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Re: Kalckreuth vs Henri de Catt
Date: 2020-05-05 05:16 am (UTC)Looking up publication dates, I see the first authorized by Voltaire print version of the Pucelle didn't hit the shelves until 1762 (printed in Geneva), at which point James Keith was dead anyway. Now there are earlier, unauthorized print versions, of course, several, some of which were released at the right time (i.e. 1758), and I don't expect old Kalckreuth to look up publication dates when dictating memoirs to his son (who wrote a defensive "I love my Dad and you're all wrong about him" preface when the whole Thing finally got into print via Minerva (the publication who as you'll recall also gave us the second Münchow Version). But in addition to the psychology feeling wrong, it further makes the James Keith story unlikely.
Otherwise, Kalkreuth's description of James Keith sounds surprisingly like Lehndorff's (and remember, Lehndorff's diaries were not published or otherwise known at this point) - honest, blunt man, soldiers held his lack of German somewhat against him, Finnish mistress who was clever and Beautiful. (Though Lehndorff gives her Name - Eva - and Kalckreuth does not.) Given by the time Kalckreuth is dictating his memoirs to his son, James Keith has faded in everyone's memoirs, as opposed to his brother Lord Marischal who is recalled as Fritz' bff, I'm taking all the James Keith praise at face value, there's nothing to gain on Kalckreuth's part here. He also says several nice and praising about Mitchell, including, including this back and forth between Mitchell and Fritz (which he has from Heinrich, since Kalckreuth himself wasn't among the selected eight or nine allowed to dine with the King, though Mitchell always was):
England: has just lost an ally which Kalckreuth doesn't Name.
Fritz: You Brits are going to end up allied to no one but God, Mitchell, if your Mr. Pitt keeps pissing off people.
(Dinner table: somehow does not explode in coughs.)
Mitchell: That's the best ally, your Majesty. He doesn't want subsidies.
On the less reliable, but amusing for other reasons side:
Kalckreuth: Okay, so I met Heinrich pre-war and he found me allerliebst, but Fritz didn't allow him to appoint me as AD until 1758. Why? Because Fritz himself wanted me as his Protegé and was severely disappointed that I chose Heinrich to be, ,um, mentored by instead. He never got over the loss of me, too, I mean, just look at my post war career until FW2 came to power.
Re: Kalckreuth vs Henri de Catt
Date: 2020-05-05 05:34 am (UTC)As for Kalckreuth, aspiring Marwitz, LOL.
Is "adorable" a reasonable translation for "allerliebst"? It's also something we wouldn't use in English of someone very tall and striking.
THE most authentic document on Fritz psychology through the Seven Years War. Poor Koser. All that work all those years ago, and people are STILL ignoring it.
*facepalm*
Re: Kalckreuth vs Henri de Catt
Date: 2020-05-05 05:49 pm (UTC)I've been going with "adorable" for "anbetungswürdig" (which Lehndorff uses a lot for his prince) myself, hence my suggestion of "lovely" or "cute" (lovely to the "lieb"- word root, and I think in English it's still something you'd call a girl rather than a tall good Looking man, no?). This said, Kalckreuth dictated to his son in French and his son, being a 19th century guy, translated it into German, so who knows what term Kalckreuth said Heinrich used originally!
Re: Kalckreuth vs Henri de Catt
Date: 2020-05-05 06:05 pm (UTC)"Lovely", though--no, I would generally only use that of a girl or woman, if I were referring to looks rather than personality. Though I don't think the height of the guy would make a difference in this case. Whereas it probably would with "adorable," at least for me.
This said, Kalckreuth dictated to his son in French and his son, being a 19th century guy, translated it into German, so who knows what term Kalckreuth said Heinrich used originally!
True! I suppose we'd need to get our hands on the French memoirs (if we cared more than I think we do). Which I had the impression were still out there, but maybe I'm wrong.
