Georg Heinrich von Görtz is the A+ minister of Charles XII that cahn asked if he was like tragic Fredersdorf.
Well, a little bit, but either way, he's interesting in his own right, imo.
Massie makes Görtz sound like one of the most amazing, larger-than-life characters in the story. He starts out a minister in Holstein-Gottorp service, acting as diplomat abroad, and meeting with the likes of Queen Anne, Peter the Great, and other monarchs. But Holstein-Gottorp is too small for him.
Then he ends up meeting Charles, and they realize they're a match made in heaven. Charles is the king with the grand military vision, Görtz has administrative and diplomatic genius. Charles gives him full powers as minister. Which already makes a lot of people jealous, because he's still technically a Holsteiner, helping out his ally, rather than someone whose exclusive loyalties are to Sweden.
This is already a big problem, because not only is he a foreigner, his boss is Charles Frederick, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, who is Charles XII's nephew (and future dad of Peter III).
Why is this a problem?
Well, remember how Charles refuses to choose between his nephew and his sister as his heir? If his nephew's ambassador is unofficial prime minister of Sweden, the sister's party can only assume that he's going to be working on behalf of the Holstein claim to the throne. So Görtz has already got some powerful enemies there. But don't worry, he'll get more!
We're in the late stages of the war. Sweden is out of men, out of money, out of overseas territory. But not out of Charles XII and Görtz! Together, they're determined to turn it around! Görtz was, according to Massie,
an audacious international adventurer without real ties of nationality but with a taste for power and a passion for intrigue. He had a complex, versatile intellect which allowed him to work on several divergent, even contradictory schemes simultaneously. It has been said of him that “he achieved twenty times as much as Talleyrand or Metternich while working with less than one twentieth of their resources.” For four years—from 1714 to 1718—Goertz, armed with the power of the king, loomed over Sweden. In person, he was a dramatic figure, tall, handsome (in spite of an artificial eye, made of enamel, which replaced one lost in a student duel), charming and a brilliant conversationalist.
...
[Charles] admired Goertz’ energy, his breadth of vision, his analytical capacity and his willingness to attempt, like Charles himself, vast, grand-scale schemes and radical solutions even with limited resources. As Charles saw it, Goertz applied in administration and diplomacy the same dash and reckless bravado which the King employed in war. Thereafter, until Charles’ death, Goertz was indispensable to him. He took absolute control of Sweden’s finances and all the great domestic departments of state. He became the King’s voice, if not his brain, in Swedish diplomacy. By February 1716, he was describing himself as Director of the Finances and Commerce of Sweden.
He goes to work, raising taxes, creating a paper currency, doing whatever it takes to make it so Charles can fight on. Naturally, the Swedes, already exhausted, like Görtz as much as you might imagine.
Massie says he was accused of financial dishonesty, but was in fact so honest that he even paid for state needs out of his own pocket. (This was a thing that happened; Peter's favorite Menshikov and Catherine's favorite Potemkin were both accused of embezzlement, but they both, when you examine the records, apparently used personal money for state purposes and state money for personal purposes, considering the one a loan to the state and the other a repayment of the money they'd advanced. The bookkeeping was so chaotic that it was impossible to tell in the end who owed who. I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out Görtz did the same.)
But try telling the Swedes that. So now Görtz has got three sets of enemies: Swedes who are upset that a foreigner is getting all this favor, Swedes who support C12's sister Ulrike Eleonora over Holstein nephew Charles Frederick as heir to the throne, and Swedes are Done With This War Already (TM).
But Charles thinks he's the best thing since sliced bread, and Charles is an absolute monarch!
So now Görtz's job is to go negotiate with other major powers, like Russia, about ending the war on terms Charles will accept.
This is Massie's take (note my qualifier):
Görtz is a people skills genius who takes a weakened Sweden that should really be suing for peace, and makes it into the diplomatic power of the north that everyone is courting. He's wheeling and dealing, wielding smoke and mirrors, using psychology, just like a poker player pretending his hand is a lot stronger than it is. It works amazingly! He gets really good terms!
And Charles rejects them, because the only acceptable Charles XII terms are "I defeat my enemies utterly and don't cede an inch of land." (You saw this coming, right?)
So Görtz tries again! He doesn't tell Charles what he's up to, and he asks forgiveness rather than permission, and he gets another really good deal!
Which Charles rejects, and goes on fighting for all-or-nothing.
At this point, I was super impressed with Görtz, and the fact that he and Charles were both so amazing in their respective but completely different domains was pushing my ship buttons. (As I've explained, this is why I find it hard to ship Fritz/Fredersdorf more than I do: they're both good at so many of the same things, and even where they're not, I don't get that clear sense that their partnership had that clear division of labor like Charles and Görtz. "The same dash and reckless bravado which the King employed in war" is a ship made to order for me.)
