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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: Leining to Fredersdorf: Letter 2
Date: 2023-04-16 03:16 pm (UTC)OMG, clearly Glasow was the equivalent of the shiny red Porsche, yes. One of these days I'll have to brave Zimmermann again to check how exactly he says Luchesini (at least we are guessing it's Luchesini) aka the closest confidant of Fritz' later years phrased Fritz having told him he had sex until directly before the 7 Years War in ye days before Zimmermann saw through this pretense and realised the truth of the broken penis.
BTW, going through the various versions of the Glasow tale, it occurs to me that the "Fritz didn't like Glasow consorting with women" bit only shows up in the versions based on Schöning who of course, having been in Fritz' service later, has reason to assume this, given how much of a fuss Fritz made about anyone marrying or having girlfriends. (Except Leining, clearly.) Because the gossip as heard by Lehndorff doesn't mention this factor (as opposed to the stolen money, seals and possible poisoning by chocolate, nor does the AW letter, the Henckel von Donnersmarck diary entry, or the Kalckreuth memoir. Lehndorff and Kalckreuth mention the Countess Brühl though not in a romantic context, while AW just says "the Saxons" in general.
Manger, author of the History of the Builders and Architects in Potsdam: At this point, I'd like to point out that Fritz was obsessed with people filching money from him. Even I was accused of this, and before you say anything, Des Champs, this was many years after Fredersdorf had died. I did join the Potsdam Baukontor in 1753, though, so I knew Fredersdorf and I probably knew Glasow in person, too. My own take on Glasow in my book was:
Glasow, a fireworker's son from Berlin. His father later as a Zeugleutnant was transfered to Brieg in Silesia, took him along, and put him, presumably because he wasn't very obedient, into the garnison infantry regiment stationed there. There, King Friedrich spotted him in 1755, took him along to Potsdam where he made him a chamber hussar and distinguished him with a special red uniform. In the year 1756 shortly before the campaign, Fredersdorf was ill and the valet Anderson was in disgrace, so the King made Glasow valet, entrusted his purse to him from which at times money was sent to the building adminstration, and showed him great favor. But in the following year, 1757, he was imprisoned for proven treason and betrayal against the King and sent from Dresden to Spandau, where he died in 1758 already.
Re: Leining to Fredersdorf: Letter 2
Date: 2023-04-16 03:25 pm (UTC)You can see why the rumors that Fritz has ditched his faithful spouse of 20 years for the hot young model!
distinguished him with a special red uniform
Shiny red Porsche, shiny red chamber hussar... :P Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.
Re: Leining to Fredersdorf: Letter 2
Date: 2023-04-16 03:38 pm (UTC)BTW, Kalkreuth's "Antinous wasn't more beautiful" (than Glasow) is one of those classical allusions (like years earlier Manteuffel comparing Fritz to Hadrian vis a vis Seckendorff the Nephew) which the educated contemporaries would have gotten immediately but apparently Charlotte Pangels and all the other "Voltaire was the only contemporary to ever say that Fritz was gay!" biographers did not. Meanwhile, I am wondering whether Kalckreuth speaks of personal experience. I mean, his insistence on Glasow's innocence doesn't, like Nicolai's, come with picking someone else as the true villain (i.e. the coffee maker Wöllner/Völker - has that guy shown up yet in the letters, Mildred) responsible for the misdeed(s), he just insists there were no misdeeds in the first place other than Glasow accepting a tea/chocolate invitation from the Countess Brühl and not reporting it, and that the sacked page made it all up. Since clearly there was at the very least some embezzling going on, I'm wondering about Kalckreuth's motives here. I mean, he was already Heinrich's boyfriend but not yet his AD (Henckel von Donnersmarck was), and while no Kaphengst, I bet he wasn't monogamous.
Re: Leining to Fredersdorf: Letter 2
Date: 2023-04-16 03:46 pm (UTC)Are we sure they've even read Kalckreuth? He's not mentioned in MacDonogh or Blanning, I just checked. I honestly think we of salon (by which I mostly mean you) have read reams of sources on Fritz that many of his biographers have not.
(i.e. the coffee maker Wöllner/Völker - has that guy shown up yet in the letters, Mildred)
I'm only 3 lines ahead of you, and so far no, but still almost 3 pages to go in this letter, so we'll see.
ETA: I finished my first passthrough of the first paragraph, and I'm only missing 2 words, and I can already tell it's only mentioning Glasow in passing; Leining's talking about the payment of the order for Champagne wine that he found in Glasow's papers. Nothing exciting yet. We'll see about the second paragraph, but these letters may have run out of interesting Glasow gossip.
Since clearly there was at the very least some embezzling going on, I'm wondering about Kalckreuth's motives here. I mean, he was already Heinrich's boyfriend but not yet his AD (Henckel von Donnersmarck was), and while no Kaphengst, I bet he wasn't monogamous.
Hmm! It's possible!