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cahnAnd, I mean, it doesn't have to be just 18th century characters, either!
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1730 Decision-making Characters: Rottembourg
Date: 2022-01-01 05:48 pm (UTC)Rottembourg's not an especially influential figure in France, but since Fritz shows up at his house and stays there, he gets to be influential on this particular topic in this story.
Personally
Rottembourg: My family's from Brandenburg, hence the German-sounding name. Prussian Count Rothenburg, who attended the Sanssouci round table, gave Biche to Fritz, and died in Fritz's arms, was my nephew or my cousin, depending on who you ask. My dad moved to France and was made a count. Now I'm French but with some Brandenburg possessions.
I was appointed ambassador to Prussia 3 times, but never managed to convince FW of anything. He changes his mind every five minutes! Good god. He drives all us ambassadors crazy. What is Seckendorff's secret???
I even tried organizing a local coup in the mid-1720s to have him declared insane and replaced with a crown prince I and my superiors naively believe will be grateful to France. I spent my time pretending not to notice or care about Fritz, and he did the same, while he passed information to me through an intermediary. The intermediary was the pro-English foreign minister known for his close ties to SD and her party, Friedrich Ernst von Knyphausen, better known on AO3 as father of future Ariane von Keith. (He will die 10 years before she marries Peter.)
But that failed too. But I made friends with one Hans Hermann von Katte. Wilhelmine says I mentored him and that his excellent French and polished manners, so rare in Berlin, were due to my influence. He visited me when he went traveling in 1728. Kloosterhuis says he came to Madrid. Mildred strongly suspects we met in France.
When Fritz was trying to escape in 1730, Katte suggested my estate in Alsace, not far over the border, as a safe house. Historically, Fritz admitted in his interrogation that he was making for my estate when he was stopped, on that fateful night of August 5. But in this AU, he makes it!
In real life, I was sent to Spain as ambassador in the second half of 1730, but in this AU, I was about to set off when I got word that a Prussian crown prince has shown up in Alsace. Naturally, I stay to deal with that far more interesting situation! Whether I've told Fleury and/or Chauvelin that this is what I'm doing, or whether I pretend that I've fallen ill while I protect Fritz's incognito, the author has yet to decide.
In real life, I ended up successfully negotiating the Bourbon Family Compact of 1733, between France and Spain, after the 1731 collapse of the Anglo-French alliance, and then was recalled at my own request for health reasons in 1734 and died in Paris in 1735, childless, "very rich," and either married or never married, depending on which obituary you ask, but for this AU, definitely unmarried.
Politically
Rottembourg: In 1727, the British thought I was a supporter of the Anglo-French alliance, but as we've seen, they weren't always good at reading the situation. I was on friendly terms with Whitworth (d. 1725), but Whitworth also liked me despite being very opposed to the Anglo-French alliance, so that says nothing about how I felt about the alliance.
In August 1727, Chauvelin was appointed foreign minister. In October 1727, I was sent to Spain. My job was to negotiate between Britain and Spain, which were at war (a minor war) over things like Gibraltar. Historians disagree on whether I exceeded my instructions in agreeing to terms that favored Spain over Britain, or whether I was following secret instructions from Fleury and Chauvelin.
Regardless, the British got super upset, took it out on Fleury, and he gave me a slap on the wrist and disowned the treaty I had signed, forcing negotiations to start over. But after the treaty was finally agreed on in Paris, Chauvelin insisted it be sent to Madrid so I could sign it too, to undo any appearance that I was in disgrace. This caused a little bureaucratic hassle for the Brits, but Chauvelin stood his ground and Fleury backed him.
Whether my support for Chauvelin's scheming for Fleury's job was cause or effect of the fact that he had my back like this, is unknown. At least one historian says there's enough evidence to conclude that I agreed with his stances, but, Mildred wishes to point out that all historians agree that in France, courtiers and ministers schemed not entirely on what they actually believed was best for France, but what would get them and/or their family to advance the furthest in society. There was a huge patronage/clientele network at Versailles that governed decisions and policies at least as much as political opinions.
So did I care about the debasement of Austria, or did I just think Chauvelin was a good patron to have, and he cared about the abasement of Austria? This is an open question for fiction authors.
Re: 1730 Decision-making Characters: Rottembourg
Date: 2022-01-02 09:43 am (UTC)Seckendorff: Good at faking pipe-smoking, disguising non-theological literature as the bible, a successfull military career which always impresses FW, a solid record of actually being religious to the point where I imprison my court fool for his sex life, and also, far more convincing than you at liking FW more than Junior. FW is touchy in that regard. Furthermore, while I did my best to win over Junior in secret anyway and spend a good deal of the Emperor's money on him, I did have a far more realistic estimation of his character and capacity for gratitude than you did as proven by my letter to Eugene on that subject.
Re: 1730 Decision-making Characters: Rottembourg
Date: 2022-01-02 04:15 pm (UTC)Remind me?
Re: 1730 Decision-making Characters: Rottembourg
Date: 2022-01-02 06:49 pm (UTC)Eugene: Thumbs up! I like it. That G2 is getting way to big for his breeches and is Prince Elector of Hanover. Seckendorff, tell FW if there's war, I'm totally joining in.
FW/G2 reconciliation happens.
Eugene: Go figure. That man is so unreliable. Any news on the "make the kid like us" front, Seckendorff?
Seckendorff: Well, he's taking money from me, but if you want my opinion, that kid is evil (böse) and false (falsch) to the core, and if you're hoping for gratitude once FW kicks the bucket, forget it.
Re: 1730 Decision-making Characters: Rottembourg
Date: 2022-01-03 06:16 am (UTC)Wait, what? Remind me? Lol Seckendorff :P :)
Re: 1730 Decision-making Characters: Rottembourg
Date: 2022-01-03 04:20 pm (UTC)Blanning: Even Count Seckendorf had to smuggle in books to Wusterhausen, lest he be suspected of wasting on reading time that might have been better employed in hunting, drinking or praying.
ETA: Disguising contraband books as the Bible was Selena's speculation as to how the smuggling worked; he could also have been hiding them in false trunk bottoms, for example. (But I love the idea of fake covers.) I also don't have a primary source for this; Blanning cites a 1941 bio of FW by a Nazi sympathizer, which so far I have neither acquired nor asked Selena to inflict on herself.