I meant to add that Moltke was *not* a heartfelt joy for Frederik's children, or at least not for the one we hear from, Christian VII.
This doesn't surprise me, either. The Duke of Buckingham who was the favourite of both James I (and VI) and of his son Charles I. is still the only example I can think of where a very powerful royal favourite managed to be one for a father and son duo of successive monarchs, and it wouldn't have worked if good old Steynie hadn't befriended young Charles long before his father's death. Between ruling the country and being emotionally available to one messed up monarch 24/7, Moltke must have had his plate more than full. Another unstable prince to care for would have been just too much. And most neglected children aren't going to love the guy their neglectful father was crazy about.
Re: Danish kings and their favorites: Frederik V and Moltke
Between ruling the country and being emotionally available to one messed up monarch 24/7, Moltke must have had his plate more than full.
*And* the Academy of Arts, *and* the Asiatic Company--he reminds me of Fredersdorf! A finger in every pie.
I think what saved him was that he wasn't a micromanager or autocrat, that he was willing to let the committees of other nobles do most of the work, and his job was to review their write-ups and guide Frederik in making a decision. Still a lot of work! But not Fritzian levels. That's also, as you and various authors have noted, partly how he managed to hang onto his position: he was a good team player.
Also, re the 24/7 thing, the good news is that after more research, I've come to the tentative conclusion that at least during most of Frederik's reign, Moltke lived with his (Weasley) family and only joined Frederik at the palace in the morning, after breakfast. During the crown prince days, he slept in the same room or next door to Frederik, and when Frederik was dying, he slept in the same room, but other than that, I suspect he had some alone time/family time. Which might explain why he lasted so long (also relevant to your other comment, which I'll reply to).
This also makes me think that a lot of the apology letters might be pre-emptive, when Frederik woke up realizing what he'd done and frantically apologizing in writing *before* he got the silent treatment. Though I still have some memories of at least a few being "Please talk to me!", I would need to do a closer reading to see if that holds up.
And most neglected children aren't going to love the guy their neglectful father was crazy about.
Ding ding ding! Because I got to the part in Moltke's memoirs yesterday where he talks about his dismissal, and you get one guess who he blames.
...Dun dun dun...
The evil advisors!
And I was like, "Moltke, I like you well enough from this very safe distance, but I know what Christian's childhood was like. His father ignored him, his governor abused him, and you did nothing about either of these things. In fact, you may even have been responsible for appointing the governor, I have no idea. But Holm or Oettinger said that the governor said that he had never once spoken to Frederik, so...I don't see why Christian *would* like you."
Moltke: But dying Frederik specifically told Christian to be especially nice to me, because I had served him faithfully and well since he was 7!
Me: Frederik...the neglectful and probably abusive father? Look, I respect that you didn't drop Frederik like a hot potato as soon as it became clear he was dying, but there's only so much you can expect from the abused child who got no attention from either of you!
Another unstable prince to care for would have been just too much.
Absolutely, and there's no guarantee that he would have clicked or been successful with the other unstable prince, even if he'd been willing to give it his best effort. Frederik and Christian seem to have had very different mental health issues and very different personalities.
Re: Danish kings and their favorites: Frederik V and Moltke
Of course he does. It's really the go to explanation through the centuries.
Hervey: Not for me. I'm quite happy blaming Fritz of Wales for everything personally in my memoirs. And in my letters, especially for dumping me.
Leopold: I was also happy to blame Joseph, personally. I mean, I also bitched about the low company he kept on the one hand and those bigotted high born ladies on the other, but "Joseph is the worst!" still was my go to explanation in my la familiglia rant about everything he did wrong.
Selena: Which didn't include dumping you, so you don't count.
I don't see why Christian *would* like you."
Me neither. Moltke should have seen this coming. Perhaps did, but doesn't want to say so in the memoirs, because that's not the convention. He'd have to admit to the neglect and abuse first.
Re: Danish kings and their favorites: Frederik V and Moltke
Hervey: Not for me. I'm quite happy blaming Fritz of Wales for everything personally in my memoirs. And in my letters, especially for dumping me.
Leopold: I was also happy to blame Joseph, personally. I mean, I also bitched about the low company he kept on the one hand and those bigotted high born ladies on the other, but "Joseph is the worst!" still was my go to explanation in my la familiglia rant about everything he did wrong.
Selena: Which didn't include dumping you, so you don't count.
HAHAHAHAHA!
Moltke should have seen this coming. Perhaps did, but doesn't want to say so in the memoirs, because that's not the convention. He'd have to admit to the neglect and abuse first.
IDK, adults, especially not-super-self-aware adults, often have a very different idea as to how kids ought to feel about things vs how they actually feel...
Re: Danish kings and their favorites: Frederik V and Moltke
IDK, adults, especially not-super-self-aware adults, often have a very different idea as to how kids ought to feel about things vs how they actually feel...
Yeah, I would be shocked if Moltke was consciously aware of how bad and also how unjustified it was. To the extent that he was paying attention, he probably wrote it off as "disciplining a kid who needs discipline." Especially if young Christian's mental health issues were manifesting as erratic behavior already. :/
Re: Danish kings and their favorites: Frederik V and Moltke
Hervey: Not for me. I'm quite happy blaming Fritz of Wales for everything personally in my memoirs. And in my letters, especially for dumping me.
Leopold: I was also happy to blame Joseph, personally. I mean, I also bitched about the low company he kept on the one hand and those bigotted high born ladies on the other, but "Joseph is the worst!" still was my go to explanation in my la familiglia rant about everything he did wrong.
Hahaha!
Me neither. Moltke should have seen this coming. Perhaps did, but doesn't want to say so in the memoirs, because that's not the convention. He'd have to admit to the neglect and abuse first.
Moltke admit to something? Never!
As I said to Cahn, I doubt he admitted it to himself consciously. But he might have seen this coming in the sense that he might very well have known he didn't have a bond with Christian and Christian was not a fan. As you say, politically powerful favorites to consecutive monarchs are very rare, and Moltke must have known this.
Although sometimes the favorite survives the transition to the new regime, even if he's not the *favorite* of the new monarch, like Mazarin. I suspect it helped Louis's acceptance of him that he wasn't an emotional favorite of Dad's, just a political colleague, and he was the emotional favorite of *Mom*. And of course the regency: Christian came to power when he was 17, old enough to reign in his own name.
Re: Danish kings and their favorites: Frederik V and Moltke
Ah, but Mazarin had never been Louis XIII's favourite. He'd been Richelieu's protegé, thus making Richelieu one of the very few men of power who actually groomed a capable successor in time, and Louis XIII appointed him at a dying Richelieu's request and himself died within a year, so I don't think kid Louis XIV saw Mazarin in a context to his late father, but, as you say, very much in a context with his mother.
Now, Mazarin able to win Anne's favour despite being Cardinal Richelieu's chosen protegé, given the long time Anne & Richelieu hostility, that is a rare case indeed.
Christian came to power when he was 17, old enough to reign in his own name.
Yes, that makes a big difference. Louis XIV was literally a child.
Still, it could have gone worse for Moltke. At least he wasn't banished, or stripped of his earthly possessions or something like that.
(Heinrich: Or despite NOT having been a favourite of the previous King basically told he should stay in retirement and that his services were unwanted for anything but reading tips. Grrr. Argh.)
Re: Danish kings and their favorites: Frederik V and Moltke
Louis XIII appointed him at a dying Richelieu's request and himself died within a year, so I don't think kid Louis XIV saw Mazarin in a context to his late father, but, as you say, very much in a context with his mother.
I'd forgotten it was within a year, though I did remember he wasn't Louis XIII's favorite, just "a" favorite of the previous regime and could easily have been dismissed when Louis XIV came of age.
Still, it could have gone worse for Moltke. At least he wasn't banished, or stripped of his earthly possessions or something like that.
Very true. It went: "dimissed without a pension, restored, dismissed without a pension, pension eventually granted."
(Heinrich: Or despite NOT having been a favourite of the previous King basically told he should stay in retirement and that his services were unwanted for anything but reading tips. Grrr. Argh.)
Aww. Poor Heinrich! Well, salon loves you, Heinrich!
Re: Danish kings and their favorites: Frederik V and Moltke
My new Struensee books have arrived. I haven't been able to digitize them yet, because Covid, but one is 650 pages long and very academic-looking, and it has this anecdote about Christian VII and the guy his neglectful father was crazy about:
Especially hated by him was the former favorite of his father: Moltke. He considered him a man only concerned with his own interest. Once, at a court feast, an intoxicated Frederik V is supposed to have promised him Hirschholm Palace as a gift. When Christian learned about this, he hurried to the cabinet library, drew a sketch of the pleasure palace on a piece of paper, and took it to Moltke. "I beseech Your Excellency," he said to the all-powerful minister, "to content yourself with this, because you will never get the real palace, unless you also get the crown." On another occasion, he's supposed to have remarked about Moltke, "Selfishness is one of his four Achilles' heels!"
The citation for these is an 1841 book called "Merkwürdigkeiten aus der Weltgeschichte," which doesn't inspire confidence and which I can't seem to find online, but whether or not this exact anecdote happened, I bet Moltke saw his dismissal coming (but I bet he still blamed the evil advisors).
Also, "unless you also get the crown" to an all-powerful minister...that sounds like a veiled accusation. Barz (our romanticizing biographer of Struensee) refers to "König Moltke" at one point, but I don't know if that was a contemporary phrase (well, an attested one, I bet contemporaries said it privately amongst themselves!) or just Barz being a novelist and playright at heart.
Judging by Wikipedia, Moltke did *not* get Hirschholm Palace: it was originally built by Christian VI for his wife Sophia Magdalena, she lived there until her death in 1770 (so after Frederik V died in 1766), Struensee and Caroline Mathilde lived there until 1771, and after that it fell into disrepair.
Re: Danish kings and their favorites: Frederik V and Moltke
In fairness to anecdote collections, just think of Nicolai, who turned out to be pretty reliable and well sourced. As for the content of the anecdote, yeah, this is my unsurprised face. I mean, from what you've told us, "Moltke cares only about himself" is a massively unfair characterisation, but coming from the kid who seems to have gotten zero help against the abusive teacher from either his father or Moltke, it makes sense. And it's always easier to blame the favourite rather than the parent/spouse.
Also, "unless you also get the crown" to an all-powerful minister...that sounds like a veiled accusation.
Well, yes, but I don't think literally, because there's no way Moltke could have managed that one in a literal fashion. Otoh, if he had married his daughter to Frederik, then I could see conspiratoritorilly minded people believing he did this in preparation of a coup - i.e. wait till the girl has delivered a son, off Frederik (if he hadn't drunken himself to death at that point already), off Christian, become regent for the grandkid, presto. (I mean, even Struensee later wasn't accused of wanting liteerally to become King, but of wanting to make CM regent while continuing to rule as all powerful PM. OUtside of Disney movies, all powerfull ministers who aren't members of the immediate royal family this late in history can't plot to make themselves King. (Boo, hiss at the 1990s Musketeers version which has Richelieu doing this.)
Then again: Christian isn't mentally stable, so who knows, maybe he did mean it literally, disregarding all logic. But if he's still more or less compos mentis, he might have said this to Moltke after the death of his own mother and before Juliana arrived on the scene, thus making it clear Moltke doesn't want to become Grandfather of the next King?
Re: Danish kings and their favorites: Frederik V and Moltke
In fairness to anecdote collections, just think of Nicolai, who turned out to be pretty reliable and well sourced.
It was less the anecdote collection than the "World History" that I was commenting on. Any time there's a book, anecdote collection or no, that covers "world history," I assume the author has gone for breadth rather than depth, and I bring a lot of skepticism about the accuracy to the table. The exception being if it's a collection of essays by specialists on their respective topics, but this is not that.
Nicolai, in contrast, was researching a single topic in-depth.
Well, yes, but I don't think literally, because there's no way Moltke could have managed that one in a literal fashion.
Oh, I assume Christian meant "i.e., when hell freezes over"! But it still feels like accusing Moltke of, idk, lese-majeste, for Christian to be mentioning it even sarcastically, which is the part I raised an eyebrow at. But maybe I'm overreacting.
Then again: Christian isn't mentally stable, so who knows, maybe he did mean it literally, disregarding all logic.
I mean, he did think his stepmother wanted him dead so her son could inherit, maybe he thought Moltke was conspiring too, in the way you suggest?
I mean, even Struensee later wasn't accused of wanting liteerally to become King
I could have sworn he was, and yes, Barz says he was, but this is Barz, we have to read him with a grain of salt. Here's the relevant passage, though.
The wildest rumors are still rife in Copenhagen. Now they are already creating a very concrete picture that is nourished by a terrible vision, by the memory of the events at the Tsar's court around ten years ago: the assassination of Peter III, his successor an underage child, his wife Catherine, and their favorites and accomplices surrounded, the almighty regent — couldn't that also be applied to Denmark? Long before Struensee's appearance, hadn't the Russian ambassador Filosofov, with a booming lack of tact, announced that this king would also have his Catherine? Could those have been prophetic words?
Here too a weak, perhaps mentally disturbed king, here too a self-confident queen and in the background, as another Potemkin or Orlow, Struensee — his net already seems to have been woven: together with the queen, who is in bondage to him, they will get rid of Christian, then Caroline Mathilde is automatically regent and her lover the first man in the state. They might even get married. The queen has already announced that she has nothing against a commoner as long as she loves him, and thanks to Struensee the relevant laws have already been passed. And Crown Prince Friedrich? The minister is already holding him tightly in his claws, and the shocked story goes around that Struensee lets the little boy starve and freeze. He probably wants to murder him too, so that there is room for himself and his brood. But the king, this noble fool, also gives his wife's favorite a magnificently sparkling carriage. After his murder, Struensee will probably let himself be driven in it to his own coronation.