BUT. The fact that they weren't on the same page and Görtz was increasingly having to keep secrets from Charles was making shipping harder. (I know that would be a feature rather than a bug for some of you reading this. For this particular dynamic, for me, it's a bug.)
But then! I read Hatton. And Hatton's take is that the claim that Görtz was doing genius diplomacy basically behind Charles' back, and Charles' stubbornness and arrogance kept making it all for naught, is the *old* school of thought. Whereas if you read all the archives, not just from Sweden, but of the whole anti-Swedish coalition--as well as Sweden's would-be allies, in the military sense, the Jacobites and Alberoni of Spain, and of her formal allies although not co-belligerents, Hesse and France--the threads of the negotiations can now be more clearly distinguished.
(Hatton may not be perfect, but this kind of thing is why I like her.)
According to Hatton, reading all the archives you can get your hands on reveals that Charles and Görtz knew their letters were being read. This was a safe assumption in 18th century diplomacy, as selenak and I have explained.
So our antiheroes had a whole system going where they would send letters that they meant to be read, which made it look like Görtz was taking his diplomatic maneuvering extremely seriously and Charles was the one rejecting it. But their secret letters, which have only just (as of 1968) been studied, make it clear that they were on the same page, and that Görtz's job was to distract the allies and buy time for Charles' military initiatives. And he knew it and was on board with it.
Me: HELLO MY NEW SHIP.
But then, in 1718, Charles is shot through the head on one of these military initiatives, as we've learned. In the grab for the throne, his sister Ulrika Eleonora moves fast and wins.
Görtz has three sets of enemies, as described above--Swedes who hate the war, everyone suspicious of foreigners, and Ulrika Eleonora's anti-Holstein party--and one of them is now on the throne. And his protector is gone.
He's promptly arrested and accused of alienating the late king's affections from the people. Meaning everyone is super upset at the war and blaming Charles, but he's the king and my brother, so we can't have that, so let's blame the minister! Who worked hand in glove with Charles and did only what the King wanted. Never mind that, off with his head! Görtz is the one who made Charles, after 14 years of continuing the war of his own accord, decide to keep continuing the war another 4 years. (Um, guys, Charles' track record is against you.)
Görtz got a show trial. To quote Massie at length again:
From the beginning, Goertz was doomed; in vain, he protested the lack of jurisdiction of the special commission. His claim that he was an alien and untouchable was rejected. His petition to have legal counsel was refused as unnecessary. He was not allowed to call his own witnesses or to confront hostile witnesses. He was not allowed to develop his defense in writing or to bring notes into the courtroom. He was given only a day and a half to prepare his reply, which permitted him time to read only one fifth of the evidence presented against him. Inevitably, he was found guilty, and unanimously he was condemned to be beheaded and his body buried under the scaffold, a mark of special contempt. He received the sentence with composure, but petitioned that his body might be spared this final disgrace. Grimly, Ulrika ordered the entire sentence carried out. Goertz mounted the scaffold with courage and dignity and said, “You bloodthirsty Swedes, take then the head you have thirsted for so long.” As he laid his head on the block, his last words were, “Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit.” His head fell at the first blow, and his body was buried on the spot.
He outlived Charles by just 2 months.
So, he's not exactly Fredersdorf and not exactly Katte, but the minister part is there and the tragic part is there. While I'm not endorsing the measures he took to continue the war, it's a massive double standard that Charles gets venerated and the guy who showed up to help him at the end gets his head chopped off. Just like Fritz *actually* trying to run away and Katte just thinking about it, and one gets locked up and the other gets his head chopped off.
At least they both got single-blow executions. As we've seen, that was a luxury in pre-guillotine days.
Also, I would read the hell out of fic about these two and their crazy partnership. :D I don't care if they had sex, that's the least important part here.
Oh, I should add that Massie relies heavily on Hatton for his C12 material, so I'm not sure how he overlooked her comment about the "ostensible" correspondence and the recently turned up "real" correspondence. But she makes a way better case than he does, so I'm going with her interpretation until further notice.
He does sound like a fascinating character! However, German wiki upon a quick check paints a somewhat darker picture of him - not in Sweden, where it agrees he did exactly what Charles wanted and that his death was judical murder - but before that, in Holstein.
"As leader of the finances, he made himself unpopular through the raising and ruthless procuration of ever new taxes. An austere household, on the other hand, he rejected in opposition to Magnus von Weddenkop. But his colleagues, too, had the favor of the Dowager Duchess (who was Charles' older sister Hedwiga, btw) and Görtz couldn't yet completely dominate policy. (...) After the death of the Dowager Duchess Hedwig Sophia 1708, Christian August took over the government, and Görtz gained additoinal influence. He had his rival Weddenkop arrested in 1709 and claimed his Hamburg property. After Görtz had the Görtz Palais built in Hamburg, Hamburgians mocked that due the dishonest personality of the builder, the inscription over the entrance should say "spolia holsatiae" ("Robbery Goods from Holstein"). Weddenkop got arrested in Tönning and wasn't freed until 1714 (against the strict orders of Görtz who had wanted him to be executed when transfered to the Danes). Weddenkop later got completely rehabilitated, got his property restituted and died in 1721 in Hamburg.
