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Historical Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 47
We haven't had a new post since before December 25, so obligatory Yuletide link to this hilarious story of Frederick the Great babysitting his bratty little brother, with bonus Fritz/Fredersdorf!
Philippe le Grenouille
There exists a five-volume biography of Philip V written in the nineteenth-century by Alfred Baudrillart called Philippe V Et La Cour De France, which is based on the gold mine that is envoy reports. It's been on my radar for a while, because it gets cited extensively by all twentieth-century writers on this subject.
I have no intention of reading the whole thing, but I've been waiting until my French was a bit better, to do some dipping in. Well, we've finally gotten to the point where I can start, at least.
It then, belatedly, occurred to me that if Kamen's Philip V biography I did read (one volume, in English) relies so heavily on this biography, and this biography is based on envoy reports, this biography would obviously be where Kamen got the frog story from. Sure enough, that entire page in Kamen is just a close paraphrase of Baudrillart.
Sadly, Baudrillart provides no further details, but he does provide a citation to the unpublished envoy report, so if I ever get around to ordering materials from the French archives, I know where to find this one!
Also in this section I learned that Philip V was beating his wife and everyone around him, and that Isabella was complaining to the French envoy about the scratches and bruises on her body.
Normally, there would be a clear villain in this story: the absolute monarch hitting his wife and others at his mercy. However, immediately preceding this paragraph is the story that I told you that relates how a mentally ill man is trying to escape from his room so he can abdicate, and his wife keeps roping everyone into locking him back in the room and depriving him of writing materials so she can remain in power. In the subsequent passage, we find that, as I reported back in the day, Philip is also mentally ill enough that he is biting *himself*.
I admit, I would be hitting my captors too.
Something that Baudrillart reports that I didn't remember from Kamen is that word got out to the general populace, and a lot of people thought it would be a great idea if the mentally ill king were allowed to retire. Only the queen and courtiers who benefited from this arrangement thought it was imperative that Philip remain king.
This situation SUCKS.
On a completely unrelated note, something I learned from a different volume of this biography forces me to revise something I've said in the past.
Back in the very earliest days of salon, when
Philip of Spain (another one!): So I'm a French Bourbon, not a Habsburg, but the Habsburgs used to rule Spain until me. (I'm the first Bourbon on the throne.) Therefore, I should totally rule Austria and the Holy Roman Empire now. At least I'm not A WOMAN.
A year ago, we had a lot (loooot) more knowledge of the 18th century, and I questioned whether Philip was after the Holy Roman Empire. As far as I knew, he was exclusively fighting for territory in Italy, based on the claims of his wife (Isabella Farnese) to Parma and Piacenza, plus the territory Spain had lost during the War of the Spanish Succession, like Gibraltar and Menorca.
Having read the very start of the War of the Austrian Succession as recounted by Baudrillart, I can now share his account, which goes like this:
Philip V: No alternating Protestants and Catholics for Holy Roman Emperor!
[Mildred: Has he heard rumors about Fritz as a candidate?]
Philip V: Personally, I think the Wittelsbach candidate is a good idea.
Isabella of Parma: My oldest son, Don Carlos, is married to the daughter of August III. So I think August III is an A+ candidate!
Philip V: While we're here, let's not forget that I have claims to Habsburg hereditary territories!
The rest of Europe: ...
The rest of Europe: *tries to keep a straight face*
Philip V: Fine! But my wife has claims in Italy. If we can't have Habsburg territory, we want Italian principalities as compensation. Those aren't covered by the Pragmatic Sanction. We will fight a whole war for them!
And so I was right that the war was fought over Italy, but none of my sources reported this initial diplomatic angling for Habsburg territory (sadly, Baudrillart doesn't specify what territory or what the basis for the claim is). Checking my copy of Anderson's War of the Austrian Succession, he indeed skips over this step in saying that immediately after the news of the death of Charles VI reached Madrid, Philip and Isabella started pressing for Italian territory.
Foreign policy: always revealing new layers of complexity!
Re: Philippe le Grenouille
Eek. This all sounds pretty awful.
Philip V: While we're here, let's not forget that I have claims to Habsburg hereditary territories!
The rest of Europe: ...
The rest of Europe: *tries to keep a straight face*
LOL!
Re: Philippe le Grenouille
Something that Baudrillart reports that I didn't remember from Kamen is that word got out to the general populace, and a lot of people thought it would be a great idea if the mentally ill king were allowed to retire. Only the queen and courtiers who benefited from this arrangement thought it was imperative that Philip remain king.
This situation SUCKS.
That's true. Mind you, I can understand why Isabella didn't want to be a retired King's wife again, either. She was younger and in her prime, political activity was the one compensation for seeing after a mentally unstable man she had, and giving this up in favour of her offspring with nothing to look forward to but decades (due to her age) of a life of first nursing and caring Philippe and after his death prayer, well...
It was awful for everyone.
Philip V: No alternating Protestants and Catholics for Holy Roman Emperor!
[Mildred: Has he heard rumors about Fritz as a candidate?]
He may have, or he was suspicious re: the durability of August III's conversion? But after August the Strong had become Catholic, there was really no question who the leading Protestant German noble house was, so more likely, he heard rumors about Fritz.
Re: Philippe le Grenouille
Oh, definitely! And as I recounted last time, there were good political reasons for his ministers not wanting him to do that again:
1. He already did that, and it ended badly. (His son died after just 7 months, putting him back on the throne.) Incidentally, that's one reason Philip the Frog so badly wants off the throne: he formally renounced it, and he thinks he's violating his oath and offending God by remaining king. And it's why he refuses to speak to his ministers except through his wife: if he doesn't act like a king, at least he's not violating his oath nearly as badly!
2. When he was retired, he was backseat driving from his country palace like crazy, telling his son what to do. Nobody wants two masters again.
3. Since his oldest son died, his next oldest son is a minor, so there would have to be a regency. Isabella, the normal candidate, would have to follow her husband into retirement. Philip doesn't have any brothers. His closest male-line relative is the king of France. And we know how it goes when there's discussion of uniting France and Spain: war!
Even if we manage to avoid a Europe-wide war, nobody wants the plotting and counterplotting within Spain over who gets to be regent.
4. Since (unlike in the reign of Philip's equally mentally ill so later in the century), there is a queen to act as point of contact, and she's willing and able to do the job, there's some continuity in leadership if we keep Philip locked in his room and Isabella acting as spokesperson for his opinions about politics.
And that's how it ended up awful for everyone. :/
Re: Philippe le Grenouille
Ohhhh. That... makes a certain amount of twisted sense.
Re: Philippe le Grenouille
...This guy needed lots of help, and lots less power.
Btw, I notice a typo in what you replied to: in "unlike in the reign of Philip's equally mentally ill so later in the century," that should read "mentally ill son."
Re: Philippe le Grenouille