Vol.1 and Vol.2: Seckendorff the warrior Vol. 3 and Vol.4: Seckendorff the envoy
Aaahh, okay. I had noticed 1-2 were continuous narrative, and 3-4 seemed to be mostly envoy-related documents, which is how I concluded 1-2 were the bio and 3-4 the supporting documentation. Splitting it chronologically was not what I expected!
However, the "envoy" volumes also jump from Seckendorff in the early to mid 20s - Poland and Saxony - to the 1730s (hawking the Pragmatic Sanction all over Europe), with his time in Berlin with FW conspiciously avoided.
Also not what I was expecting. Come on, those are the best years! Zomg.
(hawking the Pragmatic Sanction all over Europe)
"Like demented insurance salesmen" in the memorable phrasing of Asprey.
You'll all have heard of him, some of my readers might even have still met this monster, his very name should call loathing and contempt...
*drumroll*
Wow, okay. cahn, this reason this is so striking is that the Alte Dessauer gets mentioned with total respect in most of the sources selenak and I are reading. While nothing I've read about about him--BFF of FW, introducer of either the goose step or cadenced marching, depending on the source, fake smoker at the Tobacco Parliament (hey, he and Seckendorff had one thing in common!), recipient of FW's hunting dogs upon his death, things like that--makes him one of my faves, this kind of attitude is definitely not what I'm used to seeing. I guess Wilhelmine, maybe.
It also means I really am postponing a proper reading of this biography, because my interest in Seckendorff's various military campaigns through the decades is limited.
Don't blame you! James Keith's memoirs are also heavily military and *also* don't include the Fritz period, but also they're shorter, in English, and cover two Jacobite campaigns that I'm more interested in, so I'm keeping them in mind, though I have no immediate plans to read them. The Russian stuff might be of more interest to us in this fandom.
This actually wasn't entirely wrong, he did, but look, naturally a man of Seckendorff's experience and years would want to offer some free advice to MT, I mean, she did get him out of prison that one time, and what do you mean, that didn't stop him from signing on to Team Wittelsbach thereafter?
*snort*
(Lehndorff: has no problem visiting Seckendorff in Magdeburg, though is not a military man with Seckendorffian loyalties. Definitely is not under the impression Heinrich called Seckendorff Papa.)
*even more snorting*
Anyway, then MT insisted on exchanging Moritz von Anhalt-Dessau, son of that Most Evil Man Of His Time
Who Wikipedia tells me died of blood poisoning (from his wound in the battle in which he was captured--Hochkirch) soon after his release from captivity. What bad luck!
Like Alexander, like Caesar, like his example and protector, the immortal Eugene, (Seckendorff) had no particular distinguishment in his facial traits or figure
I laughed so hard.
Guess what? Like Alexander, like Caesar, like the immortal Eugene, I too have no particular distinguishment in my facial traits or figure! Or, in the words of Eddie Izzard, "Leonardo da Vinci invented the helicopter...that did...not...work. And so did I!"
Field Marshal Grumbkow, the favourite of Friedrich Wilhelm, was an amazing drinker, and often seduced (Seckendorff) into it.
Huh. The take on this I've always seen is that Seckendorff, who knew that Grumbkow was vulnerable to influence when drunk, used to encourage Grumbkow to drink in order to take advantage of him, and had to drink more than he wanted to in order to keep up. Which is not exactly different from what this author is saying, but with a slightly different slant.
Do we know how this guy is related to Seckendorff?
Meanwhile, I wish someone had rescued that poor dwarf.
With you.
Well, thank you for taking one for the team and dipping into this for us! I now know to side-eye any quotes or claims based on it (and in what way to side-eye it, which is more important).
Also, I enjoyed you using the "advancing the cause of Seckendorff" line I came up with in a sexual context--never has a line been more appropriate in a different context.