We'll see what the more academic book says, though. (Or at least I hope we will: my book-buying outstrips my reading by orders of magnitude. I'm an optimist or a book addict, depending on how you want to look at it. ;))
This is also a stretch, but it's worth pointing out that in neighboring Sweden, the monarchy had been made elective just 30-40 years before, during a succession crisis, and the crown went to the German noble who married the late king's sister. Now, said German noble was a ruling landgrave with a respectable lineage, not Some Minor Noble from Mecklenburg who had only been given a title a few years before, so Moltke's odds here are not good, but idk...Christian's paranoid.
he might have said this to Moltke after the death of his own mother and before Juliana arrived on the scene
Unfortunately, the timing doesn't work, as he was only 3 years old at the time, but you do make a good point that *if* this anecdote happened, it either presupposes that Frederik's marriage offer and Moltke's refusal were not common knowledge...or that they were and that's why Christian meant "when hell freezes over." I suspect this wasn't common knowledge, though, as our sole source seems to be Moltke's very allusive mention in his memoirs and the editor's math around the dates of Moltke's daughter's age and marriage.
Btw, the fact that Moltke had to marry his 14-yo off in haste while the marriage negotiations with Juliana Maria were in progress makes me wonder if Moltke was afraid of an elopement. Impetuous, often intoxicated Frederik might decide that Moltke is being too modest and he, Frederik, will do him a favor and surprise him? And I could see the 14-yo girl easily being dazzled by the crown, no matter how many talks her serious-business no-fun father had with her about how this is a Really Really Bad Idea, No Really. (I do wonder if she was even told, or if i it was like, "So! I found you a great husband! The wedding is next month.")
Actually, the dates are even closer than I thought: young Catherine Moltke gets married June 16, according to the editor, and Frederik/Juliana Maria on July 8. Yeah, I wonder if Moltke was worried.
ETA: Because it's not digitized yet, I can only glance through the academic Struensee book, but what I've found so far is a statement that Struensee was accused of planning to pull a Cromwell. Does that sound more like "kill the king and rule as regent" or "kill the king and rule in your own name" to you? (Serious question.)
This claim goes back to a 19th century book on the conspiracy against Caroline Mathilde and Struensee, and it does indeed say "Many saw in him a prospective Cromwell." No further context on what they mean by that.
Edited 2023-03-01 11:12 (UTC)
Re: Danish kings and their favorites: Frederik V and Moltke
Any time there's a book, anecdote collection or no, that covers "world history," I assume the author has gone for breadth rather than depth, and I bring a lot of skepticism about the accuracy to the table.
Point granted.
this is Barz, we have to read him with a grain of salt. Here's the relevant passage, though.
With the caveat that rumors in Potsdam don't have to be identical to rumors in Copenhagen, I would point to Lehndorff as a contemporary witness who clearly has heard a "worst of" edition of the rumors (three lovers!), especially given he's working at the court of Juliana's sister, and yet he did not hear that Struensee wanted the throne for himself (as opposed to reigning through CM as regent, though really, CM comes across as the main villain in the Lehndorff passages).
Btw, the fact that Moltke had to marry his 14-yo off in haste while the marriage negotiations with Juliana Maria were in progress makes me wonder if Moltke was afraid of an elopement. Impetuous, often intoxicated Frederik might decide that Moltke is being too modest and he, Frederik, will do him a favor and surprise him? And I could see the 14-yo girl easily being dazzled by the crown, no matter how many talks her serious-business no-fun father had with her about how this is a Really Really Bad Idea, No Really.
Oh, absolutely, especially since I doubt the 14 years old girl has seen a lot of Frederik in his cups. Or heard about the prostitutes and the BDSM. If Frederik has the reputation of being friendly and approachable and the people's monarch and what not, and she knows he's the source of her family's fortune, and there's the glamor of the crown, yes, I wouldn't trust a teenager not to go for it or think it's awfully romantic. (Comforting the King over the lost Queen!)
I do wonder if she was even told, or if i it was like, "So! I found you a great husband! The wedding is next month."
Depends on Mrs. Moltke, I guess. At least I assume Moltke would have to explain to her the instant marriage, NOW.
Because it's not digitized yet, I can only glance through the academic Struensee book, but what I've found so far is a statement that Struensee was accused of planning to pull a Cromwell. Does that sound more like "kill the king and rule as regent" or "kill the king and rule in your own name" to you? (Serious question.
Instinctively, I'd say it sounds like "Kill the King, overthrow the monarchy and found a Commonwealth with self as "Protector", i.e. NOT King but de facto ruler under another name", but maybe I'm too literal. :) Otoh, with all those reforms, suspecting Struensee of having it in for not just the nobility but the monarchy isn't totally far stretched.
On the other hand: it's always worth considering that when the French Revolution started, the goal WASN'T to found a republic - at least not the goal of 95 % of the revolutionaries. And I don't just mean Lafayette - even Robespierre wasn't a Republican yet. They were going for benevolent despotism with a proper constitution, an improved version of English model - not the Cromwellian one, the Glorious Revolution one. One of the reasons why the Flight to Varennes was so crucial wasn't just that this was in retrospect the last point at which Louis, Marie Antoinette et al could have lived, but that this was what made most of the revolutionaries change their minds in this regard and decide no, they have to abolish the monarchy altogether, working with the King, no matter how constituionally fenced in, is no longer possible. What I'm trying to get at: the idea of someone intending overthrowing the monarchy as such and creating a new form of state isn't as obvious as we later borns might think.
Lastly, for a contemporary Cromwell reference, how's this exchange when Ulrike is contemplating a coup against her own parliament and writing to brother AW:
U: (slightly paraphrased) Don't talk to me of parliament, some ingrates I financed in the past have just turned their back on me. If I send you the crown jewels as well as my own personal jewelry, could you sell it for me? I'm thinking I need money to raise an army. This is clearly a Charles I and Cromwell situation. I'm not losing my head to the bloody peasants.
(She did use those historical examples.)
AW: Charles I and Cromwell, seriously? "Dearest sister, I should hope that your cause is more just than that of Charles, and that you are far from the tyrannical frame of mind of Cromwell, who under the name of protector became one of the worst tyrants England ever had."
Re: Danish kings and their favorites: Frederik V and Moltke
With the caveat that rumors in Potsdam don't have to be identical to rumors in Copenhagen
Statistically speaking, I imagine there were a larger number of rumors in Copenhagen and more extreme rumors, just since people would have spent more of their time gossiping about the subject.
Oh, absolutely, especially since I doubt the 14 years old girl has seen a lot of Frederik in his cups. Or heard about the prostitutes and the BDSM.
Wikipedia said she was a lady-in-waiting at court, so it's possible she'd at least heard the stories. But maybe she's the type to try to reform a rake! Especially if she can comfort him! Or maybe she convinces herself the rumors or exaggerated, or maybe all she can think is QUEEN OF DENMARK.
Instinctively, I'd say it sounds like "Kill the King, overthrow the monarchy and found a Commonwealth with self as "Protector", i.e. NOT King but de facto ruler under another name", but maybe I'm too literal. :)
Or that! But I bet if he did that, he could still get Hirschholm Palace, so maybe Christian seriously entertained the possibility that Moltke was after the crown. ON THE OTHER HAND...well, you've seen the context for that anecdote now, so unless we find an older and more reliable source, I'm discounting it. I mean, it's the first I've heard that Christian had a lot of influence with his father and could get him to take back gifts to Moltke!
Otoh, with all those reforms, suspecting Struensee of having it in for not just the nobility but the monarchy isn't totally far stretched.
Except that one of his reforms was to get rid of the council and make the monarchy absolute again, a la Catherine, Joseph, Fritz, Gustav: this is how you reform a modern state!
But given how rumors work, who knows what people were speculating about his plans. Would be interesting to check out some of that "free press" material responsible for his downfall.
AW: Charles I and Cromwell, seriously? "Dearest sister, I should hope that your cause is more just than that of Charles, and that you are far from the tyrannical frame of mind of Cromwell, who under the name of protector became one of the worst tyrants England ever had."
I had forgotten this, thanks for the reminder! Go AW.
Re: Danish kings and their favorites: Frederik V and Moltke
Ah, glancing at the 19th century conspiracy book, two findings:
1. "König Moltke" is absolutely what his contemporaries called him and not something made up by Barz. (I know this has no bearing on whether people thought he was in danger of making a literal bid for the throne, but I was wondering. And if it's true, and if that remark by Christian is true, it provides some additional context.)
2. According to this book, Christian held a grudge against Moltke because Moltke kept him out of state affairs. Danish law said that the king was competent to rule at age 14, and since Frederik was clearly dying, Christian felt he should have been allowed to play an active part in the government, but Moltke made sure Christian wasn't included or trained at all, and Bernstorff didn't dare oppose his powerful protector.
Now that I believe, as very few powerful rulers do bring themselves to train a successor during their lifetimes. Moltke specifically avoided joining council sessions so he could spend all his time making sure he was one step away from the easy-to-influence Frederik, not arguing with people who might not listen to him. Why on earth would he give up being König Moltke in favor of Christian a moment sooner than he had to?
So yeah, I see even more grounds for resentment and claims of selfishness here. (Should a mentally ill 14-year-old be allowed to rule a country, well, Moltke, I might actually be on your side here, but I see how it created bad blood, even beyond the abusive tutor situation.)
Edited 2023-03-01 11:39 (UTC)
Re: Danish kings and their favorites: Frederik V and Moltke
Same here. Now I'm actually surprised that Christian didn't treat him worse. Bearing in mind how FW3 treated poor Wilhelmine Encke, Countess of Lichtenau, when FW2 whose favourite mistress she was had died. (cahn, stripped her of her possessions, put her on trial on trumped up charges and had her banished to Glogau in Silesia (yes, where Barbaria and husband also lived for a while years earlier), where she charmed and married a pal of E.T.A. Hoffmann's. She did manage to get some of her possessions back later when Napoleon had beaten Prussia, because L'Empereur decided she was innocent.) You'd think with that much bad blood and the capacity for malice he showed towards CM later, at least a banishment/exile would have happened. Does the book say why not?
Re: Danish kings and their favorites: Frederik V and Moltke
Not in the few pages I looked at (it's in the godawful font! there's only so much I can do quickly!), but two interesting things:
1. This author says it was Sophia Magdalena, Frederik's mother who ousted Moltke from power, and that she hated him because he'd kept her out of power for the twenty years of her son's reign. I have read in a number of places that she was believed to have her husband, Christian VI, under her thumb and to be the de facto ruler, so this is possible.
But she also didn't have a good relationship with her son, so it's another case of blaming the evil advisors: these emotionally damaged monarchs are susceptible to influence from the people who are nice to them, and why *would* they have a good relationship with their abuser and his circle?
Heinrich: I was nice to you!
FW2: Sorry, Uncle Heinrich, you were his other self.
Now why Sophia Magdalena didn't get him banished? I don't know. It's possible that it would have required a purge, though, Moltke's sons are in their 20s, with his oldest approaching 30, and they're starting to occupy important positions. Apparently every single one of his numerous sons held some very influential office or other (usually several), generally starting in their late teens or early 20s. Both his son Joachim and Joachim's son Adam were prime ministers of Denmark in the 19th century. This is why Lehndorff reports a different Moltke accompanying Christian on the Grand Tour as Oberhofmarschall (iirc), and I mentioned it was our Moltke's son.
So maybe that had something to do with it.
2. Omg, this is hilarious.
So this book also mentions the Hirschholm Palace anecdote in a footnote, and it sources it to an even earlier 19th century book that I was able to get ahold of. It says it's an unconfirmed anecdote, but it does correspond to the attested character of Christian VII.
The earlier 19th century book is Brown's "The Northern Courts", and omgggg, this is so over-the-top it's unbelievable. Juliana Maria is no-holds-barred evil stepmother straight out of a fairy tale. Frederik is super attached to Christian, and his drinking only starts once he realizes Juliana wants to murder Christian! That's when Moltke gets power! (Mildred note: Responsible historians say Moltke was given full authority over domestic and foreign policy in 1749, which is only 3 years after Frederik became king, and 3 years before Juliana Maria even came along.) Then, failing her attempts to kill baby Christian, evil stepmother Juliana corrupts teenage Christian with women.
Oh, man, I wish this were copy-pastable. I don't remember the last time I saw something this shamelessly over-the-top.
Hey, there's another anecdote when Frederik tells Christian to pour some wine for himself and Moltke. Christian pointedly fills Moltke's glass to the top, Frederik's only half full, and his own with barely any. When asked what the meaning of this was, Christian tells his father that "I mean sire, to denote hereby our respective consequence in the state. Molckte [sic] being king and minister, I filled the glass commensurate with his authority. You, my father, being the next person in in the state to the count, I half filled your glass: as for myself, being of no consequence whatever, I took no wine."
Weakened and obscured as were the intellects of the king, he pressed his son to his bosom and a tear glistened in his eye at the reproof thus conveyed. It was however, only a momentary impression. [And then he drinks himself to death.]
All emphasis is the author's.
Pardon me if I DON'T BELIEVE A THING THIS AUTHOR WRITES.
Okay, I might be contractually obliged to OCR the poison attempt so I can share it. Back later with more gossip!
why *would* they have a good relationship with their abuser and his circle?
