cahn

Starting 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:

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

selenak

Meanwhile, Mina: The King organizes a dinner in honor of the Princess Heinrich. By sheer accident, General Kalckreuth and his wife have arrived from his garnison and join. This meeting has to be deeply embarassing to both regarding what has happened between them twenty years ago.

Huh. Lehndorff, do you mean you actually believe Kalckreuth/Mina was a thing?

Prince Heinrich is sick as well and worried about a thousand things. I try as much as I can to calm him down, and he promises me to be content. But – I really don’t marvel at the belief of the ancient ones that there were two souls in every human’s breast, a good and a bad one. The later always destroys every good thing the first one creates. Thus, the good intention of keeping calm whatever happens are destroyed in the moment one is tested and has to show one’s equanimity. I muse about this, thinking about myself as well as him.

Translation: neither Heinrich nor Lehndorff manage stoicism about the increasingly obvious truth they’re regarded as useless antiquities.

Meanwhile, Kalckreuth: General Kalckreuth and his wife leave for their garnison. The two people who are rich and have wit still don’t manage to make themselves popular. They weren’t even here for eight days before everyone was sick of her, while he believed himself obliged to complain about everything, especially about the princes Heinrich and Ferdinand. After the dinner to which the King had invited Princess Heinrich and both Kackreuths, Kalckreuth complained harshly about the Princess to whom he once had been so close. I see once more that human beings don’t change. I can’t see any change with Kalcklreuth, he’s still exactly like he was in 1764, when I met him as Prince Heinrich’s AD. But with all that, he’s still an able soldier in all directions, and a well read man. Also he was lucky. But his excitable temper has caused him a lot of difficulties.

Hmmm. Firstly, Lehndorff, you didn’t meet Kalckreuth in 1764, you met and complained about him and Heinrich already in 1756. Secondly, Schmidt-Lötzen, did Kalkcreuth complain about the Princess or the Prince? Could you have transcribed something wrongly? Because that sentence makes much more sense if Kalckreuth was close to Heinrich and now complains. Even if Lehndorff really believes Kalkreuth made an accepted pass at Mina in 1764/1765, which no one else did at the time, it was only a brief event in the twilight days of his relationship with Heinrich and born out of his jealousy of Kaphengst. So, what gives?

Soon, Lehndorff has other worries, though.

When I’m already in the carriage in order to join the King at mass, I’m told Karl is in a bad state, that he has pangs at the side and that he’s bled for this reason. I am in the greatest disquiet during the preaching and at the Queen’s table despite the King participating, and await only the end of the meal to rush to my child. I do find him in danger. His veins have been opened twice, and a Spanish fly was used. In terrible fear, I go to Prince Heinrich whom I find with Prince Friedrich of Braunschweig. The former assures me of his deepest sympathy.
Monday the 14th. My poor child seems to be somewhat better, but around 10, the pangs get more violent again, and he’s again bled. There is danger. I remain at home with my sad thoughts. How human life always turns out differently than expected! I was supposed to see a French play and attend a ball and a grand party at Prince Heinrich’s, but I cannot and am alone with my worries.
15th. The same. The pangs have lessened, but his weakness has grown. My heart trembles all the time.
16h. I’m incapable of doing anything else. The thought of my son never leaves me. Several times a day, I hurry to him. I am satisfied with Dr. Richter, and also with the nursing done by Captain Boiton. His great weakness and his harsh breathing worry me continously. (…)
17th. Despite I’m given hope my son will get better, I don’t dare to rejoice just yet. He is so weak and has slept so little! I spend a moment with the Queen Widow and then hurry to Prince Heinrich. He also gives me hope, and swears that he has had the same sickness and survived. But that doesn’t comfort me, and I return to my lonely home.
(…)
20th: My poor Karl is somewhat better, but I still wonder what will become of him. Six bloodlettings at the age of 16, at a time where he grows the most, are able to destroy one’s health!
Karl makes it out of the sickness alive, though. Lehndorff’s wife and his two other children get smallpox the same year, but survive as well, so there is more fretting and worrying, and then once he doesn’t have worry about their lives anymore, Heinrich gives up and decides to go to Rheinsberg.
16th: I’m going with Prince Ferdinand to Oranienburg, where the Prince has invited his brother Heinrich, who will leave Berlin probably for a long time, to share lunch. We are four people at the table, as Prince Heinrich arrives in the company of Tauentzien. During the meal, we often think oft he Prince of Prussia, the father of the current King, the most noble of men, who lived here in retreat. Here grief ended the days of one who was born to make millions happy. Such sad contemplations are made by us until 5 pm, and then Prince Heinrich leaves for Rheinsberg and we for Berlin.

Lehndorff is invited by FW2 to spend the summer with him at Sanssouci. (BTW, no mention that parts are inhabitable due to Fritz.) And then Amalie dies. Cahn, the Princess Henriette Lehndorff is reminded of is Minette, Charles II’s sister.

