cahn | Historical Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 48

This is the last one! Toward the end it becomes even harder to navigate, as the page is ripped and some words are missing, so the prose makes even less sense than usual. But we get the gist.

Oh, and reminder that "the envoy" is Meinerzhagen.

On the evening of August 13th at around 7 o'clock, His Royal Majesty, my most gracious lord, sent me from Wesel to seek out and arrest the deserter Lieutenant Keith of the Dossow Regiment, along with the two lieutenants von Erlach and Cordier. We arrived in Cleves the 14th day before, where we received news from the local postmaster that Keith had left for Nijmegen on the 7th at midday, where he immediately passed the Waal that same evening and slept for about an hour that night in the first inn on the other side of the river. The next day, on the 8th, he rode up the Rhine, then took a carriage and drove to Utrecht.

On the 14th we arrived at the ferry at the Rhine very late in the evening, and since it was on the other side of the Rhine, we had to stay there for a few hours, and on the 15th we drove to Utrecht very early, where we then received further news that Keith had taken the route from there to The Hague via the ferry near Leiden to the inn called The Young Prince of Orange. We then followed him there, and on the 16th we arrived there with the earliest train, and found out that Keith had taken another carriage and driven straight to The Hague, and handed it over to the wagon driver Pitter Wirteman at the Wage Brugge.

As things then were, he continued to spend the night from the 8th to the 9th in the same house, but on the 9th early in the morning he moved into another inn on the Speuy in the Three Rapids, and stayed there until the 11th. He had also ordered a chaise that same day at around one o'clock in the afternoon, but had nothing picked up, and instead had it cancelled again in the evening. On the 16th at half past nine in the morning we arrived in The Hague and went to the coachman Pitter Wirtman in the Wages in Brugge, and immediately inquired where Keith was staying. His son, who had brought Keith to The Three Rapids, also took us to the house, where we then found out in detail that he had left the previous evening at around 7 o'clock with General Keppel's valet, and that shortly afterwards a servant of Milord Chesterfield's, his belongings, namely a saddle and a couple of pistols in full, had picked up his boxes and a hooded coat, and because he could not carry them alone, the porter from The Three Rapids had to carry half of them for him, who then handed his portion of the baggage in the Ambassador Milord Chesterfield's house to General Keppel's valet, and then immediately went away again and asked at the portico whether the gentleman was also there, with broken words, "I have lodged in his same inn and taken up his room, where he found his spurs which he had forgotten." His hired footman had also assumed the same, who then gave me detailed information about his conduct, and said that Keith often frequented General Keppel's house, and that he had also had him brought to his carriage for a meal.

The hired lackey further states that Keith (who took the name of Count Sparr) sent him to all the inns in The Hague every day to find out whether a foreign cavalier named Count d'Alberville had arrived, and that he also had to go to all the post offices every day to find out whether any letters had arrived addressed to Count Sparr. He also reports that Keith had a new grey coat made with silver [somethings] and that he ate in his room most of the time and even went to the comedy one evening.

As soon as Keith moved into his quarters, I immediately went to Envoy Meinerzhagen and announced my commission to him, who then told me that he had received a dispatch from His Royal Majesty the previous day, the 15th, regarding the arrest of this deserting lieutenant. He had already issued an order regarding this from Mr. Stader and received one that same afternoon, whereupon he immediately dispatched his valets to Brill and also sent an express to Rotterdam, and one to observe the route to Flanders.

I told the envoy that I had news that General Keppel's valet had picked up Keith from the inn the previous evening at 7 o'clock in the evening, and that it was necessary to speak to Keppel himself about this. We then reported to him that same evening and spoke to him on the veranda, and after I had revealed my commission to him, I said that I have been most graciously commanded by Your Royal Majesty to seek out this deserting Lieutenant Keith because of high treason, and that I had definite news that his valet had fetched him from the inn the previous evening and gone with him to Milord Chesterfield's house, and that I requested him in the name of my King to instruct his valet to tell him where Keith was saying, whereupon he expressed his surprise with an affected and mysterious manner that this man had already departed, and that he knew nothing about him being sought for high treason. He wanted to send me to the valet himself, which he did an hour later, but he denied everything and said that he had not come to pick Keith up but only wanted to speak to him, because he knew him in Berlin, which the kitchen servant from The Three Rapids contested, stating that he himself had handed over Keith's baggage to him in the embassy's house. Furthermore, from all these circumstances it can be assumed that Keith may not yet have left The Hague, but may still be hiding in the ambassador's house. So the two commanding lieutenants, along with a few other loyal men, were posted around Milord Chesterfield's house on the night of the 16th to the 17th with orders to patrol the whole night through and to keep a close eye on everything.

