swore that he did not wear it. This waistcoat attracted my attention since it seemed to have been put there deliberately in contradiction of the idea one had of the dressing gown of a warior and philosopher.
In his bedroom in Sans-Souci, I saw two small beds in exactly the same size, standing close together; in Berlin, there had been various rumors about the use of these two beds, but the chatelaine told me that the King switched from one bed to the other whenever he got too hot; and yet he loves the heat; the room in which he lives in summer lies to the southside, and there isn't a single day in the year in which there isn't a fire lit in his fireside; they even told me that anyone he calls into his room nearly faints from the heat. I have seen the cabinets of his library in Sans-Souci, but the chatelaine said she didn't possess the keys. The cuppola of this small palace, made of exquisite marble, illuminated through a round window above, and the Mercury by Pigalle in the garden are the two most beautiful things I have seen there.
Since it is not my intention to talk here about the cheapskate poverty in which the Queen and her entire court are being kept, nor about the strict force to which the entire lives of the King's brothers are subjected to, nor about this troops and his financial practices, I shall restrain myself to observing that in Berlin, I made the aquaintance of the Chevalier Charles Hambury Williams, who was then the British envoy at the court of the King of Prussia, who even then gifted me with many courtesies and who later became my great friend.
Re: Poniatowski - Et in Borussia Ego: It's Fritztime
Refreshing myself by looking at MacDonogh and Blanning, it's funny because they both report pretty much the same thing, i.e. Fritz and Hanbury-Williams not being able to stand each other, but, very predictably, Blanning blames Fritz and MacDonogh blames Hanbury-Williams.
Blanning, as part of a larger argument that Fritz's tendency to shun and insult envoys and foreign leaders crippled him politically:
[Foreign diplomats] were given a brief royal audience when they arrived and another when they left. In between times, they were very lucky if they even saw Frederick, let alone talked to him. In 1750 the new British envoy, Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, was kept waiting for an hour and was then given an audience of five and a half minutes. Longer experience only confirmed his initial impression: “A man might as well make his court to a parcel of hogs as to the court of Berlin” was his verdict.
...Unfortunately, the need to be attentive to people one finds tiresome is an integral part of public office at every social level. For a sovereign it is essential. Had Frederick brought himself to be agreeable to the foreign diplomatic corps, he might well have reaped political benefits.
MacDonogh, in contrast:
When Hanbury Williams was posted to Prussia at the end of the decade, he noted bitchily, 'No female is allowed to approach the court, males wash the linen, nurse the children, make and unmake the beds.' But then, Hanbury-Williams' tactless and snobbish approach put the Prussians' backs up. He was, by his own admission, 'shunned and avoided by everybody'. What he knew about Potsdam was merely gossip from fellow diplomats in Berlin.
Some time later...
Frederick's diplomatic contacts with Saint Petersburg were assured by the British and their envoy Hanbury Williams. Hanbury-Williams had changed his mind about the king since Frederick had him recalled from Berlin, and he was now 'the zealous defender of the interests of Prussia'. Frederick, too, was reconciled to the Englishman and had had him provided with a fat purse.
Still later...
[Future Catherine the Great]: For the time being at least, she was relatively open-minded towards Frederick. On 20 November 1756 she wrote to Hanbury Williams: 'I read the writings of the king of Prussia with the same avidity as those of Voltaire. You will think that I am making up to you, if I tell you today that I am a profound admirer of His Prussian Majesty.'
Chronology note for
In an unreliable source that I don't even remember what it is now, I read that Catherine was worried Fritz was going to try to keep the Russian troops there against their will. When he let them go after asking nicely for two more days of non-combat services, she was like, "Okay, I can work with him!" Then they arrived at an agreement that was neither her making Russia a de facto province of Prussia nor trying her level best to dismember Prussia. And the war ends shortly thereafter, status quo ante bellum.
