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cahnLast post, we had (among other things) Danish kings and their favorites; Louis XIV and Philippe d'Orléans; reviews of a very shippy book about Katte, a bad Jacobite novel, and a great book about clothing; a fic about Émilie du Châtelet and Voltaire; and a review of a set of entertaining Youtube history videos about Frederick the Great.
Re: Augustus Hervey II: Tourism and family relations
Date: 2023-03-22 01:26 pm (UTC)How the gentry lives:
1746: After several of these useless visits & c., my brother took me down to Ickworth the 26th to make a visit to my grandfather and mother. In our way we must necessarily go visit that old stately pile of building at Audley Inn of some of our ancestors. In the evening we all met at Ickworth, Sister PHipps and Sister Mary were there also, and hte next day being my grandfather's birthday, we were all (according to ancient custom) to dance - Lords, Ladies, gentlemen, servants, maids, kitchen-maids, & ca.; and this we did in a little room enough to stew us all to celebrate the good old Lord's natal day.
The secret wife:
About the 16th October Miss Cudleigh came to Town, and sent to me to meet her at Mrs. Hammer her aunt's, which I did, and it passed in mutual reproaches. She thought I should have gone down to Devonshire to see her, and I that she might have come up to attend her duty on the Princess if she had any inclination to see me. However being both very young, this little quarrel passed off, nor did we let it break in on our pleasures. We often met at Mrs. Hammer's (who was not in Town) about midnight, and passed together quite uninterrupted till 4 or 5 in the morning, and this continued whilst I remained in Town. I very seldom met her at any public place, as I avoided it, having been told some secrets by many people. I found her much more taken up with her pleasures, with the Court and with particular connections than she was with our attachment, which nataurally chillled mine at my age, and after having heard many things, which she denied. However I was weak enough to run in debt to satisfy her vanity and to gratify my own inclinations, which were still to please her if I could. I gave her money to pay her debts whilst I was contracting my own for it. I gave her an onyx watch set with diamonds, and, in short, whatsoever people would trust me with, trusting to the chance of war and success of prizes to be able to repay it.
Augustus the Florence tourist:
1748: We remained at Florence to the 1st July, amusing ourselves with all the various curiosities that were collected there by the great family of the Medici, no longer anything in Tuscany now. I dined twice with Count Richecourt, who lives in the pace, is head of the Regency and Governor of Tuscany, and by whom we were magnificently entertained the 28th at a dinner with about eighty people. The bridge La Trinity struck me the instant I saw it for its lightness and beauty; three arches carries it over the Arno; there are other bridges, but not to be named with this. The Arno runs thro' the town but is a dirty coloured water. There are a number of statues and fountains all over this city, but one particular bronze boar which the Electress made a present of to the city, and which supplies the market-place with water, is very fine. The gallery of the Great Duke is the most famous in the world for the collection it contains, and as it has been so often described I shall only speak of what struck me; a statue of a Roman consul speaking to the SEnate; a Tuscan king haranguing the people, a Agrippina in her chair is very fine, with several others not inferior. The picturese that are done of all teh different masters, each one by himself, are very curious and pleasing, and the only collection of the kind in Europe. The famous Venus, of which there are many copies, is here, and the statue of the Venus of Medici, the finest I ever saw. The quantity of out-of-the-way riches that are amassed here from antiquity is very extraordinary of all kinds, in jewels, plate, bronzes, pictures, statues, and in short, all kind of things. We went to see the workers in hard stone, and from hence to the famous chapel of St. Lawrence, which is built of the finest marble and hard stones intermixed with precious stones. The Great Duke Cosmus, who was the last of the Medici family, his noble tomb is here. One would wonder whether one family ever so powerful now in Europe could have collected such riches, which, according to the modern estimation of them, all the Princes in Europe together could not purchase them; but in dipping into the history and private life of that family our wonder is taken off, as we find they stuck at nothing to gratify their ambition and their pride and every passion that human frailty is subject to.
Note that he doesn't list any of the most famous attractions - no David (either of Michelangelo or of Donatello), no Judith. Also, courtesy of Charles I. the painting colllections in GB were pretty good, Francis I as the last patron of Leonardo da' Vinci certainly secured some great Renaissance paintings for France, and while I'm not sure how public either of these collections were at the time, I do know the Dresden collection could be visited by tourists (Lehndorff did, for example), and August the Strong woud like you to know he thinks he could go toe to toe with anyone; his son agrees. (Mind you, the Louvre LATER would outshine any but that was because Napoleon forcibly collected European art all over the places, which included Egypt, and made it a public museum.)
