Historical Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 45

[cahn]

Unfortunately, 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) )

Comments

Re: How Brühl got his job

[mildred_of_midgard]

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!

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 cahn might or might not). I think the parts about Sulkowski suggesting a mistress, and about Brühl possibly destroying the evidence in the archives, are new to salon, though?

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

[mildred_of_midgard]

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.

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.