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News from 1740
Date: 2021-11-20 02:00 pm (UTC)Every couple of months I check if the 1740 issues of the Berlinische Nachrichten have been digitized yet, because among other things, there's that Preuss-alleged reference to Peter in December I want to see. They still haven't shown up, but I found something else this time: Berliner geschriebene Zeitungen aus dem Jahr 1740. These aren't official newspapers, but private reports, from two different people, which were written for the Abbess of Quedlinburg, June-December 1740. (The abbess at the time = a great-aunt of Russian!Pete. She died in 1755 - which is when Amalie got the job - and she and her people were interested in the new king and his politics because all throughout FW's reign there had been quarrels re: sovereignty, stationing of military, and of course recruiting. (I think there were very few people FW didn't have quarrels with regarding the last one.))
The two agents are Schultzer (previously military) and Vogel (low official) and the editor is the same one who published the Stratemann reports. He put some effort into checking all their claims and has lots of footnotes with references to other sources (actual newspapers and military records, other envoy reports, even the elusive Tröger compilation of Manteuffel's Fidamire thing) to verify things or correct them and point out unfounded rumours, in case the two agents don't correct themselves down the line, as they sometimes do.
Why am I telling you all this? Because Peter is mentioned.
On the 14th of October, Schultzer writes the following: "Übrigens ist den 12. der Herr Lieutnant v. Keit, welcher vor einigen Jahren von Wesel nach Engelland übergegangen, aus Engelland wieder hier angekommen, welches S.M., weil er nicht gerufen worden, ungnädig vermerckt haben sollen." ("Incidentally, on the 12th, Lieutnant von Keit, who moved from Wesel to Engelland a few years ago, came back from Engelland, which HM, because he was not called, is said to have received ungraciously.")
As you can see, immediately we have some mixed-up info and an unfounded rumour, but the Editor mentions the July summons in the footnote, setting this straight, and at least it's written in a way ("haben sollen") that makes it clear that it's only hearsay.
Even better: Fritz arrives in Berlin on the 15th, and: "Um 5 Uhr begab sich der Herr v. Kait, welcher Obristlieutenant in Portugisischen Diensten sein soll, durch die kleine Pforte an der Stech-Bahn, dem Dom gegenüber, nach die Königl. Zimmer, wohin S.M. denselben dem Verlaut nach beschieden hätten. Den 16. erschienen S.M. auf der Wachparade, wobei dieser Herr v. Kait sich gleichfalls befand. Weil aber S.M. vom Fieber noch nicht gäntzlich verlassen sind, als haben Sich Höchst-Dieselbe den 17. in Dero Zimmer gehalten. Eodem Abends um halb 9 Uhr trafen endlich die so lange erwartete Bayreuthsche Frau Markgräfin Königl. Hoheiten hier ein."
("At 5 o'clock, Herr von Kait, who is supposed to be Lieutenant Colonel in Portuguese service, went through the little gate at the Stech-Bahn, across from the cathedral, to the Royal Rooms, where HM reportedly had him called. On the 16th, HM appeared at the parade, and this Herr von Kait was also there. On the 17th, HM kept to his rooms because the fever still wasn't gone. The same day at half past eight in the evening the Bayreuth Margravine Royal Highnesses, who had been awaited for so long, finally arrived here.")
There are no references to other sources in the footnotes in this case, so this guy Schultzer seems to be the only one who reported this. That said, he tends to mention a lot of names and people, unlike his colleague Vogel, who keeps things a lot more brief and specifically doesn't have Schultzer's military interests and connections. (He corroborates Fritz's whereabouts, the fever, and Wilhelmine, but doesn't mention Peter.) Since I don't know why anybody should make this up in its entirety, there's at least a chance that Fritz and Peter did indeed meet on the 15th/16th (i.e. the earliest date possible). Fritz then leaves for Rheinsberg on the 19th, still suffering from fever.
Last Peter reference is on October 28: "Herr v. Kait sei Stallmeister geworden." (Which is the kind of career news Schultzer reports all the time. No mention of a commission in the Prussian military, though, which is something he would have noted I think.)
