Historical Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 43

[cahn]

Still going! Still clearing Fritz's valet/chamberlain Fredersdorf's name from the calumny enshrined in wikipedia that he was dismissed for financial irregularities!

Comments

[mildred_of_midgard]

Heee, this made me laugh! The Boston branch of the Justice for Fredersdorf Society is exhausted but proud!

[selenak]

'The Boston branch has reason to be proud. Even if from the fifth letter onwards it's all about the bills Glasow left behind, it still demonstrates that Fredersdorf continues to be a trusted individual whose expertise is wanted, as opposed to a disgraced former favourite whose disgrace had to be covered up.

I have a million things to do today, but I'll try to post tomorrow or in the days thereafter with more about Frederick Hervey.

Leining to Fredersdorf: Letter 5

[mildred_of_midgard]

I'm not doing the whole thing, but here's my first pass of the first part, illustrating why I haven't bothered to do subsequent passes:

Monsieur et tres cher compere!

Ich habe die Rechnung von Baumbach & Dimpfel aus Hamburg
wegen der letzten nunmehro abgeschickte 12 Korbe Champagner-Wein
mit dero gXehXXsten schreiben von 10 dieses richtig erhalten. [Das]
von kleinen Posten werde ich zu d[er] Haupt-Rechnung von d[enen]
[2/M]? bouteiller Champagner-Weinen, so ich unter Glasows Papie-
ren gefunden, [so]rgen und die Summe sodann XiXs[a|e]n [wenn]
ich die XXacht-Rechnung von dero Hamburger, Schifer, [der die] gedachte
Korbe geladen, wi[r]d angekommen seyn. Der Versägung zu das
Schiffers bezahlung ist bereits in Berlin gemacht worden.
Die instructionen welche mon chere compere mir in dero letztere
Schreiben von 13 dieses geb[en] XX XXXX ich mit d[e]m verb[ün]d[e]nsten
danck, und diselben werden mich allem [ahl] ganz ungemein ver-
[g]Xlichten, wenn Wir bey vorfallenden gelegenheiten damit continu[iren]
wollen. Ich wurde auch den Vorschlag das ich die in Berlin und
Potsdam XXllende XXXXXliche DispositionXX-Gelder durch den XXXX
geheime-Rath Koppe[r|n] besorgen und dXX Rest bXXr durch dieselbe
anhero schic[k]en [l]assen möchte, gXXge[m|n] befolgen, wenn ich nicht
Xermith die furXichtung dargestalt gemacht XXXXX [aus?] die Cammer,
dXXXX Hundertmarck die Ausfallung dieser Gelder in Berlin und
Potsdam behalten, und der Rest par assignation an die General-
XXld Konigs-Casse ubermacht werden sollte. Damit der Herr
Hundertmarck seine Sache ordentlich macht und ich wegen de[n]
ge[scheh]nen bezahlung vollkommer gesichert sei, habe ihm ausgegeben
XesteXX die Quitungen ausXXXXX XXXXXXXX ausstellen lassen und
in originali zur revision an mich XXschicken soll, aus solche XXXt

And, more interesting, I saw some personal stuff in the last paragraph, which I decided to transcribe. It occurs to me that I should probably check the last paragraph of each of the letters, as that's where Leining logically puts the personal stuff. Here's what I've got for this one:

Sr. Konigl. Mayt. befinden sich gott lob! wohl und gesund. Ich
wünsche, daß der güte effect, den Sie nach das schlesischer Doctor's Cur
verspühren continuiren möge. MeineX f[raü] werde ich ihre inattention
v[e]r[we]is[en] und übrigens allemahl durch alle P[rufen] der freundschaft, so
Sie von mir verlangen können, zeigen, daß ich aufrichtigst bin
Monsieur et tres cher compere
votre tres humble
et obeysant serviteur
Leining

Selena, what do you make of "MeineX f[ra]ü werde ich ihre inattention v[e]r[we]is[en]"? It doesn't help that I'm not sure of the reading of the noun or the verb (or, quite frankly, "MeineX"), but that's partly because the context doesn't make sense: surely he can't be married already? It's only April 16! It's only been 6 days since Fritz said, "When I return home I should get married and live in my own house."

My reading is that his fiancee/secret wife/future wife is living in Berlin/Potsdam and neglecting to pay Fredersdorf and Mrs. Treasurer social visits, and Fredersdorf mentioned this in his last letter (which we of course don't have :( ), and Leining is promising to reproach her, but you tell me. As alawys, feel free to substitute any characters that make more sense, especially in the verb. (I, for example, did a lot of substitution to get "Prufen", but it makes more sense than, for example, Ponlen. :P Though if you can think of anything sense-making with an "l" instead of an 'f' and some random vowels, 'r's, and or 'n's on either side of it, let me know.)

ETA: Flipping ahead instead of doing work :P, I see a definite "ma femme" in the postscript to letter June 3. "Je vous rend Grace pour le vin, ma femme s'engXXXXa". (It looks like "engrisera", but not sure what that would mean, aside from looking like a 3rd person singular future.) Anyway, no time to ponder, just throwing that out there. Leining definitely has a wife.

Child of ETA: A little poking around gives me "s'engraissera", which means "will get fat." ...I mean, I know alcohol has a lot of calories, but that's not usually the first thing I think to say when someone gives me a bottle of wine! Maybe there's missing context in the last Fredersdorf letter, and the Fredersdorfs are having Mrs. Leining over for dinner a lot? Or maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree.

Re: Leining to Fredersdorf: Letter 5

[luzula]

"ma femme s'engraissera"

I haven't had the time to read these write-ups, but I just happened to glance at this one...could she be pregnant?

Algarotti/Glasow???

[mildred_of_midgard]

I was flipping ahead in the Leining correspondence, looking for potentially interesting material, and what do I find but:

Monsieur mon tres chere compere!

Einliegender brief ist heüte ünter Glasows Adresse aüs Bologna
von dem Grafen Algarotti [mit] angekommen. Ich [XXXX]gele [n]icht
derselben sogleich zu über[ma]chen, und mon cher compere von der aüs-
nehmenden hochachtüng zu ve[r]sichern mit der beständig seyn wird,

Monsieur mon tres chere compere,
votre tres humble et
obeisant Serviteur
Leining

Haupt-Quartier bei Prag
7ter Juni 1757

No time to do a second passthrough, but here's my interpretation of the gist of the bolded part (I'm assuming either "übermachen" can mean "make over to" aka "überreichen", or else an "rei" can look a lot like an "ma"):

The enclosed letter, from Bologna, by Count Algarotti, reached me today via Glasow's address. I don't intend to hand it over to him immediately.

My mind immediately went to Algarotti/Glasow, but Algarotti left Prussia before Glasow became part of Fritz's retinue! This must be in response to the arrest, because early June is just enough time for the news of Glasow's early April arrest to have reached Italy and a return letter to have come back. But WHY?

A couple explanations occur to me: Glasow was actually in Fritz's retinue in 1753 or even 1752. I don't think we have a secure date for that. Or, Glasow was in a regiment in Potsdam and Algarotti actually spotted him before Fritz did.

In which case, *maybe* the two platonically bonded over their mutual love of Newton, but forgive me if my mind goes immediately to sex instead. :P Or maybe they never met, but Glasow has been secretly writing to Algarotti? Maybe pretending to be writing on behalf of Fritz?

Throwing this out there in case other people have convincing explanations, for I have none.

Also, considering Leining wrote a whole letter to Fredersdorf just to forward on this letter that Algarotti wrote to Glasow, I have this mental image that the subtext here is, "I'm not touching Algarotti-Fritz-Glasow with a ten-foot pole. I know you're retired, but this is above my paygrade!" :P

Re: Algarotti/Glasow???

[mildred_of_midgard]

Wait! Breaking news! I was hoping there would be a follow-up about this latest development, and sure enough, there's a July letter that starts, "I received your letter of the 27th of the previous month about the Algarotti letter" and something something Abbe de Prades something something "Glasows Adresse."

Okay, I guess I know what I'm deciphering next! Definite shenanigans going on here, and I hope Leining explains them clearly. I really wish we had Fredersdorf's half of the correspondence!

I also could have sworn I saw a word written in the Latin script, which usually means a proper name, that looked like "Volozer", in the same line as the word "Kaffee". Could this be Völker? I will add that part to my list.

You know, there are 23 pages left, including some really crowded ones where the margins are filled up with horizontal lines and such. I'm seriously entertaining the possibility of taking a full week off work just to work through this correspondence. Hopefully by the end I would be significantly faster. *ponders*

Frederick Hervey: Beginnings of a Voltairian Bishop

[selenak]

Overall: A short and entertaining biography by Brian Fothergill. Comes with some 1970s sexism (mostly directed at Emma Hamilton) and not exactly homophobia but weird ideas, as when the author quotes first Pope's vicious satire on Hervey the memoirist (which basically accuses Lord Hervey of androgyny and gayness) and then proudly points out Hervey produced eight chlidren with Molly for all that supposed gayness, so there, Alexander Pope. (Brian Fothergill, the ability to procreate doesn't say anything about one's sexual orientation, not that said orientation needs defending in the first place. As cahn said, if Monsieur could do it... ) , but is not, repeat not, a hagiography. Our author points out that Frederick Hervey had a definite cruel streak in his temper, was very self centric and unbelievably callous when cutting off people and/or ignoring them despite all professed previous affection. It's no wonder Augustus was Molly's favourite son; loyalty isn't Frederick's strong suit, at least not when it comes to women, be they wives, daughters or mistresses/ heavily flirted with female friends. (William Hamilton as Fothergill says was one of the very few exceptions in Frederick's life, a relationship that lasted their entire life time, literally, because they were both born in 1730 (you know, that year where the most exciting thing that happened was Heinrich moving in with AW) and died in the same year, too, and from their public school days at Westminster on were firm friends who never had a fallout. Which is true for hardly anyone else and the Earl-Bishop. Though presumably it helped that once William Hamilton becomes an envoy, it's a long distance friendship punctured by occasional visits.

Sources: Fothergill doesn't use footnotes on the same page, but he does use notes to each chapter in the appendix, which, however, makes it more difficult to look up which source he uses for which quote. This is especially inconvenient because on the one hand, Fothergill uses "The Hamliton and Nelson Papers", edited by Morrison, A., but then he also uses "The Memoirs of Lady Hamilton", which made me go ?????, because while I know Alexandre Dumas wrote a novel about Emma in memoirs format - not like the fake memoirs of Madame de Maintenon, these were openly published under his name, Alexandre Dumas, as a historical novel - , I couldn't remember the latest Emma biography I'd read, "England's Mistress" by Kate Wiliams, mentioning Emma wrote real memoirs. Then I googled and saw they - very different book to the Dumas novel - were published the year after her death, and yeah, that pretty much settles it for me as a fake a la the Maintenon memoirs that got Voltaire so upset. Emma was a broke alcoholic when she died. Which not only makes it doubtful she'd have had the focus and energy to write her memoirs, but also that if she had been able to, she would have published them before she died in order to get some cash, her financial circumstances were that desperate. Anyway, Fothergill uses these "Memoirs" as an actual source, which means you have to look up any Hamilton related story or letter in the appendix notes (if you can) for whether it's sourced to the "Memoirs" or to "The Hamilton and Nelson papers". Bad Fothergill.

On to the story of Frederick, third son of Hervey the memoirist and Molly, named after Fritz of Wales who was his literal godfather in the heyday of his and Hervey the Memoirist's friendship. Frederick goes to Westminster at age 12 where he meets his friend for life, William Hamilton (Horowski says they met when 16, Fothergill says when they were 12) and loses his (mostly absent) father. Being a third son, Fred inherits 100 pounds a year for his education and maintenance from Hervey, plus an annuity of 200 pounds a year once his grandfather, Lord Bristol, dies, which won't happen for eight more years. (Lucky for Molly who lives with her father-in-law, since Hervey's will was notoriously hostile towards her, leaving her no more than he absolutely had to.) Fothergill quotes a letter from Molly about Frederick to her son's tutor which will turn out to be the only Molly quote we get in the entire book. Whatever the reason for the later fallout between Molly and Frederick, and between Augustus and Frederick, it's not narrated here.

"I am extremly pleased with all you say of Frederick for I value your judgment. He has certainly very good parts and great application, and will, I am persuaided, make a consderable figure in the world. I have heard from him of late pretty often; he is a very agreeable and entertaining correspondent. His scheme of study and travelling as you relate it to me seems a very good one."

So life long traits like Frederick being witty and entertaining (if he wants to) and having wanderlust are already there. From Westminster, Fred goes to Cambridge, entering Corpus Christi College on November 10th 1747. He makes friends who see the resemblance to Dad - "his splrightliness, wit, vivacity and learning prove him to be a genuine Hervey, and the son of my Lord Privy Seal" - and he turns out to be good at languages (master of five, according to one sources), and we get a quote from later day Frederick where he wrote when travelling: I have applied myself so close to recover Hebrew and Italian (not taht I propose being either circumcised or castrated) that I have had little time to write mere English. But does he actually finish his studies. He does not. When Grandpa Bristol dies in January 1751 and Frederick's favourite brother, George, becomes the next Earl of Bristol, Fred leaves Cambridge without taking a degree ("examinations were for lesser men", comments Fothergill and adds that Frederick three years later took his degree in absentia by right as a nobleman's son. (Stuff like this makes you go "Vive la revolution!" doesn't it.)

Now, Frederick needs a job or a rich wife. Instead, not a year after leaving Cambridge without a degree, he marries for love, and the penniless daughter of a Tory, no less (scandal for a Whig family like the Herveys), Elizabeth, nicknamed "Excellent". Molly can't object to a marriage for love since that's how she and Hervey the Memoirists got together, but Elizabeth's Lady Davers can and does and only receives her daughter and son-in-law for the first time when already a daughter has made her appearance. With a wife and a baby, Frederick needs a job even more, and despite having read law at Cambridge, he decides to join the Church. (Well, he couldn't join the navy, could he, that was Augustus' thing.) With his aristocratic connections, he gets made deacon and ordained and produces kids with the devoted Excellent, whom I'l continue to call this because there's another important Elizabeth in the story. But attempts to get a good position within the curch fail, except for being made Chaplain to young King George III. (A nominal and somewhat ironic position, given that G3 later will be shocked by and dislike Frederick the Bishop - "The wicked Prelate" - , but this early on, there's no objection.) Also, two of Excellent's brothers commit suicide and one is killed by Indians in America, which means some inheritance, which means the Herveys, Frederick and Excellent, make their first long journey through the continent. There, Frederick Hervey looks up Voltaire (who after all was friendly with both his parents), still alive at Ferney:

The Patriarch of Ferney, now aged seventy-one, indicated the church and the theatre he had recently built and asked the question: 'Où jouet t'on la plus grande farce?" Hervey studied the two buildings and replied: 'C'est selon les auteurs.'

You might guess here that Frederick Hervey's reputation re: his faith is on less than orthodox grounds before he ever makes bishop. Anyway, he also visits Naples where his bff William Hamilton is now envoy and has been for two years, and this is when I rose my eyebrows not at Fred but at Fothergill, for: It was the period of his first marriage to the quiet and charming Catherine Barlow, and many years before the beautiful but predatory Emmma Hart appeared on the scene.

