If you're aware that Saxony was one of Prussia's biggest rivals, as well as next-door neighbor, it puts both FW's actions in the War of the Polish Succession as well as Fritz's war crimes into context.
There was a GDR tv miniseries called "Sachsens Glanz und Preußens Gloria" about the few decades where there was actually a rivalry, and the title - "Saxony's Splendour and Prussia's Glory" sums up why they were thought of as the Athens and Sparta of their day. In FW's day the division was clear cut, and August had all the top artists, the art galleries, the musicians (Quantz!), the composers - both Bach and Händel were Saxons, after all, though Händel had his big career mostly abroad, in Italy and England respectively, while Bach remained at home in Leipzig -, and the scholars (hello, Wolff). And of course drop dead gorgeous architecture, the famous porcellain in Meißen, and Poland due to the union of being the Prince Elector of Saxony and the elected King of Poland. FW and Fritz visiting the first time really must have felt like the poor relations coming to town, so during the camp at Zeithain, FW made sure that he at least brought along the one thing where he outshone all other German princes - a modern army.
Presumably it's also a(nother) reason why Fritz was snippy with Algarotti for taking the job with August III when being bored in Berlin in the early 1740s and there were a few years of silence between them. The one thing he could have done that was worse would have been accepting a job in Vienna. At least there, Algarotti limited himself to designing MT's tablewear.
Incidentally, Grumbkow-Seckendorff protocol: do you want me to post it at rheinsberg, or do you want to include it in one of yours? That's why I've held off for now.
--which goes some way toward answering my question as to how scandalous Voltaire and (the non-impregnated) Madame Denis would have been to contemporaries!
Meanwhle, Catherine's mother "saw in me her futher sister-in-law" and let brother Georg Ludwig paw 13 and 14 years old Sophie, according to her memoirs. But then, Voltaire and Madame Denis were not only non-nobles but (nominal) Catholics. (Was Hoym? As a Saxon, it could have been either way.) (ETA: I mention the religion because evidentallly Ferdinand, as a (nominal) Calvinist, didn't need anyone but Fritz' okay for the marriage to their niece. Whereas you needed to be a ruling Spanish Habsburg or a French Bourbon bribing the Vatican massively if you wanted to get niece marriage okay'd by the Pope, and the artist formerly known as Monsieur Arouet, citizen, certainly did not fall under that category, meaning he might even have been acted criminally according to (some) French law.
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Re: Katte - Species Facti 1
Date: 2020-03-20 08:03 am (UTC)There was a GDR tv miniseries called "Sachsens Glanz und Preußens Gloria" about the few decades where there was actually a rivalry, and the title - "Saxony's Splendour and Prussia's Glory" sums up why they were thought of as the Athens and Sparta of their day. In FW's day the division was clear cut, and August had all the top artists, the art galleries, the musicians (Quantz!), the composers - both Bach and Händel were Saxons, after all, though Händel had his big career mostly abroad, in Italy and England respectively, while Bach remained at home in Leipzig -, and the scholars (hello, Wolff). And of course drop dead gorgeous architecture, the famous porcellain in Meißen, and Poland due to the union of being the Prince Elector of Saxony and the elected King of Poland. FW and Fritz visiting the first time really must have felt like the poor relations coming to town, so during the camp at Zeithain, FW made sure that he at least brought along the one thing where he outshone all other German princes - a modern army.
Presumably it's also a(nother) reason why Fritz was snippy with Algarotti for taking the job with August III when being bored in Berlin in the early 1740s and there were a few years of silence between them. The one thing he could have done that was worse would have been accepting a job in Vienna. At least there, Algarotti limited himself to designing MT's tablewear.
Incidentally, Grumbkow-Seckendorff protocol: do you want me to post it at
--which goes some way toward answering my question as to how scandalous Voltaire and (the non-impregnated) Madame Denis would have been to contemporaries!
Meanwhle, Catherine's mother "saw in me her futher sister-in-law" and let brother Georg Ludwig paw 13 and 14 years old Sophie, according to her memoirs. But then, Voltaire and Madame Denis were not only non-nobles but (nominal) Catholics. (Was Hoym? As a Saxon, it could have been either way.) (ETA: I mention the religion because evidentallly Ferdinand, as a (nominal) Calvinist, didn't need anyone but Fritz' okay for the marriage to their niece. Whereas you needed to be a ruling Spanish Habsburg or a French Bourbon bribing the Vatican massively if you wanted to get niece marriage okay'd by the Pope, and the artist formerly known as Monsieur Arouet, citizen, certainly did not fall under that category, meaning he might even have been acted criminally according to (some) French law.