![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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.
Leining to Fredersdorf: Letter 3
Date: 2023-04-15 02:17 pm (UTC)Monsieur mon tres cher Amy
et tres chere compere
Ich habe das Vergnügen ihnen das Petschaft so die [St]iXX
[dar]übe[r] nach st[ec]hen lassen zu über wachen [ei|we]niger dieses
der Lieut. v Ga[rtz]?? wirdt ihnen ihre infamien [ziem]lich er[z]ehlen [Ka]üne
weil ich wegen dem wirrwarr nach nicht so viel zeit habe es zu baXiXX
zü bringen, der [hofmeister] ist ein Schürk aber hierin unschüldig
ich habe nach der fredenschaftlishen manier welche[n|m] ich viele obligation
habe das ich so viel ündter der handt von ihXXr geXrXt mit güten und
böse inquerirt bis ich das [Lack] wornach [e]s gestochen Von [Pitsche] Stecher
erhalten habe, Sr. Königl Mayt. wolten es Cachee gehalte wissen sonsten
wurde, d[ie] Petshir Stecher den process aüch gemacht haben g[enü]g die
Canalien [s|f]eindt etwas belohnt ündt ich dancke gott das ich ihn los
bin, [werther] freündt helpXen sie mir doch mit nachrichte w[o|ir|ie] [sie]
es der 24-r gemacht wenn sie die gelder empfangen, und hernach
die [re]chnungen [die] besohlt werden sollen [ein] gebe haben, sie
obligeren undt Soulagiren unsere gnädiger König die Rechnunge
Von Michelet haben ich shon erhalten, Es hat mir der Cellermeister gr[oß]
geschrieben das Ko[Z]Koffe Xi [SchambX]*: undt Borgon wein Lie[fer]n wolte der König
aber will [si]e nicht haben sondern mon tres cher amy würden [und] XX[l]dX
[von] [wehm] die Letzere [weine] wären da solte ich wieder nehme sie wäre
güt, liebster freundt haben sie dann schon Lt. Michel [gesehen] undt [weine]
dü[nke] Trutschel [dencken] [sie] welche gnade, Sr. Mayt haben mir aus freyer stücke
gesagt wenn ich zu Haus käme solte ich heurathe und in maXX Haus wohnen
denn [Er] k[ennte] mich schon gar zu Lang als eine Ehrliche Kerl welche gnade,
an Madame la Treseriere [bi]tte [meine] Respect zü versiche[rn] ich aber bliebe
Mon tres chere compere
votre tres humble et
fidele
serviteur
Leining
Lockewitz [der] 10te Aprill
1757
*Ko[Z]KoffeXi [S]chambX: The writing becomes really weird here. It's hard to even tell whether "Ko[Z]KoffeXi" is one word, two, or three. Is it some kind of abbreviation? Or code? [S]chambX might be Chambre, with this guy's predilection for Sh over Sch and ch. But that might not even be an S; it looks vaguely like he wrote an S and then decided to put a C over it, which might be a correction to Chambre, or might be a completely different capital letter that just looks like CS.
Off to tackle letter 4! (Maybe he'll finally have time to give us more details on Glasow, because while I don't blame Leining for saying the messenger will have to bring Fredersdorf up to speed because he himself is swamped, won't somebody please think of the historians!!)
ETA: Ugh. Letter 4's handwriting is pretty clear, but the ink is SO faded that I'm at maximum zoom and still straining to see*. I'm sure once I get used to the individual letters, it'll be easier, though. They seem to be formed with reasonable care, though I haven't yet determined how similar they are, ESPECIALLY WITH HALF THE INK MISSING.
You see why I never took a single paleography class in my university days. :P
* P.S. I woke up this morning with my right eye painfully inflamed and watering. For a while, I was wandering around the house half-blind, but it's slowly letting up, as you can see from the fact that I was able to finish and share letter 3. This kind of eye pain has never happened to me before, and I'm not sure whether to blame 18th century German secretaries or not. :PPP More data points required.
