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cahnStarting a couple of comments earlier than usual to mention there are a couple of new salon fics! These probably both need canon knowledge.
felis ficlets on siblings!
Siblings (541 words) by felisnocturna
Chapters: 2/2
Fandom: 18th Century CE RPF
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great, Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf, August Wilhelm von Preußen | Augustus William of Prussia (1722-1758), Wilhelmine von Preußen | Wilhelmine of Prussia (1709-1758)
Summary:
Unsent Letters fic by me:
Letters for a Dead King (1981 words) by raspberryhunter
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 18th Century CE RPF
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great & Friedrich Heinrich Ludwig von Preußen (1726-1802)
Characters: Friedrich Heinrich Ludwig von Preußen | Henry of Prussia (1726-1802)
Additional Tags: Epistolary, Love/Hate, Talking To Dead People, Canonical Character Death, Dysfunctional Family
Summary:
felis ficlets on siblings!Siblings (541 words) by felisnocturna
Chapters: 2/2
Fandom: 18th Century CE RPF
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great, Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf, August Wilhelm von Preußen | Augustus William of Prussia (1722-1758), Wilhelmine von Preußen | Wilhelmine of Prussia (1709-1758)
Summary:
Three Fills for the 2022 Three Sentence Ficathon.
Chapter One: Protective Action / Babysitting at Rheinsberg (Frederick/Fredersdorf, William+Henry+Ferdinand)
Chapter Two: Here Be Lions (Wilhelmine)
Unsent Letters fic by me:
Letters for a Dead King (1981 words) by raspberryhunter
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 18th Century CE RPF
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great & Friedrich Heinrich Ludwig von Preußen (1726-1802)
Characters: Friedrich Heinrich Ludwig von Preußen | Henry of Prussia (1726-1802)
Additional Tags: Epistolary, Love/Hate, Talking To Dead People, Canonical Character Death, Dysfunctional Family
Summary:
Just because one's king and brother is dead doesn't mean one has to stop writing to him.
Lehndorff Diaries: 1785
Date: 2022-07-11 05:56 pm (UTC)January 2nd, 1785: The King interrogates several doctors a second time in ordert o choose the one whom he’ll give the honorary pension to which has become available due to the death of Dr. Zelius. On this occasion, he treats them harshly. Thus he says to Roloff: „Your father was a clergyman. Why didn’t you become one was well?“ To Sprögel: „Your father was an idiot!“ To Loose: „Where did you say you’ve been? In St. Peterburg and Stockholm together with Prince Heinrich. Clearly you can’t have learned anything there!“ Finally to Selle: „I know that you often experiment at the poor sick in a barbaric fashion. Devil take you if you don’t take better care of the lives of these unfortunates!“ Despite this not very flattering address, he’s given Selle the pension. To the others, he recommended reading Boerhave.
One marvels at this prince using such a harsh language since a couple of years now which does not fit with his disposition. I remember earlier days when he used to say pleasantries, and this with an enchanting timbre in his voice.
Um. Lehndorff, you have written down similar statements from Fritz in earlier years, too.
Prince Heinrich is missing several enjoyments he had in France dreadfully, and that makes him feel sad. He has another reason for feeling low, for Knesebeck and Kaphengst have left him, and yet the departure oft he later ought to be very pleasing to him, since there has never been a man with such ingratitude towards the Prince, who has caused him as many problems.
No, Lehndorff will never get over hating Kaphengst with the double chin. The fact that Heinrich is sad about the bastard seems to have made him wonder whether or not Heinrich really likes him for the first time since eons, for:
After I presented myself to the Queen, I rushed to Prince Heinrich, whom I find painting with his reader. He has to like me very much after all, for as soon as I arrive, he sents the reader away in order to talk with me without disturbances. To be thus alone with the Prince is enchanting. Then, his soul opens to me. His views are always those of a humane, enlightened man. Thus we remain alone until 9 pm. Then Herr v. Wreech arrives, and now the Prince presents the Dolphin Lottery to us which he has just been sent from Paris. It is a pretty amusing game. Our dinner a trois is very cozy.
