On the 18th, too of the King's body pages had to stand on the block for four hours at Neumarkt because they'd forgotten to bring the King's overcoat along in the morning for the parade when it had started to rain.
Oh, THAT incident! That's actually ringing a bell; I've read that somewhere before.
Hmm. How many body pages does a king have at one time? I feel like we're increasing the odds that one of them was my low-key fave Peter Keith. Otoh, it says "two of", which means not all, which means perhaps not Peter. Sucks to be them regardless. (I'm just trying to do my duty as biographer.)
Stratemann, interestingly, also provides the entire (French) text of the poem Katte wrote while under arrest at his regiment still in Berlin which you probably know from various biographies.
I do, but I think this is the first time I've seen the whole thing, thank you!
Except the editor has omitted a line:
non sans esperance de se revoir bientôt én liberté, quoique la façon d'ont-il-a-été gardé Par le temps et la Patience
"la façon d'ont-il-a-été gardé" is grammatically incomplete, has no punctuation before the capital letter of "Par", and thanks to Wilhelmine, we actually know what it said: "the manner in which he is guarded seems to prognosticate something fatal."
It's good to have the full thing (mostly)! Actually, since Wilhelmine wrote in French, I should be able to supply the missing text.
lui fasse augurer quelque chose de funeste.
Oh, this is interesting: she presents the material in a different order, where only the last 5 lines are in verse, and the ones immediately before them, from Celui qu la curiosité on, are in prose, which she says were written below that short verse. The first several lines of the poem, which were new to me, she doesn't reproduce at all.
Berlin, June 31st 1731: Supposedly General Lieutenant v. Katte after leading his regiment at the revue before the King got off his horse and put his sword at the King's feet, and asked again for his demission, whereupon his majesty showed himself very much displeased. Rumor even has it (Hans Heinrich) got arrested as a consequence.
Now, obviously the arrest didn't happen - I don't think biographers would have overlooked that! -, but this is also the first time I heard about Hans Heinrich making this gesture.
Wooow. Yeah, I gather that didn't make it into the Hans Heinrich biographical monograph you picked up at Wust.
Since the revue was a really big public spectacle (this is also why Fritz was pissed off when Heinrich didn't salute him properly in the after the 7 Years War, remember), such a gesture would have been quite something.
Yes, seriously, WOW. Go Hans Heinrich. I'm glad that you don't know what happened to your other sons; you really didn't have good luck there.
And does argue it's FW Hans Heinrich is struggling for forgive. Not to mention that it gives the lie to the "Hans Heinrich totally on board with FW executing his son!" version. All the more so since Stratemann is really the most FW friendly envoy ever.
Yes! More evidence! To go with the commissioned painting and the letters we have from Hans Heinrich, I'm pretty convinced. Plus it makes your theory even more likely as to why Hans Hermann is still in that same wooden coffin from Küstrin, instead of prettying it up to look like a normal death.
Okay, while I doubt Heinrich asking for Dad's portrait was about more than "big sis got something special, I'd like to have one of those as well", it does provide ammo together with the fish for supper at the start of the year if you want to make a case that FW at this early point indulged him somewhat.
Yep! I imagine that had changed by 1736, year of raiding Fritz's larder?
in the midst of this the King took from the Prince the sole much loved valet left
Wait, what? Another much-loved valet? Do we know anything about this individual? Was this just the random Küstrin servant that FW said should come shave him and for a brief period wasn't allowed to even sleep in the same room as Fritz, but had to visit daily?
Now I have a headcanon that the Münchow and/or Lepel got to pick the servant, and they looked around for someone who would be extra nice to this poor abused boy and future monarch whom they want to stay on the good side of.
Man, between this and the letter to Wilhelmine, I'm thinking Fredersdorf did *not* go to Berlin on any of Fritz's visits, at least the early ones, in disguise as a lackey or no. Yikes. :/
Not receiving communion might not seem a harsh punishment to us, but it's actually really nasty, because if Wilhelmine had died during that time, she'd have died in a damned state.
Never use religion to bring comfort when you can use it a stick to wield, says FW.
This was in Oster, which I got to the other day, but thank you for spelling out what it really *meant*. I am never quite clear on the precise theology of things like Pietism (ironically, I know far more about the finer theological points of obscure early Christian schisms than more modern denominations).
Anyway, see what I mean about Wihelmine being kept as much a prisoner as Fritz? Actually more so, since he gets to attend and work in the Küstrin government, which might not be the most thrilling of occupations but is at least something other than sit and brood in a room.
Yep, it definitely sucked in ways that his didn't. On the one hand, she was in proximity to FW and had nothing to occupy her time with besides music (though I like to think that people were smuggling her books, too); on the other, she had music and at least a couple people she loved with her. It sucks to be both of them.