Err. Excuse you, Brian Fothergill. "Predatory"? Later, he'll top that and say, re: Emma "she brought out the worst in him, as she did in all men". I mean: WHAT? Let's recapitulate: Emma the blacksmith's daughter comes to London really young, barely a teenager, gets first exploited as a maid, and then has a period where she was likely a teenage prostitute, and then, still only 16, is able to secure herself a position as a kept woman to a nobleman, Sir Herry Featherstonehaugh. No one has ever been able to accuse her of not being faithful to him, and it was Featherstonehaugh to dumped her like a hot potato once she got pregnant by him and produced her first kid, little Emily. Emma then gets together with Charles Greville, nephew to Sir William Hamilton. Again, she was faithful, and she remade herself according to his wishes (he was the one to put her through a quick education program). If anyone was behaving badly (and outrageously so), it was Greville, who when he got a) bored and b) was afraid his now widowed Uncle would remarry and thus reduce his inheritance hit upon the financial scheme of handing over his mistress to his uncle, thereby hitting two birds (in his pov) with one stone: William Hamilton would have to pay for Emma's upkeep, and since he couldn't possibly marry her, would remain a widower leaving all his money to Charles Greville. It's not like tihs is disputed, we have the letters between all the parties, we know Emma did not know this when arriving at Naples because as far as she knew, she was here to earn Sir William's good will so he would okay a marriage between Charles Greville and her, and Charles G. would follow soon after. So how on earth is Emma the predator in this whole sorry saga? As for her "bringing out the worse in men" - it's not her fault both Harry Featherstonehaugh and Charles Greville were cads. The fact that Sir William Hamilton did against all rules of the time marry her hardly is a demonstration of his worst side, I'd say if anything it speaks of his better qualities, as did that he stood by Emma during the Nelson years to the point of calming Nelson down when Nelson through a jealous fit after the Prince Regent hit on Emma. Nelson himself: did behave badly towards his wife, but good lord, he was an adult. What, the man is able to defeat the French at sea but mustn't be blamed for his own decisions in his private life? Fie on you, Brian Fothergill.

End of Justice For Emma interlude, I swear. Back to Frederick Hervey.

Re: Frederick Hervey: Beginnings of a Voltairian Bishop

[mildred_of_midgard]

Ask and ye shall receive! :DDD


Have read, will try to comment this weekend. The one-page Anderson letter took 3 hours, so you can see where all my time is going. (Okay, part of that 3 hours was reading this write-up, but still. ;) )

Frederick Hervey: Hero to the Irish and Deadbeat Dad

[selenak]

This is him describing his first climb of Vesuvious when in Naples with chum William:

At last after about an hour's fatigue we reached the summit, where we found a great hollow of about forty feet and half a mile round: at the bottom of this were two large mouths from whence hte maintain frequently threw up two or three hundred red hot stones some as big as your head, and some considerably larger. One of these struck me on the right arm, and without giving me much pain at the time made a wound about 2 inches deep, tore my coat all to shreads, and by a great effusion of blood alarmed my companions more than myself. IN a few days it became very painful, then dangerous, and so continued to confine me to my bed and my room for near five weeks.

But whlie he's recovering, oldest brother George gets the post as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and that means, at least. a bishopry for Frederick - first Boyne, and then Derry.

Now, Frederick's early Irish years are actually him at his best. Yes, he lived in aristocratic style, but he did take the job and the country seriously. One of the earliest things he does is a visitation in his entire diocese, visiing each parish and assuring himself that every parson is adequatly housed. He also makes a levy on every living (including his own which he valued at 6,000 pounds a yar) to raise a fund for the support of superannuated curates. Some of these reforms were received with mixed feelings; but one, at least, had the enthusiastic support of his Irish clergy. This was his resolution never to appoint an Englishman to an Irish benefice. It was acts sujch as this, according to William Cole, which "rendered him the idol of his people and had a wonderful effect in conciliating the natives of that kingdom, who were not apt to be over-fond of the English Clergy."

No kidding. Then there's the story his wiki entry also contains in shorter form.

On one occasion when a particularly rich living had fallen vacant he invited the fattest of his clergy and entertained them with a splendid dinner. As they rose heavily from the table he proposed that they should run a race and that the winner should have the living as his price. Greed contending with consternation the fat clerics were sent panting and purple-faced on their way, but the Bishop had so polanned it that the course took them across a stretch of boggy ground where they were all left floundering and gasping int he mud, quite incapable of continuing. None reached the winning-post. The living was bestowed elsewhere, and the Bishop, though hardly his exhausted and humiliated guests, found the evening highly diverting.

This is the first though not the last time when our author points out the streak of cruelty within Frederick Hervey, and yeah, this kind of prank feels, if not identical to FW style "pranks", to at least heading towards this way. (Much as he's entertaining in general, by the time I finished the book I was glad Frederick Hervey had never been an absolute monarch.) Still, his actions in Ireland were his best, by and large. As opposede to many an (Protestant) Englishman holding land and office in the country, he could see that the (Catholic) Irish were treated abominably, that the situation was a powder kegg which could not go on forever, and that you couldn't go on denying Catholics nearly all civil rights while patting yourself on the back for being the most enlightened nation of Europe. When he went on the first long continental journey without "Excellent", for two years (1770 - 1772), he still used his visit in Rome to get two audiences with the Pope and tried to negotiate an agreement that would allow Irish Catholics to be treated better (Hervey's idea was that they should swear off any Stuart loyalties, swear loyalty to G3 and that they did not recognize the Pope as an authority in temporal matters, "just" in spiritual ones, and then all would be well. He was somewhat surprised when the Pope wasn't keen to signing on to this.) Frederick H., btw, had less than zero Jacobite enthusiasm; when in Rome, he met not BPC (by now a drunken depressed wreck) but the young trophy wife BCP had married and her lover the poet Alfieri, became friends with them, and what few references to BPC are in his letters are to "the poor sod".

Now the official wardrobe for Anglican bishops was the black frock and short cassock. This, Frederick Hervey decided, would not do in Italy among the Catholics where Bishops were dressed up way smarter, and so he created his own costume: Many years later Lord Cloncurry recalled how he had seen 'the excentric Earl-Bishop ride about the streets of Rome dressedin red plush breeches and a broad brimmed white or straw hat, and was often asked if that was the canonical costume of an Irish prelate'

This was when G3, who took a dim view of prelates not present in their bishopry and of Protestants behaving undignifiedly, started to refer to him as "the wicked Prelate".

What did Frederick Hervey believe? Fothergill:

Emma Hamilton, who knew him well, held the opinoin that 'though an ecclesiastic of such high station in the church, the bihsop was an avowed sceptic in religion, the doctrines and institutions of which he would not scruple to ridicule in the company of women, treating even the immortality of the soul as an article of doubt and indifference.' Certainly Emma brought out the worst in him, as she did in most men, but others shared her view. The Countess Lichtenau (who was we shall see knew him as well as Emma did) declared roundly that the Bishop of Derry 'professed no religion alrhough he had strong innate principles'.

(The supposed Emma quote is from her supposed Memoirs.)

As the friend of Voltaire, the student of geology at a time when official Christianity frowned on any scientific speculation that might challenge a strictly fundamentalist interpretation of Holy Scripture, a Whig magnate in a bishop's apron, he at no time aspired to a public reputation for piety; and to the narrowly orthodox a man whom Jeremy Bentham could describe as 'a most excellent companion, pleasant, intelligent, a well bred and well read, liberal-minded to the last degree, has been everywhere and knows everything" was bound to be suspect.

In 1775, brother George dies without heirs, which makes brother Augustus the next Earl of Bristol. Since brother Augustus is married to Elizabeth Chudley the bigamist and has a bastard son but no legitimate kids, this now puts Frederick into expection of eventually inheriting the Earldom. He's still sorry for George's demise: Within the last few days I have lost the kindest and most affectionate brother. This has blunted in me every sense of pleasure, and left me a mass and lump of inanimate matter. He has testified his kindness for me to the last; but no accession to wealth, especially to one in my situation, can compensate for the loss of a real friend (...)

He does start a building palaces program, though. On the extreme northern coast of Londonderry, a mansion called "Downhill". Which becomes his favourite residence before he'll leave Ireland for good, for the last eleven years of his life. (G3 goes spare.)

But before I get to the later journeys, let's talk about Frederick Hervey as a father. Because the biography clarifed that he is the father of one the most sensational talked about ladies of her day. His daughter Elizabeth would bear several names in her time, but is best known as Bess Foster, and when I came across her in this biography, I thought, OMG, Bess Foster is a Hervey, that explains so much.

What she's best known for: a menage a trois where, depending on whom you believe, either Bess first seduces the Duchess and then the Duke of Devonshire, and lives with both, or that she becomes bff with the Duchess, platonic or not, and then the Duke, jealous and mean, wants sex and because her income depends on him she agrees. The Duchess was Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, whose biography by Amanda Foreman takes a somewhat more cynical view of Bess than the movie based on it, The Duchess (where the Duchess is played by Keira Knightley and Bess by Haley Atwell, Peggy Carter herself), and the question as to whether Bess was looking out for No.1 the entire time - she'd marry the Duke three years after Georgiana's death - or whether her friendship/love for Georgiana was sincere but she was also a realist and the money came from the Duke - Georgiana was a massive gambler who gambled entire fortunes away and could not have supported herself - is still debated. But anyway: the letters between Georgiana and Bess were pretty intense even for the 18th century and if they didn't have actual sex they definitely had an emotional love affair. Since Bess reproduced with the Duke (Ralph Fiennes in the movie), they definitely had sex, but whether he went Count Almaviva on her or whether she seduced him, no one will ever know.

But why was Bess Foster dependend on the Devonshires in the first place? I had read the Foreman biography of Georgiana, which introduces her as poor nobility and also in a bad situation because her husband - who as her husband takes their sons, whom she won't see again for fifteen years - is not paying any alimony, as she left him. (Because he had a go at the maidservant, or at least that was the last straw.) Now, when reading this, I did not wonder about Bess' parents, I assumed they either were poor themselves or dead. But no. All this happens when her father is the Bishop of Derry, globetrotting the continent, building mansions in Ireland and collecting Michelangelos (he did buy them, and they were already expensive by then). His wife, Bess' mother, poor Excellent tried to make him help their daughter, but by that time they weren't living together anymore in any way, and he just ignored her. And his daughter's plight. As far as Frederick Hervey was concerned, the 2000 pounds dowry he'd given Bess upon her marriage were all she'd get from him. Now, did he hate his daughter? No. His letters to her before and after the end of her marriage, her loss of her children and her financial situation before she became bff (or more) with Georgiana are fond letters. Once she was so established with the Devonshires as to be influential and he wanted favours from hs daughter, he asked those. But when she needed him? Zilch. Nothing. Rien. Not as much as offering to let her live in one of his many houses, or asking one of his friends to accept her as a companion, or inviting her to live with him. Or anything.

Bess, btw, was another Hervey who married originally for love and came to regret it. John Foster (called "little f" in her framily because "Big F" was his father, Rev. Dr. John Foster of County Louth in Ireland) was young and good looking. Frederick Hervey took the marriage of this second daughter (the oldest, Mary, had already been married) as his signal to go globetrotting again. This time, he visited the various German states at first and fell in love with Bad Pyrmont. Then it was Italy's turn again - in Florence, he met Leopold and wife - and like Goethe decided he absolutely loved Rome: Rome contains everything that can amuse, interest or instruct hte mind. No sore grapes for Frederick Hervey:

Tis likewise difficult to say which pleases one most, the magnificence of ancient or the elganceof modern Rome; for my own part I have been singularly fortunate - several ancient rooms have been unearthed since my arrival - the paintings were in fresco and almost as perfect as at first - the secret was soon found of detaining the painted stucco from the walls, and I have bought three complete rooms, with which to adorn the Downhill and le rendre un morceau unique. The Pope has granted me a permission to take a model from the Apollo Belvedere - a favour rarely granted but to crown-heads. I suppose his Holiness is so accustomed to considr mitred ones on a footing with him. I cannot resist the temptation of being extravagant here especially when it is with a view of beautifying dear Ireland.

Fred was still working for the various Irish causes in more distinterested matters than beautifying Ireland with his antiquities, though. In 1778, there was a parliamentary debate about a Relief Act for Catholics, in which he couldn't participate since he was in Italy at the time, but he wrote to daughter Bess (then still recently married):

Tell your husband that I should be much obliged to him fo ra list of the speakers in our house on the Popish bill; that I wish also to know if the bill to tolerate their religion is to take place, without which I do not know how the multitude are benefited. (...) If such a bill should pass, I pledge myself to bring sixty thousand pounds sterling within eighteen months into the kingdom (...) The Pope will give us fivethousand and one single convent in Bohemia, of Irish friars, subscribes one thousand pounds (...) The Empress of Germany (MT) if this war (the War of the Bavarian Succession) does not continue, has promised her confessor Father Kelly, an Irish Recolect, a considerable sum (...)

Alas, the grand Save The Irish Catholics action would come to not much, and in November 1779 Hervey wrote to Bess: Can any country flourish when two thirds of its inhabitants are still crouching under the lash of the most severe illiberal penalties that one set of citizens ever laid upon the other?


Voltaire dies, which Frederick H. gets a detailed report on by his oldest daughter, Mary, Lady Erne, because her husband is stationed in Paris at the time: What a miserable end! What a ridiculous farce about his Funeral, and what a refinement about giving his plays.

When the 1770s end, Fred is back in London for a while and meets Benjamin Franklin and Jeremy Benthan. (Franklin tweaks him a bit about not being as tolerant about Presbyterians as he is about Catholics.) And he meets my guy Boswell!

On returning to Ireland Hervey assured Boswell that the inhabitants of Dublin were violently against a union with England but that he imself considered that the rest of the country was likely to benefit from it. Boswell had claimed that Edinburgh had suffered as a result of the Union of 1707 - between Scotland and England, cahn, reminder, Boswell is a Scot - Hervey now asked him if he would ascertain what the present number of houses was in Edingburgh and how it compared with the number of houses at the time of the union. Boswell, however, was impatient of mere statistics: 'Let us, my Lord,' he replied, 'be satisfied to live on good and euqal terms as we might have done with our Sovereign's people of America had those been allowed to enjoy their Parliament or Assemblies as Ireland enjoys hers, and instead of calling Ireland a deluded people and attempting to grasp them in our paws, let us admire their spirit. A Scotchman might preach a Union to them as the fox who has lost his tail. But your Lordship is an Englishman and brother to the E'arl of Bristol.

Indeed Frederick Hervey was both, but would change his miind on the question of Irish independence (as opposed to Ireland becoming an equal member of the UK).

Re: Frederick Hervey: Hero to the Irish and Deadbeat Dad

[cahn]

This is the first though not the last time when our author points out the streak of cruelty within Frederick Hervey, and yeah, this kind of prank feels, if not identical to FW style "pranks", to at least heading towards this way. (Much as he's entertaining in general, by the time I finished the book I was glad Frederick Hervey had never been an absolute monarch.) Still, his actions in Ireland were his best, by and large.

Yeeeeah. It's entertaining to read about, I admit, but in large part because he wasn't an absolute monarch with that kind of power over people. It's also interesting to me -- I felt this about his treatment of Bess Foster as well -- that Fred (lol, I find it hilarious that you call him that) has a sort of way about him where he does seem to care (at least sometimes) about people in the aggregate, like the Irish, but can't really be bothered at all about actual individual people.

(Hervey's idea was that they should swear off any Stuart loyalties, swear loyalty to G3 and that they did not recognize the Pope as an authority in temporal matters, "just" in spiritual ones, and then all would be well. He was somewhat surprised when the Pope wasn't keen to signing on to this.)

Hee.

Many years later Lord Cloncurry recalled how he had seen 'the excentric Earl-Bishop ride about the streets of Rome dressedin red plush breeches and a broad brimmed white or straw hat, and was often asked if that was the canonical costume of an Irish prelate'

Heh, those guys and their red costumes :P

What she's best known for: a menage a trois where, depending on whom you believe, either Bess first seduces the Duchess and then the Duke of Devonshire, and lives with both, or that she becomes bff with the Duchess, platonic or not, and then the Duke, jealous and mean, wants sex and because her income depends on him she agrees.

WOW

But no. All this happens when her father is the Bishop of Derry, globetrotting the continent, building mansions in Ireland and collecting Michelangelos

HERVEY

Once she was so established with the Devonshires as to be influential and he wanted favours from hs daughter, he asked those.

