Excellent! Well, for us, not poor, grief-exploited Fritz.
:-(
I also think it makes more sense if Georgii isn't a professional spy but just someone whose first lie escalates, snowball-wise, until he can't take anything back even if he wanted to.
Agreed!
Details: Suhm had a wife and daughter, right? Or just the daughter? Whom Fritz took care of? How old/young was she?
Detective Mildred reporting with ALL the details!
Immediate family The wife, Charlotte von der Lieth, was dead. At the time of his death, Suhm had a sister (Hedwig) and a brother (Nicolas), three (Preuss) or five (Wikipedia) sons, and one daughter. Perhaps five sons total and three surviving sons, given the rate of infant and child mortality? Fritz invited them all to Berlin and took care of the kids and unmarried sister, who was acting in loco parentis to the kids since the death of their mother.
Nicolas was the one who notified Fritz of the death. He had been in Warsaw at the time, so he must have been there ether because, as a Saxon, he was attending the Saxon-Polish court (I remember Suhm being exempted because of his health), or because he had gone there to be at his ailing brother's bedside. The former is more likely, but since Suhm was there for over a month, the latter's not impossible. It's possible the entire family was there, but I don't have confirmation on that. I'm not actually sure whether he took Hedwig and some or all of the kids to St. Petersburg, or left them in Saxony.
Hedwig lived in Berlin until her death nearly 33 years later, receiving a pension from Fritz. The kids were all educated under Fritz's long-distance supervision, and were given commissions and pensions as soon as they were old enough to enter the army.
The eldest son was named Ernst Ulrich Pierre, and he lost a leg in Fritz's service at Prague (1757). In 1759, he was given the title of councilor of war and the job of postmaster.
He died age 61/62 in May 1785, having in turn recommended *his* kids to Fritz. So in 1741, he would have been about 17/18. Definitely old enough to have had some idea what was going on politically, and as we've seen, possibly to have been at his father's side in St. Petersburg and at his deathbed in Warsaw. And even old enough to be in Silesia in 1741 if we want.
According to Preuss, the sister, for whom I don't have a name, married a Lieutenant-Colonel von Keith, ADC to the king*, in December 1750, Fritz having given permission in October 1750 at the request of Field Marshal (that would be James) Keith. Presumably the two Keiths are relatives.
Oh, wait, I found names! Margrethe Albertine Conradine (the name is given in Danish, so spellings may vary). The Keith she married is named Robert Baronet Keith, born March 16, 1715 in London. Two surviving sons and one daughter who died young. Oh, check it out, I have birth and death dates for her. March 13, 1725 - February 16, 1785. So she's actually 15 when her father dies, and 25 when she marries. And she and her oldest brother die within a couple months of each other.
* I wonder if this is why Peter Keith, also a lieutenant-colonel in 1750, gets listed as an ADC to Fritz in some sources but not others. Of course, since Lehndorff says Peter got an invitation to join Fritz at camp in autumn 1753, Peter Keith could *also* have been a Lt. Col. Keith ADC to Fritz, at least temporarily. A confusion of Keiths indeed!
Other Relatives and Digressions Suhm's father, Burchard, had been an ambassador as well, in his case to France. There were six daughters and seven sons from that marriage, so our Suhm came from a large family. Burchard used to take at least two of his sons to work, Ulrich (our Suhm) and his younger brother Nicolas, and trained them up in diplomacy. According to the dissertation, this kind of diplomatic apprenticeship was a not uncommon practice. Both Ulrich and Nicolas grew up to be ambassadors. At least two of Burchard's other sons also held important military and leadership position.
Ooh, you know what? Our Suhm, Ulrich, could well have followed in the family tradition and had his oldest son with him in St. Petersburg for a couple years of training around age 16, before he (I assume) gets sent to university. The younger kids can stay in Dresden in more congenial surroundings, with aunt/surrogate mom. Oldest son didn't end up being a diplomat, because he ended up in the Prussian military, but our Suhm didn't know that was going to happen. So Ernst would be perfectly placed to tip Fredersdorff off.
