Romulus and Remus: it certainly hadn‘t occured to Fritz, either, when he told Voltaire et al his twist on the legend and insisted on dating his letters from „Remusberg“ back in the light hearted later 1730s. But Heinrich refers to the legend as well, and I therefore feel entitled to speculate it did occur to him.
Kaphengst: You‘ve still got Fritz‘ involvement ahead, I think, but I also know that I in my original write up was basing this part on Krockow‘ s Heinrich and Fritz double portrait book, and I can tell you Krockow‘s source, which was Fontane in his Rheinsberg chapters, to wit the one on Kaphengst, here: https://www.textlog.de/40338.html .
(Relevant Fontane passage in German, with the „unprintable language“ part marked in fat letters: Der König, der in seiner Sanssouci-Einsamkeit von allem unterrichtet war, mißbilligte, was in Rheinsberg vorging, und wollte dem »Verhältnis« à tout prix ein Ende machen. 1774 überbrachte deshalb ein Page des Königs (von Wülknitz) dem Prinzen Heinrich ein königliches Geschenk von 10000 Stück Friedrichsdor, freilich zugleich mit der Order, »daß er den Major von Kaphengst entlassen möge«, eine Order, deren Wortlaut sich hier der Möglichkeit der Mitteilung entzieht. Der Prinz, aller Zuneigung zu seinem Günstling unerachtet, unter dessen Ungebildetheit und Eitelkeit er gelitten haben mochte, gehorchte dem Befehle sofort und tat es um so lieber, als die Entfernung Kaphengsts dem bestehenden Verhältnis nur die Last und Peinlichkeit eines unausgesetzten Verkehrs nahm, ohne das Verhältnis selbst absolut zu lösen. In der Tat, seitens des Prinzen wurde den 10000 Stück Friedrichsdors seines Bruders aus eigenen Mitteln noch ungefähr dieselbe Summe hinzugefügt und nachher unter Anzahlung von zirka 100000 Talern ein drei Meilen von Rheinsberg gelegener Graf Wartenslebenscher Güterkomplex, der die Rittergüter Meseberg, Baumgarten, Schönermark und Rauschendorf umfaßte, gekauft und deren Kaufkontrakt einige Zeit darauf dem Major von Kaphengst als Geschenk überreicht. Kaphengst übersiedelte nunmehr nach dem am Huwenowsee gelegenen Schloß Meseberg; aber diese Übersiedlung, wie schon angedeutet, war so wenig gleichbedeutend mit Entfremdung, daß vielmehr umgekehrt das gute Einvernehmen zwischen Prinz und Günstling aus diesen zeitweiligen Trennungen nur neue Nahrung zog. Überhaupt, aller klar zutage liegenden Schwächen und Schattenseiten Kaphengsts zum Trotz, muß dem Wesen desselben ein Etwas eigen gewesen sein, das den alternden Prinzen in erklärlicher und dadurch annähernd gerechtfertigter Weise höchst sympathisch berührte
Note that unlike Fontane, we also have Lehndorff‘s journal entries on the money for Meseberg. Lehndorff‘s repeated „I don‘t get what he sees in the guy!“ are pretty standard for Lehndorff & Heinrich‘s favourites du jour, of course, but the extent of all the money and how quickly Kaphengst ran through it did provide additional frustration for him. Now if you want possible support for Ziebura‘s „maybe blackmail?“ thesis, Lehndorff at one point - which I quote im my write up for volume IV of his diaries - when he says how different Heinrich and Kaphengst are also says that they bore each other when they‘re together longer than 15 minutes, so why? But that‘s late in the relationhip, and Lehndorff also says, looking back once Kaphengst finally is dumped, that Heinrich had had a greater passion for him than any of the other guys.
Since we did speculate for Fredersdorff and Georgii the suicidal hussar along the lines of „what if? with the caveat that it might all have been gossip, we can of course do a „what if?“ for the blackmail theory. (Which Ziebura brings up as a theory only, not a definite statement, to her credit.) So if it wasn‘t just sexual passion and Kaphengst was blackmailing Heinrich, he‘d have had to have blackmail material, naturally. This couldn‘t be the relationship itself, since Heinrich was as openly gay as it was possible to be in later 17th century Prussia. Just about the only thing I can think of was if Heinrich wrote a detailed „here‘s how I‘d kill my brother the King“ plan and Kaphengst got his hand on it. But the problem with that one is that a) Kaphengst only became prominent in Heinrich‘s life in the mid 1760s, i.e. after the 7 Years War, which was the only time frame when you could have pulled off something like that in Prussia (unlike Russia), b) Kaphengst comes across in all reports on him as someone with zero self control, giving into his every instinct, and to conduct a blackmail operation and keep your material secret, that lasts so long, you do need self control, and c) Heinrich gave every indication of being fond of Kaphengst not just from afar but up close, to people who knew him pretty well (Lehndorff included), for the majority of the relationship. If Kaphengst had blackmailed him, he‘d have built up resentment, and when Heinrich was resentful, you noticed.
