A Confusion of Keiths

[mildred_of_midgard]

There are five Keiths in Fritz's life! [ETA, more have turned up since the initial write-up, but I only recently found them and have very little info on them.] It's very easy to get them confused, and most people have at one point or another. Including published authors. So we start with a who's who.

Several Keiths

Only four Keiths are especially important, thank goodness. And those are two pairs of brothers.

Brotherly pair one: Peter and his younger brother of unknown name. They are Pomeranian Keiths. Of Scottish extraction, hence the name, but they've been living in Pomerania for generations now. Nobility, but without much property by this point.

Peter's story we'll go into in more detail below. Short overview: Page to FW, bf to 16-yo Fritz, sent away to Wesel near the Dutch border after his affair with Fritz was discovered, implicated in the escape attempt, the only one of the trio to make it safely out of Prussia though hanged in effigy, ten years in exile before being recalled by Fritz. Infamously not happy with his reception on return. Married a woman of a Prussian noble family, had at least two sons that we know of. Died age 45 at the start of the Seven Years' War.

Younger brother: page to the King, betrays the escape attempt to FW, plea bargains, gets sent in disgrace to an infantry regiment (the same one his brother just escaped from?), disappears from the pages of history. I don't have a birth date for him, but Peter's only 19, so his brother is 18 at most. Perhaps younger if he's still a page, aka high school age. Obviously the consequences of this betrayal were terrible, but he was young, and he saved his own head from these consequences, and it must have been absolutely *terrifying* being caught between Fritz and FW, so I forgive him. Kloosterhuis says he seems to have had an honorable career as an officer after 1730 (p. 53), but he doesn't actually seem to know which Keith is the younger page (see below).

Now, younger brother is named in some modern sources, such as MacDonogh and Wikipedia, as Robert. However, Kloosterhuis, who examines the documentary evidence, considers a Georg Friedrich Wilhelm (1713-1755) and a Johann Friedrich (1714-1793) possibilities, but does not mention anyone named Robert. I'm thus not sure where the name Robert comes from.

You know, just in case it wasn't confusing *enough*.

Brotherly pair two: The more fortunate fraternal pair. They're both from Scotland, as in born and raised there. Both Jacobites (supporters of the exiled Stuarts against the Hanovers). Both fought in the 1715 Jacobite Rebellion, were stripped of their estates by the crown after the rebellion failed, and had to flee into exile, along with lots of other Jacobites.

James: The younger. Named James Francis Edward Keith, which tells you his parents were Jacobites too. If you're wondering how this tells you that, it's because James Francis Edward Stuart is the name of the Jacobite pretender to the throne, styling himself James VIII. (He's not "king" yet when our Keith is born, only the son of exiled James VII, but he will be.)

He went to Russia, where he had a more successful experience with a coup, managing to help put Elizabeth on the throne (she who hated Fritz, joined the League of Petticoats with MT and Pompadour against him, and whose death got him out of a tight spot in the Seven Years' War). After a lot of traveling around European courts and armies, he ends up with Fritz. Fritz has a high opinion of him, and is genuinely upset when he dies bravely at the battle of Hochkirch--one of Fritz's worst defeats, and probably the one he most clearly brought on himself.

George: The elder, the heir to the title. Fortunately, he mostly goes by the name Marischal in the histories, as in, George Keith, Earl Marischal. After he, like his brother, travels around Europe a lot after 1715, he ends up becoming BFFs with Fritz. He's one of the true close friends Fritz has late in life, and when he dies (1778), it hits Fritz pretty hard. At that point, he mostly only had pen pals left, and they were dying off too (Voltaire, Maria Antonia.)

Marischal ends up with the signal honor of being BFFs with Fritz for a long time and not ever being estranged from him. They even managed to be friends at very close range: Fritz gave him a plot of land from the Sanssouci park and helped design his house, which you can see today (and which you better believe I intend to next time I'm there).

Marischal does a lot of diplomatic work during his lifetime, for Fritz and for others before him. My favorite anecdote: in 1751, Fritz sends him as diplomat to Versailles. One of Fritz's ministers asks him if maybe sending a Jacobite on such an important international mission might offend Uncle George over in Britain.

Fritz: *genuinely confused* And that's relevant how? Actual quote: "I don't give a fuck."
Fritz: *displaying the diplomatic genius that's getting him into a three-and-a-half front war as we speak*

Fortunately for Fritz, international power politics were more important to England during the Seven Years' War than Fritz's latest attempt to offend every single power in Europe before breakfast.

As a result of later, more successful diplomacy, Marischal gets pardoned by George, and gets permission to return to Scotland, and even get his title and estates back, but amazingly, decides he likes Fritz better and decides to live and die with his BFF. <3

The fifth Keith is named Robert, but fortunately only gets cameo appearances as British envoy in places like St. Petersburg and Vienna, so you can't confuse him with the others too much. As long as you know he's not the Keith of Fritz's youth sometimes called Robert!

And there we have a confusion of Keiths.

For fic research purposes as much as anything, here's pretty much everything I know about Peter Keith. [ETA: see the Eulogy section below, which adds a lot more.]

Peter Keith

He was born on May 24, 1711 (Preuss, Friedrich der Grosse mit seinen Verwandten und Freunden, p. 381), on the family estate at Poberow in Pomerania (Kloosterhuis, Katte: Ordre und Kriegstartikel, p. 51). His full name was either Peter Christoph Karl (Kloosterhuis) or Peter Karl Christoph (Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie), and he was the fourth child of Hans Christoph von Keith zu Poberow, who died in 1729, and his wife Vigilantia Elisabeth (born von Woedtke), who died 1747 (Kloosterhuis).

Circa 1727/1728, he was a page at FW's court, and became close to Fritz. Wilhelmine reports that he was uneducated but intelligent, devoted to the Crown Prince, and used to pass on information about what the King was up to to Fritz. Wilhelmine considered their relationship improper.

All sources agree that he went from there to being a lieutenant at a regiment in Wesel. Wilhelmine says it was before Katte showed up, so 1728 or 1729, and that it was when he was made a lieutenant. Carlyle says it was much later, I can't quite tell, but 1729 or 1730. Carlyle says he was already a lieutenant when he was sent to Wesel, and he was sent away because of his influence on Fritz, who was planning to escape. MacDonogh agrees and gives a number of sources, but none of them is primary, and he is additionally very bad about giving sources that actually say what he says they say. Kloosterhuis gives the date of Peter's transfer as January 21, 1730, and as evidence he cites a cabinet order from FW to the colonel of the regiment, ordering him to make sure Lieutenant Keith behaves himself. Kloosterhuis is also uncertain about when Keith became a lieutenant, but cites a letter in November 1728 in which a Lieutenant Keith is mentioned, and says that if that's Peter, then the page Keith requested by FW on June 1729 must be the younger one (whom everyone except Kloosterhuis calls Robert).

I have seen a lot of sources say that the relationship between Fritz and Peter was suspected or known by FW to be homosexual, the earliest being the Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie entry, but I don't have a good primary source on that, other than Wilhelmine's complaint about "improper" relations.

Peter was included in the escape plan in 1730 (according to Kloosterhuis, he had knowledge of concrete plans as early as 1729, perhaps even earlier than Katte did). Being in Wesel, right on the border with the Netherlands, he actually managed to escape. Lord Chesterfield was British envoy at the Hague, and according to Carlyle, helped him escape to England.

Kloosterhuis, who is usually good about sources, says, along with several other biographers, that Peter escaped after learning of the failure of the plan. However, I have seen a takedown of this claim, based on the fact (which I haven't been able to confirm) that he deserted on August 6, which is much too soon to have been notified of a failure that only happened on August 5, over 200 miles/380 kilometers away. If he really did desert on the 6th and not later, then it seems likely that Peter was executing on the original plan.

According to Lehndorff (vol 1, page 312), he got support from the Queen of England at the time, went to Scotland and Ireland, then was in service to the King of Portugal at the time Fritz summoned him back in 1740 (in a letter dated July 7). Kloosterhuis gives the month of his return as October 1740. While in Lisbon, Peter met the English traveler and writer Jonas Hanway, who the internet tells me was apprenticed to a Lisbon merchant 1729-1741.

Lehndorff says that due to his long stay in England, he acquired English manners, which, however due to his natural courtesy/courtliness, were not too noticeable. selenak tells me that what Lehndorff means by "English manners" is informality that was out of place in a court that borrowed its etiquette from Ancien Regime France. Preuss has him going straight to Portugal with an Admiral Norris in 1730, but I trust Lehndorff over him, since Lehndorff actually knew and liked Peter and his wife and had frequent occasion to interact with them.

Upon his return in 1740 (per Die Berliner Akademie der Wissenschaften, p. 180), Peter was made a Stallmeister/Hofstallmeister (court) stablemaster, and given a pension of 1200 talers (Preuss).

From 1742, we have two letters from Jordan to the king stating that while Peter of course only wants to obey Fritz, all the other young men his age are in the army, and he can't stomach the humiliation of remaining idle in Berlin. Furthermore, he says that his income is inadequate to the cost of living in Berlin.

Fritz accordingly charges Jordan with giving Peter a commission as lieutenant colonel. Jordan reports that Peter is engaged to a Fräulein Knyphausen, and her mother is upset that Peter is going off to war, because she was counting on him as family breadwinner. Lehndorff's editor gives the spelling of her name as Louisa Origana. Preuss (page 381) gives Adriane. The Wikipedia page for her father gives it as Oriana Luise. That page gives her birth date as March 20, 1721, and death date October 7, 1791. Kloosterhuis gives her name as Ariane, and their marriage date as July 18, 1742. Biographisches Handbuch der preußischen Verwaltungs- und Justizbeamte gives it as Marianne. Kloosterhuis's source is the eulogy by Formey, which is citing a passage from Peter's memoirs.

