Political Background As we've seen, the turn of the eighteenth century is when the larger German principalities are doing their level best to move up in the world. August of Saxony becomes king of Poland in 1694. Hanover becomes an electorate in 1708, and the elector becomes king of Great Britain in 1714. Brandenburg becomes the kingdom of Prussia in 1701 (with French recognition in 1714).
Naturally, the Elector of Bavaria doesn't want to be left behind! He wants to be Holy Roman Emperor.
Maximilian II Emmanuel, of the Wittelsbach family: Hey, Leopold, how about it? Me as the next emperor? You're 60, I'm 38, we can make this work.
Leopold: Are you a Habsburg? The word you are looking for here is 'no'.
Max Emmanuel: Louis XIV?
Louis: Depends. Will you help me fight the Habsburgs?
Max Emmanuel: Did you say 'fight the guy who just said he wouldn't support me as emperor'? You're on!
Louis: Deal! Let's see what we can do about making you emperor with French backing.
So now it's 1704. Bavaria is allied with France, supporting Philip V (Bourbon, grandson of Louis XIV), against Austria and much of the HRE, supporting archduke Charles (Habsburg, son of Leopold, future father of MT).
Strategery The problem with Bavaria, if you're on the Allied side, is that it's frighteningly close to Austria. The French and Bavarians are now making an advance in the general direction of Vienna.
Leopold: SOS! SOS!
Eugene: Shit, I'm in Italy. Also, my army is smaller than theirs.
Marlborough: I'm in the Low Countries! Like, hundreds of miles away.
Leopold: SOMEONE DO SOMETHING.
Marlborough: Your Majesty, Queen Anne. Permission to march the army 250 miles/400 km south to rescue our claimant to the Spanish throne.
Anne: Do it!
Dutch: What about us?? You're leaving?! The French will invade!
Marlborough: But if I leave, with my giant army, the French will have to divert troops south too. Don't worry, you'll be fine.
Dutch: *mutter mutter okay fine*
Marlborough: Attention France! I am invading your country this summer!
France: *tries to stop the invasion*
Marlborough: *marches southeast into Bavaria while the French are busy trying to prevent him from marching southwest into France*
Marlborough: *arrives on the Danube* Fooled you!
At the same time, Eugene: *is hurrying north from Italy*
On the Spot The march down the Rhine and east along the first part of the Danube was, I'm told, a strategic and logistical masterpiece, in which Marlborough deceived the French and avoided French attack, supplied his army very efficiently along the route, and arrived with his forces intact in just 5 weeks.
The best map of the march, from The War of the Spanish Succession:
(Sorry about the quality, but it's still more readable than the map in Invincible Generals, which goes for detail over clarity.)
Eugene: *is now also in the vicinity with his troops*
Marlborough and Eugene: *unite*
According to my Invincible Generals book:
So harmonious and unselfish was their [Eugene and Marlborough's] co-operation that popular medals were struck depicting them as Castor and Pollux.
So now the job of Eugene and Marlborough is to interpose their army between Franco-Bavarian forces and Vienna, and either maneuver them away or crush them so that they don't have the resources to assault Vienna.
This they do. Blenheim is the second major battle fought between these two armies in this region within a few weeks. The first one was a Marlborough victory at high cost. (And highly criticized by many people. Including Sophia of Hanover, due to high Hanoverian losses during the battle.)
The second one is the battle of...well. Selena talked about this. Höchstädt to Germans, Blenheim to English speakers.
Getting Ready to Fight Here's the map of the battle, taken from my Invincible Generals book (source of the best map of this battle of all my sources):
In the lower right is the river Danube. Near it, is a hamlet called Blenheim (Blindheim). This is a fortified location. The French had positioned their right wing next to Blenheim, and stationed some reserve troops inside. Then they spread out to the left, across what is called the plain of Höchstädt. The actual town of Höchstädt is off to the southwest along the river; Sir Not Appearing on This Map. (You can see the "To Höchstädt" annotation near the legend on the map, with an arrow pointing southwest.)
So the French have a superior position and slightly superior numbers (10% more troops and 50% more cannon).
What this means is that the French aren't expecting a battle. They're expecting a normal 17th/18th century campaign of chessboard-style maneuvering. But Marlborough is a more aggressive general than most of his contemporaries. Like Fritz, he will try to force a battle, and like Fritz, he will sometimes suffer high casualties (one reason contemporaries liked to avoid battles), and as we've seen, his most recent battle received criticism for just this reason.
Central Attack Tactics Are Exactly Straight At Blenheim, Marlborough does a thing that strikes you as very weird if you're used to 18th century military history: he puts most of his cavalry in the middle instead of on the flanks. He makes it work!
He attacks frontally, advancing his line forward. He successfully forces the crossing of the small river (the Nebel) between the two armies, and then he attacks Blenheim. Here's the map again so you don't have to scroll up:
He fails to take Blenheim in the early stages of the battle, but forces a lot of the French reserves to occupy it to hold it. Then he bombards the center of the French line, and as soon as it starts to weaken, he sends in the cavalry.
The French give way and flee to the Danube, and the reserve troops, in Blenheim, watching their compatriots abandon the field, surrender unconditionally.
Aftermath To quote Versailles memoirist St. Simon, whom we've met before:
For six days, the King remained in uncertainty as to the real losses that had been sustained. Everybody was afraid to write bad news; all the letters which from time to time arrived, gave, therefore, but an unsatisfactory account of what had taken place. The King used every means in his power to obtain some news...Neither the King nor anybody else could understand, from what had reached them, how it was that an entire army had been placed inside a village, and had surrendered itself by a signed capitulation. It puzzled every brain.
I bet, St. Simon.
In this case, casualties of the French and Allies were nearly equal in terms of killed and wounded (often not counted separately in 18th century battles, because "number of combat-ready soldiers left in my army" was the figure everyone cared about), but the 14,000 surrendering French soldiers really made this a victory for the Allies.
Also, the Bavarian court evacuates, because the Allies now rule the land.
Blenheim Palace As Selena noted, Marlborough was rewarded with some land in England and money to build the Palace of Blenheim, pictured below, on it:
Controversial architectural style has been controversial throughout the ages. Tastes are divided on the matter. I leave you to form your own opinions. :P
Naming Things is One of the Two Hard Problems As for Blenheim vs. Blindheim vs. Höchstädt, well. Blindheim, we've seen, is the name of the village that was fought over during the battle. Höchstädt is the name of the plain that the Franco-Bavarian forces were posted on, and also the name of the town further off. Höchstädt is a bigger town than Blindheim and also the site of a previous battle, and for both reasons was probably more familiar to Germans than the tiny hamlet of Blindheim. Blindheim, in contrast, was the village directly on the battlefield, and is pronounceable for English speakers who want to name palaces after the battle.
German wiki speculates that Blenheim vs. Blindheim is because the arriving English relied on French scouts/guides, and thus it was the French who first mispronounced the name. No citation given. (Google Translate tried telling me the English relied on French reconnaissance aircraft, which puzzled me until I viewed the page in German, whereupon I saw "Aufklärer" and decided it was humans doing the reconnoitering. ;) )
Wittelsbach Sequel Though partly as a result of this battle, Max Emmanuel fails in his ambitions to become Holy Roman Emperor, his son manages to interrupt the Habsburg streak with a brief and lusterless reign as Charles VII from 1742 to 1745, during the War of the Austrian Succession, because better a Wittelsbach than a WOMAN.
You're the best battle explainer! I'm so bad at it, I usually just wave my hands and mutter something about who won.
re: Wittelsbachs, they also did produce one notable Emperor in the Middle Ages, Ludwig the Bavarian, who ruled in the time the novel (and film) "The Name of the Rose" is set. Like many a medieval Emperor, he clashed with the Pope. Negotiations between his representatives and the papal representatives are why the monastery "The Name of the Rose" is set at is packed with clerical VIPs. (Our detective hero William of Baskerville, btw, is on the Wittelsbach Emperor's side.)
Bavaria teaming up with France was a thing throughout the 18th century; as Mildred notes, this resulted in MT's rival getting crowned early on only to lose Bavaria to Austrian troops before the coronation in Frankfurt was finished. His son Maximilian (Max is a very Southern German name, which is why it shows up in as many Wittelsbach rulers as "Friedrich" and "Wilhelm" does in Hohenzollerns, but also occasionally with the Habsburgs) was the one who promised MT to let go of the Wittelsbach attempts to be Emperor if he can get Bavaria back. But that wasn't the end of the France/Bavaria team-ups. It became a thing again when Napoleon happened. Which is how the Dukedom of Bavaria ended up as the Kingdom of Bavaria (which it remained until 1918), with some neat territorial gains (including my home province of Franconia) when Napoleon officially dissolved the HRE and redrew the map of the German principalities. And a new secular constitution. And no Bonaparte as King as but the previous Wittelsbach Duke (though his daughter married Eugene Beauharnais, Napoleon's step son).
As Mildred said, Bavaria is literally next door to Austria (the Austrian border is just an hour away from where I live, for example), which makes it obvious why the French when fighting the Habsburgs kept teaming up with the Wittelsbachs. The downside of teaming up with Napoleon, btw, came years later when a great many Bavarians died as allies of France in Russia in the infamous Russian winter. After which the King of Bavaria changed sides basically at the last minute which enabled him to sit at the victors' table after Napeoleon's defeat instead of losing his shiny new Kingdom (with territorial gains) and title.
So harmonious and unselfish was their [Eugene and Marlborough's] co-operation that popular medals were struck depicting them as Castor and Pollux.
Horowski also points out they were the military international bromance of the 18th Century, despite being very different men. Re: what was more the norm - remember how the 7 Years War, the first Miracle of the House of Brandenburg happened because after soundly defeating Fritz at Kunersdorf, the anti-Fritz-Alliance didn't march onto Berlin? One explanation for this were hierarchical arguments in the international leadership. On the other side, G2's son Bill the Butcher before failing ignomiously early in the 7 Years War also kept arguing with both his Hannover and his Prussian allies. Marborough and Eugene forming a dream team really was the absolute exception to the rule when it came to big name generals from different realms working together.
