One thing is certain, and upon which you may rely, that his career is ended, and that the name of Seckendorf, will never more be heard spoken of.
You wish, Fritz. MT is going to release him in just a few years, and then he'll become the main commander of the same Wittelsbach Emperor you're supporting, which means you have to team up with him repeatedly. He'll also arrange the negotations between MT and Maximilian of Wittelsbach leading to the Wittelsbachs resigning their claim to the HRE and getting Bavaria back.
Princes and sovereigns debase themselves even so far as to make their court to him
He's talking about himself, I guess? Also possibly August the Strong, but as far as I recall, August's main contact in Berlin were his envoy du jour, i.e. first Manteuffel, then Suhm, FW himself and Grumbkow, not Seckendorff, and if August wanted to negotiate with Vienna and the Emperor, there was an extra envoy in Saxony. But I can't think of any other prince who tried to court Seckendorff; it was Seckendorff doing the courting (and bribing). So basically Fritz is the only prince I can think of who abased himself in Seckendorff's direction.
lying was so habitual to him, that he had lost the use of truth
Takes one to know one. Seriously though, it amuses me that both Seckendorff and Fritz describe each other als lying liars who lie as a primary character trait. BTW, this is how Arneth describes Seckendorff:
Seckendorff was eminently suited to accomplish such a task. A rather small, insignificant man with ugly facial traits, with an almost repellent voice and manner of speaking, he still know how to make people almost forget his less than charming exterior through his unusual mental gifts. He connected a scientific education which was very unusual for a soldier of this time with a very sharp gaze with which he judged the political situations as well as the individuals who most influenced these situations. Added to this was the talent he had to compliment the different personalities and their quircks in a way that men with very different ways of thinking believed to recognize in him the man of their choice. That he was favored by Eugene of Savoye and Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia at the same time is the best proof for the rightness of this claim.
It was especially the King whom he was able to manage maybe better than anyone before or after him ever could. Seckendorff knew how to hide his savvy under a mask of being a bluff soldier. Through relentless joining in the King's military exercises, the exhausting hunts and the meals as well as the then world famous "Tobacco Parliament", he had managed to make his company indespensible to the King. Thus, he won such an influence on the King of Prussia - bit by bit - , as was probably only paralleled in the one exerted by individual envoys of the Kings of Spain from the older line of the Habsburgs which had been sent to the court of Vienna.
Seckendorff's dazzling qualities were darkened by exaggarated avarice and austerity. However, this was not a flaw in the eyes of a King who as everyone knows loved, other than his soldiers, only money and the gain of territory. Moreover, he valued the accomplished general in Seckendorff and didn't like diplomats who were civilians.
Like Suhm, which is why Manteuffel - who had never, ever, served in any army - was such a notable exception to this rule, but then, he also could adopt a "bluff, honest straight-talker" persona for FW.
Re: Arneth-Eugene-Seckendorff
You wish, Fritz. MT is going to release him in just a few years, and then he'll become the main commander of the same Wittelsbach Emperor you're supporting, which means you have to team up with him repeatedly. He'll also arrange the negotations between MT and Maximilian of Wittelsbach leading to the Wittelsbachs resigning their claim to the HRE and getting Bavaria back.
Princes and sovereigns debase themselves even so far as to make their court to him
He's talking about himself, I guess? Also possibly August the Strong, but as far as I recall, August's main contact in Berlin were his envoy du jour, i.e. first Manteuffel, then Suhm, FW himself and Grumbkow, not Seckendorff, and if August wanted to negotiate with Vienna and the Emperor, there was an extra envoy in Saxony. But I can't think of any other prince who tried to court Seckendorff; it was Seckendorff doing the courting (and bribing). So basically Fritz is the only prince I can think of who abased himself in Seckendorff's direction.
lying was so habitual to him, that he had lost the use of truth
Takes one to know one. Seriously though, it amuses me that both Seckendorff and Fritz describe each other als lying liars who lie as a primary character trait. BTW, this is how Arneth describes Seckendorff:
Seckendorff was eminently suited to accomplish such a task. A rather small, insignificant man with ugly facial traits, with an almost repellent voice and manner of speaking, he still know how to make people almost forget his less than charming exterior through his unusual mental gifts. He connected a scientific education which was very unusual for a soldier of this time with a very sharp gaze with which he judged the political situations as well as the individuals who most influenced these situations. Added to this was the talent he had to compliment the different personalities and their quircks in a way that men with very different ways of thinking believed to recognize in him the man of their choice. That he was favored by Eugene of Savoye and Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia at the same time is the best proof for the rightness of this claim.
It was especially the King whom he was able to manage maybe better than anyone before or after him ever could. Seckendorff knew how to hide his savvy under a mask of being a bluff soldier. Through relentless joining in the King's military exercises, the exhausting hunts and the meals as well as the then world famous "Tobacco Parliament", he had managed to make his company indespensible to the King. Thus, he won such an influence on the King of Prussia - bit by bit - , as was probably only paralleled in the one exerted by individual envoys of the Kings of Spain from the older line of the Habsburgs which had been sent to the court of Vienna.
Seckendorff's dazzling qualities were darkened by exaggarated avarice and austerity. However, this was not a flaw in the eyes of a King who as everyone knows loved, other than his soldiers, only money and the gain of territory. Moreover, he valued the accomplished general in Seckendorff and didn't like diplomats who were civilians.
Like Suhm, which is why Manteuffel - who had never, ever, served in any army - was such a notable exception to this rule, but then, he also could adopt a "bluff, honest straight-talker" persona for FW.