Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 20

[cahn]

Yuletide signups so far:
3 requests for Frederician RPF, 2 offers
2 requests for Circle of Voltaire RPF, 3 offers !! :D :D

(I am so curious as to who the third person is!)

Comments

Re: Lehndorff readalong: through July 20, 1753

[selenak]

Princess of Darmstadt: also the recipient of Amalie's "we all suck here, except Louise" letter. (She had asked for useful tips for her daughter to consider when coming to court as future FW2's new wife, whom to cultivate, whom to avoid etc.) Checking out her German wiki entry, I learned a detail I hadn't been aware of before; she had once fired a pistol at her husband's maitresse en titre, Ernestine Flachsland, who was pregnant at the time. (Though she didn't hit her. It happened when their carriages were passing. No idea whehter the Landgräfin was carrying loaded pistols around all the time or just on this occasion.)

Said mistress is a tragic case. She'd come to the Landgraf's attention when he'd ordered his court painter to paint beautiful women, and her portrait had impresed him the most. Making her his mistress meant a promotion for the entire family (this is important later). Her son by the Landgraf (whom she was pregnant with during that encounter) was given military titles from age 2 onwards, though was to die young, at age 13, and not with her, because by then, the following had happened: a) Ernestine's mother dies, b) Ernestine thinks she can make her own decisions now and falls in love with one Philip Goll, who wants to marry her, c) the Landgraf considers this a sign she does not love him at all, ends the relationship and kicks her out of the house he'd given her, though he does give her a pension of 500 Gulden per annum, which is above the income of the avarage Hessian, and gives the raising of their kid to one of his relations.

Despite the warnings by her sisters, Ernestine does marry Goll (believing the sisters are just against it because the family has done well out of her being maitresse en titre, I presume), who turns out to be a total leech who was indeed just after her money. They separate, and there's a time when Ernestine is literally homeless and lives with her five years old daughter by Goll in a succession of inns. She also had a mental breakdown and what sounds like acute paranoia. At which point her pension of 500 Gulden as well as the guardianship of her daughter by Goll is given to her sister Karoline, who puts Ernestine in an 18th century home for mentally ill people, where she promptly dies not to much later. The reason why we know about this in detail is that her sister Karoline is Karoline Herder, one of the better known women of the German enlightenment. Karoline had married poet, theologian and philosopher Gottfried Herder, friend of Goethe, and moved with him (and Ernestine's daughter) to Weimar. She became the center of one of the key Weimar salons, and having already been her husband's secretary and editor during his life time, after her husband's death she wrote his biography, edited his letters and works and thus became instrumental in its survival. Which is also why her letters unrelated to her husband survived, including the ones telling the sad story of her sister.

James Keith is the older brother of George Keith, Lord Marischal

Hang on, though, I thought James was the younger, hence George having the title (Lord Marischal) already during James' life time?

Interesting that Boswell says he admits the Stuarts deserved to lose the throne. Not surprising: it's a position that's hard to argue with, and there were lots of disillusioned Jacobites after 1746.

He (George Keith) also had a personal reason to be disillusioned with Bonnie Prince Charlie in particular, which is a story Boswell learns not through Lord Marischal himself but via Rousseau, which is why it's entirely in French and a page long and I didn't transcribe it for you. (It's not among the translated into English Rousseau passages in the Best of Boswell collection edited by Wain.) But if you're interested, I can woman up and type all the French. (Rousseau saw George Keith as his patron and protector, that's why they talk about him.)

LOL about Waiting Life.

ZOMG about the Reuß clan and its continuing Heinrich naming obsession.

Erica: presumably Lehndorff means Heather, which is also called Erika in German. I take this to mean the guy had either an uneven face or one full of violet birthmarks.

Re: Lehndorff readalong: through July 20, 1753

[mildred_of_midgard]

Yikes! Poor Ernestine. :/

I thought James was the younger, hence George having the title (Lord Marischal) already during James' life time?

*facepalm* Yes, you're right. Reverse that, cahn.

Erica: presumably Lehndorff means Heather, which is also called Erika in German. I take this to mean the guy had either an uneven face or one full of violet birthmarks.

Wow, I'd found the plant but it hadn't occurred to me it might be relevant in this context. Would never have figured this one out, thank you!

ETA: But if you're interested, I can woman up and type all the French.

Interested but not to the extent that you should type up a page of French. You could take a picture of the page and email it to me?

Re: Lehndorff readalong: through July 20, 1753

[selenak]

Will do! I wanted to scan some other stuff for you anyway.