Given Fritz has been so sharp in public recently, Lehndorff has a big shock when:
Januar 15th. I’m staying at home quietly. My children want to see the King. As I knew he wanted to have lunch with Princess Amalie today, I’m sending them with their governor and governess to Madame de Maupertuis where they were to watch the arrival of His Majesty from the window. I have to add here that my son wears a uniform which I had ordered for him, because he dedicates himself with great eagerness under the supervision of a subultern officer from the Regiment Braun to military exercises. Now, the governor, who is a Frenchman and thus not familiar with our customs, believes himself to act cleverly when presenting himself with the child in the antechambre where all the people invited to lunch are waiting. The King arrives, spots the child in uniform and asks: „Who is the pretty little subaltern?“
Count Sacken replies to him: „It’s a young Count Lehndorff.“ The children return, and the governor, who otherwise is a capital fellow, shows up in my room with a beaming face and tells me that the King has adressed Count Heinrich. (Lehndorff’s son.) I’m thunderstuck. As I fear the biting taunts from the King, I’m desperate. But with all that I did have to laugh at Masson insisting in the joy of his heart that something like this surely was better for Count Heinrich than a swarm of hussars. The King surely had to be pleased to see a little man showing such eagerness for royal service.
Later in the evening at 6 pm at the party thrown by count Sacken I finally hear that the whole affair happened far better than I dared to hope, as the King has talked kindly to the child. God bless the King for his kindness! It is so blissful to be able to love one’s souvereign.
Aw. And on a similar note:
Januar 18th: Blessed be thou to me! Under your light, my Prince Heinrich was born! – All the noble society shows up at his place in the morning. But the Prince has to go to the King early, since the King has organized a gigantic meal with the golden plates in his honor, where the ladies are obliged to show up in their grand robes. Around 4 pm, he’s back at home and sends for me in order to show me the snuffbox richly decorated with diamonds which the King has given him.
Then, we visit Frau van Verelst together, where the Prince hopes to spend a quiet hour. Earlier, I had sent my wife and my three children to this place, and both had put the Prince’s portrait on an easel and decorated it with laurel. As soon as the Prince arrived, the children declaimed poems praising him which made him cry. It is a joy to celebrate the Prince; it touches his heart. He repeatedly pets my children, and universal satisfaction reigns.
Lehndorff, I don’t know how I feel about the fact you’re making your children declaim praise poems about your life long crush in front of your wife.
Heinrich is reading Figaro’s Wedding by Beaumarchais to Lehndorff through the winter. (They both like it very much; Lehndorff shows no sign of detecting the social criiticism. Also ,there’s this:
In the evening, I visit Prince Heinrich, where the various subjects addressed are discussed thoroughly. Among other things, we speak of Voltaire, who in a bad mood said about the Salomo of the North that he was a mixture of Attila, Hans Wurst and Abbe Cotti.
Footnote from the editor and translator here that Coti, 1604 – 1682, royal councillor and preacher was a wit in various salons and wrote some philosophical treatises and verses which gave him some literary reputation until he was ridiculed by other wits. The editor also adds that „At the end of the ninth manuscript folder“ (of Lehndorff’s diaries?), it says „ a mixture of Alexander, Attila and Abbe Coti“ instead. Editor, which is it? There’s a difference between Hanswurst and Alexander, I dare say.
Heinrich is sick a few times, Lehndorff frets, and tells him to take it easier. He’s pleased as punch though when he hears from Prince Friedrich of Württemberg this story:
We talk oft he horrors which happened in Saxony during the Seven-Years-War, for example the sacking of Hubertusburg, a palace of King August’s, and of all the houses of Count Brühl. The Prince shows us on this occasion a letter by a Herr v. Lüttichau who killed himself out of pain about the misfortune of his fatherland. Before he did this, he wrote this very letter in which he declared that the terrible fate of Saxony was unbearable to him, and that he departed this life. He cursed all those who caused this misfortune and says at the end: „Only Prince Heinrich has treated Saxony well.“ Now this is truly a testimony for my Prince’s noble attitude.