Suhm also had an uncle by the same name, who was a Danish admiral (the family is Danish in origin), whom schemer Seckendorff tried to win over to Imperial service, but he refused. Possibly because he was a good Protestant, says Wikipedia.
Vaguely related tangent: Wikipedia also tells me that Augustus the Strong's mother, Anna Sophia, was Danish, and our branch of the Suhm family came with her to Dresden when she married the Elector. Anna Sophia was super intellectual and reserved, her husband was all militaristic, and they had a somewhat distant marriage. When Augustus the Strong converted to Catholicism to become king of Poland, his wife refused to convert with him. To punish her, he gave his son and heir to his mother to raise. (Continuing with the theme of 18th century heirs being taken away from their mothers, often to be raised by their grandmothers.) Danish Mom Anna Sophia was also a devout Lutheran (so this really was about punishment and not religion), and tried to keep future Augustus III from converting, but failed. He ended up converting in 1712 so he could marry an Austrian archduchess.
Our Suhm Ulrich Friedrich von Suhm attended the University of Geneva. He was envoy to Berlin from 1720-1730. According to Wikipedia and a genealogy site, he married Charlotte on November 1, 1721. In 1727, FW threatened to hang him because he was mad at actions of the Saxon ministers, who were mad at him over illegal recruiting practices. Suhm fled Prussia, and Augustus made him go back.
Charlotte died in 1730. I don't know what month. In January of that same year, Suhm was dismissed as envoy to Prussia and was pensioned off. At that point, he divided his time between Berlin and Dresden, until the St. Petersburg posting. He received his assignment in late 1736, and arrived in St. Petersburg in early 1737. He asked for his dismissal in June 1740, and received it several weeks later (the mail took time to go back and forth). He died in Warsaw in November 1740.
Saxon Diplomatic History Because I found a dissertation on the subject in the 1694-1763 period, lol. It's in German, but I did my best, and it gave me names I could google.
Prussia Ulrich Friedrich von Suhm, our Suhm, was envoy to Prussia from 1720-1730, as we've seen. I had been wondering and wondering what happened in 1730, and came up with a whole headcanon that's now been exploded, and based on that headcanon, wrote a whole scene for the fix-it fic that I now have to decide what to do with.
Turns out, in the autumn of 1729, the Saxons (possibly at the advice of Suhm himself), decided that what they really needed was someone suitable for attending FW's tobacco parliament, otherwise they were never going to get anywhere. I'm only surprised it took them 9 years to come to this conclusion! So they sent Christian Ernst von Polenz, a military man. From the middle of September 1729, he was stationed alongside Suhm, hung out at Wusterhausen, and had FW's favor. But he wasn't being nearly as diplomatically successful as Seckendorff (who was, really?), so the Saxons replaced him with Moritz Karl von Lynar. We'll see more of Lynar later.
From January 1730, Lynar was the sole Saxon envoy to Prussia, which means Suhm must have been honorably dismissed at that point. ("We're sorry what we need is a heavy drinker in the army who enjoys hunting and crude jokes, and that you can't fake it. It's not you, it's FW.") But in November 1730 (oh, *man*, I want to see Lynar's envoy report about the execution!), FW asked for Polenz back, and got him.
This is kind of hilarious, in light of Fritz's oft-quoted reaction when he heard Suhm had accepted an assignment to St. Petersburg. "This barbarous court needs those men who know how to drink well and fuck vigorously. I don't think you'd recognize yourself in this description. Your delicate body is the custodian of a fine soul, spiritual and penetrating."
Russia Which leads me to talk about Suhm's posting to Russia. Apparently what happened was that Lynar, his short-lived successor in Prussia, had been posted to Russia in 1733--okay, so what happened was that Lynar was postmaster general, and in 1733 he got sent to Russia to announce that Augustus had died and been succeeded as Elector of Saxony by his only legitimate son Augustus III, and that the Polish throne was open (the War of the Polish Succession is about to happen). Lynar then hung out in St. Petersburg alongside le Fort, the current envoy, for almost a year, before Lynar got promoted to sole envoy.
