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

Anton Ulrich and Ivan VI

[mildred_of_midgard]

Courtesy of having finished Lewin's full-length book on Anton Ulrich and his family at the Russian court, I can add a few details to what selenak and I read in the author's article on Anton Ulrich:

* Julia Mengden is still the devoted servant and best friend, *but*, one envoy report is cited saying that Julia and Anna sleep in the same bed and "may they rise from it without scandal." No comment from our born-in-1945-Russia author, but I suppose that's better than nothing.

* Not only was Friedrich* of Bayreuth considered as a candidate for marrying Anna Leopoldovna in 1730, but apparently there was discussion of both Fritz and AW as candidates!

Although the author, who gets a *lot* of Western names and relationships wrong, calls him Karl of Bayreuth, I can find no Prince Karls of Bayreuth who would have been on the marriage market in 1730, and so it must be Friedrich.

Also, it occurs to me that Fritz might well have proposed himself as king of Poland, because even in 1730-1732, everyone knew August II was going to die soon, and the diplomatic scene was in a flurry of activity to try to resolve the impending succession crisis without a war. In fact, August, FW, and Charles VI were in the middle of trying to negotiate a treaty with Manuel of Portugal (remember him?), when August died with the treaty still unsigned. Fritz might have thought he could get the crown via negotiation the way Manuel almost did; gotten out of Küstrin for the low, low price of conversion to Catholicism; and ended up like August the Strong: king of a Catholic country and Catholic head of a Protestant electorate in personal union. As August III later did.

* Fritz may have told Elizaveta in 1743 to lock Ivan VI and the rest of the family away where the sun don't shine, but he did intercede for his two brothers-in-law Anton Ulrich and Ludwig Ernst in 1742. No dice on AU, of course, but Ludwig Ernst, AU's younger brother, was luckier. He was in St. Petersburg at the time (having been made Biron's successor as Duke of Courland), and he got caught up in the coup and placed under house arrest. He lost the dukedom but was eventually allowed to return to Germany. Lewin says Fritz's intervention may have been instrumental in getting at least him released.

* POOR IVAN VI.

I mean, just those three words could be a whole bullet point that speaks for itself, but ALSO there was this whole episode I just learned about. Catherine, as soon as she took over, told Ivan's guards to try to convince him that 1) he wanted to be a monk, 2) the way to earn monkhood was to be very quiet and obedient.

Ivan gets on board with this idea, and decides he wants to be a deacon, then a priest, then a bishop. But the guards are bored and start needling him about not bowing deeply enough and that he should be totally silent. Eventually, Ivan figures out that the guards aren't members of the church at all and that it's all a trick, and then he becomes totally monosyllabic and stops engaging with the guards.

At this point, he's 22 years old, and he has less than two years left to live. :(

Reminder to cahn if you've forgotten how he died: both Elizaveta and then Catherine had a standing order that if there was a rescue attempt, Ivan was to be killed rather than allowed to fall into enemy hands. There was an attempt, and Ivan was killed by his guard.

(Rereading that episode, I was reminded that Luh said there was no way Fritz could have lost the encounter with FW, and even if we join Luh in ignoring the existence of childhood trauma, there was this whole letter--which exists and I have read!!--from FW to Fritz's guards ordering them to kill Fritz in the event of a rescue attempt, rather than let him fall into enemy (read: Hanoverian) hands. Luh. WTF.)

* When the poor boy was killed at age 23, he was sleeping in his bed. The started stabbing him with swords, and he woke up and fought so hard he broke one sword and needed eight wounds to kill him.

:(

* No mention of AU's children by the servants that I remember, but I was also reading fairly quickly. (I can read German fairly quickly, yay!) (As long as it's about a topic I'm familiar with and the prose is straightforward. And only "fairly". But progress!)

Re: Anton Ulrich and Ivan VI

[cahn]

*but*, one envoy report is cited saying that Julia and Anna sleep in the same bed and "may they rise from it without scandal."

Oooooh. I like it!

Eventually, Ivan figures out that the guards aren't members of the church at all and that it's all a trick, and then he becomes totally monosyllabic and stops engaging with the guards.

This is terrible :(

Reminder to [personal profile] cahn if you've forgotten how he died: both Elizaveta and then Catherine had a standing order that if there was a rescue attempt, Ivan was to be killed rather than allowed to fall into enemy hands. There was an attempt, and Ivan was killed by his guard.

Yes, I did forget, and I'm not sure how I did, because that is ALSO terrible :(