cahn | Historical Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 43

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

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From:

mildred_of_midgard

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

From:

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.

From:

mildred_of_midgard

Indeed! Plus the tidbits about his (Leining's) authorized marriage and the Parisian bankers responsible for pension-paying were interesting.

ETA: Also, no worries, it's Monday, so I might not have time to reply until this weekend anyway, what with work, Danish (still in progress! read several pages of history yesterday), handwriting, and Peter Keith. Take your time. :)

Edited Date: 2023-04-17 05:59 pm (UTC)

From:

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.

Edited Date: 2023-04-17 04:03 pm (UTC)

From:

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?

From:

mildred_of_midgard

Yeah, I did consider that. I didn't mention it for two reasons: one, the comma seemed weird in that I wanted the second part to be related to the first part, but then again, you're lucky if he puts in any punctuation at all, so it could just be an unrelated pregnancy announcement.

Two, Leining's hanging out in a military camp in the front lines during one of the most active stages of the war, which seems like a weird place for the wife of a high-ranking civil servant to be, but maybe not! I know soldiers brought their wives/unmarried partners with them, and there were plenty of lower-class women providing various services to the army, so...maybe Mrs. Leining is here after all. What made me think she wasn't was that Fritz said the next time Leining went home, he should get married, which made me think his wife was *not* present in the army camp, but was back home in Berlin/Potsdam. But who knows. It is possible.

From:

selenak

Yes, I can see why you quit, and I'm pressed for time, I'll go straight to the personal stuff with translating:

His Royal Majesty is, God be thanked, healthy and well. I'm crossing my fingers so the good effect you felt after the cure by the Silesian doctor may continue. I'll chide my wife for her lack of attention, and will demonstrate through all the proofs of friendship you could possibly demand of me that I am, most sincerely,

Monsieur et tres chere compere, etc.

You wrote:

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

That would be my interpretation as well. At first I wondered whether he's using "meine Frau" in the sense of "my woman", i.e. she's living with him, but they're not (yet) married), but then I thought, nah, he's neither a high noble nor a worker, he doesn't have a common law wife, civil cervants tend to be bourgois and respectable, so my second guess is that he may have already been married and keeping it secret because of Fritz' well known marriage phobia, and once Fritz said it would be cool for Leining to marry, he was thrilled and either is planning to come out as already married or pretending to get married. Also, for this to make sense, Fredersdorf has to be in the know about Leining's actual state of marriage/singlehood even before Fritz gives his permission. It has to be either a fiancee or a wife to pay social respects to Mrs. and Mrs. Treasurer, a common law partner wouldn't.

Furtherly, I guess Mrs. Leining might have been shy because Fredersdorf is regarded as top dog of civil servants, still, and that's why she didn't call immediately, but after Leining "admonished" her via letter she did, and either the Fredersdorfs wined and dined her, or they're sending food and wine packages for the new home, or something like that.

Of course we're all guessing, but it occurs to me that Manger might have somehing on Leining in his book. I mean, he did on Fredersdorf and Glasow (separately), and if Leining has taken over the royal purse, Manger would have had to deal with him in subsequent years (unless Leining doesn't survive the war).

Anyway: considering Leining got the job unexpectedly and Fritz is busy fighting a four front war, it makes sense that he might have needed help beyond clearing up the Glasow aftermath. As he talks about Fredersdorf having given him helpful instructions in the non-personal part of the letter, I'm assuming Fredersdorf put him through a crash course of "how to be Fritz' treasurer 101" via letter. Again, not something I see happening if Fredersdorf had been dismissed in disgrace/retired to save face but really because of disgrace - there's no way Fritz then would have told Leining to let Fredersdorf show him the ropes via letter.

Fredersdorf also seems to have asked how Fritz is doing, aw, and generally I have the impression that he and Leining have known each other for a while (especially if Fredersdorf knew about Leining's secret marriage/engagement) and there's some genuine sympathy, not just work politeness.

Edited Date: 2023-04-18 11:43 am (UTC)

From:

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

Edited Date: 2023-04-18 11:55 am (UTC)

From:

mildred_of_midgard

Yes, I can see why you quit, and I'm pressed for time, I'll go straight to the personal stuff with translating:

Yeah, I definitely don't expect you to translate that. Just putting it out there so you all can see why I quit, and if you have a particular interest in anything in there, I'll do a second passthrough, but I'm not doing one on my own account.

my second guess is that he may have already been married and keeping it secret because of Fritz' well known marriage phobia, and once Fritz said it would be cool for Leining to marry, he was thrilled and either is planning to come out as already married or pretending to get married.