Oh, cahn! When I was doing historical beta for you and you wanted the quote from Fritz on how slimy Seckendorff was, and I racked my brain and my sources and drew a complete blank...I didn't check Wikipedia. Which I did just now, looking for Prince Moritz, and lo and behold:
He was sordidly scheming; his manners were crude and rustic; lying had become so much second nature to him that he had lost the use of the truth. He was a usurer who sometimes appeared in the guise of a soldier, and sometimes in that of a diplomat.
I'm sure Selena won't mind if you tweak that line in "How I Survived Christmas" accordingly. Sorry for the beta fail!
Re: Advancing the Cause of Seckendorff
Vol. 3 and Vol.4: Seckendorff the envoy
Aaahh, okay. I had noticed 1-2 were continuous narrative, and 3-4 seemed to be mostly envoy-related documents, which is how I concluded 1-2 were the bio and 3-4 the supporting documentation. Splitting it chronologically was not what I expected!
However, the "envoy" volumes also jump from Seckendorff in the early to mid 20s - Poland and Saxony - to the 1730s (hawking the Pragmatic Sanction all over Europe), with his time in Berlin with FW conspiciously avoided.
Also not what I was expecting. Come on, those are the best years! Zomg.
(hawking the Pragmatic Sanction all over Europe)
"Like demented insurance salesmen" in the memorable phrasing of Asprey.
You'll all have heard of him, some of my readers might even have still met this monster, his very name should call loathing and contempt...
*drumroll*
Wow, okay.
It also means I really am postponing a proper reading of this biography, because my interest in Seckendorff's various military campaigns through the decades is limited.
Don't blame you! James Keith's memoirs are also heavily military and *also* don't include the Fritz period, but also they're shorter, in English, and cover two Jacobite campaigns that I'm more interested in, so I'm keeping them in mind, though I have no immediate plans to read them. The Russian stuff might be of more interest to us in this fandom.
This actually wasn't entirely wrong, he did, but look, naturally a man of Seckendorff's experience and years would want to offer some free advice to MT, I mean, she did get him out of prison that one time, and what do you mean, that didn't stop him from signing on to Team Wittelsbach thereafter?
*snort*
(Lehndorff: has no problem visiting Seckendorff in Magdeburg, though is not a military man with Seckendorffian loyalties. Definitely is not under the impression Heinrich called Seckendorff Papa.)
*even more snorting*
Anyway, then MT insisted on exchanging Moritz von Anhalt-Dessau, son of that Most Evil Man Of His Time
Who Wikipedia tells me died of blood poisoning (from his wound in the battle in which he was captured--Hochkirch) soon after his release from captivity. What bad luck!
Like Alexander, like Caesar, like his example and protector, the immortal Eugene, (Seckendorff) had no particular distinguishment in his facial traits or figure
I laughed so hard.
Guess what? Like Alexander, like Caesar, like the immortal Eugene, I too have no particular distinguishment in my facial traits or figure! Or, in the words of Eddie Izzard, "Leonardo da Vinci invented the helicopter...that did...not...work. And so did I!"
Field Marshal Grumbkow, the favourite of Friedrich Wilhelm, was an amazing drinker, and often seduced (Seckendorff) into it.
Huh. The take on this I've always seen is that Seckendorff, who knew that Grumbkow was vulnerable to influence when drunk, used to encourage Grumbkow to drink in order to take advantage of him, and had to drink more than he wanted to in order to keep up. Which is not exactly different from what this author is saying, but with a slightly different slant.
Do we know how this guy is related to Seckendorff?
Meanwhile, I wish someone had rescued that poor dwarf.
With you.
Well, thank you for taking one for the team and dipping into this for us! I now know to side-eye any quotes or claims based on it (and in what way to side-eye it, which is more important).
Also, I enjoyed you using the "advancing the cause of Seckendorff" line I came up with in a sexual context--never has a line been more appropriate in a different context.
Oh,
He was sordidly scheming; his manners were crude and rustic; lying had become so much second nature to him that he had lost the use of the truth. He was a usurer who sometimes appeared in the guise of a soldier, and sometimes in that of a diplomat.
I'm sure Selena won't mind if you tweak that line in "How I Survived Christmas" accordingly. Sorry for the beta fail!