Then, Lynar starts having an affair with Anna Leopoldovna, niece of the Czarina Anna, future mother of Ivan VI, and future regent of Russia. His enemies intrigue against him, and Saxony is forced to recall him. But because it's so nice to have somebody on the good side of someone with that much influence and potential future influence, they're planning on sending him back as soon as they can. But for now, they need a replacement.
Headcanon that they look around for envoys who have exhibited some skill at getting on the good side of the future ruler, and settle on Suhm, BFF of Crown Prince Fritz. :P
So Suhm goes to Russia in 1737. He's not informed about Lynar/Anna! In 1740, as we know, he requests his recall, and gets it. The Saxons consult the Russian envoy in Dresden about Suhm's successor, and they insist on having Lynar back. The Saxons are cool with this, since by now, his mistress is running the country. But it takes about a year before this is all settled, and when Lynar's on his way back to Russia in late 1741, he learns that Anna, now regent for her baby son Ivan VI, has been overthrown by Elizaveta. So he gives up on this whole project and stays in Saxony.
France Our Suhm's father, Burchard von Suhm, was the Saxon ambassador to France from 1709 to 1720. He and his son Nicolas were present at Utrecht in 1713 for the famous conference and signing of the resulting peace agreements. Burchard died in office in Paris in 1720.
He was succeeded by Carl Heinrich von Hoym, whom we've seen before. He was guy who showed up in Katte's species facti as having discouraged the escape attempt at Zeithain. When we dug into his background, we found that that he "was the Saxon ambassador to Versailles, who had recently returned to Saxony. He apparently had many enemies there and in other courts (including Berlin and Vienna), and was imprisoned three times, before finally committing suicide in prison in 1736. Wikipedia tells me one of the charges, which it believes is trumped-up, was impregnating his niece."
Mail delivery The dissertation very conveniently told me how long, on average, it took for envoy reports to get from various courts to Dresden. This is the sort of thing I'm extremely interested in!
Three to four days from Berlin, a week from Munich, mostly eight days from Copenhagen, about ten days from Paris and Stockholm, thirteen to eighteen days from Turin, three weeks from St. Petersburg. (I can tell from Fritz's correspondence with Suhm that it was about 2 weeks between Rheinsberg/Berlin and St. Petersburg.)
Addendum on the kids OMG wait! I found more details on the kids. Maybe my headcanon for Suhm's dismissal/retirement works after all, somewhat modified. Check this out. Birth and death dates for all the kids.
Jakob Heinrich: September 19, 1722 - February 11, 1733 Ernst Ulrich Peter: December 6, 1723 - 1785 (dying letter in May) Margarethe Albertine Conradine: March 13, 1725 - February 16, 1785 Nicolas: October 23, 1726 - 1746 Burchard Siegfried Carl: September 5, 1728 - 1783 Frederik Christian: January 3, 1730 - March 9, 1732
I was right about two of them dying young and that accounting for the discrepancy between 3 sons and 5 sons.
So my headcanon was that Suhm stepping down in 1730 had something to do with his wife's death. Then I found the account of Polenz and the tobacco parliament and all that, and that made it clear it was political rather than personal reasons. But even so, Suhm was left as co-envoy until 1730, so I thought maybe his wife's death was still the trigger for his retirement.
Then when I found out Lynar was sole envoy starting in January, I thought, "Naah. What are the odds she died before that posting? Less than 1/12." But now I find Charlotte giving birth to a child on January 3 in 1730. The child does survive, but dies at age 2. You tell me what her most likely cause of death is. I'm thinking it was a difficult birth for both of them. (Or he just died of whatever kids died of back then, which was a lot of things.)
See, if Polenz can be co-envoy with Suhm, and be dismissed because he's doing a bad job and get replaced by Lynar, how come Suhm has to step down for Lynar? We've seen other co-envoys, like von Johnn and Løvenørn, and le Fort and Lynar in Russia. Plus Suhm seems to be in favor with the Saxon gov't, he just doesn't have the right personality to go drinking and smoking and hunting with FW. But he had been envoy for 10 years, and even after the Saxons decided they needed a military man, evidently still left him as envoy in Berlin. And they used him again as soon as there was an opening in Russia.
