Every time I think I should skip deciphering a set of papers because it's not relevant, and deciphering is a lot of work, it turns out to contain highly important and/or interesting material!
So. This adventure all starts with Wikipedia.
Every time I want to refresh myself on Oriane's dates, I have to go to her father's page in Wikipedia, which conveniently lists all her siblings and their spouses (very useful for checking their marriage dates, Hertzberg's dates, etc.).
She had one older brother who died as a baby, and one older brother, Tido Heinrich, of whom Wikipedia simply says "Went to Batavia."
After ascertaining that Batavia was in the Dutch East Indies, I ignored Tido as not being relevant to our story.
It should have occured to me that the oldest son of a prominent family like this does not simply go to the Dutch East Indies. Younger son, sure. But oldest son? There is a story there. There is *drama* there.
Eventually, fairly recently, it occurred to me to click on the footnote and discover who claimed Tido went to Batavia.
Turns out we have a set of letters (probably "letters"), from an English "merchant in Bengal," written in 1783.
According to this guy, Tido was a lieutenant in Prussian service. In 1742 or 1743 (but what context makes rapidly clear was 1741), Fritz fought his first battle. Fellow salongoers, this is Mollwitz. Fritz "took fright, and made a very un-soldier-like retreat; and was five leagues from the scene of action, when his General"--Cahn, this is Schwerin--"who commanded, recalled him, with the news of his enemies having been entirely routed."
These events inspired Tido to write a severe satire. When Fritz found out, he had Tido arrested. Tido got the sentinel who was guarding him to flee the country with him, and they ended up in the Netherlands. Despairing of a pardon, Tido joined the Dutch East India Company. The General of Batavia had some knowledge of the Knyphausen family and strongly recommended him. As a result, Tido was sent abroad, and ended up in Batavia (modern-day Jakarta, in Indonesia).
The merchant then goes on to say that this account may be a complete tall tale, because, "I had it from the Baron [Tido] himself; not in private conversation, but in very large and public companies; where, in an ostentatious display of his own great power and abilities, he constantly convinced his audience, that whatever might be his character as a merchant, as a politician, he was entirely free from the shackles imposed by virtue, christianity, and morality."
Lol. I will have to make a separate post talking about what the merchant said about what Tido said about his time abroad. It's pretty wild, and I'll probably quote it in full, once I type it up.
Meanwhile! So far, I had discovered that Oriane had an older brother who may or may not have written a satire about Fritz and gotten arrested. Interesting, but not relevant to Peter. Or at least, it didn't occur to me how the timing could have made it relevant to Peter. So I let that sit for a few months.
Fortunately, after sifting through the Knyphausen family papers in more detail in December, I found several letters from a Knyphausen to his mother in 1741-1744, beginning with Silesia in 1741. Since Oriane's mother was an unmarried widow, and there was no father to write to, and since she only had one brother of age to be in the army, I got excited! This must be Tido!
I started to skim the letters (in French).
"Wow, whoever this is seems *really* *unhappy*. I bet it's Tido!"
So I put the letters on my list of letters to come back to and transcribe in full.
Turns out: it's totally Tido.
The first letter I have is from June 1741. Tido's in the recently conquered Breslau, Silesia. Remember that Mollwitz was fought in April 1741. He's writing to his mother in a rather blase fashion, telling her that Fritz has written a letter to Colonel Münchow that reads:
Since Lieutenant von Knyphausen is in Breslau under the pretext of illness, have him brought there immediately and ordered him to go to the city [??], and if he does not do so immediately, put him under arrest immediately and report to me.
But Tido kept insisting he was sick. The king's personal physician had to come and inspect him, and confirmed he did have a fever.
Tido's letter then carries on talking to his mother about horses, and ends on that note, like it's every day that the king threatens to have you arrested, and is not really worth worrying about, as long as you have a plausible excuse.
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timeasmymeasure
A Knyphausen satire - Part 1
Date: 2025-01-12 11:03 pm (UTC)So. This adventure all starts with Wikipedia.