Eichel: Seeing as I famously had no social life, I guess I don't count as a member of FW's social circle. In any event, I wasn't the only member of FW's staff whom Fritz adopted, but I think I was the only one to make it on the list of six beloved people. *smug in a bureaucratic fashion*
Old Dessauer: I didn't, but I also didn't get fired, and I was FW's bff, of which I was life long proud.
Fredersdorf: Which is why the King and I were anything but sad when you kicked the bucket, as evidenced by our corrspondence. He did keep you in the army on account of your usefulness and legendary status, granted, but he hardly included you in his social circle.
Grumbkow: I luckily died in 1739, so I never found out how Junior would have treated me. I mean, I did try my best to cultivate him, and told Seckendorff the younger it was working, but then I wanted my Austrian pension to continue. Somehow, I suspect my fate might have resembled that of my buddy Seckendorff the elder...
One more think about the delicious insanity that are those excerpts you present: with all the insistence that Frederik V. loved Christian to bits and only started drinking because of Juliana, and that Christian got corrupted by Juliana, and how Christian is able to make pointed quips at Moltke, I would suspect Christian himself as the author if he hadn't died ten years earlier...
Eichel: Seeing as I famously had no social life, I guess I don't count as a member of FW's social circle.
Didn't you or felis find that he actually had a social life, he just wasn't accessible to envoys who wanted to bribe him, so they said he was kept locked up and impossible to contact?
In any event, I wasn't the only member of FW's staff whom Fritz adopted, but I think I was the only one to make it on the list of six beloved people. *smug in a bureaucratic fashion*
I don't know about staff, but Wartensleben made the list, and he was famously one of the few people who managed to be in both Fritz's and FW's good graces in the late 1730s. If you're right that he was in Manteuffel's pay, this makes perfect sense: he had every incentive to run with the hares and hunt with the hounds and not show what he was really thinking.
Old Dessauer: I didn't, but I also didn't get fired, and I was FW's bff, of which I was life long proud.
OFF: Only Friend Forever!
Fredersdorf: Which is why the King and I were anything but sad when you kicked the bucket, as evidenced by our corrspondence. He did keep you in the army on account of your usefulness and legendary status, granted, but he hardly included you in his social circle.
Hee, I was thinking of this when I saw OD's name!
One more think about the delicious insanity that are those excerpts you present: with all the insistence that Frederik V. loved Christian to bits and only started drinking because of Juliana, and that Christian got corrupted by Juliana, and how Christian is able to make pointed quips at Moltke, I would suspect Christian himself as the author if he hadn't died ten years earlier...
Ha! We were thinking along similar lines! Because I didn't think he was the author, but my first thought was whatever source this goes back to was probably following Christian's version of events very closely. If he was king at the time, that makes sense.
If so, it makes perfect, and sad, sense that he had some good memories of his father. With Frederik's Dr. Jenkins and Mr. Hyde personality, he must have hugged and praised his kid at least once in a blue moon. And like Moltke, Christian grew up telling himself that Nice Frederik was the real Frederik, and Abusive, Neglectful Frederik had some explanation that wasn't "My father has a drinking problem and anger management issues going back to his unhappy childhood." It must be the evil stepmother and evil advisors!
FREDERICK the Fifth, the father of our present monarch (Christian the Seventh) was a wise, magnificent, liberal prince; the patron of men of genius, science, and learning, and the idol of a grateful people. Suddenly, a marked change took place in his habits and his manners: he lost all relish for those exalted pursuits to which he had been attached, and gave himself up to excessive and continual inebriety, whereby he impaired his faculties, physical and mental, and shortened his days. Whilst the memory of this solitary vice, that sullied his character, is generally known, the secret and powerful cause that led to this melancholy alteration, (except to a few, who, during the life-time of his second queen, dared not give it utterance; and most of whom have since descended to the grave), has remained buried in oblivion. This accomplished monarch had two consorts; the first, and deservedly the best beloved, was the English princess Louisa, daughter of George the Second, by whom he had the wretched and imbecile prince who yet bears the title of king of Denmark; and Sophia Magdalena, married to Gustavus the Third of Sweden, who fell by the hand of Ankarstrom: for his second wife, our favorite monarch, in an evil hour, took Juliana Maria, daughter of Ferdinand Albert, duke of Brunswick Wolfenbuttle; an unhappy choice that was the source of many and heavy domestic calamities.
Bad passions will obtrude into palaces as well as cottages, and when they chance to obtain full possession of a queen, they are likely to hurry her to acts more atrocious than a female of humble rank, because her power to commit wickedness is so much greater. The events of common life too often exhibit the most lamentable scenes arising from the jealousy and hatred of callous and unfeeling step-mothers who oppress the children of their predecessor. Such was the character of Maria Juliana. She hated the presence of the children of the deceased queen; and, if she had dared, would have quickly sent them to follow their mother to the grave: for the propensities of her nature were mostly of a selfish and ambitious kind., At an early age, in her father's petty court, she was a great dabbler in political intrigues: in her temper sullen, cruel, and vindictive; extremely penurious; forgetful of benefits, but seldom failing to avenge an injury tenfold; above all, a most profound dissembler, and able to wear a smile on her face, and shew all manner of civilities to the person most mortally hated, and whose destruction, at that very moment, she might be planning.
Such was the step-mother whom Frederick the Fifth, placed over the children of Queen Louisa! The king possessed great sensibility, and in spite of all the pretended fondness of his new consort, he soon ascertained that she did not love them. Frederick often indulged his feelings so far, as to have the children brought to him, whom he caressed with every mark of strong affection: on these occasions the crafty step-mother would participate in his affectionate regard of the innocent babes, whilst her black heart cherished the most deadly rancour. Finding herself pregnant, she flattered her ambition with the hope of presenting her lord with a new object of affection, that should not fail to wean his regards from the fair and white haired boy of Louisa, who was the king's darling. Instead, however, of a child calculated to prove a successful rival to the beautiful Christian, the cruel and envious queen brought forth a weakly, deformed, infant; whose appearance was calculated to excite commisseration mingled with disgust, rather than love. This deformed child, contrary to expectation, lived; and as its strength and size encreased, it shewed a disposition the exact reverse of Christian's; and, owing perhaps to organic defects, was cross, sullen, and unmanageable. This was a source of sorrow to the good and humane king, and of unutterable misery to the queen, whose aversion towards Christian increased as she saw the healthy, playful, volatile boy becoming more and more the pride and hope of his fond father, who, nevertheless, did not neglect the deformed Frederick, nor fail to bestow upon him proofs of a regard truly paternal.
At length, to such a pitch did that wicked woman suffer malice and envy to carry her, that, to secure the crown for her deformed son, she resolved to cut off the blooming young Christian by poison. Having determined to commit murder, she soon found, what she believed to be, a favorable opportunity. The young prince happened to be indisposed. The cruel stepmother, under the specious pretext of fondness, was frequent in her visits ere an opportunity of attempting the horrid deed presented itself. At length she found the prince's favorite nurse preparing some gruel for her young charge over a silver lamp, and there was no other attendant in the chamber. She ordered the nurse to go to her closet to fetch her something; and as soon as the door closed she approached the lamp, and instantly infused a mineral poison into the gruel, a small part of which, if it had been swallowed by her unconscious victim, would have occasioned his death.
The nurse in question was named -------, by birth a Norwegian; and had been many years a confidential servant of the royal family. She attended Queen Louisa, at the birth of Prince Christian; she strove to sooth the last moments of her existence, and she really felt towards her children, all the affection of a mother. Having long entertained suspicions of the queen's intentions, she was ever suspicious and watchful of Juliana Maria's proceedings that in any way affected the young prince. At the momententered the apartment, her heart fraught with murder and the poison in her hand, there might, in spite of all her circumspection and self-command, be some peculiar expression imprinted on her countenance, her eye, or tone of voice, that alarmed the worst fears of the faithful and vigilant matron, who, instead of going to the queen's apartments that were in the grand front, went only a few steps and returned softly to the door, and distinctly perceived the queen infusing something from a paper into the gruel, which she appeared to stir in the silver saucepan that contained it; which done, she then replaced it on the lamp-frame in the same position as the nurse had left it.
Horror curdled the blood in the veins of the nurse, as she beheld this scene. Had the queen offered the gruel to the prince, she would have rushed in and torn it from her; but, Juliana, paced the room with a quick and hurried step, her hands clenched together and a strong expression of suppressed misery playing on her stern features. Just then Madame -------- saw a domestic named Wolff, cross the gallery ;* him she beckoned to come near, and in a whisper told him to go to Count Molckte, and give him a ring that she handed to him, and request his excellency to make haste to the apartment of the Crown Prince. She knew that when the count saw that token, it would not fail to fix his attention and produce immediate acquiescence. This done, she re-entered the room, her looks and manner betraying the painful emotions that filled her heart. The queen, without noticing her coming in sooner than she could, if she had gone to the front of the palace, told her to take the gruel to the prince, as it was sufficiently boiled, and would no doubt do him good! Every limb shook with horror as the nurse took up the saucepan :
Why don't you go with it to the prince," said Juliana.. "Pardon me, gracious queen," said the honest-hearted woman, "it is my duty to disobey you." Darting a withering look at the nurse, she exclaimed "How dare you disobey my commands?” The nurse replied not, but, as the tears streamed from her eyes, she looked significantly at the gruel, and mournfully shook her head. Thrown off her guard by passion, the queen ordered the nurse out of the room; who stood immovable as a statue, holding the saucepan in her hand. Equally torn by rage and fear, on seeing her wicked plot thus frustrated, and infamy and ruin suspended over her head, like the sword of Damocles, by a single hair, the queen, ever fertile in resources, took the desperate resolution to accuse the nurse of having attempted to commit the crime she herself came to perpetrate! Sudden as lightning she acted on this diabolical impulse: and turning towards a bell, rang it furiously: a gentleman of the prince's suite entered, and beheld in silent amazement, the scene before him. Go," said Juliana, to M. Guldberg, and tell him to come instantly to me." The gentleman bowed and withdrew.
"Now wretch," said the furious queen, her eyes flashing fire, "thou shalt feel the full weight of my vengeance; thy limbs shall be broken on the wheel for having attempted to poison the crown prince: the proofs of thy guilt are now in thine hands."
"May God forgive you, queen,” said the astonished woman, "as I can pardon you for my death, if I am the humble means of saving the son of my beloved mistress." Just then Count Molckte entered the room. "Behold in that wicked woman," said the pale and passion-torn queen, "a wretch whom I have detected in the very act of administering poison to the crown prince! Call in the guards! when the king returns he will order her to be put to the severest torture, to force her to confess by whom she has been suborned to the commission of this horrible crime." The count heard the queen in respectful silence: In a grave and severe tone, he said, "I wish to speak with your majesty alone: shall I attend your majesty in your own apartment or order Madame to withdraw?" Little suspecting that this minister had long kept a watchful eye over her conduct; and was in possession of other evidence of a criminating tendency, besides that of the nurse, who stood calm and undaunted amidst this storm of guilty passion-Juliana exclaimed, "What! are you too, count, an enemy to the crown prince, and the accomplice of this trembling culprit?" "How can your majesty harbour such a thought he coolly replied-my son would not succeed to the throne if the crown prince were no more." Count Molckte was a man of keen penetration, and perfectly a courtier. His looks implied more than his words: the abashed and guilty queen, awed and confounded, said, "If your excellency pleases let the woman retire."
The count then took the saucepan from her hand, and the nurse went into the prince's bed-room. What passed between count Molckte and Juliana, can only be surmised: but in less than an hour he went to the prince's room, and after paying his compliments, told him that his favorite nurse must go immediately to Norway. He was so affected at the news, that clinging round her neck the fond boy said, "Then I'll go to Norway too: you shall not take away my mother." It was in vain the count strove to pacify him. "I'll apply to my father," said he in an angry tone, "I am sure he will not suffer this mother to be taken away from me." The count appeared embarrassed and retired: he soon came back again, when, calling the nurse into an anti-room, he artfully strove to convince her that she had been deceived, and that the queen had merely stirred the gruel to keep it from burning. The nurse shook her head, saying, "Will your excellency allow me to carry the gruel to the prince's apothecary?-Yes." said the subtle minister, "you may." She ran for the saucepan, but found it empty and perfectly clean! More alarmed than ever, and fearful that the count had entered into the queen's hostile views against the crown prince, she secretly determined to address the king on the danger which awaited his darling boy.
The insidious minister, reading in her ingenuous countenance what was passing in her mind; whilst he applauded her courage and fidelity, told her he meant to have sent her home to Norway merely to secure her from the queen's power: but he now wished her to remain, assuring her if she pledged herself by a solemn oath to secrecy, she should be safe from the effects, of the queen's dislike, and remain in attendance on the crown prince; at the same time pledging himself in the most solemn manner for the perfect safety of the prince. To these terms, for the sake of continuing her attendance, the faithful nurse assented. The wicked queen, humbled and defeated, abstained from visiting the prince's apartments. The same day she was reported to be indisposed, and went the next to Hirschholm palace.
But the affair did not end here: The king (Frederick the Fifth,) was then absent at a small hunting lodge called Jagersprest, situated near the palace of Charlottenborg. Thither the gentleman repaired, whom the queen had commanded to call Mr. Guldberg: he obtained an audience, and told the astonished king, not only what he had seen and heard in the antichamber of the prince-but many important circumstances besides. It is not in language to express the agonising feelings excited by this intelligence, for his own life was less dear to Frederic than that of his darling son: he applauded the conduct of his informer; and such was his haste to return to Christianborg Palace, that he fell down stairs and broke his leg. The agitation of his mind produced a fever that nearly proved fatal.
