mildred_of_midgard: (Default)
mildred_of_midgard ([personal profile] mildred_of_midgard) wrote in [personal profile] cahn 2021-03-14 08:03 pm (UTC)

Re: Saxon envoys and Russian threesomes

AFAIK, Fritzian envoys tended to complain that they were hamstrung by the micromanaging and being constantly in the dark and having no authority to do anything!

Prussian Count Rothenburg was briefly envoy to Versailles, as I recall. Peter Keith's son was envoy to Turin, but I know nothing about him and have contradictory information even on his first name (I saw some of his correspondence in the archives, though, where he gets named "Peter Karl", which I suspect he's being confused with his father).

I believe there were at least two Prussians named Mardefeld who were envoys to Russia, one under FW and one Fritz. Ah, yes, Wikipedia tells me uncle and nephew. One of them produced this painting of Peter the Great with a black page (who, as I'm now on the alert for, is wearing a silver collar, just like the one in the Fritz and Wilhelmine painting). (Btw, he looks short and is likely not at his adult height yet, but remember that Peter was 6'8"/203 cm, so take that into account. :P)

But yeah, it's hard to even name Prussian envoys off the top of my head. I indeed suspect Fritz's envoys never had a chance to shine because paranoid secretive micromanaging control freak.

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