Btw, I did notice that the Minerva journal was the same one that gave us the second Münchow letter! It's kind of funny to be getting familiar with the periodicals, haha. Also: should I take that to mean that I obtained the correct Kalckreuth memoirs for the library?
Re: Kalckreuth vs Henri de Catt
Date: 2020-05-05 06:17 pm (UTC)Re: Kalckreuth vs Henri de Catt
Date: 2020-05-05 06:20 pm (UTC)Re: Kalckreuth vs Henri de Catt
Date: 2020-05-05 07:21 pm (UTC)Btw, the film director I joked about is Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, who directed the Oscar winning movie „The Lives of Others“/Das Leben der Anderen.
Re: Kalckreuth vs Henri de Catt
Date: 2020-05-06 12:29 pm (UTC)Anyway, if that's the one you want, it's in the library now.
Re: Kalckreuth vs Henri de Catt
Date: 2020-05-06 01:00 pm (UTC)Henckel v. Donnersmarck, Graf Leo Amadeus, Militärischer Nachlass, 2 Volumes, Leipzig 1885 next?
(Am confused because both are listed in Ziebura's bibliography, and in the main text she says that Henckel the AD's Diary was edited in Zerbst, so...)
Re: Kalckreuth vs Henri de Catt
Date: 2020-05-06 01:23 pm (UTC)If you need some of the French machine-translated, maybe narrow down which pages you need, and we can work something out.
The Henckel v. Donnersmarcks are deeply confusing, as are the Marwitzes, the Rothenburgs, the Keiths, and a great many others. ;)
ETA: Btw, in the course of looking for Henckel, my search hits turned up this article, entitled "Die preußische Kriegsführung im Siebenjährige Kriege," by Reinhold Koser, that I couldn't check out because it requires a Stabi login. If you can access it with your login, maybe it will be of use! For facts, at least, if not opinions and interpretations.
Henckel vs Kalckreuth: It's Glasow Time!
Date: 2020-05-06 01:54 pm (UTC)On the 2nd (of April), the King had his valet and favourite put in chains. The valet had dismissed a servant who used to be employed by the page Willnitz who is now a Lieutenant at the Gardes du Corps. This servant went back to his former master, who sent him with some orders to Dresden. There, he had the misfortune of meeting Glasow (that's the name of the valet), who had him arrested and sent to the government of Spandau in the name of the King with orders to have him locked up in the Citadel. Herr von Willnitz, supported by von Oppen, wrote to the King in this matter, whereupon it was Glasow who got arrested and interrogated. In his trunk, there were found a thousand proofs of similar villainies. His good friend Wöllner, the King's footman and coffee maker, was also arrested, and condemned to walk the drumhead. (Spießruten laufen.)
Glasow had been so favoured that he'd become the tyrant and supreme master of the Royal Household. Promoted from simple soldier to Chamber Husar, he soon won the affection and the trust of his master, got rid of the treasurer Fredesdorf who thus was dismissed shortly before his death, and became Hofmarschall, stable master, treasurer, valet and the spoiled child of the monarch. He had the most pleasant facial features of the world, blond hair and beautiful colouring, an advantageous figure, in short, everything that pleased. One found in his trunck among other things two pistols and he admitted that he had planned on running away with the treasure box which was always in the King's room. One additionally accused hiim of having stolen papers and having sent them to the Queen of Poland and to the Countess Brühl. The King had him brought to him from the prison, regarded him up and down, gave him two slaps in the face and said that he would have him hanged. It would have happened, too, if the King hadn't in grateful memory of what Glasow had done for him had preferred mercy before justice.
Re: Henckel vs Kalckreuth: It's Glasow Time!
Date: 2020-05-06 02:03 pm (UTC)The gossipy sensationalism is hilarious. I look forward to whatever headcanon you come up with. :)
Oh, btw, if you haven't already found this, Blanning cites Preuss on Glasow:
A petition from Glasow's father, a Zeugleutnant in the artillery with forty-six years' service, dated 22 June 1757, revealed that the offender was twenty years old, his youth being the only mitigating circumstance mentioned. Frederick wrote across the bottom of the petition: "His son's crime is very great but there is some mitigation."