I don't have dates on the births or deaths of Peter's sons, but according to Lehndorff, he had at least two, and the editor (vol. 3, p. 367) gives their names as Friedrich and Karl Ernst. Friedrich was Legationsrat (foreign service position) in 1768 and envoy to the Sardinian court in 1774. ETA: Koser, Friedrich als Kronprinz, page 239, gives the death of an unnamed son of Peter as 1842, in Berlin. Letter written May 24, 1820.

[ETA: However, Straubel (Biographisches Handbuch der preußischen Verwaltungs- und Justizbeamte, 2009, p. 480) gives Carl Ernst Reinhard as the envoy in 1774. Kloosterhuis (p. 135) has the unnamed envoy dying in 1822 in Berlin, and a letter being written from him on May 24, 1820. The Handbuch gives Carl's birth date as 11.29.1743, and has him going to Göttingen from April 9, 1760. The other brother is named Friedrich Ludwig.]

Back to Peter. He became a honorary member (1744) and curator (April 13, 1747) of the Academy of Sciences (per Lehndorff and Kloosterhuis who gives the date). Die Berliner Akademie der Wissenschaften gives the date of his honorary membership (Ehrenmitglied) as February 16, 1744.

We have two distinct accounts from the early 1750s, both by people who knew and liked Peter, of Fritz noticing Peter and giving him money after neglecting him for so long he and everyone else thought he was forgotten.

One is Jonas Hanway, who met Peter in the 1730s in Lisbon, and who visited Berlin in 1750. He reports that in the autumn, there was an mock battle performed on the lawns of Peter's mother-in-law, who didn't like the king. Though little was done, Fritz used this as an excuse to give Peter a box and key and ask him to give it to his mother-in-law. In the box was a large sum of money (10000 crowns in gold) to and a letter recommending Peter to her "in the strongest and most affectionate terms." Hanway reports that "this incident gained the king applause, in proportion to the great love and esteem which every one has for Mr. Keith."

If Wikipedia can be trusted, the mother-in-law died in 1751, and furthermore, Hanway's memoirs were published in 1753, so this cannot be the same episode as that reported by Lehndorff.

He has a diary entry from September 9, 1753 (vol 1, p. 107), in which the king pleased everyone at the court by giving Peter 5000 talers and an invitation to join him at camp. I'm not sure which camp, but I'm guessing either Spandau, or the annual autumn maneuvers in Silesia.

On the subject of Peter's neglect during the 1740s, Hanway writes, "On his return home, it was natural for this gentleman to expect a kind reception; but the king having now adopted other principles, was desirous to inculcate the necessity of obedience to the sovereign; however, he allowed Mr. Keith a pension, gave him the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and put him near the queen mother" (vol 2, p. 202).

Lehndorff speculates that Peter appeared wholly forgotten because the mature king didn't want to reward the indiscretion of supporting him during his youthful escapade. But this is a speculation.

On April 13, 1752, Peter was tangentially involved in the Maupertuis debacle at the Academy of Sciences that Fritz and Voltaire eventually got involved in. In his role as curator, he collected the votes on the question of whether the Leibniz fragment presented by König was a forgery. The Academy voted that it was. (

Lehndorff reports that Jägerhof was given by Fritz to Peter as a lifelong dwelling, and that it continued to support his wife after his death. This was the hunting lodge built in 1690 for the Elector of Brandenburg, on the southeast corner of Jägerstraße and Oberwallstraße in Berlin. The building was demolished in 1933/1934 to make way for the new Reichsbank building, but there are pictures of it from the 19th and early 20th century. There was a great deal of expansion between when it ceased to be a residence and became a bank in 1765, and when the bank filled up the entire block in 1903, so how much any of those old pictures resemble Peter's residence, I'm not sure.

In 1756 (vol 1, pp. 257, 264), Lehndorff reports Peter being entrusted with all the details for Princess Amalia's (Fritz's youngest sister, the only one never to be married) trip to the abbey at Quedlinburg, where she was to become abbess so as to have an income after Fritz's death. He reports the mission being planned in March and Peter accompanying her in person in April (they appear to depart the 5th/6th).

Lehndorff reports on Feb 20, 1754 (vol 1, p. 142) dining with the Queen and Peter Keith, who's been entrusted with the administration of the Tiergarten. No idea when that assignment happened, but it may have been recent.

When Peter dies in 1756, Lehndorff reports that he had been entrusted with the administration of the Tiergarten and of Charlottenburg. No dates on Charlottenburg either.

Peter's death is reported in the December 24-31, 1756 entry of Lehndorff's diary (vol 1, p. 312). He doesn't give a cause of death, but from circumstantial evidence, i.e. the way he reports other deaths, it appears to have been a civilian death in Berlin, not a military death from the recently begun Seven Years' War. Wikipedia gives his death date as December 27. He was 45 years old. He was still a lieutenant colonel at time of death. [ETA: see the eulogy below.]

Lehndorff writes about how Peter was an amiable and upstanding man of merit who could serve as an example for others, and has this to say about his appearance: "He had an attractive face and an honest-looking physiognomy, such that you didn't notice his somewhat cross-eyed gaze, unlike in most cases of squints."

Friedrich Wilhelm, trying to get Peter arrested in London after the escape, gives out this description of the fugitive: "medium height, straight, thin, brown, a little pallid, and squint-eyed" (Preuss, vol 2 appendix, p. 157; translation Lavisse, p. 239).

In later Lehndorff entries, we find out a few facts about his widow and sons. Lehndorff really likes Frau von Keith, whom he describes three times as "vortreffliche" (excellent). In particular, Frau von Keith hosted Lehndorff's mother during the October 1760 Berlin evacuation, and paid her all kinds of attention (vol 2, page 273). Lehndorff says he will never forget this kindness, and goes out of his way to visit Frau von Keith on other occasions.

We also find in 1760 that one of Frau von Keith's sons is studying at Göttingen, and that she's traveling to Brunswick to entrust her younger son to the elder, because she also wants the younger to study at Göttingen (vol 2, p. 280).

In February 1765 (vol 2, p. 430), Lehndorff reports that the Princess Amalie enlisted the services of one of the Keith sons, but eight days later, he was transferred to the cabinet. This may have been Friedrich, who my guess is is the elder, both because of the name and the greater detail in his entry. (Both very circumstantial pieces of evidence, of course.)

He also reports, page 428, that the estate at Jägerhof has been repurposed for a bank, and Frau von Keith gets an annual income of 1300 talers in compensation instead.

Now, my own thoughts on why Peter felt so neglected when he got back in the 1740s. It's purely speculative, but it's grounded in the little evidence we have.

What went wrong

First, I think it's quite likely Fritz was doing to Peter what he did to almost everyone who wasn't Fredersdorf: signaling to him in the early days that there was no way he was going to let him have any influence, and also *nobody* could expect much money from Fritz, that was just a thing. That doesn't say anything about his attitude toward Keith; who *didn't* feel underpaid at his court? I think Hanway is right about the obedience part.

But second, I think it's significant that Fritz treated Keith rather like he treated Algarotti, Maupertuis, and the other intellectual civilians he invited to his court: told him to sit tight in Berlin while Fritz went off and conquered a province. [More detail in the Algarotti write-up]. Well, nobody took that well, and also I think Fritz dramatically underestimated the five years it was going to take him before he could get started on the reign he and everyone had been expecting. Nobody's going to wait that long.

Interestingly, we know from Wilhelmine that young page Peter was intelligent but not educated, and there seems to have been a punishment element to his assignment to Wesel (though he was evidently already a lieutenant at that point, contra Wilhelmine and the dominant school of thought based on her). I wouldn't be surprised if Peter, like Katte and Fritz, didn't want to join the army and was more or less forced into it by FW, when what he wanted was to be a civilian intellectual.

Furthermore, Hanway reports that in the early days, Fritz "put [Peter] near the queen mother." If he's right, that, to me, is a very telling signal of favor. I think Lehndorff is way off the mark here. And at the time Fritz is getting things going at the Academy in Berlin, mid 1740s, he makes Peter an honorary member. The more I learn, the more I think Fritz was really giving Peter the option to become the intellectual he'd wanted to be.

Only Peter was a young man, a Prussian (unlike, say, Algarotti), and a member, unwilling or not, of various armies for the last dozen or so years, and he would have been under a certain amount of pressure, external and probably internal, not to "shirk his duty." So he asked for a commission, and got it. Around this same time, he was also getting engaged, and complaining about his salary.

What I think is that Fritz and Peter got their signals mixed (because nobody can communicate). Fritz told Peter to stay in Berlin as a sign of favor, a rare exception to the "everyone has to support my wars in every way possible" rule. For one, it's quite possible Fritz didn't want Peter dying in one of his wars right after he gets back from a narrow escape after almost dying for Fritz, before Fritz has even had a chance to see him. For another, Fritz might have been planning to help Peter live his dream as an intellectual, the same way he invited Maupertuis to Berlin with promises of the presidency of the academy and then went, "But, wait, hold on one minute while I take care of Silesia; then we'll have money for all these awesome plans I have."

Everyone: *twiddles thumbs for significantly longer than one minute*
Everyone: *gets fed up*

Meanwhile, Peter, former personal page and boyfriend, returning to Prussia, might or might not expect a lot of money, but I think he expected to see Fritz. I think "you stay over here, far far away from me," did *not* feel like a mark of favor. It probably felt like, "I know I haven't seen you in over ten years, but, eh, I didn't really miss you, and also I don't respect your military service record, and also here's a pittance for your personal sacrifices for me." That had to hurt.

So Peter, in the absence of anything that felt like an emotional recognition that he was special, reacted with, "Fine. If you're going to try to pay me for what I went through, there's not enough money in the world for that. I did it for you. And if you're going to treat me like any other subject, I'm going to act like any other subject. I've gotten the message here: I'm on my own. So I want a bigger salary and a commission. Like anyone else."