*blinks*

Not as much as offering to let her live in one of his many houses, or asking one of his friends to accept her as a companion, or inviting her to live with him. Or anything.

ARRRRGH.

Frederick Hervey: Said the Bishop to the Actress

[selenak]

Also, brother Augustus dies at the end of 1779, making Frederick an Earl. Like Erskine, Fothergill notes Augustus left everything he could - i.e. all that wasn't entailed to the estate - to people other than Frederick, though he doesn't say how their feud started. "Everything", to my surprise, included their Dad's memoirs!

(Augustus) had left his successor not a penny more than he could help, providing for a bereaved mistress and a natural son out of the unsettled estate, leaving all his father's manuscript pwritings to the latter with the injunction never to publish them during the present King's (George IIIs) lifetime, 'nor ever at any time to lend them to my brother Frederick, the present Bishop of Derry'.

When reading this for the first time I thought, did we wrong Not Yet Victorian Frederick Hervey the son of the Bishop and the censor was actually Augustus' illegitimate son? But then I remembered from Erskin's introduction that little Augustus doesn't reach adulthood, so I'm assuming that's when the scandalous memoirs went back to the general Hervey estate. I can see where the prohibition of publishing within G3' s life time comes from, btw: G3 presumably had fond memories of his father, Fritz of Wales. But I'm intrigued about the prohibition to let Frederick the Bishop get his fingers on them. Presumably Augustus thought Fred would publish, given at this point he and G3 were irrevocably estranged and Fred didn't care anymore?

Anyway: now that Fred is the Earl, his wife Excellent moves to Ickworth, the Hervey estate. Frederick doesn't. In 1782, both his own marriage and that of daughter Bess collapse for good. That the Bishop showed zlich interest in helping his daughter shocked virtually all his female relations. Bess had gone to her sister Mary at first (also temporarly at odds with her husband) and was living in Bath, where she'd meet Georgiana;, here's an outburst from her cousin, Mrs. Dillon:

Never was a story any more proper for a novel than poor Lady Elizabeth Foster's. She is parted from her husband, but would you conceive any father with an income he has should talk of her living alone on such a scanty pittance of 300 pounds a year! And this is the man who is ever talking of his love of hospitality and his desire to have his children about him! Might one not imagine that he would be opposed to a pretty young woman of her age living alone? It is incredile the cruelties of that monster Foster made her undergo with him; her father knows it, owned him a villain, and yet, for fear she should fall on hi shands agian, tried first to persuade her to return to him.

Which Bess won't. The 300 pounds a year, btw, aren't from Dad, they were Georgiana's first suggestion - to hire Bess as a governess of the Duke's illegitimate daughter (by someone else not important to this story).

Horace Walpole: The mission of Lord Bristol's daughter, and her circumstances, are just as you've heard them. You may add, that though the daughter of an EArl lin lawn sleeves, who as an income of four or five and twenty thousand a year, he suffers her from indigence to accept 300 po9unds a year as governess to a natural child.

All the indignation is in vain, as far as Frederick is concerned, Bess is on her own, and Bess, of course, will do better for herself than governess of the Duke's ililegitimate daughter. She's moving in with the Duchess and the Duke instead. While that happens, her parents break up.

The breach came at Ickworth. On the evidence of a servant, we are told that 'the Bishop and his wife went out for a drive together, and in the course of the drive something was said, something passed between them, and they came home and never spoke to each other again. (...) All we learn from Lady Bristol is of a dispute over the letting of a house in St. James Square. 'I am sorry that m y situation has sat so heavy on your mind,' she wrote tp Elizabeth after the Bishop had left her, 'for I can agive you no comfort on that subject except by assuring you that my mind is quite above and out of the reach of the oppression I receive and the insults which accompany it, and that I have pride enough to bear being told that my advice is presumptous; and that I am being so made up of vanity and ostentation as not to be capable of cooperating in so laudable a polan without feeling the least humbled by it; and even my resentment is oftened down into compassion for the frailties of human nature, and for the wreck which warring passions bring upon it; my own happiness has long been an empty sound, and I am now only intent on drawing all the good possible out of this evil in favour of Louise.

(Louise is the youngest, not yet married daughter.)

Our clerical antihero goes back to Ireland sans wife and immediately gets himself a mistress, or atleast loving friend, a second cousin, in fact, Mrs. Mussenden, born Frideswide Bruce, granddaughter of Henry Hervey-Aston (one of the mad uncles from Erskine's introduction of Augustus' journal). (He's 52 by now.) Fothergill doesn't think more than flirting happened as points to the fact the family Bruce remained friends with the bishop, but it did make the papers. He also joins the Irish Volunteers.

G3: Who will rid me of this troublesome prelate?

Frederick: I think I'm off to globetrot some more.

This time, when he shows up in Naples to say hello to bff William, Emma has arrived on the scene. (She arrived in April that year.) Emma and Frederick immediately hit it off famously.

Lady Holland, famous Whig lady, later on: Lord Bristol, whom (Lady Holland) declared to be 'full of wit and plesantry' (though she was also to call him 'a clever, bad man') was 'a great admirer of Lady Hamiton and conjured Sir. W. to allow him to call her EMMA. That he should admire her beauty and her wonderful attitudes is not singular, but that he should like her society certainly is, as it is imipossible to go beyond her in vulgarity and coarseness.

Fothergill: the guy who thought of making his portly clergy sprint certainly wasn't deterred by vulgarity and coarseness.

Goethe: I enjoyed Emma's society as well and wrote about it in the "Italian Journey".

Maria Carolina, daughter of MT, Queen of Naples: So did I. But only once she had actually become Lady Hamilton. No mistresses in my presence!

However, staying on the continent has one distinct disadvantage. (Or not, depending on your pov.) It's French Revolution time! The Bishop, until then firmly on the side of progress, is shocked. He also turns violently anti French. His grand masterplan, which he describes in various letters, including a fateful one, is for a French partition, one part ruled by the Bourbons, one by the Revolutionaries, that would ensure the various parts of evil France are always at war with each other, never to trouble Britain or anyone else again. (Yes, the Polish partition is one of his models there.) Otoh, he likes the German states more and more, despite the bad roads. Other than Bad Pyrmont, Kassel is his favourite for the gorgeous park and the wonderful museum (can confirm both are great) at the Wilhelmshöhe (soon to be renamed into Napoleonshöhe). The Bishop returns one more time to the British Isles, makes an attempt to make up with G3 (in vain), and is in Ireland when buddy William arrives in London to ask permission to marry Emma (which he eventually gets). Writes Fred:

Nobody mentons your decison but with approbation; no wonder provided that they have ever seen and heard Lady Hamilton; and now I flatter myself you have secured your happiness for life.

In 1791, our antihero leaves Ireland for the last time. He also makes a last will which says that Bess and Mary are supposed to regard their dowries as all they'll get from him, and: I give my affectionate and dutiful daughter Lady Louisa Hervey five thousand pounds and to my undutiful and ungrateful son Frederick William Hervey I give one thousand pounds.

Fothergill doesn't know what not yet Victorian Frederick has done to incure his father's ire - sided with Mom? - , but it will be academic, because at this point, Federick the Bishop's oldest son John is still alive and the current Lord Hervey. He'll die soon, though, which makes "ungrateful" Frederick the heir, at which point his father will rediscover his affection and make marriage plans for him.

Travelling through Germany, Frederick the Bishop meets Goethe (in Jena), who writes about him:

About sixty-three years of age,of middle or rather low stature, of slight frame and countenance, lively in carriage and manners, quick in his speech, blunt, sometimes even rude; in more than one respect narrow and one-sided, as a Briton, unbending; as an individual, obstinate; as a divine, stiff; as a scholar, pedantic. Honestly, zeal for the Good, and the unfailiing results thereof, show everywhere through the disagreeable points of the above qualities, and they are b alanced, too, by his extensive knowledge of the world, of men and of books, by the liberality of a noble and by the ease of a rich man. However vehemently he may be speaking (and he spares neither general nor particular circumstances) he yet listens most attentively to everything that is spoken, be it for or against him; he soon yields, if he be contradicted; contradicts if he doesn't like the argument, though made in his favour; now drops one sentence, now takes up another, while arguing througout from a few ideas.

The Bishop begain by attacking Goethe on Werther (that novel had been published in the 1770s, so the Bishop was really out of date), and it was the usual "you glorified suicide" /"Did not" argument.

Then it's back to Italy, hanging out with Sir William and flirting with Emma. ("Oh Emma, who'd be ever wise,/ If madness be loving of thee?") Fothergill doesn't think they ever did more than flirting (which of course he credits the Earl-Bishop for). There is a story from Emma's likely fake memoirs about English singer Elizabeth Billington giving a concert in Naples, and one of G3's sons, Prince Augustus, being present together with the Hamiltons and the Earl-Bishop. Alas Prince Augustus sings loudly along with Elizabeth Billiington. He can't sing, and it's rude, but he's a prince. What to do?

At length the interruptions became so annoying that (the Earl-Bishop) could contain himself no longer and turning to the royal singer, said: "Pray cease, you have the ears of an ass."

Re: Frederick Hervey: Said the Bishop to the Actress

[cahn]

It is incredile the cruelties of that monster Foster made her undergo with him; her father knows it, owned him a villain, and yet, for fear she should fall on hi shands agian, tried first to persuade her to return to him.

HERVEY

Horace Walpole: The mission of Lord Bristol's daughter, and her circumstances, are just as you've heard them. You may add, that though the daughter of an EArl lin lawn sleeves, who as an income of four or five and twenty thousand a year, he suffers her from indigence to accept 300 po9unds a year as governess to a natural child.

It's at least extremely faintly reassuring that everyone else thought this was awful!

All the indignation is in vain, as far as Frederick is concerned, Bess is on her own, and Bess, of course, will do better for herself than governess of the Duke's ililegitimate daughter. She's moving in with the Duchess and the Duke instead.

Honestly I cannot really blame her one bit if she was a conniving seducer!

The breach came at Ickworth. On the evidence of a servant, we are told that 'the Bishop and his wife went out for a drive together, and in the course of the drive something was said, something passed between them, and they came home and never spoke to each other again.

I wonder if he accused her of giving him syphilis

Goethe: I enjoyed Emma's society as well and wrote about it in the "Italian Journey".

Maria Carolina, daughter of MT, Queen of Naples: So did I. But only once she had actually become Lady Hamilton. No mistresses in my presence!

Hee, I always love these little asides!

His grand masterplan, which he describes in various letters, including a fateful one, is for a French partition, one part ruled by the Bourbons, one by the Revolutionaries, that would ensure the various parts of evil France are always at war with each other, never to trouble Britain or anyone else again. (Yes, the Polish partition is one of his models there.)

*blinks again*

He also makes a last will which says that Bess and Mary are supposed to regard their dowries as all they'll get from him, and: I give my affectionate and dutiful daughter Lady Louisa Hervey five thousand pounds and to my undutiful and ungrateful son Frederick William Hervey I give one thousand pounds.

What is WRONG with this guy? If anyone deserved to die in the snow and be called a statue to get his body back, it's this guy.

Travelling through Germany, Frederick the Bishop meets Goethe (in Jena), who writes about him:

I like this description, and seems to fit.

Frederick Hervey: The Adorable Friend (Not)

[selenak]

And now it's time for that other good-time girl gone noble to show up in our antihero's life. He first meets Wilhelmine Encke, married Rietz, not yet Countess Lichtenau, not as I had assumed and Horowski had said in Italy, but in Munich when she is en route to Italy. He falls for her at once, though Fothergill thinks it's not just her charm but from the beginning her connections as FW2's Maitresse en Titre that attract Frederick Hervey. Be that as it may, he will refer to her as his "adorable amie" (now hating the French doesn't stop him from peppering his speech with French expressions) and after the first meeting already invites hier to a trip to Lake Starnberg (as she loves paintings, he writes, surely she'll love beautiful scenery painted by nature - which it is, I should add) and signs himself her devoted admirer. They arrange to meet again in Naples, and in this connection, he's able to do do her a favour. Because he promises to introduce her to the Hamiltons AND the Queen of Naples. But the Queen of Naples can't receive Madame Rietz, so clearly, she'll have to be ennobled. FW2 complies, long distance wise, because the Bishop travels to Berlin to meet him and ask, and Wilhelmine the trumpeter's daughter is now the Countess Lichtenau. Fothergill thinks that might have doomed her, that the Prussian nobility would have been able to cope with her as long as she'd remained bourgois but the ennoblement would cause her downfall after FW2's death, but I don't think so - that was really something very personal that FW3 did, and he hated her already, blaming his parents' marriage (the state of same) on her.

Now remember, by now Frederick H. is very much anti France and anti Republic. FW2, however, is still neutral. Lord Bristol was offered some capon, but refused it. When the King of Prussia asked him if he disliked the dish he answered: Yes, Sire: I have an aversion to all neutral animals."

Off to Italy once more, where the Bishop reunintes with both Emma and Wilhelmine and flirts away in both directions and has the great idea that her daughter should marry his son, the same one he called ungrateful in his will two years before. But alas, young Frederick stuns him by saying no, wanting to marry for love a respectable, if penniless, English girl instead. The Bishop tries to enlist help to convince young Frederick. Whom does he ask for help? Why, Frederick's sister Bess, of course, by now living comfortqably if scandalously with the Devonshires.

I must confess it would half break my heart to see his fixed on any other than the beautfiul, elegant, important and interesting object I have proposed to him. At least, dearest Eliza, if you have any interest with him, induce him, beg him, my dar, not to decide before he is able to choose. She would bring him into our family 5,000 pounds a year, besides a principality in Germany, an English Dukedom for Frederick or me, which the King of Prusisa is determined to obtain in case the marriage takes place - a perpetual relationship with both the Princess of Wales and her children, als also with the Duchess of York and her progeny - the Embassy in Berlin, with such an influence an dpreponderance in favour of dear England as no other could withstand. Add to all this the King is so bent upon it from his great partiality to me, that I doubt not his doub ling the dot in case F desired it, which indeed I should not. (...) Dearest Elizabeth, the example he has before his eyes in and within his own family ought fully to determine him a gainst a love-match; it is so ominous a lottery, so pergnant with blanks, so improbable of success.

Frederick the not yet Victorian: Yeah, no. Miss Upton or nothing! Jane Austen would approve.
Frederick the Bishop: Jane Austen liked money, too.

The Bishop is very surprised that somehow, this letter doesn't convince Bess to intervene on his behalf to secure the Embassy and a Dukedom for her father. He calls her "a nasty little imp of silence" and asks "are you alive or dead? Or are you on a journey? or peadventure she sleepeth? If so, at least dream a littlel, or walk in your sleep, or talk in your sleep, for I have no patience with your long, long silence.

Bess: Seriously?

Wilhelmine Countess Lichtenau loses patience, her daughter marries a German noble, and Frederick the Bishop sighs and devotes himself to his grand political masterplan of Partioning France, though he doesn't stop flirting with her. And then FW2 dies, and we get another example of our clerical antihero being callous, because he goes from raving about Wilhelmine as his chere amie and wonder of beauty and adorable and what not to this comment on the news that FW3 has thrown her into prison:

Poor Madame Ritz is in Spandau after playing the fool and some say the knave these last eleven months; she was arrested the day after the death of that old Porc d'Epicure."

So much, says Fothergill, for "my adorable friend" and "the dear, amiable King". He says in the Bishop's defense that he may have heard that she was accused among other things, of having taken bribes form the French, and since he hated the French now, that made him forsake her. But note he immediately calls her "Madame Ritz" again, no more the Countess of Lichtenau, like the snobbiest of of nobles, the moment she can't do anything for him anymore. Young E.T.A. Hoffmann (who wasn't in love with her the way his friend was) had more character as a young student when defending her in Glogau.