--
Other interesting tidbits:
Since Mildred was interested in the mourning dress code: During the envoy audiences on June 12th, Fritz was wearing violet, not black, which was very unusual. The footnote quotes Manteuffel: contre tout usage et sans rime et raison. Also, during those audiences, people noted (and some envoys were upset) that Valory got first dibs.
On June 5th, Fritz visits the treasury with v. Boden, Eversmann, and Fredersdorff; Eversman gets dismissed at least by June 17th, which is also when the Zernikow gift gets reported (with varying rtl. values). Fredersdorf's collection of responsiblities - Castellan, Bettmeister, Kämmerer, setting the theatre people straight - trickles in bit by bit over the months.
Re: Fritz's August trip - before he even left, there were already rumours that he'd go for an incognito trip to Paris, and lots of arguing back and fourth if true or just invented. (As of August 30th, Schulzer has not yet heard of the Strasburg adventure.)
LOTS of mentions that Fritz had revues for all the regiments and pulled all the prettiest people for his new guard regiment. See also, August 16th, mention of a new chamber servant, previously a musketeer, "[der] gut aussiehet". Also lots of info on the new page/servant/etc uniforms, very splendid and pretty, plus a green/golden carriage that Fritz had himself made.
Height of the rumour mill: right after the Emperor's death. Not just regarding the war preparations - people say we are going to invade Poland! no, Cleve! no, Silesia! yes, we are going to Silesia, but not to invade but to protect MT against Bavaria and Saxony! - but also other deaths, and while the Tzarina did indeed die (although not via unnatural causes), the Saxon King was NOT in fact assassinated in Warschau. :P To be fair, both of them say that nobody really knows and confirmation is missing.
Finally, in less Fritz-related but still interesting news: Schultzer includes the occasional crime report, i.e. several murders and street robberies, a severed head found in a clay jar, and an armoury break-in. Said break-in was followed by a lengthy investigation, starting with a tree, a ladder, and a broken window, and ending with an expert saying that the tree wasn't strong enough for a person and suggesting that it was an inside-job, upon which Stallmeister Schwerin vouched for all his people and the investigator's sights turned towards some craftsmen who had been working there, but a search of their rooms for the stolen goods didn't yield anything. No final conclusion reported. (Me: This detective story, while intriguing, leaves something to be desired.)
Re: News from 1740
Date: 2021-11-20 02:22 pm (UTC)The essay is coming along bit by bit. I'm nearly done with the first draft (just getting the facts down), and then I have to revise. But now I have some new facts to get down! So the first draft isn't quite as close to being done as it was 5 minutes ago. ;)
[The big hold-up has been having to work at 4:30 am for my day job for a couple weeks, which has wrecked my sleep schedule like you would not believe.]
("Incidentally, on the 12th, Lieutnant von Keit, who moved from Wesel to Engelland a few years ago, came back from Engelland, which HM, because he was not called, is said to have received ungraciously.")
This is awesome because I have been precisely looking for this date! All I had was a month. If contemporaries have heard of his return by the 14th, then we can assume that at least he returned in the first half of the month, not the latter half.
there's at least a chance that Fritz and Peter did indeed meet on the 15th/16th (i.e. the earliest date possible). Fritz then leaves for Rheinsberg on the 19th, still suffering from fever.
Indeed, and what's interesting to me is that there are already rumors of him not being in royal favor (which would continue to be a topic of discussion until at least 1753). Even if the reason is wrong, it does lead me to believe that either Peter, the people around him, or both were expecting a much warmer welcome than he got. It's possible they did have an in-person and/or written conflict immediately upon Peter's arrival.
:(
Last Peter reference is on October 28: "Herr v. Kait sei Stallmeister geworden." (Which is the kind of career news Schultzer reports all the time. No mention of a commission in the Prussian military, though, which is something he would have noted I think.)
Also awesome to have a date for this!
the Saxon King was NOT in fact assassinated in Warschau. :P To be fair, both of them say that nobody really knows and confirmation is missing.