And Fritz hears, "You know how you decided to make an exception for me? Screw your exception, I want money. Woe is me, my sacrifices were so great and my reward small." When Fritz has just finished handing Katte's dad a promotion and a title (June and August 1740), because he can't actually repay Katte for DYING. Without complaining. With a smile on his face. And I can't imagine Fritz reacting to that with, "Oh, yeah, no, you definitely deserve a bigger reward for all that sacrifice, Peter. My bad."

At this point, Keith deciding to get married like a normal 30-yo who had a fling with a guy in his teens whom he hasn't seen or communicated with since, and has totally moved on and built a life of his own that isn't just twiddling his thumbs while waiting on Fritz to have time for him, just sealed the deal of "You're not that special to me either."

And that's why I think, if there was any hope of picking up a teenage friendship again at age 30, it fell afoul of Fritz's wars and Fritz's issues. The sad thing is, between exempting him from the war, keeping him near SD, and later giving him an honorary Academy of Sciences membership and an administrative job there if not an intellectual one (which reads to me like, "I know through no fault of your own, you never got that fancy education you wanted, but here I am recognizing and sharing your values and expressing my belief in you"), I think Fritz had good intentions here. But as usual, emotional intelligence fail.

After that, I think we saw a general, albeit temporary, increase in Fritz's chill between his wars. Both Lehndorff and Hanway speak well of Peter's personality, and I suspect once Fritz got the message that Peter wasn't going to make a power grab, and Fritz wasn't at war, he was more willing to give Peter both money and responsibilities.

Some additional thoughts after this initial write-up.

1) Our recent discovery of the extent to which Fritz favored the Katte family after he became king makes me doubt even more that Lehndorff's guess is right about Fritz not wanting to reward people who supported him in 1730. Yes, Katte died, yes, survivor's guilt, but it just doesn't make sense.

2) Given how much Lehndorff interacted with Peter and his wife whatever-her-name-is, it's possible that he got his explanation, directly or indirectly, from Peter. Now, this makes a lot more sense as an explanation from Peter than an explanation from Fritz or from the evidence. Furthermore, since Peter would have noticed what Lehndorff noticed and what we noticed, the Kattes getting favor, this might be the explanation Peter gave for public consumption, because it makes Fritz look good (mighty warrior king), and it makes Peter look relatively good (supported the Crown Prince when he was young, albeit maybe a bit foolish as the young are).

But given the letter from Jordan to Fritz in 1742 about Peter agonizing over not going to war, it's possible Peter felt the difference between him and Katte was that he ran away and lived and Katte stayed and died. Then he left Prussia for 10 years, came back, and found Fritz didn't want him in his army. Possibly Peter remembers talking to Fritz at age 17 about not wanting to join the army, back when they both felt that way. Now Fritz is conquering provinces, and Peter looks like a coward.

It's not rational, but it's irrational in exactly the way traumatized people are. In Peter's mind, Katte is a dead lion, Peter a live dog, and he needs to redeem himself.

So maybe "We're all older and wiser now" is the explanation Peter gave to everyone, hoping they didn't look too closely at the Kattes.

3) One of the other people Fritz pulled out of the army as a sign of favor was Fredersdorf, who was then given a ton of administrative responsibilities. Given that Peter seems to be acquiring more administrative responsibilities as he goes along, and hasn't gotten a single military promotion since the initial commission in 1742, he might be impressing Fritz much more with his organizational skills and reliability than with his military prowess. Granted, he didn't have much time to earn wartime promotions during the first Silesian Wars, and he died before the ranks opened up in the Seven Years' War, but it's looking more and more like he didn't go off to the Seven Years' War in the first place, perhaps because he was older, had already proved himself, and now had important jobs to do that, as selenak pointed out, weren't going to do themselves while the army was away.

He may also have been sick, since he dies only 4 months into the war, but since Lehndorff doesn't mention a long illness, I'm going to hope it was quick. I like to think Fritz told him to stay home and do administration and not die in the war and then Peter went and died anyway.

Letter from Fritz
Remember back when 1860 editor of Thiebault said third edition editor had this wild and unsourced story about Peter Keith dying of humiliation when Fritz burned the letter he'd kept all those years? I found the source for one small part of that!

Kloosterhuis quotes from a letter by Peter's son in 1820 in which Keith fils says that Fritz originally invited Peter back to Prussia with promises of great rewards, and then those promises kept getting downgraded, until Peter finally had to produce a letter written when Fritz was Crown Prince, promising great things. Fritz took it about as well as you'd expect Fritz to take such a thing, and the upshot was that Peter came back to Berlin as a lieutenant-colonel and stable master with a pension of 1200 thalers.

Now, that's interesting, because it suggests there might have been a letter and more direct conflict at the beginning than I'd imagined. Reasons I have niggling doubts:

- According to the contemporary documentary evidence I have, Peter wasn't given the lieutenant-colonel commission until 1742, he had to ask for it, and he had to make a case for why he wanted to join the army. It appears that Fritz took a former Prussian officer and current Portuguese officer and gave him a prestigious if not highly paid civilian job in Berlin at the start of his war. Either Fritz is so mad at Peter he doesn't want him in his army, or he's trying to keep him safe, *I* think. And since he ends up giving Peter the commission in 1742, either he got over his hissy fit, or it was never because he didn't want Peter in his army, but because he was trying to protect him.

- Peter was certainly disappointed with his salary in 1742 and made it known, but Fritz didn't have to be displeased with you to make you feel underpaid. Peter didn't actually ask for more in the documentation I have, though; he said one reason he wanted to leave Berlin and join the army was that Berlin was too expensive on his current income. Now, implicitly he's saying he wants more money, but since he's volunteering to help fight Fritz's war, that's going to come across rather differently.

- Fritz didn't have a problem making him an honorary member of the Academy in 1744. Now, maybe that's just an empty title and doesn't mean anything, but I don't see a lot of contemporary evidence that Fritz is actually mad at him, as opposed to Peter thinks he is and Peter is disappointed. And this is significant, since Peter is his son's source, directly or indirectly (assuming wife wasn't pregnant when they married, the kid can't have been more than 13 when Peter died, so Mom and/or other relatives are probably the main source here).

- I have reason to believe Keith fils is wrong about the chronology of the escape attempt as well. The sources I have that follow contemporary documentation most closely agree that Peter deserted Wesel and went to the Hague on August 6, as part of the original escape plan. [ETA: I have now also seen, in Kloosterhuis, a document from August 7 inventorying the contents of Peter's quarters after he deserted, thus proving that he had deserted by the 6th.]

However, there's a parallel story, used by the son among others, that's not supported by the evidence that first Fritz's part in the escape attempt was uncovered, Peter's life was in danger from FW, and Peter was warned by someone in Wesel and fled to the Netherlands just ahead of the pursuit. This is in Wilhelmine, who obviously wasn't there, and constantly gets her dates wrong. It also, of course, makes for a much more dramatic story! (Plus the narrative parallels of both Peter and Katte getting warned and one acting in time and one not.)

Now, FW found out about the escape attempt on August 6 from page Keith, didn't think it was a huge deal, then on August 12 discovered Peter had already deserted, and *then* freaked out about conspiracies. So there's no reason to believe that Peter was a hunted man in Wesel before FW even knew he was part of the plan.

So younger Keith's family history seems to be less than rock-solid.

Furthermore, I would add that one story of Peter's escape involves confusing letters Fritz sent to Peter. The real story seems to be that during the trip with FW, Fritz discovered Katte couldn't get leave and meet him in the west, so he needed Keith to go to the Hague instead. So he sent a message to Peter telling him to meet him there (and look for a Count d'Alberville, Fritz's planned alias when traveling incognito, which he'd told Katte about previously). Peter gets the letter, and goes to the Hague on August 6. That's the same day that younger page Keith fesses up to FW.

Now, there's a story that Fritz managed to dash off a note to Peter reading, "Sauvez-vous, tout est decouvert," on the trip north to Wesel. Whether or not that's true, the part where Peter deserted after getting Fritz's letter has been taken to mean *this* letter rather than the "meet me in the Hague" letter. It probably also doesn't help that Catt has Fritz saying that Katte didn't escape because Fritz wasn't able to warn him in time, whereas he had been able to warn Keith.

So what I'm saying is, Peter's life story is not exactly known in great detail in the late 18th and 19th centuries, and there are variants floating around. So the son is not a reliable source.

But maybe there was a letter. Katte's last letter says Fritz was planning to raise him to high office. (Which may be true, but I always felt that Katte played up the role of ambition in his desire to help Fritz, because he couldn't exactly say, "Actually, it was because the King is abusive as hell and I wanted to stop seeing my bf crying and talking about wanting to die.")

So if there was a letter, maybe Peter showed it to Fritz and they had some conflict, and maybe he didn't. If he did, we can assume Fritz wouldn't react well. But it's also possible that there was a letter and that Peter talked about it to his wife in terms of bitter disappointment, but didn't actually get into a showdown with Fritz over it. Considering Fritz seems pretty benignly disposed toward him, if not hugely enthusiastic. And Fritz has a number of reasons to be less than enthusiastic in 1740-1742, without there being a showdown.

Anyway, I thought it was interesting to know that there may have been a letter from Crown Prince Fritz after all. Of course, it may also have been a verbal promise that got upgraded in family oral history to a letter, for dramatic effect, just like the alleged showdown.

One thing I do believe is that Keith, arriving in Berlin in autumn 1740, wanted to see Fritz in person, but Fritz was closeted with a few people, plotting the secret invasion of Silesia, and refused an audience.

Tangentially, something that broke my heart was Koser saying that when Peter first arrived at the Hague, he started asking everywhere for the Count d'Alberville. Most accounts I've seen have him going straight to hiding, but of course, if it's only the 6th or a couple of days thereafter, FW's only just found out about the plan hundreds of miles away, and won't know about Peter's involvement for a few more days, and Keith has no reason to hide immediately and will of course start looking for Fritz as instructed.

