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Historical Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 48
Some awesome historical RPF ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
candyheartsex stories for meeeeee (or by me, in one tiny case) with historical characters! I'm just going to note whom the stories are about here. They are all so good!!
Anne Boleyn/Catherine of Aragorn
Frances Howard and Frances Coke (or: James I's court was basically a HOTBED of scandal, omg)
And two that are also historical RPF but also consistent with the Jude Morgan novel The King's Touch, which is an excellent historical novel narrated by James ("Jemmy") Scott, Duke of Monmouth, Charles II's illegitimate son.
Princess Henrietta of England (Charles II's sister and wife of Philippe I duc d'Orleans)
James of Monmouth/William/Mary
candyheartsex stories for meeeeee (or by me, in one tiny case) with historical characters! I'm just going to note whom the stories are about here. They are all so good!!Anne Boleyn/Catherine of Aragorn
Frances Howard and Frances Coke (or: James I's court was basically a HOTBED of scandal, omg)
And two that are also historical RPF but also consistent with the Jude Morgan novel The King's Touch, which is an excellent historical novel narrated by James ("Jemmy") Scott, Duke of Monmouth, Charles II's illegitimate son.
Princess Henrietta of England (Charles II's sister and wife of Philippe I duc d'Orleans)
James of Monmouth/William/Mary
Meinerzhagen's first report on Peter Keith
I received His Royal Majesty's most gracious order of the 13th, sent to me by express post from Wesel, concerning the deserter Lieutenant Kait of the Dossowian Regiment, at one o'clock this morning, with the deepest and most humble respect.
Note that "Kait" is a common German spelling of "Keith" in this period. FW will even spell it "Keut" at one point, iirc.
In order to ensure that it was observed most obediently and promptly, I reported to the grand pensionary early this morning and informed him of the matter, and also requested that he direct it so that the lieutenant in question could be arrested if he were to be found in this country.
The grand pensionary was the most prominent Dutch political position during the Stadtholderless periods. The man holding it in 1730 was Simon van Slingelandt.
He then declared that he had no doubt that the States would gladly assist Your Royal Majesty in everything they could.
The States General is both the legislative body of the Netherlands and also the most common way of referring to the Netherlands in our period (I usually translate "Netherlands" and "Dutch" in salon to reduce confusion, but those usually aren't the terms I'm seeing in what I'm reading). I'm actually translating Staaten as States General instead of States right now, for added clarity!
However, since such an arrest could not take place without your order, he did not want to fail to ask this question, by which he wanted to know what this lieutenant had done. and whether it was only a simple desertion, or whether he had committed another crime, because in the former case, the states could hardly be asked to issue an arrest warrant, seeing that the state had no cartel with Your Royal Majesty.
I'm used to seeing "cartel" as an agreement to exchange prisoners of war, but a treaty of extradition to hand over deserters is the same idea.
Although they would do everything that was not contrary to their laws and regulations, and what they could justify doing would be done with all obedience. And he would let me know their resolution after the meeting. I strongly recommended to him again to seek an urgent resolution, so that we could take measures accordingly, but since the States General will not assemble until today's post leaves, I will only be able to receive their resolution this afternoon.
In the meantime, I did not stand still; but sent out people secretly from all over the place to discover whether such a person was staying here or had happened to be here, and I have already discovered that about three days ago a similar person was here in The Hague, wearing a grey suit with silver details,
Didn't Katte's servant say he'd been packing a grey suit, in the trials?
Meanwhile, Fritz: Bright red coat for me all the way!
but that he claimed to be someone called Sparr, that he had been a page to Your Royal Majesty and was now a lieutenant in a regiment garrisoned in Wesel, and that he had also spoken to General Keppel but had given no reason as to why he was staying here. However, I have not yet been able to find out where he is staying, and I have been told that he apparently left again on Saturday evening or Sunday morning. I will have his details ready as soon as I receive the resolution of the States. I will have him followed by various people, namely to Rotterdam and Helvoetsluys, since he must take either one or the other if he wants to go to England or France.
Wrong! He will take a fisher's boat from Scheveningen. Well played, Peter! You fooled your pursuers.
I will also have people in Amsterdam keep an eye out to see if he might be staying somewhere there. I will also do everything I can to achieve His Royal Majesty's most gracious intention and to convey to His Royal Majesty the details of the decision with my most humble submission.
To whom I will remain in deepest submission and firm loyalty for the rest of my life.
I haven't transcribed FW's short but terribly written reply, but I have sight-read what I could, and I'm pretty sure he's saying he's sending Du Moulins to help in the pursuit, and they're to work together, and also, "As to the difficulty that he can't be arrested because he's only a deserter, that's easily lifted, because he's committed the crime of high treason."
I.e., conspiring with Fritz.
There's another report just after Peter escapes to England, which I'm also intending to transcribe. (Meinerzhagen has beautiful handwriting, at least when writing to his monarch. Du Moulins is going to be more of a struggle, and I'm not committed to doing it.)
Re: Meinerzhagen's first report on Peter Keith
Meanwhile, Fritz: Bright red coat for me all the way!