That was definitely one of my interpretations. Good to know it sounds plausible to you too.

Also, for this to make sense, Fredersdorf has to be in the know about Leining's actual state of marriage/singlehood even before Fritz gives his permission.

And that means he has to have been keeping it a secret from Fritz! I think he empathizes quite a lot in this instance. :P

Furtherly, I guess Mrs. Leining might have been shy because Fredersdorf is regarded as top dog of civil servants, still, and that's why she didn't call immediately

Ooh, that does make sense.

As he talks about Fredersdorf having given him helpful instructions in the non-personal part of the letter, I'm assuming Fredersdorf put him through a crash course of "how to be Fritz' treasurer 101" via letter. Again, not something I see happening if Fredersdorf had been dismissed in disgrace/retired to save face but really because of disgrace - there's no way Fritz then would have told Leining to let Fredersdorf show him the ropes via letter.

Yep!

either the Fredersdorfs wined and dined her, or they're sending food and wine packages for the new home, or something like that.

Makes sense. Also, I notice this bit is in French, which intrigues me! I'm sure Fredersdorf could read it in the same sense that you and I can read it and yet cannot handle a whole correspondence in French, but the decision to put this personal bit in French, and nothing else aside from the formulaic parts, is interesting.

Fredersdorf also seems to have asked how Fritz is doing, aw,

I know, I awwwed at that too!

and generally I have the impression that he and Leining have known each other for a while (especially if Fredersdorf knew about Leining's secret marriage/engagement) and there's some genuine sympathy, not just work politeness.

Yeah, that's the vibe I'm getting.

From:

mildred_of_midgard

Fredersdorf also seems to have asked how Fritz is doing, aw

I'm glancing ahead at the ends of letters, and in May there's another mention that Fritz, amidst all the fatigues, is "cheerful and sound".

Ooh, the letter before that has a postscript scribbled in the margins and I see the phrase "Brautigam Gentze". Maybe he's getting married too!

Well, I can see I'm going to have a lot more decipherment in my future, and I'm probably going to have to do a lot of first passthroughs of boring material to find the good stuff, unless I get better at sight-reading.

From:

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*

From:

mildred_of_midgard

Quick findings before work: Leining is saying that he's surprised Algarotti is still using this address, since he already let Algarotti know 4 weeks before that Glasow is no longer present in the capacity of valet. So...was Glasow handling Fritz's correspondence with Algarotti? I know Catt did later in the war, so maybe it's not terribly surprising. But then I don't understand why all the drama around "I'm enclosing the letter and I don't plan to hand it over immediately"--that made me think it was intended for Glasow, not Fritz!

Anyway, if you can make anything of my first passthrough, here it is:

Ich habe dero Schreiben von 27te m.p. umbst dem Brief des
Grafen Algarotti erhalten, und noch [zu]X[st]Xung dXXselben da[rin]
eine Einlage für der Abbe de Prades gefunden, dem ich selbige
auch zugestellet habe. Es wundert mich, daß der Herr Graf seine
Brief noch immer ünter Glasows Adresse einsendet, da ich ihm
doch schon von XXXgen al[t] 4 Wochen gemeldet, das dieser Mann
in der qualite eines Kammers Dines nicht mehr existirt.
Vor 8 Tagen habe [wie]der an ihn geschrieben, und [vermüt]lich
[wir]d XXsXun[st]ige diese Adresse nicht wieder zuXXXXsche[m|rn] [k]ö[mm|nn]en.

If not, I'll try to go back over it this evening and fill in more blanks and make more corrections. (This is only the first paragraph, btw, there's 3 and a half more pages.)

From:

selenak

I'll translate when I can, but let me point out one possibility based on precedence: I dimly recall that one of the few letters from Fredersdorf to Fritz (instead of the other way around) in the Richter edited correspondence contains the observation that since Algarottti's absence seems to be permanent this time, should his salary (as an academy member or secret councillor, don't remember which one) still be paid?

I.e. what Glasow handled were money matter. Which isn't the sexiest explanation, but it does make sense since Algarotti presumably still gets, if not his complete salary, a pension and/or the occasional present from the Royal Purse. And Leining told him that this doesn't run via Glasow anymore.