I think what broke my heart was the idea of him having hope and looking and looking for someone who wasn't coming. Then the loss of hope and the flight for his life, when he *did* evidently go into hiding with Chesterfield and then get his help sneaking over to London while the Prussians were after him. And then FW had a reward out for him even in London.

Oh look, it's a much more concise chronology!

Chronology of Peter's life

1711 (May 24): Born.
Before 1730: Royal page.
1730 (January 21): Is sent to Wesel.
1730 (August 6): Escapes to the Netherlands.
1730-1740: Exile in the Netherlands, England, Scotland, Ireland, Portugal.
1740 (October): Returns to Berlin.
1740: Stallmeister.
1742 (April): Lieutenant Colonel.
1742 (July 18): Marries.
1744: Honorary member of the Academy of Sciences.
1747: Mother dies.
1747: Curator at the academy.
1750: Money and nice letter from Fritz on behalf of his mother-in-law.
1751: Mother-in-law dies (Wikipedia only source).
1752: Still curator. Involved in Maupertuis affair.
1753: Money and nice letter from Fritz, invitation to join Fritz at camp.
1754 (February 20): Terminus ante quem for administration of the Tiergarten.
1756 (mid-November): Partially paralyzed by a stroke.
1756 (December 27): Dies in Berlin.
1765: Jägerhof turned into a bank.

Date unknown:
- Given Tiergarten administration responsibilities.
- Given Charlottenburg administration responsibilities.
- Granted Jägerhof as residence.
- Births of his children.

January 21, 1730 was also the day that Keyserlingk, Fritz's governor, was ordered by FW to start sleeping in the bedroom with Fritz every night and being responsible for his person. Stratemann tells us that FW received an anonymous letter tipping him off to the fact that Fritz was planning escape. FW tightened Fritz's leash and sent his confidant and escape collaborator away to Wesel.

The eulogy from the Academy of Sciences, written shortly after Peter's death:

Eulogy
Remember when Lehndorff said that the Academy of Sciences was going to put together some words in honor of Peter after his death? And then Kloosterhuis cited this eulogy in his Katte monograph, thus attesting to the fact that it was still extant? And I couldn't find it and really wanted it?

I FOUND IT!

It's a gold mine: it's 16 pages long, and it's based on Peter's own memoirs, "Anecdotes of my Life." Which, no, I don't know if those are still extant, but I'm guessing no. (Stupid 1945.) Or if so, they're probably unpublished and languishing in some archive somewhere.

But we have a 16-page summary based on his own words! And the summary was done by someone who knew him, in 1757, i.e. shortly after he died on December 27, 1756.

So, here we go:

We get his family history going back to Scotland in the 1600s. Which, as you know, as royal genealogist, I always appreciate. ;)

He got educated as best his father could afford. Just that phrasing confirms Wilhelmine's "intelligent, but uneducated." More on that later.

He became personal page to the King. Until January 1730, when he left that job to become a lieutenant in Wesel. No mention of getting sent away because he got caught having sex with Fritz on January 20/21. :P

Then some stuff happened and he had to leave the country. Literally, "An unforeseen event meant he spent only a few months in this post." They mention that you can read up on this elsewhere. Back to Peter, he had to flee the country. The eulogy testifies that he left on August 6, which absolutely confirms the that he did not leave because he got wind that the gig was up and FW was onto him, as most versions of the story go, including Wilhelmine's and Peter's son's. I mean, we already knew from documentary sources that his room was searched on the 7th, because he'd disappeared, but I'd been wanting extra confirmation he left on the 6th, not the 7th. I mean, I guess it's technically not desertion until you're missing at roll-call the next morning.

But then FW does catch on, and Holland isn't safe. Some fishermen smuggle him across the English Channel. No mention of Chesterfield.

The Queen of England is awesome to Peter and gives him protection and a pension of 200 pounds sterling (useful for my fic!) for the several years he's in British territory, and takes a great and personal interest in his welfare. (Lehndorff also says this about the Queen, albeit in less detail.)

But in London, he's still being harassed---remember, FW sends his guy there a description of Peter and a warrant for his arrest--so he decides to go farther away. To Dublin. Where apparently he attends the University of Trinity for three years! I knew he went to Ireland (and I think Lehndorff says Scotland as well), but I didn't know he spent the whole time studying. I assumed it was in the British army. I'm glad!

But I don't know if he was officially enrolled or not, because he apparently spent the entire time locked in his room and never saw anyone or anything, just read all the time. I mean, I hear you could do this in 18th century universities, but I'm not actually sure if he was enrolled or not. It doesn't really matter. He studied English, the Classics in English translation--because he regretted not getting to learn Latin when he was young, see also limited education--and "experimental philosophy."

He was apparently very good at languages, and picked up English very fluently, according to his eulogy, indistinguishable from a native speaker.

But then all this never leaving his room and only reading books, after his previous life of activity in the Prussian army, made him sick. So he returned to England, where the Queen sent him doctors, who told him to go to the baths at Bath and Bristol. Then he got better. Then he hung out in London for a while and became part of society, by which we mean men of leters.

Then it's 1737. The War of Jenkins' Ear (1739-1748) is brewing. The English are sending a fleet to help Portugal against Spain. Peter wants to go! So he joins the navy. And the admiral treats Peter like a son and instructs him in all the aspects of naval life. Which is nice, but then Peter decides he's not well suited to the navy. I mean, everything I've heard about the British Navy makes it sound as bad as the Prussian army, so, yeah.

Then they get to Portugal, and the climate is amazing, and Peter wants to stay. But there's the whole problem of religion. But the Queen of England clears that up, in that, Portugal isn't in a position to refuse a recommendation from her, so he gets to join the Portuguese army. Where he has lots of leisure time, and spends it studying Portuguese, Spanish, and Italian, using their similarities to each other, his smattering of Latin, and his natural gift for languages.

Now it's early 1740, and he's supposed to go to India. (!) But then FW dies. And the guy writing Peter's eulogy is like, "I need to quote Peter here, because his memoir is wonderful in two ways: it usefully tells us all about his life, and it reveals the feelings of a beautiful soul."

Writes Peter: "His presently reigning majesty was kind enough to remember me, and to call me back; I hastened to go and find a Master, to whom I was born, and whom my heart had chosen, as soon as it was able to feel."

And apparently Peter is totally happy on his return with his wonderful reception by Fritz! No mention of any disappointment. Now, you have to consider the genre here (this is an extremely positive portrayal of FW, Fritz, and Peter), but I suspect Peter's memoirs were also written with the benefit of hindsight and a 1750s reconciliation with Fritz. I think the evidence points toward him being disgruntled in the 1740s (with my theory about him and Fritz miscommunicating, because Fritz *did* show him some favor from the beginning), and Fritz and him warming up toward each other again starting around 1750.

He meets Maupertuis in Berlin at this time! And they become BFFs! And Maupertuis is instrumental in getting Peter his honorary membership in 1744 and his curatorship in 1747, after the death of the previous curator, M. de Borcke. (No, I don't know how he's related to all our other Borckes.)

The eulogy doesn't give me dates on the Tiergarten or Charlottenburg Palace administration positions, which I badly want (all I know, thanks to Lehndorff, is he had charge of the Tiergarten by Feb. 1754), *but*, it says he enjoyed the countryside and a retired life, which is why Fritz gave him these particular responsibilities. And he used to spend summers at Charlottenburg. Awww.

Oh, the eulogy writer has to quote Peter again, because he's so touched by his description of his family: "In the year 1742, I was married to Ariane-Louise, Baroness von Cnyphausen, oldest daughter of the late Minister of State of that name. Providence seemed to want to make up for the sufferings of my youth with his happy union. Our marriage was blessed by two sons, for whom the hopes they gave us, made life sweet for us. We have a middling income/lifestyle, and don't envy anyone anything."

Eulogy writer: "No praise I could heap on him would do him half as much justice as these words from his own pen. Making up for the sufferings of his youth, OMG, <333 forever."

No wonder Lehndorff admires Peter. I actually feel like I've seen the last sentence of this quote before, and I wonder if Lehndorff cites or paraphrases it.

So eulogy writer, who has a lot of overlap with Lehndorff, says Peter had a happy marriage with a wonderful wife who united many excellent qualities of mind and heart.

Now, toward the end of his life, Peter started to get sick, but not in a way that made you think his end was near. His main complaint was heaviness of his head.

He spent the summer of 1756 in Charlottenburg, and didn't return to Berlin until August. This confirms my suspicion that he did not go off with the Prussian army when the Seven Years' War started and Fritz invaded Saxony in August! I was also wondering if his health might have had something to do with that, but I was hoping he didn't suffer too much. Sounds like his health was bad, but not terrible, and he might have stayed behind partly because he had important civilian jobs, had done his time in the army, and there was no manpower shortage yet. Which is what I was hoping! For all the people who died in Fritz's wars, I was hoping Peter wasn't one.

Toward the middle of November, age 45, he had a stroke that paralyzed one arm, and then other parts of the body, made it hard for him to speak, and made him very weak. No treatment helped. To the best of his ability, he used his remaining strength to carry out his religious duties and say goodbye to his family. He died on the 27th of December.

He was above middle height (but middle height by FW's standards, remember :P), and his eyes were peculiar, but once you got used to it, it wasn't bothersome. Remember Lehndorff's "He was handsome, and his squint wasn't as noticeable as in most such cases." He was quiet and reserved, but open with his friends (I knew it! This is total fix-it fic characterization!), and was frank and cordial in his manners. Which, eulogy writer says, is *far* superior to an artificial courtliness. Remember Lehndorff saying Peter had picked up English manners, but was so gracious it wasn't offensive, and selenak telling us that this means the English were more frank and casual than the etiquette-conscious French and Prussian courtiers.

So, we were right! He dies in Berlin, of illness, and not at war. I'm sorry he spent a month paralyzed and weak first. That sucks. But mostly this eulogy fleshes out and confirms what we had known and guessed, and I'm unbelievably delighted I found it. I just need to make a few minor fic changes, and there are so many things I can add now. I would love to have Peter's complete memoirs, but okay, I'll be happy with what I have. One reason I think they may not be extant is that his son's account in 1820 of his father's life has more in common with Wilhelmine's (1810) memoirs than with this 1757 account based on Peter's own memoirs. So they may have been lost by 1820 already.