There‘s also the way Lehndorff‘s Kaphengst-menrtionig diary entries in the 1780s come across as reporting a gradual fading until Kaphengst (with double chin) in Berlin when Heinrich is there for the winter is just one of the people in the anteroom, to Lehndorff‘s delight. This sounds like an affair running its course to me, not to mention that Lehndorff simultanously reports the rising prominence of Tauentzien in Heinrich‘s life. (Much like Kalckreuth‘s decline in favour happened in tandem of Kaphengst‘s rise to it.) This works if it‘s a question of fading and new passion, but not if Kaphengst, unlike all the other boyfriends, has blackmail material in his hands.
No Heinrich/Kaphengst fic for me, though, because I need to be interested in both parties to write fanfiction, and Kaphengst by himself doesn‘t come across as interesting to me.
Incidentally, Heinrich/Kaphengst don‘t appear to have been exclusive on Heinrich‘s part, either, given that Mara - whose memorable „if you don‘t act lke a bastard towards this prince, you don‘t get anywhere with him“ statement Lehndorff recorded with indignation - happened during the Kaphengst years. Mind you, Mara as a non-noble artist was not in the same social class as Kalckreuth, Kaphengst and Tauentzien, all of whom were Prussian nobility. And yet, Lehndorff‘s complaints about him sound almost identical to his complaints about Kaphengst - just that Mara didn‘t get a castle and estate out of it. (Though he did get what Tauentzien would later get - an apartment wifhin Heinrich‘s town residence, use of the kitchen and the equipage for himself and his chosen guests, and earlier than that the trip to Paris and studies there.) If I were to write about one of the charismatic spendhrift jerks from the later years, I‘d go for Mara because as an artist - even Lehndorff does not dispute his musical talent - he‘s more interesting to me. (And that story Gertrud Elisabeth tells about him standing up for her so she could sing inside the palace, not in the garden pavillion where nobles could come and go at Rheinsberg does show him in a light beyond „sexy jerk“, too.) There‘s also the outside perspective (since he‘s a non-noble, unlike the other guys). And I‘ve recently learned that once his wife finally had enough and kicked him out, he did visit Heinrich again at Rheinsberg. This was already during the Comte years, and he didn‘t become a favourite again, but unlike, say, Kalckreuth, he was received in a friendly manner, and treated as a guest.
Re: Heinrich readthrough!
Kaphengst: You‘ve still got Fritz‘ involvement ahead, I think, but I also know that I in my original write up was basing this part on Krockow‘ s Heinrich and Fritz double portrait book, and I can tell you Krockow‘s source, which was Fontane in his Rheinsberg chapters, to wit the one on Kaphengst, here: https://www.textlog.de/40338.html .
(Relevant Fontane passage in German, with the „unprintable language“ part marked in fat letters: Der König, der in seiner Sanssouci-Einsamkeit von allem unterrichtet war, mißbilligte, was in Rheinsberg vorging, und wollte dem »Verhältnis« à tout prix ein Ende machen. 1774 überbrachte deshalb ein Page des Königs (von Wülknitz) dem Prinzen Heinrich ein königliches Geschenk von 10000 Stück Friedrichsdor, freilich zugleich mit der Order, »daß er den Major von Kaphengst entlassen möge«, eine Order, deren Wortlaut sich hier der Möglichkeit der Mitteilung entzieht. Der Prinz, aller Zuneigung zu seinem Günstling unerachtet, unter dessen Ungebildetheit und Eitelkeit er gelitten haben mochte, gehorchte dem Befehle sofort und tat es um so lieber, als die Entfernung Kaphengsts dem bestehenden Verhältnis nur die Last und Peinlichkeit eines unausgesetzten Verkehrs nahm, ohne das Verhältnis selbst absolut zu lösen. In der Tat, seitens des Prinzen wurde den 10000 Stück Friedrichsdors seines Bruders aus eigenen Mitteln noch ungefähr dieselbe Summe hinzugefügt und nachher unter Anzahlung von zirka 100000 Talern ein drei Meilen von Rheinsberg gelegener Graf Wartenslebenscher Güterkomplex, der die Rittergüter Meseberg, Baumgarten, Schönermark und Rauschendorf umfaßte, gekauft und deren Kaufkontrakt einige Zeit darauf dem Major von Kaphengst als Geschenk überreicht.
