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cahnBackground: The kids' school has a topic for "Unit" every trimester that a lot of their work (reading, writing, some math) revolves around. These topics range from time/geographic periods ('Colonial America') to geography ('Asia') to science ('Space') to social science ('Business and Economics'). (I have some issues with this way of doing things, but that's a whole separate post.) Anyway, for Reasons, they have had to come up with a new topic this year, and E's 7/8 class is doing "World Fairs" as their new topic.
Me: I know E's teacher is all about World Fairs and I know she is great and will do a good job. But I feel like if we had a different teacher who wasn't so into World Fairs, they wouldn't do such a good job and another topic would be better.
Me: Like... the Enlightenment!
D: Heh, you could teach that! But you'd have to restrain yourself from making everything about Frederick the Great.
Me: But that's the thing! Everyone does relate to each other in this time period! Voltaire -- and his partner Émilie du Châtelet, who was heavily involved in the discourse of conservation of energy and momentum -- well, I've told you Voltaire had a thing with Fritz -- and then there's Empress Maria Theresa, who went to war with him a few times -- and Catherine the Great --
D, meditatively: You know --
Me: *am innocently not warned even though this is the same tone of voice that is often followed by, say, a bad pun*
D: -- it's impressive how everyone from this 'the Great' family is so famous!
Me: *splutters*
D, thoughtfully: But of course there's probably selection bias, as the ones who aren't famous don't get mentioned. You never see 'Bob the Great' in the history books...
Me: *splutters more*
Me: I know E's teacher is all about World Fairs and I know she is great and will do a good job. But I feel like if we had a different teacher who wasn't so into World Fairs, they wouldn't do such a good job and another topic would be better.
Me: Like... the Enlightenment!
D: Heh, you could teach that! But you'd have to restrain yourself from making everything about Frederick the Great.
Me: But that's the thing! Everyone does relate to each other in this time period! Voltaire -- and his partner Émilie du Châtelet, who was heavily involved in the discourse of conservation of energy and momentum -- well, I've told you Voltaire had a thing with Fritz -- and then there's Empress Maria Theresa, who went to war with him a few times -- and Catherine the Great --
D, meditatively: You know --
Me: *am innocently not warned even though this is the same tone of voice that is often followed by, say, a bad pun*
D: -- it's impressive how everyone from this 'the Great' family is so famous!
Me: *splutters*
D, thoughtfully: But of course there's probably selection bias, as the ones who aren't famous don't get mentioned. You never see 'Bob the Great' in the history books...
Me: *splutters more*
Løvenørn letters: unknown date
Date: 2023-12-31 05:27 am (UTC)Major General de Ginckel, envoy extraordinaire of His Puissant Highness, having recently received orders from his masters to intercede in their name with His Prussian Majesty in favor of the Royal Prince, found himself very much at a loss to carry it out. Monsieur de Bork, whom he consulted on the matter, informed him that he did not believe that he should undertake to speak to the King about this matter in the present circumstances. However His Majesty having given him permission to come to Wusterhausen a few days ago, he thought he had to take advantage of this opportunity to carry out his orders. Which he actually did, but without knowing what to make of the King of Prussia having spoken to him sometimes as an irritated king, who was thinking of seeking justice on all those who had been involved in this affair, by means of the gallows and the bar, and sometimes as a softened father who looked at the fault of his son like a youthful prank which could easily be forgiven. But this minister stated that he found the king so undecided between these two diametrically opposed feelings in a half-hour window, several times alternately in one and in the other feeling, that it will be impossible for him to be able to send anything to his masters other than he had a confused conversation with the King of Prussia, without having had any positive response from him on this matter, nor can he make any conjectures on the King's true feelings in this regard.
The only thing he understood well was that at the moment, when the King was in moderate feelings, he complained of his son's obstinacy in not wanting to say that he wanted to desert instead of the expression "having wanted to retire elsewhere," and that his son had shown such great spirit in his defense, that he, the king, could no longer be proud of a man who had so much spirit.
Mildred: Google wants that to mean "could no longer be proud of," which makes sense in context, but reading it in isolation, without knowing anything about FW, I would have taken it as "could not be more proud of." The original is "ne se pouvoit plus fier à un homme qui en avait autant," if anyone else wants to weigh in. Does FW actually want to see some spirit in his defeated son? Or does that unnerve him about Prussia's future under Wretched Son?
Resuming...
Finally, this Monarch is in the strangest agitation of mind. he complains that all his blood is so heated that his head is ready to turn.
The gout had him a strangehold for four days, and at the same time he had a fever two nights in a row, which is not a remedy to calm his anxieties. He is watched every night by three of his officers, who are with him at Wusterhausen. He asks everyone who approaches him if they believe in ghosts, apparently he encounters them in the pain of gout.
Mildred: I can imagine Fritz, if he knew about this, thinking frantically, "Has he seen the White Lady yet? Has he seen the White Lady?"
Also, it's entertaining to think that it's *right* at this time that Fritz is having his ghostly encounter that turns out to be rats.
Continuing...
The last time the commissioners went to see the Prince at Küstrin, he did not want to have anything to do with them, claiming to have already said everything there was to say and everything he knew about this affair. However, on an article from Lieutenant Katte's last depositions, which states that the Prince had told him in confidence, that Messieurs de Seckendorff & Gromkow had incessently tormented him to make him change his religion. The Prince declared that he did not know how he could have said such a thing to him, or that at least he did not remember it, and that these gentlemen themselves would know best what was going on.
Mildred: But nothing about marrying an Austrian archduchess, I see. (Also, let's all remember: the reason Crown Prince August III's conversion was finally made public the year of the Klement episode, years after the conversion took place, was so he could marry an Austrian archduchess.)
