![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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: FS in three biographies: An Overview (1)
Date: 2023-08-17 05:46 am (UTC)Hennings: My FS doesn't have a problem with that, which of course I like his contemporaries do think is weird
Me: Well, okay --
--but blame on his indolent lazy phlegmatic nature.
Me: ...what??
Is this Goldstone's source??
Georg Schreiber & Renate Zedinger: Which he didn't have. We're different from each other, but we both protest against the the characterisation of FS as lazy, pointing out he was in fact working hard.
Thank you Schrieber and Zedinger! (And
Meaning not that Podewils lies, but that he skewers in a way to make Fritz feel good about himself and superior to FS, hence the description of FS as lazy.
Ah! Interesting.
Basically, he's as knowledgeable about FS and MT at this point as Hanbury-Williams is about Fritz during his stint as Ambassador to Prussia.
Lol!
it hit Selena that the phrasing is "The man she believes to be born for her", not "the man she believes herself born for" - and that's not someone writing in hindsight but a guy at the time when she's still a teen. If ever there was someone deserving the description girlboss..
YEAH GO MT
Renate Zedinger: I'm much more MT critical than you, in that I emphasize that for all her love for FS she downplayed the support she was getting from him - basically I'm the reverse Nancy Goldstone here - and also she should have listened to him re: Fritz and spared the world Silesia 2 and the 7 Years War. While I'm at it, Kaunitz and the Diplomatic Revolution suck. The alliance with France was a terrible idea. FS knew France was an untrustworthy arrogant parasite who'd never do anything to actually help Austria. MT should have listened to him!
...what?
(haha, I really like your reference to the perfidious French later :D )
to the point where even FW would have been impressed, like with cutting the 50 or so Haushofmeister who only got irregular salaries and did few jobs down to only 3, but those with three time the sallaries, regularly paid.
Nice! Go FS :P
(must sleep now, but enjoyed the others too! will try to reply when I get a chance)
Re: FS in three biographies: An Overview (1)
Date: 2023-08-17 02:57 pm (UTC)Is this Goldstone's source??
Not directly; I very much doubt Nancy Goldstone consulted the Prussian State Archive or the Trier collection. But of course the report by Podewils is an important source to everyone in the last centuries who wrote MT biographies, and I bet she has read excerpts from this in, say, the also very FS critical recent MT biography by Elisabeth Balantier (she who does not speak German). In fairness, Renate Z. leaves out what both Hennings and Schreiber quote, the reports on schoolboy FS whose father Leopold wasn't satisfied with his academic progress, either. (Though both point out this is from when teenage FS is expected to hang out with Emperor Charles all the time, and win him over, which he does, so for a teenager to not show much interest in theology, ortohography, and Latin is hardly unheard of. As opposed to MT, who wen addressed by someone in a speech in Latin could reply in Latin later FS could not, and was mocked by Gotter for saying "facti" instead of the correct "facta" in the transcript of their "why invading Silesia was an act of friendship" conversation, but he was very interested in medical progress and geography and sciences as an adult man and read up on this.
Re: FS in three biographies: An Overview (1)
Date: 2023-09-05 12:49 pm (UTC)Is this Goldstone's source??
As Selena notes, the depiction of FS as indolent is the standard, and probably reflects how a lot of his contemporaries saw him. Believe me, who was energetic and engaged as he was in her husband's business would raise a lot of eyebrows, and not because people would think she was lazy. Misogynistic double standards FTL!