Historical Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 42

[cahn]

Last 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.

Comments

Re: Execution of two Jacobite Lords - Questions

[mildred_of_midgard]

Thank you for the link to The Lyon in Mourning! If memory serves I had come across it but never read it.

I publickly profess that I heartily repent of all my sins, but am so far from reckoning the fact for which I am to die one of them that I think I shall thereby be an honour to my family, and if I had ten thousand lives would chearfully and willingly lay them down in the same cause.

Aha, I am seeing a trope here! So either Katte said it *because* it was a trope, or else people who didn't know or remember exactly what he said filled it in using tropes.

Judging by this list of the variants, the *most* reliable seeming one is the anonymous reporter's (possibly Müller): "Point de pardon, mon prince; je meurs avec mille plaisirs pour vous." Which contains neither a sweet prince nor a thousand (or even ten) lives.

The "sweet prince" and the "thousand lives" are from some of our most unreliable sources, so I bet they're filling in.

The "ten lives" is from Danish envoy von Johnn's report (later copied by the pamphlet), which is generally close to the most reliable accounts, those of the people officially in charge of Katte's execution, but I wouldn't be surprised if Katte's last words were not exactly retained verbatim, and some trope-filling in was done as the story made its way to Johnn.

Of course, Müller may not have remembered verbatim either! We may not have anything like an exact phrasing at all: just the general outline that he loved Fritz and didn't blame him.

"For the two kings and their rights, I cared not a farthing which prevailed, but I was starving, and, by God, if Mahommed had set up his standard in the Highlands I had been a good Musulman for bread, and stuck close to the party, for I must eat."

Oh, he's *that* guy! Thank you for supplying the detail. (Observe my continued self-control in resisting the temptation to research this myself.)

For one thing, it would have been very out of character, since the Jacobites took pains to prove that they were to be regarded as a legitimate fighting force that followed all the conventions of war.

Indeed.

Duffy says that the original of these fighting instructions is in the Royal Archives, and that the insertion of those words is clearly visible in different handwriting from the rest.

If I ever knew that, I had forgotten, so thank you again!