As I told you elswhere, the Bishop then gets himself arrested by the Milanese. Where he meets General Berthier, who, according to the Bishop later, tells him everyone really hates Napoleon, he certainly does, the Republic is evil, he wants to swear an oath of loyalty to Louis XVIII right then and there, all the other generals think likewise, and oh, he wants Frederick the Bishop to tell PM Pitt the Younger that there is this secret master plan about the Partitioning of France that will defeat First Consul Bonarparte and will render France harmless forever more. Totally Berthier's idea, and it's a mere coincidence that the Bishop suggested this idea for years now.

(Fothergill thinks that it's not impossible Berthier, about to become a Napoleonic Marshal, was temporarily disillusioned wihen Napoleon made himself Consul, but... yeah.)

Nothing new about the Bishop's release and death en route when discovered to be an Anglican Heretic instead of a Catholic Bishop and thus kicked out of the peasant's house. In conclusion: a good provider of sensational gossip, to be sure. But also self centred to an amazing degree without Fritzian traumatic childhood excuses, a deadbeat Dad, lousy husband and disloyal friend (except to William Hamilton).

ETA: for a bit more about Georgiana and Bess, check out these two articles on the movie "The Duchess" which compares it with the historical reality.

Re: Frederick Hervey: The Adorable Friend (Not)

[cahn]

Lord Bristol was offered some capon, but refused it. When the King of Prussia asked him if he disliked the dish he answered: Yes, Sire: I have an aversion to all neutral animals."

HAHAHAHA

The Bishop tries to enlist help to convince young Frederick. Whom does he ask for help? Why, Frederick's sister Bess, of course, by now living comfortqably if scandalously with the Devonshires.

I might have said "WHAT??" out loud at this point :P

Dearest Elizabeth, the example he has before his eyes in and within his own family ought fully to determine him a gainst a love-match; it is so ominous a lottery, so pergnant with blanks, so improbable of success.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME, he wrote that to BESS??

The Bishop is very surprised that somehow, this letter doesn't convince Bess to intervene on his behalf to secure the Embassy and a Dukedom for her father.

Well, I guess I can see that, given that you WROTE THAT AT ALL.

"are you alive or dead? Or are you on a journey? or peadventure she sleepeth?

Oh now wait you're comparing her to BAAL? Classy, Bishop!

In conclusion: a good provider of sensational gossip, to be sure. But also self centred to an amazing degree without Fritzian traumatic childhood excuses, a deadbeat Dad, lousy husband and disloyal friend (except to William Hamilton).

Yes, for sure. Extremely entertaining to read about, extreme jerk to everyone around him. Except I guess William Hamilton. Well, I did enjoy this very much; thank you again for satisfying my curiosity :DD

ETA: for a bit more about Georgiana and Bess, check out these two articles on the movie "The Duchess" which compares it with the historical reality.

These were fascinating! Especially the bits about Georgiana being active politically. Also, me halfway through the second article: WAIT William Cavnendish was the brother of Henry Cavendish?? (Henry Cavendish was a famous scientist -- wikipedia tells me he did a bunch of chemistry, which I didn't know until today; I know him for his experiments in measuring the force of gravity.) But actually I think someone is confused -- probably me -- because from wikipedia-diving, Henry Cavendish actually appears to me to be a relatively distant cousin (it's too late at night for me to figure this out, but I think second cousin?) to William Cavendish, not Georgiana's brother-in-law.

It also seems to me that given that Bess stuck it out with Georgiana in Italy when the Duke wouldn't let her go home, maybe she did really like her after all and wasn't just manipulative? Though I suppose if the Duke was mad at both of them, maybe it wasn't exactly a willing sacrifice on her part.

Leining to Fredersdorf: Letter 6

[mildred_of_midgard]

Monsieur et tres chere compere!

Die Neüigkeit so heüte bey ünser Höf-staat vorgefallen
ist viel zu wichtig, als das ich Ihnen selbige uner[öffne]t
lassen söllte. Der König hat dem Herrn Anderson [dürch] mich
seine Gnade wieder ankündigen lassen, ünd befohlen, daß
zuwieder zürück [ünd] ünverzüglich nach d[ero] haupt-Qü[ar].
hierkommen soll, zu welchem End[e] Ihm auch 100XX zur
Reise übersenden müssen. Ich weiss, daß Sie [an] dieser
Begebenheit als ein Freund des Herr Andersons [eini]gen
Antheil nehmen. In dieser Absicht allein mache ich Ihnen
selbige bekannt, ünd bitte zügleich, das wann mon cher
compere demselben über lang oder kürz schrieben Sie Ihm
ünter andern Ermahnüngen Friede und Eintracht mit
mir anrathen, sonst könnte die [Une?]inigkeit [einem] [von]
üns beiden über lang oder kürz wieder nachteilig sein,
Ich hoffe inzwischen, daß alles güt gehen wird, und d[arum]
bin ich mit allem züfrieden, und bliebe ich in diese[r] zü[frie]-
denheit mit aüfrichtiger hochachtüng ünd Liebe,
Monsieur et tres cher compere,
votre tres humble
et obeisant Serviteur
Leining
Lo[ck]witz
Der 18X April, 1757

Reminder that we've encountered Anderson before: Preuss (Lebengeschichte v. 2 p. 34) says that because Anderson fell into disfavor just before the Seven Years' War, and because Fredersdorf was sick, Fritz took on Glasow as valet. I wonder if the timing of Anderson's return to favor (Preuss says he stayed with Fritz and died in 1786 at age 76, as Chief Castellan) has anything to do with Glasow's fall, i.e. was Glasow the one who drove him out and Fritz now realizes Glasow's account was probably not the one to trust here? Or did Fritz just need a replacement valet, and suddenly whatever Anderson had done didn't look so bad next to embezzlement and possible spying?

Speculation aside, it's interesting that Fredersdorf was a friend of his (I didn't know this!) and that Leining foresees some potential drama if he comes back and Fredersdorf hasn't had an admonishing word with him.

I see even in retirement, Fredersdorf is not allowed to retire.

Re: Leining to Fredersdorf: Letter 6 - Translation

[selenak]

Wow, this is a true discovery. Manger also mentions Anderson being in disfavor just before the war in addition to Fredersdorf being sick as the reason why Glasow gets promoted to valet and money handler. I didn't know he made a comeback! Here's the letter for cahn:

Monsieur et tres chere compere!

The news which happened today in our court is too important as to not tell you immediately about it. The King bade me to tell Mr. Anderson that he's back in favor, and has ordered him to return immediately into service and to Headquarters. To this end, I had to send him 100XX to pay for the journey. I know that as a friend of Mr. Anderson, you will take some interest in this affair. In this intention alone, I'm telling you about all of this, and simultanously would like to ask on cher compere to advise him, if you write to him sooner or later, that he should keep peace and harmony with me. Otherwise, the discordance between the two of us could sooner or later have disadvantages again. Meanwhile, I'm hoping that all will go well, and so I'm content with everything, and thus I remain in this contentment with sincere respect and love, Monsieur et tres cher compere, etc.

This sounds more like Leining has argued with Anderson before to me, or at least that they used to rub each other the wrong way. Which doesn't exclude that Glasow could be responsible for Anderson's original disgrace. That Anderson is also friends with Fredersdorf is insteresting, though not surprising if you consider that before Glasow got promoted, Anderson was the one getting the valet duties - Glasow being one of the hussars - , and surely as long as Fredersdorf still had some say in the matter he'd have recced someone to his liking as valet, the first position he held with Fritz. Otoh Fredersdorf getting along with both Leining and Anderson but the two of them not with each other is more unusual. Though not unheard of: considering Fredersdorf until his retirement was the head of Fritz' household, I guess anyone among the immediate retinue would have been competing for his favour as well.

Or did Fritz just need a replacement valet, and suddenly whatever Anderson had done didn't look so bad next to embezzlement and possible spying?

Also plausible, and he knew Anderson, he didn't have to adjust to him. I wonder whether Leining right now is also feeling insecure and afraid Fritz thinks he's not up to the job because Anderson is ordered back? Though I think these are two different jobs - Leining is treasurer, Anderson valet - it's just that both of these tasks were for a short time fulfilled by Glasow.

90 Years old Jacobite Heir Outs Himself

[selenak]

Kinda. Yesterday, 90 Years old Franz of Bavaria - who among other things would be the current Jacobite claimant if he wanted to, which he doesn't - was honored at Munich's university, presenting his memoirs, and on that occasion thanked his partner of 43 years and declared his love. (In the same hall where a much darker historical event took place, the arrest of Hans and Sophie Scholl.) (Franz himself was in three concentration camps as a youth.)

I'm now imagining Ludwig II in the hereafter holding two thumbs up. Gay Wittelsbacher for the win!

Re: 90 Years old Jacobite Heir Outs Himself

[mildred_of_midgard]

Nice! I was reading his Wikipedia article a while back and saw that he was unmarried and living with his same-sex partner of many years.

I'm now imagining Ludwig II in the hereafter holding two thumbs up. Gay Wittelsbacher for the win!

Heee!

Leining to Fredersdorf: Letter 7

[mildred_of_midgard]

Okay! I was wrong about Algarotti. Am I wrong about Benda, Selena?

Monsieur et tres chere compere!

Ick dancke Ihnen, für die gütige Communication des Benda Jun.
Sch[riebens] an den Glaso, ünd ansehe deraus die erstaünende
Vertraülichkeit, so zwischen dieser beyden Leüten gewesen ist.
Wen[n] zeit ünd Gelegenheit es anjetzo verstatten [wollten], würde
[ihm??] S[t]Xnd[e] seyn, [Ihnen] von dieser Correspondenz mir ganze
Sammlung, die ganzartig und [erbaü]lich ist, zükommen zu
lassen, d[ie] Zartlichkeit s[o] darinn [herrschet] ist so b[eschaffen] das
der zartlich[ste] Liebhaber, so an seiner Maitresse schriebet, d[er]
nach sein Model [unfern] kömt. Ich werde aber damit bey er-
stere Gelegenheit aüswarten. Zuzwischen empfele mich d[er]
ge[nei]gten And[encken] ünd verharre mit der aüfrichtigsten
Hochachtüng
Monsieur et tres cher compere
Votre tres humble
et obeisant Serviteur
Leining

Ottendorf
der 21XX April 1757

I couldn't figure out "Benda Jen", btw, until I remembered Other Seckendorff and realized it might be "Benda Jun.", then googled it and found that Johann Benda was referred to as "Benda Jun." at least once (I think by Fritz). So I'm going with that!

Re: Leining to Fredersdorf: Letter 7

[selenak]

You're not wrong about the main event, but about which Benda. Johann Benda died already in 1752. (No typo.) This said, Franz Benda (the one from my icon) had several (living) younger brothers in 1757 who could qualify as Benda Junior:

1.) Joseph Benda, another violinist who followed up older brother Franz as concert master and also at the time in question (i.e. when this letter was written), when Franz Benda was increasingly plagued by gout in his fingers (which post 7 Years War would lead to him stopping to play the violin for good though he continued as musical leader of the orchestra till his death, which was in the same year as Fritz), had taken over as his older brother's amanuensis, i.e. wrote his correspondence for him.

2.) Georg Anton Benda, who played the violin, the oboe and the cembalo, and was the big composer of the talented family, had gone from Jesuit student to Protestant Free Mason and according to wiki not least through the Free Mason connnection got a job away from Fritz in 1750, getting hired by the Duke of Gotha as his Hofkapellmeister, no less. Wiki also says: Am 15. September 1757, unmittelbar nach dem siegreichen Gefecht bei Gotha, besuchte Friedrich II. mit seinem Bruder Heinrich das Gothaer Herzogspaar, und Benda hatte Gelegenheit, seinem ehemaligen König und Orchesterchef seine Aufwartung zu machen (Friedrich II. kam noch einmal am 3. Dezember 1762 von seinem Leipziger Winterquartier nach Gotha, um dort zu übernachten).

Franz Benda also had sons, but the oldest surviving one was born in 1745 which makes him too young in 1757 to exchange tender letters with Glasow (I should hope).

Now, aside from the dead Johann who already died in 1752, all these Bendas continued in their respective successful musical careers and no one seems to have had, if their wiki entries are anything to go by, trouble with Fritz around 1757. This said, here's the translation (and Mildred, I'm betting on "imstande" for (ihm??S(t)Xnd(e)):

Monsieur et tres chere compere!

thank you for kindly sharing the letter by Benda Jun. to Glasow; the amazing intimacy between these two men is palpable. If I had the time and opportunity right now, I'd be capable of asking you to send me the entire collection of this correspondence, since it's such a uniquely edifying reading; the tenderness dominating it is of the type to take its model from the most devoted lover writing to his mistress. But I'll wait for a more opportune moment for this. In the meantime, I reccomend myself to your recollection and remain with the most sincere respect, Monsieur et tres cher compere, etc.

Well! Leaving aside whether Benda Junior (Joseph? Georg? Who knows?)/ Glasow were an item, I of course was surprised that this time Fredersdorf takes the initiative to send a letter of theirs to Leining, and wondered why - surely not just to share the gossip. (Given Fredersdorf used to be responsible for the hiring, firing and payment of musicians in addition to the spy network, I'm not that surprised he could get his hands on a letter in the first place.) Then it occured to me that Fritz is campaigning in Bohemia right now, where the Bendas were from, and also that Franz and his brothers used to work for August the Strong before moving into Fritz' service. So if you're a paranoid former spymaster wondering who might have made the connection between Glasow and the Saxons (provided that Glasow did spy for the Saxons) and want to prevent another spy occurence now that Fritz is campaigning in one of MT's heartlands, suspecting the Bendas isn't out of this world.

Leining to Fredersdorf: Letter 8, page 1

[mildred_of_midgard]

Wow, this one was a struggle. Well, they're all a struggle, but each letter that makes me unhappy makes me unhappy in its own way, to misquote Tolstoy. ;)

For this one, there were characters that were only partially written (not faded this time, I mean absolutely no ink to work with in places and only a fragmentary character as a result), characters scribbled over other characters until the result was a blob, and an unusually high number of words where every character seemed exquisitely clear but either didn't add up to a German word I knew, or didn't add up to one that made sense to me in context. And as usual, I've done a lot of guessing from context and vague approximations of the characters.

Ich habe dero beyde Schreiben von 17te und 21te m.p. wohl erhal-
ten. Das erste anbetreffend: so habe die mir zügesandte zwey Qui-
tungen von Mrs. Girard Michelet & Comp. die ich auch hierbey re-
mittirn, mit denen neüen eingegebenen Rechnüngen züsammen ge-
[ha]llen, und gefünd[en] das ihnen w[irck]lich die zwey letzte Kiste[n]
mit Eaux de Senteur ünd Pomaden, nicht [minder?] die Pension des
Herrn d'Alembert von 1te Jun bis 1te Decembr a.p. zu bezahlen
annoch rückstandig [sind].

Die Briefe qu. an den Herrn Obrist von Balbi [nebst] der Vorstellung
an der Konig, habe ünder das Glaso Papieren nicht gefünden, sonst
sollten dieselben ohne dero Ver[la?]ngen, schon züruck gesandt worden seyn,
Wegen de[r] an de[n] lied[er]lichen Völcker aüs gezahlten 2[52]XX al[l]e Caffe,
ünd Garderobe Schülden wollte [mir], wenn es möglich wäre, wohl
eine vorhern Aüskünft und [wo] [es] hall[w?]eg [an]gi[n?]ge die specification
so [er] dem Apotheker Bertholz zürück gelassen haben soll, aüsbi[tt]en
damit ich [nür] sehen könn[te], [e??][r]es fur Leüte darauf befindlich [sind]
ünd darnach [einen] jed[en] von seinen Creditoren, deren sich die Menge
[an?]geben, bescheiden könnte. Vielleicht gelinge[t] es, mon cher compere,
dieselbe heraus zübringen, und sod[a]nn we[r]de bitten mir solche
zuzuschicken.

