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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) )
Königsmark, by A E W Mason
Date: 2023-10-18 06:22 pm (UTC)The book opens with the two main characters meeting as young teenagers when Philip was a page at Celle. No idea if that's true. Bernstorff (who is in general portrayed as scheming and out for his own gain, and in secret correspondence with Hanover) discovers their budding romance and sends Philip away, after first threatening to kill him and letting him spend the night tied up. We next see Philip in England, where he has a passionate and slashy friendship with a fellow student called Anthony Craston. Don't know if he's made-up. Anyway, Philip loses Anthony's friendship when he lies to save his brother’s life in a murder trial. Then he has to leave England because public opinion has turned against them.
Meanwhile, Bernstorff has maneuvered Sophia Dorothea’s marriage to the future G1, against her will. She quickly makes an enemy of Clara von Platen. Philip comes to Hanover and initially begins to pursue Sophia Dorothea not because he's in love with her, but because he feels like it will blot out his two humiliations in Celle and England. But when she falls in love with him, he comes to return her feelings passionately, though he feels bad about having initially pursued her in bad faith.
So how does their downfall come about? Well, Anthony Craston, having pursued a career in diplomacy, is now also in Hanover. Still being kind of obsessed with Philip and his unworthiness, he spies on him and sees him with Sophia Dorothea. Despite despising himself for it, he rats them out to Bernstorff. Also, Philip had been making up to Clara von Platen to disguise his relationship with Sophia Dorothea, but Clara hears that Philip trash-talked her while on a visit to some other place. Also, of course she hears about Philip's relationship to Sofia Dorothea, whom she hates.
Philip is murdered by Clara along with some henchmen, and the future G1 hardly comes into it. There's a moment where I thought Philip was going to be bricked up alive behind a fireplace! But no, he's buried behind it after being killed--but it's implied that even if he dies, he has in some measure been redeemed by his love. I do find the portrayal of Clara a little misogynistic--there's a bit too much about how she's like an aging witch who has to use thick makeup.
The book ends with a future G2 visiting Sophia Dorothea in her prison castle, accompanied by Anthony who is wracked with remorse for his role in her downfall.
Re: Königsmark, by A E W Mason
Date: 2023-10-18 09:39 pm (UTC)Lol! Yay salon. (I also had never heard of these people before
Bernstorff (who is in general portrayed as scheming and out for his own gain, and in secret correspondence with Hanover)
Just to clarify, this is not the Danish Bernstorff whom Stefan Hartmann fanboys as Fritz's only equal among statesmen. The Bernstorff clan was politically active in Hanover and Denmark, and contained several prominent members from at least the late seventeenth to the twentieth century. This would be Andreas Gottlob, who shows up in Whitworth's bio a lot (usually by making Whitworth's negotiations with FW more difficult).
The Bernstorff who worked alongside Moltke under Frederik V and Christian VII was this Bernstorff's grandson, Johann Hartwig Ernst.
We next see Philip in England, where he has a passionate and slashy friendship with a fellow student called Anthony Craston. Don't know if he's made-up.
Seems to be? I only get hits from this book when I do a quick search. But you never know!
There's a moment where I thought Philip was going to be bricked up alive behind a fireplace!
Wow, Cask of Amontillado-style!
I do find the portrayal of Clara a little misogynistic--there's a bit too much about how she's like an aging witch who has to use thick makeup.
Not surprising, in 1938. I wouldn't even be surprised to find that in a book written today.
Interesting write-up, thank you!
Re: Königsmark, by A E W Mason
Date: 2023-10-20 06:58 pm (UTC)Clara von Platen seems to have been the chosen main villainess for novels from the early 20th century, „Sarabande for dead lovers“ puts her into that position as well. Accusing anyone of thick make-up in that century is, err, there weren‘t enough glass houses to throw the tiniest stone, is what I‘m saying, but again, aging woman scorned is a popular trope, and of course romantic heroines by contrast don‘t use make up and just exude natural radiance.