I'm thinking devoted and heartbroken husband in January 1730. Combined with ten years of good service and a recognition that the Saxons do need someone more suited to FW's personality, I'm thinking that could get him a bereavement leave that turns into a permanent retirement and pension.
At least I think I can use it for fic! Also, the timing works, as I didn't until tonight have a month in 1730 during which Suhm stepped down, and for fic purposes, I needed it to have been well before the Zeithain camp in June. I was willing to fudge it for the sake of the story, as I've done before, but if it's January, I don't have to!
That leaves me thinking it's fair to leave the other part of my headcanon in place. To wit: In 1727, Suhm flees Prussia under threat of hanging. According to one of my sources, with his family. Then he's ordered and shamed into going back. My headcanon: he leaves the family behind in Dresden for their own safety. It's only a 3-4 day journey between Berlin and Dresden, so he can visit them and impregnate Charlotte as needed (good to know that it's needed), but he puts their safety first.
Mind you, I'm still wondering whether the kids and sister went with him to St. Petersburg. I have no evidence on that either way.
Because going by how Fredersdorf was the one to organize the taking care of Keyserlingk's daughter, I'm assumung he'd also have been in charge of taking care of Suhm's relations.
You're right! That makes a lot of sense. I say Ernst is our most likely tipper-off.
what could Frederdorf have done which Crown Prince Fritz would have been okay with, but new King Fritz post Mollwitz would not?
Good question. I will give this some thought. My brain is in 100% Suhm mode right now, after the previous write-up involving a few hours of digging through sources. lol.
It's been a useful dual-purpose mini-research project, for the Georgii fic (which you're going to write, right?) and my fix-it fic. Which, between Rothenburg and Suhm, has led me deeper into the weeds of 18th century diplomacy than I ever anticipated. :P I think both envoys are getting rheinsberg write-ups at the next opportunity.
Suhm family history
:-(
I also think it makes more sense if Georgii isn't a professional spy but just someone whose first lie escalates, snowball-wise, until he can't take anything back even if he wanted to.
Agreed!
Details: Suhm had a wife and daughter, right? Or just the daughter? Whom Fritz took care of? How old/young was she?
Detective Mildred reporting with ALL the details!
Immediate family
The wife, Charlotte von der Lieth, was dead. At the time of his death, Suhm had a sister (Hedwig) and a brother (Nicolas), three (Preuss) or five (Wikipedia) sons, and one daughter. Perhaps five sons total and three surviving sons, given the rate of infant and child mortality? Fritz invited them all to Berlin and took care of the kids and unmarried sister, who was acting in loco parentis to the kids since the death of their mother.
Nicolas was the one who notified Fritz of the death. He had been in Warsaw at the time, so he must have been there ether because, as a Saxon, he was attending the Saxon-Polish court (I remember Suhm being exempted because of his health), or because he had gone there to be at his ailing brother's bedside. The former is more likely, but since Suhm was there for over a month, the latter's not impossible. It's possible the entire family was there, but I don't have confirmation on that. I'm not actually sure whether he took Hedwig and some or all of the kids to St. Petersburg, or left them in Saxony.
Hedwig lived in Berlin until her death nearly 33 years later, receiving a pension from Fritz. The kids were all educated under Fritz's long-distance supervision, and were given commissions and pensions as soon as they were old enough to enter the army.
The eldest son was named Ernst Ulrich Pierre, and he lost a leg in Fritz's service at Prague (1757). In 1759, he was given the title of councilor of war and the job of postmaster.
He died age 61/62 in May 1785, having in turn recommended *his* kids to Fritz. So in 1741, he would have been about 17/18. Definitely old enough to have had some idea what was going on politically, and as we've seen, possibly to have been at his father's side in St. Petersburg and at his deathbed in Warsaw. And even old enough to be in Silesia in 1741 if we want.