"[e??][r]es" is one of those ones where every letter seems clear and yet "eres" is not a word I know in German. Nor does Ehres make a lot of sense here. It might be "er es", though the "r" is closer to the second "e" than to the first.

Selena, I'm hoping this all makes more sense to you than me, and that it's just the bureaucratic German defeating me! I did finally discover "annoch" was an archaic word I hadn't known--you have no idea how long I spent insisting "amXXch" couldn't possibly be a word. :P

Anyway, no tender love letters or other super exciting material here, but Völcker makes an appearance, as does Colonel Balbi, who was one of Fritz's companions on the incognito Netherlands trip.

Pages 2-4 will follow as time permits! I'm getting much faster, but what that means is the first passthrough is quick and gets most of the words, and then multiple hours are spent chipping away at the last few words, with increasingly diminishing returns until I finally give up. :'D

Re: Leining to Fredersdorf: Letter 8, page 1 - Translation

[selenak]

I received both of your letters, from the 17th and from the 21st. Regarding the first: I have compared the two receipts by Messieurs Girard Michelet & Company, which I return to you with this letter, with the newly admitted bills, and have discovered that they really haven't been paid for the last two boxes with perfume and hair grease, nor for Monsieur d'Alembert's pension between June 1st to December 1st, which still has to be done.

I haven't found the letters addressed to Colonel von Balbi or the presentation to the King among Glasow's papers, otherwise I already would have returned them to the later without him having to demand them. Regarding the debts made by the 2(52)X paid to slovenly Völcker, all ostensibly paid for coffee and wardrobe: could I ask you to provide information and if it's half way possible the specification he's left for the Apothocary Bertholz? It's so I can see which people are listed there, so I can inform each of his creditors, of which a lot are presenting themselves right now. Maybe, mon cher compere, you'll manage to find it, and if so I beg you to send it to me.

Thoughts: "Liederlich" - literally slovenly, but I was tempted to go with "that jerk/bastard/ no-good Völcker" instead for greater fluency in English.

Also, having to figure out just how many people haven't been paid while Glasow & Völcker got the money in question must be a headache, and no wonder Fritz wants to keep this secret, because I bet now that rumors about at least some people who aren't owed something are trying their luck, claiming that Glasow has swindled them, too.

This is much more about Fredersdorf's activities in his last months of life than I ever believed we'd get, and which IS NOT TO BE FOUND ANYWHERE ELSE. (He really couldn't stop working, could he? No wonder he and Fritz were long term partners.)

Leining to Fredersdorf: Letter 8, page 2

[mildred_of_midgard]

Didn't take me 3 hours!

Domenico wird vo[l]lendig daraüf mit einem
höhere Posten als 100 rt[h] aüfgeführet stehen. [St?]edler hat vermüt.
an dieser Sümme von 25[2]XX wohl keinen Antheil, weil er de[m]
Völcker erst kürtz von des Königes Aüs[warth?] Creditiret, und
seit langer als Jahr ünd Tag hat Glaso Sr. Mayt. die Caffe-Rech-
nung alle Monath vergelege[t], die bezahlüng ist aüch jedesmahl
erfolget, haben also die Leüte d[e]s ihrige nicht bekommen, so stehet
Ihnen anjetzo nicht mehr zü helfen.

Das Anschreiben der [C]hü[rmarckX.] Cammer von 14 m.p. so ich eben-
falls hier wieder mit beyfüge, ist hart und drohend genüg abge-
faßet. Ich habe vor den hand weiter nichts bey der Sache thün konnen,
als daß ich beyliegendes [cu][h?][r]iX. Schreiben an dieselbe abgelassen
habe, wodürch ich wenigstens so viel zu effectuiern d[enke], daß
Sie von der Execution sowohl, als von f[erneren] Vexationen ver-
schonet bleiben sollen. Von deren monathlichen Fourage. Geld[ern]
kann das [re]sti[re]nde Pachte Quantum ünmöglich abgeth[a]n
w[er]den, wei[l] dieses zu Unterhaltüng der 112 Stuck Pferde nicht
[einmahl] bei den gegen[war]tigen theü[ern] zei[ten] züreichet. Ließ
ich also die verlangte Ordre an d[ie] Hof-staats Caffe ergehen, so
sind die neüe Schülden bey dem St[a]ll ünvermeidlich, ünd diese
müß ich [mir] den [T]eüfel zü hintertrieben süchen.

Notes: "[C]hü[rmarckX.]" and "[cu][h?][r]iX" are 100% guesses. Both end in a squiggle that I've come to interpret as "the rest of this word is abbreviated." My guess, based on context, is both mean "Kurmärkische", but other guesses welcome, as always.

I laughed at "daß Sie von der Execution sowohl, als von f[erneren] Vexationen verschonet bleiben sollen"--it's like Leining read our last exchange! Also, awww.

Re: Leining to Fredersdorf: Letter 8, page 2 - Translation

[selenak]

Okay, I'll try my best. "Jahr und Tag" I shorted to "year", since "Jahr und Tag" is a phrase used in that sense. The Kurmärkische Kammer was a thing, so I'm thinking you guessed right. See also here for their job in wartime. (Getting taxes and rents for the army's use.) RT I think is short of Reichstaler. Aus(warth?) I'm guessing is "Auswahl", selection. (Of coffee brands?) Proceding on that assumption:

All in all, Dominico will be listed on it with a higher cost than 100 Reichstaler. Stedler probably doesn't have any share in this sum of 25(2)XX, since he's only provided Völcker credit for the King's selection most recently, and Glasow has presented His Majesty with the bills for Coffee every month for more than a year. The payment followed duly each time, so if the people didn't get their share, one can't help them anymore now.

I'm adding the letter to the Kurmärkische Kammer from the 14th last month; it's written harsh and threatening enough. Ahead of things I couldn't do anymore than write the attached letter, through which I hope to get at least enough results as to spare you from the execution as well as further vexations. It's impossible to pay the monthly fodder for horses from the remaining rent shares, because it's not enough to support 112 horses even in the current expensive times. Thus, if I put out the order as demanded for the court's coffee, I'd have to make new debts for the stable, and I'd have to borrow from Peter to pay Paul.

Re: Anschreiben - at first I naturally assumed the Kurmärkische Kammer was doing the writing, but then I read the rest, took 18th century grammar into account and decided it makes more sense if Leining is writing to the Kammer, not the other way around. They're supposed to get him/the army/Fritz money!

You wrote:

I laughed at "daß Sie von der Execution sowohl, als von f[erneren] Vexationen verschonet bleiben sollen"--it's like Leining read our last exchange! Also, awww.

Awww indeed. Yes, he clearly likes and respects Fredersdorf and meant it in the first letter about being sad to hear of his illness, it wasn't just politeness. Fahlenkamp, if you had bothered to read this you couldn't have justified the idea that the addressee is someone in disgrace!

Leining to Fredersdorf: Letter 8, page 3

[mildred_of_midgard]

Just bill-paying, but it also didn't take 3 hours!

Wenn es aber
angehen will: so dencke ich, wenn sich sonst kein anderer Rath findet,
Ihro Mayt. dahin zü disponiren, das höchst dieselben die [r]estierend
Kienbergsche Pacht, von denen überbleibenden fourage-Geldern
der 1027XX 8XX bezahlen lassen. Diese Sümme ist z[war] [monath]lich zü
Tilgüng der alten Schülden bestimmet; allein es kommen doch Fälle
vor, wo sie nicht so ünzertrennt zü diesem behüf allein em-
ployieret werden kann, wie züm Exempel diesen Monath geschi[e]-
het, da Se. Mayt. von diesen überbleibenden Geldern aüs 71 stück
Rosenburgsche und PreüssX-Gestüten Pferd[e] bis aü[f] de[ren?] Verkünft
die ratione[n] accordiren mußen. Wollen mon cher compere
deshalb mir immediate Vorstellüng an Se. Mayt. gelangen lassen,
ünd höchst den[en] selben vorstellen, daß Sie das restirend Pacht
Quantum aüs diesem fond bezahlen möchten: so halte ich da[f]ü[r],
das es keinen übeln effect thün wird. dem Stall-kommissario
Korack habe ich inzwischen aufgegeben, [mir] zü berichten warüm
[er] die Kienbergsche Pacht ünd Xahrensche dienstgelden nicht ordentlich
ünd zür ge[f]etzten Zeit abge[tra]gen ünd wie er es anjetzo anfangen
wolle, daß diese Post berichtiget werde?

Notes: "Xahrensche" has a capital letter at the beginning that could be anything, but isn't one of this hand's usuals.

"Korack" is my best guess. This hand has like 5 different ways of writing R and K that look veeery similar and yet no two are formed alike. It took me a long time to decide "Kienberg" was probably "Kienberg" and not "Rienberg."

Leining to Fredersdorf: Letter 8, page 4

[mildred_of_midgard]

We finally reach the end of this letter:

Die Antwort, so ich daraüs er-
halte, werde sogleich communiciren. Belieben Sie mir doch aüch zü
melden, ob es dem Roseno ein wirklichen [Ernst], die Pachtüng v[on]
Kienberg zu übernehmen, ünd ünter welchen Conditionen er solches
thun will? Was ich [nach] [meiner] [Wenigk]eit [dienen] kann, üm üs
diesem embarras zükommen, will ich mit Vergnügen [in]s XXXX
setzen.

Von Neüigkeiten weiß von der Hand weiter nichts zü schrieben als
daß ünsre Zieten ünd Czekelische Hüseren mit den oesterreichischen
Hüseren den Tag bei ünsere Einmarsch in das jetzige haüpt-
Qüartier einen starcken Scharmützel gehabt, ünd dabey XX[ck?]
getödtet einen Rittmeister, einen Lieutenant ünd 31 gemeine
nebst Pferden zü Gefangene gemacht. Anjetzo halten wir Prag ein-
geschlossen, Braun hat sich [hinter] der Stadt ündt über die Moldau
zürück gezogen und feste gesetzt. Was weiter passiren möchten
wird die Zeit bald lehren. Se. Konigl. Mayt. befinden sich
bey allen fatiguen münter ünd gesünd. Ich empfele noch
zü beharrlichen freundschaft ünd verbleibe mit der aüfrichtig-
sten hochachtüng
Monsieur et tres chere compere
Votre tres humble
et obeisant Serviteur
Leining

Haupt-Quartier
bei Welleslawien von Prag
Der 4te Maj. 1757.

Our first war news! It's May 4, which means the Battle of Prague is just two days away. Enjoy the (relative) calm before the storm while it lasts, Leining!

Re: Leining to Fredersdorf: Letter 8, page 3 and 4 Translations

[selenak]

Good morning, and here we go!

If it can be done, and if there's no other method available, though, I'm intending to advise His Majesty to let the remaining lease of Kienberg be paid by the remaining horse fodder money of 1027XX8XX. True, the sum has been intended to redeem the old debts on a monthly basis; but there are cases when it can't be used only to this purpose without getting divided, as for example happened earlier this month, when His Majesty had to had to supply rations out of this remaining money for 71 horses of the Rosenburg and Preus stud farm. If you, mon tres cher compare, would provide a presentation addressed to His Majesty to me immediately which demonstrates to him that you want the remaining lease to be paid out of this foundation, I'll swear that it won't have a bad result. I've already told Horsemaster Korack to report to me why the Kienberg lease and the Xahren service money haven't been properly redeemed in time, and how he wants to make up for this failure?

As soon as I get a reply, I'll share it with you. Could you also be so kind as to tell me whether Roseno is really serious about taking over the Kienberg lease, and at which conditions he wants to do so? Whatever my poor self can accomplish so we can escape from this embarrassment, I'll joyfully do.

As regards to news, I don't have any to share except that our Zieten and the Czekel Hussars have fiercely engaged the Austrian Hussars on the day of our arrival at our current headquarters. A Captain was killed, a Lieutenant and 31 common soldiers and horses were captured. Now, we've encircled Prague. Braun has retreated into the city and across the Moldau and has entrenched himself there. What will happen further, only time will tell. Despite all the exhaustion, His Royal Majesty is cheerful and healthy. I recccommend myself in steadfast friendship and remain with sincere respect, Monsieur et tres chere compere, etc.

Getting enough money for horse fodder soon will be but one of many problems, Leining. But first, Heinrich will distinguish himself in the battle for Prague for the first but not the last time in this war, causing Fritz to say that he "accomplished miracles" (not to Heinrich, of course, to their sisters in his letter), and then Fritz will realise Prague wasn't his Pharsalos after all.

I've said so before, but Leining reassuring Fredersdorf that Fritz is fine and upbeat despite all the war stress is very touching indeed. cahn, Zieten, sometimes also spelled Ziethen, is the somewhat older general famous not just for his victories but for NOT following the Old Dessaur/FW school of drilling your soldiers brutally, and also for not allowing his soldiers to abuse civilians. Heinrich honored him on the Rheinsberg Obelisk with a plaque specifically praising his humanity. There's a famous anecdote which Fontane uses in a poem about Ziet(h)en of him falling asleep in his later years when invited chez Fritz and that Fritz didn't allow anyone to wake him up or disturb him and said that Ziet(h)hen had remained sleepless in his service long enough.

Leining to Fredersdorf: Letter 9

[mildred_of_midgard]

Monsieur et tres cher compere!

Gest[ern] habe dero [geehrtes] vom 29 m.p. richtig erhalten. Den
brief aüs America habe sogleich weiter besorget, den von dem
Herrn Stadt-Richter Schmid aüs Bremen gesandten [Lach]s bin ich
noch erwartend, weil die Posten von Dresden aüs bis hierher noch
nicht reguliret w[erden] können ünd sonst keine Gelegenheit aüßer
denen gewöhnlichen Estaffeten vorfället. Inzwischen werde dafür
sorgen, daß selbiger dürch den Herrn Geheime[n]-Rath Zinnow
je eher je lieber anhero über[ma]cht werde.

Mit denen hiesigen vorfallen[den] merckwürdigen Neuigkeiten
werde allemahl mit Vergnügen aüfwarten; zu Erschonüng der
Zeit aber werde die Nachrichten [nür] an meine Frau senden, die
denn keine Zeit verlieren wird, sie Ihnen zu communiciren.
Ein solches wird verhoffentlich mit der letzten relation von der
am 6te hujus vorgefallenen Bataille gestehen s[eyn].

Gestern haben wir den Zisca-Berg glücklich erobert, und vermüthlich
wird es nun mehro mit allem Ernst aus Prag los gehen; dürch diese
glückliche Eroberung werden wir eine oestereichsche Armee von einigen
50000 Mann, den feldmarschall Braune, den Printz Carl von Lotth[e]rin-
gen, die bey den Sächsischen Printzen, den Prinzen Louis von Wurtenberg,
die alle in der Stadt sind, in unser hande bek[omm]en. Gott gebe
dazu seinen Seegen! Ich zerharre ohne Ausnehme
Monsieur et tres cher compere,
votre tres humble
et obeisant Serviteur
Leining

A postscript crammed into the bottom of the page, in noticeably worse handwriting:

XXX Brautigam Gentze macht
sein großes [Co?]mpX [u]ndt
[er] ist [bereit?] dero befehle
nach zu Leben woran ich ihn ge[we]iß
[nicht?] XX[h|f]e[r|n] will er Xi[h|b][e?]t nihts vor d[er] Campaigne.

There's only so much I can do when he won't actually form the letters, and my German-fu is weak! "XX[h|f]e[r|n]" has a tall letter like s/st/f/h followed by a vowel, and then I think an o with an umlaut. Take your best guess, you probably have as much to go on as Fredersdorf did.

Then another postscript written along the left margin, and spilling over across the fold. You may notice the lines are extra long, and that's because he's writing vertically, at a right angle to the main text. The handwriting is better than the last postscript, not as good as the main text. Proper names make it extra hard. Half of the ones you see written confidently are only because they were notable enough to be easily googleable!

