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rheinsberg2020-02-05 05:04 pm
selenak) wrote in rheinsberg2020-02-05 05:04 pm
Entry tags:
- christoph ludwig von seckendorff,
- elisabeth christine of brunswick-bevern,
- ernst christoph von manteuffel,
- franz i. stephan,
- frederick the great,
- friedrich heinrich von seckendorff,
- friedrich wilhelm i.,
- habsburgs,
- hohenzollerns,
- maria theresa,
- prince augustus william of prussia,
- prince henry of prussia,
- sophia dorothea of hannover,
- ulrich friedrich von suhm,
- voltaire,
- wilhelmine of bayreuth
The Austrian Dossier: The Seckendorff Files
A primary source we've stumbled across recently is the "Journal Secrete" by the Baron of Seckendorff. Just to make things a bit more confusing for the Frederician scholar, journal writer Seckendorff, Imperial diplomat at the court of FW from 1734 - 1737, is not, I repeat, not identical with Friedrich Heinrich von Seckendorff, Field Marshal, Diplomat, previous imperial envoy and schemer extraordinaire at the Prussian Court in the later 1720s and up 1732. This more famous Seckendorff usually shows up in tandem with FW's war minister Grumbkow as a semi-villainous double act in Wilhelmine's memoirs, and in most early biographies from Fritz' pov. Seckendorff the younger, the journal writer, is his nephew, Christoph Ludwig von Seckendorff.
Not surprisingly given he's being an envoy at a court whose king once had threatened to hang another envoy, Seckendorff the younger often uses code names in his journal. (It's not paranoia when they're really after you.) Though they're usually none too subtle. Junior = Fritz. (Yes, really. It sounds anachronistic, but isn't.) Olympia = Queen Sophia Dorothea, his mother. Biberius = Grumbkow. "Le Diable", i.e. "The Devil" = Manteuffel, currently the Saxon envoy, also on the Austrian payroll and supposed to get close to Fritz and spy on him for the Iimperials. Orondates = Joseph Wenzel, Prince of Liechtenstein, curent official Imperial envoy in Berlin, and also current owner of that same Antinous statue Fritz will aquire later.
Language: the diary is written in a mixture between French and German, about two thirds French, one third German, sometimes switching between paragraphs and quotes. Fritz is usually quoted in French, his father in German. A typical untranslated diary entry reads thusly:
Fréderic Wartensleben me raconte des particularités de Potsdam. Der König ist gesund, sagt er, wünscht zu sterben und hernach wieder auf zustehen, um die Veränderung mit anzusehen. Alexandre veut parier sa tête, que Junior n'a pas donné commission à Lichtenstein, de m'éloigner d'ici. Der Kronprinz hält mich vor unconversabel.
(Attempted translation into English: "Friedrich Wartensleben told me of the Potsdam oddities. The King is healthy, he says, wishes to die and to resurrect, in order to get to watch the changes. Alexander wants to bet his head on Junior not having given Lichtenstein the comission to get rid of me. The crown prince doesn't consider me worthy of conversation.")
With these explanations made, onwards to Seckendorff the younger's intel on dysfunctional Prussian royalty. Manteuffel did manage to become a part of Fritz' social circle, and duly reported on him. According to the German editor of the Trier letter archive, Fritz was aware of this at least in the later 1730s. Whether or not he already was aware of it when he makes the following statements to the guy, I leave to you to judge. But on page 144,ff July 2nd 1736: Mantteuffel - le Diable - reports that Fritz after dinner after showing him "all the tendernesses imaginable", took him into his room afterwards and there confided in him about his family.
Dad:
About his Father, Junior is always very unhappy, since he lets him suffer so much and doesn't give him enough to live in dignity and according to his fancy. Because Junior frankly confessed to the Devil, that there were days when he doesn't have a penny in his pocket, and that with all of that, in addition to the ordinary expenses, a lot of extraordinary expenses to be made, for example more than five to six hundred ECU per year in small gifts for the servants of the king (..)
Meaning: Gimme more money, Austrians!
Mom:
To Olympia Junior does the justice that she raised her children worthily, as much as the King had left this in her hands to do so, and besides, the she does everything in the world to please him, Junior.
August Wilhem
Of his brother Wilhelm, he says that the later has a good nature and a lot of common sense, and should do something good, if he can still get into good hands; but that the bad education he receives endeavours to make him stupid like a real peasant, with the result that you can't look at him without feeling pity. He fears that if this goes on for four or five years more, the bad result will become second nature, and (Wilhelm) will become a truly bitter man because it will be impossible to correct later on.