30th. Around 5 pm, I want to drive to the Princess Tacken. When my people open the carriage for me, they call: „The Princess Amalie has died!“ In my first shock, I have to think about the passage in Flechier where he describes the universal horror which the death of the Princess Henriette caused in France, and where he says: Night of horrors in which one heard the call: Madame is dead! Madame is no more!“ Deeply sad, I arrive at the Princess Sacken’s. The news I bring, no one wants to believe; one doubts and sends enquiries. But unfortunately, the sad news is confirmed. I would have gone immediately, but I had an invitation to the Queen Widow’s, and so I go there. But at the foot of the stairs I already meet a servant of the Queen’s, who tells she was deeply shaken and unable to receive anyone.
I meet up with old Count Podewils and bring him to the Gusow Podewils’place while I hurry to the mourning place. I find Madame de Maupertuis, the Fräuleins of Zherbst and v. Dönhoff and all belonging to the house in deep pain, added to which is the shock about the sudden death. At lunch the Princess was still doing well. Since eight days, she was complaining about a strong cough, but no one assumed a serious danger. Around 3 am Madame de Maupertuis was called, and she found her already without consciousness. Now the entire royal family was notified, and everyone rushed to her. But she was already gone. There was hardly any death struggle; she died in the arms of her first chamber woman, Fräulein Hartmann, in her 64th year of life. My pain is great. I’ve known her since forty years, and have been in her particular favor. She had very much esprit, but also many excentricities, and at any rate she had the mindset of a great princess, one can say, the Brandenburg mindset, which is very characteristic.
After having cried hot tears in the first floor, I went to the chamber women. They told me about several traits oft he Princess and led me to the chamber where the royal corpse was lying. At such an opportunity, one can only exclaim: Vanity, vanity, all is vanity! This Princess, who had so many rich spiritual qualities, who had a great nature, a high flowing mind, she awoke the respect in everyone which her high birth alone would not have produced. There she lies stretched on a bed and regarded with melancholy by everyone. One only talks of the weakness of her body, which has housed such a beautiful soul. Since twenty years, she has been sick, and getting sicker. The food she ate had to be cut for her, since she had become paralysed. Morever, she had ordered a sick eye to be removed and did this with an amazing stoicism. Despite all this, she did not want to be at rest. Eighteen years ago, she had all the trees removed from her garden because she wanted to have an English Garden. People hinted she would not live to see the new garden, given her bad health, but her strong will kept her going, and I have seen her walk among the new plants.
April 1st. I leave Berlin in order to go to Rheinsberg, where Prince Heinrich now lives alone and will surely be very sad about this death. I follow the pull of my heart and want to find out whether I can serve this great man about whom people care so little now. The Prince receives me with open arms and overwhelmes my son and myself with kindness and attentions. We’re only five people here, but we feel no boredom the entire day, which can be found so often in the noble world. (…)
A letter from the late princess has been found wherein she declares she wants to be buried without any fuss. The coffin was only supposed to cost 10 Taler, and no more than 300n Taler should be spent on the entire entombement. No ceremony should happen, and the remaining money was tob e shared among the poor. Next to this letter was a parcel on which the Princess had written in her own hand: Here is my shroud. One can see from this that she thought about her final hour in great strength. The shroud was made of simple linnen.
May 13th. Now six weeks have gone with lightning speed in the most pleasant way. I tear myself away from the Prince with the greatest regret. This is a friendship which has lasted all my life. God knows when we will see each other again. He goes to France, and I shall withdraw into a corner of Prussia. That’s how things stand with us right now. If I look back, I feel so much happier than a hundred other people. But it would be different if I could look ahead.

This would be a good place to end this write up, but unfortunately, there’s still the rant from which I already quoted the du Rosey/Marschall relevant passage. It’s one long outburst about how much life has screwed him over:

It seems to me as if this year and this time on which I had put all my hope only brings embarassing disappointments to me. The great Friedrich dies. A new career seems to open up to me. From all sides I’m told that there is talk I’m destined for the highest offices. All who return from Berlin to Prussia tell me that the new King has asked about me in such a loving manner. This feeds my hopes. Finally I see the dear King. He approches me with the greatest kindness and asks me to come to Berlin with him. I hurry there, enjoy the best reception, but it doesn’t change anything in my position. In the meantime, my wife’s only sister dies, Countess Reuß. She loved my children and my wife tenderly, but she still leaves 130 000 Taler to her husband and not a penny to my family. I accept this. Then I get a letter that my wife and daughters have the small pox. I am desperate. The good Lord preserves them. Fourteen days later my son gets a terrible pneumonia. For three weeks, I am full of lethal fears. He recovers. But now I worry for his future. Then I get the news that the incredibly rich great uncle of my wife, the childless Count Dönhoff, who wrote about his tender love on every post day, has died, but left a last will which is to be opened in six weeks. The closest family gets invited to the opening. My hopes rise. Then yesterday I get the news that he left his entire fortune to the poor and doesn’t even mention us in his last will. I could say a lot about this, but I’m better silent. (…)
The King appointed me as Chamberlain of the Queen when I was 19. I wrote to him that I couldn’t regard this position as one in which I was of use to the state. His reply was: Accept this position preliminarily until I can use you in my surroundings. This sounded pretty hopeful, but the opposite happened. The Prince of Prussia, the father of our currrent King, assured me of his friendship and showed me the greatest confidence which grew until his death. His brother Heinrich has always had much affection for me, through forty years, has made me countless promises and has accused himself of ingratitude towards me countless times. But in the meantime, he has given Kaphengst 150 000 Taler and ruined himself for others who rewarded him with the deepest ingratitude. Our present King, too, has shown me great friendship (…) When he ascended to the throne, he distinguished me so much that people thought I was meant for the highest offices. In Königsberg he wished I would go to Berlin with him. Here, I was invited to all his little evening parties, and he invited me to join him at Sanssouci. I lived there and was with him from morning to night. And now he lets me return to Prussia exactly how I arrived. (…)
I've made the same experience in money matters. When I was twenty, I was supposed to marry a very rich Fräulein du Rosey. Her family was all for the match while mine nearly had to force me into it. But in the last moment, an evil mother-in-law ruined everything. The young miss had a half brother, Marschall v. Bieberstein, who had much affection for me while he couldn't stand his sister. He wanted to leave all his fortune to me. Then he comes to Berlin, wants to make a last will in my favor, gets small pox, loses his head and dies. Then I marry rich Fräulein von Hasel. She makes me happy and gives me four children, of whom two live and are well. She has only one sister who spits blood and a mother who keeps having strokes and who isn't likely to want me to have the family fortune. Then I suffer a horrible fate within eight months. My two charming children die within twenty four hours of diphteria. My wife, who is pregnant at the time, gets nervous attacks, gets into labor too early, keeps weakening and dies in Koblenz, and I remain alone with the greatest suffering of the heart and without all the enormous fortune. (…)
As I write all of this with some bitterness, I still have to praise fate for giving me a happy life and an independent state still, which not many possess. I am healthy, and content, and I have an excellent („vortreffliche“) wife. That counts more than all the money I missed out on.

Lastly, a Lehndorff observation from hanging out at Fritz-less Sanssouci:
The King has made changes in the garden which one can only call very good. The former garden plots are now English gardens, and between groups of blooming flowers, there are the most beautiful statues. Admiringly, I watch the beautiful Mercury by Pigalle, and also the group around Adam, and the antique Antinous. There is no place in the whole of Germany which offers such a rich variety of statues as Sanssouci.

Edited Date: 2022-07-11 06:04 pm (UTC)

From:

mildred_of_midgard

This meeting has to be deeply embarassing to both regarding what has happened between them twenty years ago.

Huh. Lehndorff, do you mean you actually believe Kalckreuth/Mina was a thing?

Weren't things awkward enough that it would be embarrassing regardless? Though I see later on that it does kind of read like he thinks Kalckreuth/Mina was a thing.

Translation: neither Heinrich nor Lehndorff manage stoicism about the increasingly obvious truth they’re regarded as useless antiquities.

Yep. But this is also what Lehndorff says about himself repeatedly in the early 1750s, his inability to deal with the emotional rollercoaster of unrequited love, or of being tantalized with large fortunes.

Firstly, Lehndorff, you didn’t meet Kalckreuth in 1764, you met and complained about him and Heinrich already in 1756.

Lehndorff: Clearly not expecting his diaries to be cross-referenced by 21st century salongoers!

Six bloodlettings at the age of 16, at a time where he grows the most, are able to destroy one’s health!

Exactly! Stop bloodletting!

More seriously, that passage is painful. I'm glad Karl recovered (especially since I wrote fic about him recovering at a younger age!)

Wow, Amalie. I didn't realize she had an eye removed!

Eighteen years ago, she had all the trees removed from her garden because she wanted to have an English Garden. People hinted she would not live to see the new garden, given her bad health, but her strong will kept her going, and I have seen her walk among the new plants.

That sounds like her, and I'm glad she managed to get joy out of her garden. (

cahn, English gardens, which were more naturalistic than the rigid geometric French gardens of Louis XIV time, were in vogue on the Continent in the later 18th century.)