As soon as his fractured limb was set, he caused the Norwegian nurse and count Molckte to be summoned before him, taking precautions to prevent any previous intercourse. The result was that he had no cause to doubt the guilt of Juliana, or that the life of the crown prince had been preserved by the courage and fidelity of his nurse, whom he liberally rewarded. From this moment he never co-habited with his guilty queen: but the thoughts of her wickedness, and the danger of his son and heir, preyed continually on his feeling mind. As a resource, a sad resource it proved, this excellent king gave himself up to drinking: and count Molckte being at once master of the queen, and the favorite minister of the king, was de facto AUTOCRAT of Denmark, exercising the sovereign authority in the name of his master,, who rapidly became but the shadow of what he. had formerly been. Juliana secretly intended to make Mr. Guldberg minister, who was a man of great talent and cool judgment: but this detection foiled her plans, and forced her to bow to the man whom she hated and feared.
It was by this means count Molckte acquired that unlimited power, which, during the latter part of the reign. of Frederic the Fifth, he exercised in a way so despotic as to procure him the ironical appellation of "Koning Molckte." This is generally the case with AUTOCRACIES: Some favorite governs the AUTOCRAT, who thereby governs the state, frequently reducing the autocrat himself to a mere cipher. Few indeed have been the number of absolute monarchs, who were not themselves as far from being free as the meanest of their slaves. But, to quit this digression: though the mind of the mild and benevolent monarch, Frederic the Fifth, was thus clouded, he was never happy except the crown prince was in his presence. As he grew in years, Christian became more and more the favorite of the king and people. In the wildest sallies of his father, the prince had more command over him than any other person; and he often had influence enough to prevent him, when tipsy, from lavishing away his treasures on the companions of his cups; and even of inducing him to retract those improvident gifts when sober.
In one of these fits, the king made count Molckte a present of the magnificent palace of Hirschholm and all its costly furniture! The crown prince, hearing of this lavish act, went to his study, and taking in his hand a plan of the palace, carried it to count Molckte, saying, “Content yourself with this, I beseech your excellency, and believe me, unless you possess the crown, the palace of Hirschholm shall never be your's.”
Re: Mirror mirror on the wall: Who's the evilest of them all?
See other comment for: hilarous batshit insanity of it all, but now I'm intrigued by the 1818 date, because between Juliana as the evilest stepmother of them all, and the "weakly, deformed infant" her son - just who was reigning in Denmark at the time? Because while Juliana and her son were both dead (son Frederik, because of course that's his name, having died in 1805), wiki tells me Frederik's son, i.e. Juliana's grandson, Christian Frederik (of course), was already heir presumptive of the Danish throne (as of 1815), and would eventually become King of Denmark (in 1839), because Caroline Matilda's son, who succeeds Christian the Insane, dies without a son of his own.
Now, wiki also says there was mutual distrust and tension between the cousins, but still, isn't it somewhat tactless to present the grandmother of the future King as the evilest and his father as deformed? Talk about the free press. Unless the author of this batshittery is actually a cunning propagandist who doesn't want Juliana's line to make it to the throne? ...Nah, I'm probably overthinking it.
Edited 2023-03-02 07:46 (UTC)
Re: Mirror mirror on the wall: Who's the evilest of them all?
See other comment for: hilarous batshit insanity of it all, but now I'm intrigued by the 1818 date
I was also intrigued by this date! Because the first thing I thought of was: 1814-1818 is when Moltke's son is prime minister! And he doesn't come off too well in this; I mean, my reading is that JM bribes him to let her kill the kid.
But since the thing was written in English by a John Brown, especially since it opens "FREDERICK the Fifth, the father of our present monarch (Christian the Seventh)," I think this must be a British translation of some older Danish source, and that it was written precisely because Christian was king.
Let me see what I can find out.
In December last, a pause occurred in the execution of the work, during which the Author endeavoured to procure, from various sources, those authentic and original facts which were essential to complete his work and distinguish it from a mere compilation.
Me: Well, they're certainly "original", all right! Original to this work.
The Swedes are eminent for hospitality and every social virtue ; and their character has been wilfully assailed, or casually misunderstood, by British tourists. In the hour of persecution, Mr. Brown found a secure and most agreeable asylum there.
Okay, interesting. Mr. Brown moved to Sweden when Christian VII was king and was really grateful to him?
John Brown (died c. 1829) was an English historian and miscellaneous writer. He laboured on a history of Bolton; went to London to advocate the claims of his friend, Samuel Crompton, the inventor; but committed suicide, seemingly in despair at his lack of success in life.
Very little is known of his early life, except that he travelled widely in northern Europe and mixed in European politics. Drawing on his experiences, he wrote several works on international law, including Mysteries of Neutralization (1806). He showed a strong interest in European monarchs, and published Anecdotes and Characters of the House of Brunswick (1821) and Northern Courts (1818).
Okay, the Brunswick volume is bound to have good stuff.
OMG, we are not disappointed!
SDC was framed! G1 was the worst person who ever lived and his wife was beautiful, virtuous, and innocent, and it was all a conspiracy! The letters were forged!
The partiality of Whig historians, gave a lustre to Sophia, Electress of Hanover, the mother of George the First, which her real character did not deserve : and the same bias led them altogether to omit the name of his oppressed consort, whom he had, as a despot, consigned to a prison, without any other or better reason than his will and his power. Over the savage injuries inflicted on this greatly injured woman, the iron hand of the tyrantdrew a veil, which, for a time, covered and concealed the victim of lust and cruelty, and the injustice by which she was oppressed. But still,the fate of that high-minded, beautiful, and accomplished Princess, deserted, as she was, by all her relations, and by all her former associates, excited a powerful sympathy amongst the liberal and cultivated of polished society, in every nation of Europe.
For a time, indeed, her savage and brutal husband (George the First ) appears to have had the field to himself ; and he filled every court, where so petty a prince as he then was had any influence, with the most degrading accusations against his hapless wife ; and if she had been as guilty as the denunciations of her oppressor were coarse and vehement, she would, indeed, have forfeited all claim to respect, but not to sympathy, because, however bad she might have conducted herself, the adulteries of her husband were still more disgusting and notorious, and not a breath of slander had rested on her fame, till after her ill-fated marriage with that mercenary and ambitious Prince : to whose vices, therefore, her own aberrations were solely to be attributed.
Her oppressor, though he could hermetically close his pale and blighted victim in a lonely castle, and for ever debar her of the presence of her children, could not deprive her of disinterested advocates, who had the sense and humanity to consider, that she had not had a fair or an open trial, -that her coarse, vindictive, gross, and sensual husband, was the absolute master and mover of the tribunals by which she is said to have been degraded and divorced, and that her judges were as completely his servants as his lacqueys or valets ; that her character, previous to marriage, had not only been free from reproach, but was known to be of the most amiable order.
That the match was forced upon her, who was every way its victim, and had originated entirely in the avarice of her husband, who was her own first cousin, and whose claim to her hand was so enforced by his father and mother, that there was no possibility of a refusal ; although the notorious debaucheries, and deep-rooted profligacy of her husband were so gross, that all the courts of Europe resounded with recitals of his licentious amours, and general profligacy of character. When these facts were publicly known, every reflecting person admitted the probability that the fair captive, and unhappy mother, had been falsely accused, and unjustly sentenced, through the power and the malice of a guilty husband.
That the Electoral Prince, her gaoler and oppressor, had pretensions to personal courage, did not justify his having, on many occasions, exercised his valour by beating his beauteous wife, and dragging her along by her dishevelled locks, to gratify his concubines, who were the instigators and the spectators of those outrages; nor did his ambition to shine as a first- rate intriguer, warrant his having selected the character of his unhappy consort as the object which, by circumvention, by subservient and venal diplomatists, by stratagems of all kinds of the sap and mine process, he sought to demolish.
In defiance of every artifice, the baseness of hispersonal character, and the grossness of his propensities, spread rapidly with his vituperations against his wife, and his own reputation suffered in a still greater degree than that of the calumniated Princess. That her husband was a man of coarse taste and dissolute habits there can be no doubt ; and none, that he married, solely from motives of state policy, a beautiful and virtuous young Princess, whom he never loved, and whose life he began to render miserable as soon as the marriage ceremony had been performed ; yet, it is more than probable, that his minions and his concubines, seeing his aversion to his wife, fabricated the most atrocious calumnies against her, forged, or caused to be forged, a variety of letters, tending to prove the unhappy Princess had been false to her profligate lord, and they suborned and disciplined a host of false witnesses to give support to their calumnies. Where the heart is violently predisposed to think well or ill, it eagerly adopts whatever conforms to its prejudices.
The Prince had deeply and irreparably injured his wife ; and, too often is it seen, that an oppressed person has no foe so inveterate as that by whom a great injury has been inflicted; and the heart most prone to the commission of crime, is often the least capable to forgive. Thus situated, it is no wonder that GEORGE the FIRST, when Electoral Prince of Hanover, too readily received every report that was discreditable to his neglected, insulted, forsaken wife ; nor, that his attendant courtiers found it their surest way to his favour to vilify her character, and strive, by all practicable means, to pursue the unhappy lady to utter ruin.
According to the united testimony of German, Dutch, French, and English authors, never was a young and beautiful woman more cruelly treated, nor her morals exposed to worse pollution.
It was even asserted, by a Dutch anonymous author, that the malice of her dissolute husband hurried him to the infamous expedientof throwing his own wife, and the mother of his son and heir, in the way of profligate but accomplished chevaliers, in order, if successful in their attempts upon her honour, they might betray their victim, and hand her over to punishment, to infamy, and ruin. This, however, is so extravagant a flight of matrimonial depravity, that it exceeds the bounds of credibility, and must be imputed to the universal indignation excited by the gross depravity, and unrelenting cruelty of her worthless husband.
It is not the intention of the Editor to draw any comparison between the personal characters and conduct of the consorts of the first and the fourth George, who have sat on the English throne ; but there is the closest possible analogy between the conspiracies of which those Princesses were the victims.
Okay, this explains the chapter I saw in the table of contents that was called "The Secret History of the Corrupt Practices of the Duchess of Kendal" (that's Melusine, Cahn, Katte's "aunt" and G1's mistress).
Yep, Brown/his source thinks G1's half-sister the Countess Platen was his mistress and proves that G1 couldn't even be faithful to his mistress, much less his wife.
This whole volume is just about how terrible G1 and his supporters were, and how wonderful SDC was.
I'm all for a feminist take that doesn't apply a double standard and vilify her infidelity while overlooking his...but this is not that.
Also, the whole volume purports to be a collection of memoirs by other people; whether it's really that or just stuff he made up and put quotation marks around, I couldn't say. But there's this whole thing that's supposed to be written by SDC in her prison and looks like the fakest literary production ever??
Selena, if you have a desire to be entertained by more batshittery in this vein, I'll link you, but I see no history here. What even was this guy doing with his life??
ETA: Speaking literally, I meant to add that Wikipedia tells me that he exposed labor conditions of children working in cotton mills. Which is good! But maybe he should have stuck to that instead of writing history or "history". Except then we wouldn't have gotten all this entertainment.
ETA 2: Also meant to add that my current working hypothesis is that this work was drafted when Brown was living in Sweden, well before 1818 (and before Christian VII died), and only published when he came back to England and found a London publisher. And that Brown had a huge mancrush on Christian, in much the way that Zimmermann had one on Fritz. Discuss. :P
Oh, speaking of the next generation and their distrust and tension, Danish Wikipedia says Christian's son Frederik VI disliked Moltke's son the 1814-1818 prime minister! Until he didn't:
Immediately after the change of government in 1784, Frederik VI, as a young crown prince, had "formal disgust" for Moltke and felt vivid distrust of him. But this highly youthful attitude gradually changed. Moltke's thoroughly honorable character earned him far too great a reputation with everyone, whether they shared his opinions or not, for Frederik VI not to come to look at him differently over the years. When Moltke became chancellor of the Order in 1808 as the oldest Knight of the Elephant, a certain rapprochement was brought about between him and the king, who then also gave him the title of privy councilor, and when the state's position in every respect in the year 1813 developed into complete despair, Moltke was among the men Frederik VI sought advice from.
He appears to have been exactly like his father, except more bookish: nice, full of integrity, ultra-conservative. They both stepped down when they refused to work with Struensee, and opposed any reforms that benefitted the peasants too much.
Oh, interesting:
In the year 1792, when his father died, it was he who came to inherit the county of Bregentved. According to a tradition in the family, his older brother Christian Magnus Moltke was actually destined to follow his father as count; but old Moltke had excluded him from it on account of his sympathies for the ideas of the French Revolution.
Re his bookishness, Wikipedia tells me:
It has been said above that in his youth Moltke studied eagerly at several universities. The love he felt for scientific studies found expression, among other things, in a German translation he prepared of Quintilian's 10th book (published 1776) and in some reviews he wrote in the Leipziger gelehrte Zeitung. Later, when he became head of the great royal library, he thereby had an opportunity to benefit science in another way, and he had in several respects real merit in the organization and expansion of the library. In his youth it had evidently been classical philology that had interested him, but it has become our natural history museums that the memory of him has been most strongly attached. He gave the university the natural history collection that his father had left behind, and which he himself increased, and in addition to donating 10,000 reigsdalers during his lifetime for the purchase of natural history works for the university, he determined in his will 60,000 reigsdalers to promote the natural history studies at the University. At the same time, his will testified to his gentle, humane mind by the considerable bequests in a benevolent direction which it contained.