Hee! I know I saw ambassador reports (in Volz's Spiegel, I think) speculating on Fritz withdrawing with his ministers after the Emperor's death, and secondary sources I've read have said that Berlin was like a beehive buzzing with rumors. This is the context in which Fritz is supposed to have had this exchange with someone who wanted to know what was going to happen:
Fritz: "Can you keep a secret?"
Other person: "Oh, yes, Your Majesty!"
Fritz: "Well, so can I!"
:DD
(I think that turned out to be from one of the unsourced anecdote collections written in 1786-1790, though? I remember being disappointed that it may not have been authentic, because it's one of my favorites.)
This is all wonderful information, thank you! I need to get my German better so I can read all these sources you keep turning up and make my own contributions!
Also, salon people, do keep asking me how the Peter Keith essay is coming along! (Ditto the Fredersdorf-Pfeiffer one.) It really helps!
Re: News from 1740
Date: 2021-11-20 04:13 pm (UTC)I think there were very few people FW didn't have quarrels with regarding the last one.))
Ha, yes. In the AU where William adopts FW and FW thus becomes King of GB, I foresee a sudden dearth of all Irish and Scottish tall men in addition to the English and Welsh ones...
It's fascinating that on the one hand we have a rumor that Fritz reacted badly to Peter's return this early, even though it is mixed with the demonstrably false reason that he came back without being asked to, and on the other hand he's supposed to have gotten a personal confidential audience. I'm with Mildred that maybe both are true, and Peter did get a personal audience but it didn't go as well as he expected (no wonder, after ten years and Fritz set on making it clear he wouldn't be the favorites-depending replica of Grandpa-as-perceived-by-him his father had predicted). Presumably the lingering fever didn't help.
Re: Eversmann - you know, I had not wondered what happened to FW's personal staff, but yes, makes sense they'd retire or be dismissed. (As opposed to the ministers and secretaries like Eichel, who were very much kept employed.) And I'm amused at the title "Bettmeister" for Fredersdorf, which I hadn't heard before. Now there's a neat double entendre!
yes, we are going to Silesia, but not to invade but to protect MT against Bavaria and Saxony!
Someone clearly has read Fritz' letter to FS. :)
LOTS of mentions that Fritz had revues for all the regiments and pulled all the prettiest people for his new guard regiment.
:) A good reminder to people arguing no one ever suspected Fritz of m/m inclinations before evil Voltaire slandered him. (By which I don't mean just 19th century historians but also annoying 20th century ones of the no homo! inclination.
Re: News from 1740
Date: 2021-11-20 04:17 pm (UTC)Exactly what I was thinking.
I was kind of glad you stopped my RMSE fic before the unsatisfying reunion, and now I'm reminded again to be glad. :/
A good reminder to people arguing no one ever suspected Fritz of m/m inclinations before evil Voltaire slandered him.
Didn't Manteuffel produce the "he prefers good-looking soldiers, not tall ones" line in ~September 1730, nearly verbatim the same line Voltaire would later use in his memoirs?
Re: News from 1740
Date: 2021-11-20 05:01 pm (UTC)"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
Date: 2021-11-20 05:16 pm (UTC)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
Date: 2021-11-20 06:10 pm (UTC)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
Date: 2021-11-21 03:43 am (UTC)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!
Re: News from 1740
Date: 2021-11-20 05:18 pm (UTC)Well, the thing is, that's exactly what later sources claim. I'm blanking on whether there's a reliable one that says the had an unhappy first meeeting in person, as opposed to that one by nineteenth century editor of Thiebault's memoirs, in a passage particularly rife with mistakes, but I have seen this claim before.
Peter Keith's son, writing in 1820, has them exchanging letters in which they get more and more frustrated with each other, before Peter's return:
Mein Vater legte dem König vor Augen eine schriftliche Versprechung, die der König als Kronprinz ihm gegeben hatte, und die in starken Ausdrücken ausgefertigt war. Der König nahm dieses besonders übel, und das Resultat war, das mein Vater als Oberstleutnant und Stallmeister mit 1.200 RTl Pension nach Berlin zurückkam.
My father made the king aware of a written promise which the king as crown prince had given him and which was made out in strong terms. The king took this particularly badly, and the result was that my father came back to Berlin as a lieutenant colonel and stable master with 1,200 RTl pension.