ETA: Controversial architectural style has been controversial throughout the ages. Tastes are divided on the matter. I leave you to form your own opinions. :
For the record, this is a very English thing, because the Baroque style never caught on in England; this palace is its one big example. Whereas in Germany, where every big and little prince wanted to have their very own mini Versailles in the late 17th and throughout the 18th century, the Baroque style for palaces is the norm, so most palaces are in that style, and when I first saw it, I didn't immediately get what was supposed to be unusual about it stylistically. Well, other than the tributes to Marlborough himself in the design, for:
This view of the Duke as an omnipotent being is also reflected in the interior design of the palace, and indeed its axis to certain features in the park. It was planned that when the Duke dined in state in his place of honour in the great saloon, he would be the climax of a great procession of architectural mass aggrandising him rather like a proscenium. The line of celebration and honour of his victorious life began with the great column of victory surmounted by his statue and detailing his triumphs, and the next point on the great axis, planted with trees in the position of troops, was the epic Roman style bridge. The approach continues through the great portico into the hall, its ceiling painted by James Thornhill with the Duke's apotheosis, then on under a great triumphal arch, through the huge marble door-case with the Duke's marble effigy above it (bearing the ducal plaudit "Nor could Augustus better calm mankind"), and into the painted saloon, the most highly decorated room in the palace, where the Duke was to have sat enthroned.
The Duke was to have sat with his back to the great 30-tonne marble bust of his vanquished foe Louis XIV, positioned high above the south portico. Here the defeated King was humiliatingly forced to look down on the great parterre and spoils of his conqueror (rather in the same way as severed heads were displayed generations earlier). The Duke did not live long enough to see this majestic tribute realised, and sit enthroned in this architectural vision. The Duke and Duchess moved into their apartments on the eastern side of the palace, but the entirety was not completed until after the Duke's death.
Given that Louis never visited England and Versailles kept being imitated all across the continent, I'm not sure the intended humiliation was ever felt in France, but hey.
Another thing: by the end of the 19th century Blenheim was pretty run down, until the current Duke of Marlborough in 1895 married American heiress Consuelo Vanderbilt and with her money restored its current splendor. In fact, this was the main purpose of the marriage. To quote wiki again:
In November 1896 he coldly and openly without love married the American railroad heiress Consuelo Vanderbilt. The marriage was celebrated following lengthy negotiations with her divorced parents: her mother, Alva Vanderbilt, was desperate to see her daughter a duchess, and the bride's father, William Vanderbilt, paid for the privilege. The final price was $2,500,000 ($77.8 million today) in 50,000 shares of the capital stock of the Beech Creek Railway Company with a minimum 4% dividend guaranteed by the New York Central Railroad Company. The couple were given a further annual income each of $100,000 for life. The bride later claimed she had been locked in her room until she agreed to the marriage. The contract was actually signed in the vestry of St. Thomas Episcopal Church, New York, immediately after the wedding vows had been made. In the carriage leaving the church, Marlborough told Consuelo he loved another woman, and would never return to America, as he "despised anything that was not British".
Which is another reason why Shaw in his Charles/James conversation about John "Jack" Churchill includes that dig about the Churchills and their meanness.
You're the best battle explainer! I'm so bad at it, I usually just wave my hands and mutter something about who won.
Thank you! I'm glad I managed to make it readable. I will say, it takes a non-trivial amount of effort to get a battle down, but I'm pleased I've managed to do it for Blenheim, which is now more than just a name to me.
In return, I super appreciate your gossipy addenda, and I know cahn does too! I'm unable to reply in full at this time, because I still have three meaty Spanish Succession posts to finish researching and write (Malplaquet, lead-up to the war, and the war in more detail), but after that, I'm hoping to come back to salon.
Meanwhile, I am reading and appreciating both the parts I was already familiar with and those that are new! Excellent contributions that I suspect help make the technical stuff I'm producing more digestible by cahn.
Horowski also points out they were the military international bromance of the 18th Century, despite being very different men. Re: what was more the norm - remember how the 7 Years War, the first Miracle of the House of Brandenburg happened because after soundly defeating Fritz at Kunersdorf, the anti-Fritz-Alliance didn't march onto Berlin? One explanation for this were hierarchical arguments in the international leadership. On the other side, G2's son Bill the Butcher before failing ignomiously early in the 7 Years War also kept arguing with both his Hannover and his Prussian allies. Marborough and Eugene forming a dream team really was the absolute exception to the rule when it came to big name generals from different realms working together.
This is rather fascinating and I love it (...okay fine I am all about military international bromances between very different men). Also every time someone mentions Horowski he's saying something really interesting, argh I need to learn German. (I'm finally back at doing Duolingo, at least, thanks to my child wanting to do Habitica and Duolingo being a habit on my Habitica list.) Or, more realistically, bribe mildred at some point when I have more time (argh, I have proposals due in a month and then RMSE after that) to show me how to use her translation interface...
Re: the military bromance, I see Eugene and Marlborough have their military history issue, but I'm not sure it's worth ordering considering the blurb already makes a massive mistake, for it says:
Marlborough and Eugene were very different characters. The former was a largely self-made man who had risen through merit and court favour, whereas the latter was a man born to aristocratic privilege. While Marlborough was vain, avaricious, and concerned with his own advancement, Eugene took wealth and power for granted.
No, he didn't, because ever since Mom hightailed it out of France, he was a kid without either, and he had to run away from France and work hard to get it. Also, re: Marlborough rising through merit and court favour, here I have to bring up not Shaw's version but Charles II.'s actual quip re: young Jack Churchill/Barbara, and future Marlborough trying to apologize once he realised Charles knew: "I forgive you, young man, for I know you earn your bread this way."
The Encyplopedia Britannica's description of the Battle of Blenheim isn't as cool as Mildred's, but it does provide an example of how exactly the Marlborough-and-Eugene team work went:
Prince Eugene mounted a strong diversionary assault on his flank while Marlborough’s general Lord John Cutts mounted two unsuccessful assaults upon Blenheim. Cutts’s attacks forced Tallard to commit more reserves to defend Blenheim than he had intended, and thus served to further weaken the French centre. Since Eugene kept Marsin fully occupied, Marlborough then launched the main attack across the Nebel River against the French centre. Marlborough’s advance was hotly contested by French cavalry attacks, and only his personal direction and Eugene’s selfless loan of one of his own cavalry corps enabled Marlborough to maintain the momentum of his attack. Once successfully launched, however, the attack proved irresistible. The Allied cavalry broke through the French centre, dividing Marsin’s army from that of Tallard, and then wheeled left, sweeping Tallard’s forces into the Danube River.
Have some more quotes:
Eugene about his multinationality: "I have three hearts, a passionate Italian heart with which to confront my enemies, and obedient French heart for my monarch and a loyal German heart for my friends."
(Eugene: lived long before the French Revolution. Seriously though, you can tell he spent his youth in the France of Louis XIV by that remark, which indeed prized obedience to the (absolute) monarch.)
Eugene about Marlborough, when they first joined up: “a man of high quality, courageous, extremely well-disposed, and with a keen desire to achieve something; with all these qualities he understands thoroughly that one cannot become a general in a day, and he is diffident about himself.”
From a doctoral thesis, about which more in a moment:
In spite of historians’ different takes on the generalships of Eugene and Marlborough, Marlborough would later write that “Prince Eugene and I shall never differ about our share of laurels.”216 Both generals, however, “exposed their person repeatedly,” reported one officer. “Eugen went so far that it is almost a miracle that he escaped with his life.”
You can see why Fritz was a fan (though feeling let down when meeting old Eugene in person, which changed somewhat in his recollection once he himself had gotten old).
The doctoral thesis is about the fake memoirs, which in actually were written by Charles-Joseph, Prince de Ligne, whom we've met before; he was, among other things, part of Joseph's entourage at Neisse when Joseph met Fritz and is responsible for both the "Fritz & Co. wear white uniforms to "spare Austrian feelings" anecdote and the story about Fritz visiting the Antinous statue (which btw used to belong to Eugene, remember? Then Lichtenstein, then Fritz). Now I wronged him in that he didn't write the fake Eugene memoirs for cash; in fact, they were not published within his life time, but only after his death, when they were found among his papers. The doctoral thesis, which compares to the memoirs to their 18th century source, Mauvillon's biography "Life of Prince Eugene", which they are far too close to for, the thesis writer argues, contemporaries not to notice, or they should have, i.e. Ligne didn't expect them to be taken in. He mainly wrote them because he hero-worshipped Eugene and had literary ambitions, plus he wanted to vent about the French (post Diplomatic Revolution Austria's allies, about which de Ligne was not happy). Basically, it's fannish first person RPF. However, whatever his expectations, there were enough people taking the memoirs for the genuine article in the 19th century that they kept being used as sources, and some (i.e. English wiki, though not, note, German wiki) do so to this day.
Googling about Eugene and Marlborough, btw, can bring you weird places. Not this doctoral thesis, something else. Here I was, reading what first came across as a solid esay about Eugene, here, and then there's this passage:
In 1716 Austria and Venice went to war with Turkey and at Peterwardein in present day Serbia, Eugene defeated an army twice his army's size. This earned him from the Pope a consecrated had and sword which was the customary Papal award for victories over the infidel. Dare I hope that such a hat and sword be awarded by His Holiness to Eugene's successor victor over the infidels, Secretary Rumsfeld, for his victory at Baghdad over the infidel Saddam?
....What? thought I. Is this sarcasm? Irony? Alas, no. Later on:
But in a brilliant surprise counterattack, in which Eugene had been careful to well-fortify his troops with wine, brandy and beer, the Turks were again annihilated and Belgrade was won for Christendom (let's pray that Mr. Rumsfeld can pull off a similar coup).
...yeah. I checked the date - seems the essay was a lecture given in 2003 by one William B. Warren in New York City. Good lord. Well, Fritz had The Worst Fanboys. Go figure that Eugene has The Terrible Fanboys. Just for the record, William B. Warren, I suspect Eugene might have figured out you can't invade a country under a blatantly forged pretext, piss off nearly all your former allies ahead of this, expect the population to applaud you and then leave behind chaos. Given the importance he put on making and keeping alliances, you might say he'd have done the opposite. Also, if you're actually comparing the war against the Turks (who were doing the invading) with the Iraq Invasion, then you were definitely not a member of the reality based community in 2003 already.