1749: Why Augustus isn't impressed with the Victor of Culloden but likes Fritz of Wales: About the 16th there grew up a bill wherein the sea-offers was much concerned. 'Twas a bill the Duke of Cumberland with Lord Anson and Lord Barrington and others had been concerting to alter the 34th Article of War, in order to oblige all the officers on half pay to be subject to the same discipline and liable to the same orders than if on whole, so that by this means the whole coprs of officers may be kept in the utmost subjection and sent where the Admirality pleased, even if in Parliament. (...) I wrote a pamphlet first entitled A Letter From A Friend To Will's Coffee House, the intent of which was to spirit up all the officers, to set before them what was intended against them. (...) I dined the 19th with Lord Doneraile and others, and in the evening I went with him to Carton House, where the Prince came about half an hour afterwards. He was mighty gracious to me, talked to me a great while about this bill, desired to see my list of all the officers who had signed against it, spoke of the hardships of it, and sent for a Navy-list to cmpare who was for it. The Prince said it was 'shameful for Lord Anson and Lord Sandwhich to make so many brave men slaves' - those were his words. He told me he would certainly serve me when in his power and said he knew more of me than I imagined.
Hervey's Ghost: DON'T YOU DARE LOVE RAT!
Later that year, our enterprising young Augustus Hervey visits Paris and Versailles:
The next day I was presented to the Queen, she spoke to none of us; afterwards to the Dauphin at his apartment, then to the Dauphiness in hers. Then we went to Madame Pompadour's apartment. She was at her toilette, and the handsomest creature I think I ever saw, and looked like a rock of diamonds. Then we went to Madame L'Infanta de Parma. and Mesdames. The Infanta of Parma spoke to me directly and asked me how I liked Paris, and how Italy. I was the only one spoke to that was presented, and that only by her Royal Highness and Madame Pompadour, who had all FRance round her toilette and seemed to have much more court paid to her than to the Queen.
Reminder: the Infanta of Parma is of course daughter to Louis XV, mother to Isabella the future wife of Joseph, and to the unfortunate education experiment Ferdinand. Mesdames are Louis XV' unmarried daughters who will still be around and edge on a teenage Marie Antoinette to snub Madame Dubarry decades later. The Dauphin and Dauphiness are both doomed to die relatively young, they're the parents of Louis XVI. Madame de Pompadour receiving people at her morning toilette is something near royal only the Maitresse en Titre would do.
1750: It's time for Hervey family trouble!
I got to Dover the 19th and set out for London, where I found my mother in her house at St. James Place thata was not quite finished. Most of my time was spent with my mother. The 26th I was with my uncle William at Rickmansworth, where several of my relations were from whom I heard the whole state and situation of this shattered family. The 28th my Brother Hervey being come to town, I went to him. He began with telling me my mother had acted a most shameful part by my youngest sisters, that she had made them rank Jacobites and taught them to reverence the Pretender, and even to ridicule and censure the present King, that he had been obliged to take my sisters from under her tuition, and determined himself to have as little to say to her the rest of his life as possible. He was extremely warm in his language of her, and I had heard of this before from Sir Robert and Lady Louisa. I said I had nothing to do with it all, that my mother was very kind to me, and I should not enter into any quarrels but live as well as I could with them all.
1751: Gramps dies, and then Fritz of Wales, and the family is still arguing with Molly about her Jacobitism. Not good times for Augustus.
The 22nd my brother and I saw (their grandfather) put in his coffin, and all his first wife's letters placed in the coffin with him as he desired on his left cheek, a blue Turkeystone ring she gave him put on his finger, and his bracelet of her hair on, which he ever wore. The 27th my grandfather was buried in Ickworth Church between his two wives, and there ended the very thoughts about the poor old Lord of this place, to whom this family is so much indebted. The 29th my uncle, Will and I went to Town, and met Mr. and Mirs. Phipps on the road. (Mrs Phipps is one of his sisters.)
Whilst I was in Town I went often to Leicester House, but seldom to St. James'. (...) I heard a great deal, too, of my mother's silly work about the Pretender. These things hurt me very much, tho' I could not help them.