According to Preuss, the sister, for whom I don't have a name, married a Lieutenant-Colonel von Keith, ADC to the king*, in December 1750, Fritz having given permission in October 1750 at the request of Field Marshal (that would be James) Keith. Presumably the two Keiths are relatives.
Oh, wait, I found names! Margrethe Albertine Conradine (the name is given in Danish, so spellings may vary). The Keith she married is named Robert Baronet Keith, born March 16, 1715 in London. Two surviving sons and one daughter who died young. Oh, check it out, I have birth and death dates for her. March 13, 1725 - February 16, 1785. So she's actually 15 when her father dies, and 25 when she marries. And she and her oldest brother die within a couple months of each other.
* I wonder if this is why Peter Keith, also a lieutenant-colonel in 1750, gets listed as an ADC to Fritz in some sources but not others. Of course, since Lehndorff says Peter got an invitation to join Fritz at camp in autumn 1753, Peter Keith could *also* have been a Lt. Col. Keith ADC to Fritz, at least temporarily. A confusion of Keiths indeed!
Other Relatives and Digressions
Suhm's father, Burchard, had been an ambassador as well, in his case to France. There were six daughters and seven sons from that marriage, so our Suhm came from a large family. Burchard used to take at least two of his sons to work, Ulrich (our Suhm) and his younger brother Nicolas, and trained them up in diplomacy. According to the dissertation, this kind of diplomatic apprenticeship was a not uncommon practice. Both Ulrich and Nicolas grew up to be ambassadors. At least two of Burchard's other sons also held important military and leadership position.
Ooh, you know what? Our Suhm, Ulrich, could well have followed in the family tradition and had his oldest son with him in St. Petersburg for a couple years of training around age 16, before he (I assume) gets sent to university. The younger kids can stay in Dresden in more congenial surroundings, with aunt/surrogate mom. Oldest son didn't end up being a diplomat, because he ended up in the Prussian military, but our Suhm didn't know that was going to happen. So Ernst would be perfectly placed to tip Fredersdorff off.
Suhm also had an uncle by the same name, who was a Danish admiral (the family is Danish in origin), whom schemer Seckendorff tried to win over to Imperial service, but he refused. Possibly because he was a good Protestant, says Wikipedia.
Vaguely related tangent: Wikipedia also tells me that Augustus the Strong's mother, Anna Sophia, was Danish, and our branch of the Suhm family came with her to Dresden when she married the Elector. Anna Sophia was super intellectual and reserved, her husband was all militaristic, and they had a somewhat distant marriage. When Augustus the Strong converted to Catholicism to become king of Poland, his wife refused to convert with him. To punish her, he gave his son and heir to his mother to raise. (Continuing with the theme of 18th century heirs being taken away from their mothers, often to be raised by their grandmothers.) Danish Mom Anna Sophia was also a devout Lutheran (so this really was about punishment and not religion), and tried to keep future Augustus III from converting, but failed. He ended up converting in 1712 so he could marry an Austrian archduchess.
Our Suhm
Ulrich Friedrich von Suhm attended the University of Geneva. He was envoy to Berlin from 1720-1730. According to Wikipedia and a genealogy site, he married Charlotte on November 1, 1721. In 1727, FW threatened to hang him because he was mad at actions of the Saxon ministers, who were mad at him over illegal recruiting practices. Suhm fled Prussia, and Augustus made him go back.
Charlotte died in 1730. I don't know what month. In January of that same year, Suhm was dismissed as envoy to Prussia and was pensioned off. At that point, he divided his time between Berlin and Dresden, until the St. Petersburg posting. He received his assignment in late 1736, and arrived in St. Petersburg in early 1737. He asked for his dismissal in June 1740, and received it several weeks later (the mail took time to go back and forth). He died in Warsaw in November 1740.
Saxon Diplomatic History
Because I found a dissertation on the subject in the 1694-1763 period, lol. It's in German, but I did my best, and it gave me names I could google.