OH HEY. I was looking something up, and I just read 3 sentences in Danish without needing translation help! Granted, they were from a biographical dictionary, but this is 3 more sentences than I could do a month ago. :DDD
Mirror mirror on the wall: Who's the evilest of them all? cont'd
Then there's the wine-pouring anecdote I had already shared, then a note that Christian VII became king:
Seldom was the dawn of any reign more auspicious than his: He was young, handsome, affable and generous, and the idol of the people. This event knocked the stage from under king Molckte, and the sovereign power was, for a short time, really exercised by him that wore the crown.
Then the editor has a footnote:
The machinations of this envious queen against the life of Christian the Seventh, did not cease with this attempt. She strove, by gold and promises of preferment, to seduce the attendants of the child: It happened, according to Latrobe's translation, as the king and royal family were taking the recreation of sailing in a royal yacht on the coast of Zealand, near the palace of Fredensborg, (about five Danish miles north of Copenhagen,) that the young prince Christian being rather unruly, one of his attendants named Broodorph, seized the boy, held him over the stern of the yacht, and threatened to throw him in the water: from the boy's struggles to get free, or from treachery, down he fell into the sea, whence he was rescued; but, as long as reason held its seat, the prince imputed this act to the agency of his fell step-mother, with a view to procure the crown for her beloved son Frederic. So far the anonymous author; and what in some respect corroborated this opinion, Broedorph being forbid to appear in the prince's presence, was im, mediately engaged in the service of the step queen, and placed as an officer in her palace. EDITOR.
Re: Mirror mirror on the wall: Who's the evilest of them all? cont'd
OMG. OMG!!! If Stratemann is Disney, this is the opposite type of fairy tale makeover, i.e. hardcore Grimm! (I would say Hans Christian Andersen, to keep within Denmark, but Andersen didn't go for evil stepmothers.)
Wow. Okay, yes, that destroys any credibility this source has. Whatsoever. But the batshit insanity is marvellous to read.
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Re: Danish kings and their favorites: Frederik V and Moltke
This doesn't surprise me, either. The Duke of Buckingham who was the favourite of both James I (and VI) and of his son Charles I. is still the only example I can think of where a very powerful royal favourite managed to be one for a father and son duo of successive monarchs, and it wouldn't have worked if good old Steynie hadn't befriended young Charles long before his father's death. Between ruling the country and being emotionally available to one messed up monarch 24/7, Moltke must have had his plate more than full. Another unstable prince to care for would have been just too much. And most neglected children aren't going to love the guy their neglectful father was crazy about.
Re: Danish kings and their favorites: Frederik V and Moltke
*And* the Academy of Arts, *and* the Asiatic Company--he reminds me of Fredersdorf! A finger in every pie.
I think what saved him was that he wasn't a micromanager or autocrat, that he was willing to let the committees of other nobles do most of the work, and his job was to review their write-ups and guide Frederik in making a decision. Still a lot of work! But not Fritzian levels. That's also, as you and various authors have noted, partly how he managed to hang onto his position: he was a good team player.
Also, re the 24/7 thing, the good news is that after more research, I've come to the tentative conclusion that at least during most of Frederik's reign, Moltke lived with his (Weasley) family and only joined Frederik at the palace in the morning, after breakfast. During the crown prince days, he slept in the same room or next door to Frederik, and when Frederik was dying, he slept in the same room, but other than that, I suspect he had some alone time/family time. Which might explain why he lasted so long (also relevant to your other comment, which I'll reply to).
This also makes me think that a lot of the apology letters might be pre-emptive, when Frederik woke up realizing what he'd done and frantically apologizing in writing *before* he got the silent treatment. Though I still have some memories of at least a few being "Please talk to me!", I would need to do a closer reading to see if that holds up.
And most neglected children aren't going to love the guy their neglectful father was crazy about.
Ding ding ding! Because I got to the part in Moltke's memoirs yesterday where he talks about his dismissal, and you get one guess who he blames.
...Dun dun dun...
The evil advisors!
And I was like, "Moltke, I like you well enough from this very safe distance, but I know what Christian's childhood was like. His father ignored him, his governor abused him, and you did nothing about either of these things. In fact, you may even have been responsible for appointing the governor, I have no idea. But Holm or Oettinger said that the governor said that he had never once spoken to Frederik, so...I don't see why Christian *would* like you."
Moltke: But dying Frederik specifically told Christian to be especially nice to me, because I had served him faithfully and well since he was 7!
Me: Frederik...the neglectful and probably abusive father? Look, I respect that you didn't drop Frederik like a hot potato as soon as it became clear he was dying, but there's only so much you can expect from the abused child who got no attention from either of you!
Another unstable prince to care for would have been just too much.
Absolutely, and there's no guarantee that he would have clicked or been successful with the other unstable prince, even if he'd been willing to give it his best effort. Frederik and Christian seem to have had very different mental health issues and very different personalities.
Re: Danish kings and their favorites: Frederik V and Moltke
Of course he does. It's really the go to explanation through the centuries.
Hervey: Not for me. I'm quite happy blaming Fritz of Wales for everything personally in my memoirs. And in my letters, especially for dumping me.
Leopold: I was also happy to blame Joseph, personally. I mean, I also bitched about the low company he kept on the one hand and those bigotted high born ladies on the other, but "Joseph is the worst!" still was my go to explanation in my la familiglia rant about everything he did wrong.
Selena: Which didn't include dumping you, so you don't count.
I don't see why Christian *would* like you."
Me neither. Moltke should have seen this coming. Perhaps did, but doesn't want to say so in the memoirs, because that's not the convention. He'd have to admit to the neglect and abuse first.
Re: Danish kings and their favorites: Frederik V and Moltke
Hervey: Not for me. I'm quite happy blaming Fritz of Wales for everything personally in my memoirs. And in my letters, especially for dumping me.
Leopold: I was also happy to blame Joseph, personally. I mean, I also bitched about the low company he kept on the one hand and those bigotted high born ladies on the other, but "Joseph is the worst!" still was my go to explanation in my la familiglia rant about everything he did wrong.
Selena: Which didn't include dumping you, so you don't count.
HAHAHAHAHA!
Moltke should have seen this coming. Perhaps did, but doesn't want to say so in the memoirs, because that's not the convention. He'd have to admit to the neglect and abuse first.
IDK, adults, especially not-super-self-aware adults, often have a very different idea as to how kids ought to feel about things vs how they actually feel...
Re: Danish kings and their favorites: Frederik V and Moltke
Yeah, I would be shocked if Moltke was consciously aware of how bad and also how unjustified it was. To the extent that he was paying attention, he probably wrote it off as "disciplining a kid who needs discipline." Especially if young Christian's mental health issues were manifesting as erratic behavior already. :/
Re: Danish kings and their favorites: Frederik V and Moltke
Leopold: I was also happy to blame Joseph, personally. I mean, I also bitched about the low company he kept on the one hand and those bigotted high born ladies on the other, but "Joseph is the worst!" still was my go to explanation in my la familiglia rant about everything he did wrong.
Hahaha!
Me neither. Moltke should have seen this coming. Perhaps did, but doesn't want to say so in the memoirs, because that's not the convention. He'd have to admit to the neglect and abuse first.
Moltke admit to something? Never!
As I said to Cahn, I doubt he admitted it to himself consciously. But he might have seen this coming in the sense that he might very well have known he didn't have a bond with Christian and Christian was not a fan. As you say, politically powerful favorites to consecutive monarchs are very rare, and Moltke must have known this.
Although sometimes the favorite survives the transition to the new regime, even if he's not the *favorite* of the new monarch, like Mazarin. I suspect it helped Louis's acceptance of him that he wasn't an emotional favorite of Dad's, just a political colleague, and he was the emotional favorite of *Mom*. And of course the regency: Christian came to power when he was 17, old enough to reign in his own name.
Re: Danish kings and their favorites: Frederik V and Moltke
Now, Mazarin able to win Anne's favour despite being Cardinal Richelieu's chosen protegé, given the long time Anne & Richelieu hostility, that is a rare case indeed.
Christian came to power when he was 17, old enough to reign in his own name.
Yes, that makes a big difference. Louis XIV was literally a child.
Still, it could have gone worse for Moltke. At least he wasn't banished, or stripped of his earthly possessions or something like that.
(Heinrich: Or despite NOT having been a favourite of the previous King basically told he should stay in retirement and that his services were unwanted for anything but reading tips. Grrr. Argh.)
Re: Danish kings and their favorites: Frederik V and Moltke
I'd forgotten it was within a year, though I did remember he wasn't Louis XIII's favorite, just "a" favorite of the previous regime and could easily have been dismissed when Louis XIV came of age.
Still, it could have gone worse for Moltke. At least he wasn't banished, or stripped of his earthly possessions or something like that.
Very true. It went: "dimissed without a pension, restored, dismissed without a pension, pension eventually granted."
(Heinrich: Or despite NOT having been a favourite of the previous King basically told he should stay in retirement and that his services were unwanted for anything but reading tips. Grrr. Argh.)
Aww. Poor Heinrich! Well, salon loves you, Heinrich!
Re: Danish kings and their favorites: Frederik V and Moltke
Re: Danish kings and their favorites: Frederik V and Moltke
Especially hated by him was the former favorite of his father: Moltke. He considered him a man only concerned with his own interest. Once, at a court feast, an intoxicated Frederik V is supposed to have promised him Hirschholm Palace as a gift. When Christian learned about this, he hurried to the cabinet library, drew a sketch of the pleasure palace on a piece of paper, and took it to Moltke. "I beseech Your Excellency," he said to the all-powerful minister, "to content yourself with this, because you will never get the real palace, unless you also get the crown." On another occasion, he's supposed to have remarked about Moltke, "Selfishness is one of his four Achilles' heels!"
The citation for these is an 1841 book called "Merkwürdigkeiten aus der Weltgeschichte," which doesn't inspire confidence and which I can't seem to find online, but whether or not this exact anecdote happened, I bet Moltke saw his dismissal coming (but I bet he still blamed the evil advisors).
Also, "unless you also get the crown" to an all-powerful minister...that sounds like a veiled accusation. Barz (our romanticizing biographer of Struensee) refers to "König Moltke" at one point, but I don't know if that was a contemporary phrase (well, an attested one, I bet contemporaries said it privately amongst themselves!) or just Barz being a novelist and playright at heart.
Judging by Wikipedia, Moltke did *not* get Hirschholm Palace: it was originally built by Christian VI for his wife Sophia Magdalena, she lived there until her death in 1770 (so after Frederik V died in 1766), Struensee and Caroline Mathilde lived there until 1771, and after that it fell into disrepair.
Re: Danish kings and their favorites: Frederik V and Moltke
Also, "unless you also get the crown" to an all-powerful minister...that sounds like a veiled accusation.
Well, yes, but I don't think literally, because there's no way Moltke could have managed that one in a literal fashion. Otoh, if he had married his daughter to Frederik, then I could see conspiratoritorilly minded people believing he did this in preparation of a coup - i.e. wait till the girl has delivered a son, off Frederik (if he hadn't drunken himself to death at that point already), off Christian, become regent for the grandkid, presto. (I mean, even Struensee later wasn't accused of wanting liteerally to become King, but of wanting to make CM regent while continuing to rule as all powerful PM. OUtside of Disney movies, all powerfull ministers who aren't members of the immediate royal family this late in history can't plot to make themselves King. (Boo, hiss at the 1990s Musketeers version which has Richelieu doing this.)
Then again: Christian isn't mentally stable, so who knows, maybe he did mean it literally, disregarding all logic. But if he's still more or less compos mentis, he might have said this to Moltke after the death of his own mother and before Juliana arrived on the scene, thus making it clear Moltke doesn't want to become Grandfather of the next King?
Re: Danish kings and their favorites: Frederik V and Moltke
It was less the anecdote collection than the "World History" that I was commenting on. Any time there's a book, anecdote collection or no, that covers "world history," I assume the author has gone for breadth rather than depth, and I bring a lot of skepticism about the accuracy to the table. The exception being if it's a collection of essays by specialists on their respective topics, but this is not that.
Nicolai, in contrast, was researching a single topic in-depth.
Well, yes, but I don't think literally, because there's no way Moltke could have managed that one in a literal fashion.
Oh, I assume Christian meant "i.e., when hell freezes over"! But it still feels like accusing Moltke of, idk, lese-majeste, for Christian to be mentioning it even sarcastically, which is the part I raised an eyebrow at. But maybe I'm overreacting.
Then again: Christian isn't mentally stable, so who knows, maybe he did mean it literally, disregarding all logic.
I mean, he did think his stepmother wanted him dead so her son could inherit, maybe he thought Moltke was conspiring too, in the way you suggest?
I mean, even Struensee later wasn't accused of wanting liteerally to become King
I could have sworn he was, and yes, Barz says he was, but this is Barz, we have to read him with a grain of salt. Here's the relevant passage, though.
The wildest rumors are still rife in Copenhagen. Now they are already creating a very concrete picture that is nourished by a terrible vision, by the memory of the events at the Tsar's court around ten years ago: the assassination of Peter III, his successor an underage child, his wife Catherine, and their favorites and accomplices surrounded, the almighty regent — couldn't that also be applied to Denmark? Long before Struensee's appearance, hadn't the Russian ambassador Filosofov, with a booming lack of tact, announced that this king would also have his Catherine? Could those have been prophetic words?
