You know what I'm stuck on? Peter's presence at the parade the next day. Unfortunately, there's no way to tell from the phrasing how and why he was there - did he show up on his own, maybe in hopes of seeing Fritz again and Fritz got annoyed? (If so, it can't have been visibly or Schultzer would have said so IMO.) Or did he show up as part of Fritz' entourage, invited, which would actually speak against a conflict at that point, on the contrary? It's a bit of a mystery, not least because he's singled out here - it's the only time parade attendance is mentioned at all I think - and I have no idea why. If Schultzer was someone who suspected he'd become important because of backstory (which isn't mentioned either), he doesn't say so.
"Bettmeister" for Fredersdorf, which I hadn't heard before. Now there's a neat double entendre!
Ha. That reminds me - Fredersdorf is involved in the "picking the prettiest people" for the King's service part! On October 25th, the report says that "die Zahl derer Königl. Laquais auf 70 in allen vermehret werden solte, wozu der Herr Frederstorff die hübscheste Gesichter zu choisiren, und deren Mundirung gegen den 1. Dec. fertig zu halten, Commißion habe." So he and Fritz seem to have had an understanding there. :P
Clearly so, if Frederdorf is supposed to pick the prettiest faces for him. :)
Giuliano Dami: How come I got the bad press for the same job?
You know what I'm stuck on? Peter's presence at the parade the next day.
It could also be that Fritz invited him/told him to come to the parade right at the start, before the actual encounter. Moreover, I don't expect the whole thing to have gone badly in the sense that they quarelled. Not least because you don't argue with newly crowned Kings. Even Wilhelmine took the care to address Fritz as "Sire" in her first post ascension letter until he told her she could continue addressing him as her brother. (Heinrich: Mom told us to treat him as the future king in the previous year already, but I still kicked him under the table!)
No, what I think happened was something perfectly polite, but given that when last they met, in January 1730, it was presumably all youthful passion and intensity, and now, ten years and a lot more trauma later, it's polite sovereign and subject looking for cues of how to behave, it's almost bound to have left both parties somewhat dissatisfied. I don't think Peter, from what we know of him, would have been the type to take the initiative, do something like offer a hug. He may have been more informal than your avarage Prussian courtier as Lehndorff noted later - with other courtiers. But with the new King, whom he hasn't seen in ten years? I don't think so. Though of course in his dreams Fritz would have dismissed everyone and hugged him. And if his looking for cues of how to behave with this new version of Fritz came across as poentially calculating to Fritz the paranoid, it would have made him even more formal.
I mean, yes, Fritz wrote to Algarotti (and Duhan!) a passionate "come now to me!" type of letter, but he'd seen Algarotti only the previous year and Algarotti had never known Fritz the abused, while Duhan was his old teacher and not a likely candidate to a power grabbing favorite. Given how Fritz reacted when Peter was suggested by the Brits as a potential envoy a few years later, I wouldn't be surprised if he'd wondered whether Peter was now working for England, so to speak. Which, btw, would have made sense from Team Hannover Cousins' pov! (To use him as a spy, that is. After all, Caroline had shown him considerable favor, he owed them.)
Giuliano Dami: How come I got the bad press for the same job?
Exactly what I was thinking when I read felis's finding!
I don't think Peter, from what we know of him, would have been the type to take the initiative, do something like offer a hug.
100% agree. This is the kind of thing Katte and Keyserlingk would have been more likely to do. (Though after 10 years in exile, I doubt Katte offers the hug up straightaway--but I think he's more overt in displaying his enthusiasm and affection, which maybe gives Fritz some warm and fuzzies, which gets them into a positive feedback loop. Where I think Fritz and Peter got into a negative feedback loop, where the less enthusiasm they see from the other person, the more likely they are to assume the worst and to dial down their own enthusiasm accordingly. :()
But as we've seen, there may have been some friction from the beginning. Especially since these are the same two that will lead to Fritz saying, just a year and a bit later, "Okay, give him a raise and then maybe he'll give me some peace."
Peter Keith: Reserved, maybe, but not your doormat.
(Also, this is part of what I'm working into my account of how Katte and Peter in AU!exile hit it off: Peter, like Fritz, craves affection and warmth from the other party, and is too reserved/insecure enough to be the initiate radiating warmth without knowing how it's going to be received. But he responds well once it's given, and Katte gives it.)