Off to gather more data points. If letter 4 doesn't make my eyes bleed, nothing will! :P
Re: Leining to Fredersdorf: Letter 3
Date: 2023-04-15 03:51 pm (UTC)When the King had to take to the field in 1756, the Secret Chamberlain Fredersdorf couldn't join the King on his campaign due to his long term illness of which he did die not too long thereafter. So the King transferred everything to Glasow, whom he made his valet on this occasion, had tailored some very beautiful civilian clothing for him, and gave him his personal treasury and the supervision about his household, despite Glasow still being very young.
For a few days, the King told him personally how he had to run everything; especially, he taught him how to do the accounts about the income and expenditure of the royal household. Now there was a particular secretary in charge of this, but that one remained with Fredersdorf, and wasn't called to Dresden until the opening of the next campaign on the following year in the spring of 1757; until then Völker, who was a smart fellow, administrated this office together with Glasow.
The King showed even more grace to Glasow, and often made him large presents; but Glasow was not always grateful. When the King had his winter quarters in Dresden in the winter of 1756, Glasow started to consort with two women. The King didn't like his people to have this kind of relationships at all; and in this particular case, additional circumstances were there why these relationships should be suspicious and dislikable to the King for political reasons.
He therefore strictly forbade Glasow this kind of consorting, but the later didn't stop doing it. Glasow, whom the King had sleeping in the room next to his, wasn't in his bed for entire nights, and when he was missing, the King could easily guess where he had to be spending his time. Now the man who encouraged young Glasow in this kind of loose living because he could take advantage from his wastefulness was the King's chamber footman and Treasurer Völker.
The King knew very well about the connection between these two men, and thus blamed Völker for Glasow's debauchings, as he knew Völker as an otherwise not at all foolish man, and held him to be the seducer of the young and inexperienced Glasow.
Now despite the King tried to improve his valet's behavior through harsh reprimands, threats and punishments, his affairs grew steadily worse when the King near the end of March 1757 took his main quarters at Lockwitz, a small mile away from Dresden. Glasow continued to keep up his relationships in Dresden. Nearly every night, he rode to Dresden. The King couldn't fail to notice this and grew even more disgruntled. However, as Glasow otherwise was still in favor with the King, it was all too understandable that no one dared the tell the King about the exact nature of the consorting this favourite was doing.
Glasow took into his service a fellow named B*** who until then had been in service with an officer from the Garde du Corps who lived near Berlin, but then kicked him out in disgrace some time later. This B*** subsequently went to his old master. B*** now started to talk very loudly about Glasow's suspcious relationships in Dresden, and that Völker was seducing him into them, and added that if the King only knew the true circumstances, whom he should be told about, both of them would suffer evil consequences.
Völker knew that what this fellow was saying was the truth, and he grew greatly afraid that through either him or his master the King should find out the true circumstances. He therefore persuaded Glasow that it was necessary to get rid of this fellow for their shared safety's sake.
Through Völker's persuasions, the young and inconsiderate Glasow was seduced to start a very serious enterprise worthy of punishment. Völker wrote an order of arrest to the commander of Magdeburg in the name of the King, Glasow used the King's small seal, B*** was arrested, and sent via transport to Magdeburg.
The commander in Magdeburg thought the order of arrest which hadn't been signed by the King to be suspicious. Some claim that it had been signed by the King's name, but in an unreadable fashion. The Commander now sent the original arrest warrant to the King, and asked whether the King truly wished the arrestant to be brought to this fortress.
The King was not a little amazed about this turn of events. He investigated further, and Vöker's own handwriting testified against him, and proved he had seduced Glasow into such a punishable abuse of the royal authority. The King was incensed. He ordered that the prisoner was to be released at once. He sent Glasow for a year to the fortress Spandau, and Völker had to run the gauntlet twentyfour times, and later was put into the third bataillon of the guard as a common soldier.