P.S. Der H§. von OeXX[ri]X, den S.K.M. den Tag nach der Schlacht zum Obristen er[klär]et, würde an
ebendem Tage [be]ym Recogno[tion]en durch die Brust geschossen, und dazu gefangen nach Prag gefuhret,
all[wo] er den 8te May. gestorben. Der Obrist von [St?]ran[k|tz] [vom] [K|R]XXXX von Preussen ist gestern bey der
Attaque des Zisca* Berges au[s?] ge[b]lieben. Der a[rme?] General von Zastrow hat
am 25te April bey Aussich in einem Defile gleichfalls sein Leben [an] [einen]
[H]in[t]en-Schuss aufgeben mussen. Der General Wartenberg von den
Huseren, ist auf eben [eine] Sch[usse] XXX zu [Tode] gekommen.

§. is the abbreviation squiggle. I decided it's coming up enough that I need a symbol for it, because it's very different from X meaning "I don't know." I'm guessing "H§." is for Hauptmann, not Herr.

So, more war news, Fritz-like optimism about the future that is about to get exploded, and proof Mrs. Leining is back in Berlin/Potsdam and socializing with Mr. and Mrs. Treasurer! Meaning I'm going with "will get fat" for the other letter, and guessing that the Fredersdorfs are having her over for dinner, and that on one or more of these occasions they gifted her with some wine to take home.

Not in disgrace!

ETA: Btw, he doesn't normally squeeze postscripts into margins like this, which makes me think he's having to ration paper right after the battle.

ETA 2: Ugh, my fingers have a bad habit of typing "chere compere", because of the second "ere". I thought I had caught myself every time it happened and fixed it to "cher compere", but apparently not. Anyway, I don't think Leining's ever written that, assume that's just me if you see it.

ETA 3: If you want to see what he's doing with the margins, it's the right-hand sheet of paper in this image (let me know if you can't see it):

Re: Leining to Fredersdorf: Letter 9 - Translation

[selenak]

Good lord, decyphering those postscripts is true heroism on your part.

Monsieur et tres cher compere!

Yesterday I received your appreciated letter from the 29th of the past month. I forwarded the letter from America immediately, and am still waiting for the salmon which the judge from Bremen is sending, because we haven't been able to establish regular mail from Dresden to this place yet, and there's to other opportunity except for the usual fast courier. Meanwhile, I'll take care of having it transported via Secret Councillor Zinnow, the sooner the better.

Regarding local extraordinary news, I'll gladly present them to you; but in order to save time, I'll write the news solely to my wife, who then won't lose a moment to communicate all of it to you. This will hopefully include the last description of the battle which happened on the 6th of this month.

Yesterday, we've happily conquered the Zisca mountain, and now I guess the conquest of Prague will start in earnest; through this happy conquest, we'll get our hands on an Austrian army consisting of 5000 men, Field Marshal Browne, Prince Charles of Lorraine, both of the Saxon princes, Prince Louis of Würtemberg, who are all in the city. May God give us his blessing for this! I remain without exception,
Monsieur et tres chere compere, etc.

P.S. Gentze the bridegroom sends his great compliments, and is ready to direct his life according to your orders, from which I certainly won't stop him; he hasn't seen any campaign action yet.

P.P.S. H. v. OeXX(r)X, the same gentleman whom His Royal Majesty has promoted to Colonel the day after the battle, was shot through his breast on the same day during a scouting expedition, captured and led to Prague, where he died on May 8th. Colonel of (ST?)ran(kitz) of the Royal Prussia (an Army regiment?) hasn't returned yet from the attack on Zisca Mountain yesterday. A shot from behind has cost poor General von Zastrow his life during a skirmish on April 25th. General Wartenberg of the Hussars has also been killed through a shot.


Thoughts: the "Fuck yeah, we're taking Prague, the war is almost over!" optimism is so very Fritzian (as in, what he told everyone in his letters from the same period, not necessarily what he himself felt.) The mountain business was where Heinrich distinguished himself as far as I recall. Also Henckel von Donnersmarck. Leining giving his wife a description of the battle who will then share it with both Fredersdorfs not only makes sense - Leining is a very busy man - but also often happened with letters in this era which were about other than deeply personal things. And of course it confirms Mrs. Leining to be in social contact with Mr. and Mrs. Treasurer, as you say, Mildred.

Gentze also intending to marry: Presumably Fredersdorf gave him some adivice on that and expressed concern with the war situation, after all, the guy had been his secretary for years. I wonder whether the dead guys Leining lists were people Fredersdorf knew beyond his duties, or whether he just lists the most important dead? In either case, I'm surprised Schwerin did not have make the cut, he was by far the most prominent and high ranking officer killed on the Prussian side in that battle. cahn, Schwerin was the one who won the battle of Mollwitz, also the one who if Buwert is right is responsible for sending Fredersdorf to Fritz.

Leining to Fredersdorf: Letter 10, first paragraph

[mildred_of_midgard]

Normally I'm doing at least a page at a time, but in this case, I was contractually obliged to let you see the first paragraph as soon as I'd deciphered it:

Monsieur et tres cher compere!

Ich habe dero zwei Schreiben vom 14te und 16te dieses richtig
erhalten. Bey Empfang der ersteren ist die Einlage an der König
sogleich besorget worden. Se. Mayt. haben dieselbe sehr gnädig
dürchgelesen, ünd mir befohlen Ihnen für dero redliche Gesin-
nüngen zü dancken.

Ha. HA! Fredersdorf is still writing to Fritz after the so-called "disgrace", and Fritz is replying very graciously. Died consumed with grief for his lost honor, my foot!

Re: Leining to Fredersdorf: Letter 10, first paragraph

[selenak]

ZOMG! I can't translate the other letter tonight, no time, but have to share this with cahn as it alone would justify the entire aquisition from the Prussian State Archive:

Monsieur et tres cher compere!

I received both of your letters from the 14th and the 16th. When I got the former, I immediately handed over the inserted page to the King. His Majesty has read through it very graciously and ordered me to thank you for your honest mindset.

Still working on a better modern equivalent to "redliche Gesinnung" than the literal one, which is a very 18th century expression, but "good intentions" isn't quite it. "Kind thoughts", maybe?

In any case: once you're through with all this, you could contact wikipedia immediately. *g* (And Fahlenkamp, while you're at it. Emmi Wegfraß was already an elderly lady when she wrote her book, she might be dead by now. Oh, and the guy who wrote the essay about Fredersdorf in Frankfurt an der Oder.) Now we have a primary source directly contradicting the slander!

ETA: Considering the letter to Fritz comes with a letter to Leining, it can't have been indiscreetly personal, but still, I'm sure Fredersdorf found a tactful way to convey "You're in my heart, please take care of yourself".

Leining to Fredersdorf: Letter 10, page 1

[mildred_of_midgard]

Now the whole first page, including the part already translated that makes the whole acquisition and all this time and effort worth it.

Monsieur et tres cher compere!

Ich habe dero zwei Schreiben vom 14te ünd 16te dieses richtig
erhalten. Bey Empfang der ersteren ist die Einlage an der König
sogleich besorget worden. Se. Mayt. haben dieselbe sehr gnädig
dürchgelesen, ünd mir befohlen, Ihnen für dero redliche Gesin-
nungen zü dancken.

Die Commission an den H§n Obrist von Tauentzien habe ich, wie beilie-
gendes Schreiben von Ihm [mit] [m|w]ehX[e]rn bek[rä]ftigen wird, treülich
aüsgerichtet. Da ich glaübe, daß des Major Lingefeldts Verlassen-
schaft mehr als 1000 rt§. beträgt, und sich nach Anzeige des Herrn
von Tauentzien erst so viel Creditore[s] als diese Post aüstr[äg]et ge-
meldet, so kann es vielleicht geschehen, daß sie insges[am]t, sogleich
aüch mon cher compere, befriediget werden. Was ich dazü in der
folge beytragen kann, soll mit Vergnügen geschehen.

Den brief an den H§n Obrist von Tauentzien von seiner fraü Ge-
mahlin habe gleichfalls richtig besorget. Aüch ist nün endlich de[r]
[gerüchterte] [Bremer]-[L]achs von 5 Tagen angekommen.
Von der Chürmärck§-Cammer habe wegen des be[w]üßte[n] Schreibens
noch keine Antwort. Sobald selbige erfolget, werde keinen
Anstand [nehmen] Ihnen von denem Inhalt pa[rt?] zü geben.

Notes: In much the same way that one does not expect the Spanish Inquisition, I was not expecting the Bremen salmon in this context, and it threw me for a loop both here in and in letter 9. Fortunately, once I realized what was going on and the penny dropped that my two points of confusion were the same point of confusion, I was able to fill in some blanks in letter 9 before Selena got to it! (Yet again, putting too much weight on visual spacing, and therefore treating parts of the same word as separate words, is my Achilles' heel.)

I'm getting increasingly confident about the Kurmärkische Kammer, and also, selenak, you were right, Leining is the one who wrote that letter!

Tauentzien I'm guessing is the father of "Surely you want to reminisce about your late brother in the most realistic way possible, Heinrich" Tauentzien, but no time to check.

Re: Leining to Fredersdorf: Letter 10, page 1 - Translation

[selenak]

As you can see, I found another more fluent in English expression for "redliche Gesinnung" that I like better. :)



Monsieur et tres cher compere!

I received both of your letters from the 14th and the 16th. When I got the former, I immediately handed over the inserted page to the King. His Majesty has read through it very graciously and ordered me to thank you for your true heart.

I've faithfully transmitted the commission to Colonel von Tauentzien, as the inclosed letter by him will confirm. As I believe the late Major Lingefeldt's legacy to amount to more than 1000 Reichstaler, and that there will as many creditors making themselves known as the mail will permit after Herr von Tauentzien's announcement, it may happen that they as well as mon chere compere will be satisfied. Whatever I can add to help with this, I'll do so gladly.

I also forwarded the letter to Colonel von Tauentzien by his lady wife. Moreover, the smoked salmon from Bremen has now finally arrived five days ago. Meanwhile, there's no reply to the letter in question yet by the Kurmärkische Kammer. As soon as it arrives, I'll make its content known to you immediately.


Clearly FS isn't the only salmon lover of the era. :) Since Leining considers the salmon worth mentioning twice, I'm guessing Fredersdorf might have given the Bremen guy the hint/request/order to send it?

Tauentzien I'm guessing is the father of "Surely you want to reminisce about your late brother in the most realistic way possible, Heinrich" Tauentzien, but no time to check.

That would be my guess, since I dimly recall Tauentzien the older making his name in the 7 Years War.

Leining to Fredersdorf: Letter 10, pages 2-3

[mildred_of_midgard]

Argh, I kind of need to work, and I'm impatient for you to confirm my reading and interpretation of the first paragraph of the postscript, so I'm going to hand this over with less cleanup than I normally do. I may make time to go back over some of the worst parts, though there's only so much I can do with the very last line.

Dem Herrn Grafen von Schaffgotsch habe ich meine [na]t[ur]liche
Gedenken wegen der Kienbergschen Pacht bereits vor 4 Wochen
gesch[rei]ben, und mich gantz positionement gegen ihn erklaret
das, wenn Er die Pacht continuiren wollte, ich solches Seinen
gutbefinden lediglich uberl[a]sse, ich wolle mich aber alle[r] VerXXX-
XX[r]tung, wenn es schlecht gi[n]ge feierlich entsagen, und Ihr[e]
Excellentz mussten in diesen fall allein fur den Kiss stehen.
Ich habe auch nicht vergessen wegen den schlechten qualite des Kien-
berschen Hendes, und daß solches einbestandigen Stein des An-
stoßes seyn wurde, [Erinnerung] zu [thu]X. Folglich sehen mon
cher compere, daß ich mich in allen [Stucken] pra[cavire?]t, und
als nichts zu besorgen haben werde.

Die Nachricht von der Uebergabe d[er] Stadt Prag wird [nun] XXX
nicht mehr lange außen blieben. Der Angriff wi[r]d [in] wenigste-
gen mit solchem Nachdruck geschehen, daß Sie, ehe wir es aus
versehen, wird Chamade schlegen mußen. In diesen Erwartung
habe ich das Vergnugen, mit der aufrichtigsten Hochachtung zu
seyn,
Monsieur et tres cher compere
votre tres humble
et obeisant Serviteur
Leining

Haupt-Quartier bey Prag
der 23te Maj. 1757

"Chamade" is the beating of drums for capitulation. Hang on to those delusions while you can, Leining!

And then the postscript:

P.S. Se. Konig§. Mayt. haben mich bey Uberreichung dero letzten
Briefes gesagt, ob Sie noch lebten und ob ich von de[ro] be[find]en
[darin] Nachricht sollte, weswegen ich aber, weil der 2 letzten
Schrieben davon nichts erXXXh[a]t, kein hinreichendes eclaircissement
geben konnen. Ich bitte also diese Punct gelegentlich nicht
zu vergessen.

Herr Anderson ist dem 12te dieses glucklich hier angelanget,
XXXX fort aber ist ist zu beschaffen, das ich zur zeit noch nicht XXX-
sehen kann, ob es sein Gluck oder Ungluck sey, dieser anhero
gekommen. Bewiss [wir] unter die [SaupontXXation??] geben
und soll bey de[r|m] XXXXX XXXX und XhlaX[te], ha[e?][tt?]e sache.

The last line is almost unreadable, but the IMPORTANT part is I'm pretty sure Fritz is asking if Fredersdorf is still alive and if Leining has news of him, and Leining says he couldn't give any sufficient report, because the last two letters didn't contain any news, and please not to forget that part occasionally in future.

This is SO FRITZ. Also. NOT IN DISGRACE. Fritz is still worrying! This is SO going in the essay.

Re: Leining to Fredersdorf: Letter 10, pages 2-3

[selenak]

Between packing for Berlin (tomorrow) and Portugal (Friday), it might take a while now till I can translate, but for now, my interpretation of the first paragraph is the same as yours. Also, VerXXX-
XX[r]tung = Verantwortung, responsibility. Buying the entire correspondence was such a brilliant idea on your part !

Leining to Fredersdorf: Letter 11

[mildred_of_midgard]

One pass for a page and a half! Not perfect, but close enough! It's partly because the text is clearer, and partly because I'm getting the hang of this (I'm learning to recognize entire common words at a glance, which helps to no end).

Monsieur et tres cher compere!

Ich habe endlich gestern die Antwort von der Churmärck§-Cammer
auf mein letzteres Anschreiben von 4§ May. a.X. erhalten, welche
denn nicht ermangele, mon tres cher compere, nebst d[enen] ges[amm]-
ten Beylagen zü communiciren, mit bitte, mir alles nach ge-
[ma]chten Gebraüch [w]ieder zürück zü senden. Es freüet mich,
daß Sie dieser Sache wegen aüs dem Embarras kommen, ünd
von denen angedroheten ünangenehmen Zwangsmitteln verschonet
bleiben. Zügleich ist mir angenehm, daß der Herr Graf von Schaff-
gotsch sich der Pacht von Kienberg annimmt, uüd mir zü meiner
Consolation die Versicherüng giebet, daß er vor der Kiss stehen, aüch
zü [keinen] Beschwerden über schlechtes heu Anlass geben will.

Schreiben Sie mir doch ob Se. Mayt. der Konig denen Kietz[ern] in Cüstrin
wenn Sie Höchstdemselben fi[sch]e gesandt, ein Douceur bekommen
haben. Die Küche wil[l] mir solches aus [mein] ünzeitigen freigebigkeit
in Rechnüng bekommen. Ich glaübe aber, daß solches zür [U]ngeb[ü]h[r] ge-
schiehet.

