No time to do a full salon reply before work, but as the genealogist, I got curious about James Stuart Mackenzie and Lord Bute, and what should Wikipedia tell me but that they were brothers!
James Stuart Mackenzie's wiki page, stating that he was the second son of James Stuart, 2nd Earl of Bute, that he was the brother of Lord Bute, and that he had an affair with Barbarina, was arrested in Venice, brought back to Berlin, and kicked out of Prussia.
He was envoy to Sardinia 1758-1761, and recalled to GB in August 1761. Nothing about being involved in cutting Fritz's funding off in 1762.
Lord Bute (English wiki because more detail), first son of the 2nd Earl of Bute.
So, unless English and German wiki are both extremely wrong, Zimmermann trumps Nicolai in the matter of Scottish genealogy! Not yet in the matter of cutting off Prussian subsidies. Skimming a JSTOR article that was linked by Wikipedia on Lord Bute and Fritz and the 1762 fallout shows me no mentions of the name Mackenzie, although there's no reason to believe that article is comprehensive. Still, the author devotes dozens of pages to arguing that this was a decision driven not by personal animosity between Lord Bute and Fritz, but by the considerations of international politics (which it enumerates in detail). Which I readily believe.
Still, it seems it would be worth a detective pursuing Mackenzie some more.
There are a lot of numbers and locations in Nicolai's refutation, demonstrating all Zimmermann got wrong, but you'll forgive if I don't transcribe them.
Mackenzie and Bute
Barbarina's wiki page.
James Stuart Mackenzie's wiki page, stating that he was the second son of James Stuart, 2nd Earl of Bute, that he was the brother of Lord Bute, and that he had an affair with Barbarina, was arrested in Venice, brought back to Berlin, and kicked out of Prussia.
He was envoy to Sardinia 1758-1761, and recalled to GB in August 1761. Nothing about being involved in cutting Fritz's funding off in 1762.
Lord Bute (English wiki because more detail), first son of the 2nd Earl of Bute.
So, unless English and German wiki are both extremely wrong, Zimmermann trumps Nicolai in the matter of Scottish genealogy! Not yet in the matter of cutting off Prussian subsidies. Skimming a JSTOR article that was linked by Wikipedia on Lord Bute and Fritz and the 1762 fallout shows me no mentions of the name Mackenzie, although there's no reason to believe that article is comprehensive. Still, the author devotes dozens of pages to arguing that this was a decision driven not by personal animosity between Lord Bute and Fritz, but by the considerations of international politics (which it enumerates in detail). Which I readily believe.
Still, it seems it would be worth a detective pursuing Mackenzie some more.
There are a lot of numbers and locations in Nicolai's refutation, demonstrating all Zimmermann got wrong, but you'll forgive if I don't transcribe them.
You are forgiven. :)