whereas if the FW job was as awful as rumor had it, he could always hightail it across the Saxon border and try again at the universities there.
Because that worked so well for Gundling?
Teaching kids history in Moscow or becoming FW's scholar-slash-fool?
cahn, let's talk about another bonkers Russian episode! This one's in Horowski, I remember the outlines of the episode from high school days (because it was so bonkers!), and I'm relying on Wikipedia for details because it's easiest.
The period is the 1730s.
The cast:
Anna Ivanovna: Tsarina of Russia. Avdotya Buzheninova: A lady-in-waiting. Prince Golitsyn: A Russian officer.
A little background on Anna: she of the Baltic German lover (alternately called Biron and the Duke of Courland) and the court that attracted Germans (but did not give a job to Algarotti). She whose court Suhm was at, and who died in 1740, leaving her throne to 2-month-old Ivan VI (who will later be locked up). Not to be confused with Ivan VI's mother and regent, Anna Leopoldovna, who is Anna Ivanovna's niece and does not enter into this story.
Golitsyn displeases Anna by marrying a Catholic and converting. She retaliates by kicking his wife out of the country and making him into her court fool. This is a thing she can do to a prince of a major family because this is Russia; this would not fly in places like France or Prussia (no matter how much FW might want to do exactly this :P).
Buzheninova, the lady-in-waiting, is a member of the Kalmuck ethnic group, and is therefore Christian and not of high social standing at the Russian court. One day, she says to Anna that she would like to get married.
Anna has the brilliant absolute monarch idea of forcing this Christian woman to marry her Christian court fool. And this is where it gets bonkers and Russian.
In the winter of 1740, she has an entire palace built of ice for the wedding. The wedding festivities are elaborate. The bride and groom, dressed up as clowns, are placed in a cage (remember, they don't really want to be here) on top of an elephant and driven to the wedding. Other guests are in sledges pulled by camels, pigs, dogs, etc.
The bride and groom are forced to spend their wedding night naked in the ice palace. In a building made of ice, in February, in Russia. There are armed guards to make sure they stay inside the palace.
They nearly freeze to death, as you can imagine. They're supposed to have survived because Buzheninova traded her wedding jewelry for a coat that one of the guards was wearing.
Then they run away from Russia as soon as possible.
So the moral of the story is: no matter how bonkers it is in the rest of Europe, the Russians can always one-up them.
otoh, these two gentlemen wrote within the age of Hohenzollern censorship and like I said, the official version of the First Silesian War was that most of the Silesians were joyfully greeting their Protestant liberator from Habsburg tyranny, not that Fritz sends his father's former scholar-plus-fool as an agitator and spy into the Silesian capital, etc.
Yeeeeah. It would be interesting to see if Volz reproduced any of the relevant documents, though he too is operating under censorship.
Re: The Life and Times of Samuel Jakob Morgenstern
I see wikipedia has a 19th century painting of the ice house wedding (though they're both dressed in it):
no matter how bonkers it is in the rest of Europe, the Russians can always one-up them.
This is true.
this would not fly in places like France or Prussia (no matter how much FW might want to do exactly this :P).
Or else he would have done it. On a less humorous note, the thought of FW with the even greater power of a Czar is... something.
Back to a funnier note again, according to Morgenstern, he thought Prince Eugene, between being old and being senile, would surely collapse in the Philipsburg Campaign, and then the Emperor would have no choice but appoint him, FW, as clearly the only suitable candidate as the supreme commander of the Imperial Forces there, and was very disappointed when this did not happen and Eugene, senile or not, remained in command for the duration of the campaign. Now when I read this, I remembered that in Hervey's memoirs, he claims G2 spent the entire Philippsburg campaign incensed that he, who was clearly THE ONLY WORTHY CANDIDATE among the German princes, couldn't be there when this was probably his last shot to win glory in the field of war, while his stupid brother-in-law who was totally unworthy could be there. These two really were birds of a feather, and Fritz would have had such a weird sense of deja vu if he'd ever made it to England.
Re: The Life and Times of Samuel Jakob Morgenstern
I see wikipedia has a 19th century painting of the ice house wedding (though they're both dressed in it):
Yeah, so my source is Wikipedia, not any kind of original document, so between a Wikipedia article and a 19th century painting of an early 18th century event, either could be correct. ;)
They do look cold, regardless!
Or else he would have done it.
EXACTLY. FW turning a prince into a court fool for marrying a Catholic archduchess? FW torturing his son to death? A Russian FW would have!
On a less humorous note, the thought of FW with the even greater power of a Czar is... something.
ZOMG, yes. Also, let's not forget Peter the Great made it so you got to name your successor. AW would have been tsar in a heartbeat. No need to get Fritz's agreement or ask MT's dad and the diet!
Does Russian Fritz stage a coup in this scenario? Assuming he survives, I think Russian Fritz does. The only question is whether he waits for AW (where he has the advantage of being the firstborn son, by a whole 10 years) or goes straight for FW.
G2 and FW at Phillipsburg, OMG, that's hilarious, of course they did! No wonder they hated each other.
These two really were birds of a feather, and Fritz would have had such a weird sense of deja vu if he'd ever made it to England.
Does Russian Fritz stage a coup in this scenario? Assuming he survives, I think Russian Fritz does. The only question is whether he waits for AW (where he has the advantage of being the firstborn son, by a whole 10 years) or goes straight for FW.