Because when refreshing my memories via wiki, the following amuses me.
German wiki: even in his life time, there were rumors that Eugene was gay. "Mars without Venus" being the nice form of same, and then there's Liselotte writing about him in a letter: " „incommodiert er sich nicht mit Damen, ein paar schöne Pagen wären besser sein Sach!“ ("He doesn't bother with ladies, a few beautiful pages would be more to his taste") Though it can't be proven 100%.
English wiki: NO PROOF. Liselotte wrote that when Eugene was already busy fighting against her brother-in-law Louis. Clearly, she was slandering a man who was humiliating her brother-in-law on the battlefield, out of offended French patriotism.
selenak: Wiki people, short of coming across Eugene's love letters, or memoirs of a boytoy, I don't see how it could be proven 100%, one way or the other. However, let's be clear about something here:
1.) Liselotte had mixed feelings about Louis and his wars herself, what with him invading her home realm, the Palatinate, using her marriage to his brother as a pretext. She had been devastated by that. Some of her half brothers fought on the other side of those endless wars, including her very favourite brother, Carl-Lutz. Whose death made her very sad indeed. When her Hannover relations (aka her favourite aunt Sophie's husband and brother-in-law) were responsible for a Louis battlefield loss, she was a bit gleeful, even. So I'm really doubtful she'd have felt offended French patriotism and the need to avenge same by slandering Eugene.
2.) Also, Liselotte, with a clain of being married to the gayest noble not just of France but of Europe, and living surrounded by a lot of other gay and bi courtiers of same, presumably had a reasonably good gaydar. If young Eugene before his getaway from France had struck her as gay, I'm inclined to believe her.
3.) Also, Liselotte didn't see gayness per se as something negative. She wrote in December 1705 to her half sister Amelise: „Wo seydt Ihr und Louisse denn gestocken, daß ihr die weldt so wenig kendt? (…) wer alle die haßen woldt, so die junge kerls lieben, würde hier kein 6 menschen lieben können." ("What's gotten into you and Louise that you know so little of the world? (...) If one would hate all those who love young men, one couldn't love six people here. (In Versailles.)") Morever, while she was an inveterate gossip reporter in her letters, I don't think anyone has accused her otherwise of making it up. Doesn't mean the gossip she reports has to be accurate, of course, and naturally her own biases against people get into it - she definitely believed in the old order and superiority of noble bloodlines, for example, and she loathed Madame de Maintenon, louis' mistress and later morganatic wife -, and the fact that Eugene was the son of an Italian adventuresss who only married into the top French nobility because her uncle had been Cardinal Mazarin would have biased her against him. But not likely to have made her invent stories she hadn't heard.
4.) While there are reasons for not marrying other than being gay, it's still worth considering that if you are a penniless refugee without any family connections in a world that lives by those, it's absolutely remarkable not to try to form them by marrying into one of the big families. But escaped-from-France Eugene didn't do that when showing up in the HRE. He really owed his remarkable career (and massive fortune) to his skills.
In conclusion, I wish whoever wrote those passages in the English wiki would meet Johannes Kunisch, who is the German Fritz biographer who made my AP argue for a while that maybe Fritz was just pretending to be gay because Eugene and Turenne had made it fashionable. (I kid you not.)
Edited 2021-05-22 17:56 (UTC)
Re: War of the Spanish Succession: Bleinheim - Gossipy Sexuality Debate
If one would hate all those who love young men, one couldn't love six people here.
LOLOLOL I remember you citing this before, but of course I'd forgotten it until you mentioned it again <3 Liselotte! <33
In conclusion, I wish whoever wrote those passages in the English wiki would meet Johannes Kunisch, who is the German Fritz biographer who made my AP argue for a while that maybe Fritz was just pretending to be gay because Eugene and Turenne had made it fashionable.
That is amazing. I am grinning so hard right now. Eugene was that cool and gay! (I mean, maybe he wasn't gay, I also don't want to fall into that trap and you point out that gayness isn't always the answer. But still!)
Re: War of the Spanish Succession: Bleinheim - Gossipy Sexuality Debate
I remember you citing this before, but of course I'd forgotten it until you mentioned it again <3 Liselotte! <33
Same here. Now of course she could have been wrong in her guesses as to how many completely straight men existed in Versailles in 1704, but honestly, I'm trusting her more than English wikipedia on this, what with her actually living there! Morever: English wiki brings up Eugene's memoirs (in a different context, for a quote about hating Louis XIV' guts). I hadn't known Eugene wrote any memoirs, so I googled, and lo, he had not, but, see see here, there were several fake memoirs making the rounds in the 18th and early 19th century. Remember, this was a thing. There were also fake memoirs of Madame de Maintenon, for example, which Lehndorff reads at some point in his early diaries. Writing "memoirs" for a dead celebrity was a very profitale enterprise, and in the 18th century, it wasn't like they could sue you for it. (Which is why it wasn't completely irrational when people upon eventual publication of Wilhelmine's memoirs first said it had be be an anti-Prussian forgery until being presented with the manuscript in her handwriting.) However, 21st century dictionaries are supposed to be better versed about which sources are fakes!
Re: Eugene's coolness: Eugene fandom was such a thing in the 18th century that, may I remind you, Fritz' idea of coding his requests for more cash from sugar daddies in his letters was asking for copies of "The Life of Prince Eugene".
Re: War of the Spanish Succession: Bleinheim - Gossipy Sexuality Debate
However, 21st century dictionaries are supposed to be better versed about which sources are fakes!
They're not! But now I'm proud of myself, for lo, this happened:
I was finishing a book on the battle of Malplaquet yesterday, published in 2020, and it cited the Ligne memoirs of Eugene. I was very surprised, I turned up the memoirs on Google books, read the first couple pages, and went, "This seems fake."
Ha! Thank you for googling this from a scholarly angle and confirming.
Ever since we got burned by Austrian Trenck's not being by Austrian Trenck (per Stollberg-Rilinger), I've been on the alert.
Re: Eugene's coolness: Eugene fandom was such a thing in the 18th century that, may I remind you, Fritz' idea of coding his requests for more cash from sugar daddies in his letters was asking for copies of "The Life of Prince Eugene".
Re: Eugene's coolness, I was trying to get someone to nominate him for Yuletide in 2019!
Re: War of the Spanish Succession: Bleinheim - Gossipy Sexuality Debate
Aw, man. I just got hit by a nother plot bunny, involving the Not-Antinous statue he and Fritz both owned, which doesn't have to do with the Katte connection. How about it coming to live around gay men of brilliance in their darkest, most lonely hour, and seducing them to cheer them up? Written as a statue pov? Or the statue is an avatar of a Greek deity coming to life only under certain conditions? Some magical realism story?
ETA: also, congratulations on your correct deducement re the Ligne/Eugene book!
Edited 2021-05-23 13:29 (UTC)
Re: War of the Spanish Succession: Bleinheim - Gossipy Sexuality Debate
So I checked the for free nineteenth century edition of Liselotte's letters - whose editor is a raging late 19th century German nationalist and a slob to boot (seriously, editor, the Chevalier de Lorraine and the Marquis d'Effiat weren't the favourites of Liselotte's son but of her husband!) - and it turns out she has an opinion on William III.'s sexuality to offer.
Background: Liselotte actually had met William as a girl, when her aunt Sophie (of Hannover) had taken her along in a prolonged journey to the Netherlands. She'd hoped to marry him then (as Protestant princes went, he was the top match to have at the time), and continued to have a soft spot for him. This letter, however, was written decades later, in the early 18th century.
It's said here that King William has the dropsy and was lethally ill, but I won't believe it until I hear it from better sources. It would be a shame if such a smart King would only get to rule such a short time. However, what he's been accused of is only too true. When all the young Englishmen who'd come here with Lord Portland the ambassador saw that affairs in Paris are handled just as they are at their own court, they weren't shy to talk about everything which is going on. Supposedly he was so in love with Albermale as with a lady and has kissed his hands in front of everyone. The other big sign that this King is fond of young men is that he doesn't fancy the ladies; for trust me on this, Amelise! men are made in a way that they need to be in love with either or both. The late King Charles (of Britain) only loved women. But there are many who love both; of these, much more are found in this place than of those who have only one inclination. King Charles wasn't just in love with Madame Mazarin but with Madame de Portmouth and with an actress.* Men believe women can't exist without being in love, simply because they themselves are disposed that way. I believe that to love or not to love isn't always up to us; but those who have been given a calm disposition in this regard can thank God as he keeps them from such misery which produces a thousand other miseries as the result. (In a letter from November 1701 to her half sister.)
*She is referring to Hortense Mancini (one of the Mazarin nieces, whose sisters include Olympe, mother of Eugene, and Marie, first great love of Louis), Louise the Duchess of Portsmouth and Nell Gwyn, respectively.
Now, this says more about contemporary gossip than about William's sexuality. (Though Liselotte must have concluded that no matter what, she'd have married a man playing for the other team.) But I find it interesting that while the term "bisexuality" doesn't exist, Liselotte is clearly familiar with the concept and aware that there aren't just straight and gay people around.
Another quote from Liselotte from March 1700, on war heroism, in which she makes a French/German pun that predates Disney lyricists making the same pun in "Hercules" by several centuries: Young people like the King of Denmark (Frederick IV) think they become heroes if they only wage war, and don't consider that it might turn out badly and that if fortune wants it, they become zeroes instead of heroes. ("...sie anstatt des heros nur zeros werden")
On that note, here's Liselotte congratulating Aunt Sophie on the arrival of a new (great)grandkid:
I pay your grace my compliment for the happy delivery of your grandson, the new crown prince of Prussia. May God preserve this prince for many long years. The King in Prussia must be doubly happy, firstly, to have a grandson, and secondly, to have the occasion for another ceremony, of which the baptism of the child surely won't be lacking. (...) The crown princess hasn't been in contractions for long, just three and a half hours, and it can hardly be less, especially since it has found such a good ending.
Obviously F1's fondness for splendor has been heard of in Versailles, too. *g* The letter is dated 14. February 1712, btw, and Fritz was born on January 24th, so you know news from Berlin to Paris took a bit more than two weeks, if we assume Liselotte wrote soon after hearing said news. Since she knows how long exactly Fritz' birth took, you do, too.
