Back when selenak read Dennison's First Iron Lady, she found it to be very factually solid, with only one ?? that made her wonder if maybe Dennison was right after all.
The questionable point was whether the double marriage project was meant to marry Fritz to older daughter Anne or younger daughter Amelia/Emily. All of our sources, including contemporary primary sources from parties who should know, pointed to Amelia, so we concluded that Anne was a case of mistaken identification.
However! Detective Mildred reporting in with newly uncovered facts.
From my reading in the last week, I've come across Anne's name twice in this connection. Between those two sources, I might know what's going on.
One is Jeremy Black's dissertation, British Diplomacy 1727-1731. Now, he is not some random music or art history student, like some of our dissertation writers, but a reputable historian and professor who's published something like 100 books, most of them having to do with 18th century British foreign policy (yes, there is a lot of overlap in his 100 books). And he writes:
Noises were made in Berlin about the projected marriages between George's eldest son Frederick, now Prince of Wales, and Frederick William's eldest daughter Wilhelmina, and between the Prussian Crown Prince Frederick and the British Princess Royal, Anne.
He doesn't give me an exact citation for this claim, but he has 4 footnotes to other sentences on this page, and those 4 footnotes look like this:
1. Despite Waldegrave's-appointment, the Austrians did not name an envoy for Britain, St. Saphorin to Tarouca, draft, Aug. 1727. PRO. 80/61; O'Rourke reported that the Austrians wanted a reconciliation with Britain, O'Rourke to Graham, 1 Oct. 1727, Vienna, England, Varia, 8; Fonseca pressed Waldegrave to go to Vienna, 24 Sept. 1727, Waldegrave Journal, Chewton.
2 Charles Du Bourgay, British Envoy Extraordinary in Berlin, to Townshend, 28 June, 12 July 1727, PRO. 90/22. The Saxon envoy in Berlin, Sühm, reported that Prussia wanted a reconciliation with Britain and France, Suhm to Augustus II, 21 July 1727, Dresden, 3378, Vol. IV, f. 127.
3 Wallenrodt was suspected of being anti-British, Horatio Walpole to Tilson, 26 July 1727, BL. Add. 48982, f. 62,64.
4 Townshend to Du Bourgay, 14 July (OS) 1727, PRO. 90/22; Suhm to Augustus II, 22 Aug. 1727, Dresden, 3378, IV f. 171-2; Le Coq to Augustus II, 23 Sept. 1727, Dredsen, 2676, Vol. 18a. f. 242-3.
In other words, 9 unpublished envoy reports and letters from foreign ministers in various archives. On the one hand, that means I can't cross-check him; on the other, it means he might know what he's talking about.
I checked Dennison, and Black is indeed in his bibliography (something like half a dozen of his books, including the one on foreign policy from 1714-1727, which, yes, I am currently reading).
So I'm betting Dennison got this from Black.
But what about all those reliable contemporary sources that say Amelia? Brendan Simms, author of Three Victories and a Defeat: The Rise and Fall of the First British Empire, 1714-1783, has an explanation.
First, note that all those citations in Black's footnotes are from 1727. Simms, who relies very heavily on several of Black's books (though disagrees with him politically), duly reports that Anne was the object of the marriage negotiations in 1727, but when Hotham was sent in 1730,
Hotham was instructed to push for the marriage of the Prince of Wales to Princess Wilhelmina, by now a very old chestnut, and that of Crown Prince Frederick to George’s daughter, this time Amelia.
Emphasis mine. All of the sources we've turned up are talking about the 1730 negotiation (or even later), the more famous and memorable one whose failure led directly to the escape attempt.
So I think our mystery is solved, and Dennison's reputation redeemed, if we assume Black is getting reliable info from the archives, and that the marriage plans changed between 1727 and 1730.
The Simms book, btw, might be useful to you, luzula, if you care about Britain's relationships with other European countries and how they affected domestic politics, including Jacobitism, during the 18th century. The book is popular rather than scholarly, which on the one hand pays off in terms of readability, but on the other, means it relies entirely too much on secondary rather than primary sources, and furthermore, too much on British sources. I've caught Simms in some mistakes, and I really don't agree with his interpretation of everything, but it's 800 pages chock-full of useful information that also manages not to be a chore to read. (More readable than Black, for one thing.) And sometimes, that's what you need.