(...) The 21st of this month coming from the Oratorio I was told of a great loss the kingdom in general had suffered, and myself in particular, in the Prince of Wales' death; he died of a mortification having got a a cold at tennis. I found my brother had wrote to my Sister Phipps a note to tell her of it, in which he put a postscript at the bottom, saying 'I suppose this will stagger, tho' not fix, your brother Augustus'. I was this evening late with Lord Egmont who was inconsolable, as well he might be, losing such a master and such a friend. (...)
Some months later:
The 25th we left off mourning for the late Prince of Wales, and 'twas observed the King left off deep mourning and second mourning a week each sooner than usual, which was a weakness the poor proud King could not help to show his detastation of his son.
Fritz: Mitchell, aren't we Hohenzollern's lucky to be way more harmonious a family?
Re: Augustus Hervey II: Tourism and family relations
Date: 2023-03-25 11:23 pm (UTC)Wow, 1748. It's only been 11 years, and GG is forgotten already! Mind you, Cosimo did reign for 53 years, and not from bed, so it's understandable. If he hadn't reigned for so long, GG might not have spent the entire time in bed, who knows.
Hervey's Ghost: DON'T YOU DARE LOVE RAT!
Hahaha, every time Hervey calls him the love rat I just laugh so much. :D Selena, your write-ups continue to be the best.
Reminder: the Infanta of Parma is of course daughter to Louis XV, mother to Isabella the future wife of Joseph, and to the unfortunate education experiment Ferdinand.
I like how we know more and more figures as salon continues! Like when Victor Amadeus comes up, we now know who that is. It's a lot of fun (and is why I need to go back and reread what Fritz thought of Karl XII).
Fritz: Mitchell, aren't we Hohenzollern's lucky to be way more harmonious a family?
Me: *eyes the obelisk at Rheinsberg*
Re: Augustus Hervey II: Tourism and family relations
Date: 2023-03-26 02:24 pm (UTC)Incidentally, FW 2 is another case of a child being raised in a way that's supposed to produce a super enlightened tough workoholic Monarch, and instead results in someone who instead gets into religion, seances and parties instead, plus who is easily influencable by people who show him affection and don't remind him of his uncle.
Wow, 1748. It's only been 11 years, and GG is forgotten already!
IKR? That's what struck me when I read this passage, too. Apparently no one told Augustus about the Ruspanti. What became of them anyway?
Re: Augustus Hervey II: Tourism and family relations
Date: 2023-03-26 03:40 pm (UTC)I've never been sure. It's definitely a sign that they weren't personally close, but there's too much social reason to do the expected thing and bury the two great monarchs together that it could have just been a straightforward representation thing. But I don't know FW2 at *all*, so maybe it was a conscious awareness that FW treated Fritz badly, and Fritz treated FW2 badly, and so FW2 was going to disrespect his last wishes. (If it had been the other way around, if Fritz had asked for a standard burial and gotten something out-of-the-way, *then* I would be sure it was a conscious diss.)
Incidentally, FW 2 is another case of a child being raised in a way that's supposed to produce a super enlightened tough workoholic Monarch
Very true! It's almost like shoving principles down children's throats runs a high risk of backfiring.
Apparently no one told Augustus about the Ruspanti. What became of them anyway?
Haha, I wonder what Augustus would have said if he'd known about the Ruspanti.
And good question! I have some books by Bruschi that would probably tell us, but my Italian isn't up to the task, and after reading his Gian Gastone and Giuliano Dami books, I wasn't so enamored of him as a historian that I was in a hurry to run my algorithms on his other books. I will someday, but probably only once I can read Italian on my own. (I had to set it aside for Danish, but hopefully I'm done with Danish before the end of the year and can go back to French and Italian.)
My guess, though, is that they just disbanded when they stopped getting paid, and that there's really nothing to tell.
Re: Augustus Hervey II: Tourism and family relations
Date: 2023-04-11 05:02 am (UTC)Reminder: the Infanta of Parma is of course daughter to Louis XV, mother to Isabella the future wife of Joseph, and to the unfortunate education experiment Ferdinand
Ah thank you for the reminder! I love seeing how everyone connects together. (And hee, you have a way with words.)
Hervey's Ghost: DON'T YOU DARE LOVE RAT!
lolololol!
Fritz: Mitchell, aren't we Hohenzollern's lucky to be way more harmonious a family?
Heh, and oof.