Finished Krockow yesterday, moving on to Horowski (but mostly Yuletide fic :P).
* Remember how the Hohenzollerns are Calvinists while the majority of their subjects are Lutherans? Krockow tells me how this came to pass:
The Hohenzollerns, however, were no longer Lutherans since 1613, but Calvinists. There were extremely earthly reasons for this change of faith; in the inheritance dispute over areas on the Lower Rhine, Elector Johann Sigismund wanted to win the House of Orange as an ally. The opposing party, also Lutheran, became Catholic to get the emperor on their side.
In case you thought that was about principle, or anything.
FW: But Luther was right about predestination!
* Speaking of FW, another chaaaarming quote from him:
Later, during Friedrich's imprisonment in Küstrin, when it was said that the Crown Prince was ill and might die, the King remarked coldly: "As it is predestined, will everything go; if there were anything good about him, he would die, but I am certain that he will not die, because weeds don't die."
Quoted for A+ parenting, but also, "Wie es prädestiniert ist, wird alles gehen." Okay, FW!
Unrelated: ZOMG I don't care when he met Fredersdorf, I need a hurt/comfort where Fritz is sick at Küstrin and might die and Fredersdorf is *there* for him. <33
* I hadn't realized this, but after East Prussia surrendered to Russia in the Seven Years' War and paid homage to Elizaveta, Fritz held a grudge and refused to go there ever again, for as long as he lived. This was so surprising that I went and checked out my fanvid (I love that works as a reference!), and sure enough! His political and personal correspondence on Trier have no record of him going to East Prussia. Only West Prussia after the acquisition.
* This one's for cahn, who will understand why I find this funny. Krockow's talking about Prussian cost-cutting when building palaces (apparently, the parquet floor at Rheinsberg was originally plain wood!), and he said, "There was talk of a marble hall, but actually, it was the reverse: imitations were slapped on."
* Krockow also points out that Rheinsberg was under renovation the entire time Fritz lived there (remember, the "Fritz as rising son" ceiling design FW wasn't supposed to see wasn't finished until 1740), which means all the intellectual and artistic activity was taking place in a noisy environment.
My first thought was: considering all the anecdotes I hear about Fritz having to hold concerts in the woods and in vaults/caves to escape his father's spies, the noise probably helped with his stealth flute practice! (Now that Katte wasn't there to stand guard. :()
* Heinrich was at Mollwitz? I'd forgotten that.
* My command of German nuance isn't good enough to tell if Krockow is being tongue-in-cheek when he says it can't be doubted that ghosts exist at Rheinsberg and enumerates examples. I love a good Rheinsberg ghost story as much as the next person, but ghosts aren't real, people!
* Keyserlingk: Frederick perceived his appearance as "the sun breaking through the frosty winter fog." So Fritz used this metaphor of at least one of his friends! Total support for my "Diaphane" headcanon (which I haven't encountered anywhere else). :D
* Krockow cites the anecdote that Fritz tried to wean himself from sleep, which his body responded to with colic and cramps. I assume this had to do with excessive consumption of coffee. I wish he'd cite a source!
* "historical argument"
Yep, that's the entire note I left in my file as I was reading this. I have no idea anymore what I meant to talk about with this one. Curse you, past self! (In my past self's defense, I was typing on my phone with a bluetooth mouse, no easy task.)
* Krockow believes in the "she cried but she took" quote from Fritz about MT.
* Oh, cahn, I thought of you immediately. One of our sources for Heinrich's trip to Paris is someone he met there who says that although he was a mediocre violin player, he never missed a chance to practice, and was never intimidated by the presence of virtuosos from performing and never turned down an invitation to perform. That's an interesting piece of characterization!
* Heinrich initially planned to spend the rest of his life in Paris, and even after the French Revolution broke out, he would gladly have stayed and watched, but friends talked him into leaving, thus forcing him back into frustrated retirement in Prussia. :/
* Amalie/Trenck probably belongs to the stuff of legend, but the suspicion was evidently enough to accuse Trenck of high treason and to persecute him relentlessly. Friedrich had him illegally arrested abroad and chained in inhumane conditions for almost a decade. Only an intercession from Maria Theresa saved the unfortunate. Amalie is said to have tried to poison herself and, as a contemporary witness writes, became terribly ugly about it.
Somebody hasn't read Volz. Also, Amalie trying to poison herself: I missed that. I'm not seeing it in either of our rheinsberg entries. Seems suspect.
* Krockow reminds me of the existence of Blaineville, Heinrich boyfriend who committed suicide, and about whom we know very little except that he was an actor. Quoting selenak previous comments as a reminder:
The actor Blainville, a particular favourite of the Prince's, committed suicide after an intrigue of his colleagues had managed to temporarily remove his lord's favour from him. The Prince supposedly never got over this loss. (I don't recall Ziebura's Heinrich biography having much more on Blainville, presumably because Lehndorff doesn't even mention him. Maybe Blainville came to the scene after the printed diaries end, i.e. post Lehndorff's resignation as chamberlain, or maybe he simply didn't register much with Lehndorff.) Note that none of the other boyfriends get accused, even implicitly, of murdering Blainville! (I really can't wait to find out whether Hahn gave Blanning any reason for this.)
Heinrich employed a troupe of players [at Rheinsberg] - till the end of his life - which in the last fifteen years of same was the sole remaining ensemble of French players regularly performing in any German state. He often was on stage as well, and basically was a producer/director once Blainville had committed suicide (Blainville was the director before that time).