Like I said, German wiki entirely agrees that what happened later in Sweden to Görtz was a show trial. But it looks like he was familiar with the practice from doing it to others. BTW, German wiki also says Görtz' daughter Henriette got her father's estate back from Gustav III., but not until then. And it provides a Voltaire quote about him, adding Voltaire had met Görtz in person (presumably when Görtz was still a travelling diplomat?), and which says: "There never lived a man who was so smooth and bold, so inventive in misfortune, so decisive in his enterprises as he was. No plan frightened him, and he was ready to use every means."
(German wiki's source referencing - among others, our old buddy Reinhold Koser, Fritz source finder extraordinaire!)
ETA: all in all, it makes Görtz sound like two other 18th century finance ministers who were efficient, ruthless, very hated but essentially doing exactly what their boss, who as the ruling monarch couldn't be blamed, wanted them to, to wit, Brühl in Saxony and Joseph Süß Oppenheimer in Würtemberg. (The later died after a show trial, too, with an added dose of vicious antisemitism since he was a Jew.) German wiki says in Görtz' case, they even had to invent a law (against giving "bad advice") to justify it! Still, I imagine Weddenkop in Hamburg wasn't exactly heartbroken when hearing the news and experienced a "karma is a beautiful thing" moment.
Daughter of ETA: The Görtz Palais in Hamburg has its own wiki entry and a colorful history itself, to put it mildly. After Görtz' execution in 1719, it served as the Imperial Embassy in Hamburg. Why? Because Hamburgians, for what reason the entry doesn't say, had plundered and destroyed the original envoy's house and so the city of Hamburg offered this one in recompense. It remained the Imperial embassy until 1806 (end of HRE, hello, Napoleon) upon which it became the city hall for as long as the French occupation lasted. Then it became the headquarters of a newfounded Hamburg bank. And in the 20th century, it had its darkest chapter, since it became the local Gestapo Headquarter, which lasted until the firebombing of Hamburg, which destroyed the building except for the frontal facade. Post war, the facade was restored but the remaining building, built from scratch, is modern and used for offices.
Son of ETA: wow, Weddenkop's German wiki entry is even more negative about Görtz than Görtz' German wiki entry (and mentions Weddenkop's heirs were still sueing Görtz' heirs many years after his death.
Choice bits, in German for Mildred to practice: Wedderkop versuchte politisch das durch den Frieden von Traventhal gewonnene stabile und freundschaftliche Verhältnis zu Dänemark zu erhalten, geriet aber mit dieser Haltung zunehmend in Konflikt mit seinem aufsteigenden Widersacher Georg Heinrich von Görtz und dessen ausgeprägtem Machtbewusstsein, dem er schließlich zum Opfer fiel. Dieser hatte nach dem Tod von Herzog Friedrich IV. im Jahr 1702 das bessere Verhältnis zum Administrator des Herzogtums, Fürstbischof Christian August von Lübeck, gefunden, der ein ausschweifendes Leben, zugleich aber die Regierungsgeschäfte für den erst zweijährigen Herzog Karl-Friedrich führte. Aufwind bekam Wedderkop vorübergehend durch eine von Stockholm aus veranlasste Untersuchung der Finanzen des Herzogtums, die die Verschwendung des Administrators und die Ausplünderung des Landes durch Georg Heinrich von Görtz offenlegte.
And: Mit dem Tod von Hedwig Sophia von Schweden im Jahr 1708, der Witwe des 1702 in der Schlacht bei Klissow gefallenen Herzogs Friedrich IV., sah sich Wedderkop zunehmend schutzbedürftiger und zog sich sicherheitshalber in sein Palais am Neuen Wall in Hamburg zurück. Am 19. Dezember 1709 ließ Wedderkop sich aus nicht nachvollziehbaren Gründen dennoch zu einer Sitzung des Geheimen Rates nach Schloss Gottorf locken, wo der 72-Jährige freundlich empfangen, im Anschluss an ein Diner mit dem Administrator jedoch nachts verhaftet und auf die Festung Tönning gebracht wurde. Die Verhaftung erfolgte ohne Gerichtsurteil und gerichtliche Untersuchung. Da eigentlich keine belastenden Umstände gegen Wedderkop vorlagen, gestaltete sich der Prozess schwierig, wurde aber dennoch als ein Stück fragwürdiger Kabinettsjustiz 1713 mit einem Todesurteil gegen Wedderkop abgeschlossen. König Friedrich IV. von Dänemark belagerte 1713 mit seinen Verbündeten die in der Festung Tönning eingeschlossenen schwedischen Truppen unter Magnus Stenbock. Erst mit Übergabe der Festung kam Magnus von Wedderkop wieder frei. Die restlichen Lebensjahre verbrachte er in Hamburg im Haus Speersort 12/14 des Herzogs mit dem Versuch, seine Vermögensangelegenheiten zu ordnen, denn sein Palais am Neuen Wall war von Görtz beschlagnahmt worden. Am 1. Juli 1719 verlieh der Herzog von Holstein Wedderkop und seinen Erben als Ersatz für das erlittene Unrecht das Amt Tremsbüttel zur Nutznießung auf 30 Jahre.
