Speaking of sexy Saxons and damaged Prussians, there is a Goethe quote about Lessings Minna von Barnhelm which I can't get quite together again and would need more time to look up that comes to mind here. (Reminder: Minna von Barnhelm is the first German play that deals explicitly with the fallout of the 7 Years War. Minna, our heroine, is a sensible, loving, and yes, sexy Saxon. Tellheim, our hero, is a very damaged stiff necked Prussian who got dishonorably dismissed from the army because he supposedly was corrupt when he really was anything but and gave his utmost to make the occupation better for those Saxons he could help, but his pride won't let him confess the truth and his miserable state to Minna, nor marry her when he can't offer her a future. Of couse, as soon as Minna fakes having lost her estate and money in the war as well, Tellheim immediately proposes again. The happy ending does need a Fritz ex machina, i.e. a letter in which he writes that "my brother" (i.e. Heinrich) has found out the truth about Tellheim and what an honorable and compassionate officer he's been and therefore Tellheim is no longer dishonorably discharged. But by and large the comedy is an ode of sensible sexy Saxons over stiffnecked Prussians who better listen to the Saxons if they know what's good for them, and the Goethe quote is about the symbolism and Lessing trying to achieve Saxon/Prussian reconciliation via art (and Minna as the most charming of all Saxons) in the play.
Oh, duh, why did I not remember he was an envoy? Clearly we have a pattern here! They are the sexiest, and they are more likely to be loyal to their foreign royal loves than to Saxony. Good thing August is so chill!
Well, he can't really complain about Poniatowiski not doing his bit for the Saxon cause, in that Poniatowski held fiery J'Accuse anti Fritz speeches during his stint as Saxon envoy in St. Petersburg (and will in his memoirs go in great detail about just how dastardly Fritz has behaved towards Saxony (and Poland, of course). Alas, though, he still had to leave. That he didn't champion August III's son(s) on the as Kings of Poland after August died in 1763 is another matter. (All this being said, I dare say that if Poniatowski's emotional priority during his time in Russia started with an S, it was for Sophie, not Saxony.)
We discussed how he may have had sex with Peter Keith (who never got to be an envoy, because Fritz is decidedly *not* chill about his envoys going/having gone native
I'm trying to think about memorable Prussian envoys. One of the numerous Podewils clan wrote some memorable "Hot or not? MT" reports between Silesian wars, but he himself isn't someone I know much in terms of personality of. There's Winterfeldt in terms of bringing home the Westminster Treaty in early 1756, but while Winterfedt was definitely A Personality, I don't think he was an official envoy, that was the Swiss secretary of the last guy, no?
...oh, wait, the other Keith, of course, Lord Marischal, in his capacity as Prussian envoy to Versailles. Definitely a personality, but given that his time as envoy coincides with Kaunitz getting the French to sign on the Diplomatic Revolution, well....
Re: Saxon envoys and Russian threesomes
Oh, duh, why did I not remember he was an envoy? Clearly we have a pattern here! They are the sexiest, and they are more likely to be loyal to their foreign royal loves than to Saxony. Good thing August is so chill!
Well, he can't really complain about Poniatowiski not doing his bit for the Saxon cause, in that Poniatowski held fiery J'Accuse anti Fritz speeches during his stint as Saxon envoy in St. Petersburg (and will in his memoirs go in great detail about just how dastardly Fritz has behaved towards Saxony (and Poland, of course). Alas, though, he still had to leave. That he didn't champion August III's son(s) on the as Kings of Poland after August died in 1763 is another matter. (All this being said, I dare say that if Poniatowski's emotional priority during his time in Russia started with an S, it was for Sophie, not Saxony.)
We discussed how he may have had sex with Peter Keith (who never got to be an envoy, because Fritz is decidedly *not* chill about his envoys going/having gone native
I'm trying to think about memorable Prussian envoys. One of the numerous Podewils clan wrote some memorable "Hot or not? MT" reports between Silesian wars, but he himself isn't someone I know much in terms of personality of. There's Winterfeldt in terms of bringing home the Westminster Treaty in early 1756, but while Winterfedt was definitely A Personality, I don't think he was an official envoy, that was the Swiss secretary of the last guy, no?
...oh, wait, the other Keith, of course, Lord Marischal, in his capacity as Prussian envoy to Versailles. Definitely a personality, but given that his time as envoy coincides with Kaunitz getting the French to sign on the Diplomatic Revolution, well....