Prussia
Ulrich Friedrich von Suhm, our Suhm, was envoy to Prussia from 1720-1730, as we've seen. I had been wondering and wondering what happened in 1730, and came up with a whole headcanon that's now been exploded, and based on that headcanon, wrote a whole scene for the fix-it fic that I now have to decide what to do with.
Turns out, in the autumn of 1729, the Saxons (possibly at the advice of Suhm himself), decided that what they really needed was someone suitable for attending FW's tobacco parliament, otherwise they were never going to get anywhere. I'm only surprised it took them 9 years to come to this conclusion! So they sent Christian Ernst von Polenz, a military man. From the middle of September 1729, he was stationed alongside Suhm, hung out at Wusterhausen, and had FW's favor. But he wasn't being nearly as diplomatically successful as Seckendorff (who was, really?), so the Saxons replaced him with Moritz Karl von Lynar. We'll see more of Lynar later.
From January 1730, Lynar was the sole Saxon envoy to Prussia, which means Suhm must have been honorably dismissed at that point. ("We're sorry what we need is a heavy drinker in the army who enjoys hunting and crude jokes, and that you can't fake it. It's not you, it's FW.") But in November 1730 (oh, *man*, I want to see Lynar's envoy report about the execution!), FW asked for Polenz back, and got him.
This is kind of hilarious, in light of Fritz's oft-quoted reaction when he heard Suhm had accepted an assignment to St. Petersburg. "This barbarous court needs those men who know how to drink well and fuck vigorously. I don't think you'd recognize yourself in this description. Your delicate body is the custodian of a fine soul, spiritual and penetrating."
Russia
Which leads me to talk about Suhm's posting to Russia. Apparently what happened was that Lynar, his short-lived successor in Prussia, had been posted to Russia in 1733--okay, so what happened was that Lynar was postmaster general, and in 1733 he got sent to Russia to announce that Augustus had died and been succeeded as Elector of Saxony by his only legitimate son Augustus III, and that the Polish throne was open (the War of the Polish Succession is about to happen). Lynar then hung out in St. Petersburg alongside le Fort, the current envoy, for almost a year, before Lynar got promoted to sole envoy.
Then, Lynar starts having an affair with Anna Leopoldovna, niece of the Czarina Anna, future mother of Ivan VI, and future regent of Russia. His enemies intrigue against him, and Saxony is forced to recall him. But because it's so nice to have somebody on the good side of someone with that much influence and potential future influence, they're planning on sending him back as soon as they can. But for now, they need a replacement.
Headcanon that they look around for envoys who have exhibited some skill at getting on the good side of the future ruler, and settle on Suhm, BFF of Crown Prince Fritz. :P
So Suhm goes to Russia in 1737. He's not informed about Lynar/Anna! In 1740, as we know, he requests his recall, and gets it. The Saxons consult the Russian envoy in Dresden about Suhm's successor, and they insist on having Lynar back. The Saxons are cool with this, since by now, his mistress is running the country. But it takes about a year before this is all settled, and when Lynar's on his way back to Russia in late 1741, he learns that Anna, now regent for her baby son Ivan VI, has been overthrown by Elizaveta. So he gives up on this whole project and stays in Saxony.
France
Our Suhm's father, Burchard von Suhm, was the Saxon ambassador to France from 1709 to 1720. He and his son Nicolas were present at Utrecht in 1713 for the famous conference and signing of the resulting peace agreements. Burchard died in office in Paris in 1720.
He was succeeded by Carl Heinrich von Hoym, whom we've seen before. He was guy who showed up in Katte's species facti as having discouraged the escape attempt at Zeithain. When we dug into his background, we found that that he "was the Saxon ambassador to Versailles, who had recently returned to Saxony. He apparently had many enemies there and in other courts (including Berlin and Vienna), and was imprisoned three times, before finally committing suicide in prison in 1736. Wikipedia tells me one of the charges, which it believes is trumped-up, was impregnating his niece."
Mail delivery
The dissertation very conveniently told me how long, on average, it took for envoy reports to get from various courts to Dresden. This is the sort of thing I'm extremely interested in!