I haven't looked up the Preuss, but the citation is "Preuss, Friedrich der Grosse, vol. 2, p. 402."
Re: Henckel vs Kalckreuth: It's Glasow Time!
Date: 2020-05-06 04:05 pm (UTC)Now, Kalckreuth's "couldn't harm a fly" vs Henckel's "tyrant of the royal household" , Kalckreuth's " was framed by his vengeful servant and the jealous ex-page" vs Henckel's "was outed by his brave servant after he attempted to put him into prison, with the help of the brave ex page", can be explained, sort of, by Kalckreuth writing, err, dictating years after the fact when most people involved are dead and with the benefit of knowing in hindsight how they developed later, while Henckel is reporting (like Lehndorff in Berlin) white hot sensational gossip. And you can argue either way. A servant vengeful for his dismissal telling someone who is jealous of Glasow being in such favour how to frame him would make sense, and then all Henckel knows is the framing. Also, if Glasow managed to rise that high so quickly, he really is bound to have made enemies even if he were a nice guy, and nice guys usually don't make that fast careers. Otoh, I still have trouble believing that a) Fritz gave him all of Fredersdorf's jobs, or b) that he should have dismissed Fredersdorf in favour of Glasow. Note that Lehndorff has heard the gossip the other way around, i.e. Fredersdorf resigning from his job for health reasons and because of Glasow. My own speculation is that it's the timing of Fredersdorf's resignation in combination to Glasow's rise that made people assume one was connected to the other, but Fredersdorf's resignation really was because he could not physically do the job any longer, as evidenced by the fact he died not that long afterwards, and Glasow's rise was because he was pretty, yes, but also because Fritz knew he needed a new valet. (Still not see him handing over the entire treasury to a 20 years old newbie. I mean, this is King Fritz, not Crown Prince Fritz.
Now, re: the undoubtedly un-framed (or so Schmidt-Lötzen insists) Abbé De Prades, haven't seen yet whether or not Henckel thinks he's guilty, but the entries pre-fall mention him very positively and also Winterfeldt scheming against him on general French-hating principle. (Winterfeldt is the boo-hiss figure for Henckel and also for Heinrich even before AW's catastrophe, since Heinrich blames him for the war, i.e. advising Fritz that preemptively invading is the way to go.) Henckel also notes Fritz spends up to four or five hours with de Prades per day, which fits with the time de Catt later claims he's spending with Fritz. But for a professional distruster, Fritz, who thinks he's been betrayed by people close to him (Glasow and de Prades) within months in the same year, is amazingly quick to embrace another confidant.
I'm still torn whether I want Glasow to have been just stupid (drinking chocolate with the Countess Brühl out of vanity because he thinks this famous high ranking woman is after his shapely ass as well when she does try to sound him out re: Fritz intentions) or indeed bribed to do some spying. But the thing is: what could the occupied Saxons have offered him that was better than what he had right then? Especially if he was rumored to be the next Fredersdorf (however inaccurately that might have been)? The only reason why he shouldn't have wanted such a sweet deal to continue is if he was afraid that being physically close to a King risking his life all the time could mean he'd die in battle as well. And even then I can believe he intended to flee with some money rather than spy for the Saxons.
Re: Henckel vs Kalckreuth: It's Glasow Time!
Date: 2020-05-11 04:14 am (UTC)Re: Kalckreuth vs Henri de Catt
Date: 2020-05-11 04:11 am (UTC)I agree that "lovely" isn't usually used of a man in current vernacular, although I feel like older literature will use this more, especially of young men, and height particularly being less of a threshold here than general build (like, I don't think you would say "he was a lovely young man" about someone who was very large and buff, but tall and slender would work). "Adorable," yeah, I guess I would use more of someone smaller, maybe? IDK, I feel a little like I would assume someone using it was speaking of some aspect of their personality rather than their physical nature. :)