I'm quoting at length not least because of one information about Leining's personal affairs which amused me in this context. Oh, and another thing, I've replaced lack - laquer - with "Wachs" because the summary from the Prussian archive says Glasow used wax to make a copy of Fredersdorf's ignet. On to Leining:
Monsieur mon tres cher ami et tres chere compere,
I have the pleasure of sending the signet which has been recreated. Lieutenant v. Gartz - Mildred, could this alternatively be Gentze? - will tell you about the infamous villanies, which because of all the mess I don't have the time to bring on paper. The Steward is a villain, but in this, he's innocent. I've enquired in a friendly manner, calling in many favours, and giving him underhandedly many good and bad words, until I received the wax used to recreate it from the signet maker. His Majesty wants to keep this secret, the signet maker will also go on trial. Enough, the bastards have gotten some of their reward, and I thank God I'm rid of him. Dear Friend, please help me out by informing me how you've done it around the 24th when you used to the receive the money, and afterwards granted the bills which have to be paid. You'll oblige and do a favour to our gracious King. I've received the bills from Michelet already. The winemaker has written to me that coffee and Burgundian wine were supposed to be delivered. But the King doesn't want them. Mon tres cher ami, would you be so kind as to check from whom the last few wines were coming from, I'm supposed to order those again, that would be lovely. Dearest Friend, have you already seen Lieutenent Michel? Guess what, His Majesty out of his own initiative has told me that when I'm returning home I should get married and live in my own house, as he's known me for a long time to be an honest fellow. What grace!
Please assure Mrs. Fredersdorf (literally "Mrs. Treasurer, i.e. Fredersdorf's highest ranking title) - of my respect, and thus I am remaining,
mon tres chere compere, etc.
I say, Leining, you're allowed to marry already, with no time loop required? Clearly, Fritz can't be into you. Am amused this reminds Leining to send his love to Caroline as well in this letter.
ETA: Also, another quote from the Glasow post, because Büsching gives us Schöning's direct take on who did what between Glasow and Wöllner/Völker, showing he thought they were both guilty and that Nicolai had let his sympathy for "poor young Glasow" carry himself away:
In the story of the attempted poisoning of the King (Sammlung 16, p. 69 f.) Völker has been confused with Glasow. (See my book about the King's character, p. 189 of the second edition.) Völker had been the coffee maker, but he didn't hand over the coffee to the King, that was done by chamber hussar Glasow, and the King only played the flute after having drunk coffee, not before. I put the story to Secret Councillor Schöning to judge, and his take is that Völker was much too smart to contribute something to an assassination attempt on the King, let alone to advise it. His crime supposedly consisted of playing secretary for Glasow and writing some orders in the name of the King which Glasow then sealed with the King's small seal, and through this, both of them caused their misery.
It's interesting that Fredersdorf's signet has become the King's seal, though presumably Glasow could have used both. Oh, and of course the first time I read your transcription was trying to bring the coffee and wine into context with Leining's investigation, assuming Glasow had faked coffee and wine orders, but then I reread and repuzzled a couple of times, and concluded that no, there are separate issues, he's moving on to Fritz not liking the latest wine delivery. And then there's the "I'm allowed to marry, how about that!" bit which cracks me up. Clearly, Leining is not replacing Glasow or Fredersdorf at least in one regard...
Re: Leining to Fredersdorf: Letter 3
Date: 2023-04-15 04:25 pm (UTC)No, I didn't remember, there are too many versions. :P Perhaps I should go refresh myself and that would help a lot.
Coffee maker. Coffee = Kaffee in German
Well, I had gotten as far as realizing that it looked like "Kaffee", but then there were so many weird letters before and after that I threw up my hands.
But in context with what you mention, yes, it makes sense now.
And likes Hungarian wine, which he in his letters to Fredersdorf mispells chronically - the word "Hungarian", I mean. Though it could also be Burgundian wine - from Bourgogne.