Die gestern an meiner fraü gesendte relation wird mon cher compere
wohl communiciret worden seyn. Heüte brennet das feüer in
zwei Orten wieder entsetzlich starck, ünd mich soll w[ündern?]
vor lange die Herrn P[rä]gen ünd die darin befindlich Troupen
dieses f[e]üerwer[kc]hen aüsfallen werden.

Ich habe die Ehre, mit der vorzüglichsten Höchachtüng zü verharre,
Monsieur et tres cher compere
votre tres humble et
fedele Serviteur

je vous rend Grace pour le bon
vin, ma femme s'engrisera

Leining

Haüpt-qüartier bei Prag
den 3te Junii 1757

Appended to the bottom of the first page, in what looks like a different hand:

die Antwort von §. Schaffgot. Copi[eren], und
des Schreiben von der Cammer an § Leining auch CopXXn

Quick content notes for cahn: looks like the Kiensberg contract for horse fodder might finally be getting sorted to Leining's satisfaction, something about payment of a gratuity in relation to fish from(?) Küstrin (Küstrin-Kietze is currently across the Oder from Küstrin proper, one in Germany and one in Poland; historically, they were part of the same fortified garrison town). Then a note that he sent a communication to his wife that should have been passed on to Fredersdorf by now, a note that the siege of Prague is getting pretty intense with lots of fire (can't tell if this is artillery fire or uncontrolled fires that have broken out), expectation that matters are going to come to a head very soon (you're not wrong about that, Leining--the battle of Kolin will be on the 18th), and then the postscript we've seen thanking Fredersdorf for the wine and commenting that his wife will get fat (based on what we've read, I'm going with wining and dining by the Fredersdorfs, not impregnation by Leining).

Re: Leining to Fredersdorf: Letter 11 - Translation

[selenak]

Monsieur et tres cher compere!

Yesterday, I finally received the reply from the Kurmärkische Kammer to my last letter of May 4th, and am not neglecting to share it in addition to the collected inserts, mon tres cher compare, so I ask you to send me all of it back once you’ve put it to good use. I’m glad you get out of any embarrassment in this matter, and will be spared any disagreeable threatened forcible means. Additionally, it pleases me that Count of Schaffgotsch will indeed take the lease of Kienberg, and has consoled me by giving me the assurance that he won’t give any cause to complaints about bad hay or a bancruptcy.

Please write to me whether His Majesty the King has received any sweets from those folks inn Kietz-Küstrin when you had ordered fish to be sent to him. Due to my liberality, not suited to these times, the kitchen wants to bill me for said sweets. But I believe that this happens inappropriately.

The news I’ve sent to my wife yesterday will have been shared with mon cher compere. Today again there are fires in two places which burn fiercely, and I’d be surprised if the good citizens of Prague and the troops contained within won’t be driven out by these fireworks.

I have the honor of remaining with the deepest respect, Monsieur et tres cher compere, etc.

What confused me was “ I’m glad you get out of any embarrassment in this matter, and will be spared any disagreeable threatened forcible means” , because that first reads as if Fredersdorf was the one who had been threatened and was in embarassment, and I briefly wondered whether this was our first sign he was in some financial mess after all. But then I recalled Leining in the first letter mentioning the Kurmärkische Kammer has mentioned he had been writing this letter (to the Kammer) as threateningly as possible and hopes that will put an end to this embarrassment. I therefore concluded that he’s been threatening them with Fredersdorf as the ultimate weapon - as Manger mentions in his Frederdorf chapter, he was feared among many, and as Lehndorff mentions in his decription, Fredersdorf could use his power “despotically” - , but now that the chamber has caved, Fredersdorf’s intervention won’t be necessary any more.

And yes, after all the previous mentions of Mrs. Leining sharing news with Fredersdorf the post script is clearly about her getting wined and dined by Mr. And Mrs. Frederdorf. Also, it seems my speculation Fredersdorf might have caused the salmon from Bremen being sent to Fritz could be correct if he’s also responsible for Küstrin sending more fish. (But not, or so Leining thinks, sweets! No doceurs for Fritz, then?)

Leining to Fredersdorf: Letter 12

[mildred_of_midgard]

This is the not!Algarotti/Glasow one we've seen before. I'm just copying it so I have the numbering in the comment subject for future reference (I'm hoping to compile these for Rheinsberg), and fixing something I couldn't read last time:

Monsieur mon tres chere compere!

Einliegender brief ist heüte ünter Glasows Adresse aüs Bologna
von dem Grafen Algarotti [mit] angekommen. Ich ermangele [n]icht
derselben sogleich zu über[ma]chen, und mon cher compere von der aüs-
nehmenden hochachtüng zu ve[r]sichern mit der beständig seyn wird,

Monsieur mon tres chere compere,
votre tres humble et
obeisant Serviteur
Leining

Haupt-Quartier bei Prag
7te Junii 1757

Correcting my earlier reading, he's not saying he's not intending to hand it over to the recipient immediately (in favor of sending it to Fredersdorf instead), he's saying he's not neglecting to hand it over immediately. I assume to Fredersdorf, unless he means that he's handed it over to Fritz immediately, and is only sending Fredersdorf a copy--but based on the later letter, he doesn't seem aware of the Abbe de Prades insert, so I'm guessing he means he's handing it over to Fredersdorf immediately.

(I thought it said "ermangele" originally, but Google and the dictionaries I checked didn't think that made any sense, and I didn't feel confident overriding what they were saying with what I thought I was seeing. But I've now seen him use "ermangele" in much clearer handwriting to mean he won't fail to do something or delay in doing it, so I'm more confident of my reading now. I can also now say I've seen him use "übermachen" to mean what I would expect "überreichen" for; maybe it's archaic, Selena can weigh in, but certainly to me as an English speaker, "making something out/over to someone" and "handing something over to someone" are very similar in meaning, although the first one has limited usage.)

Leining to Fredersdorf: Letter 13, page 1

[mildred_of_midgard]

Ich habe dero sehr werthes Schreiben von 29te m.p. erst gestern
als den 9te dieses erhalten woraüf denn zü[förderst] versichern, das
es, so viel [am] mir lingt, an Erinnerüngen ünd Vorstellüngen nicht
ermangeln soll, Ihnen zü der Lingerfeldtschen [Forderüng] zü verh[alten],
wozü ich, da heüte das erste Bataillion Garde ünd mit dem selben XX§
Obrist von Tauentzien zü aüsstoßet vielfaltige Gelegenheit haben
werde.

Vor die nür erthielte Nachricht von dero Leibes- ünd Gesündheit-Umstän-
den, so ünangenehm selbige aüch klinget, bin ich dennoch verbünden,
weil ich des Koniges Mayt. nünmehro, darum gefragt werde davon
Schüldigen raport machen kann.

Mit gleiche[n] Erkenntlichkeit nehme ich die Erinnerüng aüf, welche
mon cher compere mir in Ansehüng der [Garten]-Rechnüngen [wa]chen
wollen. Es ist wahr, daß ich dem Ober-Gart[ner] Kru[ti]X[ic]k die Assigna-
tion derer wochentlichen Rechnüngen wahrend meine[n] Abwesenheit
aüfge[t]r[a]gen, ünd aüs dieses Ursach[e] aüch dem vorstorbenen Krieges-
rath Voss das vollige gemeldet habe; ünd dazü habe ich folgende
Grün[de] gehabt.

Notes: Guessing "XX§ Obrist" is Herr Obrist.

But the MOST important part is that Leining, according to my reading, is telling Fredersdorf it doesn't matter if the only news on the state of his body and health is bad, Leining still needs it so he can pass it on to Fritz, who is asking.

</3

Re: Leining to Fredersdorf: Letter 13, page 1 - Translation

[selenak]

Train time is translation time:

I received your esteemed letter from the 29th of the past month only yesterday, on the 9th, and first of all would like to assure you that in as much as it is up to me, there won‘t be a lack of reminders and remonstrances on your behalf regarding the Lingerfeldt claim. Considering today the first Bataillon Gard will join uns together with the same Colonel von Tauentzien, I should have ample opportunities for these.

Regarding the news you‘ve now given me regarding the state of your body and health, as unpleasant as all of this sounds, I‘m still obliged to you for telling me, for now I can provide the King‘s Majesty with the report he demands of me on this.

I‘m additionally obliged to you for reminding me of the sighting of the garden bills which mon cher compere has given me. It is true that I have tasked the head gardener Kru(ti)X(ic)k with the weekly bills in my absence, and for this reason also announced all of this to the late Councillor Voss, and for this, I had the following reasons:

Re: the head gardeners name, I think it might be possible to find out who was head gardener of Sanssouci before or during the 7 Years War. Also, the late Councillor Voss is, I guess, the husband of AW‘s beloved Sophie von Pannewitz whose diary was the most famous one of the Prussian royal court(s) before the Lehndorff diaries got published. Or could it be her father-in-law? No idea what the Lingenfeldt business is all about.

Otoh, I agree: the main thing about this letter is that evidently Leining has been told in no uncertain terms by Fritz to provide him with a report on how Fredersdorf is doing, no matter how bad the news are. (Or the war going on.) Caroline was right: he died in his King‘s great favour!

Leining to Fredersdorf: Letter 13, pages 2-3

[mildred_of_midgard]

selenak, I know you're on vacation, so if it's not a good translation time, don't worry about it. If you have time just to do the first 2-3 lines of this one, that would be great. I know what I think they say, but I've been wrong before.

Erstlich habe ich, nachdem Se. Konig§ Mayt., mon cher compere wegen
dero kränc[k]lichen Umstände soulagiret ünd in Rühe wissen wollen,
ünd mir also aüch die direction in Konig§ G[a]rt[e]n S[a]chen oblieget,
niemanden in Potsdam gewüßt, dem ich die assignation der Gar-
ten-Etats-Gelder committiren können; wie ich solches ünter andern
aüch dem Gärtner Sello [üntern] 28 m.p. bekannt ge[ma]cht habe,
zweitens habe ich darüm aüf den Ober-Gärtner Krutisch [mein] Aügen-
[marck] gerichtet, weil er, da mon cher compere sich mit diesen Sachen,
nicht mehr abgeben, am besten sehen ünd beürtheilen kann, ob die Arbeit
oder Sachen, s[o] [in] Rechnüng gebr[a]cht w[e]rde, auch wirklich gemacht s[in]d.
Drittens habe dem Ober-Gärtner mitnichten plein pouvoir über die
andern König§ Gärt[n?]en gegeben, sodann ich habe ihm bloß aüfgetra-
gen, daß er mir in meiner Abwesenheit fleißig berichten über
die assignirte Gelder eine Controlle führen, ünd mir von alles re-
sponsable seyn soll.

Viertens ist es wohl an dem, daß die Ober-Rechen-Cammer gegen die
Anweisüngen des Krutisch in seinen eigenen Rechnüngs-Sachen mo-
nita machen wurde; da ich [nür] aber vorbehalten selbige bey meiner
künftigen retour nach geschehene[n] g[rün]den Untersüchüng zü am [tra?]hi[ern]
aüch allenfalls dieses, w[enn] es [an]langet wird, n[o]ch eher zü th[ün],
so wird dädürch allem Anstoß vorgebeüget ünd in diese[m] fäll d[a]s
Krutisch Unterschrift nün ad interim als ein [bl]oßes atte[st] gelten,
welches die gegenwärtige zeitlaüfte ünd Umstände gältig machen
[an]gesehen werden.

Ich hoffe daß Sie dieses [mein] Arrangement, aü[ch] die A[rt], wie ich die
Ehre geha[tt], [e]s hierzü detailli[re]n, für güt finden werden. Wißen
Sie [ein] etwas beße[re]s züm Di[en]st ünd Nützen des Königes vorzü-
schlagen, werde es mit der g[ün]sten Erkentlichkeit a[nn]ehmen.
Uebrigens werden meine 2 letzte Briefe von 4te ünd 7te dieses nebst
denen Beylagen nünmehro wohl angelange[t] seyn.

Ich empfele mich zü de[r] beständigen Freündschaft, ünd versichern
noch derjenigen, so ich für Sie frage, daß ich allemah[l]s mit der
aüfrichtichsten Hochachtüng sein werde,

Monsieur et tres chere compere,
votre tres humble et
obeisant Serviteur
Leining

Haüpt-Qüartier bey Prag
den 10te Junii 1757

cahn, mostly it's just worrying about the royal gardens, but I think the first couple lines are saying that Leining's taking over the gardens because Fritz wants Fredersdorf, being sick, not to have to worry about them (Selena can confirm or refine my reading--he may also just be saying that chronologically, first he gave Fritz the news about Fredersdorf and then they talked about the gardens).

And I love the bit where he's like, "I hope my plans sound okay, but if you know a better way, I will accept it with gratitude." Beating a dead horse here, but the recipient is someone whose expertise is still very much respected.

Re: Leining to Fredersdorf: Letter 13, pages 2-3

[selenak]

I‘ll try to do it when I can, but for now, continuing his explanation for why he‘s given headgardener K all this responsibility, he says that Fritz wanted Fredersdorf to be relieved all worries and left in peace because of how ill he is, and that‘s why Leining did: list of gardening related measures. Will proper translate when not wandering through Portugal or uploading photos!

Leining to Fredersdorf: Letter 14, pages 1-2

[mildred_of_midgard]

The first paragraph is the Algarotti one we've seen before, only I am much, much better at transcription now, so I've filled in some blanks and corrected some readings.

Monsieur et tres cher compere!

Ich habe dero Schreiben von 27te m.p. nebst dem Brief des
Grafen Algarotti erhalten, ünd nach Eröffnüng d[es]selben da[rin]
eine Einlage für der Abbe de Prades gefünden, dem ich selbige
aüch zügestellet habe. Es wündert mich, daß der Herr Graf seine
Briefe noch immer ünter Glasows Adresse einsendet, da ich ihm
doch schon vor länger als 4 Wochen gemeldet, daß dieser Mann
in der qualite eines Kammers Dienes nicht mehr existirte.
Vor 8 Tagen habe wieder an ihn geschrieben, und v[erm]üthlich
[wir]d inskünftige diese Adresse nicht wieder züm Vorschein kömmen.

Ich hoffe, daß mon cher compere sich jetzo etwas wohl befinden
werden. Se. May§. haben Sich vorgestern sehr gnädig darnach er-
kündiget, ünd da ich höchstdenenselben sagte, daß Sie züfolge
de[ro] letzteren Briefen gesch[woll]en wären, bedaüerten höchstdieselbe[r]
Sie recht sehr.

Da ünser hiesige Neüigkeit zeithero nicht angenehm gewesen,
habe ich mit allem Fleiß, meine freünd[e] damit nicht beün-
rühigen wollen. Vielleicht aber s[in]d Sie aüs Mangel wahren
ünd genuiner Nachrichten noch in großerer Verlegenkeit. Ich kann
nür leicht vorstellen, was in dortigen Lande[r] für Wiedersprüche
herrschen müßen, da man hier bey der Armee nicht ganzlich
davon befreiet ist, sondern alle Behütsamkeit anzüwenden
hat, daß man nicht dürch fürchterliche Vorstellungen [ünser]
Angelegenheiten hintergangen wird.

Ich kann Ihnen mit voller Gewisskeit melden, daß [ünsre] [Umstände]
nicht so [beschaffen] sind, als ünser feind, die ohnedem zür Aüs-
schweifüng ünd Prahlereiy bis zum EXXl geneigt sind, es be[haupten].
Wir sind ihnen hier in Böhmen noch an Anzahl ünd Macht
überlegen, ünd üngeachtes bei der letzten Action von 18t Junii
der endzweck nicht errichet, aüch die Belagerüng von Prag aüf-
gehoben worden: so stehen wir doch anjetzo in einer Verfassüng,
die ünser Vortheile in Böhmen nicht allein behaüptet, sondern aüch
dem feinde bittere Streiche XXXXXXt. Daß letzterer bey der vor-
gefallenen action keine S[eid]e gesponnen, erh[a]ltX[t] aüs vielen an-
dern Gründen nür daraüs, daß derselbe sich nicht getraüet, üns
ünter Aügen zü kommen, sondern nür mit detachirten
H[aü]fen Räüber-Gesindel gegen üns agiren läßet.