Not as a dressing gown, though, for didn't we discover that was a myth, and instead in Nikolai's account from when Fritz was playing with Quantz, FW was coming and Katte was thinking quickly and hid with Quantz and the incriminating music, it was Quantz who was wearing the red coat?
It occurs to me that a reason the Dutch administrators don't want to commit to handing over an "only" deserter is because there must a bunch of gangpressed Prussian soldiers who hightailed it to the Netherlands and became useful citizens. Mind you, FW technically isn't wrong due to Fritz being the Crown Prince and intending to leave the country for another country, both explicitly against the orders of his King. This said, I bet whatever Meinerzhagen says, there wasn't much urgency to help tracking down Peter on the part of the locals. I mean, they'd have done it if he'd been caught. But I doubt they lost any sleep over helping Meinerzhagen on FW's behalf.
Re: Meinerzhagen's first report on Peter Keith
Yes, in the flute-playing story, but I could have sworn there was some reliable source, like Hinrichs, where Fritz ordered cloth for a red coat to be made when he was trying to escape in August 1730. That's what I was referring to: Peter was wearing grey when he escaped, Katte was packing his grey suit, and Fritz had ordered a red coat made for his escape (if I'm recalling correctly).
Yeah, it's in Gummerbach's (he's Fritz's valet) testimony in Hinrichs.
Interr: Why did the witness [Gummerbach] not tell His Royal Majesty when the Crown Prince had the red coat made in Ludwigsburg, and did he suspect anything because of it?
So yeah. Fritz has to escape in brighter colors, is all I was saying. :D
ETA: The more time passes, the more I start to appreciate MacDonogh. He has a lot of issues if you just read his book qua text and take his claims as fact, but he covers a lot of material, and he cites a lot of sources. When I couldn't remember where in Hinrichs the red coat was, and couldn't find it by searching the book or in Rheinsberg, I thought, "I bet MacDonogh will give me chapter and verse," and lo, he did.
ETA 2: And they're usually good sources. Not as in unproblematic, but like Oncken, covering a lot of primary source material in a lot of detail, and the place you want to look if you want to decide for yourself whether you believe something or not. Not like some 1990s summary of German history by an author who doesn't know a thing about Fritz except what they read in an older biography and doesn't cite any of their own sources. I've been saying this for years: if I could just get a little better at French and German, I would like to take a serious look at MacDonogh's sources and see if there are any undiscovered gold mines in there.
It occurs to me that a reason the Dutch administrators don't want to commit to handing over an "only" deserter is because there must a bunch of gangpressed Prussian soldiers who hightailed it to the Netherlands and became useful citizens.
The Netherlands had a tradition of welcoming refugees and encouraging them to become useful citizens! (I also bet the Danes and a lot of other neighboring countries would have given FW the middle finger in this situation too. :P)
This said, I bet whatever Meinerzhagen says, there wasn't much urgency to help tracking down Peter on the part of the locals. I mean, they'd have done it if he'd been caught. But I doubt they lost any sleep over helping Meinerzhagen on FW's behalf.
Oh, definitely. If I had nothing to go on but that note, I would still conclude that it sounded like lip service while throwing up obstacles on purpose. And if we believe Peter's account:
I retired to Holland where the States General made me the declaration that they did not believe they could provide me with asylum.
"We can't provide you with asylum, because the guy who's hunting you is our neighbor and has a large army" is a far cry from, "Hey, FW, we found him! Here he is!" I mean, even if Peter didn't appear personally but only sent General Keppel or whoever...it does sound like the States General had *some* lead on his whereabouts at *some point*, and they decided not to pursue the lead or proactively pass the news on to FW.
So yeah, I see zero willingness to hand over Peter on the part the Dutch authorities. Even with the high treason thing, their attitude seems to be pretty similar to G2's: "You need to get out of here, Peter, so we can tell FW with a straight face we don't know where you are. Godspeed."
ETA: Meinerzhagen's second report, after Peter's escape, is 33 pages long, so it's going to be a while. If I end up abandoning the decipherment project, I'll try to post what I have. But it's good practice, anyway.
Re: Meinerzhagen's first report on Peter Keith
I will have his details ready as soon as I receive the resolution of the States
Yeah, knowing nothing about the States General but knowing more than I want to about bureaucracy, I wonder if this as well is a way of both committing to giving FW all the help "possible" while still being like "but, like, if it takes them a while to do it, then oh well."
You need to get out of here, Peter, so we can tell FW with a straight face we don't know where you are. Godspeed.
Aww, yeah. It does sound like it, and I'm glad for Peter since that was probably the difference in him surviving, even though I'm sure at the time (poor kid) the whole "we can't give you asylum" part must have been awful for him.
Re: Meinerzhagen's first report on Peter Keith
Re: Meinerzhagen's first report on Peter Keith
Re: Meinerzhagen's first report on Peter Keith
The Dutch sodomy trials had swiftly made their way into the British press. Such reports not only expressed their abhorrence of this 'abominable Vice' and described in detail how the 'detested Criminals' were executed by being partially strangled, 'burnt with Straw', and drowned."
Re: Meinerzhagen's first report on Peter Keith