Yep, Weddenkop definitely thought in 1719: "There is a God! Thank you, Lord. If ever someone had it coming..."
Oh, totally, he had it coming! Obviously the reason he was executed was because he'd oppressed the Swedes so badly, and my sympathies are with the Swedes. This is why I wrote "our antiheroes" and "I'm not endorsing." But the Swedes are not the ones I want fic about. ;)
If Fritz can use his A+ skills to wage unprovoked expansionist warfare, commit war crimes, put children to work in his munitions factories, and even use them as child soldiers, and I can still want fic about this guy, Görtz can use his A+ skills to suck the country dry and lock his enemies up without a trial. As someone on tumblr put on a Fritz moodboard, "I do bad things and I do them very well." :D
Semi-unrelated, cahn, I'm reminded that I meant to make a connection explicit for you. When Supercharles rides in just two weeks in 1714 from the Ottoman Empire back to his troops on the northern German coast, the city he's going to is Stralsund. It's part of Swedish territory on the European mainland, acquired in the 17th century, which the allies are besieging and Sweden is defending.
This is the siege where FW, as one of the besiegers, is impressed by Duhan. Fritz later says, "It is rare to engage a tutor in a trench." A trench because FW and Duhan were part of the effort to strip Sweden of its overseas territory. In this case, the Swedish Pomeranian territory, in which Stralsund was located.
FW and company won the siege, but in the final peace treaty a few years later, Sweden got to keep Stralsund by dint of giving up other territory and paying damages.
Re: Stralsund, Sweden only got to keep it for another century, though. Stralsund became a part of Prussia in 1815 and is still German today. It's also an old Hanse town which a pretty well preserved inner city, with a visit.
Wasn't a young Knobelsdorff also at Stralsund in the ditches?
Re: Stralsund, Sweden only got to keep it for another century, though. Stralsund became a part of Prussia in 1815 and is still German today. It's also an old Hanse town which a pretty well preserved inner city, with a visit.
I didn't mention this because it's outside our period, but yes, very true.
Wasn't a young Knobelsdorff also at Stralsund in the ditches?
I had forgotten, but searching old posts reminds me that he was indeed. Good memory!
in Görtz' case, they even had to invent a law (against giving "bad advice") to justify it!
...wow!
Yep, Weddenkop definitely thought in 1719: "There is a God! Thank you, Lord. If ever someone had it coming..."
Heh. I'm glad for Weddenkop that at least he got his karma moment in the middle of all that, ugh. Though I must say this makes me more fascinated with Görtz rather than otherwise; it's kind of the cherry on the cake that he gets what he had coming to him!
Okay, this is AWESOME. This is better than tragic Fredersdorf because different -- I mean, not that I wouldn't have appreciated tragic!Fredersdorf too, that is definitely one of my tropes (see also opera!Rodrigo, lol), but between your and selenak's info this is a hilarious combo of a) real-life heist/con-artist/trolling-everyone (and yes, these are also the buttons that Voltaire pushes, only, like, if he and Fritz had planned together to troll the entire world they would really be my OTP) and b) comeuppance, and I am here for this :D
His head fell at the first blow, and his body was buried on the spot.
Heh, I also thought like you did, at least it only took one blow :P
Also, I would read the hell out of fic about these two and their crazy partnership. :D I don't care if they had sex, that's the least important part here.
Hee, I'm glad you liked! Yeah, the trickster figure aspects that appeal to me in Voltaire are definitely here, and the teamwork is what clinches it for me. :DDD
a) real-life heist/con-artist/trolling-everyone (and yes, these are also the buttons that Voltaire pushes, only, like, if he and Fritz had planned together to troll the entire world they would really be my OTP)
Yes this!!
and b) comeuppance, and I am here for this :D
See, for me it's less about the comeuppance and more about I just REALLY LIKE terrible people, what can I say? See, prinzsorgenfrei's "if people can't handle you at your starting wars with your neighbours and being a dick about it, they don't deserve you at your composing sonatas with a tiny spoiled puppy on your lap" makes me laugh, because the things that made me fall instantly for Fritz back in the day were:
- Starting wars with his neighbors and being a dick about it. - Winning (most of) his battles. - Abandoning the French as soon as he had Silesia and leaving them to duke it out with Austria. - SNARK. - Writing the Anti-Machiavel right before invading his neighbors and being a dick about it. Younger me was convinced that I knew better than historians and this was totally a cunning plan to make everyone not see his reign coming. Older me is wiser and sadder, i.e. still with the love of trickster figures and still disappointed to have concluded that this wasn't actually the case. :P
In other words, it does nothing for me that this guy died because he deserved to die, what pushes my buttons is that one, he deserved to die, and two, he died as soon as his protector and collaborator was gone.