Re: The Braunschweig Perspective: Family Holidays
Oh, THAT incident! That's actually ringing a bell; I've read that somewhere before.
Hmm. How many body pages does a king have at one time? I feel like we're increasing the odds that one of them was my low-key fave Peter Keith. Otoh, it says "two of", which means not all, which means perhaps not Peter. Sucks to be them regardless. (I'm just trying to do my duty as biographer.)
Stratemann, interestingly, also provides the entire (French) text of the poem Katte wrote while under arrest at his regiment still in Berlin which you probably know from various biographies.
I do, but I think this is the first time I've seen the whole thing, thank you!
Except the editor has omitted a line:
non sans esperance de
se revoir bientôt
én liberté, quoique
la façon d'ont-il-a-été gardé
Par le temps et la Patience
"la façon d'ont-il-a-été gardé" is grammatically incomplete, has no punctuation before the capital letter of "Par", and thanks to Wilhelmine, we actually know what it said: "the manner in which he is guarded seems to prognosticate something fatal."
It's good to have the full thing (mostly)! Actually, since Wilhelmine wrote in French, I should be able to supply the missing text.
lui fasse augurer quelque chose de funeste.
Oh, this is interesting: she presents the material in a different order, where only the last 5 lines are in verse, and the ones immediately before them, from Celui qu la curiosité on, are in prose, which she says were written below that short verse. The first several lines of the poem, which were new to me, she doesn't reproduce at all.
Berlin, June 31st 1731: Supposedly General Lieutenant v. Katte after leading his regiment at the revue before the King got off his horse and put his sword at the King's feet, and asked again for his demission, whereupon his majesty showed himself very much displeased. Rumor even has it (Hans Heinrich) got arrested as a consequence.
Now, obviously the arrest didn't happen - I don't think biographers would have overlooked that! -, but this is also the first time I heard about Hans Heinrich making this gesture.
Wooow. Yeah, I gather that didn't make it into the Hans Heinrich biographical monograph you picked up at Wust.
Since the revue was a really big public spectacle (this is also why Fritz was pissed off when Heinrich didn't salute him properly in the after the 7 Years War, remember), such a gesture would have been quite something.
Yes, seriously, WOW. Go Hans Heinrich. I'm glad that you don't know what happened to your other sons; you really didn't have good luck there.
And does argue it's FW Hans Heinrich is struggling for forgive. Not to mention that it gives the lie to the "Hans Heinrich totally on board with FW executing his son!" version. All the more so since Stratemann is really the most FW friendly envoy ever.
Yes! More evidence! To go with the commissioned painting and the letters we have from Hans Heinrich, I'm pretty convinced. Plus it makes your theory even more likely as to why Hans Hermann is still in that same wooden coffin from Küstrin, instead of prettying it up to look like a normal death.
Okay, while I doubt Heinrich asking for Dad's portrait was about more than "big sis got something special, I'd like to have one of those as well", it does provide ammo together with the fish for supper at the start of the year if you want to make a case that FW at this early point indulged him somewhat.
Yep! I imagine that had changed by 1736, year of raiding Fritz's larder?
in the midst of this the King took from the Prince the sole much loved valet left
Wait, what? Another much-loved valet? Do we know anything about this individual? Was this just the random Küstrin servant that FW said should come shave him and for a brief period wasn't allowed to even sleep in the same room as Fritz, but had to visit daily?
Now I have a headcanon that the Münchow and/or Lepel got to pick the servant, and they looked around for someone who would be extra nice to this poor abused boy and future monarch whom they want to stay on the good side of.
Man, between this and the letter to Wilhelmine, I'm thinking Fredersdorf did *not* go to Berlin on any of Fritz's visits, at least the early ones, in disguise as a lackey or no. Yikes. :/
Not receiving communion might not seem a harsh punishment to us, but it's actually really nasty, because if Wilhelmine had died during that time, she'd have died in a damned state.
Never use religion to bring comfort when you can use it a stick to wield, says FW.
This was in Oster, which I got to the other day, but thank you for spelling out what it really *meant*. I am never quite clear on the precise theology of things like Pietism (ironically, I know far more about the finer theological points of obscure early Christian schisms than more modern denominations).
Anyway, see what I mean about Wihelmine being kept as much a prisoner as Fritz? Actually more so, since he gets to attend and work in the Küstrin government, which might not be the most thrilling of occupations but is at least something other than sit and brood in a room.
Yep, it definitely sucked in ways that his didn't. On the one hand, she was in proximity to FW and had nothing to occupy her time with besides music (though I like to think that people were smuggling her books, too); on the other, she had music and at least a couple people she loved with her. It sucks to be both of them.
UGH.