Three to four days from Berlin, a week from Munich, mostly eight days from Copenhagen, about ten days from Paris and Stockholm, thirteen to eighteen days from Turin, three weeks from St. Petersburg. (I can tell from Fritz's correspondence with Suhm that it was about 2 weeks between Rheinsberg/Berlin and St. Petersburg.)
Addendum on the kids
OMG wait! I found more details on the kids. Maybe my headcanon for Suhm's dismissal/retirement works after all, somewhat modified. Check this out. Birth and death dates for all the kids.
Jakob Heinrich: September 19, 1722 - February 11, 1733
Ernst Ulrich Peter: December 6, 1723 - 1785 (dying letter in May)
Margarethe Albertine Conradine: March 13, 1725 - February 16, 1785
Nicolas: October 23, 1726 - 1746
Burchard Siegfried Carl: September 5, 1728 - 1783
Frederik Christian: January 3, 1730 - March 9, 1732
I was right about two of them dying young and that accounting for the discrepancy between 3 sons and 5 sons.
So my headcanon was that Suhm stepping down in 1730 had something to do with his wife's death. Then I found the account of Polenz and the tobacco parliament and all that, and that made it clear it was political rather than personal reasons. But even so, Suhm was left as co-envoy until 1730, so I thought maybe his wife's death was still the trigger for his retirement.
Then when I found out Lynar was sole envoy starting in January, I thought, "Naah. What are the odds she died before that posting? Less than 1/12." But now I find Charlotte giving birth to a child on January 3 in 1730. The child does survive, but dies at age 2. You tell me what her most likely cause of death is. I'm thinking it was a difficult birth for both of them. (Or he just died of whatever kids died of back then, which was a lot of things.)
See, if Polenz can be co-envoy with Suhm, and be dismissed because he's doing a bad job and get replaced by Lynar, how come Suhm has to step down for Lynar? We've seen other co-envoys, like von Johnn and Løvenørn, and le Fort and Lynar in Russia. Plus Suhm seems to be in favor with the Saxon gov't, he just doesn't have the right personality to go drinking and smoking and hunting with FW. But he had been envoy for 10 years, and even after the Saxons decided they needed a military man, evidently still left him as envoy in Berlin. And they used him again as soon as there was an opening in Russia.
I'm thinking devoted and heartbroken husband in January 1730. Combined with ten years of good service and a recognition that the Saxons do need someone more suited to FW's personality, I'm thinking that could get him a bereavement leave that turns into a permanent retirement and pension.
At least I think I can use it for fic! Also, the timing works, as I didn't until tonight have a month in 1730 during which Suhm stepped down, and for fic purposes, I needed it to have been well before the Zeithain camp in June. I was willing to fudge it for the sake of the story, as I've done before, but if it's January, I don't have to!
That leaves me thinking it's fair to leave the other part of my headcanon in place. To wit: In 1727, Suhm flees Prussia under threat of hanging. According to one of my sources, with his family. Then he's ordered and shamed into going back. My headcanon: he leaves the family behind in Dresden for their own safety. It's only a 3-4 day journey between Berlin and Dresden, so he can visit them and impregnate Charlotte as needed (good to know that it's needed), but he puts their safety first.
Mind you, I'm still wondering whether the kids and sister went with him to St. Petersburg. I have no evidence on that either way.
Because going by how Fredersdorf was the one to organize the taking care of Keyserlingk's daughter, I'm assumung he'd also have been in charge of taking care of Suhm's relations.
You're right! That makes a lot of sense. I say Ernst is our most likely tipper-off.
what could Frederdorf have done which Crown Prince Fritz would have been okay with, but new King Fritz post Mollwitz would not?
Good question. I will give this some thought. My brain is in 100% Suhm mode right now, after the previous write-up involving a few hours of digging through sources. lol.
It's been a useful dual-purpose mini-research project, for the Georgii fic (which you're going to write, right?) and my fix-it fic. Which, between Rothenburg and Suhm, has led me deeper into the weeds of 18th century diplomacy than I ever anticipated. :P I think both envoys are getting
ETA: just closed 29 tabs, omg.