Yeah, fair enough! I really like Voltaire, after all :D (Although I think part of what I like about Voltaire is that he combines being a really terrible person with being a really great person, and the paradox of those both coexisting in the same person is what I like. But really I will take ALL THE OTPs of trickster teamwork! ...is this a fandom thing? I mean, there are heist shows, which are trickster teamwork and which I love, but I can't think of any trickster-pair examples and I want this now!)
- Abandoning the French as soon as he had Silesia and leaving them to duke it out with Austria. - SNARK. - Writing the Anti-Machiavel right before invading his neighbors and being a dick about it.
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Great Northern War: Tragic minister Görtz
Well, a little bit, but either way, he's interesting in his own right, imo.
Massie makes Görtz sound like one of the most amazing, larger-than-life characters in the story. He starts out a minister in Holstein-Gottorp service, acting as diplomat abroad, and meeting with the likes of Queen Anne, Peter the Great, and other monarchs. But Holstein-Gottorp is too small for him.
Then he ends up meeting Charles, and they realize they're a match made in heaven. Charles is the king with the grand military vision, Görtz has administrative and diplomatic genius. Charles gives him full powers as minister. Which already makes a lot of people jealous, because he's still technically a Holsteiner, helping out his ally, rather than someone whose exclusive loyalties are to Sweden.
This is already a big problem, because not only is he a foreigner, his boss is Charles Frederick, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, who is Charles XII's nephew (and future dad of Peter III).
Why is this a problem?
Well, remember how Charles refuses to choose between his nephew and his sister as his heir? If his nephew's ambassador is unofficial prime minister of Sweden, the sister's party can only assume that he's going to be working on behalf of the Holstein claim to the throne. So Görtz has already got some powerful enemies there. But don't worry, he'll get more!
We're in the late stages of the war. Sweden is out of men, out of money, out of overseas territory. But not out of Charles XII and Görtz! Together, they're determined to turn it around! Görtz was, according to Massie,
an audacious international adventurer without real ties of nationality but with a taste for power and a passion for intrigue. He had a complex, versatile intellect which allowed him to work on several divergent, even contradictory schemes simultaneously. It has been said of him that “he achieved twenty times as much as Talleyrand or Metternich while working with less than one twentieth of their resources.” For four years—from 1714 to 1718—Goertz, armed with the power of the king, loomed over Sweden. In person, he was a dramatic figure, tall, handsome (in spite of an artificial eye, made of enamel, which replaced one lost in a student duel), charming and a brilliant conversationalist.
...
[Charles] admired Goertz’ energy, his breadth of vision, his analytical capacity and his willingness to attempt, like Charles himself, vast, grand-scale schemes and radical solutions even with limited resources. As Charles saw it, Goertz applied in administration and diplomacy the same dash and reckless bravado which the King employed in war. Thereafter, until Charles’ death, Goertz was indispensable to him. He took absolute control of Sweden’s finances and all the great domestic departments of state. He became the King’s voice, if not his brain, in Swedish diplomacy. By February 1716, he was describing himself as Director of the Finances and Commerce of Sweden.
He goes to work, raising taxes, creating a paper currency, doing whatever it takes to make it so Charles can fight on. Naturally, the Swedes, already exhausted, like Görtz as much as you might imagine.
Massie says he was accused of financial dishonesty, but was in fact so honest that he even paid for state needs out of his own pocket. (This was a thing that happened; Peter's favorite Menshikov and Catherine's favorite Potemkin were both accused of embezzlement, but they both, when you examine the records, apparently used personal money for state purposes and state money for personal purposes, considering the one a loan to the state and the other a repayment of the money they'd advanced. The bookkeeping was so chaotic that it was impossible to tell in the end who owed who. I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out Görtz did the same.)
But try telling the Swedes that. So now Görtz has got three sets of enemies: Swedes who are upset that a foreigner is getting all this favor, Swedes who support C12's sister Ulrike Eleonora over Holstein nephew Charles Frederick as heir to the throne, and Swedes are Done With This War Already (TM).
But Charles thinks he's the best thing since sliced bread, and Charles is an absolute monarch!
So now Görtz's job is to go negotiate with other major powers, like Russia, about ending the war on terms Charles will accept.
This is Massie's take (note my qualifier):
Görtz is a people skills genius who takes a weakened Sweden that should really be suing for peace, and makes it into the diplomatic power of the north that everyone is courting. He's wheeling and dealing, wielding smoke and mirrors, using psychology, just like a poker player pretending his hand is a lot stronger than it is. It works amazingly! He gets really good terms!