I was assuming Burgundian, and that influenced my choice of 'B' among all the possible capital letters it could have been, but now that you mention Hungarian, sure, it could be that too. Anything could be anything, really!
ETA: I will also note that I tried very hard to make it "Burgund" during the decipherment process, but whatever that scribble after the "n" is, it's not a "d". OTOH, if he's writing it in French, and the script for this word is French, I wouldn't expect a "d". I went back and forth on whether to put BorgonX or just Borgon, and eventually decided that "Borgon" made enough sense as "Burgundian" in French that I would omit the last scribble that I'm not sure is a letter.
Oh, and another thing, I've replaced lack - laquer - with "Wachs" because the summary from the Prussian archive says Glasow used wax to make a copy of Fredersdorf's ignet.
Makes sense! I kept looking for "Wachs" in this letter because of that summary, but I never saw it. See, transcribing gets me way down into narrow, letter-level focus, and my ability to make high-level connections is even more impaired than usual. (We all know I'm more a detail person than a big-picture person at the best of times.)
Part of the reason I'm passing these off to you for the translation and interpretation is so I can stay in that laser-focused headspace instead of having to come back out of it, read the letter, think about the letter, and then go back to trying to remember what individual characters look like when I'm staring at the next letter. The teamwork here is really allowing me to focus on the incredibly difficult task of decipherment, thank you!
v. Gartz - Mildred, could this alternatively be Gentze?
I tried to make it "Gentze", but that's a very clear 'a'. On the other hand, it could easily be Lt. von Gantz! I.e., the same person. Because it's the 18th century and what even is spelling, anyway.
OTOH, would a professional secretary have been a lieutenant? I would have assumed Gentze came from a family of middle class civil servants.
Oh, interesting, this guy--perhaps you know him?--came from a family of Prussian civil servants. Possible son of our guy? The dates work if our guy is getting married in 1757.
I've enquired in a friendly manner, calling in many favours, and giving him underhandedly many good and bad words
Ah, thank you, I could not fit these three phrases together at all!
Please assure Mrs. Fredersdorf (literally "Mrs. Treasurer, i.e. Fredersdorf's highest ranking title)
I was amused at Mrs. Treasurer!
I say, Leining, you're allowed to marry already, with no time loop required? Clearly, Fritz can't be into you.
HAHAHA, I was shocked, I tell you! And it was Fritz's idea?!
und in maXX Haus wohnen
See, this was one of those things where I knew exactly what I wanted it to be (there were several of those in this letter), to wit, the same thing you put, "my own", but even trying very hard, I can make out no "i" or "g" in maXX. It looks like "mand", which made no sense to me *at all*.
Oh, and of course the first time I read your transcription was trying to bring the coffee and wine into context with Leining's investigation, assuming Glasow had faked coffee and wine orders, but then I reread and repuzzled a couple of times, and concluded that no, there are separate issues, he's moving on to Fritz not liking the latest wine delivery.
Yep, I went through the same thought process. Though I admit to not being able to figure out as much as you did.
And then there's the "I'm allowed to marry, how about that!" bit which cracks me up. Clearly, Leining is not replacing Glasow or Fredersdorf at least in one regard...
Hee!
Re: Leining to Fredersdorf: Letter 3
Date: 2023-04-15 08:08 pm (UTC)I was guessing “meinem” - as in. “In meinem Haus” - as this is 18th century, and a hastily written letter, “meinem” could be mispelled any way, like “mainem, “mainam”, and so forth.