Kaphengst übersiedelte nunmehr nach dem am Huwenowsee gelegenen Schloß Meseberg; aber diese Übersiedlung, wie schon angedeutet, war so wenig gleichbedeutend mit Entfremdung, daß vielmehr umgekehrt das gute Einvernehmen zwischen Prinz und Günstling aus diesen zeitweiligen Trennungen nur neue Nahrung zog. Überhaupt, aller klar zutage liegenden Schwächen und Schattenseiten Kaphengsts zum Trotz, muß dem Wesen desselben ein Etwas eigen gewesen sein, das den alternden Prinzen in erklärlicher und dadurch annähernd gerechtfertigter Weise höchst sympathisch berührte
Note that unlike Fontane, we also have Lehndorff‘s journal entries on the money for Meseberg. Lehndorff‘s repeated „I don‘t get what he sees in the guy!“ are pretty standard for Lehndorff & Heinrich‘s favourites du jour, of course, but the extent of all the money and how quickly Kaphengst ran through it did provide additional frustration for him. Now if you want possible support for Ziebura‘s „maybe blackmail?“ thesis, Lehndorff at one point - which I quote im my write up for volume IV of his diaries - when he says how different Heinrich and Kaphengst are also says that they bore each other when they‘re together longer than 15 minutes, so why? But that‘s late in the relationhip, and Lehndorff also says, looking back once Kaphengst finally is dumped, that Heinrich had had a greater passion for him than any of the other guys.
Since we did speculate for Fredersdorff and Georgii the suicidal hussar along the lines of „what if? with the caveat that it might all have been gossip, we can of course do a „what if?“ for the blackmail theory. (Which Ziebura brings up as a theory only, not a definite statement, to her credit.) So if it wasn‘t just sexual passion and Kaphengst was blackmailing Heinrich, he‘d have had to have blackmail material, naturally. This couldn‘t be the relationship itself, since Heinrich was as openly gay as it was possible to be in later 17th century Prussia. Just about the only thing I can think of was if Heinrich wrote a detailed „here‘s how I‘d kill my brother the King“ plan and Kaphengst got his hand on it. But the problem with that one is that a) Kaphengst only became prominent in Heinrich‘s life in the mid 1760s, i.e. after the 7 Years War, which was the only time frame when you could have pulled off something like that in Prussia (unlike Russia), b) Kaphengst comes across in all reports on him as someone with zero self control, giving into his every instinct, and to conduct a blackmail operation and keep your material secret, that lasts so long, you do need self control, and c) Heinrich gave every indication of being fond of Kaphengst not just from afar but up close, to people who knew him pretty well (Lehndorff included), for the majority of the relationship. If Kaphengst had blackmailed him, he‘d have built up resentment, and when Heinrich was resentful, you noticed.
There‘s also the way Lehndorff‘s Kaphengst-menrtionig diary entries in the 1780s come across as reporting a gradual fading until Kaphengst (with double chin) in Berlin when Heinrich is there for the winter is just one of the people in the anteroom, to Lehndorff‘s delight. This sounds like an affair running its course to me, not to mention that Lehndorff simultanously reports the rising prominence of Tauentzien in Heinrich‘s life. (Much like Kalckreuth‘s decline in favour happened in tandem of Kaphengst‘s rise to it.) This works if it‘s a question of fading and new passion, but not if Kaphengst, unlike all the other boyfriends, has blackmail material in his hands.
No Heinrich/Kaphengst fic for me, though, because I need to be interested in both parties to write fanfiction, and Kaphengst by himself doesn‘t come across as interesting to me.
Incidentally, Heinrich/Kaphengst don‘t appear to have been exclusive on Heinrich‘s part, either, given that Mara - whose memorable „if you don‘t act lke a bastard towards this prince, you don‘t get anywhere with him“ statement Lehndorff recorded with indignation - happened during the Kaphengst years. Mind you, Mara as a non-noble artist was not in the same social class as Kalckreuth, Kaphengst and Tauentzien, all of whom were Prussian nobility. And yet, Lehndorff‘s complaints about him sound almost identical to his complaints about Kaphengst - just that Mara didn‘t get a castle and estate out of it. (Though he did get what Tauentzien would later get - an apartment wifhin Heinrich‘s town residence, use of the kitchen and the equipage for himself and his chosen guests, and earlier than that the trip to Paris and studies there.) If I were to write about one of the charismatic spendhrift jerks from the later years, I‘d go for Mara because as an artist - even Lehndorff does not dispute his musical talent - he‘s more interesting to me. (And that story Gertrud Elisabeth tells about him standing up for her so she could sing inside the palace, not in the garden pavillion where nobles could come and go at Rheinsberg does show him in a light beyond „sexy jerk“, too.) There‘s also the outside perspective (since he‘s a non-noble, unlike the other guys). And I‘ve recently learned that once his wife finally had enough and kicked him out, he did visit Heinrich again at Rheinsberg. This was already during the Comte years, and he didn‘t become a favourite again, but unlike, say, Kalckreuth, he was received in a friendly manner, and treated as a guest.