Rhetorical question: Who has the worst intel and an incentive to believe EC has influence?
Non-rhetorical question: When did Stratemann stop being envoy? I know his published reports only go up to 1733, but might he have continued a little longer than that? I have it in my head that he died just before Fritz became king, in 1739, but I can't find anything to back up that source except one website that says "about 1667-1739." Let me check the preface to the envoy reports...
Oh, hey! He died in 1739.
My German isn't fast enough and I don't have enough time before work to tell if he was envoy after 1733 (can someone else take a quick look when they have time? Or I will when I have time), but maybe his successor is writing to the Brunswick minister going, "Look, everything Stratemann told you is hopelessly naive"?
Stratemann's successor reporting home to Braunschweig that reality looks somewhat different is as good an idea as any. As to whether Stratemann was still envoy after 1733, or retired, here's what Richard Wolff says in the preface:
Stratemann muß es verstanden haben, dank seiner guten Beziehungen in Berlin, die Braunschweiger Regierung stets zufriedenzustellen; denn bei dem nachmaligen wiederholten Regierungswechsel wurde in den jedesmal neu ausgestellten Creditiven stets auf seine langjährigen dem braunschweigischen Staate treu geleisteten Dienste rühmend hingewiesen. Auch die fortgesetzte Steigerung seines Gehaltes (während er sich zuerst mit 200 Reichstalern begnügen mußte, stiegen seine jährlichen Einnahmen aus der braunschweigischen Staatskasse schließlich bis auf 700 Taler) und seine am 26. Mai 1734 erfolgte Bestallung zum Geheimen Legationsrat bekunden, daß er dem Braunschweiger Hofe achtbare Dienste geleistet hatte. Am 1. Januar 1739 starb er in einem Alter von mehr als 72 Jahren.
So basically yes, and he kept getting salary raises and promotions, presumably to go along with the glowing reports on how well Hohenzollern family life was doing.
...there is just one fly in an otherwise perfect ointment. At this point, I think Charlotte's husband was Duke. Charlotte as in Fritz' sister, the very one who mocked EC mercilessly and made the crack about bad smells and ulcers in her after. Somehow I can't see Charlotte's husband believing reports on how EC has great influence on Fritz?
Point taken. Stratemann: the official Disney version chronicler of the Hohenzollern Home Life. I really don't envoy his successor having to explain why EC writes letters about feeling like a prisoner back home...
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timeasmymeasure
Re: Valory and Mantteuffel
Date: 2021-02-15 03:41 pm (UTC)Non-rhetorical question: When did Stratemann stop being envoy? I know his published reports only go up to 1733, but might he have continued a little longer than that? I have it in my head that he died just before Fritz became king, in 1739, but I can't find anything to back up that source except one website that says "about 1667-1739." Let me check the preface to the envoy reports...
Oh, hey! He died in 1739.
My German isn't fast enough and I don't have enough time before work to tell if he was envoy after 1733 (can someone else take a quick look when they have time? Or I will when I have time), but maybe his successor is writing to the Brunswick minister going, "Look, everything Stratemann told you is hopelessly naive"?
Re: Valory and Mantteuffel
Date: 2021-02-15 04:08 pm (UTC)Stratemann muß es verstanden haben, dank seiner guten Beziehungen in Berlin, die Braunschweiger Regierung stets zufriedenzustellen; denn bei dem nachmaligen wiederholten Regierungswechsel wurde in den jedesmal neu ausgestellten Creditiven stets auf seine langjährigen dem braunschweigischen Staate treu geleisteten Dienste rühmend hingewiesen. Auch die fortgesetzte Steigerung seines Gehaltes (während er sich zuerst mit 200 Reichstalern begnügen mußte, stiegen seine jährlichen Einnahmen aus der braunschweigischen Staatskasse schließlich bis auf 700 Taler) und seine am 26. Mai 1734 erfolgte Bestallung zum Geheimen Legationsrat bekunden, daß er dem
Braunschweiger Hofe achtbare Dienste geleistet hatte. Am 1. Januar 1739 starb er in einem Alter von mehr als 72 Jahren.
So basically yes, and he kept getting salary raises and promotions, presumably to go along with the glowing reports on how well Hohenzollern family life was doing.
...there is just one fly in an otherwise perfect ointment. At this point, I think Charlotte's husband was Duke. Charlotte as in Fritz' sister, the very one who mocked EC mercilessly and made the crack about bad smells and ulcers in her after. Somehow I can't see Charlotte's husband believing reports on how EC has great influence on Fritz?
Re: Valory and Mantteuffel
Date: 2021-02-15 04:11 pm (UTC)Re: Valory and Mantteuffel
Date: 2021-02-15 04:19 pm (UTC)Re: Valory and Mantteuffel
Date: 2021-02-15 04:59 pm (UTC)don't envoy his successor
Can I just say I love this typo? :D