Based on my revised reading of this and the previous Algarotti letter, I'm no longer so sure Leining is forwarding on the Algarotti letters to Fredersdorf for inspection; I think he's giving them straight to Fritz and/or the Abbe. And I use the plural because I also now think this Algarotti letter and the previous Algarotti letter are two different letters. I think Leining's not especially freaking out, I think he's just delivering them routinely and going "WTF?" to Fredersdorf every time it happens.

That's what happens when you have someone who's not especially good at German *or* Kurrent transcribing their very first letters. ;)

In other news, from the new material, Fritz has been asking after Fredersdorf again, and Leining had to tell him that based on the latest letter, Fredersdorf has been experiencing swelling, and Fritz said he regretted that very much.

So on the one hand, heartbreaking; on the other hand, GOING IN THE ESSAY. I mean, there's starting to be so much Fritz/Fredersdorf material I kind of don't even need to mention the wining and dining of Mrs. Leining any more (though I still may, we'll see how it plays out).

Also, swelling (edema) is, of course, a common symptom of major organ failure, and was seen as a harbinger of death in the 18th century, since they had no way to treat it most of the time. :/

Poor Fredersdorf. But at least we shall redeem his reputation. SERIOUSLY, if anybody had read these letters, they would never have been able to endorse a "dismissed in disgrace" hypothesis.

Re: Leining to Fredersdorf: Letter 14, pages 1-2 - Translaation

[selenak]

Monsieur et tres cher compere!

I received your letter from the 27th of the past month in addition to the letter by Count Algarotti, and upon opening the later found an insert for the Abbe de Prades which I have duly forwarded to him. I am amazed that the Count still mails his letters through Glasow’s address, since I did announce to him more than four weeks ago that this man doesn’t exist in the capacity of a valet anymore. Eight days ago, I wrote to him again, and I suppose in the future, we won’t see this address again.

I hope mon cher compere is a bit better by now. His Majesty has asked about this very graciously the day before yesterday, and when I told him that according to your last letters you’ve swollen up, he commiserated very much with you.

Since our current news isn’t of the agreeable type, l didn’t want to worry my friend with it. But maybe the lack of true and genuine news is of greater embarrassment to you. I can easily imagine how many contradictory tales are making the rounds back home, since even here with the army one isn’t free of this, but has to apply all possible care in order not to be fooled by terrible presentations of our affairs.

I can inform you with absolute certainty that our circumstances aren’t of the type as claimed by our enemies, who tend to exaggarate and boast excessively anyway. Here in Bohemia, we are superior to them in number and power still, and despite the fact that the last action from June 18th hasn’t accomplished the final goal of relieving the siege of Prague, we’re currently in a condition that our advantage in Bohemia isn’t just held but we’re able to deliver fierce blows to the enemy. The reason why the later hasn’t been thoroughly pummelled by the all that happened is among others that (the enemy) doesn’t dare to confront us but only acts through detached units of lowly thugs against us.

Translation and guess work notes:
EXX = Excess
Bittere Streiche XXXXt = Bittere Streiche versetzt

Also, Cahn, the thugs presumably are the famous pandurs, who mostly hailed from MT’s Balkan subjects - Hungarian but also Serbs, Croats etc. In the previous Silesian Wars, Austrian Trenck was the most famous Pandur commander, but now he’s gone.

The news about Fredersdorf’s swelling and Fritz’ reaction:


So on the one hand, heartbreaking; on the other hand, GOING IN THE ESSAY. I mean, there's starting to be so much Fritz/Fredersdorf material I kind of don't even need to mention the wining and dining of Mrs. Leining any more (though I still may, we'll see how it plays out).

I vote including the wining and dining, it’s a human element and Fredersdorf (and wife) contininuing to socialize is a part of a picture of his final months that no one has been able to paint before, Lehndorff’s one visit not withstanding. But of course the Fritz/Fredersdorf goodness is the main treasure of this correspondence, which I can’t believe has slumbered in the archive not even read by Koser the super discoverer of documents before Mildred found and transcribed it!

On a slightly more amusing note, I’m amazed by how hard loyal Leining who so confidently assured that Prague is due to be taken any minute now earlier is trying to spin the most recent turn of events as not being that bad. I mean, they weren’t in the sense of being war decisive, but they did demonstrate that Fritz could be beaten in battle, and no one had managed that in years and years, and they also showed this war would not be over soon.

Back to the touching side: Leining first not wanting to worry Fredersdorf as he didn’t have good news to report but then reconsidering because no news will leave Fredersdorf (who of course will be worrying about Fritz & co.) at the mercy of panicked rumors is very human.

Leining to Fredersdorf: Letter 14, pages 3-4

[mildred_of_midgard]

Die
Ueberläüfen von der feindlichen Armee, so gegenwärtig mit dem
rechten Flügel bey Lissa mit dem linken nach der Yser zü ste-
het, sagen einmüthig aüs, daß oesterrichscher Seits in der letzten
Bataille mehr als 20000 Man geblieben, ünd wenn ünser
Cavallerie, oder nü[r] ein Paar Regimenter noch einen ChXX gemacht,
wäre ihre gantze schon in völlige Verwirrüng ge[ra?]th[en][e] Ordre de
bataille züm Henker gegangen. Es ist also ein Glück, für die Oestereicher,
daß sie dies einzige [m]a[hl] auf dem Ort, wo sie von Anfang ge-
standXX, stehen geblieben, mehrer[er] Vortheile können sie sich mit
recht nicht rühmen. Der Himmel wende nü[r|n] gröseres Unglück [v]on
ünsern landen ab! Hier in Bohmen werden den feinden [schon] Schreck-
lich bleiben.

Unser armer feld-Probst Decker ist zü meiner ünd vieler f[reünde]
größen betrübnis heüte früh noch einer kürtzen doch heftigen Kranck-
heit am hitzigen fieber, in die Ewigkeit gegangen. Gott erbarme sich
Seiner zahlreichen nachgelaßenen Famille!

Den Herr Hofrath Cothenius haben Sr. Konig§ May§ aüs höchsteig[en]e[r]
B[ew]egüng züm Geheimen-Rath erklärt. Er ist es würdig, ünd ich
kenne keinen Menschen, die Ihm sein Glück misgönnet. Vermüth-
lich wird Er Ihnen davon [P]art geben.

Ich empfehle mich übrigens zü beständigen freündschaft, ünd habe die
Ehre, mit der volkommensten Hochachtüng zü verharre,

Monsieur et tres cher compere,
votre tres humble
et fidele Serviteur
Leining

Haupt-Quartier zu Leitmeritz
den 7te Julii 1757

ich w[o]lte daß H§ An. in Po[mmern?] blieben
wäre de[nn] der [wulff] Läs[t] [NXn] seine Haar etc etc.
ohngeachtet Sr. Konig§ Mayt§ mir ihn gle[ich]
andern Cammer [Bed]ienter [Souportirirt]
so stö[ß]et doch die herrschs[üc]ht zü weilen Vor
[undt?] ich habe off[ne]s NXXrXß V[o]n ihm, noch ist nicht
die geringste Marque [der] Grace gegen ihn, ich wolte
daß es aüch eine[r] oder die ander[n?] a[r]th änderte.

Notes: The postscript is barely legible and I have no idea about the second line. Good luck!

It does seem to be talking about Herr Anderson. Ongoing drama in the chamber servant world? I shall await the translation!

Also, just a reminder that Leitmeritz is where Fritz and his part of the army was when AW's infamous retreat began, but we only have one more letter to go, and it predates that episode. (We have two letters in the sense that I only partly transcribed letter 5 and need to go back and finish it, but chronologically speaking, we only have one.)

Re: Leining to Fredersdorf: Letter 14, pages 3-4 - Translaxtion

[selenak]

More airplane translating.

The deserters of the enemy army which currently is positioned with its right flank at Lissa and with the left near the Yser all uniformely have reported that the Austrian side has lost more than 20000 men in the last battle, and if our cavalry, or just a few regiments had made one more charge, their entire order of battle which had already been thrown into total confusion would have gone to hell. Thus the Austrians were just lucky to have remained this one time at the spot where they’ve been standing from the beginning. More advantages than that, they can’t boast of. May heaven keep greater misfortune from our country! We’ll remain the enemy’s terror here in Bohemia anyway.

After a short but fiercde illness and burning fever, our poor field chaplain Decker has passed into eternity to my greatest sadness, and that of many a friend. May God have mercy on the large family he leaves behind!

His Royal Majesty out of his own volition has raised Court Councillor Cothenius to Secret Councillor. (Cothenius) deserves this, and I know not a soul who begrudges him this fortune. I guess he will let you know about this.

I reccomend myself in steadfast friendship, and have the honour of remaining with the most perfect respect,

Monsieur et tres cher compere etc.

P.S. I wish Herr Anderson had remained in Pommerania, for the leopard won’t change his spots. Not withstanding his Royal Majesty has made (Anderson) my subordinate just as the other chamber servants are, (Anderson’s) arrogance keeps peaking out every now and then, and I often have to deal with annoyances from him. So far, there hasn’t been any sign of grace displayed against him, and I wish the one or the other would change.

Translator and guesser notes: CHXX = Charge

Ich habe off[ne]s NXXrXß V[o]n ihm =. Ich habe oft Verdruß von ihm

Taken together with info from the Anderson letter later, I am currently speculating that it’s not so much Anderson vs the other servants, but a) Anderson not behaving duly subordinate towards Leining despite the fact Leining is now his boss, and b) Fritz behaving harshly towards Anderson as well. Given Fritz has just gone through getting beaten, which does wonders to his mood, no doubt, and is hearing news about AW’s retreat he does not want to hear, I am not surprised.

Reminder, Cahn, Cothenius is the innovative and indeed very deserving doctor who is credited with saving a lot of Prussian soldiers due to his reforming of field medicine. He has a glowing wiki article. I’m not sure whether Leining expects Cothenius or Fritz to inform Fredersdorf of Cothenius’ promotion, the “he” is ambiguous, but clearly Leining expects Fredersdorf to approve of this promotion.

Leining to Fredersdorf: Letter 15

[mildred_of_midgard]

Last Leining letter!

Monsieur, et tres cher compere!

Ich hoffe daß mein letztes Schreiben von 8§ dieses werde an-
gekommen seyn. Zü gegenwärtigem ver[an]laßet mich meine
gegen mon cher compere hegende aüfrichtige freündschaft, ünd
nach derselben kann ich ihnen nicht verhehlen, daß mir vo[n]
güter hand aus Potsdam gemeldet wurde, daß der He[rr] von
A[ss]eburg bey seinem letzen daßigen gantz kürtzen Aüffenthalt
von Ihnen mit gantz aüsnehmenden höflichkeiten beehret wur-
den, ünd ünter andren aüch in dem Wagen nach Haüse ge-
fahren worden. Ich glaübe daß derselbe Ihnen so wie vielen
andern ehrlichen Leüten viel Windbeuteleien wird vorgesagt
haben, ich zweifele aber aüch nicht, daß die nunmehro [eines]
andern uberz[e]ugt seyn und wißen werden, was fur eine
niederträchtigte Rolle dieser Herr bey der letzten Bataille gespielet.
W[ir]d es dahero nicht nöthig sein, daß Sie Ihnen Wag[en] aüf
alle nür möglich [Ar?]t [r]einigen ünd aüs[r]aüchern laßen, da-
mit selbigen von der Poltronnerie, wovon ich ihn gantz inficirt
zü seyn glaübe, gesaübert werde? Den Spaß bey Seite gesetzt,
müß ich Ihnen melden, daß gedachten Asseburg in der letzten
Schlacht bey [P?]lanian seinen Posten verlassen, sich ünter de[m]
Vorgeben, daß er blessiret, hinter den Bagage versticket, ünd nicht
eher wieder züm Vorschein gekommen, bis Gefahr völlig [vor]
über war. Diese schändliche Aufführüng hat dem Könige nicht
verborgen bleiben können, und Sr. May§. haben ihn, ob er wohl
eine härtere Bestrafüng verdient, von der Armee weggejagt.
Ich hätte gewünscht, daß ich mon cher compere von diesem Um-
stand eher hätte benachrichtigen können. Ich bin versichert, daß
Sie ihn nicht wurden haben uber Ihre Thür-Schwelle treten
noch weniger ihn in der Wagen zü Haüse bringen laßen.
Ich empfele mich zü beharrlicher freündschaft, ünd verbliebe mit
der aüfrichtigsten Hochachtüng,

Monsieur et tres-cher compere,
Votre tres humble et
fidele Serviteur
Leining

Haüpt-Qüart. zü Leitmeritz
der 15te Julii 1757

Notes: "Aüffenthalt" is (sic), he really does spell it with two 'f's.

This is an interesting letter! I'll leave the translation to Selena, but to summarize my reading of it: Leining has heard that Fredersdorf has received a Herr von Asseburg recently, and had him driven home in his (Fredersdorf's) carriage. Leining says he's sure Fredersdorf, like many honest people, have been deceived by this guy's windbaggery, but that the truth will out and everyone will know what a despicable role he played in the last battle. I think he's saying Fredersdorf might have to have his carriage cleaned and purified with smoke to cleanse it of the cowardice with which Leining thinks this guy is infected. All joking aside, Leining says, he has to report that in the last battle, Asseburg hid with the baggage under the pretext that he was wounded, and didn't come out again until the danger was over. Fritz found out and kicked him out of the army, although he deserved a worse punishment.

"Really wish I could have told you this sooner," says Leining, "because I know you would never have let him cross your doorstep, much less given him a ride home in your carriage. Sincerest friendship, etc."

Meanwhile, in the Academy, Formey: "Peter went to England because of reasons!!"

Off to finish up letter 5! This correspondence has been a treasure trove of information, as well as good training for those of us who have stacks of papers we want to read in the future.

Re: Leining to Fredersdorf: Letter 15 - Translation

[selenak]

And the translator uses the last part of the flight to finish the Leining letters as well:

Monsieur et tres cher compere!

I hope my last letter from the 8th has arrived by now. The current one is caused by the sincere friendship I feel for mon cher compere, and I cannot hide from you that I was told from a reliable Potsdam source that Herr von Asseburg has been treated by you with the most extraordinary courtesy during his last very brief stay, including his being driven home by carriage. I believe that he has pulled wool over your ear as he did with many another honest people, but I also don’t doubt that everyone by now knows better and is aware of the indecent role this gentleman has played during the last battle. Won’t it therefore be necessary to clean up your carriage in all possible ways and have it purified by smoke so all the stench of chicken which I believe to cling to him will be gone away? All joking aside, I have to inform you that the said Asseburg left his post in the recent battle near (P)anian, has hid behind the baggage train under the pretense of being wounded, and hasn’t shown up again until all the danger was over. This shameful behaviour has not been hidden to the King, and HIs Majesty has kicked him out of the army, though he surely has deserved an even harsher punishment. I only wish I could have told mon cher compere about this circumstance sooner. I am sure that you wouldn’t have let him cross your doorstep then, let alone let him being driven home by your carriage. I reccomend myself in steady friendship, and remain in the most sincere respect,
Monsieur et tres-cher compere, etc.

I have no idea who Herr von Asseburg is; if he made it into Henckel von Donnersmarck‘s diary, I don‘t remember. But I think someone is just a bit jealous, not just miffed because Asseburg is undeserving. Anyway, all these letters come across as vivid and personal, bureaucratic matters and Rokoko German not withstanding, and I‘m still full of excitement we found this treasure.


Meanwhile, in the Academy, Formey: "Peter went to England because of reasons!!"

:)