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cahnUnfortunately, there was then at Berlin a King who pursued one policy only, who deceived his enemies, but not his servants, and who lied without scruple, but never without necessity.
(from The King's Secret - by Duke de Broglie, grand-nephew of the subject of the book, Comte de Broglie, and grandfather of the physicist) )
(from The King's Secret - by Duke de Broglie, grand-nephew of the subject of the book, Comte de Broglie, and grandfather of the physicist) )
Re: How Brühl got his job
Date: 2023-08-13 04:45 pm (UTC)Either way, though, it wouldn't have been the Countess Cosel letter in real life, as her escape to Berlin happened in 1715, and Brühl was only 15 at the time.
Speaking of Brühl and gossip from Fellmann, Brühl's marriage.
A reminder that he, a Protestant, married the Catholic daughter of the Saxon queen's chief lady in waiting. Fellmann tells me that the Saxon royal confessor refused to marry them unless Brühl converted, so Brühl decided to try the Polish Bishop of Krakow. The Bishop of Krakow agreed to officiate at the mixed-marriage wedding, and even to skip the religious education part beforehand. (Fellmann says he might have been concerned that the bride would be more likely to convert to Protestantism than vice versa. Not sure what that's based on.) His two conditions were not holding the wedding in Dresden, and of course, raising the kids Catholic. The second part was easy, the first part surprisingly difficult.
Brühl and the Bishop managed to compromise on a city in Poland for the wedding, but then August III got involved. He approved of the marriage, but wanted the wedding in Dresden. Since that was where Brühl wanted to get married in the first place, they managed to pressure the Bishop into coming to Dresden. (Author thinks the Bishop was concerned that the religious authorities in Dresden had too many ties to Rome.)
And so Brühl and Marianne managed to get married.
The fact that Brühl was then faithful to her baffled his contemporaries, who had one of two explanations. Either A, he was secretly sleeping with every woman he had a conversation with, or B, he was just trying to impress August III. August III had been raised by his mother, who was estranged from August the Strong, and the millions of mistresses and illegitimate children August the Strong had that contemporaries found amusing, were perceived as a tragedy by only child of a broken marriage future August III, who decided to do better in his marriage. He was one of those rare monarchs who was not only a family man and engaged with his kids, but also enjoyed his wife's company and was faithful to her. And he looked askance at other people's extramarital affairs.
So Brühl, rumor had it, was obviously just trying to stay on the monarch's good side for reasons of ambition. The same way he would go hunting whenever avid hunter August III insisted.
Nonsense, says Fellmann, Brühl also happened to be a family man with a close relationship with his wife. It's not that complicated.
(I am reminded of Horowski saying contemporaries *could not cope* with the idea of Philippe d'Orleans the future regent paying that much attention to his daughter qua father, so they must be having an incestuous affair!)
(Work on the King's Secret continues, albeit slowly, largely because we have gotten to the boring part where nothing interesting is happening on the foreign policy scene, just French nobles writing angry letters at each other. The narrative is starting to pick up again, though, and I will have some tasty quotes in the next installment.)
ETA: In the context of August III being faithful to his wife, I forgot to mention Sulkowski. As a reminder, he was August's former page and BFF since teenagehood who became all-powerful minister when August became king. (Basically Peter Keith's dream and Fritz's nightmare. :P) He and Brühl were co-ministers for a long time, but Sulkowski had more influence when it came to petitions and such.
Then one day Sulkowski was informed he was being exiled back to Poland and all the Saxon envoys were informed that Sulkowski was no longer head of the foreign ministry.
Nobody knows why.
The guess some historians find most plausible , though, is that he encouraged August to take mistresses, like dear old Dad, and pious August was like "Away with you!"
The one thing we know is that, despite persistent rumors that Brühl engineered his colleague's downfall so he could have sole power (the "cui bono" argument), there is 1) no evidence of this in the archives, 2) Sulkowski continued to treat him as a friend and relative (they were married to cousins) after his exile, sending his kids to stay with Brühl and so forth. So either, if Brühl was involved, he destroyed all the evidence in the archives (which Fellmann points out is possible) and Sulkowski never suspected him, or else Brühl wasn't involved.
ETA2: Guys, I'm *trying*, but the Prince de Conti and Comte de Broglie are still living in France in exile and disgrace, and everyone is still writing each other letters as the two of them try to get back into power, and it's an endless series of self-defenses, requests for intercessions, offers, counteroffers, and refusals. Hopefully the action starts back up soon.
Re: How Brühl got his job
Date: 2023-08-13 09:54 pm (UTC)haha, that's... not the order these things usually go in in the modern world! Lol.
Nonsense, says Fellmann, Brühl also happened to be a family man with a close relationship with his wife. It's not that complicated.
Lol, that's hilarious that his contemporaries can't see why he couldn't possibly be faithful to his wife!! So weird!!