Besides, I haven't caught Simms in as many mistakes as, for example, Massie, and considering I know way, way more about the subject matter here, that probably means he's not the most unreliable popular author ever!
Anyway, recommended for you with mild caveats. selenak, you're probably better off with the drier and more reliable texts; cahn, not enough anecdotes to be of interest to you. ;) This is just politics.
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Double marriage: Anne vs. Amelia
Date: 2021-12-04 10:54 pm (UTC)The questionable point was whether the double marriage project was meant to marry Fritz to older daughter Anne or younger daughter Amelia/Emily. All of our sources, including contemporary primary sources from parties who should know, pointed to Amelia, so we concluded that Anne was a case of mistaken identification.
However! Detective Mildred reporting in with newly uncovered facts.
From my reading in the last week, I've come across Anne's name twice in this connection. Between those two sources, I might know what's going on.
One is Jeremy Black's dissertation, British Diplomacy 1727-1731. Now, he is not some random music or art history student, like some of our dissertation writers, but a reputable historian and professor who's published something like 100 books, most of them having to do with 18th century British foreign policy (yes, there is a lot of overlap in his 100 books). And he writes:
Noises were made in Berlin about the projected marriages between George's eldest son Frederick, now Prince of Wales, and Frederick William's eldest daughter Wilhelmina, and between the Prussian Crown Prince Frederick and the British Princess Royal, Anne.
He doesn't give me an exact citation for this claim, but he has 4 footnotes to other sentences on this page, and those 4 footnotes look like this:
1. Despite Waldegrave's-appointment, the Austrians did not name an envoy for Britain, St. Saphorin to Tarouca, draft, Aug. 1727. PRO. 80/61; O'Rourke reported that the Austrians wanted a reconciliation with Britain, O'Rourke to Graham, 1 Oct. 1727, Vienna, England, Varia, 8; Fonseca pressed Waldegrave to go to Vienna, 24 Sept. 1727, Waldegrave Journal, Chewton.
2 Charles Du Bourgay, British Envoy Extraordinary in Berlin, to Townshend, 28 June, 12 July 1727, PRO. 90/22. The Saxon envoy in Berlin, Sühm, reported that Prussia wanted a reconciliation with Britain and France, Suhm to Augustus II, 21 July 1727, Dresden, 3378, Vol. IV, f. 127.
3 Wallenrodt was suspected of being anti-British, Horatio Walpole to Tilson, 26 July 1727, BL. Add. 48982, f. 62,64.
4 Townshend to Du Bourgay, 14 July (OS) 1727, PRO. 90/22; Suhm to Augustus II, 22 Aug. 1727, Dresden, 3378, IV f. 171-2; Le Coq to Augustus II, 23 Sept. 1727, Dredsen, 2676, Vol. 18a. f. 242-3.
In other words, 9 unpublished envoy reports and letters from foreign ministers in various archives. On the one hand, that means I can't cross-check him; on the other, it means he might know what he's talking about.
I checked Dennison, and Black is indeed in his bibliography (something like half a dozen of his books, including the one on foreign policy from 1714-1727, which, yes, I am currently reading).
So I'm betting Dennison got this from Black.
But what about all those reliable contemporary sources that say Amelia? Brendan Simms, author of Three Victories and a Defeat: The Rise and Fall of the First British Empire, 1714-1783, has an explanation.
First, note that all those citations in Black's footnotes are from 1727. Simms, who relies very heavily on several of Black's books (though disagrees with him politically), duly reports that Anne was the object of the marriage negotiations in 1727, but when Hotham was sent in 1730,
Hotham was instructed to push for the marriage of the Prince of Wales to Princess Wilhelmina, by now a very old chestnut, and that of Crown Prince Frederick to George’s daughter, this time Amelia.
Emphasis mine. All of the sources we've turned up are talking about the 1730 negotiation (or even later), the more famous and memorable one whose failure led directly to the escape attempt.
So I think our mystery is solved, and Dennison's reputation redeemed, if we assume Black is getting reliable info from the archives, and that the marriage plans changed between 1727 and 1730.
The Simms book, btw, might be useful to you,
Besides, I haven't caught Simms in as many mistakes as, for example, Massie, and considering I know way, way more about the subject matter here, that probably means he's not the most unreliable popular author ever!
Anyway, recommended for you with mild caveats.