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: August III: Misc

[mildred_of_midgard]

Encouraged by the Saxon Electress Anna Sophie, her namesake, the wife of the Prince Elector of Hannover, showed herself full of concern regarding young Friedrich. The British Court‘s intervention and the eager particpation of Queen Anne in the many actions regarding the Saxon Crown Prince were her work as well. She encounraged her husband to position the Courtier Krafft von Erff at Friedrich August‘s side, who was given the task of preventing a change of faith on the part of August II‘s son. She took the Prince under her personal wing so that he shouldn‘t be forced into a conversion.

This is also my translation, but the part that confuses me is that it's 1711. Who is this wife of the Prince Elector of Hanover? Sophie's husband is long dead. The wife of the Prince Elector of Hanover is SDC. So who is encouraging her husband to position people at Friedrich August's side and taking the Prince under her personal wing? The only one of the three women (Anna Sophie the Saxon Electress, Sophie of Hanover, and Anne of England) with a living husband is Anna Sophie, and it would feel weird to describe her keeping a long-distance eye on her own son as "she took the Prince under her personal wing."

That's why I wanted your opinion on who all these "she"s and "her"s are in a way that's consistent with history.

ETA: I mean, given that Lewin was a Soviet scholar who didn't have access to the West until his mid 40s, and he makes other mistakes (Prince Karl of Bayreuth instead of Prince Friedrich of Bayreuth, Rudolf of Holstein-Gottorp, Peter III's uncle, as king of Sweden instead of Adolf, Peter's first cousin once removed--a mistake Selena also once made, but not in a published book), it's entirely possible he thinks that 1) Sophie of Hanover is named Anna Sophie and 2) her husband is still alive and running Hanover in 1711. Which means he could be misinterpreting one of two scenarios in his sources:

a) At Sophie's behest, her *son* future G1 intervened to get someone Protestant placed at crown prince future August III's side, and Lewin thinks that was Sophie influencing her *husband*,

or

b) Crown prince future August III's mother, aka Anna Sophie originally of Denmark and now electress of Hanover, got her husband (August the Strong) to place someone Protestant at their son's side, and Lewin thinks Sophie did it because he thinks her name is also Anna Sophie (and that her husband is still alive). [ETA: Ugh, no, that's his grandmother, and she *also* doesn't have a living husband. Now I'm the one getting confused! But now I've confirmed none of these women had a living husband in 1711, so...he's definitely confused about something.]

I just wanted to see if there was a reading that doesn't require the author to be wrong about this many things, but like I said, he doesn't have the greatest track record with the names and genealogies of Germans.