Lehndorff also hears this quote from a letter by Fritz to Grimm (remember him? Go-to cultural agent in Paris for European nobility, hosting the Mozarts the first time they were there?): My brother Heinrich is delighted by Paris, and after everything he told me about the reception he’s been given, I must say he’s right tob e. As every true Muslim in order to achieve bliss has to make the pilgrimage to Mecca once in his life, I believe that every European has to visit Paris at least once. I am infinitely sorry that my duties compell me to remain forever with my Goths and Vandals.
That’s your choice, Fritz, not your duties. You could, say, make Heinrich Regent for some months and make the trip….
Foreshadowing of the post Fritz bane of Heinrich’s life:
The Prince doesn’t like Herr von Hertzberg the cabinet minister very much. Now there are many who delight in incensing his royal highness even further against this man. Just now the Prince was sent a letter which Herr v. Hertzberg wrote to the English doctor Bayliss regarding a sick child at his country estate of Britz. This letter goes directly against the humane philosophy the Minister always presents to the world.
A few entries later:
I’m now reading a book which caused quite a stir, as it was intended to. Our cabinet minister Herr v. Hertzberg every year reads a speech praising the King at the Academy, wherein he lauds the generosity oft he King, and talks about the florishing trade and the growing wealth and population. Many malcontents regard this as low flattery. It can’t be denied that one can complain about his style and his manner of reading. Now we have here a M. Laveaux, who believes himself to be a grand language purist. He first chided our preachers whom he proved to not understand much French, and lately he’s gone on the attack against Herr v. Hertzberg, whom he believed to be guilty of various Germanisms and of a wrong judgment. A calm temper would have simply left the matter alone, but Herr v. Hertzberg was incensed and forbade Laveaux to write anything further. Now the mocker has published a „Eusöbe“ in the style of Voltaire’s „Candide“. Without naming Herr v. Hertzberg, he talks of him quite a lot. If no one had objected to the pamphlet, it would have been read by only a few people, and even fewer would have recognized its target. But Herr v. Hertzberg had to get into a big public huff and made the bookstore owners pay a penalty. Thus he caused a pamphlet which would otherwise soon have been forgotten to become very famous.. The enemies of the minister, who are quite a few and are headed by Prince Heinrich, were delighted and will provoke this Laveaux to further impudences.
Heinrich goes quite early to Rheinsberg that year, before the snow is gone, and Lehndorff follows, but while the first few days where it’s just Heinrich and him are bliss, then Heinrich’s little court arrives, and Lehndorff declares he can’t stand them and departs. Since he frets a few months later whether he’s lost Heinrich’s favor (he hasn’t), I presume he told Heinrich so, but that’s guessing, the entry itself doesn’t say so. Thus, Lehndorff does not hear what Heinrich thinks of Lafayette, BUT he meets Lafayette himself before either Fritz or Heinrich do!
July 30th. I dine in great company at Count Sacken’s. There, I watch a tall thin man in the uniform of a French General enter, and learn to my great delight that it is the famous Marquis de Lafayette, who has distinguished himself so extraordinarily in America. I sit at his side, and we conduct a vivid conversation. He enlightens me about various American matters. He is first very quiet, even a bit embarassed, but if one acts in a relaxed way around him, then one sees from his thoughtful gaze that he is pleased by this. With great respect, he speaks of the Duke of Braunschweig, whose acquaintance he has made. He wants to see Prince Heinrich , and he has asked the King’s permission to present himself to him. When we rise from the table, we have become such friends that he asks me to come with him to Rheinsberg. To my great regret, I have to decline.
This evening I’m spending with my children to my great delight.