Does Autora von Königsmarck, Philipp‘s sister, get any mention? If there is a heroine in this whole affair historically speaking, it‘s surely her, as she used her influence on her lover (August the Strong) to find out what the hell happened to her brother, no matter how inconvenient this got for everyone else. (Sarabande for Dead Lovers has one Aurora mention, I think, but early on when introducing Königsmarck, and that‘s it. Royal mistresses who don‘t have a tragic death and/or a legitimizing marriage and/or a punishment for their sins are a bit tricky to handle for novelists from that time…
Future G2 visiting: last year or so I would have written „she didn‘t see either of her children again“, but then we found out SD the younger, the mother of Fritz, actually did keep up contact and did lobby on her mother‘s behalf, though the contact seems to have been in letters. G2‘s attitude re: his mother is debated, as there are two different statements by memoirists - Hervey claims he never ever mentioned her, while Horace Walpole claims that as soon as G1 had breathed his last, G2 hung up his mother‘s portrait in all his personal apartments in his residences and that he was totally on her side. Walpole‘s source for this was G2‘s mistress (until she retired, much to Caroline‘s disgruntlement because of Caroline‘s treasured reading time) Lady Sussex, who might not have been beloved by G2 the way Caroline was but would be in a position to know about which portraits G2 had in his personal apartments. Hervey on the one had as opposed to Horace Walpole has first hand, not second hand knowledge, but otoh he was notoriously uninterested in the Hannover‘s German connections and German nobility in general. Then again, the SD the older/Königsmarck scandal had been talked about in all of Europe (no less a monarch than Louis XIV had asked Liselotte to give him the dirt on the whole Königsmarck tale, because after all Sophie of Hannover was her aunt and future G1 her cousin, but she replied with the equivalent of „hell if I know“), so one would assume the gossip hungry Hervey would make an exception for that particular scandal and listen if G2 said something about his later mother.
In any event: both future G2 and SD were children when their mother ended up imprisoned, and their father was notoriously a cold fish towards both of them even before he and G2 started the series of spectalarly bad Hannover father/son relationships in earnest, so I guess chances are it was a traumatic experience for kid!G2. And would not be surprised if a bit of both was true - he didn‘t like to talk about his mother, but he also felt attached to her memory and had those portraits hung up.
Re: Königsmark, by A E W Mason
Date: 2023-10-20 07:16 pm (UTC)until she retired, much to Caroline‘s disgruntlement because of Caroline‘s treasured reading time
Hee!
In the novel, future G2 has a portrait of his mother on his wall, which needs to be taken down whenever G1 visits.
Re: Königsmark, by A E W Mason
Date: 2023-10-21 07:07 pm (UTC)Oh, that's cool! Okay, we need a story now giving her her proper due... :)
And would not be surprised if a bit of both was true - he didn‘t like to talk about his mother, but he also felt attached to her memory and had those portraits hung up.
Awwww, I could see this. Poor conflicted G2. (And even more poor SD the elder, of course. Gah to generational trauma.)
Re: Königsmark, by A E W Mason
Date: 2023-10-21 07:06 pm (UTC)This is awesome! (I will never get over my -- knowing less about history than the average bear -- DW being a repository of historical knowledge!)
Also I find Philip von Königsmark/Sophia Dorothea of Celle an interesting ship :)
Philip is murdered by Clara along with some henchmen, and the future G1 hardly comes into it.
Although I must say this is a plot twist I was not expecting!
There's a moment where I thought Philip was going to be bricked up alive behind a fireplace!
haha, wow, that would have been something!
The book ends with a future G2 visiting Sophia Dorothea in her prison castle
Well, anyway, I see what you mean by the author liking tragic romance :P Thank you for writing this up!
Re: Königsmark, by A E W Mason
Date: 2023-10-22 05:36 am (UTC)Although I must say this is a plot twist I was not expecting!
I was going to say, the second part, future G1 hardly coming into it, seems to be historically accurate. He was in Berlin at the time and may have only found out weeks later. (Unless that was a well-planned alibi, but there's no evidence of it.)
(Yes, I know there's a new post, but I'm just tying up loose ends here. New substantative replies will be on the post about the family "the Great". :D)