Re: How Brühl got his job
Date: 2023-08-14 10:44 am (UTC)I am reminded of Horowski saying contemporaries *could not cope* with the idea of Philippe d'Orleans the future regent paying that much attention to his daughter qua father, so they must be having an incestuous affair!
Rodrigo Borgia/Pope Alexander VI: Tell me about it! *sighs in sympathy*
FW: You and Philippe the Regent were amoral Catholics who didn't deserve better than having your reputations trashed to the point where affectionate fatherly behaviour is automatically classified as sinister. I would like to pay out that I paid close attention to my kids and micromanaged their lives and no one, not even my direst enemies, ever accused me of incest!
Rodrigo Borgia: If you really want to have a fatherhood reputation competition, I'd suggest we consult our respective offspring, you Teutonic Barbarian. My kids never had an argument about who was worse, myself or their mother.
The one thing we know is that, despite persistent rumors that Brühl engineered his colleague's downfall so he could have sole power (the "cui bono" argument), there is 1) no evidence of this in the archives, 2) Sulkowski continued to treat him as a friend and relative (they were married to cousins) after his exile, sending his kids to stay with Brühl and so forth. So either, if Brühl was involved, he destroyed all the evidence in the archives (which Fellmann points out is possible) and Sulkowski never suspected him, or else Brühl wasn't involved.
That is exactly the Hungarian biographer's argument as well and was narrated by me as such if you'll recall. (I.e. that Sulkowski continued to treat him as a friend and relative and sent his kids etc.) I mean, it's not impossible that Sulkowksi clenched his teeth and did so for the benefit of his children (because Brühl was the most influential man of Saxony now and he wanted the kids to have careers), but otoh that would not have prefented him from venting about Brühl to other people, and not a single letter exists in which he does.
Incidentally, Stabi just provided me with the FS biography Mildred recced and two others besides. Let's see what they say about MT's Franzl!
Philippe the Regent: Then again, you did greenlight your son killing your daughter's second husband when he became politically inconvenient. Whether that's worse or better than executing one's son's lover, I leave for others to judge. I never did anything as harsh to my daughters' lovers or husbands, though of course I married my children for political gain, as did we all. This said, cousin FW, as we know through the corrspondance of my mother with your grandmother, tales of your ghastly temper made it to France even when you were still young, and if I had to choose, I certainly would have prefered his Holiness here as a father to you.
FW: Yes, well, your actual father was the most prominent sodomite of Europe, so your judgment is bound to be horrible. Also you're French.
Re: How Brühl got his job
Date: 2023-08-14 11:46 am (UTC)But, FW, you were missing the key element of affection!
(Even AW got heartwarming stories like the time you jokingly threatened to cut off his fingers.)
Rodrigo Borgia: If you really want to have a fatherhood reputation competition, I'd suggest we consult our respective offspring, you Teutonic Barbarian. My kids never had an argument about who was worse, myself or their mother.
Burn!
That is exactly the Hungarian biographer's argument as well and was narrated by me as such if you'll recall. (I.e. that Sulkowski continued to treat him as a friend and relative and sent his kids etc.)
Yes, I recall that part (but thought
but otoh that would not have prefented him from venting about Brühl to other people, and not a single letter exists in which he does.
True! The alternative is that Brühl covered his tracks so well that Sulkowski never suspected him, but...Occam's Razor says that if there's no evidence that it was Brühl either in the archives or in Sulkowski's correspondence, it probably wasn't Brühl.
Incidentally, Stabi just provided me with the FS biography Mildred recced and two others besides. Let's see what they say about MT's Franzl!
Excellent! Looking forward to it!
Speaking of books, I just heard back today from the publisher on the elusive revisionist August III bio, and they haven't digitized it yet and can't offer me a copy, so since none of the libraries near me have it and I can't find a copy for sale, we will be waiting until Royal Patron goes back to UCLA in a few weeks and can scan a copy.
I mean, your Stabi also has a copy (predictably--it has all the books!), but while if you wanted to read it and give us a write-up, it will probably be better than any write-ups I will do, but I will still be asking RP for a scan, because this is one I want to read for myself, as part of my Saxon-Polish history kick.
FW: Yes, well, your actual father was the most prominent sodomite of Europe, so your judgment is bound to be horrible. Also you're French.
LOL!!
Re: How Brühl got his job
Date: 2023-08-15 03:35 pm (UTC)Of course, no sooner do I say that, than a copy is put up for sale online this morning! (I've been checking religiously* every day since June--it took at least 6 months to get the Kiekemal book this way, and I think about as long to get Wandruzska's 2 volume bio of Leopold.) $120 (mostly shipping to the US), but given the difficulty of obtaining this book--sold!
A copy is on its way to me, and then I will read it at some point and tell salon about it at some point. Victory!
* I have to religiously do an anti-sciatica stretch every morning, and it's boring and only involves my lower body, so while I'm doing it, I'll check bookfinder.com on my phone for whatever it is I'm trying to get a copy of.