And Charles rejects them, because the only acceptable Charles XII terms are "I defeat my enemies utterly and don't cede an inch of land." (You saw this coming, right?)
So Görtz tries again! He doesn't tell Charles what he's up to, and he asks forgiveness rather than permission, and he gets another really good deal!
Which Charles rejects, and goes on fighting for all-or-nothing.
At this point, I was super impressed with Görtz, and the fact that he and Charles were both so amazing in their respective but completely different domains was pushing my ship buttons. (As I've explained, this is why I find it hard to ship Fritz/Fredersdorf more than I do: they're both good at so many of the same things, and even where they're not, I don't get that clear sense that their partnership had that clear division of labor like Charles and Görtz. "The same dash and reckless bravado which the King employed in war" is a ship made to order for me.)
BUT. The fact that they weren't on the same page and Görtz was increasingly having to keep secrets from Charles was making shipping harder. (I know that would be a feature rather than a bug for some of you reading this. For this particular dynamic, for me, it's a bug.)
But then! I read Hatton. And Hatton's take is that the claim that Görtz was doing genius diplomacy basically behind Charles' back, and Charles' stubbornness and arrogance kept making it all for naught, is the *old* school of thought. Whereas if you read all the archives, not just from Sweden, but of the whole anti-Swedish coalition--as well as Sweden's would-be allies, in the military sense, the Jacobites and Alberoni of Spain, and of her formal allies although not co-belligerents, Hesse and France--the threads of the negotiations can now be more clearly distinguished.
(Hatton may not be perfect, but this kind of thing is why I like her.)
According to Hatton, reading all the archives you can get your hands on reveals that Charles and Görtz knew their letters were being read. This was a safe assumption in 18th century diplomacy, as
So our antiheroes had a whole system going where they would send letters that they meant to be read, which made it look like Görtz was taking his diplomatic maneuvering extremely seriously and Charles was the one rejecting it. But their secret letters, which have only just (as of 1968) been studied, make it clear that they were on the same page, and that Görtz's job was to distract the allies and buy time for Charles' military initiatives. And he knew it and was on board with it.
Me: HELLO MY NEW SHIP.
But then, in 1718, Charles is shot through the head on one of these military initiatives, as we've learned. In the grab for the throne, his sister Ulrika Eleonora moves fast and wins.
Görtz has three sets of enemies, as described above--Swedes who hate the war, everyone suspicious of foreigners, and Ulrika Eleonora's anti-Holstein party--and one of them is now on the throne. And his protector is gone.
He's promptly arrested and accused of alienating the late king's affections from the people. Meaning everyone is super upset at the war and blaming Charles, but he's the king and my brother, so we can't have that, so let's blame the minister! Who worked hand in glove with Charles and did only what the King wanted. Never mind that, off with his head! Görtz is the one who made Charles, after 14 years of continuing the war of his own accord, decide to keep continuing the war another 4 years. (Um, guys, Charles' track record is against you.)
Görtz got a show trial. To quote Massie at length again:
From the beginning, Goertz was doomed; in vain, he protested the lack of jurisdiction of the special commission. His claim that he was an alien and untouchable was rejected. His petition to have legal counsel was refused as unnecessary. He was not allowed to call his own witnesses or to confront hostile witnesses. He was not allowed to develop his defense in writing or to bring notes into the courtroom. He was given only a day and a half to prepare his reply, which permitted him time to read only one fifth of the evidence presented against him. Inevitably, he was found guilty, and unanimously he was condemned to be beheaded and his body buried under the scaffold, a mark of special contempt. He received the sentence with composure, but petitioned that his body might be spared this final disgrace. Grimly, Ulrika ordered the entire sentence carried out. Goertz mounted the scaffold with courage and dignity and said, “You bloodthirsty Swedes, take then the head you have thirsted for so long.” As he laid his head on the block, his last words were, “Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit.” His head fell at the first blow, and his body was buried on the spot.
He outlived Charles by just 2 months.
So, he's not exactly Fredersdorf and not exactly Katte, but the minister part is there and the tragic part is there. While I'm not endorsing the measures he took to continue the war, it's a massive double standard that Charles gets venerated and the guy who showed up to help him at the end gets his head chopped off. Just like Fritz *actually* trying to run away and Katte just thinking about it, and one gets locked up and the other gets his head chopped off.
At least they both got single-blow executions. As we've seen, that was a luxury in pre-guillotine days.
Also, I would read the hell out of fic about these two and their crazy partnership. :D I don't care if they had sex, that's the least important part here.
Oh, I should add that Massie relies heavily on Hatton for his C12 material, so I'm not sure how he overlooked her comment about the "ostensible" correspondence and the recently turned up "real" correspondence. But she makes a way better case than he does, so I'm going with her interpretation until further notice.