Every time I want to refresh myself on Oriane's dates, I have to go to her father's page in Wikipedia, which conveniently lists all her siblings and their spouses (very useful for checking their marriage dates, Hertzberg's dates, etc.).
She had one older brother who died as a baby, and one older brother, Tido Heinrich, of whom Wikipedia simply says "Went to Batavia."
After ascertaining that Batavia was in the Dutch East Indies, I ignored Tido as not being relevant to our story.
It should have occured to me that the oldest son of a prominent family like this does not simply go to the Dutch East Indies. Younger son, sure. But oldest son? There is a story there. There is *drama* there.
Eventually, fairly recently, it occurred to me to click on the footnote and discover who claimed Tido went to Batavia.
Turns out we have a set of letters (probably "letters"), from an English "merchant in Bengal," written in 1783.
According to this guy, Tido was a lieutenant in Prussian service. In 1742 or 1743 (but what context makes rapidly clear was 1741), Fritz fought his first battle. Fellow salongoers, this is Mollwitz. Fritz "took fright, and made a very un-soldier-like retreat; and was five leagues from the scene of action, when his General"--Cahn, this is Schwerin--"who commanded, recalled him, with the news of his enemies having been entirely routed."
These events inspired Tido to write a severe satire. When Fritz found out, he had Tido arrested. Tido got the sentinel who was guarding him to flee the country with him, and they ended up in the Netherlands. Despairing of a pardon, Tido joined the Dutch East India Company. The General of Batavia had some knowledge of the Knyphausen family and strongly recommended him. As a result, Tido was sent abroad, and ended up in Batavia (modern-day Jakarta, in Indonesia).
The merchant then goes on to say that this account may be a complete tall tale, because, "I had it from the Baron [Tido] himself; not in private conversation, but in very large and public companies; where, in an ostentatious display of his own great power and abilities, he constantly convinced his audience, that whatever might be his character as a merchant, as a politician, he was entirely free from the shackles imposed by virtue, christianity, and morality."
Lol. I will have to make a separate post talking about what the merchant said about what Tido said about his time abroad. It's pretty wild, and I'll probably quote it in full, once I type it up.
Meanwhile! So far, I had discovered that Oriane had an older brother who may or may not have written a satire about Fritz and gotten arrested. Interesting, but not relevant to Peter. Or at least, it didn't occur to me how the timing could have made it relevant to Peter. So I let that sit for a few months.
Fortunately, after sifting through the Knyphausen family papers in more detail in December, I found several letters from a Knyphausen to his mother in 1741-1744, beginning with Silesia in 1741. Since Oriane's mother was an unmarried widow, and there was no father to write to, and since she only had one brother of age to be in the army, I got excited! This must be Tido!
I started to skim the letters (in French).
"Wow, whoever this is seems *really* *unhappy*. I bet it's Tido!"
So I put the letters on my list of letters to come back to and transcribe in full.
Turns out: it's totally Tido.
The first letter I have is from June 1741. Tido's in the recently conquered Breslau, Silesia. Remember that Mollwitz was fought in April 1741. He's writing to his mother in a rather blase fashion, telling her that Fritz has written a letter to Colonel Münchow that reads:
Since Lieutenant von Knyphausen is in Breslau under the pretext of illness, have him brought there immediately and ordered him to go to the city [??], and if he does not do so immediately, put him under arrest immediately and report to me.
But Tido kept insisting he was sick. The king's personal physician had to come and inspect him, and confirmed he did have a fever.
Tido's letter then carries on talking to his mother about horses, and ends on that note, like it's every day that the king threatens to have you arrested, and is not really worth worrying about, as long as you have a plausible excuse.
To be continued...
Re: A Knyphausen satire - Part 1
Date: 2025-01-15 05:53 am (UTC)These events inspired Tido to write a severe satire.
Me: Of course they did! Who among us has not wanted to write a satire of Fritz fleeing Mollwitz?
Voltaire: I mean.
When Fritz found out, he had Tido arrested.
Me: ...of course he did.