Historical Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 47

[cahn]

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!

Comments

1764-1772 Foreign policy: Sweden: The Hats and Caps, an eternal merry-go-round

[mildred_of_midgard]

You may recall that the pro-French Hats were in power in the early 1740s, when Fritz pressured France into bribing/subsidizing Sweden into invading Russia, to keep Russia out of the Silesian War. That did not end well.

Then in 1756, Ulrike attempts to institute absolutism. She is caught by the Hats, who make her sign a public "I won't do it again" apology letter, which she finds very humiliating. That same year, the Seven Years' War starts, and the pro-French Hats being in power is how Sweden ends up entering the war on the side of France, i.e. against Fritz, who is now fighting a 4-front war. Or as I like to say, a 3.5 front war, because Sweden isn't able to present a credible threat. Which is how all their neighbors (Russia, Prussia, Denmark) want to keep it.

After the Seven Years' War goes badly and there's a financial crisis, there's an extraordinary diet called in 1765. The discredited Hats fall from power and the pro-Russian Caps get a chance to try their hand at the wheel. In 1765, Sweden signs a defensive alliance with Russia and Gustav gets engaged to Frederik V's daughter, and in the following year, 1766, Sweden concludes an alliance with Britain.

Since Britain and France are arch-enemies, this means Sweden has definitively abandoned their pro-French ways. This is a mutual decision: Choiseul, who's in power in France, is disenchanted with the Hats, as they haven't proven very useful, and they're very expensive. The French stop paying even arrears on the subsidies they owe Sweden from all those years of alliance.

So Sweden's foreign policy has done an about-face after the Caps come to power. But the Caps' economic policies prove unpopular and their reign short-lived. Many Swedes were not happy with all the Russian interference, and Russia had to spend a *lot* of money on bribes. Ulrike is basically at social war with the Russian ambassador Osterman. Per Michael Roberts, "The queen, reported Osterman, had only to hear that he had organized a reception or a dinner to choose the same evening for one of her own."

Things get super complicated starting in 1768, which is not coincidentally the first year that this series of write-ups was intended to cover. (I eventually realized you need 1764-1767 to get the rationale for the civil war in Poland, but the really interesting stuff is 1768-1772.)

Re: 1764-1772 Foreign policy: Sweden: The Hats and Caps, an eternal merry-go-round

[selenak]

he is caught by the Hats, who make her sign a public "I won't do it again" apology letter, which she finds very humiliating.

As we remember from Ziebura's AW biography and my write-up of same. She was throwing Cromwell comparisons around, and he was going WTF, calm down at her. There are also Ulrike letters from during the war in the spirit of "if Fritz had backed me up against my unruly subjects when I needed him, Sweden would now not be at war with him", I think.

LOL on the social war, which I did not know about. It's worth requoting Lehndorff's description of Ulrike during her lengthy visit to Brandenburg:

I have rarely met a woman with more knowledge and more wit. But alas, these brilliant qualities only bring her misfortune. For she has not learned to make her life agreeable to herself, as she could in her high position. On the contrary, this position contributes to making her unhappy. She knows no higher happiness than despotic rule while living in a country where the very phrase is a crime. In religious matters, she's a free thinker while the higher clergy of Sweden clutches to the letter of the bible. She openly admits to not being able to disguise herself, and since she does not love Sweden, she uses the most terrible phrases for this country. She is a deist, scorns priests and praises despotism, all of which in mockery of her Swedish entourage, who of course hasten to report all of this back home. She is arrogant, though she is kind on a personal level, as long as she doesn't believe one is lacking in the proper respect towards her. And the later is true for the entire diplomatic corps in Berlin in her eyes. (...) A for me, I lunch with her daily and I have to say, she's incredibly amiable on these occasions. But it does annoy people she rarely talks to women. She does treat her ladies rather haughtily. When the poor Countess Sinclair wanted to sit down opposite of her a few days ago, her majesty told her: "My dear, you are my daily bread, sit elsehwere."

Re: 1764-1772 Foreign policy: Sweden: The Hats and Caps, an eternal merry-go-round

[cahn]

t's worth requoting Lehndorff's description of Ulrike during her lengthy visit to Brandenburg:

Yes, thank you for this!

But alas, these brilliant qualities only bring her misfortune. For she has not learned to make her life agreeable to herself, as she could in her high position. On the contrary, this position contributes to making her unhappy. She knows no higher happiness than despotic rule while living in a country where the very phrase is a crime.

This is the kind of thing that reminds me why we love Lehndorff. This is such a pungent description.

Re: 1764-1772 Foreign policy: Sweden: The Hats and Caps, an eternal merry-go-round

[selenak]

What I especially love is that he comes up with these gems independent from whether the person he describes is famous, like in the case of Count Wartenberg, the sugar hoarder whom he knew in EC's household. I don't know whether he'd have written could fiction if he'd ever applied his craft to publishing, but non-fiction, he had true talent for. Travelogues, perhaps, which an 18th century nobleman could publish.

Re: 1764-1772 Foreign policy: Sweden: The Hats and Caps, an eternal merry-go-round

[cahn]

Travelogues would be great! in my AU where Lehndorff is the feted author of the 18th century :D

Re: 1764-1772 Foreign policy: Sweden: The Hats and Caps, an eternal merry-go-round

[luzula]

Then in 1756, Ulrike attempts to institute absolutism. She is caught by the Hats, who make her sign a public "I won't do it again" apology letter, which she finds very humiliating.
I laughed. It does sound kind of like she's a schoolchild... Naughty girl, no absolutism for you!

Choiseul, who's in power in France, is disenchanted with the Hats, as they haven't proven very useful, and they're very expensive.
Well, from the Hats' perspective, good job milking money from the French without having to give much in return, I guess...at least until the subsidies ended.

Re: 1764-1772 Foreign policy: Sweden: The Hats and Caps, an eternal merry-go-round

[mildred_of_midgard]

Well, from the Hats' perspective, good job milking money from the French without having to give much in return, I guess...at least until the subsidies ended.

WEll, the problem wasn't so much that the Hats or Sweden benefitted from this policy, just that the Hats were very incompetent in their attempts to give back to France. They declared war on Russia in 1741 at France's behest, and promptly got their butts kicked. Then they got involved in the Seven Years' War, and that also sucked up so much money and killed so many Swedes and harmed the national reputation so much that Sweden desperately wanted out.

Btw, every take on Prussia and Russia I've read has Peter III forcing Sweden to make peace with Fritz. From the book on Swedish-Russian relations that selenak got me for Christmas, sure, he did, but Sweden was *already* desperately trying to get out of the war under Elizaveta, relieved that Peter was on board with that, and hopeful Catherine would allow them to stay out of the war (and relieved when she did).

The Miracle of the House of Brandenburg was also the Miracle of Sweden, it seems. :P