This then happened, and I visited them several times myself. On the 17th I sent Lieutenant von Erlach to the Bailiff in Brill with a letter from Herr von Meinerzhagen to the Bailiff, asking him to keep a close eye on the packet boat and other things, and not to leave them until he was ordered to do so.

At the same time and hour, Lieutenant Cordier was dispatched to Amsterdam, along with letters from Herr von Meinerzhagen to the resident Varyn, who then made the arrangements, as the enclosed letters under No. A. report, with further details.

The night from the 17th to the 18th, as well as from the 18th to the 19th, people were stationed around the English ambassador's house both during the day and at night, so that nothing would be missed. A similar lackey was hired on the 17th and 18th to drive everyone on duty, but he also sent one out into the whole of The Hague to find out as precisely as possible whether they had taken any such people away [something]. On the morning of the 19th, I received a report from the spies that during the night in Chesterfield's house, someone had opened and closed the door very often, but no one had gone out. The previous day, the 18th, around midday, I was with Envoy von Meinertzhagen at Milord Chesterfield's secretary in Holzendorf (because the ambassadors were absent), and also at the Grand Pensionary Slingelandt's. I explained in detail to the former how I had been sent by His Royal Majesty, My Most Gracious King and Lord, to pursue and arrest a lieutenant who had deserted, because of high treason, and that I had certain information that on the evening of the 15th one of Milord Chesterfield's servants had picked up the lieutenant of his carriage from the inn outside him and brought him to Milord's hotel, and that I had requested that he make some inquiries about this so that the servants could be informed, and the baggage remained, whereupon he replied to Mr. Holtzendorff that his master was absent, and that he had no authority over his servants. Without him he could do nothing in the matter before he had written home. I then showed him the requisition letter from Your Royal Majesty, in order to convince him all the more that it was an important matter, extremely important to my King, whereupon he shrugged his shoulders and said that he could do nothing in the matter, whereupon we left.

We also told the Pensionary Councilor that General Keppel's valet, had picked up this lieutenant and would not say where he was, to which he replied that he could do nothing more in this matter, but that he would have Herr von Meinertzhagen issued authorization to arrest this man with great pleasure in order to attest to His Royal Majesty's devotion to him, whereupon we also withdrew. On the 19th, Lieutenant von Erlach returned from Brill at around 9 p.m. and reported to the envoy and me that he had left Hellevoetsluis at 4 p.m. and had seen the packet boat depart for England, with 17 passengers, most of them English. He also reports that the local facilities for arresting Keith are excellently set up, and that all courts, both in the town of Bril and in the barracks of Hellevoetsluis, are on high alert. On the 20th, the enclosed letter under Lit. B. arrived from Amsterdam from Lieutenant Cordier. I was out in the open around the English ambassador's house the night of the 19th to the 20th with my hired lackey and a few hired men, and patrolled until 2 a.m., but left the men there until 8 a.m.

On the 20th, at around 10 o'clock in the morning, I went to see Envoy von Meinertzhagen, where we thought of all sorts of strategies and tricks to positively discover this Keith (although, given the circumstances, we could hardly doubt that he had retreated to the Chesterfield Hotel and sought protection).

We have therefore resolved to open the letter which His Royal Highness the Crown Prince wrote to Keith that he should come to Speyer, in order to use the seal. We then had one of Meinertzhagen's sons write a letter to Keith, dated from Utrecht, in which he was ordered to come to Amsterdam in The Coat of Arms of Emden as soon as he received it. The envoy's youngest son immediately traveled to Utrecht with this letter, with instructions to hire a courier and send the letter here in the hope that someone in The Hague would accept it and that way find out whether our suspicions were correct.

Likewise, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon the envoy, along with his cousin, the Domain Councillor, and I drove to Scheveningen, where we got definite news from the night watchman named Strotier, and we also heard from the Hunter Inn that the previous Friday, i.e. On the 18th, around 7 or 8 o'clock in the morning, the majordomo of Milord Chesterfield, General Keppel's valet, and a French wine merchant brought a young man who spoke German there in a carriage, and then sent him off to England in a small carriage (which had been hired and paid for by the majordomo the day before). XXX from the Hunter Inn did not want to be questioned in detail, but laughed and said that we shouldn't try to ask him more questions, because it was forbidden to him. We then returned to The Hague and considered together what further could be done in the matter, and decided to send out various spies, instructed by the envoy, in order to have greater certainty, which one could doubt more and more.