Also, I just want to say, I still adore Fritz's taste in serious boyfriends. <333 Oh, and my Google-fu strikes again. This wasn't easy to find, but once I was sufficiently determined, I made it happen.

selenak adds:

Re: Peter's memoirs, I suspect they must have disappeared before 1945, because surely Koser, who unearthed even obscure Saxon war memoirs to prove Catt had plagiarized from them and put the passages in Fritz' mouth, would have used Peter's memoirs if they'd been available to him? And remember, Heinrich's war time memoirs disappeared pretty quickly, too, and Voltaire's memoirs weren't allowed to be sold in Prussia (then the rest of Germany, post unification) until after WWI. So my guess is FW3 or FW4 (depending when the disappearing happened, but good point about the son's tale from 1820 resembling Wilhelmine's account more, thus indicating he can't have read the memoirs) did not want anything that would make national hero Fritz look other than the image Prussia was selling of him in the 19th century. And if Peter wasn't as polite about FW as the eulogy writer, his memoirs might gotten disappeared for that reason, too.

Do we know who the eulogy writer was?

Queen Caroline taking such a liking to Peter: good for Peter! Also confirms my suspicion that Klepper was off base when he imagined a youthful romance between her and young FW, and that my original take (based on Horowitz presentation of her) that young Caroline, having grown up at FW's mother's court and thus familiar with him, had zero intention of marrying him. And probably wasn't surprised that Tiny Terror FW grew up into The Ogre King FW.

Incidentally, if FW found out that Caroline was sponsoring Peter like this (including a stint to study in Ireland, which, yay!even if it was mostly a hermit life), he must have been extra pissed off about the English relations. Remember, him finding out Fritz had written that letter to Caroline about promising to marry only one of her daughters triggered the final abusive phase of 1730.

If Peter was bff with Maupertuis, we don't have to guess which side he took in the big Voltaire implosion.

I'm glad the eulogy writer quoted that sentence from Peter about his marriage, because it finally gives us the two first names his wife was using, in presumably the spelling she was using!

mildred_of_midgard replies:

because surely Koser, who unearthed even obscure Saxon war memoirs to prove Catt had plagiarized from them and put the passages in Fritz' mouth, would have used Peter's memoirs if they'd been available to him?

Hmm, maybe. When my German is up to snuff, Koser's on my list of authors to read, because I don't know to what extent he would need Peter's memoirs for what he was doing. But good point.

And if Peter wasn't as polite about FW as the eulogy writer, his memoirs might gotten disappeared for that reason, too.

Another good point. We don't know when these memoirs were written, or to what extent Fritz and Peter always being on good terms is Peter glossing vs. eulogy writer glossing. This could be Peter post-reconciliation, writing shortly before his death and seeing everything through rose-colored glasses, or this could be a Wilhelmine situation, where Peter sat down to get his resentment out of his system by writing his memoirs, and in his case, that meant writing about ALL that he went through for Fritz, whom *he* loved (the eulogy quote, I notice, only says that *he* loved Fritz, not vice versa) devotedly, and then when he got back, nothing.

Btw, it's kind of cute watching the eulogy writer open the eulogy with "We all know a sensible person doesn't worry too much about what people say about him after his death, *but*, it is nice if you, without overly stressing about it, write some memoirs so that people can say accurate things. Like the current guy up for eulogizing, Peter Keith, who was so thoughtful as to make my job easier by writing 'Anecdotes of My Life'! Thanks, Peter! This is so much better than all the other people I have to eulogize with generic praise and word of mouth that gives us information of dubious accuracy. Everybody be like Peter!

"Now, why this page-long digression before I actually get to my subject? Because he just died and I'm sad and it hurts, and I've got to work my way up to talking about him. Miss you, Peter!"

Later on,

"I don't need to recount his attachment to our body [the Academy], the pleasure that he took in our meetings, and the pleasure he gave us, because these memories are very recent, and even if they were less recent, I think we'd all still remember them, because he's just that memorable."

Me: NO! Recount it! You're all dead now, and it's 2020 and I need to know *exactly* what your meetings and his participation in them were like, and how you all liked him. In great detail, please. :P

Do we know who the eulogy writer was?

Yep, this guy, Jean Henri Samuel Formey.

Queen Caroline taking such a liking to Peter: good for Peter!

I meant to dig into the dates, because I was thinking Peter + Queen Caroline + Lord Hervey + Algarotti = Peter and Algarotti walk into a bar...and it looks like it could *just* have happened. Algarotti arrives in London in March 1736, and Admiral Norris leaves for Portugal with the British fleet, and Peter aboard, on May 27, 1736. (Incidentally, the eulogy says 1737, but then they have Peter getting established in the Portuguese army in 1736 after he arrives in 1737, which meant I wasn't sure which date was wrong but figured it had to be one of them. Looks like 1736 is the correct date.)

So it's juuust possible Peter and Algarotti met up in London, before they did in Berlin. And if Peter spent 3 years in London associating with men of letters and moving in the Queen's circle, he almost certainly knew Hervey.

If Peter was bff with Maupertuis, we don't have to guess which side he took in the big Voltaire implosion.

We sort of already knew, or at least we didn't know his personal feelings, but we know what side the academy took. They voted on whether König's purported Leibniz fragment was a forgery, and Peter, as curator, got to lead the meeting and collect the votes, and they decided it was a forgery, and thus took Maupertuis's side, forcing Voltaire to start writing pamphlets. So yes, we now know that it's likely that Peter was on the side of the Academy decision and not a dissenting member.

(Also, rereading that Peter entry I wrote in early November, MAN we have come such a long way in terms of our knowledge since then.)

Trinity College
Remember when we found his eulogy and it said he spent three years at Trinity College in Dublin, but mostly reading alone in a room, and I said I *thought* it sounded like he didn't enroll but was there informally, but I couldn't be sure? I've finally managed to confirm that.

...By emailing Trinity College and asking the manuscripts department to check their archives. :D They had no record of him in the admissions lists, nor in the catalogue of letters to, from, or related to him.

Envoy
I found a sentence in Wikipedia that was added during the latest round of edits, stating that Fritz refused a suggestion from the British to appoint Peter Keith envoy on the grounds that Keith wasn't experienced enough. I was initially skeptical, because Wikipedia, but then I saw the citation was Koser.

Sure enough! Koser cites his source as an exchange in the Political Correspondence, which goes like this:

Letter from the British to Podewils: Please tell Fritz we think his new envoy should be Peter Keith. "A man like him would have more credit with us than a more skilled but less well-intentioned negotiator."

Fritz to Podewils: I just bet he would. Too bad it's in *my* best interests to send a negotiator who's more skilled and less well-intentioned toward them.

In more detail, slightly paraphrased, Fritz's letter was very interesting:

I'm very surprised at this letter you forwarded. After perusing it closely, I have to assume that either Keith has been intriguing and the English were happy to oblige him, or, what is more likely, the English don't want me sending someone who can penetrate their system and shed light on their affairs for me. Someone like Keith would be very convenient for them, since they regard him as half a Briton, and since he has no idea of what it is to negotiate, they would do whatever they wanted. And that's not even counting that he's poor, which is a consideration that drives out all others.

Meaning that he's bribable because you won't pay him and he's not independently wealthy?

So...while I agree that like Lehndorff, Peter is probably not someone I would send to do hard negotiating, it is interesting that both Fritz and the English view him as half Briton (remember Lehndorff saying he'd picked up English manners), and Fritz doesn't trust him not to be intriguing with the English behind his back.

Oh! I should mention the date. February 7, 1747. So during that 1740s period when their relationship was evidently at an all-time low. 1747 was also the year that Peter became curator at the Academy of Sciences. His predecessor died in March, and he became curator on April 13, so he wasn't yet curator when this letter was sent.

I do agree with Fritz that it's much more likely that the English wanted a favorable envoy, than that Peter was scheming. And it's interesting that they thought of him ten years after his stay (1736-1740 in Portugal, remember), and after his patron, Queen Caroline, had died in 1737.

Peter Keith's son, in contrast, later gets to be envoy to the Sardinian court in the 1770s, I guess because he's fully Prussian in Fritz's mind and has some idea of what it is to negotiate.

Incidentally, this reminds me that Fritz sent Algarotti to Turin in 1741, but didn't entrust him with full envoy credentials or official responsibility, but told him to go secretly and try to find out what he could without letting on why, but of course no one in power would talk politics with him because he didn't have an official position, and he was such a celebrity that everyone immediately knew where he was and guessed why, and so that was a disaster.

All of which is to say that Fritz generally doesn't trust the people he met socially with anything resembling power. Which is why Fredersdorf getting to be spymaster and treasurer is so unusual.

So far I've figured out that Villiers is this guy, who was British envoy to Berlin from 1746 to 1748.

selenak adds:

Villiers: I thought his name rang a bell among Mitchell's correspondants, and sure enough, they were pals. Andrew Bisset - who just a page earlier is withering about Horace Walpole the Younger (aka the other bitchy memoirist of the era), because Walpole in turn had dissed both Villiers and Mitchell in favour of Hanbury Williams:

It might, indeed, have been supposed, that this, namely to be the carrier of tittle-tattle would be the beau ideal of a diplomatist, as understood by such a person as that egregious scandal-monger and retailer of Court small-talk—tittle-tattle of the smallest and dirtiest kind—Horace Walpole, the younger. Accordingly, we find him delivering himself of the following observations:—

"Every attempt of our sending men of parts to circumvent him had succeeded ill; the King of Prussia was so far a little genius that he dreaded trying himself against talents. For this reason he used Legge and Sir Charles Williams in the most ungracious manner. Lord Hyndford, Mr. Villiers and Mitchell were the men that suited him ; and had he known him, he would not have feared Yorke. But the King made Mitchell introduce him, would talk to him on no business, and entertained him with nothing but a panegyric on Mitchell.”* Let any one who knows anything of the characters of the two men, imagine Frederic of Prussia circumvented by Sir Charles Hanbury Williams.

