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: Royal Reading Schedule and other things

[mildred_of_midgard]

I.e. the original German translators figured his affair with Catherine was what their readers wanted to know about, and not the time poor Stanislas was actually King?

Probably! I'm assuming there will be a ton of internal Polish politics beyond any level of detail salon cares about, which I can't seem to get away from in my current reading either (dear historians: foreign policy, please).

Also, is this Lewin person who wrote the article a Russian?

I've been assuming so. I'm not as fast a reader as you, so I'm only halfway through, but I've already noticed at least one article by him in the footnotes that's in Russian. Also, his first name is Leonid.

Let me check, though--I couldn't necessarily tell Russian from another Slavic language at a glance.

Oh, look, he's got a whole book on Anton Ulrich that's in German, Macht, Intrigen und Verbannung: Welfen und Romanows am russischen Zarenhof des 18. Jahrhunderts, and it seems to cover Anton Ulrich's whole life story. (For those following along from home, the article I emailed Selena and am reading myself only covers Anton Ulrich's life in Russia up until Elizaveta's coup and the start of the imprisonment.) And the author bio on Amazon says Lewin was born in Russia in 1945, so yep, there's your no-homoing right there. The blurb mentions that he started work in Russian/Soviet sources in 1980, before the gate to the west opened, and now (2002) he can finally start researching "here". Makes sense, I noticed in the article he got a grant to go research the Lower Saxon archives in Wolfenbüttel, where all the best Anton Ulrich material is.

I might order this book; born-in-1945-Russia certainly has its drawbacks, but he does at least do archival research, and unlike a certain "Balance of power" und Pentatarchie book I want, it's 12 euros, not 100 euros.

Because no one is gay. Anna/Lynar happened, Julia Mengden, otoh, was simply a devoted servant.

Unsurprising. Lewin did bring my attention to the fact that when Anna/Lynar started, Anna was 16 and Lynar was 33; not sure I'd picked up on that.

I also don't think I knew that Anton Ulrich was, if not exactly the last one to find out that the reason he was in Russia was to marry the potential heir/mother of the heir to the throne, at least not especially clear or focused on this fact from the beginning. He seemed to think the most important thing was the regiment he was supposed to be put in charge of, and what is taking so long?? Everyone else: that is not the main point.

Re: Royal Reading Schedule and other things

[cahn]

I also don't think I knew that Anton Ulrich was, if not exactly the last one to find out that the reason he was in Russia was to marry the potential heir/mother of the heir to the throne, at least not especially clear or focused on this fact from the beginning.

Huh. That sounds... well, I suppose it's less surprising that he came to a bad end, with that kind of political savvy.