On the 21st towards evening I discussed with the envoy how we could now report to His Royal Majesty with certainty, which each of us should do in a dedicated report, and then at about 9 o'clock we parted, but at about 3 o'clock in the morning one of his servants came to me and said that his master had suffered a stroke and that the family had also requested that I be here as soon as possible, as it would be difficult for him to survive, whereupon I went there as quickly as possible and found him without any hope, and two hours later he gave up the ghost. On the 22nd I humbly reported all this to His Royal Majesty by express post.

On the 26th I sent the two lieutenants back to their garrison, and on the 28th I also began my journey back to Berlin, with the greatest regret that I was unable to carry out His Royal Majesty's most gracious wishes.

Potsdam, 10th September 1730.

The Coat of Arms of Emden = "Wapon von Embden". Emden is a city on the Dutch border, though not particularly close to Amsterdam (google says 250 km away). I'm *guessing* that "Wapon von Embden" is an inn with the coat of arms of the city of Emden as the sign it hangs out to distinguish it from other inns? Since there are a lot of inns in this story, and an inn makes sense as a place for Fritz and Peter to meet up in Amsterdam? But that's my guess.

Also! Wow, nobody published anything about confiscating a letter from Fritz to Peter and using the seal to write a new letter and using that to try to locate Peter! (And presumably lure him out, even if they don't say so, because if Peter leaves his protection and goes to a specific inn in Amsterdam, suddenly he becomes a lot more vulnerable to capture.)

Why did nobody publish this detail?? OTOH, I'm glad no one did, because it feels cool to be the one ordering the archival material, wrangling Du Moulin's spelling and handwriting, and figuring new things out!

Also, if Peter was supposed to come to Speyer, which is about 40 km from where Fritz made his failed escape attempt on August 5, yeah, Fritz was changing the plan daily.

Oh, the other thing that struck me as funny when reading these was the constant use of "allergnädigster", i.e. "most gracious", to describe FW...by people hunting down Peter so he could be tortured (presumably) and killed. It reminds me a lot of that Monty Python sketch reading from the Book of Armaments:

"And Saint Attila raised the hand grenade up on high, saying, 'O Lord, bless this thy hand grenade, that with it thou mayst blow thine enemies to tiny bits, in thy mercy.'"

Du Moulin and Meinerzhagen: Kill him, Your Majesty, don't kill us!

"Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who, being naughty in My sight, shall snuff it."

Haha, no sooner had you finished saying (in email) that you only have time to translate these because they're revised translations, not new translations, than we hit the one that was so long and boring that you didn't bother to translate it last year, either.

I'll spare you a translation request again this year if you proofread the text instead. I'll bold the words where I'm especially unsure of the ending. But any of them could be wrong, bolded or not! So proofreading by either or both of our native German speakers is much appreciated!

Monsieur et très cher Compère!

Ich habe die Rechnung von Baumbach & Dimpfel aus Hamburg
wegen der letzten nunmehro abgeschickten 12 Körbe Champagner-Wein
mit dero geehrtesten Schreiben vom 10 dieses richtig erhalten. Die-
sen kleinen Posten werde ich zu der Haupt-Rechnung von denen
2/M bouteillen Champagner-Weinen, so ich unter Glasows Papie-
ren gefunden, tragen, und die Summe sodann schließen, wenn
ich die Fracht-Rechnung von dero Hamburger-Schiffer, der die gedachte
12 Körbe geladen, wird angekommen seyn. Der Verfugung zu das
Schiffers Bezahlung ist bereits in Berlin gemacht worden.

Das Schreiben von der Frau Marggräfin von Anspach König. Hoheit
habe ich dem Könige sogleich überreichet.

