What FW originally saw in Keyserlingk: actually, if K was the type of be friendly and charming to everyone, he might have charmed FW as well. Despite being short, not tall. I mean: FW had affective needs, too, and was far from immune to likeable cultured people, as long as they were also military (see Seckendorff, who had an excellent education and was multilingual) and put an emphasis on this in his presence or could adopt a bluff honest fellow type of persona (which Manteuffel somehow managed when with FW despite never having been a soldier and being known as a man of culture). So maybe he just liked the guy, had the impression K liked and honored him (since K had the gift of making everyone believe they were his friends), and thought K would spread that attitude to Fritz. (The liking and honoring FW.).
You can also do what Klepper did and argue that appointing people like Duhan and Keyserlingk wasn‘t unintentional but intentional on FW‘s part in that he wanted to appoint teachers and governors whom Fritz would like, so he would enjoy learning from them. (With the basic idea that the lessons would be how to be a good soldier and a good son first and foremost, of course.). The anthology essay about FW as a father to the younger sibs also says that he had a good hand with teachers for the sons, since AW, Heinrich and Ferdinand loved „Kroiz“ the gay teacher, too, and kept him around after they‘d grown up. And of course the ideal from which he started was that he was to be the beloved fun parent and SD the discipline parent. Maybe the original appointments also were with this in mind.
Now, if there had been any testimony during all the interrogations connecting Keyserlingk to the escape attempt, he would hardly have been just transfered back to his original regiment. But FW was paranoid post August of 1730 in this regard as well as in all other, and he may have suspected without being able to prove anything, much like he never really stopped believing in the Clement plot. His image of himself as tough but fair would have prevented him from outright punishing Keyserlingk, since there had been zero proof of anything. But if the supicion was there, this could have explained why he wasn‘t keen on the friendship being resumed, or at least not to an intense degree.
And hey, let‘s face it, he would not have to suspect any gay element there. I mean, this is the same FW who still won‘t Wilhelmine and Fritz meet more than three times in the eight months she spends in Berlin post marriage, and not at all when Fritz is travelling to the Eugene campaign so they have to arrange a secret meeting via Knobelsdorff. „This person loves Fritz and is loved by him more than me and probably knew what was up before the escape attempt“ could totally have been enough.
„Dissolution“ - I wonder whether it‘s worth checking the original French to see which term Wilhemine used? Because the literal translation might not be the correct one given her Brandenburgian French is not exactly the modern variation For example, when she calls K an honest man, I bet the French text says „honnete homme“, which had a specific 18th century meaning - as when FW says about kid AW that he‘ll become an honnete homme in exactly this phrase despite otherwise speaking German. It‘s not simply someone telling the truth, it‘s a man of integrity/honor/nobility, a gentleman but more so.
My own guess for the meaning of dissolution, again with the parallel to AW‘s governor and to how princes were raised as opposed to princesses in Prussia (and elsewhere), is that it meant the encouragment of bawdy talk and possibly actual sex with lower class people. Yes, FW was the outlier of Kings with explicitly forbidding any bawdy conversations and anything sexual, including masturbation, for his sons as well as daughters, but most of the other courts certainly indulged in the usual gender double standards, i.e. complete chastity in conversation and action for the girls pre marriage, „sowing their oats“ for the boys. And SD certainly was against her daughters viewing bawdy theatre plays according ot the envoys.
Re: Keyserlingk, sensational gossip, and Royal Reader request
You can also do what Klepper did and argue that appointing people like Duhan and Keyserlingk wasn‘t unintentional but intentional on FW‘s part in that he wanted to appoint teachers and governors whom Fritz would like, so he would enjoy learning from them. (With the basic idea that the lessons would be how to be a good soldier and a good son first and foremost, of course.). The anthology essay about FW as a father to the younger sibs also says that he had a good hand with teachers for the sons, since AW, Heinrich and Ferdinand loved „Kroiz“ the gay teacher, too, and kept him around after they‘d grown up. And of course the ideal from which he started was that he was to be the beloved fun parent and SD the discipline parent. Maybe the original appointments also were with this in mind.
Now, if there had been any testimony during all the interrogations connecting Keyserlingk to the escape attempt, he would hardly have been just transfered back to his original regiment. But FW was paranoid post August of 1730 in this regard as well as in all other, and he may have suspected without being able to prove anything, much like he never really stopped believing in the Clement plot. His image of himself as tough but fair would have prevented him from outright punishing Keyserlingk, since there had been zero proof of anything. But if the supicion was there, this could have explained why he wasn‘t keen on the friendship being resumed, or at least not to an intense degree.
And hey, let‘s face it, he would not have to suspect any gay element there. I mean, this is the same FW who still won‘t Wilhelmine and Fritz meet more than three times in the eight months she spends in Berlin post marriage, and not at all when Fritz is travelling to the Eugene campaign so they have to arrange a secret meeting via Knobelsdorff. „This person loves Fritz and is loved by him more than me and probably knew what was up before the escape attempt“ could totally have been enough.
„Dissolution“ - I wonder whether it‘s worth checking the original French to see which term Wilhemine used? Because the literal translation might not be the correct one given her Brandenburgian French is not exactly the modern variation For example, when she calls K an honest man, I bet the French text says „honnete homme“, which had a specific 18th century meaning - as when FW says about kid AW that he‘ll become an honnete homme in exactly this phrase despite otherwise speaking German. It‘s not simply someone telling the truth, it‘s a man of integrity/honor/nobility, a gentleman but more so.
My own guess for the meaning of dissolution, again with the parallel to AW‘s governor and to how princes were raised as opposed to princesses in Prussia (and elsewhere), is that it meant the encouragment of bawdy talk and possibly actual sex with lower class people. Yes, FW was the outlier of Kings with explicitly forbidding any bawdy conversations and anything sexual, including masturbation, for his sons as well as daughters, but most of the other courts certainly indulged in the usual gender double standards, i.e. complete chastity in conversation and action for the girls pre marriage, „sowing their oats“ for the boys. And SD certainly was against her daughters viewing bawdy theatre plays according ot the envoys.