Re: Great Northern War: Tragic minister Görtz
"As leader of the finances, he made himself unpopular through the raising and ruthless procuration of ever new taxes. An austere household, on the other hand, he rejected in opposition to Magnus von Weddenkop. But his colleagues, too, had the favor of the Dowager Duchess (who was Charles' older sister Hedwiga, btw) and Görtz couldn't yet completely dominate policy. (...) After the death of the Dowager Duchess Hedwig Sophia 1708, Christian August took over the government, and Görtz gained additoinal influence. He had his rival Weddenkop arrested in 1709 and claimed his Hamburg property. After Görtz had the Görtz Palais built in Hamburg, Hamburgians mocked that due the dishonest personality of the builder, the inscription over the entrance should say "spolia holsatiae" ("Robbery Goods from Holstein"). Weddenkop got arrested in Tönning and wasn't freed until 1714 (against the strict orders of Görtz who had wanted him to be executed when transfered to the Danes). Weddenkop later got completely rehabilitated, got his property restituted and died in 1721 in Hamburg.
Like I said, German wiki entirely agrees that what happened later in Sweden to Görtz was a show trial. But it looks like he was familiar with the practice from doing it to others. BTW, German wiki also says Görtz' daughter Henriette got her father's estate back from Gustav III., but not until then. And it provides a Voltaire quote about him, adding Voltaire had met Görtz in person (presumably when Görtz was still a travelling diplomat?), and which says: "There never lived a man who was so smooth and bold, so inventive in misfortune, so decisive in his enterprises as he was. No plan frightened him, and he was ready to use every means."
(German wiki's source referencing - among others, our old buddy Reinhold Koser, Fritz source finder extraordinaire!)
ETA: all in all, it makes Görtz sound like two other 18th century finance ministers who were efficient, ruthless, very hated but essentially doing exactly what their boss, who as the ruling monarch couldn't be blamed, wanted them to, to wit, Brühl in Saxony and Joseph Süß Oppenheimer in Würtemberg. (The later died after a show trial, too, with an added dose of vicious antisemitism since he was a Jew.) German wiki says in Görtz' case, they even had to invent a law (against giving "bad advice") to justify it! Still, I imagine Weddenkop in Hamburg wasn't exactly heartbroken when hearing the news and experienced a "karma is a beautiful thing" moment.
Daughter of ETA: The Görtz Palais in Hamburg has its own wiki entry and a colorful history itself, to put it mildly. After Görtz' execution in 1719, it served as the Imperial Embassy in Hamburg. Why? Because Hamburgians, for what reason the entry doesn't say, had plundered and destroyed the original envoy's house and so the city of Hamburg offered this one in recompense. It remained the Imperial embassy until 1806 (end of HRE, hello, Napoleon) upon which it became the city hall for as long as the French occupation lasted. Then it became the headquarters of a newfounded Hamburg bank. And in the 20th century, it had its darkest chapter, since it became the local Gestapo Headquarter, which lasted until the firebombing of Hamburg, which destroyed the building except for the frontal facade. Post war, the facade was restored but the remaining building, built from scratch, is modern and used for offices.
Son of ETA: wow, Weddenkop's German wiki entry is even more negative about Görtz than Görtz' German wiki entry (and mentions Weddenkop's heirs were still sueing Görtz' heirs many years after his death.
Choice bits, in German for Mildred to practice: Wedderkop versuchte politisch das durch den Frieden von Traventhal gewonnene stabile und freundschaftliche Verhältnis zu Dänemark zu erhalten, geriet aber mit dieser Haltung zunehmend in Konflikt mit seinem aufsteigenden Widersacher Georg Heinrich von Görtz und dessen ausgeprägtem Machtbewusstsein, dem er schließlich zum Opfer fiel. Dieser hatte nach dem Tod von Herzog Friedrich IV. im Jahr 1702 das bessere Verhältnis zum Administrator des Herzogtums, Fürstbischof Christian August von Lübeck, gefunden, der ein ausschweifendes Leben, zugleich aber die Regierungsgeschäfte für den erst zweijährigen Herzog Karl-Friedrich führte. Aufwind bekam Wedderkop vorübergehend durch eine von Stockholm aus veranlasste Untersuchung der Finanzen des Herzogtums, die die Verschwendung des Administrators und die Ausplünderung des Landes durch Georg Heinrich von Görtz offenlegte.