The whole Amalie write-up is really something.

unfortunately, there’s still the rant from which I already quoted the du Rosey/Marschall relevant passage. It’s one long outburst about how much life has screwed him over:

Indeed, but ever since you posted it yesterday, I've been thinking, thank goodness he ranted in 1787 and not 1788! Otherwise, Marschall von Bieberstein and the Mystery of the Two Lost Cousin Fortunes would still be driving me crazy. ;)

From:

selenak

Weren't things awkward enough that it would be embarrassing regardless?

Maaaaaayyyybe, but as you say, the later passage also reads like Lehndorff believes Kalckreuth/Mina happened. BTW, is Mrs. Kalkreuth Mina's ex lady-in-waiting (who provided the excuse for why Kalckreuth was on his knees in front of Mina), or did she die already and this is his second wife?

More seriously, that passage is painful. I'm glad Karl recovered (especially since I wrote fic about him recovering at a younger age!)

Karl really had several near death experiences, it seems. Do we know what became of him in the long term?

Wow, Amalie. I didn't realize she had an eye removed!

I think a distorted version of this shows up in Thiébault; didn't he claim she plucked her eyes out for love of Trenck? Or was that one of the later writers?

Anyway, I'm glad her death was relatively quick and painless, and her funeral arrangements are definitely Fritzian. Without the dog factor.

From:

mildred_of_midgard

Another quick genealogical note before bed: second wife. The poor ex-lady-in-waiting died in 1768; Kalckreuth married again in 1781.

Karl: lived to be 83, had several long-lived children, and had a successful military career, making it all the way to Lt. General. But also wounded in the head in a battle in 1807 and made a POW.

From:

cahn

([personal profile] cahn, English gardens, which were more naturalistic than the rigid geometric French gardens of Louis XIV time, were in vogue on the Continent in the later 18th century.)

Ah, I didn't realize that was what that meant, thank you!

I saw quite a few English gardens before I saw any French gardens, and I was shocked the first time I came across a French garden! I'm with Amalie, English gardens are nicer :) (I realize you're saying it was also the style, but also!)

From:

luzula

I have recently seen both an English garden (at Stowe House) and a French garden (at Versailles)! There were things I liked at Versailles, but on the whole I preferred the English one.

I was puzzled by the extremely high hedges in parts of the garden at Versailles, which were three or four times the height of a person. Does anyone know the reasoning behind that?

From:

cahn

This meeting has to be deeply embarassing to both regarding what has happened between them twenty years ago.

Huh. Lehndorff, do you mean you actually believe Kalckreuth/Mina was a thing?

Aw, that sucks! (I kind of assume that if Lehndorff thinks that, a bunch of other people must think that...)

Prince Heinrich is sick as well and worried about a thousand things. I try as much as I can to calm him down, and he promises me to be content. But – I really don’t marvel at the belief of the ancient ones that there were two souls in every human’s breast, a good and a bad one. The later always destroys every good thing the first one creates. Thus, the good intention of keeping calm whatever happens are destroyed in the moment one is tested and has to show one’s equanimity. I muse about this, thinking about myself as well as him.

Translation: neither Heinrich nor Lehndorff manage stoicism about the increasingly obvious truth they’re regarded as useless antiquities.

<3 :(

16h. I’m incapable of doing anything else. The thought of my son never leaves me. Several times a day, I hurry to him. I am satisfied with Dr. Richter, and also with the nursing done by Captain Boiton. His great weakness and his harsh breathing worry me continously. (…)

Oh, Lehndorff <3 This is (one of the many reasons) we love him <3333 (Mildred: thaaaaaank you for the note below that Karl lived!)

Cahn, the Princess Henriette Lehndorff is reminded of is Minette, Charles II’s sister.

Ah, as usual thank you for drawing the connection! (Because I've still got a very thin grasp of chronology -- one day I'll get it straight! -- I always assume now that it's probably someone else with the same name because EVERYONE HAS THE SAME NAME, ahem :P )

My pain is great. I’ve known her since forty years, and have been in her particular favor. She had very much esprit, but also many excentricities, and at any rate she had the mindset of a great princess, one can say, the Brandenburg mindset, which is very characteristic.

At such an opportunity, one can only exclaim: Vanity, vanity, all is vanity! This Princess, who had so many rich spiritual qualities, who had a great nature, a high flowing mind, she awoke the respect in everyone which her high birth alone would not have produced. There she lies stretched on a bed and regarded with melancholy by everyone.

Amalie! <3333 :(

This is a friendship which has lasted all my life. God knows when we will see each other again. He goes to France, and I shall withdraw into a corner of Prussia. That’s how things stand with us right now. If I look back, I feel so much happier than a hundred other people. But it would be different if I could look ahead.

<3333

As I write all of this with some bitterness, I still have to praise fate for giving me a happy life and an independent state still, which not many possess. I am healthy, and content, and I have an excellent („vortreffliche“) wife. That counts more than all the money I missed out on.

You know, I love that. I mean, everyone gets to complain once in a while, but he also does see what he does have, which is great.