Die instructiones, welche mon chere Compère, mir in dero letzteren
Schreiben vom 13te dieses geben, erkenne ich mit dem verbundensten
danck, und dieselben werden mich allemahl gantz ungemein ver-
pflichten, wenn Sie bey vorfallenden Gelegenheiten damit continuiren
wollen. Ich würde auch den Vorschlag, dass ich die in Berlin und
Potsdam fallende monathliche Dispositions-Gelder durch den Herrn
Geheimen-Rath Koppen besorgen und den Rest barr durch denselben
anhero schicken lassen möchte, gar gern befolgen, wenn ich nicht
bereits die Einrichtung dargestalt gemacht hätte, dass der Cammer-
Diener Hundertmarck die Auszahlung dieser Gelder in Berlin und
Potsdam behalten, und der Rest par assignation an die General-
Feld Krieges-Casse übermacht werden sollte. Damit der Herr
Hundertmarck seine Sache ordentlich macht, und ich wegen der
geschehenen Bezahlung vollkommen gesichert sey, habe ihm aufgegeben
dass er die Quitungen auf meinen Nahmen ausstellen lassen und
in originali zur revision an mich einschicken soll, auf solche Art
bin ich gedeckt, und Hundertmarck versiehet hierbey weiter nichts
als die Stelle eines Commissionaire, dergleichen sonst der H. Kosack
in Ansehung derer in Berlin vormahls ausgezahlten Chatoulle-Gelder
versehen hat. Wegen Uebermachung der Gelder par assignation aber
habe bereits an der Herrn von Bodens Excellentz geschrieben, auch mit
dem hiesigen Krieges-Zahl-Amt alles reguliret, dass ich dahero bey
den gegenwärtigen unsicheren Zeiten auch in diesem Punct hinläng.
gesichert bin.

Den Hofrath Schirmeister, dencke ich vor der Hand entbehren zu
können, nachdem es Ihnen gefallen, mir über verschiedene Stücke
die Hoff-Aemter betreffend, ein eclaircissement zu geben, andern Theils
des Herrn von Bodens-Excelltz, wie auch der H. Hoff-Staats-Rent-
meister Buchholtz mir mit vielen guten Nachrichten an die Hand
gegangen. Von der Führung und Einrichtung der Wirtschaft kann er
mir meines Erachtens auch gar nichts sagen, weil die Direction derselben
lediglich von Ihnen abgefangen, und der H. Schirmeister, mir es auch
recht gewesen, sich darin nicht meliren dürfen.

Die 252 rthlr welche in der alten Schulden-Liste für die Garderobe,
desgleichen, für Thé und Caffé aufgeführet stehen haben mon cher
Compère, wie ich aus eben der Liste ersehe an Völckern bezahlet. Es
findet sich aber unter denen allhier vorhandenen Scripturen keine Spe-
cification noch quitirte Rechnung von diesem Posten, und dahero be-
sorge ich, dass Völcker die Auszahlung entweder gantz oder doch zum
Theil unterlassen haben möge. Erweisen Sie mir doch die Gefällig-
keit, und lassen Sie einmahl den Italiener Dominico, der die
größte Post zu fordern gehabt, kennen, und fragen Sie ihn ob er
bezahlt ist? Der Apotheker Bertholtz hat, wie ich vernommen, etwas
von diesen Geldern auf Völkers Ordre distribuiren müssen. Dieser
wird vielleicht wissen, wo die Specification und die Rechnungen
von diesen 252rthtlr hingekommen sind.

Se. Königl. Maj. befinden sich Gott lob! wohl und gesund. Ich
wünsche, dass der gute effect, den Sie nach des schlesischen Doctoris Cur
verspühren continuiren mögen. Meiner Frau werde ich ihre inattention
verweisen, und übrigens allemahl durch alle Proben der Freundschaft, so
Sie von mir verlangen können, zeigen, dass ich aufrichtigst bin,
Monsieur et très cher Compère
votre très humble
et obeysant serviteur
Leining

Lockwitz den 16. April 1757

Edited 2024-09-02 17:30 (UTC)

Last year, Selena told us about a tv series on Marie Antoinette, in which she concluded someone on the production team must have said, "But we can't have a German-Austrian having to explain to A FRENCH KING OF THE HOUSE BOURBON how sex works, that's just not on, no one would believe this!"

I just found out that another Bourbon, future Carlos III of Spain (currently of naples when he gets married), was ignorant of sex when he first got married!

He explains over a year later to his parents on 29 September 1739, however, that he was sexually ignorant on marriage and did not know how to engage in successful sexual relations: ‘j’estoy sot comme un anne’ [I was stupid like a donkey]. In the same letter he describes in detail how it took him 15 days to work out by trial and error how to achieve a successful orgasm – his, of course.

15 days is not 7 years, of course, and he evidently didn't need anyone to explain it to him, but I thought it was funny nonetheless. He was 23, the same age as Louis.

