![[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) )
Maria Antonia
Date: 2023-10-16 06:13 am (UTC)How did she manage that? Well, she was living in Saxony when Fritz invaded during the Seven Years' War. She and her husband fled in 1759 to Prague to place themselves under MT's protection, while August fled to Warsaw. Due to an extreme lack of income coming from Saxony (all money flowed toward Fritz's war chest), everyone in the Saxon royal-electoral family had to tighten their belts.
Friedrich Christian and Maria Antonia wanted to capitulate and ask Fritz for money, but August was like, "No! Anything but that! Take the poor fund that my wife collected for charity and use it on yourselves; the royal family is among the poorest these days. We can barely afford to fund artists here in Warsaw! The poorest, I tell you."
Mildred: *severe side-eye*
So that works for a while, but eventually Maria Antonia's having a difficult pregnancy, and she breaks down and gives Fritz exactly what he's been waiting for: a request for money. He grants her 10,000 talers, thus turning her in one fell swoop into his ardent admirer.
In 1763, when the Treaty of Hubertusburg was being negotiated, Maria Antonia was the one urging her husband to give Fritz whatever he wanted. "Then he'll be *grateful*, and he'll show his gratitude by supporting you for King of Poland when your father dies later this year!"
Since Seckendorff also died in 1763, I can only imagine he died *laughing*, and that his last words were "Oh, you sweet summer child."
Fritz: So that's a vote for Poniatowski for King of Poland from me!
Fritz: Look, Maria Antonia, it's like Voltaire and Keyserlingk. I'll chat music, art, and literature with you people all day, but my politics are governed exclusively by realpolitik considerations
named Catherine.Somehow Maria Antonia gets over it and manages to continue her musical penpal-ship with Fritz. Perhaps helped by the fact that her husband did in fact only live 6 weeks, and that their son was a minor whom Fritz couldn't really be expected to support. So the amount of disappointment he caused her in practice was limited.
Totally random anecdote about Maria Antonia from The King's Secret, she had a run-in with the Comte de Broglie when he was envoy at August's court and she was Electoral Princess.
The intractable Ambassador found a fresh opportunity for exciting the annoyance and the suspicions of his Minister by a scene with the Electoral Princess of Saxony, which took place in her own house at a ball given by her to the Hereditary Prince of Modena, who was then visiting Dresden. The Electoral Princess, who had a quick and haughty temper, had promptly recognised an enemy of her House and an adversary to her future pretensions in Count de Broglie.
She treated him with marked coldness, and on that evening in particular she made a pretext of her pregnancy for declining to dance, in order to avoid opening the ball with him, according to the right of the Ambassador of France, even in presence of a prince. A few minutes afterwards he saw her dancing with the Prince of Modena, and advanced so as to be exactly opposite to her at the moment when she resumed her seat.
"I am quite out of breath," said the Princess, with some embarrassment.
"That is not surprising," replied the Count, "your Highness having committed the imprudence of dancing, in your present situation."
"Nevertheless," said the Princess, "that shall not prevent me from dancing with you, when I am a little rested."
"I have no wish to dance," rejoined the Count drily, and, taking his sword and his muff, he left the room without another word.
Next day there was a panic in the palace. The Princess shed tears of rage at the affront to which she had been subjected, and Count Brühl endeavoured to appease her by promising that he would have the offender recalled from Dresden.
More letters, fresh complaints, were addressed by the Court of Saxony to that of France, and again the Count had recourse to Prince de Conti. "I hope the King will see," wrote he, " that I am treated in this way only that it may be boasted of at the Court of Vienna. Take care that there is no yielding about this; " and he added, "these people are cowards; when one shows them one's teeth they give in; when one is civil to them they think it is through fear."
Eventually the King, whose pride was hurt at the slight put upon his representative, sided with the Count, and the Minister, although he grumbled from the bottom of his heart against the agent who gave him so much trouble, sent him only a slight reprimand for having lost his temper, and not found a better excuse for his rudeness.
Summary of the politics, if you've forgotten: Louis XV's son and heir is married to August III's daughter, making him the father-in-law of Maria Antonia's sister-in-law. Meaning he's kind of required to side with the Saxons. Comte de Broglie is perceived by Maria Antonia as an enemy because he's angling to keep the Saxons off the Polish throne in favor of the French Prince de Conti (whom Louis also secretly supports, while publicly supporting the Saxons). Or at least so the Duc de Broglie says; maybe Maria Antonia just didn't like the Comte de Broglie because he was INSUFFERABLE, not because she'd seen through the King's Secret. :P
So those are your Maria Antonia anecdotes from my reading.
Re: Maria Antonia
Date: 2023-10-18 06:52 am (UTC)LOL for „a quick and haughty temper“. Towards whom? Evidently not Fritz and MT, where given the power differential self discipline was asked for. But towards de Broglie the insufferable….
BTW, I just recalled Valori and his insightful Fritz commentary. Does Valori ever show up in „The King‘s Secret“, and if so, do we know what he thought about his fellow envoy?
Re: Maria Antonia
Date: 2023-10-18 07:00 am (UTC)I agree, for the reasons you mention!
LOL for „a quick and haughty temper“. Towards whom?
Well, apparently toward Broglie, when she refused to dance with him!
BTW, I just recalled Valori and his insightful Fritz commentary. Does Valori ever show up in „The King‘s Secret“, and if so, do we know what he thought about his fellow envoy?
No, not that I recall. I don't think they were ever stationed at the same foreign court, and I don't remember him showing up in the endless intrigues (admittedly skimmed by yours truly) when Broglie is in disgrace in France.
ETA: I just did a search through The King's Secret to confirm, and Valori's name is only mentioned once, in a footnote, quoting a letter that Broglie sent to Valori reporting on his attempt to pass through the Prussian lines.
Interestingly, though, the citation for that is Valori's memoirs. Clearly I need to go look up that passage and see if Valori has any commentary in his memoirs! (I suspect not, or the Duc de Broglie would have reported it, but you never know.)
Son of ETA: No, not seeing any commentary from Valori on the Comte de Broglie, just the letters the latter wrote to Valori to complain about his difficulties getting through the Prussian lines. Which might be worth reading in themselves! But no insightful pen portraits, alas.
Re: Maria Antonia
Date: 2023-10-21 07:05 pm (UTC)ahahahaha this was absolutely my reaction!