And here's Liselotte on Old Dessauer in 1719, on the occasion of what wasn't correct news, about a fallout between FW and his bff. Since 1719 is when the rest of the bonkers Clement affair happens, maybe that was the ocasion for the wrong rumor? The "apothocary" comment refers to him having married the daughter of one. She's also alluding to Peter the Great's second wife, the Czarina Catherine (later Catherine I.), who started out as an illiterate washerwoman.
I hear some news which makes me glad; that the pharmaceutical Prince of Anhalt-Dessau won't be with the King of Prussia anymore. If he and the Czar of Russia will be together, I'm reminded of the old German saying "birds of a feather flock together, says the Devil to the Coal Shoveller". That gentleman has held a speech against my son at Turin which I still haven't gotten over; how much he'd enjoy shooting a bullet into my son's head. The apothocary his wife will of course fit in with the court of the Czarina. Such a man like this Prince can't give any good advice, he's just suited to socialize with lions and tigers and Moscowites who aren't any less savage than he is. I'm still surprised the late King of Prussia allowed this wild nephew of his to befriend his son; of course the later couldn't have learned anything good from this man.
(Liselotte, if you'd known FW in person, you'd have realised he didn't need Old Dessauer to be a thug.)
Speaking of Liselotte commenting on the next generation, remember young Voltaire's first stint in the Bastille for writing a satiric pamphlet claiming Liselotte's son the regent has an incestous affair with his daughter? The following quote from Liselotte (also from 1719) makes it sound like he had that story from his buddy Richelieu:
My son is too good; he can't bear to make himself feared, and his enemies know this only too well. On the day when he'd been obliged to send the young Duc de Richelieu into the Bastille, he's been so sad as if he himself had experienced a calamity. I wish he'd feel less sorry for this bad boy; for the little villain has never shown him any respect and has spread rumors about him and his daughter which would have merited already being sent to the Bastille in addition to his greater crime. But my son just laughs about this and makes me impatient and irritated with himself and his third daughter, that this little fellow amuses them instead of making them angry.
And lastly, Liselotte's opinion on the hygiene of three countries:
This much is certain, anyone who has visited the Netherlands finds Germany dirty; but in order to find Germany clean and pleasant, you just have to travel through France; for nothing stinks more or is more of a pigsty than Paris.
Re: War of the Spanish Succession: Bleinheim - Gossipy Sexuality Debate
Ha, Old Dessauer showing up in her letters, I would not have expected that. But very entertaining to get another different perspective on our ensemble...
Re: War of the Spanish Succession: Bleinheim - Gossipy Sexuality Debate
Well, she lived into another age, getting old (also she'd been eleven years younger than her husband to begin with), and she always kept up her correspondence with her German relations, so a comment on any of the Hannovers, F1 or FW, say, would not have surprised me, but I admit I hadn't expected the Old (the not so old) Dessauer to register with her, either. Of course, if he really said in public he'd enjoy putting a bullet into her son's brain, that explains it. Liselotte had her share of criticism of Philippe II (the constant partying and screwing around, the laziness in his pre-Regent days), but she did love her son. (And was proud of him as Regent, writing angrily that he actually had done better for France in a few years than Louis in the last few decades.) She'd take a remark like this personally.
Here' the passage in her glorious baroque German for you: "Dieser Herr hat einen discours bei Turin gegen meinen Sohn geführet, so ich noch auf dem Magen und nicht verdauet habe: mit welcher lust er meinem Sohn eine Pistolkugel in den Kopf jagen wollte. A bit later, she adds: Daß dieser dolle Printz zum Czaaren geht, das wundert mich gar nicht, man findet die ursach in der commedie von Corneille: il est des noeuds secrets, il est des simpaties. Ich finde, daß sie viel simpatien haen: in Grausamkeit, und in geringer heurat."
There's also an SD comment from Liselotte, a few years earlier, 1713, in a letter to her sister Louise:
Ich gestehe, liebe Louise, ich kann nicht vertragen, Teutsche zu finden, die ihre Muttersprach so verachten, daß sie nie mit anderen Teutschen reden oder schreiben wollen, das ärgert mich recht: und die Königin in Preußen, wenn ich sie nicht von jederman loben hörte als eine gar tugendhafte Fürstin, sonsten solte ich fürchten, daß sie mit fremden Sprachen auch der fremden Länder Fehler aprobieren solt. (...)) Um wohl Frantzösch zu schreiben, muß man die Sprach wohl können, sonsten kompts doll heraus.
I take this to mean that SD, who had only just become Queen of, sorry, in Prussia, replied to a "congratulations" letter in French, and that Lieselotte, who'd spent most of her life in France, was of course fluent but still wrote the letters to German correspondents in German, thought this was pretentious, especially since the French in question wasn't even that good. Lord knows what she'd have made of Fritz!
Re: War of the Spanish Succession: Bleinheim - Gossipy Sexuality Debate
if he really said in public he'd enjoy putting a bullet into her son's brain, that explains it
Yes, and it would not surprise me if he did! But I have to admit, his "geringe Heirat" is a point in his favour in my eyes, i.e. marrying the love of his life instead of a noble woman while keeping "Annelise" as a mistress or something. And according to Wiki, she even got to be regent in his absence.
(Speaking of Old Dessauer - and of German authors tackling Fritzian characters - I recently learned that Karl May of all people wrote several early stories about him. I've read my share of more out-there May novels, but I hadn't encountered these before.)
muß man die Sprach wohl können, sonsten kompts doll heraus
Heeee. Love it. Same is true for German, though! Which means she might have preferred Fritz's French after all. :P (And young Fritz at least might have gotten some leeway, what with having a - German-enforcing - thug as a father, as you put it.)
Re: War of the Spanish Succession: Bleinheim - Gossipy Sexuality Debate
I have to admit, his "geringe Heirat" is a point in his favour in my eyes
Oh absolutely. It's a very sympathetic deed. In Keppler's Der Vater, FW at one point realises his buddy essentially lives his own dream life - married for love with a woman who loves him back, not one who regards herself blatantly superior to him, sons who adore him and are close to him (and don't complain about their miserable education but are happy about it because they love the manly pursuits of soldiering and hunting and beer etc.), and everyone is a good Christian, too. Leaving fictionalized FW aside, I'm sure given the sheer number of bad marriages, a great many snobs were secretly envious of Old Dessauer having a good one because he'd done the radical thing of marrying the woman he loved regardless of her status.
..Otoh: even if he'd married the bluest of blue blooded ladies, I imagine Liselotte would still have objected of him fantasizing about killing her son! And she has a point re: the cruelty. All those gruesome disciplinary punishments in the Prussian army we've heard and read about, Old Dessauer mostly invented. Even if one justifies this with "well, he created the best army on the continent like that": he had no scruples dragging poor Gundling back to be abused for many years more, either, which wasn't justified by any raison d'état, just by FW's own cruelty (and I'm sure Old Dessauer joined in when the Tabacgie had their regular go at Gundling).
Karl May: I knew he'd done it, because my Dad owns the 72 volumes 1950s/1960s edition from when the Karl May Verlag had moded to Bamberg and started to republish. But I haven't yet read that particular volume in which all the stories are collected (titled,unsurprisingly: Der Alte Dessauer).
Heeee. Love it. Same is true for German, though! Which means she might have preferred Fritz's French after all.
Sure - French was in a very real sense his mother tongue! Re his thug of a father, though, I'm not sure how much of this she had heard. I mean, the first time she hears something about FW, it's when her beloved aunt Sophie writes about how adorable the kid danced ballet! Though clearly by the time of the old Dessauer letter, FW's reputation along with Dessauer's must be making the international rounds, even for old ladies in France, at least to some degree.
Liselotte's own German is of course extravagantly spelled (this being centuries before Duden) and way more informal than her very rare French, and it's hard to get that dimension across in an English translation, though it's part of the charm of her letters. Here she is when Sophie of Hannover has died, writing to her sister Louise again, on July 1st 1714:
(I)ich weiß selbst nicht recht, was ich Euch geschrieben habe, so sehr setzt mich diß abscheuliche Unglück außer mir selber. Diese liebe Churfürstin hat mich durch gero gnädige Schreiben aus mancher Betrübnis und Herzeleydt gezogen, so ich mir hir im land empfunden(...). Ach gott, mir selber hat ma tante oft geschrieben, biß sie einen schleunigen Todt für den besten halte, und dass es eine schlegte sach seye, wenn man im im bett stirbt, den Pater oder Prister auf einer Seydt hatt und den Docktor auf der anderen Seydten und können doch nicht helffen; sie woll es so machen, daß sie dies spectacle nicht geben wolle, hat leyder nur zu wahr gesagt! Ma tante war mein einziger trost in all den Widerwertigkeytten hir, sie machte mir mit ihren lustiggen briefen alles leicht, was mich auch am betrübsten gedaugt hatt, sie hatt mir dadurch bißher dass leben erhalten.
Sophie had died of a stroke while walking through the garden of Herrenhausen, renember. A lighter passage demonstrating Liselotte's baroque German is about her son, not yet a regent, January 1715:
Mein Sohn ist Gott seye danck in vollkommener Gesundheit nun, daß er gestern 5 partien im Ballhaus gespilt hat; daß er ohnmächtig wardt, kam nur darher, daß er, nachdem er sich so dick gefressen wie ein Schindersteff und hernach in einer gar warmen cammer bey dem camin eingeschlaffen war, mit einem gar starcken husten und schnuppen. Wir sind nun gottlob beyde gar woll, und mein Sohn hat mir versprochen, hinfüro geyscheydter zu sein und nicht mehr so abscheulich zu freßen.
Re: War of the Spanish Succession: Bleinheim - Gossipy Sexuality Debate
But I find it interesting that while the term "bisexuality" doesn't exist, Liselotte is clearly familiar with the concept and aware that there aren't just straight and gay people around.
Oh, yeah, that hadn't occurred to me but that's pretty interesting, and perceptive of her.
I believe that to love or not to love isn't always up to us; but those who have been given a calm disposition in this regard can thank God as he keeps them from such misery which produces a thousand other miseries as the result.
Heh. That whole letter seems very perceptive.