Back at his estate, here comes the fretting entry: I’m sick at heart. I think it’s the sense of having lost what was dear to me, the friendship of Prince Heinrich and the unchanging benevolence of the Prince of Prussia, and thus the respect of courts and of the city of Berlin. All of this causes me to feel the agreeability of the country life not as much as I would otherwise. But then right now there is such a bad weather that I can’t leave my room, and my garden, which otherwise is my greatest joy when I’m in the country, gets neglected since the death of an excellent young gardener whom I had hired, and the climate bodes ill for the harvest, which worries the farmers and mea s well. Thus fourteen days pass. I try to hide my sorrows as much as I can and always show a happy countenance in order not to worry my family. The charming letters I receive from Berlin, full of regret about my departure, only deepen my sad mood instead of a lessening it.
Henrich writes, all is well again. Also, Lehndorff is eagerly following international news and picks up what in retrospect certainly was the story of the year:
In France, something unique has happened. Cardinal Rohan, Archbishop of Strassbourg, one of the first gentlemen of France, popular with the King and the Queen both, esteemed for his personal qualities, an extraordinary mind, suddenly gets ordered in front of the King’s council and gets interrogated in the Queen’s presence. After not even half an hour, he gets arrested and is brought to the Bastille. All of France gets in an uproar about this, and wants to know the reason, since never before a Cardinal has been thrown into prison. A few days later, one learns he’s become entangled in the nets of an evil wman named LaMotte, a descendant of a bastard of Henri II. This woman caused him to buy diamonds for more than two millions Francs by claiming that the Queen wanted to have them but was asking for discretion. The woman even presented a letter signed by the Queen. The jeweller didn’t trust this Lamotte, however. So she asked the Cardinal for his sponsoring. When the date of the first payment arrived, and the jeweller didn’t get anything, he approached the Queen. She swore that she didn’t know anything about this, and because of this the Cardinal got arrested. LaMotte has made off with all the diamonds by now. That’s all the world knows. It seems to me that a lot of this bears further investigation.
You can say that again, Lehndorff.
Re: Lehndorff Diaries: 1785
Date: 2022-07-12 07:58 am (UTC)Um. Lehndorff, you have written down similar statements from Fritz in earlier years, too.
I mean, in 1740, Suhm was putting in his official write-up to Brühl, "Fritz used to be snarky, but not any more!"
Fritz: Always have been, always will be.
That is a cute story about the kid, though!
No, Lehndorff will never get over hating Kaphengst with the double chin
Lol, I had forgotten about the double chin! Oh, Lehndorff.
a mixture of Attila, Hans Wurst and Abbe Cotti.
Good thing we (those of us who are not German literature experts) know who Hans Wurst is now!
Editor, which is it? There’s a difference between Hanswurst and Alexander, I dare say.
*spittake*
Januar 18th: Blessed be thou to me! Under your light, my Prince Heinrich was born!
When you first posted this, I got the meaning of the German words immediately, but I kept going, "Who is the 'thou'? Who is being addressed here?" I had to read it several times before it clicked that January 18th was being addressed. I don't usually talk to days of the year in the second person!
Total awww, though.
That’s your choice, Fritz, not your duties. You could, say, make Heinrich Regent for some months and make the trip….
*choke*
Fritz has a duty to protect
himselfSilesiaPrussia from anyone being in charge except him!More seriously, it is kind of sad to read:
1) FW's 1722 Political Testament telling his future heir, "Be a workaholic! Don't let your ministers do stuff!"
2) FW's opinions from the late 1720s on re his lazy son who never wants to work.
3) Fritz's inability to take a vacation.
Thus, Lehndorff does not hear what Heinrich thinks of Lafayette, BUT he meets Lafayette himself before either Fritz or Heinrich do!
Yay! This is cool.
When we rise from the table, we have become such friends that he asks me to come with him to Rheinsberg. To my great regret, I have to decline.
To your great regret AND THAT OF SALON. Gah!