Incidentally, also worth exploring: Heinrich's actors at Rheinsberg. There's the tragic one, Blainville, who committed suicide, true, but most seem to have been glad to have found a place to stay, especially when less and less people in Germany wanted to see French plays in French, and going back to revolutionary France wasn't really an option for most of them.
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Krockow tidbits
Date: 2020-10-30 12:19 am (UTC)* Remember how the Hohenzollerns are Calvinists while the majority of their subjects are Lutherans? Krockow tells me how this came to pass:
The Hohenzollerns, however, were no longer Lutherans since 1613, but Calvinists. There were extremely earthly reasons for this change of faith; in the inheritance dispute over areas on the Lower Rhine, Elector Johann Sigismund wanted to win the House of Orange as an ally. The opposing party, also Lutheran, became Catholic to get the emperor on their side.
In case you thought that was about principle, or anything.
FW: But Luther was right about predestination!
* Speaking of FW, another chaaaarming quote from him:
Later, during Friedrich's imprisonment in Küstrin, when it was said that the Crown Prince was ill and might die, the King remarked coldly: "As it is predestined, will everything go; if there were anything good about him, he would die, but I am certain that he will not die, because weeds don't die."
Quoted for A+ parenting, but also, "Wie es prädestiniert ist, wird alles gehen." Okay, FW!
Unrelated: ZOMG I don't care when he met Fredersdorf, I need a hurt/comfort where Fritz is sick at Küstrin and might die and Fredersdorf is *there* for him. <33
* I hadn't realized this, but after East Prussia surrendered to Russia in the Seven Years' War and paid homage to Elizaveta, Fritz held a grudge and refused to go there ever again, for as long as he lived. This was so surprising that I went and checked out my fanvid (I love that works as a reference!), and sure enough! His political and personal correspondence on Trier have no record of him going to East Prussia. Only West Prussia after the acquisition.
* This one's for
Paper and duct tape! (My previous landlord was clearly a good Prussian.)
* Krockow also points out that Rheinsberg was under renovation the entire time Fritz lived there (remember, the "Fritz as rising son" ceiling design FW wasn't supposed to see wasn't finished until 1740), which means all the intellectual and artistic activity was taking place in a noisy environment.
My first thought was: considering all the anecdotes I hear about Fritz having to hold concerts in the woods and in vaults/caves to escape his father's spies, the noise probably helped with his stealth flute practice! (Now that Katte wasn't there to stand guard. :()
* Heinrich was at Mollwitz? I'd forgotten that.
* My command of German nuance isn't good enough to tell if Krockow is being tongue-in-cheek when he says it can't be doubted that ghosts exist at Rheinsberg and enumerates examples. I love a good Rheinsberg ghost story as much as the next person, but ghosts aren't real, people!
* Keyserlingk: Frederick perceived his appearance as "the sun breaking through the frosty winter fog." So Fritz used this metaphor of at least one of his friends! Total support for my "Diaphane" headcanon (which I haven't encountered anywhere else). :D
* Krockow cites the anecdote that Fritz tried to wean himself from sleep, which his body responded to with colic and cramps. I assume this had to do with excessive consumption of coffee. I wish he'd cite a source!
* "historical argument"
Yep, that's the entire note I left in my file as I was reading this. I have no idea anymore what I meant to talk about with this one. Curse you, past self! (In my past self's defense, I was typing on my phone with a bluetooth mouse, no easy task.)
* Krockow believes in the "she cried but she took" quote from Fritz about MT.
* Oh,
* Heinrich initially planned to spend the rest of his life in Paris, and even after the French Revolution broke out, he would gladly have stayed and watched, but friends talked him into leaving, thus forcing him back into frustrated retirement in Prussia. :/
* Amalie/Trenck probably belongs to the stuff of legend, but the suspicion was evidently enough to accuse Trenck of high treason and to persecute him relentlessly. Friedrich had him illegally arrested abroad and chained in inhumane conditions for almost a decade. Only an intercession from Maria Theresa saved the unfortunate. Amalie is said to have tried to poison herself and, as a contemporary witness writes, became terribly ugly about it.
Somebody hasn't read Volz. Also, Amalie trying to poison herself: I missed that. I'm not seeing it in either of our
* Krockow reminds me of the existence of Blaineville, Heinrich boyfriend who committed suicide, and about whom we know very little except that he was an actor. Quoting
The actor Blainville, a particular favourite of the Prince's, committed suicide after an intrigue of his colleagues had managed to temporarily remove his lord's favour from him. The Prince supposedly never got over this loss. (I don't recall Ziebura's Heinrich biography having much more on Blainville, presumably because Lehndorff doesn't even mention him. Maybe Blainville came to the scene after the printed diaries end, i.e. post Lehndorff's resignation as chamberlain, or maybe he simply didn't register much with Lehndorff.) Note that none of the other boyfriends get accused, even implicitly, of murdering Blainville! (I really can't wait to find out whether Hahn gave Blanning any reason for this.)
Heinrich employed a troupe of players [at Rheinsberg] - till the end of his life - which in the last fifteen years of same was the sole remaining ensemble of French players regularly performing in any German state. He often was on stage as well, and basically was a producer/director once Blainville had committed suicide (Blainville was the director before that time).
Incidentally, also worth exploring: Heinrich's actors at Rheinsberg. There's the tragic one, Blainville, who committed suicide, true, but most seem to have been glad to have found a place to stay, especially when less and less people in Germany wanted to see French plays in French, and going back to revolutionary France wasn't really an option for most of them.