And if his looking for cues of how to behave with this new version of Fritz came across as poentially calculating to Fritz the paranoid, it would have made him even more formal.
Also very true, and in keeping with the bad feedback loop.
Awwww :( This sounds extremely plausible to me, very much in keeping with both Peter's and Fritz's personalities as I understand them from all the salon fics over the last couple of years
(Heinrich: Mom told us to treat him as the future king in the previous year already, but I still kicked him under the table!)
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Re: News from 1740
"Bettmeister" for Fredersdorf, which I hadn't heard before. Now there's a neat double entendre!
Ha. That reminds me - Fredersdorf is involved in the "picking the prettiest people" for the King's service part! On October 25th, the report says that "die Zahl derer Königl. Laquais auf 70 in allen vermehret werden solte, wozu der Herr Frederstorff die hübscheste Gesichter zu choisiren, und deren Mundirung gegen den 1. Dec. fertig zu halten, Commißion habe." So he and Fritz seem to have had an understanding there. :P
Re: News from 1740
Giuliano Dami: How come I got the bad press for the same job?
You know what I'm stuck on? Peter's presence at the parade the next day.
It could also be that Fritz invited him/told him to come to the parade right at the start, before the actual encounter. Moreover, I don't expect the whole thing to have gone badly in the sense that they quarelled. Not least because you don't argue with newly crowned Kings. Even Wilhelmine took the care to address Fritz as "Sire" in her first post ascension letter until he told her she could continue addressing him as her brother. (Heinrich: Mom told us to treat him as the future king in the previous year already, but I still kicked him under the table!)
No, what I think happened was something perfectly polite, but given that when last they met, in January 1730, it was presumably all youthful passion and intensity, and now, ten years and a lot more trauma later, it's polite sovereign and subject looking for cues of how to behave, it's almost bound to have left both parties somewhat dissatisfied. I don't think Peter, from what we know of him, would have been the type to take the initiative, do something like offer a hug. He may have been more informal than your avarage Prussian courtier as Lehndorff noted later - with other courtiers. But with the new King, whom he hasn't seen in ten years? I don't think so. Though of course in his dreams Fritz would have dismissed everyone and hugged him. And if his looking for cues of how to behave with this new version of Fritz came across as poentially calculating to Fritz the paranoid, it would have made him even more formal.
I mean, yes, Fritz wrote to Algarotti (and Duhan!) a passionate "come now to me!" type of letter, but he'd seen Algarotti only the previous year and Algarotti had never known Fritz the abused, while Duhan was his old teacher and not a likely candidate to a power grabbing favorite. Given how Fritz reacted when Peter was suggested by the Brits as a potential envoy a few years later, I wouldn't be surprised if he'd wondered whether Peter was now working for England, so to speak. Which, btw, would have made sense from Team Hannover Cousins' pov! (To use him as a spy, that is. After all, Caroline had shown him considerable favor, he owed them.)
Re: News from 1740
Exactly what I was thinking when I read
I don't think Peter, from what we know of him, would have been the type to take the initiative, do something like offer a hug.
100% agree. This is the kind of thing Katte and Keyserlingk would have been more likely to do. (Though after 10 years in exile, I doubt Katte offers the hug up straightaway--but I think he's more overt in displaying his enthusiasm and affection, which maybe gives Fritz some warm and fuzzies, which gets them into a positive feedback loop. Where I think Fritz and Peter got into a negative feedback loop, where the less enthusiasm they see from the other person, the more likely they are to assume the worst and to dial down their own enthusiasm accordingly. :()
But as we've seen, there may have been some friction from the beginning. Especially since these are the same two that will lead to Fritz saying, just a year and a bit later, "Okay, give him a raise and then maybe he'll give me some peace."
Peter Keith: Reserved, maybe, but not your doormat.
(Also, this is part of what I'm working into my account of how Katte and Peter in AU!exile hit it off: Peter, like Fritz, craves affection and warmth from the other party, and is too reserved/insecure enough to be the initiate radiating warmth without knowing how it's going to be received. But he responds well once it's given, and Katte gives it.)
And if his looking for cues of how to behave with this new version of Fritz came across as poentially calculating to Fritz the paranoid, it would have made him even more formal.
Also very true, and in keeping with the bad feedback loop.
Re: News from 1740
as I understand them from all the salon fics over the last couple of years(Heinrich: Mom told us to treat him as the future king in the previous year already, but I still kicked him under the table!)
Ha!