Gentze: the potential groom’s last name is Leining, remember, Gentze is Fredersdorf’s former and Leining’s future secretary, status of marriage or lack of same unknown. However, I have heard of this Gentze you linked, not least he showed up as an unlikely correspondent of late 18th/early 19th legendary salonierre Rahel (nee Levin, married Varnhagen von Ense). Rahel was one of the pioneers of German-Jewish ladies trying to leave orthodoxy behind and live an intellectual and society life. Technically, she wrote no book, but her letters - she was one of the most celebrated letter writers of the day - were edited into one of the most popular books of the 19th century by her husband, who is that same Varnhagen who also wrote biographies of several Fredericians. Rahel was a liberal (hence unlikely correspondant of Gentze the conservative) and famous for her wit. She also was bff with one of the great femme fatals and courtesans of the day, Pauline, who in turn became the mistress of Heinrich’s favourite nephew Louis Ferdinand. (The one whose flirt and potential one night stand with Comte de la Roche-Raymon’s wife caused a near duel.) The Pauline/Louis Ferdinand affair was years later, after Heinrich’s death, and having met Rahel through Pauline, Louis F became also great friends with her, and the fact a Hohenzollern prince regularlyl participated in the salon of a female Jewish intellectual was basically unheard of. Alas, then Prussia fought Napoleon and Louis died and Pauline left to gallivant around Europe and Rachel had to close her salon for a few years, and when she held another salon, it was a new age and nationalism had allied with antisemitism.
On a note of: it’s a small Berlin world: Caroline’s grandson Achim von Armin, the writer, managed to antisemtically insult another Jewish-German hostess and when her brother challenged him to a duel, he refused the challenge because he was a Prussian nobleman who couldn’t possible duel with a Jew. The brother then went on to participate in the next round of the Napoleonic wars, when Prussia was among the allies to beat Napoleon, and died in battle, and as Achim von Armin had not joined the war effort, public sympathy swung completly against him, and the obvious comparaison as to who had been acting honoralble and who like a total jerk was made. Not least by Varnhagen von Ense, Rahel’s husband, who wrote a biting essay on the whole affair.
Re: Leining to Fredersdorf: Letter 3
Date: 2023-04-15 08:31 pm (UTC)*facepalm*
I gave up on deciphering today for lack of sleep; I really should have given up on typing altogether, clearly. ;)
Anyway, regardless of marriage dates, maybe they're related, in that the Gentzes are civilian civil servants and thus unlikely to be Lt. G---, but one never knows. I can't really read the name.
However, I have heard of this Gentze you linked
The Wikipedia page was long enough that I figured you had! Especially with Metternich featuring prominently.
It is indeed a small Berlin world! Thank you for drawing all the connections.
Deciphering status: about half of letter 4 is deciphered, it seems to be a whole lot of fiscal details, corresponding to this part of the box bill summary:
However, the secretary Gentze, who first worked for Fredersdorf and then for Leining, thought he remembered that at least one of the bills had been paid with funds from the September 1756 coffers. And so the new secret chamberlain turned to the old one with the request "to have the Chatoulle invoices for the month of September: ap [= 1756] looked at, possibly also for the following months, and then to report to me [Leining] what is necessary."
Tomorrow, or as soon as I sleep better, my plan is to figure out how this particular hand makes letters like e, r, n, m, w, i, o, and u, and how to tell them apart, in both French and German, and then use that information to decipher a bunch more of the letter, and then we'll see where we stand.
Anyway, I can already tell it's April 14 and Leining is still asking Fredersdorf about the bills and writing "Ich habe dagegen die Ehre, mit XXXXXX hochachtung," so...SOMEBODY is not in any obvious disgrace, and I think Wegfraß never even found this material.
Btw, I did some archive searching today (easy to do on very little sleep) and turned up "Untersuchung gegen den Kriegsrat Pfeiffer und den Kolonisten-Kommissar Meschker, April 1757, Juli 1759" in the Prussian archives, and I will probably order it in the next round of orders. (Still waiting on my latest round from the order I placed over a month ago--with Peter Keith genealogy and the Groeben letters.)
The Saxon archives are also very ambiguous (at least to a non-native and slow reader of German) about whether you can place orders for copy material, but I found some information that points in the direction of maybe, so at some point when I feel up to reading reams of handwritten French (next year?), I might see if they'll send me Suhm's envoy reports from Berlin.
