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: This is how you convert to Catholicism

[selenak]

All very interesting, and it also provides context for FW‘s conviction that his favourite con man told him nothing but the truth re: the dastardly Catholic plot of murdering him and turning Fritz into a Catholic. (and remember, one of FW‘s instructions to his kids‘ teachers was that the kids should feel nothing but contempt for the Catholic religion. One of his rare pedagoical successes with Fritz.)

Re: August III: This is how you convert to Catholicism

[mildred_of_midgard]

Omg, you know what? August III's conversion became public knowledge at the very end of 1717 beginning of 1718, and the Klement/Clement affair started in autumn 1718, according to the summary you gave us!

I wonder if this is specifically where Klement got his idea from. And of course FW found it plausible. If all of Protestant Europe was speculating that crown prince August III had been forcibly converted, despite the strictest of Protestant upbringings, so that he could marry an Austrian archduchess...

Okay, how did none of the sources you read on Klement mention this? Maybe they did, and you just didn't find it worthy of passing on because August III was not really known to salon in those days.