Here too a weak, perhaps mentally disturbed king, here too a self-confident queen and in the background, as another Potemkin or Orlow, Struensee — his net already seems to have been woven: together with the queen, who is in bondage to him, they will get rid of Christian, then Caroline Mathilde is automatically regent and her lover the first man in the state. They might even get married. The queen has already announced that she has nothing against a commoner as long as she loves him, and thanks to Struensee the relevant laws have already been passed. And Crown Prince Friedrich? The minister is already holding him tightly in his claws, and the shocked story goes around that Struensee lets the little boy starve and freeze. He probably wants to murder him too, so that there is room for himself and his brood. But the king, this noble fool, also gives his wife's favorite a magnificently sparkling carriage. After his murder, Struensee will probably let himself be driven in it to his own coronation.
We'll see what the more academic book says, though. (Or at least I hope we will: my book-buying outstrips my reading by orders of magnitude. I'm an optimist or a book addict, depending on how you want to look at it. ;))
This is also a stretch, but it's worth pointing out that in neighboring Sweden, the monarchy had been made elective just 30-40 years before, during a succession crisis, and the crown went to the German noble who married the late king's sister. Now, said German noble was a ruling landgrave with a respectable lineage, not Some Minor Noble from Mecklenburg who had only been given a title a few years before, so Moltke's odds here are not good, but idk...Christian's paranoid.
he might have said this to Moltke after the death of his own mother and before Juliana arrived on the scene
Unfortunately, the timing doesn't work, as he was only 3 years old at the time, but you do make a good point that *if* this anecdote happened, it either presupposes that Frederik's marriage offer and Moltke's refusal were not common knowledge...or that they were and that's why Christian meant "when hell freezes over." I suspect this wasn't common knowledge, though, as our sole source seems to be Moltke's very allusive mention in his memoirs and the editor's math around the dates of Moltke's daughter's age and marriage.
Btw, the fact that Moltke had to marry his 14-yo off in haste while the marriage negotiations with Juliana Maria were in progress makes me wonder if Moltke was afraid of an elopement. Impetuous, often intoxicated Frederik might decide that Moltke is being too modest and he, Frederik, will do him a favor and surprise him? And I could see the 14-yo girl easily being dazzled by the crown, no matter how many talks her serious-business no-fun father had with her about how this is a Really Really Bad Idea, No Really. (I do wonder if she was even told, or if i it was like, "So! I found you a great husband! The wedding is next month.")
Actually, the dates are even closer than I thought: young Catherine Moltke gets married June 16, according to the editor, and Frederik/Juliana Maria on July 8. Yeah, I wonder if Moltke was worried.
ETA: Because it's not digitized yet, I can only glance through the academic Struensee book, but what I've found so far is a statement that Struensee was accused of planning to pull a Cromwell. Does that sound more like "kill the king and rule as regent" or "kill the king and rule in your own name" to you? (Serious question.)
This claim goes back to a 19th century book on the conspiracy against Caroline Mathilde and Struensee, and it does indeed say "Many saw in him a prospective Cromwell." No further context on what they mean by that.
Re: Danish kings and their favorites: Frederik V and Moltke
Point granted.
this is Barz, we have to read him with a grain of salt. Here's the relevant passage, though.
With the caveat that rumors in Potsdam don't have to be identical to rumors in Copenhagen, I would point to Lehndorff as a contemporary witness who clearly has heard a "worst of" edition of the rumors (three lovers!), especially given he's working at the court of Juliana's sister, and yet he did not hear that Struensee wanted the throne for himself (as opposed to reigning through CM as regent, though really, CM comes across as the main villain in the Lehndorff passages).
Btw, the fact that Moltke had to marry his 14-yo off in haste while the marriage negotiations with Juliana Maria were in progress makes me wonder if Moltke was afraid of an elopement. Impetuous, often intoxicated Frederik might decide that Moltke is being too modest and he, Frederik, will do him a favor and surprise him? And I could see the 14-yo girl easily being dazzled by the crown, no matter how many talks her serious-business no-fun father had with her about how this is a Really Really Bad Idea, No Really.
Oh, absolutely, especially since I doubt the 14 years old girl has seen a lot of Frederik in his cups. Or heard about the prostitutes and the BDSM. If Frederik has the reputation of being friendly and approachable and the people's monarch and what not, and she knows he's the source of her family's fortune, and there's the glamor of the crown, yes, I wouldn't trust a teenager not to go for it or think it's awfully romantic. (Comforting the King over the lost Queen!)
I do wonder if she was even told, or if i it was like, "So! I found you a great husband! The wedding is next month."
Depends on Mrs. Moltke, I guess. At least I assume Moltke would have to explain to her the instant marriage, NOW.
Because it's not digitized yet, I can only glance through the academic Struensee book, but what I've found so far is a statement that Struensee was accused of planning to pull a Cromwell. Does that sound more like "kill the king and rule as regent" or "kill the king and rule in your own name" to you? (Serious question.
Instinctively, I'd say it sounds like "Kill the King, overthrow the monarchy and found a Commonwealth with self as "Protector", i.e. NOT King but de facto ruler under another name", but maybe I'm too literal. :) Otoh, with all those reforms, suspecting Struensee of having it in for not just the nobility but the monarchy isn't totally far stretched.
On the other hand: it's always worth considering that when the French Revolution started, the goal WASN'T to found a republic - at least not the goal of 95 % of the revolutionaries. And I don't just mean Lafayette - even Robespierre wasn't a Republican yet. They were going for benevolent despotism with a proper constitution, an improved version of English model - not the Cromwellian one, the Glorious Revolution one. One of the reasons why the Flight to Varennes was so crucial wasn't just that this was in retrospect the last point at which Louis, Marie Antoinette et al could have lived, but that this was what made most of the revolutionaries change their minds in this regard and decide no, they have to abolish the monarchy altogether, working with the King, no matter how constituionally fenced in, is no longer possible. What I'm trying to get at: the idea of someone intending overthrowing the monarchy as such and creating a new form of state isn't as obvious as we later borns might think.
Lastly, for a contemporary Cromwell reference, how's this exchange when Ulrike is contemplating a coup against her own parliament and writing to brother AW:
U: (slightly paraphrased) Don't talk to me of parliament, some ingrates I financed in the past have just turned their back on me. If I send you the crown jewels as well as my own personal jewelry, could you sell it for me? I'm thinking I need money to raise an army. This is clearly a Charles I and Cromwell situation. I'm not losing my head to the bloody peasants.
(She did use those historical examples.)
AW: Charles I and Cromwell, seriously? "Dearest sister, I should hope that your cause is more just than that of Charles, and that you are far from the tyrannical frame of mind of Cromwell, who under the name of protector became one of the worst tyrants England ever had."
Re: Danish kings and their favorites: Frederik V and Moltke
Statistically speaking, I imagine there were a larger number of rumors in Copenhagen and more extreme rumors, just since people would have spent more of their time gossiping about the subject.
Oh, absolutely, especially since I doubt the 14 years old girl has seen a lot of Frederik in his cups. Or heard about the prostitutes and the BDSM.
Wikipedia said she was a lady-in-waiting at court, so it's possible she'd at least heard the stories. But maybe she's the type to try to reform a rake! Especially if she can comfort him! Or maybe she convinces herself the rumors or exaggerated, or maybe all she can think is QUEEN OF DENMARK.
Instinctively, I'd say it sounds like "Kill the King, overthrow the monarchy and found a Commonwealth with self as "Protector", i.e. NOT King but de facto ruler under another name", but maybe I'm too literal. :)
Or that! But I bet if he did that, he could still get Hirschholm Palace, so maybe Christian seriously entertained the possibility that Moltke was after the crown. ON THE OTHER HAND...well, you've seen the context for that anecdote now, so unless we find an older and more reliable source, I'm discounting it. I mean, it's the first I've heard that Christian had a lot of influence with his father and could get him to take back gifts to Moltke!
Otoh, with all those reforms, suspecting Struensee of having it in for not just the nobility but the monarchy isn't totally far stretched.
Except that one of his reforms was to get rid of the council and make the monarchy absolute again, a la Catherine, Joseph, Fritz, Gustav: this is how you reform a modern state!
But given how rumors work, who knows what people were speculating about his plans. Would be interesting to check out some of that "free press" material responsible for his downfall.
AW: Charles I and Cromwell, seriously? "Dearest sister, I should hope that your cause is more just than that of Charles, and that you are far from the tyrannical frame of mind of Cromwell, who under the name of protector became one of the worst tyrants England ever had."
I had forgotten this, thanks for the reminder! Go AW.
Re: Danish kings and their favorites: Frederik V and Moltke
1. "König Moltke" is absolutely what his contemporaries called him and not something made up by Barz. (I know this has no bearing on whether people thought he was in danger of making a literal bid for the throne, but I was wondering. And if it's true, and if that remark by Christian is true, it provides some additional context.)
2. According to this book, Christian held a grudge against Moltke because Moltke kept him out of state affairs. Danish law said that the king was competent to rule at age 14, and since Frederik was clearly dying, Christian felt he should have been allowed to play an active part in the government, but Moltke made sure Christian wasn't included or trained at all, and Bernstorff didn't dare oppose his powerful protector.
Now that I believe, as very few powerful rulers do bring themselves to train a successor during their lifetimes. Moltke specifically avoided joining council sessions so he could spend all his time making sure he was one step away from the easy-to-influence Frederik, not arguing with people who might not listen to him. Why on earth would he give up being König Moltke in favor of Christian a moment sooner than he had to?
So yeah, I see even more grounds for resentment and claims of selfishness here. (Should a mentally ill 14-year-old be allowed to rule a country, well, Moltke, I might actually be on your side here, but I see how it created bad blood, even beyond the abusive tutor situation.)
Re: Danish kings and their favorites: Frederik V and Moltke
Re: Danish kings and their favorites: Frederik V and Moltke
Not in the few pages I looked at (it's in the godawful font! there's only so much I can do quickly!), but two interesting things:
1. This author says it was Sophia Magdalena, Frederik's mother who ousted Moltke from power, and that she hated him because he'd kept her out of power for the twenty years of her son's reign. I have read in a number of places that she was believed to have her husband, Christian VI, under her thumb and to be the de facto ruler, so this is possible.
But she also didn't have a good relationship with her son, so it's another case of blaming the evil advisors: these emotionally damaged monarchs are susceptible to influence from the people who are nice to them, and why *would* they have a good relationship with their abuser and his circle?
Heinrich: I was nice to you!
FW2: Sorry, Uncle Heinrich, you were his other self.
Now why Sophia Magdalena didn't get him banished? I don't know. It's possible that it would have required a purge, though, Moltke's sons are in their 20s, with his oldest approaching 30, and they're starting to occupy important positions. Apparently every single one of his numerous sons held some very influential office or other (usually several), generally starting in their late teens or early 20s. Both his son Joachim and Joachim's son Adam were prime ministers of Denmark in the 19th century. This is why Lehndorff reports a different Moltke accompanying Christian on the Grand Tour as Oberhofmarschall (iirc), and I mentioned it was our Moltke's son.
So maybe that had something to do with it.
2. Omg, this is hilarious.
So this book also mentions the Hirschholm Palace anecdote in a footnote, and it sources it to an even earlier 19th century book that I was able to get ahold of. It says it's an unconfirmed anecdote, but it does correspond to the attested character of Christian VII.
The earlier 19th century book is Brown's "The Northern Courts", and omgggg, this is so over-the-top it's unbelievable. Juliana Maria is no-holds-barred evil stepmother straight out of a fairy tale. Frederik is super attached to Christian, and his drinking only starts once he realizes Juliana wants to murder Christian! That's when Moltke gets power! (Mildred note: Responsible historians say Moltke was given full authority over domestic and foreign policy in 1749, which is only 3 years after Frederik became king, and 3 years before Juliana Maria even came along.) Then, failing her attempts to kill baby Christian, evil stepmother Juliana corrupts teenage Christian with women.
Oh, man, I wish this were copy-pastable. I don't remember the last time I saw something this shamelessly over-the-top.
Hey, there's another anecdote when Frederik tells Christian to pour some wine for himself and Moltke. Christian pointedly fills Moltke's glass to the top, Frederik's only half full, and his own with barely any. When asked what the meaning of this was, Christian tells his father that "I mean sire, to denote hereby our respective consequence in the state. Molckte [sic] being king and minister, I filled the glass commensurate with his authority. You, my father, being the next person in in the state to the count, I half filled your glass: as for myself, being of no consequence whatever, I took no wine."
Weakened and obscured as were the intellects of the king, he pressed his son to his bosom and a tear glistened in his eye at the reproof thus conveyed. It was however, only a momentary impression. [And then he drinks himself to death.]
All emphasis is the author's.
Pardon me if I DON'T BELIEVE A THING THIS AUTHOR WRITES.
Okay, I might be contractually obliged to OCR the poison attempt so I can share it. Back later with more gossip!
Holdovers of the previous regime speak out
Eichel: Seeing as I famously had no social life, I guess I don't count as a member of FW's social circle. In any event, I wasn't the only member of FW's staff whom Fritz adopted, but I think I was the only one to make it on the list of six beloved people. *smug in a bureaucratic fashion*
Old Dessauer: I didn't, but I also didn't get fired, and I was FW's bff, of which I was life long proud.
Fredersdorf: Which is why the King and I were anything but sad when you kicked the bucket, as evidenced by our corrspondence. He did keep you in the army on account of your usefulness and legendary status, granted, but he hardly included you in his social circle.
Grumbkow: I luckily died in 1739, so I never found out how Junior would have treated me. I mean, I did try my best to cultivate him, and told Seckendorff the younger it was working, but then I wanted my Austrian pension to continue. Somehow, I suspect my fate might have resembled that of my buddy Seckendorff the elder...
One more think about the delicious insanity that are those excerpts you present: with all the insistence that Frederik V. loved Christian to bits and only started drinking because of Juliana, and that Christian got corrupted by Juliana, and how Christian is able to make pointed quips at Moltke, I would suspect Christian himself as the author if he hadn't died ten years earlier...