Bisset then goes on to say that if he wanted wits, Fritz had Voltaire, he didn't need a small scale wit like Hanbury Williams. Otoh, he liked Mitchell for being a relative straight shooter among diplomats and a brave man, and surely Villliers was of the same type. Then Bisset goes on to quote a few letters from Villiers written to Mitchell during the 7 Years War, when Villiers had become Lord Hyde:

We have no doubt it was the same manly frankness, joined to good sense, which made Villiers, as well as Mitchell, an efficient negotiator with Frederic. The following letters from him, when Lord Hyde, to Mitchell, we have great pleasure in being enabled to publish, as affording very unequivocal testimony to the private worth and sociable and amiable qualities of both the parties. As regards the writer they show, we think, in a very unostentatious way, both head and heart.(...)


MY DEAR MITCHELL, 27. June 1761

Though I can’t say that I am fond of unnecessary writing or unnecessary talking, I was happy in receiving a letter from an old friend that I love; having heard that his health which endured the follies of youth had been injured by ministerial toils. By matrimony it seems I am freed from both, and enjoy life in a plain, insignificant way, with a wife that I value, and three boys and a girl. I give no flattery and receive no favours: I am not out of humour, but see things, as far as my sight will reach, without prejudice or partiality; how long this state of annihilation will last, I can’t determine as I have taken no resolutions on it, but considering my great indolence and little merit, I shall scarce be again in an active station; so my friends will scarce ever have any thing of me, but my wishes which would have accompanied your's had I known they had tended to Augsbourg, I mean for yourself, for as to me I am happy that Lord Egremont is at the head of our ministers there. A fitter man, or one more my friend, England has none at present. Lord Granville is much as he was as to spirits and dignity, at least to us who see him daily and partially. Perhaps you would perceive that time had made its impression and lessened both. We often talk you over and wish for the stories we are to have when you return. Lord Jersey has rather more gout than he had, in other respects the same. Lord Weymouth is in the bed chamber and becomes it. H. Thynne has not yet altered his course of life. He begins to want a rich wife and a sinecure place, and I am disposed to imagine he will succeed.

Notwithstanding this sameness among a few, don't conclude that it extends through the state; you will find, whenever you come among the great, many new plans and new persons. I wish my poor friends in your parts were as I left them. I often feel for you and for Fritsch as much as for any. Let those who are alive, who are not many, and fall in your way, be assured of my regard, esteem, and compassion, and be yourself convinced that I am unalterably yours,
H.
My wife begs her compliments of friendship and esteem. As to the business part of your letter it shall be executed; much is due to your care and friendship.

Remember, Charles Hanbury Wlliams ended his life in the third stage of syphilis, locked up as mad, so this is about disposing of those of his possessions still in various European countries:

MY DEAR MITCHELL, 24th Sept. 1763:
.
I am very glad to find by your favour of the 3d, that your health is better, and that you are not so germanised but that you wish to be among us; all who know you, wish to have you, none more than my wife and myself. You will find terrible gaps in our acquaintance; death has made cruel havock ; we that remain according to Prussian discipline should stand the closer.

As to the boxes in question, which have given you so much trouble, but at the same time an opportunity to show a very kind and friendly disposition, I have desired Mrs. Capel Hanbury, whose husband I believe to be an executor and abroad, to employ an agent authorized at Hamburg to receive and forward the same and to reimburse all expenses thereon. I am an entire stranger to Sir Charles Hanbury Williams' testamentary disposition, and to all the affairs of that family, or should not have left anything from you so long undone. I am, with the truest esteem, my dear Mitchell, most faithfully yours,

H.


MY DEAR MITCHELL, 1st Dec. 1763

I suppose the inclosed expresses Mr. Hanbury's sense of your obliging and friendly care of his brother's boxes, and a desire that they may be forwarded to him (who has authority from the younger brother, George, the executor, to receive them), with an assurance that he, Mr. Capel Hanbury, will reimburse, on demand, all expenses incurred on this occasion. This at least was the substance of our conversation, which he desired I would transmit, but I thought it proper that he should pay his own acknowledgments, where so much was due.

This past yesterday morning in the presence of Lord Harcourt, who joined in extolling your sociable and worthy qualities, and agreed that it would be very comfortable to hear your adventures from yourself over a bottle or two of claret. If anybody besides yourself thinks of me where you are, you may confidently assert that I retain warm gratitude for Berlin, but I imagine most of my ministerial and military acquaintances are gone gradually or precipitately to their last home, and that my female friends, if any are left, too much wrinkled for one who can pick and chuse. Should ever opportunity be so blindly favourable as to permit you to lay my duty and respects at his Prussian Majesty's feet, you may with great truth add that I shall ever feel, as I ought, the honour done me by his Majesty's most gracious opinion. Is there any historian attempting to describe and keep pace with his wonderful atchievements?

The death of the King of Poland, or rather the choice of a new one, will probably open a field for another volume. Was I as young and as unengaged as when I first knew that part of the world, I would again embark in that agitated sea. It is impossible not to have a kind of longing to admire so great a Prince in the midst of such important affairs; but as it is, I must be contented to tell old stories to my wife and children, and to read and explain the Gazettes. Was there any hopes of your assistance in these domestick amusements we should all be the happier. My wife joins in hearty wishes for your welfare, and in that perfect esteem with which I unalterably remain,
My dear Mitchell,
Most cordially yours,
HYDE.

Bisset's right, Villiers comes across very sympathetic here, and in really friendly terms with Mitchell. Not to mention that he evidently has good memories of his time in Prussia. So it's both likely he befriended Peter in his own right, and/or that he could have followed a Mitchell recommendation. Bear in mind, too, that Mitchell could be absolutely withering about someone Fritz did appoint as envoy to England, to wit, Lentulus. ("The second is Major-General Lentulus (formerly in the Austrian service), a tall, handsome Swiss, very weak, very vain, and very indiscreet, but, which is worst of all, a servile flatterer, and capable of reporting to his master the greatest falsehoods, if he thinks they will please him. Of this I had the strongest proofs, when, in the year 1756, Lentulus was sent to England, to give an account of the battle of Lobositz (at which he was not present). On his return into Saxony, he made a most absurd report to the King, his master, concerning the then state of affairs in England, which, after many months labour and infinite pains, I had at last the good fortune totally to annihilate. -")

So at a guess, Peter would have been perceived by contrast by Villiers (and possibly Mitchell) as someone who wasn't just England-friendly but actually familiar with enough with the place to send reliable reports home to Prussia instead of talking rubbish and flattery a la Lentulus.

To fully appreciate how utterly insulting to Peter Keith (and also somewhat insulting to the Brits in terms of how serious he took relations with them until 1756) [Fritz's refusal to make Keith envoy] is, get this: the Legationssekretär in GB was one Abraham Michell (yes, Michell, just to make life easier for us), whom Fritz had never met, who had, in fact, never visited Prussia in his life, and about whom it's unclear whether he even had taken the customary oath of loyalty to Prussia when becoming the previous envoy's secretary. The previous envoy had also been a Swiss (but at least one who' dbeen to Berlin and was known to people there), and Michell had joined Prussian service through this backdoor. When Podewils suggested raising him from Legationssekretär to minister, rank wise, now that he was full time envoy, Fritz said no, he'd demand a bigger salary then, and Fritz was all about saving money. And Michell - who, again, no one in Berlin knew and who never had visited any part of Prussia in his life - remained on the job.

...I do hope Peter never learned the Brits had asked for him, or at least not who the alternate candidate was. Also, again, date wise: This decision was made in 1747; within two years, after Hans Hermann's half brothers killed each other, Fritz intervenes in Katte family affair and gets cousin Ludolf a rich heiress.

Letters

Some letters, evidently between him and Fritz, survive in the Prussian archives. We have not yet gone to the trouble of purchasing a copy, deciphering the handwriting, and figuring out the French, but we might someday!


felis: Speaking of Knobelsdorff's wiki:

Knobelsdorff was an enthusiastic collector of art, a fact unknown until the recent discovery of old inventory lists.[3] He bequeathed to his friend, Lieutenant Colonel von Keith, an extensive collection of paintings and engravings virtually unmatched in 18th century Berlin.

[3] = Martin Engel: Die Knobelsdorffsche Kunstsammlung. In: Tilo Eggeling, Ute-G. Weickardt (Hrsg): Zum Maler und zum großen Architekten geboren. Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff, 1699–1753.

The same guy wrote a 2001 dissertation (Das Forum Fridericianum in Berlin und die monumentalen Residenzplätze des 18. Jahrhunderts) which has lots of details about all the things Fritz (had) built in Berlin and how. It's long, so I just skimmed a bit, but he questions some of Manger's claims Fritz/Knobelsdorff claims and includes a nice timeline at the end, which shows that Knobelsdorff visited Fritz at least thrice in 1750 (including December) and once in August 1751 (all based on the Berlin newspaper recording the comings and goings). Fritz in his eulogy also says that Knobelsdorff was sick for a long time and went to Spa before his death in September 1753, so a last visit seem unlikely for 1750 and 1753 both?

Regarding Knobelsdorff's friendship with Peter, there's a mention of it in the main text, including that Peter was Knobelsdorff's successor in being responsible for the Tiergarten.

(Engel gives Denina's La Prusse Litteraire as a source on Peter, which has a couple pages (331ff) that seem to be a paraphrase of Formey's eulogy.)

Another Engel article I found (here) quotes Knobelsdorff's will, an addendum he made six days before his death no less: "alle meine Tableau, Kupferstiche, und Bibliothecke [...] legiere ich hiermit meinem guten Freund dem Obristlieutenant von Keith [...]".