You can say that again, Lehndorff.
Wow. It is always neat to see people reacting to famous contemporary events, like Mary Ann to Vindication of the Rights of Women.
Re: Lehndorff Diaries: 1785
Date: 2022-07-12 09:36 am (UTC)That is a cute story about the kid, though!
What I thought. While I can't recall a story of Fritz being mocking towards a kid he wasn't related to - by which I mean future FW2 - , I don't blame Lehndorff for worrying until he heard it went well, though.
So, do you think Voltaire called Fritz the French equivalent of Hanswurst or Alexander?
(Alexander: Hanswurst or no Hanswurst? Debate.)
I had forgotten about the double chin! Oh, Lehndorff.
Lehndorff notices these things. In fairness, he also grudgingly ascribes a pretty face to most of Heinrich's faves when he first encounters them. And don't forget him admiring Poniatowski's figure when he meets him in Poland!
(But nothing will beat Heinrich in tight pants, obviously.)
I don't usually talk to days of the year in the second person!
Clearly you're missing out on something.
More seriously, it is kind of sad to read:
1) FW's 1722 Political Testament telling his future heir, "Be a workaholic! Don't let your ministers do stuff!"
2) FW's opinions from the late 1720s on re his lazy son who never wants to work.
3) Fritz's inability to take a vacation.
That it is. FW really did a number on him.
Wow. It is always neat to see people reacting to famous contemporary events
It is, and what I find particularly interesting here is that Lehndorff insists Rohan had a great reputation and was esteemed by Louis and Marie Antoinette alike. Because the way I remember it from various MA biographies is that he was a known ladies' man and she couldn't stand him, whereas he wanted to score with her, which made him such an easy mark for Jeanne LaMotte. Also worth noting that Lehndorff doesn't seem to think Marie Antoinette is guilty, which is what most of the French public thought. Yes, she's a Queen, but when the scandal in Denmark around Queen Caroline (sister of G3) erupted, he had no problem slapping the MESSALINA! designation on her and believing the version of EC's sister Queen Mother Juliana where Caroline and her lover the enlightened Doctor were plotting to take over the country and do away with the King. And MA is MT's daughter (and Joseph's sister).
(BTW, the Bishop de Rohan with whom Charlotte Stuart, daughter of Bonnie Prince Charlie had an affair was his younger brother, in case anyone recalls my STuarts-Audio-Writeup.)
(Speaking of Joseph, a repeated theme of Lehndorff's political musings is "WTF is going on in Austria, WTF is Joseph up to?!?" But he never arrives at any conclusions beyond "nothing good, clearly, what a chaos".)
Re: Lehndorff Diaries: 1785
Date: 2022-07-16 08:48 am (UTC)Lol! Well, maybe one in a particularly bad mood, one in a somewhat better mood. If it's Voltaire and Fritz talking about each other, it has to be a mixture of admiration and resentment, after all!
(Alexander: Hanswurst or no Hanswurst? Debate.)
LOL. Well, you're the one who actually knows about Hanswurst, but if I just go by Wikipedia, "a half doltish, half cunning, partly stupid, partly knowing, enterprising and cowardly, self indulgent and merry," I don't see a whole lot of Alexander in there. Heavy drinking notwithstanding, cowardly and self-indulgent are right out. Stupid, well, he had some stellarly bad ideas, but probably not in the sense that I associate with German comedy (which I hasten to add, I have seen literally zero of). Enterprising and cunning, yes, very much.
Doltish, well, admittedly the sources are skewed by millennia of admiration, but I don't know if even his enemies would have picked that particular insult. OTOH, I haven't looked at the sources in 3 years, so I could be forgetting something Demosthenes said!
(But nothing will beat Heinrich in tight pants, obviously.)
Obviously!
That it is. FW really did a number on him.
Lehndorff's account of his death is also telling in this respect. "If I pull myself together through my partial paralysis, I can sign three more letters before I die!"