Re: Holdovers of the previous regime speak out
Didn't you or felis find that he actually had a social life, he just wasn't accessible to envoys who wanted to bribe him, so they said he was kept locked up and impossible to contact?
In any event, I wasn't the only member of FW's staff whom Fritz adopted, but I think I was the only one to make it on the list of six beloved people. *smug in a bureaucratic fashion*
I don't know about staff, but Wartensleben made the list, and he was famously one of the few people who managed to be in both Fritz's and FW's good graces in the late 1730s. If you're right that he was in Manteuffel's pay, this makes perfect sense: he had every incentive to run with the hares and hunt with the hounds and not show what he was really thinking.
Old Dessauer: I didn't, but I also didn't get fired, and I was FW's bff, of which I was life long proud.
OFF: Only Friend Forever!
Fredersdorf: Which is why the King and I were anything but sad when you kicked the bucket, as evidenced by our corrspondence. He did keep you in the army on account of your usefulness and legendary status, granted, but he hardly included you in his social circle.
Hee, I was thinking of this when I saw OD's name!
One more think about the delicious insanity that are those excerpts you present: with all the insistence that Frederik V. loved Christian to bits and only started drinking because of Juliana, and that Christian got corrupted by Juliana, and how Christian is able to make pointed quips at Moltke, I would suspect Christian himself as the author if he hadn't died ten years earlier...
Ha! We were thinking along similar lines! Because I didn't think he was the author, but my first thought was whatever source this goes back to was probably following Christian's version of events very closely. If he was king at the time, that makes sense.
If so, it makes perfect, and sad, sense that he had some good memories of his father. With Frederik's Dr. Jenkins and Mr. Hyde personality, he must have hugged and praised his kid at least once in a blue moon. And like Moltke, Christian grew up telling himself that Nice Frederik was the real Frederik, and Abusive, Neglectful Frederik had some explanation that wasn't "My father has a drinking problem and anger management issues going back to his unhappy childhood." It must be the evil stepmother and evil advisors!
Re: Holdovers of the previous regime speak out
Mirror mirror on the wall: Who's the evilest of them all?
FREDERICK the Fifth, the father of our present monarch (Christian the Seventh) was a wise, magnificent, liberal prince; the patron of men of genius, science, and learning, and the idol of a grateful people. Suddenly, a marked change took place in his habits and his manners: he lost all relish for those exalted pursuits to which he had been attached, and gave himself up to excessive and continual inebriety, whereby he impaired his faculties, physical and mental, and shortened his days. Whilst the memory of this solitary vice, that sullied his character, is generally known, the secret and powerful cause that led to this melancholy alteration, (except to a few, who, during the life-time of his second queen, dared not give it utterance; and most of whom have since descended to the grave), has remained buried in oblivion. This accomplished monarch had two consorts; the first, and deservedly the best beloved, was the English princess Louisa, daughter of George the Second, by whom he had the wretched and imbecile prince who yet bears the title of king of Denmark; and Sophia Magdalena, married to Gustavus the Third of Sweden, who fell by the hand of Ankarstrom: for his second wife, our favorite monarch, in an evil hour, took Juliana Maria, daughter of Ferdinand Albert, duke of Brunswick Wolfenbuttle; an unhappy choice that was the source of many and heavy domestic calamities.
Bad passions will obtrude into palaces as well as cottages, and when they chance to obtain full possession of a queen, they are likely to hurry her to acts more atrocious than a female of humble rank, because her power to commit wickedness is so much greater. The events of common life too often exhibit the most lamentable scenes arising from the jealousy and hatred of callous and unfeeling step-mothers who oppress the children of their predecessor. Such was the character of Maria Juliana. She hated the presence of the children of the deceased queen; and, if she had dared, would have quickly sent them to follow their mother to the grave: for the propensities of her nature were mostly of a selfish and ambitious kind., At an early age, in her father's petty court, she was a great dabbler in political intrigues: in her temper sullen, cruel, and vindictive; extremely penurious; forgetful of benefits, but seldom failing to avenge an injury tenfold; above all, a most profound dissembler, and able to wear a smile on her face, and shew all manner of civilities to the person most mortally hated, and whose destruction, at that very moment, she might be planning.
Such was the step-mother whom Frederick the Fifth, placed over the children of Queen Louisa! The king possessed great sensibility, and in spite of all the pretended fondness of his new consort, he soon ascertained that she did not love them. Frederick often indulged his feelings so far, as to have the children brought to him, whom he caressed with every mark of strong affection: on these occasions the crafty step-mother would participate in his affectionate regard of the innocent babes, whilst her black heart cherished the most deadly rancour. Finding herself pregnant, she flattered her ambition with the hope of presenting her lord with a new object of affection, that should not fail to wean his regards from the fair and white haired boy of Louisa, who was the king's darling. Instead, however, of a child calculated to prove a successful rival to the beautiful Christian, the cruel and envious queen brought forth a weakly, deformed, infant; whose appearance was calculated to excite commisseration mingled with disgust, rather than love. This deformed child, contrary to expectation, lived; and as its strength and size encreased, it shewed a disposition the exact reverse of Christian's; and, owing perhaps to organic defects, was cross, sullen, and unmanageable. This was a source of sorrow to the good and humane king, and of unutterable misery to the queen, whose aversion towards Christian increased as she saw the healthy, playful, volatile boy becoming more and more the pride and hope of his fond father, who, nevertheless, did not neglect the deformed Frederick, nor fail to bestow upon him proofs of a regard truly paternal.
At length, to such a pitch did that wicked woman suffer malice and envy to carry her, that, to secure the crown for her deformed son, she resolved to cut off the blooming young Christian by poison. Having determined to commit murder, she soon found, what she believed to be, a favorable opportunity. The young prince happened to be indisposed. The cruel stepmother, under the specious pretext of fondness, was frequent in her visits ere an opportunity of attempting the horrid deed presented itself. At length she found the prince's favorite nurse preparing some gruel for her young charge over a silver lamp, and there was no other attendant in the chamber. She ordered the nurse to go to her closet to fetch her something; and as soon as the door closed she approached the lamp, and instantly infused a mineral poison into the gruel, a small part of which, if it had been swallowed by her unconscious victim, would have occasioned his death.
The nurse in question was named -------, by birth a Norwegian; and had been many years a confidential servant of the royal family. She attended Queen Louisa, at the birth of Prince Christian; she strove to sooth the last moments of her existence, and she really felt towards her children, all the affection of a mother. Having long entertained suspicions of the queen's intentions, she was ever suspicious and watchful of Juliana Maria's proceedings that in any way affected the young prince. At the momententered the apartment, her heart fraught with murder and the poison in her hand, there might, in spite of all her circumspection and self-command, be some peculiar expression imprinted on her countenance, her eye, or tone of voice, that alarmed the worst fears of the faithful and vigilant matron, who, instead of going to the queen's apartments that were in the grand front, went only a few steps and returned softly to the door, and distinctly perceived the queen infusing something from a paper into the gruel, which she appeared to stir in the silver saucepan that contained it; which done, she then replaced it on the lamp-frame in the same position as the nurse had left it.
Horror curdled the blood in the veins of the nurse, as she beheld this scene. Had the queen offered the gruel to the prince, she would have rushed in and torn it from her; but, Juliana, paced the room with a quick and hurried step, her hands clenched together and a strong expression of suppressed misery playing on her stern features. Just then Madame -------- saw a domestic named Wolff, cross the gallery ;* him she beckoned to come near, and in a whisper told him to go to Count Molckte, and give him a ring that she handed to him, and request his excellency to make haste to the apartment of the Crown Prince. She knew that when the count saw that token, it would not fail to fix his attention and produce immediate acquiescence. This done, she re-entered the room, her looks and manner betraying the painful emotions that filled her heart. The queen, without noticing her coming in sooner than she could, if she had gone to the front of the palace, told her to take the gruel to the prince, as it was sufficiently boiled, and would no doubt do him good! Every limb shook with horror as the nurse took up the saucepan :
Why don't you go with it to the prince," said Juliana.. "Pardon me, gracious queen," said the honest-hearted woman, "it is my duty to disobey you." Darting a withering look at the nurse, she exclaimed "How dare you disobey my commands?” The nurse replied not, but, as the tears streamed from her eyes, she looked significantly at the gruel, and mournfully shook her head. Thrown off her guard by passion, the queen ordered the nurse out of the room; who stood immovable as a statue, holding the saucepan in her hand. Equally torn by rage and fear, on seeing her wicked plot thus frustrated, and infamy and ruin suspended over her head, like the sword of Damocles, by a single hair, the queen, ever fertile in resources, took the desperate resolution to accuse the nurse of having attempted to commit the crime she herself came to perpetrate! Sudden as lightning she acted on this diabolical impulse: and turning towards a bell, rang it furiously: a gentleman of the prince's suite entered, and beheld in silent amazement, the scene before him. Go," said Juliana, to M. Guldberg, and tell him to come instantly to me." The gentleman bowed and withdrew.
"Now wretch," said the furious queen, her eyes flashing fire, "thou shalt feel the full weight of my vengeance; thy limbs shall be broken on the wheel for having attempted to poison the crown prince: the proofs of thy guilt are now in thine hands."
"May God forgive you, queen,” said the astonished woman, "as I can pardon you for my death, if I am the humble means of saving the son of my beloved mistress." Just then Count Molckte entered the room. "Behold in that wicked woman," said the pale and passion-torn queen, "a wretch whom I have detected in the very act of administering poison to the crown prince! Call in the guards! when the king returns he will order her to be put to the severest torture, to force her to confess by whom she has been suborned to the commission of this horrible crime." The count heard the queen in respectful silence: In a grave and severe tone, he said, "I wish to speak with your majesty alone: shall I attend your majesty in your own apartment or order Madame to withdraw?" Little suspecting that this minister had long kept a watchful eye over her conduct; and was in possession of other evidence of a criminating tendency, besides that of the nurse, who stood calm and undaunted amidst this storm of guilty passion-Juliana exclaimed, "What! are you too, count, an enemy to the crown prince, and the accomplice of this trembling culprit?" "How can your majesty harbour such a thought he coolly replied-my son would not succeed to the throne if the crown prince were no more." Count Molckte was a man of keen penetration, and perfectly a courtier. His looks implied more than his words: the abashed and guilty queen, awed and confounded, said, "If your excellency pleases let the woman retire."
The count then took the saucepan from her hand, and the nurse went into the prince's bed-room. What passed between count Molckte and Juliana, can only be surmised: but in less than an hour he went to the prince's room, and after paying his compliments, told him that his favorite nurse must go immediately to Norway. He was so affected at the news, that clinging round her neck the fond boy said, "Then I'll go to Norway too: you shall not take away my mother." It was in vain the count strove to pacify him. "I'll apply to my father," said he in an angry tone, "I am sure he will not suffer this mother to be taken away from me." The count appeared embarrassed and retired: he soon came back again, when, calling the nurse into an anti-room, he artfully strove to convince her that she had been deceived, and that the queen had merely stirred the gruel to keep it from burning. The nurse shook her head, saying, "Will your excellency allow me to carry the gruel to the prince's apothecary?-Yes." said the subtle minister, "you may." She ran for the saucepan, but found it empty and perfectly clean! More alarmed than ever, and fearful that the count had entered into the queen's hostile views against the crown prince, she secretly determined to address the king on the danger which awaited his darling boy.
The insidious minister, reading in her ingenuous countenance what was passing in her mind; whilst he applauded her courage and fidelity, told her he meant to have sent her home to Norway merely to secure her from the queen's power: but he now wished her to remain, assuring her if she pledged herself by a solemn oath to secrecy, she should be safe from the effects, of the queen's dislike, and remain in attendance on the crown prince; at the same time pledging himself in the most solemn manner for the perfect safety of the prince. To these terms, for the sake of continuing her attendance, the faithful nurse assented. The wicked queen, humbled and defeated, abstained from visiting the prince's apartments. The same day she was reported to be indisposed, and went the next to Hirschholm palace.
But the affair did not end here: The king (Frederick the Fifth,) was then absent at a small hunting lodge called Jagersprest, situated near the palace of Charlottenborg. Thither the gentleman repaired, whom the queen had commanded to call Mr. Guldberg: he obtained an audience, and told the astonished king, not only what he had seen and heard in the antichamber of the prince-but many important circumstances besides. It is not in language to express the agonising feelings excited by this intelligence, for his own life was less dear to Frederic than that of his darling son: he applauded the conduct of his informer; and such was his haste to return to Christianborg Palace, that he fell down stairs and broke his leg. The agitation of his mind produced a fever that nearly proved fatal.
As soon as his fractured limb was set, he caused the Norwegian nurse and count Molckte to be summoned before him, taking precautions to prevent any previous intercourse. The result was that he had no cause to doubt the guilt of Juliana, or that the life of the crown prince had been preserved by the courage and fidelity of his nurse, whom he liberally rewarded. From this moment he never co-habited with his guilty queen: but the thoughts of her wickedness, and the danger of his son and heir, preyed continually on his feeling mind. As a resource, a sad resource it proved, this excellent king gave himself up to drinking: and count Molckte being at once master of the queen, and the favorite minister of the king, was de facto AUTOCRAT of Denmark, exercising the sovereign authority in the name of his master,, who rapidly became but the shadow of what he. had formerly been. Juliana secretly intended to make Mr. Guldberg minister, who was a man of great talent and cool judgment: but this detection foiled her plans, and forced her to bow to the man whom she hated and feared.