So not just the paintings but also the library! I sure hope Engel didn't mistake one Lt.Col. for the other here, but given the possible Tiergarten/Charlottenburg/Academy connection, this would make a lot of sense.

selenak: Now, the Kobelsdorff - Peter Keith friendship: what a fantastic discovery on your part! (And no, despite the plethora of Keiths in Fritz' life, I don't think there's a confusion here. The rank and the responsibilities all fit with the one and only Peter and no one else.) It is really marvelous how we've been able to flesh out Peter's post 1730 life and thus his personality over the last two years, when in biographies old and new he's pretty much just (foot)noted as "the other one". We knew he loved books and reading, now we know he must have loved the visual arts as well, since I doubt Knobelsdorff would have left his collection to an ignoramus who just uses it to impress people. Also, Lehndorff who is younger and generally tactful and amiable being impressed with Peter and liking him is one thing, but if someone older, notoriously prickly and not prone to mince words as Knobelsdorff also trusts and likes him (enough so to single him out in his last will), I think a case can be made of Peter being another who is good at being diplomatic (without, I hasten to add, being sycophantic or spineless).

felis: I read a bit more about Knobelsdorff, mostly descendant Wilhelm von Knobelsdorff's (WvK) 1860 bio. He has a lot of conjecture and really doesn't approve of Knobelsdorff's relationship with Charlotte Schöne (sigh), but he seems to have checked some primary sources and also reminded me of a couple of things.

Which brings me to the question: Does WvK mention Peter? Kind of! He clearly doesn't know who he is or where he belongs, but he does mention Lt.Col. Keith in two different contexts:

1. Being Knobelsdorff's successor in charge of the Tiergarten, which is where he calls him an "Englishman" and guesses that's why he got the job. (Which, funny enough, still kind of works with Selena's theory re: Hyde Park.) He refers to Raumer for his Tiergarten info, though, so nothing new here.

2. He doesn't seem to have had access to Knobelsdorff's will, speculating about it, but he apparently had some later documents referring to it. At least, he says that "his Rheinsberg friends, General v. Buddenbrock and Oberlieutenant von Keith, become executors of the will and the first one also guardian for the children". He seems to have had a 1767 source for this - which is when the two daughters sold the Kronenstrasse house they'd inherited, which is documented at the state archive (Engel mentions it) - and he does mention that Keith was dead at that point. He also says that the executors of the will made a deal with Knobelsdorff's brother, who got some additional money and in turn agreed to not contest the will.


A Tiergarten history by Meyer, from 1892, says:

His father's hunting lodges and hunting grounds became deserted [because Fritz didn't like hunting], and the care of the game began to cease. Against this a commission was set up, consisting of the Landjägermeister v. Schwerin [Hans Bogislav by the way, brother of the field marshall], lieutenant colonel v. Keith and the sur-intendant v. Knobelsdorff to make suggestions for converting the Tiergarten into a tasteful pleasure forest, according to which Knobelsdorff should design the facilities. For this purpose, the entire forest terrain was surveyed in 1742, the extent of which was determined to be 820 acres.

and later:

... Raumer says about the creation of this establishment: Lieutenant Colonel v. Keith, who after Knobelsdorff's death was in charge of the management of the Charlottenburg Palace Gardens, of the avenues and plantations in the Tiergarten during the years 1754 and 1755, had some old furniture from that palace sold in order to use the proceeds to build a mulberry plantation on the empty space at the confluence of the Landwehrgraben and the Spree, whereby the Tiergartenpflanzkasse should receive an income. The plantation created by the Planteur Sello only existed for a few years, ...

Raumer = this even earlier Tiergarten history from 1840, which does indeed mention both the early commission and the second story about Keith in charge and the mulberry plantation.

Neither Meyer nor Raumer mention the name Peter and usually I'd suspect possible confusion of Keiths, but together with the Lehndorff info, the second part at least make perfect sense.

The first one, though! That must have been very early, 1741/42, and that would be brand-new information if that was Peter already. But it could explain how he and Knobelsdorff became friends.

In the preface, Raumer says he collected information from books and handwritten sources and he does quote a couple of cabinet orders from Fritz to Schwerin verbatim for example, so he must indeed have had access to something. But 1840 is where this train stops so far.

mildred_of_midgard: Interestingly, the earliest mention of Peter in connection with the Tiergarten that I'm aware of is February, 1754. Now, granted, that's an argument from silence, and Lehndorff certainly doesn't consider it his duty to posterity to give us a blow-by-blow of Peter's life, but combined with the fact that Knobelsdorff died in September 1753 and Peter's supposed to have been his successor according to Engel, I'm inclined to think Lehndorff sounds like he's reporting a recent development: "Diner bei der Königin mit Keith, dem der König die Aussicht über den Tiergarten anvertraut hat."

For now, I'm going with Peter getting it after Knobelsdorff died.

But felis later found a eulogy of Knobelsdorff by Formey (the same guy who eulogized Peter):

With this way of thinking, Mr. de Knobelsdorff spent the last years of his life in rather a great deal of solitude. He had a pleasant retreat at the gates of the capital and he enjoyed it all the more since this retreat was part of a park, or charming grove [i.e. the Tiergarten] - one of the most beautiful ornaments of Berlin, which offered its inhabitants for several months of the year a place to walk. Perhaps no other city has anything to compare if one brings together the advantages of proximity, breadth and variety. M. de Knobelsdorff, who was in charge of it, made multiple improvements there, which have been continued and greatly added to by our worthy Curator, M. de Keith, now in charge of this office."

selenak: btw, I could see one explanation how Peter so relatively soon after his return from exile got on a team to figure out what to do with the Tiergarten - as far as I know, the converting of a former royal hunting ground into a public park and then the landscaping of same had happened in England already, and one prominent example just in time for Peter to observe. To quote wiki on Hyde Park:

The first coherent landscaping in Hyde Park began in 1726. It was undertaken by Charles Bridgeman for King George I, but following the king's death the following year, it continued with approval of his daughter-in-law, Queen Caroline. Work was undertaken under the supervision of Charles Withers, the Surveyor-General of Woods and Forests. The principal effect of the work was to sub-divide Hyde Park and create Kensington Gardens. The Serpentine was formed by damming the River Westbourne, which runs through the park from Kilburn towards the Thames. It is divided from the Long Water by a bridge designed by George Rennie in 1826.

The work was completed in 1733. The 2nd Viscount Weymouth was made Ranger of Hyde Park in 1739 and shortly after began digging the Serpentine lakes at Longleat.


Residences
felis: Selena's Gundling write-up pointed me towards the Berliner Adresskalender, which mentions Peter for the first time in 1744, as honorary Academy member, "ObristLieutnant und Stallmeister" (this stays the same until his death), living "in der Brüderstrasse in der Frau v. Kniphausen Hause". From 1748 on, he's listed under Curatores, living "in der Frau von Knyphausen Hause hinten am Wasser hinter der Brüderstrasse". (From 1755 on it's "his" house, without the Knyphausen mention, but the same description. And in 1756 someone actually crossed out his name! :()

(Raumer also mentions the Jägerhof by the way (at the Schinkenplatz, which is correct, if colloquial), and that it was turned into a bank in 1765, but to heighten the confusion, there's no mention of Keith at all, on the contrary, he says that the Oberjägermeister was still living there. *throws up hands* Given the info from the address calendar, which seems to place Peter's house on the other side of the water, too, I'm maybe possibly doubting Lehndorff a bit here? Or maybe there were several buildings? *throws up hands again*)

mildred_of_midgard: I think I found the Brüderstrasse property!

It's from this: Brüderstrasse 13, today the Nicolaihaus, owned by Frau von Knyphausen 1719-1747 and greatly expanded by her, sold in 1747. Purchased by Nicolai in 1788, who had it renovated by your guy Zelter, selenak.

selenak: My very quick look tells me that Frau von Knyphausen aquired the property from none other than the von Blaspiels, aka Manteuffel's recently locked up in Spandau and then released and exiled mistress and spy Frau von Blaspiel and her husband the fired Minister of War (whose job now was held by Herr von Knyphausen).

Also didn't Felis original discovery say that the "Frau von Knyphausen's house" description at some point disappears from the address as given in the Adress book? Which might go with her selling the property. To the owner of the porcelain factory that would later become KPM, I see.

felis: The Frau v. Knyphausen bit actually stays until 1754, but the change in 1748 is from "Brüderstrasse" to "behind Brüderstrasse at the waterside", which fits a 1747 sale perfectly.

mildred_of_midgard: Here's the 1710 map, with Jägerhof in red. Everything else is nearby. Brüderstrasse is just across the water from Jägerhof.


Modern-day Berlin.


Yellow circle over modern-day Lunch Time cafe, where the Jägerhof stood, then the Bank of Berlin, until the bank filled up the entire block, and then got moved one block east to the larger block on the water where you see the modern Auswärtiges Amt (moving the bank there was, if I recall from my Jägerhof research a year ago, the first building project of the Worst Fanboys and highly publicized by them as it was happening).

Just east of Jägerhof, on the other side of the water, the Brüderstrasse 13 property, where Peter and family lived with Ariane's mother until she sold it in 1747, and where Nicolai later gave it its current name.