Because the way I remember it from various MA biographies is that he was a known ladies' man and she couldn't stand him
Uh, yeah, the way I remember it is that she refused to speak to him, and that La Motte won him over precisely by convincing him that MA was secretly signaling him and then finally agreeing to meet with him. If they'd had a good relationship, she wouldn't have been able to pull this off!
(Speaking of Joseph, a repeated theme of Lehndorff's political musings is "WTF is going on in Austria, WTF is Joseph up to?!?" But he never arrives at any conclusions beyond "nothing good, clearly, what a chaos".)
LOL! Well, I imagine Joseph had a *lot* of contemporaries confused.
Re: Lehndorff Diaries: 1785
Date: 2022-07-16 12:49 pm (UTC)Exactly. That entire con depended on Rohan not talking to or corresponding with real MA at all. Refreshing my memory on the internet reminds me he used to be a the French ambassador at Vienna for a short while, and MT hadn't liked him then, either. (A prince of the church who was an open lothario, you bet she didn't.) Incidentally, one of the things I recall from the biographies was that the eventual letter from MA that LaMotte forged was signed "Marie Antoinette de France", which as real MA pointed out she'd never have signed as. (Her signature, as can be seen in the documents preserved, was either simply "Marie Antoinette" or "de Autriche-Lorraine", but not "de France".)
Now I did know that public opinion in France considered the Cardinal innocent and the victim in all this (with the only disagreements being whether he was Jeanne La Motte's or Marie Antoinette's victim), so I wasn't surprised Lehndorff heard a Rohan-sympathetic version of the story, but what did surprise me was that the version Lehndorff heard declared him not just innocent in this affair (which he was in the sense that he really was deceived), but a royal favourite and a capital fellow all around. Then again, Lehndorff is a friend of hyperbole, and it's just an even more dramatic fall if Rohan goes from hero to zero instead of decadent sponge of the church to zero.
Re: Lehndorff Diaries: 1785
Date: 2022-07-16 12:54 pm (UTC)AW: Achilles. 'Nuff said.
Re: Lehndorff Diaries: 1785
Date: 2022-07-16 09:36 pm (UTC)This is interesting to me, because Zweig at least made the case that there were a billion rumors about MA going around. (And then of course he's all "And I ship her with Count Fersen, myself!" which, uh, doesn't exactly help in that regard...) :)
Re: Lehndorff Diaries: 1785
Date: 2022-07-16 09:34 pm (UTC)This! :D <3
Re: Lehndorff Diaries: 1785
Date: 2022-07-16 09:33 pm (UTC)Um. Lehndorff, you have written down similar statements from Fritz in earlier years, too.
Aw. But I can see Lehndorff really wanting to believe that Fritz hasn't always been that way.
I finally hear that the whole affair happened far better than I dared to hope, as the King has talked kindly to the child. God bless the King for his kindness! It is so blissful to be able to love one’s souvereign
And on the other hand, those sentences are rather telling... I'm glad Fritz found it in him to be nice to the kid, though!
Januar 18th: Blessed be thou to me! Under your light, my Prince Heinrich was born!
Still hilarious!
Lehndorff, I don’t know how I feel about the fact you’re making your children declaim praise poems about your life long crush in front of your wife.
HAHAHAHAHA omg.
Heinrich is reading Figaro’s Wedding by Beaumarchais to Lehndorff through the winter. (They both like it very much; Lehndorff shows no sign of detecting the social criiticism.
Nice! :D
That’s your choice, Fritz, not your duties. You could, say, make Heinrich Regent for some months and make the trip….
Oh lolololol. I... can't even imagine. Fritz would have to be someone entirely different!
It seems to me that a lot of this bears further investigation.
ahahahaha Lehendorff! (It's pretty cool to read this after reading the Zweig and getting his take on it.)
Re: Lehndorff Diaries: 1785
Date: 2022-07-17 06:05 am (UTC)Yay long layover! <3 We have missed you!