As a dedicated watcher to Sachsens Glanz und Preußens Gloria, the reply to the second question is simple: Saxons are the sexiest! They have practice, what with Saxon politics always involving lots of affairs, and so no one can resist them! Only Swiss spies are as sexy and irrestable.
August III.: I just want everyone to be happy and get along.
His very ambitious ministers duking it out: We don't.
Don't worry, August, you'll get your revenge in the 1750s when thousands of conscripted Saxons desert Fritz's service en masse! A Pyrrhic victory, but still.
Loooong before that, sexy Italian Algarotti deserts Fritz for the fleshpots of Saxony in 1741. :)
Sigh about Russian wiki. Yeah, the reason alas is obvious. As for German wiki, I note it's generally more conservative in 18th century articles (see also Lady Mary/Hervey/Algarotti triangle and the different presentations thereof), but that's because it all too often takes its info from copyright free 19th century publications. When they don't, such as when writing about the wild history of the Casanova memoirs and their translations/bowlderizations, this is less of a problem, and of course articles about modern bi or gay people are different.
Poor Anton Ulrich.
the Julia Mengden wiki page article tells me she voluntarily followed Anna Leopoldovna to prison, but when the family was sent to remote Russia in 1744, Mengden was left behind in the old prison. :( At least Catherine let her go when she became Tsarina in 1762 (as not being remotely a threat, I assume).
No one could raise a rebellion in Julia Mengden's name. (The biographies gave me the impression that Catherine's cruelties weren't, as a rule, pointless. But woe to you if you were in any way a possible candidate for the throne, no matter how unlikely, given she's someone with absolutely zero blood right on it and knows by personal example that coup staging can be done.) Back to Julia Mengden, though; her going with Anna initially does make it sound like true love.
Oh, and if we're listing Saxon envoys to Russia and royal loves - may I remind you who also was one? Poniatowski, after he couldn't be Charles Hanbury-Williams Legetation secretary anymore.
In conclusion, Saxon envoys clearly are the sexiest.
Algarotti: Let me put in a good words for British envoys, since one of them was the tastiest dish to me.....
Re: Saxon envoys and Russian threesomes
August III.: I just want everyone to be happy and get along.
His very ambitious ministers duking it out: We don't.
Don't worry, August, you'll get your revenge in the 1750s when thousands of conscripted Saxons desert Fritz's service en masse! A Pyrrhic victory, but still.
Loooong before that, sexy Italian Algarotti deserts Fritz for the fleshpots of Saxony in 1741. :)
Sigh about Russian wiki. Yeah, the reason alas is obvious. As for German wiki, I note it's generally more conservative in 18th century articles (see also Lady Mary/Hervey/Algarotti triangle and the different presentations thereof), but that's because it all too often takes its info from copyright free 19th century publications. When they don't, such as when writing about the wild history of the Casanova memoirs and their translations/bowlderizations, this is less of a problem, and of course articles about modern bi or gay people are different.
Poor Anton Ulrich.
the Julia Mengden wiki page article tells me she voluntarily followed Anna Leopoldovna to prison, but when the family was sent to remote Russia in 1744, Mengden was left behind in the old prison. :( At least Catherine let her go when she became Tsarina in 1762 (as not being remotely a threat, I assume).
No one could raise a rebellion in Julia Mengden's name. (The biographies gave me the impression that Catherine's cruelties weren't, as a rule, pointless. But woe to you if you were in any way a possible candidate for the throne, no matter how unlikely, given she's someone with absolutely zero blood right on it and knows by personal example that coup staging can be done.) Back to Julia Mengden, though; her going with Anna initially does make it sound like true love.
Oh, and if we're listing Saxon envoys to Russia and royal loves - may I remind you who also was one? Poniatowski, after he couldn't be Charles Hanbury-Williams Legetation secretary anymore.
In conclusion, Saxon envoys clearly are the sexiest.
Algarotti: Let me put in a good words for British envoys, since one of them was the tastiest dish to me.....