Abbe de Prades: remind me again, he doesn't get busted as a spy until 1758, doesn't he? Also, I do remember both Algarotti and Voltaire (and the Marquis D'Argens) recced him as a reader in the first place since he needed a job post banishment from France.

I very much doubt Glasow handled the actual Fritz/Algarotti correspondance, in the sense of writing it, because as opposed to Henri de Catt, there's no way Glasow knew enough high level French for that. But if he took care of Algarotti's pension (or was supposed to), he presumably was able to forward letters as well, and Fritz might assume spies were less likely to be interested in a letter from Algarotti to Friedrich Christian Glasow than in a letter from Algarotti to Frederick the Great.

Edited Date: 2023-04-18 02:13 pm (UTC)

From:

mildred_of_midgard

I dimly recall that one of the few letters from Fredersdorf to Fritz (instead of the other way around) in the Richter edited correspondence contains the observation that since Algarottti's absence seems to be permanent this time, should his salary (as an academy member or secret councillor, don't remember which one) still be paid?

Ah, right, I dimly remember the salary discussion too. Okay, that makes sense. It makes far more sense than any sexy explanations!

Abbe de Prades: remind me again, he doesn't get busted as a spy until 1758, doesn't he?

1757 according to Wikipedia, but I don't have time to confirm. But I do vaguely remember it in connection with Rossbach, so maybe in the second half of the year.

I very much doubt Glasow handled the actual Fritz/Algarotti correspondance, in the sense of writing it, because as opposed to Henri de Catt, there's no way Glasow knew enough high level French for that.

I mean, I was very surprised to see Glasow involved in the correspondence!

But if he took care of Algarotti's pension (or was supposed to), he presumably was able to forward letters as well, and Fritz might assume spies were less likely to be interested in a letter from Algarotti to Friedrich Christian Glasow than in a letter from Algarotti to Frederick the Great.

That does make sense! Thank you for coming up with a plausible explanation for this.

I still share your surprise that the hot young model got entrusted with this much responsibility, but I guess there you have it.

From:

selenak

Ha, my guess that Manger might have listed Leining as he did Fredersdorf & Glasow under "people who were not building masters but who carried out the King's orders towards them" paid off.

The order is really Fredersdorf - Glasow - Leining - Neuffer - etc. I did reread the Fredersdorf chapter, and it reminded me that while Manger has some criticism (he thinks Fredersdorf was smart but also nuts with the alchemy stuff, and liked money a lot, so Manger includes asides like "he fell in love with the daughter of rich banker Daum or with her money") and thus is by no means a Fredersdorf apologist, still ends his Fredersdorff chapter with: "It remains to be said that Fredersdorf due to a very painful illness could not accompagny the King on campaign anymore in 1756, but had to remain in Potsdam. He still was one of the few who enjoyed the King's favour until their death. For when the King 1758 received the news of his death in Dresden, people supposedly noticed tears in his eyes."

(Page 650 of Manger's book, if you want to quote it.) Then comes the Glasow paragraph which I translated in totem in the Glasow post at Rheinsberg, and then it's time for:

Friedrich Wilhelm Leining, Sergeant with the first Bataillon Leibfußgarde and Lieutenant with the Army, took Glasow's position as Secret Chamberlain, but had little to do with building matters. For example on February 18th 1752 he forwarded news about the assigned rest sum of the 23325 Taler for the construction of the Colonnades.

And that's it, except for the letter in question quoted in the footnote, which is again about the money transferred and which Neuffer (the next guy) is supposed to co-sign the receipt of. It's not surprising Manger didn't see much more of Leining, since Manger remained in Potsdam throughout the war, and Leining it seems remained with Fritz in the field.

Anyway, seems I was wrong about Leining being from the civil service. Fritz must have drafted him on the spot. "Leibfußgarde" - "Personal guard on foot?" Was that a thing? Help? Anyway, Presumably he came across as responsible, and had been around Fritz enough so Fredersdorf was familiar with him and vice versa.

Edited Date: 2023-04-18 03:04 pm (UTC)

From:

mildred_of_midgard

Proper response when time permits. For now:

For example on February 18th 1752

Typo for 1762.

