Lehndorff also says that Fritz employed ("angestellt") him against his will at the queen's court. Now, I know he wanted a transfer and could never get one, but this makes it sound like he never wanted this job in the first place? Am I misreading?
Yes and no. I mean, the way he presents it in later years, including the 1756 one, is Fritz inflicting the job on him, but I don't think there's anything about this at the start of the preserved diaries. Also, I very much suspect what happened was that Lehndorff wanted a job near Fritz, it was 1749, he was young and naive and from East Prussia, i.e. not current with gossip, and hadn't deduced yet that working for EC was guaranteed not to bring him into Fritz' orbit. So I bet when the job was originally offered, he want for it.
I mean, Lehndorff isn't above rewriting the past to a certain extent as we all do with hindsight. Even decades later, when we got our hands on the 1780s diaries, for all his words about being happy in retirement, he seems to have believed that FW2 would offer him a job, and not a ceremonial one, a political one, and was much offended when that didn't happen, since he thought FW2 had really liked him as Crown Prince. (Now, I can understand why Heinrich was kidding himself on a similar note about expecting a good political job in a post Fritzian future and was rudely disappointed, but Lehndorff expecting it really took me by surprise.)
You should definitely check Volume 2 about 1756, btw, I remember there being even more emo about the whole Hotham matter.
Incidentally, if you're looking for Lehndorff's James Keith and Eva passage, that's under October 1758 in Volume 1. (Where he writes that Eva had a great figure, wit and manners, but lived in a spendthrift way, and that James gave her neaerly all his money so she could use his carriage and his cook while he used a the 18th century equivalent of a taxi and ate fast food.)
I mean, Lehndorff isn't above rewriting the past to a certain extent as we all do with hindsight.
Yeah, fair.
You should definitely check Volume 2 about 1756, btw, I remember there being even more emo about the whole Hotham matter.
Incidentally, if you're looking for Lehndorff's James Keith and Eva passage, that's under October 1758 in Volume 1.
Nice, thanks! Yeah, it's becoming increasingly clear I need to read at least the first two volumes, there's too much good stuff in here.
For example: Remember when Fritz decided to leave Swiss Michell, who'd never been to Prussia and possibly hadn't taken the oath of loyalty, as legation secretary in London, rather than send Peter as envoy or promote Michell to envoy? And I said that that means Michell did *not* beat Peter in direct competition? Well, that's true for 1747, but at the beginning of 1756, when Fritz is negotiating with the Brits but before he realizes that instead of preventing a war, he's started one, Lehndorff reports that Michell got promoted to envoy. Now, Lehndorff may be reporting an inaccurate rumor, I'd have to do more research, but if he heard that rumor, Peter presumably heard it too. Ouch.
The thing I specifically picked up Lehndorff to find and went to 1756 is a memory that you said something about Lehndorff having not entirely positive feelings about being left behind because of his disability, when everyone went to war without him, even though he was not super gung ho about war. And that is so entirely relevant to Peter "I'd rather be reading books! But I can't stomach the humilation!" Keith that I need to find exactly what he said for comparison. (So much of my research is turning out to be not information about Peter directly, but the world and the people around him, for context.)
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timeasmymeasure
Re: Lehndorff is so emo
Date: 2024-09-17 10:55 am (UTC)Yes and no. I mean, the way he presents it in later years, including the 1756 one, is Fritz inflicting the job on him, but I don't think there's anything about this at the start of the preserved diaries. Also, I very much suspect what happened was that Lehndorff wanted a job near Fritz, it was 1749, he was young and naive and from East Prussia, i.e. not current with gossip, and hadn't deduced yet that working for EC was guaranteed not to bring him into Fritz' orbit. So I bet when the job was originally offered, he want for it.
I mean, Lehndorff isn't above rewriting the past to a certain extent as we all do with hindsight. Even decades later, when we got our hands on the 1780s diaries, for all his words about being happy in retirement, he seems to have believed that FW2 would offer him a job, and not a ceremonial one, a political one, and was much offended when that didn't happen, since he thought FW2 had really liked him as Crown Prince. (Now, I can understand why Heinrich was kidding himself on a similar note about expecting a good political job in a post Fritzian future and was rudely disappointed, but Lehndorff expecting it really took me by surprise.)
You should definitely check Volume 2 about 1756, btw, I remember there being even more emo about the whole Hotham matter.
Incidentally, if you're looking for Lehndorff's James Keith and Eva passage, that's under October 1758 in Volume 1. (Where he writes that Eva had a great figure, wit and manners, but lived in a spendthrift way, and that James gave her neaerly all his money so she could use his carriage and his cook while he used a the 18th century equivalent of a taxi and ate fast food.)
Re: Lehndorff is so emo
Date: 2024-09-17 01:21 pm (UTC)Yeah, fair.
You should definitely check Volume 2 about 1756, btw, I remember there being even more emo about the whole Hotham matter.
Incidentally, if you're looking for Lehndorff's James Keith and Eva passage, that's under October 1758 in Volume 1.
Nice, thanks! Yeah, it's becoming increasingly clear I need to read at least the first two volumes, there's too much good stuff in here.
For example: Remember when Fritz decided to leave Swiss Michell, who'd never been to Prussia and possibly hadn't taken the oath of loyalty, as legation secretary in London, rather than send Peter as envoy or promote Michell to envoy? And I said that that means Michell did *not* beat Peter in direct competition? Well, that's true for 1747, but at the beginning of 1756, when Fritz is negotiating with the Brits but before he realizes that instead of preventing a war, he's started one, Lehndorff reports that Michell got promoted to envoy. Now, Lehndorff may be reporting an inaccurate rumor, I'd have to do more research, but if he heard that rumor, Peter presumably heard it too. Ouch.
The thing I specifically picked up Lehndorff to find and went to 1756 is a memory that you said something about Lehndorff having not entirely positive feelings about being left behind because of his disability, when everyone went to war without him, even though he was not super gung ho about war. And that is so entirely relevant to Peter "I'd rather be reading books! But I can't stomach the humilation!" Keith that I need to find exactly what he said for comparison. (So much of my research is turning out to be not information about Peter directly, but the world and the people around him, for context.)