No part 4 indication. Now, part 2 already described the letters affair which I think you must know from Horowski and elsewhere, i.e. the Brits via Hotham presented FW with the letters Grumbkow and Reichenbach (the Prussian resident in London) exchanged as proof for Grumbkow being the worst. Cue much indignation from Oncken about the disgraceful opening of diplomatic letters. Hothan is the most provocative worst envoy England ever sent. While this was going on, Hotham also had been authorized to offer the old compromise, i.e. a double wedding, but Fritz/one of G2's daughters was a must.
(Reminder: ever since the Clement affair, the Prussians also opened envoy letters they got their hands on. Not all the time, but often enough. If you read Oncken, you'd think the Brits were the only ones to open letters and invented the practice.)
FW throws the Grumbkow letter on the floor and yells at Hotham. Not only is he refusing to believe ill of Grumbkow, he is promoting Reichenbach to, as Hotham reports home, "vice president of all spiritual affairs of the country", with a salary of 1000 Taler per annum. Hotham now wants to leave, but this is when Guy Dickens has his first secret meeting with Fritz and of course immediately reports to Hotham that the Crown Prince wants to leave (via France but with Britain as his long term destination). Now Hotham stays, Dickens goes to Britain immediately to report this to G2. G2 sends a letter back that's essentially "calm down, nephew, you have our sympathies, but maybe not do a runner?" (remember, the near war/duel was just last year; methinks G2 actually does believe FW would go to war if Fritz shows up in England). During the Dickens trip to London and back, there are slightly contradictory reports from Hotham, Seckendorff and Grumbkow in their respective letters as to whether or not Hotham offered FW as a last minute compromise what FW wanted all along, the separation of the two marriages, with FoW/Wilhelmine now, and Fritz/any of G2's daughters he wants a few years later. But for Oncken, all is clear: the true criminals which are at fault for the big tragedy in Fritz' life are the Hannover cousins. Not content with sending Hotham for an anti Grumbkow, anti HRE maneuvre disguised as a marriage negotiation, they encourage SD, Wilhelmine and Fritz in their behaviour towards FW, thus creating and deepening a rift in the Prussian royal family. Then they seduce Fritz into believing he'd be received with open arms by this ambigous mumbling instead of saying clearly that they don't care about the marriages, and of course they don't warn FW. And then they look cold heartedly at the ensuing tragedy. Which would not have happened but for perfidious Albion!
FW, meanwhile, only acted like the thoroughly decent honest man he was, indignant about all this British double talk, about the disregard of private mail and about the slander of his faithful servants, and deeply wounded in the backstabbing from his own family. So there.
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Re: English marriage intrigues
Date: 2021-03-15 04:10 pm (UTC)(Reminder: ever since the Clement affair, the Prussians also opened envoy letters they got their hands on. Not all the time, but often enough. If you read Oncken, you'd think the Brits were the only ones to open letters and invented the practice.)
FW throws the Grumbkow letter on the floor and yells at Hotham. Not only is he refusing to believe ill of Grumbkow, he is promoting Reichenbach to, as Hotham reports home, "vice president of all spiritual affairs of the country", with a salary of 1000 Taler per annum. Hotham now wants to leave, but this is when Guy Dickens has his first secret meeting with Fritz and of course immediately reports to Hotham that the Crown Prince wants to leave (via France but with Britain as his long term destination). Now Hotham stays, Dickens goes to Britain immediately to report this to G2. G2 sends a letter back that's essentially "calm down, nephew, you have our sympathies, but maybe not do a runner?" (remember, the near war/duel was just last year; methinks G2 actually does believe FW would go to war if Fritz shows up in England). During the Dickens trip to London and back, there are slightly contradictory reports from Hotham, Seckendorff and Grumbkow in their respective letters as to whether or not Hotham offered FW as a last minute compromise what FW wanted all along, the separation of the two marriages, with FoW/Wilhelmine now, and Fritz/any of G2's daughters he wants a few years later. But for Oncken, all is clear: the true criminals which are at fault for the big tragedy in Fritz' life are the Hannover cousins. Not content with sending Hotham for an anti Grumbkow, anti HRE maneuvre disguised as a marriage negotiation, they encourage SD, Wilhelmine and Fritz in their behaviour towards FW, thus creating and deepening a rift in the Prussian royal family. Then they seduce Fritz into believing he'd be received with open arms by this ambigous mumbling instead of saying clearly that they don't care about the marriages, and of course they don't warn FW. And then they look cold heartedly at the ensuing tragedy. Which would not have happened but for perfidious Albion!
FW, meanwhile, only acted like the thoroughly decent honest man he was, indignant about all this British double talk, about the disregard of private mail and about the slander of his faithful servants, and deeply wounded in the backstabbing from his own family. So there.