From:

selenak

I did receive your letter from the 27th about the letter of Count Algarotti, and in it I found an inserted page to the Abbe de Pradoes which I handed over to the later as well. I'm surprised that the Count is still mailing his letters addressed to Glasow, since I did inform him some four weeks ago that this man in his capacity as valet doesn't exist anymore. Eight days ago, I've written to him again, and I guess the there won't be any more letters to this address.

As I said in the other comment, I think most likely Glasow handled payments to Algarotti and was also a convenient mailing address - also, sending letters is very expensive* if you're not a royal with your own couriers, so of course Algarotti would include his financial mail, his personal mail to Fritz and mail to the Abbe de Prades in the same post - just like previous letters might have gone to Fredersdorf, and now the letters to go Leining.

*Expensive: if most famous German female poet Annette von Droste-Hülshoff (first half of the 19th century) had to pay for her entire correspondence as opposed to handing her letters to friends and relations travelling in the general direction of the recepients a lot of the time, she'd have to use her entire income - 800 Reichstaler a year, which she inherited - just to pay for the mail.

All this said, there's still the fact that Leining asks Fredersdorf what to do about the Algarotti letter in the first place if it's that straightforward, and here I think it's entirely possible that Leining did wonder whether Algarotti might possibly have been entangled in one way or the other with Glasow and that this was above his paygrade. Presumably Fredersdorf calmed him down and reminded him that international mail can easily be delayed or get lost, especially with a war going on, so Algarotti probably hasn't received his (Leining's) first letter yet and wrote to Glasow in all innocence.

From:

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.

From:

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).

Edited Date: 2023-04-19 03:23 pm (UTC)

From:

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."

From:

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.

Edited Date: 2023-04-19 01:01 pm (UTC)

From:

mildred_of_midgard

Thank you for the translation! I am hard at work on another letter that may or may not be ready today.

As I said in the other comment, I think most likely Glasow handled payments to Algarotti

I note from our library's chronology that the Algarotti's salary was cut off in 1754, i.e. 3 years earlier. Which is not to say there couldn't be any other financial matters between them, or even just a salary 3 years in arrears (though I submit that if you weren't getting money from Fritz between 1754 and 1756, your odds of getting it between 1756 and 1763 were slim).

and was also a convenient mailing address - also, sending letters is very expensive* if you're not a royal with your own couriers, so of course Algarotti would include his financial mail, his personal mail to Fritz and mail to the Abbe de Prades in the same post - just like previous letters might have gone to Fredersdorf, and now the letters to go Leining.

Very true, makes sense.

if you're not a royal with your own couriers

Or a soldier in the Prussian army. Fritz made sure the soldiers had a post for letters back home that I think was free, but at least was affordable.

All this said, there's still the fact that Leining asks Fredersdorf what to do about the Algarotti letter in the first place if it's that straightforward, and here I think it's entirely possible that Leining did wonder whether Algarotti might possibly have been entangled in one way or the other with Glasow and that this was above his paygrade.

Yeah, as you know, Leining freaking out was what triggered my minor freakout ;).

Presumably Fredersdorf calmed him down and reminded him that international mail can easily be delayed or get lost, especially with a war going on

Yeah, I mean, Algarotti died on May 3, 1764, and Fritz was still writing to him on June 1, because the notification of his death didn't reach Fritz until June 12. And that wasn't even with a war on! Calm down, Leining.

But in all sympathy, this really must have been a baptism of fire for Leining: taking over after an embezzlement scandal during war for a king with a touchy temper. *And* he was apparently pulled out of the army and not the civil service. No wonder he's writing to Fredersdorf all the time!

From:

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.

From:

selenak

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.

From:

mildred_of_midgard

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!

I know, these letters are full of goodies! I can see I'm going to have to do a first passthrough of each letter to at least see what it's about, and only abandon one if I've ascertained from the first passthrough that it's just bill paying. (I still need to go back to letter 5 at some point to see if there's anything interesting in the second half.)

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.

Yes, yes, that was my interpretation too! I just thought maybe Leining didn't have the influence a couple years ago to drive Anderson out, whereas Glasow might have. Like, maybe Glasow drove Anderson out specifically to get his job, and now Fritz is rethinking how that episode played out and who was at fault. But that's speculation about the timing, whereas the part where Leining and Anderson didn't get along with each other is the part that's pretty clear to me from the text of the letter itself.

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.

Yes, same, that's my interpretation. That's why I think Fritz might suddenly be in need of a valet, and hence Anderson's recall.