The only two windows that were left for the purpose of daylight in the room where the Prince is locked up were lined with large iron bars, although this room is on a higher floor. The others were walled up.
Then there are some marginal notes:
In the meantime, I know that the King recently told a certain person that he did not want to produce the second volume of the Czarewitz, but that he would make his son fret away his crime in prison.
The quarrel between the courts of Vienna and Dresden greatly disorients the King of Prussia, he depends all the more at present that it is his duty to see clearly what it what: namely that all these magnificent promises, which Messieurs de Seckendorff and Gromkow have always given him, the powerful help of which the Imperial Court was assured on this side, have been only the beginnings of inventions to engage him more and more with the Emperor. However, I am well assured that these gentlemen will not lack a bandaid, in their way, for this wound.
He [Fritz, I assume] told the officer in charge of grilling the windows that we could spare ourselves this trouble, we would be very mistaken if we thought he was so serious as to want to jump out of the window to hurt himself.
However he [FW] is still entirely handed over to Seckendorff and Gromkow and what is worse is he is left to his own devices.
I think some of these tidbits are new, or at least I don't remember them in Stratemann; Selena may.
Re: Løvenørn letters: unknown date
Date: 2023-12-31 08:27 am (UTC)Given this is FW "If my father had treated me this way, I'd have killed myself, but you are too much of a coward" we're talking about, I vote he does want to see some spirit, and the correct translation is "could not be more proud of". That Lövenörn describes him wavering between strict monarch and Dad who could forgive would underline that.
Mildred: I can imagine Fritz, if he knew about this, thinking frantically, "Has he seen the White Lady yet? Has he seen the White Lady?"
LOL. Sounds plausible to me. And you know, Fritz in October - where we also have a smuggled letter to Wilhelmine - sounds pretty defiant. He's reasonably certain FW won't kill him, and it doesn't seem to have occured to him yet Katte might die.
Ha! Lövenörn is the first envoy to mention the EVil Catholic Plot by Seckendorff and Grumbkow which Fritz pitched to Katte as an argument for why he must run away. Go figure that it's the very Protestant Danish envoy. You can almost feel in his lines he wants to believe this is true. Given how utterly counterproductive this would have been to Seckendorff and Grumbkow's goals (which were first and foremost to make FW side with Team HRE NOW, because they'd know FW's reaction to even a whisper of princely conversion, you'd think anyone with a smidgeon of common sense would see through the lie, but if Lövenörn is inclined to buy this, I guess Katte has an excuse.
BTW, I wonder whether Eugene's turnaround on Katte is also influenced by hearing this particular tale?
In the meantime, I know that the King recently told a certain person that he did not want to produce the second volume of the Czarewitz, but that he would make his son fret away his crime in prison.
I wonder whether this is the same lady in waiting to SD who according to Wilhelmine told FW to not let the spirit of Peter the Great and Philip of Spain enter his breast? In any case, it's unsurprising Alexei was on everyone's mind, since that was the most recent example of a royal father first imprisoning and then killing his son. BTW, FW saying "I don't want to publish "The Czarevich: The Sequel" is surprisingly versatile for FW, no?
Re: Løvenørn letters: unknown date
Date: 2023-12-31 08:37 am (UTC)Oh, you're right! I'd completely forgotten about that quote. Okay, yes, then that's good, that means my French isn't as bad as I feared it was. :P Thank you!
Mildred: I can imagine Fritz, if he knew about this, thinking frantically, "Has he seen the White Lady yet? Has he seen the White Lady?"
LOL. Sounds plausible to me.
Fritz: I've always been too enlightened to believe in ghosts, but for this, I'll make an exception! (Besides, what he wrote to Wilhelmine was that ghosts are "mostly" imagination.)
Me: Fritz, the real ghost your father is going to see is the ghost of Gundling, and he's not quite dead yet.
Ha! Lövenörn is the first envoy to mention the EVil Catholic Plot by Seckendorff and Grumbkow which Fritz pitched to Katte as an argument for why he must run away. Go figure that it's the very Protestant Danish envoy.
Exactly what I was thinking!
BTW, I wonder whether Eugene's turnaround on Katte is also influenced by hearing this particular tale?
Interesting. Maybe!
I wonder whether this is the same lady in waiting to SD who according to Wilhelmine told FW to not let the spirit of Peter the Great and Philip of Spain enter his breast?
Could be!
BTW, FW saying "I don't want to publish "The Czarevich: The Sequel" is surprisingly versatile for FW, no?
Lol, yes, and I thought that was a great line. Løvenørn's handwriting is well worth deciphering! (I'm looking at you, Maupertuis.)
Re: Løvenørn letters: unknown date
Date: 2023-12-31 08:43 am (UTC)Also, I still think ALL the multi-year drama around future August III and kidnapping attempts by Evil Catholics and whatnot primed *everyone* to believe it, that's why Klement picked that story, FW bought it, Wilhelmine bought it, Fritz bought it, Katte bought it, Lövenörn bought it, Charlotte's husband will buy it for their grandson...Even 19th and 20th century (Protestant) historians have been like "What did they do to that poor boy to break his will??" about August III.
Re: Løvenørn letters: unknown date
Date: 2024-01-01 01:53 am (UTC)Re: Løvenørn letters: unknown date
Date: 2024-01-01 06:05 am (UTC)Re: Løvenørn letters: unknown date
Date: 2023-12-31 08:45 am (UTC)I don't remember any windows being walled off or lined with bars (though later artistic depictions certainly portray them that way), but he is correct about the floor: Fritz was on the second floor. He'd probably survive a jump (a la Joan of Arc), but he wouldn't like the outcome.