I was never quite sure how much credence to give this, since 1820!son also thinks his father left Wesel because he was warned that Fritz had been arrested, when as we know, Fritz was arrested because Peter had left Wesel several days earlier.
But now that we have an extremely contemporary account of both an in-person meeting and a lack of favor on Fritz's part, I'm kind of inclined to think Peter *did* keep a letter from Fritz all those years, remind him of it (maybe even in person), and make a defensive Fritz double down on "I am not ruled by my favorites! I'll show everyone!"
If the first part of Keith son's account is correct, that they had argued by letter, that would be consistent with people realizing Peter wasn't in favor already by Oct 14, before the supposed in-person meeting. But then there's the question of why the meeting, if he's already out of favor?
Since right at this time, Wilhelmine comes to visit Rheinsberg and hardly gets to see him, and afterward Fritz writes a letter apologizing that he wasn't a very good host because he was sick, Fritz might have been both a) not in his best mood that week or two because sick, b) super defensive about his past Crown Prince self having been so influenced by the people around him, without it necessarily meaning he was displeased with the people in question. Just not giving them the kind of favor they expected. And then, of course, he was super busy with the invasion shortly thereafter.
Re: News from 1740
Date: 2021-11-21 04:53 am (UTC)Re: News from 1740
Date: 2021-11-20 08:01 pm (UTC)Let's not forget that one of the tallest kidnapped tall guys, James Kirkland, was Irish even in our universe! As Felis told us, "Which cost FW 8862 thaler! Even Förster called that wasteful spending."
:D
Per Wikipedia:
It is claimed that he was accompanied in the regiment by other tall soldiers from Ireland.
I believe it!
As for people he *didn't* have conflicts with over recruiting, I don't remember any with Peter the Great, but there may have been some. (I still love our never-written AU where Peter's incognito trip across Europe overlaps chronologically with FW's kidnapping of tall soldiers--in reality,
Re: News from 1740
Date: 2021-11-21 05:49 pm (UTC)Now that you've read more about Peter, what's your opinion on which option out of a mix of "kill FW, have an affair with SD, have an affair with Fritz" he's likely to take? Or will he keep his temper and convince FW of the truth?
Re: News from 1740
Date: 2021-11-21 06:04 pm (UTC)"Have an affair with Fritz": with the caveat that the grand old tradition of "no homo" may apply to Peter too, this seems least likely. Even pedophilic author who wants everyone to be gay (and if he can't make them gay, they are "scum" and "slime") only cited one extreeemely dubious primary source for Peter the Great fucking his buddy Menshikov.
"Have an affair with SD": unlikely on SD's part, but since we're going full-out crack in this AU, why not! He doesn't seem to have a major womanizer, but he had several known affairs with women, and if you're going to kill the husband anyway...
(Realistically realistically, I think there are enough people who can ID Peter that the truth comes out without FW being killed, but for crack, I'm game for all three outcomes!)
Re: News from 1740
Date: 2021-11-23 06:24 pm (UTC)Re: News from 1740
Date: 2021-11-20 11:52 pm (UTC)See? Ask me how it's coming every so often! That's when progress gets made!
even the elusive Tröger compilation of Manteuffel's Fidamire thing
Right, I'd forgotten about this. It turns out the only place I could find it was via interlibrary loan from the Munich Stabi.
Re: News from 1740
Date: 2021-11-21 04:58 am (UTC)Re: News from 1740
Date: 2021-11-21 05:45 pm (UTC)Interlibrary should be workeable, but my return to Munich has been delayed because I'll be able to get the booster in Bamberg (where I am right now after having been in Poland and Berlin, it's en route) on Tuesday, and then my mother won't let me go until two days later, and I really want to be there when the book arrives. So it might take a while.
Re: News from 1740
Date: 2021-11-21 05:49 pm (UTC)I hope your Beales books are there when you get back. No rush on reading them, but if they've gone missing, I need to contact the seller.
then my mother won't let me go until two days later
Seems wise, given what I've heard!
Re: News from 1740
Date: 2021-11-23 06:21 pm (UTC)