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: Königsmark, by A E W Mason

[selenak]

Memories of Georg Schnath‘s write up of the entire saga of Königsmarck/SD of Celle have already started to fade, but I do not recall an Anthonly Craston or indeed another Brit in the position of former friend turned enemy - that‘s one of my tropes, I think I would have renembered. So I guess Mason invented him in order to have an English character for his English audience.

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

[luzula]

Aurora is present but in a very minor role--she's never onstage, but is an intermediary for SD and Philip's love letters, and I get the sense that she and Philip are fond of each other. Sadly, we don't get to see her raising hell after he's murdered...

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

[cahn]

If there is a heroine in this whole affair historically speaking, it‘s surely her

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.)