There are also apparently VOLUMES of investigations against Pfeiffer in the mid 1750s, or at least that's what the Brandenburg State Archive catalogue makes it look like. I may someday decide to find out if *they* make digital copies on request, but we'll see. I'm sticking with the Prussians now, since I already know they make copies, what the process is, that it's affordable*, and that this set of documents is shorter and may contain what we need, without sifting through tons of boring fiscal data that just proves what we already know. I would just love to get a specific archive document that I have looked at myself, i.e. isn't just me relying on Wegfraß and her lack of citations, to back my essay's claim that the encyclopedias are wrong.
Anyway! Fun times in archives.
* British National Archives, WHYYYY so expensive. :((
Re: Leining to Fredersdorf: Letter 3
Date: 2023-04-16 12:47 am (UTC)to bring on paper
By Jove, you're right! I can get the characters "bapihr" out of what I'm looking at, and that must be "Papier". I just ran into (a properly spelled) "Papier" in letter 5, and I had a brain flash and went back to look at what I had in my head as "bagpiper" (:P). And sure enough, not only is it reconcilable with "Papier," that's how you translated it. Your intuitions are working very well!
(You do see why I didn't venture to report "bapihr" with confidence, though, right? ;))
Spekaing of "Papier" in letter 5...good news for you all, bad news for me: the phrase "Glasows Papier" appears in letter 5, meaning I do in fact have to decipher that one, and it's 3 pages long. :P
(Letter 4 is not quite done, but I had a last-minute burst of energy, so got quite a bit further. Should be able to pass it off sometime tomorrow.)
Re: Leining to Fredersdorf: Letter 3
Date: 2023-04-16 07:02 am (UTC)I'm still amused that Sachsens Glanz und Preußens Gloria cast a paunchy middle aged guy as Glasow, when the one thing every one agrees upon is tha he was a sexy himbo and that this is why Fritz hired and promoted him in the first place.
Heinrich: In the light of later events, I'm restraining myself not to comment. At least Kaphengst would never have spied on me!
Fritz: There was nothing to spy on. And given that Reisewitz already embezzled your money when you were still in your 20s, you better not comment.
Re: Leining to Fredersdorf: Letter 3
Date: 2023-04-16 06:04 pm (UTC)Sadly, I don't think Leining is going to tell us. It's just our luck that he promises Fredersdorf a complete account, and then doesn't have time to put it in writing and sends a messenger instead!!
Heinrich: In the light of later events, I'm restraining myself not to comment. At least Kaphengst would never have spied on me!
Fritz: There was nothing to spy on. And given that Reisewitz already embezzled your money when you were still in your 20s, you better not comment.
*dies*
Re: Leining to Fredersdorf: Letter 3
Date: 2023-04-17 12:19 am (UTC)Fritz: There was nothing to spy on. And given that Reisewitz already embezzled your money when you were still in your 20s, you better not comment.
HAHAHAHHA omg!
Re: Leining to Fredersdorf: Letter 3
Date: 2023-04-17 12:19 am (UTC)Völker wrote an order of arrest to the commander of Magdeburg in the name of the King, Glasow used the King's small seal, B*** was arrested, and sent via transport to Magdeburg.
Gosh! That would explain the seal stuff, anyway...
It's interesting that Fredersdorf's signet has become the King's seal, though presumably Glasow could have used both.
This makes sense to me as a change in the story, it's at least a bit easier to say "the King's seal" than "the signet of the King's chamberlain, who is otherwise not really relevant to this story."
Guess what, His Majesty out of his own initiative has told me that when I'm returning home I should get married and live in my own house, as he's known me for a long time to be an honest fellow. What grace!
Me: WHAT?
:D
Please assure Mrs. Fredersdorf (literally "Mrs. Treasurer, i.e. Fredersdorf's highest ranking title) - of my respect
Aww, that's cute.