cahn | Historical Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 40

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I'm trying to use my other account at least occasionally so I posted about my Yuletide gifts there, including the salon-relevant 12k fic that features Fritz, Heinrich, Voltaire, Fredersdorf, Saint Germain, Caroline Daum (Fredersdorf's wife), and Groundhog Day tropes! (Don't need to know canon.)

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From:

mildred_of_midgard

I didn't tell you this because I didn't remember it! I don't remember it from Horowski (but checking will take a lot longer, because my German is still slooow), and it's way less dramatic in Kamen:

That autumn, the duke of Orléans returned to France. Philip had admired the duke as a general in Italy, and had personally requested that he be sent to Spain. But in the peninsula tensions arose between the two. Philip's lack of an heir at that time made Orléans into a likely successor to the Spanish throne; the king felt threatened by this. Moreover, Orléans got on well with the Spaniards, which created further tensions. His successful campaigns in the Crown of Aragon helped to increase suspicions. The day that the city of Valencia surrendered, 8 May 1707, on his own initiative as commander-in-chief Orléans issued a decree pardoning the inhabitants for their act of rebellion, an action he repeated on entering Saragossa at the end of the month. These measures gave rise to the suspicion that he was attempting to win favour in the Crown of Aragon for his claims to the Spanish throne. As if to endorse such fears, in 1709, the year after he had left for France, two of his secretaries, Regnault and Flotte, were arrested in Spain for allegedly taking part in a plot to assassinate Philip V. They had also been in touch with a group of grandees who appear to have promised Orléans their support as possible king of Spain in place of Philip. 'He told me', the duke of Saint- Simon wrote later, 'that many grandees of Philip V of Spain Spain and other notables had told him that the king of Spain could not persevere, and had proposed hastening his fall and putting himself in his place'. Further arrests were made two weeks after those of Regnault and Flotte, when the marquis of Villaroel, a general who had served under Orléans, was detained in Saragossa. Significantly, Villaroel later deserted the Bourbon side and joined the archduke in Barcelona. The king, always prone to suspicions, continued for many years to harbour fears of a personal threat to himself from the duke. Louis XIV, well aware of the conflicts within his family, commented in April 1709: 'I have found excuses for not sending my nephew back to Spain this year'.

Edited Date: 2023-01-21 04:29 pm (UTC)

From:

selenak

Color me unsurprised Voltaire heightened the drama by stating as fact Philippe the Regent was after the Spanish throne and all of France indignant about it when modern biographers go with "Philippe the Frog was suspicious", apparantly. Though Voltaire mentions the two arrested secretaries (as part of Philippe the Regent's scheme).