Re: Poniatowski - Et in Borussia Ego: It's Fritztime
Re: Poniatowski - Et in Borussia Ego: It's Fritztime
Re: Poniatowski - Et in Borussia Ego: It's Fritztime
Re: Poniatowski - Et in Borussia Ego: It's Fritztime
Re: Poniatowski - Me, Myself and I
I would be content with my figure if I was an inch taller and had more beautifully shaped legs, not such a pronounced beak of a nose, less hips, a sharper gaze and more pronounced teeth. Not that these corrections would make me an Adonis, but I wouldn't ask for more, because I find my physiognomy to be noble and quite expressive, my gestures and my whole attitude distinguished enough to get anyone's attention anywhere. My shortsightedness gives me a sometimes awkward or sinister expression, but it doesn't keep, and once the first moment is over, I often make the mistake of striking a too proud attitude.
The excellent education I've enjoyed helped me to overcome the mistakes in my figure and my mind. I have enough wit to match anyone's conversation, but I don't have enough of an imagination to carry it over an extended time, except if my sentiment is deeply involved, or my well trained sense for anything to do with the arts.
I often notice the ridiculous and false in any area, and the flaws people have, and often I let them notice this too soon. I hate any bad company. A considerable laziness has prevented me from developing my talents and my knowledge as far as my abilities would allow me to. When I work, I do so in a fit of inspiration, I do a lot at once, or nothing at all. I don't easily trust people and thus come across as more sophisticated than I actually am. As far as businesses are concerned, I often am too eager and too sincere and thus put my foot in my mouth at times. I have a good judgment, easily find the mistakes of a project or of the one who leads it; but I need counsel and someone to restrain me in order not to make mistakes myself. I'm extraordinarily sensitive and tend to grieve more easily than I feel joy, and would feel too much of the first sensation if a precognition of the second didn't live in my heart. Burning and insatiable ambition lives within me, and my ideas for various reforms for the honor and the use of my fatherland are at the heart of all my projects and my entire life.
I thought I was not suited for women; my earliest attempts were just owed to a necessity owed to circumstance for me. Finally, I have at last encountered tender love, and now I love with such a passion that I feel a change of my fortune would make me the unhappiest of men and drive me into despair. The duties of friendship are sacred to me, and I carry them very far. If my friend should wrong me, there is nothing in the world I would not do to prevent a breakup; and long after he has insulted me, I would remember that I owe him much. I believe that I am a very good friend. It is true, I count only a few people as intimate friends, though I am of course grateful for anything good someone has done for me. (...)
I am generous, I hate dirty avarice, but I'm not capable of administrating my worldly goods. I can't keep my own secrets as well as I can keep those of others which I treat carefully. I am very compassionate. I have such a strong desire for love and approval that my vanity would grow into infinity if I wasn't so afraid of making myself look ridiculous. Furtherly, I don't lie, both out of principle and out of a natural dislike against falsehood. I'm very far from being devout, but I dare say I love God; I often address him, and I have the flattering conviction that he loves doing good as we ask it of him. I am fortunate to love my father and my mother, not just out of duty but out of affection. I would not be capable of carrying out a revenge scheme even if in my first anger I thought of one; I believe that pity would win in me. One forgives out of a certain weakness just as one does out of greatness, and I fear that for this reason, one day I shall have to give up many of my plans. I leave myself to my thoughts and possess enough imagination to not get bored if I'm alone and without a book, mainly since I now love.
Re: Poniatowski - Me, Myself and I
Re: Poniatowski - Me, Myself and I
because I find my physiognomy to be noble and quite expressive, my gestures and my whole attitude distinguished enough to get anyone's attention anywhere.
:D
I often notice the ridiculous and false in any area, and the flaws people have, and often I let them notice this too soon.
I can't imagine where you get that idea from! Well, at least you have an accurate assessment of this part of yourself :)
Re: Poniatowski - Me, Myself and I
Re: Poniatowski - Me, Myself and I