It was by this means count Molckte acquired that unlimited power, which, during the latter part of the reign. of Frederic the Fifth, he exercised in a way so despotic as to procure him the ironical appellation of "Koning Molckte." This is generally the case with AUTOCRACIES: Some favorite governs the AUTOCRAT, who thereby governs the state, frequently reducing the autocrat himself to a mere cipher. Few indeed have been the number of absolute monarchs, who were not themselves as far from being free as the meanest of their slaves. But, to quit this digression: though the mind of the mild and benevolent monarch, Frederic the Fifth, was thus clouded, he was never happy except the crown prince was in his presence. As he grew in years, Christian became more and more the favorite of the king and people. In the wildest sallies of his father, the prince had more command over him than any other person; and he often had influence enough to prevent him, when tipsy, from lavishing away his treasures on the companions of his cups; and even of inducing him to retract those improvident gifts when sober.
In one of these fits, the king made count Molckte a present of the magnificent palace of Hirschholm and all its costly furniture! The crown prince, hearing of this lavish act, went to his study, and taking in his hand a plan of the palace, carried it to count Molckte, saying, “Content yourself with this, I beseech your excellency, and believe me, unless you possess the crown, the palace of Hirschholm shall never be your's.”
Re: Mirror mirror on the wall: Who's the evilest of them all?
Now, wiki also says there was mutual distrust and tension between the cousins, but still, isn't it somewhat tactless to present the grandmother of the future King as the evilest and his father as deformed? Talk about the free press. Unless the author of this batshittery is actually a cunning propagandist who doesn't want Juliana's line to make it to the throne? ...Nah, I'm probably overthinking it.
Re: Mirror mirror on the wall: Who's the evilest of them all?
I was also intrigued by this date! Because the first thing I thought of was: 1814-1818 is when Moltke's son is prime minister! And he doesn't come off too well in this; I mean, my reading is that JM bribes him to let her kill the kid.
But since the thing was written in English by a John Brown, especially since it opens "FREDERICK the Fifth, the father of our present monarch (Christian the Seventh)," I think this must be a British translation of some older Danish source, and that it was written precisely because Christian was king.
Let me see what I can find out.
In December last, a pause occurred in the execution of the work, during which the Author endeavoured to procure, from various sources, those authentic and original facts which were essential to complete his work and distinguish it from a mere compilation.
Me: Well, they're certainly "original", all right! Original to this work.
The Swedes are eminent for hospitality and every social virtue ; and their character has been wilfully assailed, or casually misunderstood, by British tourists. In the hour of persecution, Mr. Brown found a secure and most agreeable asylum there.
Okay, interesting. Mr. Brown moved to Sweden when Christian VII was king and was really grateful to him?
Ah, okay, here's his Wikipedia page.
John Brown (died c. 1829) was an English historian and miscellaneous writer. He laboured on a history of Bolton; went to London to advocate the claims of his friend, Samuel Crompton, the inventor; but committed suicide, seemingly in despair at his lack of success in life.
Very little is known of his early life, except that he travelled widely in northern Europe and mixed in European politics. Drawing on his experiences, he wrote several works on international law, including Mysteries of Neutralization (1806). He showed a strong interest in European monarchs, and published Anecdotes and Characters of the House of Brunswick (1821) and Northern Courts (1818).
Okay, the Brunswick volume is bound to have good stuff.
OMG, we are not disappointed!
SDC was framed! G1 was the worst person who ever lived and his wife was beautiful, virtuous, and innocent, and it was all a conspiracy! The letters were forged!
The partiality of Whig historians, gave a lustre to Sophia, Electress of Hanover, the mother of George the First, which her real character did not deserve : and the same bias led them altogether to omit the name of his oppressed consort, whom he had, as a despot, consigned to a prison, without any other or better reason than his will and his power. Over the savage injuries inflicted on this greatly injured woman, the iron hand of the tyrantdrew a veil, which, for a time, covered and concealed the victim of lust and cruelty, and the injustice by which she was oppressed. But still,the fate of that high-minded, beautiful, and accomplished Princess, deserted, as she was, by all her relations, and by all her former associates, excited a powerful sympathy amongst the liberal and cultivated of polished society, in every nation of Europe.
For a time, indeed, her savage and brutal husband (George the First ) appears to have had the field to himself ; and he filled every court, where so petty a prince as he then was had any influence, with the most degrading accusations against his hapless wife ; and if she had been as guilty as the denunciations of her oppressor were coarse and vehement, she would, indeed, have forfeited all claim to respect, but not to sympathy, because, however bad she might have conducted herself, the adulteries of her husband were still more disgusting and notorious, and not a breath of slander had rested on her fame, till after her ill-fated marriage with that mercenary and ambitious Prince : to whose vices, therefore, her own aberrations were solely to be attributed.
Her oppressor, though he could hermetically close his pale and blighted victim in a lonely castle, and for ever debar her of the presence of her children, could not deprive her of disinterested advocates, who had the sense and humanity to consider, that she had not had a fair or an open trial, -that her coarse, vindictive, gross, and sensual husband, was the absolute master and mover of the tribunals by which she is said to have been degraded and divorced, and that her judges were as completely his servants as his lacqueys or valets ; that her character, previous to marriage, had not only been free from reproach, but was known to be of the most amiable order.
That the match was forced upon her, who was every way its victim, and had originated entirely in the avarice of her husband, who was her own first cousin, and whose claim to her hand was so enforced by his father and mother, that there was no possibility of a refusal ; although the notorious debaucheries, and deep-rooted profligacy of her husband were so gross, that all the courts of Europe resounded with recitals of his licentious amours, and general profligacy of character. When these facts were publicly known, every reflecting person admitted the probability that the fair captive, and unhappy mother, had been falsely accused, and unjustly sentenced, through the power and the malice of a guilty husband.
That the Electoral Prince, her gaoler and oppressor, had pretensions to personal courage, did not justify his having, on many occasions, exercised his valour by beating his beauteous wife, and dragging her along by her dishevelled locks, to gratify his concubines, who were the instigators and the spectators of those outrages; nor did his ambition to shine as a first- rate intriguer, warrant his having selected the character of his unhappy consort as the object which, by circumvention, by subservient and venal diplomatists, by stratagems of all kinds of the sap and mine process, he sought to demolish.
In defiance of every artifice, the baseness of hispersonal character, and the grossness of his propensities, spread rapidly with his vituperations against his wife, and his own reputation suffered in a still greater degree than that of the calumniated Princess. That her husband was a man of coarse taste and dissolute habits there can be no doubt ; and none, that he married, solely from motives of state policy, a beautiful and virtuous young Princess, whom he never loved, and whose life he began to render miserable as soon as the marriage ceremony had been performed ; yet, it is more than probable, that his minions and his concubines, seeing his aversion to his wife, fabricated the most atrocious calumnies against her, forged, or caused to be forged, a variety of letters, tending to prove the unhappy Princess had been false to her profligate lord, and they suborned and disciplined a host of false witnesses to give support to their calumnies. Where the heart is violently predisposed to think well or ill, it eagerly adopts whatever conforms to its prejudices.
The Prince had deeply and irreparably injured his wife ; and, too often is it seen, that an oppressed person has no foe so inveterate as that by whom a great injury has been inflicted; and the heart most prone to the commission of crime, is often the least capable to forgive. Thus situated, it is no wonder that GEORGE the FIRST, when Electoral Prince of Hanover, too readily received every report that was discreditable to his neglected, insulted, forsaken wife ; nor, that his attendant courtiers found it their surest way to his favour to vilify her character, and strive, by all practicable means, to pursue the unhappy lady to utter ruin.
According to the united testimony of German, Dutch, French, and English authors, never was a young and beautiful woman more cruelly treated, nor her morals exposed to worse pollution.
It was even asserted, by a Dutch anonymous author, that the malice of her dissolute husband hurried him to the infamous expedientof throwing his own wife, and the mother of his son and heir, in the way of profligate but accomplished chevaliers, in order, if successful in their attempts upon her honour, they might betray their victim, and hand her over to punishment, to infamy, and ruin. This, however, is so extravagant a flight of matrimonial depravity, that it exceeds the bounds of credibility, and must be imputed to the universal indignation excited by the gross depravity, and unrelenting cruelty of her worthless husband.
It is not the intention of the Editor to draw any comparison between the personal characters and conduct of the consorts of the first and the fourth George, who have sat on the English throne ; but there is the closest possible analogy between the conspiracies of which those Princesses were the victims.
Okay, this explains the chapter I saw in the table of contents that was called "The Secret History of the Corrupt Practices of the Duchess of Kendal" (that's Melusine, Cahn, Katte's "aunt" and G1's mistress).
Yep, Brown/his source thinks G1's half-sister the Countess Platen was his mistress and proves that G1 couldn't even be faithful to his mistress, much less his wife.
This whole volume is just about how terrible G1 and his supporters were, and how wonderful SDC was.
I'm all for a feminist take that doesn't apply a double standard and vilify her infidelity while overlooking his...but this is not that.
Also, the whole volume purports to be a collection of memoirs by other people; whether it's really that or just stuff he made up and put quotation marks around, I couldn't say. But there's this whole thing that's supposed to be written by SDC in her prison and looks like the fakest literary production ever??
Selena, if you have a desire to be entertained by more batshittery in this vein, I'll link you, but I see no history here. What even was this guy doing with his life??
ETA: Speaking literally, I meant to add that Wikipedia tells me that he exposed labor conditions of children working in cotton mills. Which is good! But maybe he should have stuck to that instead of writing history or "history". Except then we wouldn't have gotten all this entertainment.
ETA 2: Also meant to add that my current working hypothesis is that this work was drafted when Brown was living in Sweden, well before 1818 (and before Christian VII died), and only published when he came back to England and found a London publisher. And that Brown had a huge mancrush on Christian, in much the way that Zimmermann had one on Fritz. Discuss. :P
Re: Mirror mirror on the wall: Who's the evilest of them all?
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Re: Mirror mirror on the wall: Who's the evilest of them all?
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Re: Mirror mirror on the wall: Who's the evilest of them all?
Re: Mirror mirror on the wall: Who's the evilest of them all?
Immediately after the change of government in 1784, Frederik VI, as a young crown prince, had "formal disgust" for Moltke and felt vivid distrust of him. But this highly youthful attitude gradually changed. Moltke's thoroughly honorable character earned him far too great a reputation with everyone, whether they shared his opinions or not, for Frederik VI not to come to look at him differently over the years. When Moltke became chancellor of the Order in 1808 as the oldest Knight of the Elephant, a certain rapprochement was brought about between him and the king, who then also gave him the title of privy councilor, and when the state's position in every respect in the year 1813 developed into complete despair, Moltke was among the men Frederik VI sought advice from.
He appears to have been exactly like his father, except more bookish: nice, full of integrity, ultra-conservative. They both stepped down when they refused to work with Struensee, and opposed any reforms that benefitted the peasants too much.
Oh, interesting:
In the year 1792, when his father died, it was he who came to inherit the county of Bregentved. According to a tradition in the family, his older brother Christian Magnus Moltke was actually destined to follow his father as count; but old Moltke had excluded him from it on account of his sympathies for the ideas of the French Revolution.
Re his bookishness, Wikipedia tells me:
It has been said above that in his youth Moltke studied eagerly at several universities. The love he felt for scientific studies found expression, among other things, in a German translation he prepared of Quintilian's 10th book (published 1776) and in some reviews he wrote in the Leipziger gelehrte Zeitung. Later, when he became head of the great royal library, he thereby had an opportunity to benefit science in another way, and he had in several respects real merit in the organization and expansion of the library. In his youth it had evidently been classical philology that had interested him, but it has become our natural history museums that the memory of him has been most strongly attached. He gave the university the natural history collection that his father had left behind, and which he himself increased, and in addition to donating 10,000 reigsdalers during his lifetime for the purchase of natural history works for the university, he determined in his will 60,000 reigsdalers to promote the natural history studies at the University. At the same time, his will testified to his gentle, humane mind by the considerable bequests in a benevolent direction which it contained.
OH HEY. I was looking something up, and I just read 3 sentences in Danish without needing translation help! Granted, they were from a biographical dictionary, but this is 3 more sentences than I could do a month ago. :DDD
Mirror mirror on the wall: Who's the evilest of them all? cont'd
Then there's the wine-pouring anecdote I had already shared, then a note that Christian VII became king:
Seldom was the dawn of any reign more auspicious than his: He was young, handsome, affable and generous, and the idol of the people. This event knocked the stage from under king Molckte, and the sovereign power was, for a short time, really exercised by him that wore the crown.
Then the editor has a footnote:
The machinations of this envious queen against the life of Christian the Seventh, did not cease with this attempt. She strove, by gold and promises of preferment, to seduce the attendants of the child: It happened, according to Latrobe's translation, as the king and royal family were taking the recreation of sailing in a royal yacht on the coast of Zealand, near the palace of Fredensborg, (about five Danish miles north of Copenhagen,) that the young prince Christian being rather unruly, one of his attendants named Broodorph, seized the boy, held him over the stern of the yacht, and threatened to throw him in the water: from the boy's struggles to get free, or from treachery, down he fell into the sea, whence he was rescued; but, as long as reason held its seat, the prince imputed this act to the agency of his fell step-mother, with a view to procure the crown for her beloved son Frederic. So far the anonymous author; and what in some respect corroborated this opinion, Broedorph being forbid to appear in the prince's presence, was im, mediately engaged in the service of the step queen, and placed as an officer in her palace. EDITOR.
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Wow. Okay, yes, that destroys any credibility this source has. Whatsoever. But the batshit insanity is marvellous to read.
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