Re: War of the Spanish Succession: Bleinheim - Gossipy Sexuality Debate
Johannes Kunisch, who is the German Fritz biographer who made my AP argue for a while that maybe Fritz was just pretending to be gay because Eugene and Turenne had made it fashionable
On the other hand, if Kunisch had been Eugene's biographer, I'm sure he would have found some Zimmermann analogue to argue that Eugene didn't marry because STD/disfigured genitals/etc and that he totally wasn't gay, lies and slander. :P (Salty, me? Totally. I sure turned off a random Fritz documentary because their expert was Kunisch, who was telling the nation at length that there's no way to say that Fritz was gay and see, there's this contemporary source, a guy called Zimmermann.)
Very pleased to learn about the Eugene/Marlborough military bromance, too.
Re: War of the Spanish Succession: Bleinheim - Gossipy Sexuality Debate
Oh, no doubt. I didn't mention Kunisch to applaud him, but to imagine the irresistable force of Kunisch's "no homo" (i.e. "Fritz wasn't gay, he just gave himself some airs because Eugene and Turenne had made it fashionable!") with the immovable object of English wiki's no homo ("there's NO PROOF that Eugene was gay! It was just slander by Liselotte because he made Louis lose face!").
BTW, my Dad, following Kunisch, also said "but what about this Dr. Zimmermann, as his doctor, he must have known" etc., and then I hit him with the truth about Z and with the Fredersdorf letters, and he admitted that writing "please be at the window, I'd like to see you when I ride out today, but don't open it, I don't want you to catch a cold" is not pretending to be gay out of a combination of Eugene fandom and a broken penis.
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Re: War of the Spanish Succession: Bleinheim
As we've seen, the turn of the eighteenth century is when the larger German principalities are doing their level best to move up in the world. August of Saxony becomes king of Poland in 1694. Hanover becomes an electorate in 1708, and the elector becomes king of Great Britain in 1714. Brandenburg becomes the kingdom of Prussia in 1701 (with French recognition in 1714).
Naturally, the Elector of Bavaria doesn't want to be left behind! He wants to be Holy Roman Emperor.
Maximilian II Emmanuel, of the Wittelsbach family: Hey, Leopold, how about it? Me as the next emperor? You're 60, I'm 38, we can make this work.
Leopold: Are you a Habsburg? The word you are looking for here is 'no'.
Max Emmanuel: Louis XIV?
Louis: Depends. Will you help me fight the Habsburgs?
Max Emmanuel: Did you say 'fight the guy who just said he wouldn't support me as emperor'? You're on!
Louis: Deal! Let's see what we can do about making you emperor with French backing.
So now it's 1704. Bavaria is allied with France, supporting Philip V (Bourbon, grandson of Louis XIV), against Austria and much of the HRE, supporting archduke Charles (Habsburg, son of Leopold, future father of MT).
Strategery
The problem with Bavaria, if you're on the Allied side, is that it's frighteningly close to Austria. The French and Bavarians are now making an advance in the general direction of Vienna.
Leopold: SOS! SOS!
Eugene: Shit, I'm in Italy. Also, my army is smaller than theirs.
Marlborough: I'm in the Low Countries! Like, hundreds of miles away.
Leopold: SOMEONE DO SOMETHING.
Marlborough: Your Majesty, Queen Anne. Permission to march the army 250 miles/400 km south to rescue our claimant to the Spanish throne.
Anne: Do it!
Dutch: What about us?? You're leaving?! The French will invade!
Marlborough: But if I leave, with my giant army, the French will have to divert troops south too. Don't worry, you'll be fine.
Dutch: *mutter mutter okay fine*
Marlborough: Attention France! I am invading your country this summer!
France: *tries to stop the invasion*
Marlborough: *marches southeast into Bavaria while the French are busy trying to prevent him from marching southwest into France*
Marlborough: *arrives on the Danube* Fooled you!
At the same time, Eugene: *is hurrying north from Italy*
On the Spot
The march down the Rhine and east along the first part of the Danube was, I'm told, a strategic and logistical masterpiece, in which Marlborough deceived the French and avoided French attack, supplied his army very efficiently along the route, and arrived with his forces intact in just 5 weeks.
The best map of the march, from The War of the Spanish Succession:
(Sorry about the quality, but it's still more readable than the map in Invincible Generals, which goes for detail over clarity.)
Eugene: *is now also in the vicinity with his troops*
Marlborough and Eugene: *unite*
According to my Invincible Generals book:
So harmonious and unselfish was their [Eugene and Marlborough's] co-operation that popular medals were struck depicting them as Castor and Pollux.
So now the job of Eugene and Marlborough is to interpose their army between Franco-Bavarian forces and Vienna, and either maneuver them away or crush them so that they don't have the resources to assault Vienna.
This they do. Blenheim is the second major battle fought between these two armies in this region within a few weeks. The first one was a Marlborough victory at high cost. (And highly criticized by many people. Including Sophia of Hanover, due to high Hanoverian losses during the battle.)
The second one is the battle of...well. Selena talked about this. Höchstädt to Germans, Blenheim to English speakers.
Getting Ready to Fight
Here's the map of the battle, taken from my Invincible Generals book (source of the best map of this battle of all my sources):
In the lower right is the river Danube. Near it, is a hamlet called Blenheim (Blindheim). This is a fortified location. The French had positioned their right wing next to Blenheim, and stationed some reserve troops inside. Then they spread out to the left, across what is called the plain of Höchstädt. The actual town of Höchstädt is off to the southwest along the river; Sir Not Appearing on This Map. (You can see the "To Höchstädt" annotation near the legend on the map, with an arrow pointing southwest.)
So the French have a superior position and slightly superior numbers (10% more troops and 50% more cannon).
What this means is that the French aren't expecting a battle. They're expecting a normal 17th/18th century campaign of chessboard-style maneuvering. But Marlborough is a more aggressive general than most of his contemporaries. Like Fritz, he will try to force a battle, and like Fritz, he will sometimes suffer high casualties (one reason contemporaries liked to avoid battles), and as we've seen, his most recent battle received criticism for just this reason.
Central Attack Tactics Are Exactly Straight
At Blenheim, Marlborough does a thing that strikes you as very weird if you're used to 18th century military history: he puts most of his cavalry in the middle instead of on the flanks. He makes it work!
He attacks frontally, advancing his line forward. He successfully forces the crossing of the small river (the Nebel) between the two armies, and then he attacks Blenheim. Here's the map again so you don't have to scroll up:
He fails to take Blenheim in the early stages of the battle, but forces a lot of the French reserves to occupy it to hold it. Then he bombards the center of the French line, and as soon as it starts to weaken, he sends in the cavalry.
The French give way and flee to the Danube, and the reserve troops, in Blenheim, watching their compatriots abandon the field, surrender unconditionally.
Aftermath
To quote Versailles memoirist St. Simon, whom we've met before:
For six days, the King remained in uncertainty as to the real losses that had been sustained. Everybody was afraid to write bad news; all the letters which from time to time arrived, gave, therefore, but an unsatisfactory account of what had taken place. The King used every means in his power to obtain some news...Neither the King nor anybody else could understand, from what had reached them, how it was that an entire army had been placed inside a village, and had surrendered itself by a signed capitulation. It puzzled every brain.
I bet, St. Simon.
In this case, casualties of the French and Allies were nearly equal in terms of killed and wounded (often not counted separately in 18th century battles, because "number of combat-ready soldiers left in my army" was the figure everyone cared about), but the 14,000 surrendering French soldiers really made this a victory for the Allies.
Also, the Bavarian court evacuates, because the Allies now rule the land.
Blenheim Palace
As Selena noted, Marlborough was rewarded with some land in England and money to build the Palace of Blenheim, pictured below, on it:
Source: Wikipedia
Controversial architectural style has been controversial throughout the ages. Tastes are divided on the matter. I leave you to form your own opinions. :P
Naming Things is One of the Two Hard Problems
As for Blenheim vs. Blindheim vs. Höchstädt, well. Blindheim, we've seen, is the name of the village that was fought over during the battle. Höchstädt is the name of the plain that the Franco-Bavarian forces were posted on, and also the name of the town further off. Höchstädt is a bigger town than Blindheim and also the site of a previous battle, and for both reasons was probably more familiar to Germans than the tiny hamlet of Blindheim. Blindheim, in contrast, was the village directly on the battlefield, and is pronounceable for English speakers who want to name palaces after the battle.
German wiki speculates that Blenheim vs. Blindheim is because the arriving English relied on French scouts/guides, and thus it was the French who first mispronounced the name. No citation given. (Google Translate tried telling me the English relied on French reconnaissance aircraft, which puzzled me until I viewed the page in German, whereupon I saw "Aufklärer" and decided it was humans doing the reconnoitering. ;) )
Wittelsbach Sequel
Though partly as a result of this battle, Max Emmanuel fails in his ambitions to become Holy Roman Emperor, his son manages to interrupt the Habsburg streak with a brief and lusterless reign as Charles VII from 1742 to 1745, during the War of the Austrian Succession, because better a Wittelsbach than a WOMAN.
Re: War of the Spanish Succession: Blenheim
You're the best battle explainer! I'm so bad at it, I usually just wave my hands and mutter something about who won.
re: Wittelsbachs, they also did produce one notable Emperor in the Middle Ages, Ludwig the Bavarian, who ruled in the time the novel (and film) "The Name of the Rose" is set. Like many a medieval Emperor, he clashed with the Pope. Negotiations between his representatives and the papal representatives are why the monastery "The Name of the Rose" is set at is packed with clerical VIPs. (Our detective hero William of Baskerville, btw, is on the Wittelsbach Emperor's side.)
Bavaria teaming up with France was a thing throughout the 18th century; as Mildred notes, this resulted in MT's rival getting crowned early on only to lose Bavaria to Austrian troops before the coronation in Frankfurt was finished. His son Maximilian (Max is a very Southern German name, which is why it shows up in as many Wittelsbach rulers as "Friedrich" and "Wilhelm" does in Hohenzollerns, but also occasionally with the Habsburgs) was the one who promised MT to let go of the Wittelsbach attempts to be Emperor if he can get Bavaria back. But that wasn't the end of the France/Bavaria team-ups. It became a thing again when Napoleon happened. Which is how the Dukedom of Bavaria ended up as the Kingdom of Bavaria (which it remained until 1918), with some neat territorial gains (including my home province of Franconia) when Napoleon officially dissolved the HRE and redrew the map of the German principalities. And a new secular constitution. And no Bonaparte as King as but the previous Wittelsbach Duke (though his daughter married Eugene Beauharnais, Napoleon's step son).