Okay, I want this AU too! :P
Re: The Life and Times of Samuel Jakob Morgenstern
Golitsyn displeases Anna by marrying a Catholic and converting. She retaliates by kicking his wife out of the country and making him into her court fool.
Me: Well, that is pretty bonkers! Mildred: NO. WE HAVE NOT GOTTEN TO THE BONKERS PART YET.
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Re: The Life and Times of Samuel Jakob Morgenstern
Because that worked so well for Gundling?
Teaching kids history in Moscow or becoming FW's scholar-slash-fool?
The period is the 1730s.
The cast:
Anna Ivanovna: Tsarina of Russia.
Avdotya Buzheninova: A lady-in-waiting.
Prince Golitsyn: A Russian officer.
A little background on Anna: she of the Baltic German lover (alternately called Biron and the Duke of Courland) and the court that attracted Germans (but did not give a job to Algarotti). She whose court Suhm was at, and who died in 1740, leaving her throne to 2-month-old Ivan VI (who will later be locked up). Not to be confused with Ivan VI's mother and regent, Anna Leopoldovna, who is Anna Ivanovna's niece and does not enter into this story.
Golitsyn displeases Anna by marrying a Catholic and converting. She retaliates by kicking his wife out of the country and making him into her court fool. This is a thing she can do to a prince of a major family because this is Russia; this would not fly in places like France or Prussia (no matter how much FW might want to do exactly this :P).
Buzheninova, the lady-in-waiting, is a member of the Kalmuck ethnic group, and is therefore Christian and not of high social standing at the Russian court. One day, she says to Anna that she would like to get married.
Anna has the brilliant absolute monarch idea of forcing this Christian woman to marry her Christian court fool. And this is where it gets bonkers and Russian.
In the winter of 1740, she has an entire palace built of ice for the wedding. The wedding festivities are elaborate. The bride and groom, dressed up as clowns, are placed in a cage (remember, they don't really want to be here) on top of an elephant and driven to the wedding. Other guests are in sledges pulled by camels, pigs, dogs, etc.
The bride and groom are forced to spend their wedding night naked in the ice palace. In a building made of ice, in February, in Russia. There are armed guards to make sure they stay inside the palace.
They nearly freeze to death, as you can imagine. They're supposed to have survived because Buzheninova traded her wedding jewelry for a coat that one of the guards was wearing.
Then they run away from Russia as soon as possible.
So the moral of the story is: no matter how bonkers it is in the rest of Europe, the Russians can always one-up them.
otoh, these two gentlemen wrote within the age of Hohenzollern censorship and like I said, the official version of the First Silesian War was that most of the Silesians were joyfully greeting their Protestant liberator from Habsburg tyranny, not that Fritz sends his father's former scholar-plus-fool as an agitator and spy into the Silesian capital, etc.
Yeeeeah. It would be interesting to see if Volz reproduced any of the relevant documents, though he too is operating under censorship.
Re: The Life and Times of Samuel Jakob Morgenstern
no matter how bonkers it is in the rest of Europe, the Russians can always one-up them.
This is true.
this would not fly in places like France or Prussia (no matter how much FW might want to do exactly this :P).
Or else he would have done it. On a less humorous note, the thought of FW with the even greater power of a Czar is... something.
Back to a funnier note again, according to Morgenstern, he thought Prince Eugene, between being old and being senile, would surely collapse in the Philipsburg Campaign, and then the Emperor would have no choice but appoint him, FW, as clearly the only suitable candidate as the supreme commander of the Imperial Forces there, and was very disappointed when this did not happen and Eugene, senile or not, remained in command for the duration of the campaign. Now when I read this, I remembered that in Hervey's memoirs, he claims G2 spent the entire Philippsburg campaign incensed that he, who was clearly THE ONLY WORTHY CANDIDATE among the German princes, couldn't be there when this was probably his last shot to win glory in the field of war, while his stupid brother-in-law who was totally unworthy could be there. These two really were birds of a feather, and Fritz would have had such a weird sense of deja vu if he'd ever made it to England.
Re: The Life and Times of Samuel Jakob Morgenstern
Yeah, so my source is Wikipedia, not any kind of original document, so between a Wikipedia article and a 19th century painting of an early 18th century event, either could be correct. ;)
They do look cold, regardless!
Or else he would have done it.
EXACTLY. FW turning a prince into a court fool for marrying a Catholic
archduchess? FW torturing his son to death? A Russian FW would have!On a less humorous note, the thought of FW with the even greater power of a Czar is... something.
ZOMG, yes. Also, let's not forget Peter the Great made it so you got to name your successor. AW would have been tsar in a heartbeat. No need to get Fritz's agreement or ask MT's dad and the diet!
Does Russian Fritz stage a coup in this scenario? Assuming he survives, I think Russian Fritz does. The only question is whether he waits for AW (where he has the advantage of being the firstborn son, by a whole 10 years) or goes straight for FW.
G2 and FW at Phillipsburg, OMG, that's hilarious, of course they did! No wonder they hated each other.
These two really were birds of a feather, and Fritz would have had such a weird sense of deja vu if he'd ever made it to England.
They even like Handel!
Russian Fritz
Okay, I want this AU too! :P
Re: The Life and Times of Samuel Jakob Morgenstern
Re: The Life and Times of Samuel Jakob Morgenstern
Me: Well, that is pretty bonkers!
Mildred: NO. WE HAVE NOT GOTTEN TO THE BONKERS PART YET.
That was... wow. Something else.