Sons' Residences

felis: Remember that Adresskalender? ;) It's totally at fault for three different names, and it also has a very inconvenient gap between 1777 and 1787, but I still found some stuff:

1764: Kammergericht-Referendarii:
Carl Ernst Reinhard v. Keith
Friedrich Ludwig v. Keith, who both live "auf dem Jägerhofe" [this is the one and only mention of a Friedrich Ludwig]

1765: Kammergericht-Referendarii: Carl Ernst Reinhard v.K., who lives at Königl. Jägerhof, Große Jägerstrasse

nothing in 1766

1767-1771: Geheime Staatskanzlei: Peter Carl v. Keith, Legationsrath and Geh. Secretarius, "expediert sämtl. Schlesische Sachen", lives "hinter dem alten Packhof in dem Colbischen Hause"

1772-1774: same for Peter Carl, except he lives "close to the Jungferbrücke [that's the one between Brüderstrasse und Jägerhof by the way] im Knobelsdorffschen Hause"

1775-1776: Geheime Staatskanzlei + Royal Envoy at foreign courts: Peter Carl v. Keith, Legations-Rath, Königlicher Kammerherr and Envoyé Extraordinaire at the Turin Court, is absent [therefore no adress]

GAP 1777-1787

1788-1791: Geheime Staatskanzlei: Ernst Reinhard Carl v. K., Legationsrath, lives at Taubenstr. im Friedelschen Hause

and also: Widow v. Keith, born Baroness v. Kniphausen, great governess of the Queen [still EC], lives at the Palace

1792-98: same for Ernst Reinhard Carl, except that he "hat die Schlesische Expedition" under "Expedierende Geheime Secretarien"

[no Widow Keith anymore, so that fits, since Ariane died in in 1791]

mildred_of_midgard: Lol at the different names. At least none of them is Friedrich Ludwig! Schmidt-Lötzen has *Friedrich* as the envoy, but then I later discovered a more reliable looking modern source that has Carl Ernst Reinhard as the envoy and Friedrich Ludwig as the obscure brother, and then the Prussian state archives had Peter Karl Christoph (vel sim.). And now I see he's listed as Carl Ernst Reinhard and Peter Carl! I count Ernst Reinhard Carl and Carl Ernst Reinhard as the same, btw, since name ordering wasn't constant back then--our Peter is Peter Karl Christoph and Peter Christoph Karl with almost equal frequency--but Peter Carl and Ernst Reinhard Carl are rather different.

Was he named Peter Carl Ernst Reinhard and they called him Carl or Ernst or Reinhard while Peter the father was alive, and then after Peter died, Carl started wanting to be known by his father's name at some point as an adult (it's easy to miss a father who died just before you got to the teenage conflict years), and then went back to his old name? See if you can find me his baptismal certificate. :P (I say this tongue-in-cheek, but I wouldn't put it past you!)

felis: About the Jägerhof, though - it's a huge building, basically spanning the entire block in 1748. The Kalender has its own section for "Jägerey", which has the Hunting Office itself "auf dem Jägerhofe Obere Wallstrasse", a couple of lower officials all living "Königlicher Jägerhof in der Kleinen Jägerstrasse", one guy living "auf einem Flügel [wing] am Jägerhofe", and the Oberjägermeister usually living "auf dem Großen Jägerhofe in der Großen Jägerstrasse", i.e. where the Keith brothers live in 1765.

Now, I found out (via the Hohenzollern Yearbook) that the Oberjägermeister Schlieben died in 1748 and that there was a reshuffling of responsibilities, most importantly, a separation of the hunting and the forestry division. (Raumer even mentions that both the hunting and the forestry office stayed at Jägerhof for a while even after part of the building, i.e. the Große Jägerstrasse side, was turned into a bank.) Which makes me wonder if Peter got the Jägerhof as a possible residence precisely because he had Tiergarten, i.e. forestry-related, responsibilities? Just speculation. Schwerin, the third guy mentioned by Raumer together with Knobelsdorff and Peter in ~1742, did apparently live there at some point, but then again, he was Landesjägermeister.

Schlieben's successor as Oberjägermeister only had the office from June 1749 to January 1750 and neither did he get to do anything nor did he live at the Jägerhof is seems, but the guy after him, Schmettau, did. He was in office until 1753 and after that it was Baron Grapendorf, for decades, who never lived at the Jägerhof but had his own house elsewhere, so even if there was only one apartment at the Große Jägerstrasse side, it might have been free for Ariane and the kids to move into.

Records: Peter's son's baptism, Peter's wife's burial
cahn: Yes! I do have access to FamilySearch! I looked up Peter Keith but he doesn't seem to show up except once, as "Pierre Christophle Charles Keith" (I expect the second name is a typo) with spouse "Oriane Louise" (so definitely our Peter) and son Frideric Louis Keith, who is the one who actually has the record. Attached to Frideric's record is what appears to be a baptismal registry page (I can download a jpg of the page if desired) with the citation as follows:

"Deutschland, ausgewählte evangelische Kirchenbücher 1500-1971," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS86-HB3V?cc=3015626 : 19 October 2019), > image 1 of 1; Records extracted and images digitized by Ancestry.com. German Lutheran Collection, various parishes, Germany.

The record says that he was baptized "en chambre" because of "maladie." Also, there is a birthdate of 10 August 1745 attached to the record which I think is an error; as far as I can tell the birthdate given in the record is 14 August?

I also went looking for Carl Ernst and found a record... of him as the husband of Oriane Luise. Lol. But it turns out that what this was taken from (there is also very little about him) is the burial record of Oriane Luise! I am having trouble reading this at all besides a mention of Knyphausen, maybe you guys will do better. I assume that it says Carl Reinhard survived her but I suppose it could also be someone (possibly the record writer) getting confused by all those names for Peter :P

No citation BUT it says "Parish register of baptisms, marriages and burials for Parochialkirche in Berlin, Brandenburg, Germany. For earlier years see Dom Kirche." (1703-1877) (!)

But sadly I went back to Dec 1756 in the burial register and as far as I can tell there is no record of Peter's burial in Dec 1756 or Jan 1757. (Possibly someone should check me, though... it's better not to trust anything I do this late at night.)





felis: As for the rest of the baptism record, I read 14th of August as the birth date as well, at ten in the morning, which might be how the confusion happened. What's interesting is that the register doesn't seem to belong to any one church, though. The other entries on the page all name different churches for the baptisms and the common theme here are the French preachers. The relevant one for us is "le pasteur de Combles", which I believe is Pierre de Combles, who worked at the Dorotheenstädter Kirche from 1728 to 1767 (i.e. the one where Andrew Mitchell was later buried).

Now, godfathers and -mothers! Male ones are Fritz (! although not too surprising with that name) and Frederic Henry de Cheusses, who was the Danish envoy in Berlin from 1743 to 1746 and came from a Huguenot family, just like the preacher. (He's mentioned in the Political Correspondence a couple of times and was envoy to Russia afterwards.)

ETA: Friedrich de Cheusses - the 1745 address calendar says he lived next to the Ilgen's house, which was the family of Peter's mother-in-law and might be where the connection comes from. Also, I had to smile at this description in his wiki record: He did not excel in excellent ability or rich initiative, but he looked good, was very reliable and especially extremely careful. These were precisely the qualities needed opposite Frederick II of Prussia and later opposite Pyotr Bestushev.

Female: Peter's mother-in-law, who apparently wasn't present, as it says she was represented by Ariane's younger sisters, Hyma Maria (the one who married Hertzberg later, but not yet) and Hedwig Charlotte.

Oh, and Peter is described as "premier Ecuyer de sa Majesté le Roi de Prusse, et Lieutenant Colonel dans ses armees natif de Poberow en Pomeranie".

Now, the burial register, which is in German. It's interesting that my hunch re: Parochialkirche + Ariane's great governess position seems to have been correct after all, but I'm still doubtful that it's where Peter was buried, which seems to correspond with your findings. I sure wish the guy writing the burial register had the same lovely handwriting as his French colleague, though, because it's hard to read. I believe the columns are "death date" (unreadable on our page), "dead person", "age" (71 years), "cause of death" (?? - I think it might be saying "Steckfluss" for Ariane, but I'm not sure), and "heirs", so yes, Carl Reinhard shows up as the last one (although I can't read the first line there). I also see the note that Ariane was great governess to the ["something"] Queen, but the rest of it? ..... okay, it says she was a widow (verwittwete Frau) and that she was buried in crypt number five, which I think cost 60 "no idea what the currency is here" (plan of the crypts), but there are still two unreadable-to-me lines there. Hmmm.

Knyphausen relatives
Ariane's father, the foreign minister and former envoy (to Denmark, Spain, Vienna, France, and Russia, per Wikipedia!) who was involved in scheming against FW and in the English marriages, was in Venice at the same time as Pesne, was painted by Pesne, and it was this painting that so impressed F1 that he invited Pesne to his court.

One of Ariane's brothers was George Keith's successor as Fritz's envoy to France, right before the Seven Years' War. When the Diplomatic Revolution happened and the war started, he was recalled. Then he was sent to England instead, and he was the one who negotiated the subsidies with the Pitt government. He was recalled in disfavor when Bute took control and the subsidies stopped. Then he was supposed to be sent as envoy to Vienna after the war, but Fritz didn't pay enough, so he declined. He was married to a daughter of Frau von Wreech, the one Fritz courted with poetry and allegedly impregnated in his Küstrin days.

And! One of Ariane's sisters was married to Hertzberg! Meaning that Envoy Son of Peter and Ariane was the nephew by marriage to Hertzberg. So between his uncle the envoy to France, England, and almost Vienna, and his uncle-by-marriage the Prussian minister of foreign affairs, I'm betting it was maternal connections that got him the Turin post. Horowski is right, you have to look at the maternal family connections! Peter never got to be an envoy to anywhere, as we know. :P But his brother-in-law got to negotiate the subsidies once Fritz actually had two fucks to give about diplomatic relations with England.

1730 Flutes
mildred_of_midgard: I just turned up something in the inventory of his rooms in Wesel (Kloosterhuis) in 1730:

eine süßklingende Flöte („Flothe douce“)
eine Querflöte („Flothe Traversière“)

So two flutes! Being an 18th century nobleman, Peter having an instrument doesn't surprise me, and being a boyfriend of Fritz, it being a flute doesn't surprise me. Since we have no mention of him and music later, either his interest didn't make it into our admittedly very limited sources on him (e.g. the visual arts have *just* turned up), or, as I speculatively put in my fic, he tried out music but was never talented (or merely passionate, as Fritz was about poetry) enough to become notably good at it.