As Mildred said, Bavaria is literally next door to Austria (the Austrian border is just an hour away from where I live, for example), which makes it obvious why the French when fighting the Habsburgs kept teaming up with the Wittelsbachs. The downside of teaming up with Napoleon, btw, came years later when a great many Bavarians died as allies of France in Russia in the infamous Russian winter. After which the King of Bavaria changed sides basically at the last minute which enabled him to sit at the victors' table after Napeoleon's defeat instead of losing his shiny new Kingdom (with territorial gains) and title.
So harmonious and unselfish was their [Eugene and Marlborough's] co-operation that popular medals were struck depicting them as Castor and Pollux.
Horowski also points out they were the military international bromance of the 18th Century, despite being very different men. Re: what was more the norm - remember how the 7 Years War, the first Miracle of the House of Brandenburg happened because after soundly defeating Fritz at Kunersdorf, the anti-Fritz-Alliance didn't march onto Berlin? One explanation for this were hierarchical arguments in the international leadership. On the other side, G2's son Bill the Butcher before failing ignomiously early in the 7 Years War also kept arguing with both his Hannover and his Prussian allies. Marborough and Eugene forming a dream team really was the absolute exception to the rule when it came to big name generals from different realms working together.
ETA: Controversial architectural style has been controversial throughout the ages. Tastes are divided on the matter. I leave you to form your own opinions. :
For the record, this is a very English thing, because the Baroque style never caught on in England; this palace is its one big example. Whereas in Germany, where every big and little prince wanted to have their very own mini Versailles in the late 17th and throughout the 18th century, the Baroque style for palaces is the norm, so most palaces are in that style, and when I first saw it, I didn't immediately get what was supposed to be unusual about it stylistically. Well, other than the tributes to Marlborough himself in the design, for:
This view of the Duke as an omnipotent being is also reflected in the interior design of the palace, and indeed its axis to certain features in the park. It was planned that when the Duke dined in state in his place of honour in the great saloon, he would be the climax of a great procession of architectural mass aggrandising him rather like a proscenium. The line of celebration and honour of his victorious life began with the great column of victory surmounted by his statue and detailing his triumphs, and the next point on the great axis, planted with trees in the position of troops, was the epic Roman style bridge. The approach continues through the great portico into the hall, its ceiling painted by James Thornhill with the Duke's apotheosis, then on under a great triumphal arch, through the huge marble door-case with the Duke's marble effigy above it (bearing the ducal plaudit "Nor could Augustus better calm mankind"), and into the painted saloon, the most highly decorated room in the palace, where the Duke was to have sat enthroned.
The Duke was to have sat with his back to the great 30-tonne marble bust of his vanquished foe Louis XIV, positioned high above the south portico. Here the defeated King was humiliatingly forced to look down on the great parterre and spoils of his conqueror (rather in the same way as severed heads were displayed generations earlier). The Duke did not live long enough to see this majestic tribute realised, and sit enthroned in this architectural vision. The Duke and Duchess moved into their apartments on the eastern side of the palace, but the entirety was not completed until after the Duke's death.
Given that Louis never visited England and Versailles kept being imitated all across the continent, I'm not sure the intended humiliation was ever felt in France, but hey.
Another thing: by the end of the 19th century Blenheim was pretty run down, until the current Duke of Marlborough in 1895 married American heiress Consuelo Vanderbilt and with her money restored its current splendor. In fact, this was the main purpose of the marriage. To quote wiki again:
In November 1896 he coldly and openly without love married the American railroad heiress Consuelo Vanderbilt. The marriage was celebrated following lengthy negotiations with her divorced parents: her mother, Alva Vanderbilt, was desperate to see her daughter a duchess, and the bride's father, William Vanderbilt, paid for the privilege. The final price was $2,500,000 ($77.8 million today) in 50,000 shares of the capital stock of the Beech Creek Railway Company with a minimum 4% dividend guaranteed by the New York Central Railroad Company. The couple were given a further annual income each of $100,000 for life. The bride later claimed she had been locked in her room until she agreed to the marriage. The contract was actually signed in the vestry of St. Thomas Episcopal Church, New York, immediately after the wedding vows had been made. In the carriage leaving the church, Marlborough told Consuelo he loved another woman, and would never return to America, as he "despised anything that was not British".
Which is another reason why Shaw in his Charles/James conversation about John "Jack" Churchill includes that dig about the Churchills and their meanness.
Re: War of the Spanish Succession: Blenheim
You're the best battle explainer! I'm so bad at it, I usually just wave my hands and mutter something about who won.
Thank you! I'm glad I managed to make it readable. I will say, it takes a non-trivial amount of effort to get a battle down, but I'm pleased I've managed to do it for Blenheim, which is now more than just a name to me.
In return, I super appreciate your gossipy addenda, and I know
Meanwhile, I am reading and appreciating both the parts I was already familiar with and those that are new! Excellent contributions that I suspect help make the technical stuff I'm producing more digestible by
Re: War of the Spanish Succession: Blenheim
This is rather fascinating and I love it (...okay fine I am all about military international bromances between very different men). Also every time someone mentions Horowski he's saying something really interesting, argh I need to learn German. (I'm finally back at doing Duolingo, at least, thanks to my child wanting to do Habitica and Duolingo being a habit on my Habitica list.) Or, more realistically, bribe mildred at some point when I have more time (argh, I have proposals due in a month and then RMSE after that) to show me how to use her translation interface...
Re: War of the Spanish Succession: Blenheim
Marlborough and Eugene were very different characters. The former was a largely self-made man who had risen through merit and court favour, whereas the latter was a man born to aristocratic privilege. While Marlborough was vain, avaricious, and concerned with his own advancement, Eugene took wealth and power for granted.
No, he didn't, because ever since Mom hightailed it out of France, he was a kid without either, and he had to run away from France and work hard to get it. Also, re: Marlborough rising through merit and court favour, here I have to bring up not Shaw's version but Charles II.'s actual quip re: young Jack Churchill/Barbara, and future Marlborough trying to apologize once he realised Charles knew: "I forgive you, young man, for I know you earn your bread this way."
The Encyplopedia Britannica's description of the Battle of Blenheim isn't as cool as Mildred's, but it does provide an example of how exactly the Marlborough-and-Eugene team work went:
Prince Eugene mounted a strong diversionary assault on his flank while Marlborough’s general Lord John Cutts mounted two unsuccessful assaults upon Blenheim. Cutts’s attacks forced Tallard to commit more reserves to defend Blenheim than he had intended, and thus served to further weaken the French centre. Since Eugene kept Marsin fully occupied, Marlborough then launched the main attack across the Nebel River against the French centre. Marlborough’s advance was hotly contested by French cavalry attacks, and only his personal direction and Eugene’s selfless loan of one of his own cavalry corps enabled Marlborough to maintain the momentum of his attack. Once successfully launched, however, the attack proved irresistible. The Allied cavalry broke through the French centre, dividing Marsin’s army from that of Tallard, and then wheeled left, sweeping Tallard’s forces into the Danube River.
Have some more quotes:
Eugene about his multinationality: "I have three hearts, a passionate Italian heart with which to confront my enemies, and obedient French heart for my monarch and a loyal German heart for my friends."
(Eugene: lived long before the French Revolution. Seriously though, you can tell he spent his youth in the France of Louis XIV by that remark, which indeed prized obedience to the (absolute) monarch.)
Eugene about Marlborough, when they first joined up: “a man of high quality, courageous, extremely well-disposed, and with a keen desire to achieve something; with all these qualities he understands thoroughly that one cannot become a general in a day, and he is diffident about himself.”
From a doctoral thesis, about which more in a moment:
In spite of historians’ different takes on the generalships of Eugene and Marlborough, Marlborough would later write that “Prince Eugene and I shall never differ about our share of laurels.”216 Both generals, however, “exposed their person repeatedly,” reported one officer. “Eugen went so far that it is almost a miracle that he escaped with his life.”
You can see why Fritz was a fan (though feeling let down when meeting old Eugene in person, which changed somewhat in his recollection once he himself had gotten old).
The doctoral thesis is about the fake memoirs, which in actually were written by Charles-Joseph, Prince de Ligne, whom we've met before; he was, among other things, part of Joseph's entourage at Neisse when Joseph met Fritz and is responsible for both the "Fritz & Co. wear white uniforms to "spare Austrian feelings" anecdote and the story about Fritz visiting the Antinous statue (which btw used to belong to Eugene, remember? Then Lichtenstein, then Fritz). Now I wronged him in that he didn't write the fake Eugene memoirs for cash; in fact, they were not published within his life time, but only after his death, when they were found among his papers. The doctoral thesis, which compares to the memoirs to their 18th century source, Mauvillon's biography "Life of Prince Eugene", which they are far too close to for, the thesis writer argues, contemporaries not to notice, or they should have, i.e. Ligne didn't expect them to be taken in. He mainly wrote them because he hero-worshipped Eugene and had literary ambitions, plus he wanted to vent about the French (post Diplomatic Revolution Austria's allies, about which de Ligne was not happy). Basically, it's fannish first person RPF. However, whatever his expectations, there were enough people taking the memoirs for the genuine article in the 19th century that they kept being used as sources, and some (i.e. English wiki, though not, note, German wiki) do so to this day.
Googling about Eugene and Marlborough, btw, can bring you weird places. Not this doctoral thesis, something else. Here I was, reading what first came across as a solid esay about Eugene, here, and then there's this passage:
In 1716 Austria and Venice went to war with Turkey and at Peterwardein in present day Serbia, Eugene defeated an army twice his army's size. This earned him from the Pope a consecrated had and sword which was the customary Papal award for victories over the infidel. Dare I hope that such a hat and sword be awarded by His Holiness to Eugene's successor victor over the infidels, Secretary Rumsfeld, for his victory at Baghdad over the infidel Saddam?
