Wilhelmine’s description: 100 percent more snark than editor’s, but way more comprehensive. As Felis says, this goes on and on and ooooon, and even for the entertainment value of FW being Rational Guy for once, it’s too much.
BTW, I think Horowski alludes this when saying Wilhelmine was unfair when implying Grumbkow was a coward in battle, how would she know, but that it was understanble she hated him for contributing to ruining her life.
You know, I'm still wondering if the 1729 almost-duel happened. The only sources we've recorded in Rheinsberg are Lord Hervey and Bielfeld both reporting what they've heard on the rumor mill.
Yes, but they report it independently from each other and in different countries. Their social circles didn’t overlap back then. Hervey was dead by the time Fritz became Frederick Superstar and Bielfeld’s book became a bestseller. In his life time, he didn’t talk to non-royal Germans if he could possibly avoid it. Conversely, Hervey’s memoirs weren’t published, so Bielfeld can’t have read them. So if Hervey has heard this story from top British politicians and Bielfeld has heard it from Prussian courtiers, and they both name the same occasion as the trigger for the almost duel, I would say there must have been some gun to cause this bit of smoke.
One more thing about Hervey, 1729 was the year he came back to GB from his Grand Tour, so it’s understandable he didn’t witness the event, if it happened, himself, or rather the aftermath, since it would have happened while G2 was in Hannover and Caroline was regent in GB. But he became quickly familiar with all the players, and as you’ve found out, even the bits in his description that I thought were meant as satire (“haystack”) were in fact among the items G2 and FW argued about in 1729, so he must have talked about the affair with someone who was in the know.
Re: Letters from Soul Mates: FW and Alte Dessauer
BTW, I think Horowski alludes this when saying Wilhelmine was unfair when implying Grumbkow was a coward in battle, how would she know, but that it was understanble she hated him for contributing to ruining her life.
You know, I'm still wondering if the 1729 almost-duel happened. The only sources we've recorded in Rheinsberg are Lord Hervey and Bielfeld both reporting what they've heard on the rumor mill.
Yes, but they report it independently from each other and in different countries. Their social circles didn’t overlap back then. Hervey was dead by the time Fritz became Frederick Superstar and Bielfeld’s book became a bestseller. In his life time, he didn’t talk to non-royal Germans if he could possibly avoid it. Conversely, Hervey’s memoirs weren’t published, so Bielfeld can’t have read them. So if Hervey has heard this story from top British politicians and Bielfeld has heard it from Prussian courtiers, and they both name the same occasion as the trigger for the almost duel, I would say there must have been some gun to cause this bit of smoke.
One more thing about Hervey, 1729 was the year he came back to GB from his Grand Tour, so it’s understandable he didn’t witness the event, if it happened, himself, or rather the aftermath, since it would have happened while G2 was in Hannover and Caroline was regent in GB. But he became quickly familiar with all the players, and as you’ve found out, even the bits in his description that I thought were meant as satire (“haystack”) were in fact among the items G2 and FW argued about in 1729, so he must have talked about the affair with someone who was in the know.