Less funny is the poor girl (as usual):

The queen who set off on her journey to Naples was a 13-year-old child, so young that a papal dispensation had to be obtained before the marriage could take place. She did not reach puberty until 20 November 1739, almost a year and a half after her arrival in Naples and around the time of her 15th birthday. We know the precise date because her husband proudly reported it to his parents in a letter dated 24 November 1739: ‘le 20 de ce mois ma femme a eû ses affaires’ [on the 20th of this month my wife has had her period], adding that, according to the doctors, the menstrual fluid is of the highest quality. Carlo deflowered her on their very first night together, however, taking a quarter of an hour to break her hymen, as he reports to his parents on 8 July 1738: ‘en un quart d’heure je la rompit’. He goes on to explain that he entered her again that night and twice a night every night thereafter (though there are those who regard this as improbable boasting)...Almost immediately on reaching puberty, Maria Amalia became pregnant. She gave birth to a daughter on 5 September 1740 at the age of 15...The key moments for the woman were her 13 pregnancies, the deaths of five of her daughters, four of whom died as babies and were therefore regarded as expendable...

As Cahn once said, "My days of my being stupendously grateful I don't live in the past are certainly coming to a middle."

ETA: Oh, source: Queens Consort, Cultural Transfer and European Politics, c.1500-1800, a promising-looking collection of essays I've just started dipping into.

Edited 2024-06-26 01:17 (UTC)

As promised, sharing little tidbits from my reading:

Frederick the Great in particular held the nobles of Pomerania in high respect. Giving his royal consent to the founding of a Pomeranian credit institution in 1780, the monarch wrote, “I want to help them because I love the Pomeranians as my brothers, no one can love them more than I do.”

Source: "Absolutism and Its Limits. The Monarchy and the Nobility in Eighteenth-Century Prussia," Dmitrii Sterkhov.

Aww, Fritz, do you have fond memories of a certain (non-noble) Pomeranian? <3

Of course, as we know, the Prussians are less popular in the Rhineland, and the feeling is mutual:

The attitude of Prussian rulers toward the nobility of the western provinces, which became part of the Hohenzollern monarchy on the eve of the Thirty Years’ War (1618–48), was highly negative. Frederick William I called the nobles of Cleves and Mark “dumb asses but malicious as the Devil” (Kathe 1978, 64). His son, Frederick the Great, also spoke in unkind terms of the Cleves nobility, condemning them as a “pack of stupid spiteful plotters” (Göse 2012, 108). All attempts to abolish the Estate diets and other forms of representation in Cleves and Mark met with failure. Proximity to the Netherlands promoted the consolidation of a specific regional consciousness among the Rhenish aristocrats, making them bitter and irreconcilable enemies of the Prussian central government in Berlin.

This autobiography reminds me a little of Moll Flanders, in that it is about a woman making her own way in the world. The difference is that there are far fewer husbands and lovers, less life of crime, and more queerness. Charlotte is primarily an actor, often in breeches roles, and the book would probably be interesting for people who are into the history of theatre. But she is a very precariously employed actor, who often can't get acting jobs, or quarrels with someone, or is sick of the theatre world and wants to strike out and do something else. Which she does: selling sausages, keeping a public house, selling pastries, etc. Unfortunately she's not a great entrepreneur (which she herself owns), or else she just has bad luck. Charlotte grew up in a fairly well off family in the theatre world, and I'm afraid I took against her in the beginning when she as a young teenager sold bogus remedies to poor people, pretending to be an apothecary. But she grows more sympathetic with age. When she's still fairly young she falls in love with a man and persuades her parents to let her marry him. But the relationship quickly goes south, at which point they just separate and she does her best to safeguard the money she manages to make so her husband can't get at it. He dies after a while, there's one more brief love affair with a man, and then no more. After this she’s a single mother bringing up a daughter, who eventually also becomes an actor. Charlotte also spends periods of her (his?) life living as a man (Mr Brown), partly to dodge creditors and find jobs, but had masculine interests early in life, as well. She works as a valet for a while, with the gentleman being aware that she’s not a cis man. She also lived for years with a female friend/lover/partner (who knows which) as Mr and Mrs Brown. A fascinating life! This book is of course written for public consumption and who knows how that affected what she wrote.

Hunting Peter Keith: Du Moulin, September 10

Leining to Fredersdorf: Letter 5, take 2

Bourbon orgasms

Pomeranians

A Narrative of the Life of Mrs Charlotte Charke (1755)