....What? thought I. Is this sarcasm? Irony? Alas, no. Later on:
But in a brilliant surprise counterattack, in which Eugene had been careful to well-fortify his troops with wine, brandy and beer, the Turks were again annihilated and Belgrade was won for Christendom (let's pray that Mr. Rumsfeld can pull off a similar coup).
...yeah. I checked the date - seems the essay was a lecture given in 2003 by one William B. Warren in New York City. Good lord. Well, Fritz had The Worst Fanboys. Go figure that Eugene has The Terrible Fanboys. Just for the record, William B. Warren, I suspect Eugene might have figured out you can't invade a country under a blatantly forged pretext, piss off nearly all your former allies ahead of this, expect the population to applaud you and then leave behind chaos. Given the importance he put on making and keeping alliances, you might say he'd have done the opposite. Also, if you're actually comparing the war against the Turks (who were doing the invading) with the Iraq Invasion, then you were definitely not a member of the reality based community in 2003 already.
Re: War of the Spanish Succession: Blenheim
LOL
He mainly wrote them because he hero-worshipped Eugene and had literary ambitions, plus he wanted to vent about the French
Awwww! Okay, this is actually kinda cute, if true.
Re: War of the Spanish Succession: Bleinheim - Gossipy Sexuality Debate
German wiki: even in his life time, there were rumors that Eugene was gay. "Mars without Venus" being the nice form of same, and then there's Liselotte writing about him in a letter: " „incommodiert er sich nicht mit Damen, ein paar schöne Pagen wären besser sein Sach!“ ("He doesn't bother with ladies, a few beautiful pages would be more to his taste") Though it can't be proven 100%.
English wiki: NO PROOF. Liselotte wrote that when Eugene was already busy fighting against her brother-in-law Louis. Clearly, she was slandering a man who was humiliating her brother-in-law on the battlefield, out of offended French patriotism.
1.) Liselotte had mixed feelings about Louis and his wars herself, what with him invading her home realm, the Palatinate, using her marriage to his brother as a pretext. She had been devastated by that. Some of her half brothers fought on the other side of those endless wars, including her very favourite brother, Carl-Lutz. Whose death made her very sad indeed. When her Hannover relations (aka her favourite aunt Sophie's husband and brother-in-law) were responsible for a Louis battlefield loss, she was a bit gleeful, even. So I'm really doubtful she'd have felt offended French patriotism and the need to avenge same by slandering Eugene.
2.) Also, Liselotte, with a clain of being married to the gayest noble not just of France but of Europe, and living surrounded by a lot of other gay and bi courtiers of same, presumably had a reasonably good gaydar. If young Eugene before his getaway from France had struck her as gay, I'm inclined to believe her.
3.) Also, Liselotte didn't see gayness per se as something negative. She wrote in December 1705 to her half sister Amelise: „Wo seydt Ihr und Louisse denn gestocken, daß ihr die weldt so wenig kendt? (…) wer alle die haßen woldt, so die junge kerls lieben, würde hier kein 6 menschen lieben können." ("What's gotten into you and Louise that you know so little of the world? (...) If one would hate all those who love young men, one couldn't love six people here. (In Versailles.)") Morever, while she was an inveterate gossip reporter in her letters, I don't think anyone has accused her otherwise of making it up. Doesn't mean the gossip she reports has to be accurate, of course, and naturally her own biases against people get into it - she definitely believed in the old order and superiority of noble bloodlines, for example, and she loathed Madame de Maintenon, louis' mistress and later morganatic wife -, and the fact that Eugene was the son of an Italian adventuresss who only married into the top French nobility because her uncle had been Cardinal Mazarin would have biased her against him. But not likely to have made her invent stories she hadn't heard.
4.) While there are reasons for not marrying other than being gay, it's still worth considering that if you are a penniless refugee without any family connections in a world that lives by those, it's absolutely remarkable not to try to form them by marrying into one of the big families. But escaped-from-France Eugene didn't do that when showing up in the HRE. He really owed his remarkable career (and massive fortune) to his skills.
In conclusion, I wish whoever wrote those passages in the English wiki would meet Johannes Kunisch, who is the German Fritz biographer who made my AP argue for a while that maybe Fritz was just pretending to be gay because Eugene and Turenne had made it fashionable. (I kid you not.)
Re: War of the Spanish Succession: Bleinheim - Gossipy Sexuality Debate
LOLOLOL I remember you citing this before, but of course I'd forgotten it until you mentioned it again <3 Liselotte! <33
In conclusion, I wish whoever wrote those passages in the English wiki would meet Johannes Kunisch, who is the German Fritz biographer who made my AP argue for a while that maybe Fritz was just pretending to be gay because Eugene and Turenne had made it fashionable.
That is amazing. I am grinning so hard right now. Eugene was that cool and gay! (I mean, maybe he wasn't gay, I also don't want to fall into that trap and you point out that gayness isn't always the answer. But still!)
Re: War of the Spanish Succession: Bleinheim - Gossipy Sexuality Debate
Same here. Now of course she could have been wrong in her guesses as to how many completely straight men existed in Versailles in 1704, but honestly, I'm trusting her more than English wikipedia on this, what with her actually living there! Morever: English wiki brings up Eugene's memoirs (in a different context, for a quote about hating Louis XIV' guts). I hadn't known Eugene wrote any memoirs, so I googled, and lo, he had not, but, see see here, there were several fake memoirs making the rounds in the 18th and early 19th century. Remember, this was a thing. There were also fake memoirs of Madame de Maintenon, for example, which Lehndorff reads at some point in his early diaries. Writing "memoirs" for a dead celebrity was a very profitale enterprise, and in the 18th century, it wasn't like they could sue you for it. (Which is why it wasn't completely irrational when people upon eventual publication of Wilhelmine's memoirs first said it had be be an anti-Prussian forgery until being presented with the manuscript in her handwriting.) However, 21st century dictionaries are supposed to be better versed about which sources are fakes!
Re: Eugene's coolness: Eugene fandom was such a thing in the 18th century that, may I remind you, Fritz' idea of coding his requests for more cash from sugar daddies in his letters was asking for copies of "The Life of Prince Eugene".
Re: War of the Spanish Succession: Bleinheim - Gossipy Sexuality Debate
They're not! But now I'm proud of myself, for lo, this happened:
I was finishing a book on the battle of Malplaquet yesterday, published in 2020, and it cited the Ligne memoirs of Eugene. I was very surprised, I turned up the memoirs on Google books, read the first couple pages, and went, "This seems fake."
Ha! Thank you for googling this from a scholarly angle and confirming.
Ever since we got burned by Austrian Trenck's not being by Austrian Trenck (per Stollberg-Rilinger), I've been on the alert.
Re: Eugene's coolness: Eugene fandom was such a thing in the 18th century that, may I remind you, Fritz' idea of coding his requests for more cash from sugar daddies in his letters was asking for copies of "The Life of Prince Eugene".
Re: Eugene's coolness, I was trying to get someone to nominate him for Yuletide in 2019!
Re: War of the Spanish Succession: Bleinheim - Gossipy Sexuality Debate
ETA: also, congratulations on your correct deducement re the Ligne/Eugene book!
Re: War of the Spanish Succession: Bleinheim - Gossipy Sexuality Debate
Background: Liselotte actually had met William as a girl, when her aunt Sophie (of Hannover) had taken her along in a prolonged journey to the Netherlands. She'd hoped to marry him then (as Protestant princes went, he was the top match to have at the time), and continued to have a soft spot for him. This letter, however, was written decades later, in the early 18th century.
It's said here that King William has the dropsy and was lethally ill, but I won't believe it until I hear it from better sources. It would be a shame if such a smart King would only get to rule such a short time. However, what he's been accused of is only too true. When all the young Englishmen who'd come here with Lord Portland the ambassador saw that affairs in Paris are handled just as they are at their own court, they weren't shy to talk about everything which is going on. Supposedly he was so in love with Albermale as with a lady and has kissed his hands in front of everyone. The other big sign that this King is fond of young men is that he doesn't fancy the ladies; for trust me on this, Amelise! men are made in a way that they need to be in love with either or both. The late King Charles (of Britain) only loved women. But there are many who love both; of these, much more are found in this place than of those who have only one inclination. King Charles wasn't just in love with Madame Mazarin but with Madame de Portmouth and with an actress.* Men believe women can't exist without being in love, simply because they themselves are disposed that way. I believe that to love or not to love isn't always up to us; but those who have been given a calm disposition in this regard can thank God as he keeps them from such misery which produces a thousand other miseries as the result. (In a letter from November 1701 to her half sister.)
*She is referring to Hortense Mancini (one of the Mazarin nieces, whose sisters include Olympe, mother of Eugene, and Marie, first great love of Louis), Louise the Duchess of Portsmouth and Nell Gwyn, respectively.
Now, this says more about contemporary gossip than about William's sexuality. (Though Liselotte must have concluded that no matter what, she'd have married a man playing for the other team.) But I find it interesting that while the term "bisexuality" doesn't exist, Liselotte is clearly familiar with the concept and aware that there aren't just straight and gay people around.
Another quote from Liselotte from March 1700, on war heroism, in which she makes a French/German pun that predates Disney lyricists making the same pun in "Hercules" by several centuries:
Young people like the King of Denmark (Frederick IV) think they become heroes if they only wage war, and don't consider that it might turn out badly and that if fortune wants it, they become zeroes instead of heroes. ("...sie anstatt des heros nur zeros werden")
On that note, here's Liselotte congratulating Aunt Sophie on the arrival of a new (great)grandkid:
I pay your grace my compliment for the happy delivery of your grandson, the new crown prince of Prussia. May God preserve this prince for many long years. The King in Prussia must be doubly happy, firstly, to have a grandson, and secondly, to have the occasion for another ceremony, of which the baptism of the child surely won't be lacking. (...) The crown princess hasn't been in contractions for long, just three and a half hours, and it can hardly be less, especially since it has found such a good ending.
Obviously F1's fondness for splendor has been heard of in Versailles, too. *g* The letter is dated 14. February 1712, btw, and Fritz was born on January 24th, so you know news from Berlin to Paris took a bit more than two weeks, if we assume Liselotte wrote soon after hearing said news. Since she knows how long exactly Fritz' birth took, you do, too.