And: Mit dem Tod von Hedwig Sophia von Schweden im Jahr 1708, der Witwe des 1702 in der Schlacht bei Klissow gefallenen Herzogs Friedrich IV., sah sich Wedderkop zunehmend schutzbedürftiger und zog sich sicherheitshalber in sein Palais am Neuen Wall in Hamburg zurück. Am 19. Dezember 1709 ließ Wedderkop sich aus nicht nachvollziehbaren Gründen dennoch zu einer Sitzung des Geheimen Rates nach Schloss Gottorf locken, wo der 72-Jährige freundlich empfangen, im Anschluss an ein Diner mit dem Administrator jedoch nachts verhaftet und auf die Festung Tönning gebracht wurde. Die Verhaftung erfolgte ohne Gerichtsurteil und gerichtliche Untersuchung. Da eigentlich keine belastenden Umstände gegen Wedderkop vorlagen, gestaltete sich der Prozess schwierig, wurde aber dennoch als ein Stück fragwürdiger Kabinettsjustiz 1713 mit einem Todesurteil gegen Wedderkop abgeschlossen. König Friedrich IV. von Dänemark belagerte 1713 mit seinen Verbündeten die in der Festung Tönning eingeschlossenen schwedischen Truppen unter Magnus Stenbock. Erst mit Übergabe der Festung kam Magnus von Wedderkop wieder frei. Die restlichen Lebensjahre verbrachte er in Hamburg im Haus Speersort 12/14 des Herzogs mit dem Versuch, seine Vermögensangelegenheiten zu ordnen, denn sein Palais am Neuen Wall war von Görtz beschlagnahmt worden. Am 1. Juli 1719 verlieh der Herzog von Holstein Wedderkop und seinen Erben als Ersatz für das erlittene Unrecht das Amt Tremsbüttel zur Nutznießung auf 30 Jahre.
Yep, Weddenkop definitely thought in 1719: "There is a God! Thank you, Lord. If ever someone had it coming..."
Re: Great Northern War: Tragic minister Görtz
If Fritz can use his A+ skills to wage unprovoked expansionist warfare, commit war crimes, put children to work in his munitions factories, and even use them as child soldiers, and I can still want fic about this guy, Görtz can use his A+ skills to suck the country dry and lock his enemies up without a trial. As someone on tumblr put on a Fritz moodboard, "I do bad things and I do them very well." :D
Semi-unrelated,
This is the siege where FW, as one of the besiegers, is impressed by Duhan. Fritz later says, "It is rare to engage a tutor in a trench." A trench because FW and Duhan were part of the effort to strip Sweden of its overseas territory. In this case, the Swedish Pomeranian territory, in which Stralsund was located.
FW and company won the siege, but in the final peace treaty a few years later, Sweden got to keep Stralsund by dint of giving up other territory and paying damages.
Re: Great Northern War: Tragic minister Görtz
Wasn't a young Knobelsdorff also at Stralsund in the ditches?
Re: Great Northern War: Tragic minister Görtz
I didn't mention this because it's outside our period, but yes, very true.
Wasn't a young Knobelsdorff also at Stralsund in the ditches?
I had forgotten, but searching old posts reminds me that he was indeed. Good memory!
Re: Great Northern War: Tragic minister Görtz
...wow!
Yep, Weddenkop definitely thought in 1719: "There is a God! Thank you, Lord. If ever someone had it coming..."
Heh. I'm glad for Weddenkop that at least he got his karma moment in the middle of all that, ugh. Though I must say this makes me more fascinated with Görtz rather than otherwise; it's kind of the cherry on the cake that he gets what he had coming to him!
Re: Great Northern War: Tragic minister Görtz
His head fell at the first blow, and his body was buried on the spot.
Heh, I also thought like you did, at least it only took one blow :P
Also, I would read the hell out of fic about these two and their crazy partnership. :D I don't care if they had sex, that's the least important part here.
SECONDED.
Yay, I'm so glad I asked about this guy :D
Re: Great Northern War: Tragic minister Görtz
a) real-life heist/con-artist/trolling-everyone (and yes, these are also the buttons that Voltaire pushes, only, like, if he and Fritz had planned together to troll the entire world they would really be my OTP)
Yes this!!
and b) comeuppance, and I am here for this :D
See, for me it's less about the comeuppance and more about I just REALLY LIKE terrible people, what can I say? See,
- Starting wars with his neighbors and being a dick about it.
- Winning (most of) his battles.
- Abandoning the French as soon as he had Silesia and leaving them to duke it out with Austria.
- SNARK.
- Writing the Anti-Machiavel right before invading his neighbors and being a dick about it. Younger me was convinced that I knew better than historians and this was totally a cunning plan to make everyone not see his reign coming. Older me is wiser and sadder, i.e. still with the love of trickster figures and still disappointed to have concluded that this wasn't actually the case. :P
In other words, it does nothing for me that this guy died because he deserved to die, what pushes my buttons is that one, he deserved to die, and two, he died as soon as his protector and collaborator was gone.
Re: Great Northern War: Tragic minister Görtz
- Abandoning the French as soon as he had Silesia and leaving them to duke it out with Austria.
- SNARK.
- Writing the Anti-Machiavel right before invading his neighbors and being a dick about it.
Gotta say those are pretty awesome for me too.