And here's Liselotte on Old Dessauer in 1719, on the occasion of what wasn't correct news, about a fallout between FW and his bff. Since 1719 is when the rest of the bonkers Clement affair happens, maybe that was the ocasion for the wrong rumor? The "apothocary" comment refers to him having married the daughter of one. She's also alluding to Peter the Great's second wife, the Czarina Catherine (later Catherine I.), who started out as an illiterate washerwoman.
I hear some news which makes me glad; that the pharmaceutical Prince of Anhalt-Dessau won't be with the King of Prussia anymore. If he and the Czar of Russia will be together, I'm reminded of the old German saying "birds of a feather flock together, says the Devil to the Coal Shoveller". That gentleman has held a speech against my son at Turin which I still haven't gotten over; how much he'd enjoy shooting a bullet into my son's head. The apothocary his wife will of course fit in with the court of the Czarina. Such a man like this Prince can't give any good advice, he's just suited to socialize with lions and tigers and Moscowites who aren't any less savage than he is. I'm still surprised the late King of Prussia allowed this wild nephew of his to befriend his son; of course the later couldn't have learned anything good from this man.
(Liselotte, if you'd known FW in person, you'd have realised he didn't need Old Dessauer to be a thug.)
Speaking of Liselotte commenting on the next generation, remember young Voltaire's first stint in the Bastille for writing a satiric pamphlet claiming Liselotte's son the regent has an incestous affair with his daughter? The following quote from Liselotte (also from 1719) makes it sound like he had that story from his buddy Richelieu:
My son is too good; he can't bear to make himself feared, and his enemies know this only too well. On the day when he'd been obliged to send the young Duc de Richelieu into the Bastille, he's been so sad as if he himself had experienced a calamity. I wish he'd feel less sorry for this bad boy; for the little villain has never shown him any respect and has spread rumors about him and his daughter which would have merited already being sent to the Bastille in addition to his greater crime. But my son just laughs about this and makes me impatient and irritated with himself and his third daughter, that this little fellow amuses them instead of making them angry.
And lastly, Liselotte's opinion on the hygiene of three countries:
This much is certain, anyone who has visited the Netherlands finds Germany dirty; but in order to find Germany clean and pleasant, you just have to travel through France; for nothing stinks more or is more of a pigsty than Paris.
Re: War of the Spanish Succession: Bleinheim - Gossipy Sexuality Debate
Re: War of the Spanish Succession: Bleinheim - Gossipy Sexuality Debate
Here' the passage in her glorious baroque German for you: "Dieser Herr hat einen discours bei Turin gegen meinen Sohn geführet, so ich noch auf dem Magen und nicht verdauet habe: mit welcher lust er meinem Sohn eine Pistolkugel in den Kopf jagen wollte. A bit later, she adds: Daß dieser dolle Printz zum Czaaren geht, das wundert mich gar nicht, man findet die ursach in der commedie von Corneille: il est des noeuds secrets, il est des simpaties. Ich finde, daß sie viel simpatien haen: in Grausamkeit, und in geringer heurat."
There's also an SD comment from Liselotte, a few years earlier, 1713, in a letter to her sister Louise:
Ich gestehe, liebe Louise, ich kann nicht vertragen, Teutsche zu finden, die ihre Muttersprach so verachten, daß sie nie mit anderen Teutschen reden oder schreiben wollen, das ärgert mich recht: und die Königin in Preußen, wenn ich sie nicht von jederman loben hörte als eine gar tugendhafte Fürstin, sonsten solte ich fürchten, daß sie mit fremden Sprachen auch der fremden Länder Fehler aprobieren solt. (...)) Um wohl Frantzösch zu schreiben, muß man die Sprach wohl können, sonsten kompts doll heraus.
I take this to mean that SD, who had only just become Queen of, sorry, in Prussia, replied to a "congratulations" letter in French, and that Lieselotte, who'd spent most of her life in France, was of course fluent but still wrote the letters to German correspondents in German, thought this was pretentious, especially since the French in question wasn't even that good. Lord knows what she'd have made of Fritz!
Re: War of the Spanish Succession: Bleinheim - Gossipy Sexuality Debate
Yes, and it would not surprise me if he did! But I have to admit, his "geringe Heirat" is a point in his favour in my eyes, i.e. marrying the love of his life instead of a noble woman while keeping "Annelise" as a mistress or something. And according to Wiki, she even got to be regent in his absence.
(Speaking of Old Dessauer - and of German authors tackling Fritzian characters - I recently learned that Karl May of all people wrote several early stories about him. I've read my share of more out-there May novels, but I hadn't encountered these before.)
muß man die Sprach wohl können, sonsten kompts doll heraus
Heeee. Love it. Same is true for German, though! Which means she might have preferred Fritz's French after all. :P (And young Fritz at least might have gotten some leeway, what with having a - German-enforcing - thug as a father, as you put it.)
Re: War of the Spanish Succession: Bleinheim - Gossipy Sexuality Debate
Oh absolutely. It's a very sympathetic deed. In Keppler's Der Vater, FW at one point realises his buddy essentially lives his own dream life - married for love with a woman who loves him back, not one who regards herself blatantly superior to him, sons who adore him and are close to him (and don't complain about their miserable education but are happy about it because they love the manly pursuits of soldiering and hunting and beer etc.), and everyone is a good Christian, too. Leaving fictionalized FW aside, I'm sure given the sheer number of bad marriages, a great many snobs were secretly envious of Old Dessauer having a good one because he'd done the radical thing of marrying the woman he loved regardless of her status.
..Otoh: even if he'd married the bluest of blue blooded ladies, I imagine Liselotte would still have objected of him fantasizing about killing her son! And she has a point re: the cruelty. All those gruesome disciplinary punishments in the Prussian army we've heard and read about, Old Dessauer mostly invented. Even if one justifies this with "well, he created the best army on the continent like that": he had no scruples dragging poor Gundling back to be abused for many years more, either, which wasn't justified by any raison d'état, just by FW's own cruelty (and I'm sure Old Dessauer joined in when the Tabacgie had their regular go at Gundling).
Karl May: I knew he'd done it, because my Dad owns the 72 volumes 1950s/1960s edition from when the Karl May Verlag had moded to Bamberg and started to republish. But I haven't yet read that particular volume in which all the stories are collected (titled,unsurprisingly: Der Alte Dessauer).
Heeee. Love it. Same is true for German, though! Which means she might have preferred Fritz's French after all.
Sure - French was in a very real sense his mother tongue! Re his thug of a father, though, I'm not sure how much of this she had heard. I mean, the first time she hears something about FW, it's when her beloved aunt Sophie writes about how adorable the kid danced ballet! Though clearly by the time of the old Dessauer letter, FW's reputation along with Dessauer's must be making the international rounds, even for old ladies in France, at least to some degree.
Liselotte's own German is of course extravagantly spelled (this being centuries before Duden) and way more informal than her very rare French, and it's hard to get that dimension across in an English translation, though it's part of the charm of her letters. Here she is when Sophie of Hannover has died, writing to her sister Louise again, on July 1st 1714:
(I)ich weiß selbst nicht recht, was ich Euch geschrieben habe, so sehr setzt mich diß abscheuliche Unglück außer mir selber. Diese liebe Churfürstin hat mich durch gero gnädige Schreiben aus mancher Betrübnis und Herzeleydt gezogen, so ich mir hir im land empfunden(...). Ach gott, mir selber hat ma tante oft geschrieben, biß sie einen schleunigen Todt für den besten halte, und dass es eine schlegte sach seye, wenn man im im bett stirbt, den Pater oder Prister auf einer Seydt hatt und den Docktor auf der anderen Seydten und können doch nicht helffen; sie woll es so machen, daß sie dies spectacle nicht geben wolle, hat leyder nur zu wahr gesagt! Ma tante war mein einziger trost in all den Widerwertigkeytten hir, sie machte mir mit ihren lustiggen briefen alles leicht, was mich auch am betrübsten gedaugt hatt, sie hatt mir dadurch bißher dass leben erhalten.
Sophie had died of a stroke while walking through the garden of Herrenhausen, renember. A lighter passage demonstrating Liselotte's baroque German is about her son, not yet a regent, January 1715:
Mein Sohn ist Gott seye danck in vollkommener Gesundheit nun, daß er gestern 5 partien im Ballhaus gespilt hat; daß er ohnmächtig wardt, kam nur darher, daß er, nachdem er sich so dick gefressen wie ein Schindersteff und hernach in einer gar warmen cammer bey dem camin eingeschlaffen war, mit einem gar starcken husten und schnuppen. Wir sind nun gottlob beyde gar woll, und mein Sohn hat mir versprochen, hinfüro geyscheydter zu sein und nicht mehr so abscheulich zu freßen.
Re: War of the Spanish Succession: Bleinheim - Gossipy Sexuality Debate
Oh, yeah, that hadn't occurred to me but that's pretty interesting, and perceptive of her.
I believe that to love or not to love isn't always up to us; but those who have been given a calm disposition in this regard can thank God as he keeps them from such misery which produces a thousand other miseries as the result.
Heh. That whole letter seems very perceptive.
Re: War of the Spanish Succession: Bleinheim - Gossipy Sexuality Debate
On the other hand, if Kunisch had been Eugene's biographer, I'm sure he would have found some Zimmermann analogue to argue that Eugene didn't marry because STD/disfigured genitals/etc and that he totally wasn't gay, lies and slander. :P (Salty, me? Totally. I sure turned off a random Fritz documentary because their expert was Kunisch, who was telling the nation at length that there's no way to say that Fritz was gay and see, there's this contemporary source, a guy called Zimmermann.)
Very pleased to learn about the Eugene/Marlborough military bromance, too.
Re: War of the Spanish Succession: Bleinheim - Gossipy Sexuality Debate
BTW, my Dad, following Kunisch, also said "but what about this Dr. Zimmermann, as his doctor, he must have known" etc., and then I hit him with the truth about Z and with the Fredersdorf letters, and he admitted that writing "please be at the window, I'd like to see you when I ride out today, but don't open it, I don't want you to catch a cold" is not pretending to be gay out of a combination of Eugene fandom and a broken penis.