Heinrich and Ferdinand:
Of his two younger brothers, Heinrich and Ferdinand, he has an even worse opinion, since he judges that they don't have the same good nature that Wilhelm has, and thus they will take all the more easily the bad form which must result from the education given to them. Especially from Ferdinand he says that he has all the bad qualities of the father and that when this great childlike vivacity that he inherited from his progenitor, will have passed, he will become the most wicked child of the king.
Let's pause here for the only moment good old Ferdinand, age six at this point (Heinrich is ten), gets singled out for the prediction he'll exceed in anything. Ferdinand, coming menace, this was your day! Also, Heinrich, what did you do that Fritz deemes you not as good natured as AW? (One hopes for a kick under the table during the winter holidays.)
And what about his sisters?
Wilhelmine, Charlotte and Sophie:
Between his sisters Junior gives preference to that of Bayreuth for the strength of her mind, in saying: "She's a fine fly, who knows more "Long than you think".
Footnote frommildred_of_midgard: Une fine mouche, "a fine fly," is someone clever, astute, observant. As early as 1389, used to designate someone good at spying and concealing what they know. It's a bit like English "fly on the wall": someone who can listen and learn without being detected.
He is corresponding with her on literary matters. The Margravine tends to take the party of the philosopher Descartes and Junior that of Wolff. He promised to show the Devil this correspondance.
For the Duchess of Wolffenbuttel - of Braunschweig-Wolffenbüttel, i.e. Charlotte - he esteems her also very much because of the liveliness of her manners and her laughter. He says: „She is a true Harlequin, who also expresses by her letters her humor and will die joking etc."
Princess Sophie, Junior judges to have the best heart of the world, and beautiful common sense, but he fears she will be ruined by her husband, the Margrave of Schwedt, whom he regards as the greatest fool and the greatest villain of the king's states.
For the Duke of Wolffenbuttel - i.e. Charlotte's husband, EC's brother - Junior esteems him genuinely, saying he is a good sort. „He is not a big genius," he continued, "but a prince who does not know what it is to act badly, and as a mark of his good heart, you can see that when his fortune changed by his becoming reigning Duke, he did not change his behavior in any way."
For the Margrave of Bayreuth, he puts him beneath the Duke of Wolffenbuttel in his esteem, and the other princesses there was not discussed this time. (...)
And now comes something that's especially delicious if, like me, you've read the Pleschinski translated Voltaire correspondance relatively recently. Because remember, Fritz had send Voltaire, in the year 1736, a Socrates head - which Émilie reported to Voltaire as showing Fritz, and then they had the Socrates/Alkibiades exchange? I later found out what this actually was was not a bust but a golden knob for a walking stick. So imagine my cackling when I came across this gem, just a few lines after the sibling assessments:
Junior showed the Devil a small present that he intends for him. It's a golden apple for a cane
that he had comissioned to be made. It represents the image of Socrates and there are engraved French verses above, which Junior composed himself. This composition is most flattering for the Devil: because Junior in these verses represents himself as Alcibiades and looks at the Devil like Socrates.
Oooookay. *wipes tears from eyes*
So:
1.) Fritz, cheating on Voltaire this early on in the relationship? Also, did you have multiple Socrates images made? I thought you were practically broke? Who was the original intended recipient, Voltaire or Mantteuffel?
(mildred_of_midgard: Oh, please, Fritz is only broke because he's a total spendthrift. He runs through money like water and can never get enough. Commissioning golden walking stick heads for prospective erastes friends is just one way of running through his money. He's always got a sob story, but let's be real, this is WHY he's constantly broke.)
2.) Heinrich totally kicked him under the table. Or Ferdinand did, since he gets to be the coming menace. I mean, it's totally true that Heinrich isn't as good natured as AW, but he's also ten at this point, so it's remarkable Fritz gets this opinion of him. Alternate possibility: Heinrich wondered out loud whether Fritz cultivating AW was because Fritz wanted to use AW to cajole favors from Dad?
3.) Younger brothers, your educational day will come. Junior is a man with a mission here, clearly.
4.) So did he have sex with Mantteuffel, and do we count Mantteuffel among the boyfriends?
(mildred_of_midgard: What I think was most likely going on was primarily self-interest. I'm sure he would have loved another Suhm, but I don't think realizing that wasn't what he had slowed him down one bit in his quest for leverage and money.)
Seckendorff the Younger might not get overly chummy with Fritz himself, but he has other sources in addition to Manteuffel, and besides, the Hohenzollern are crazy enougoh that new stories write themselves nearly every day. While our diary writer has his own axe to grind (he doesn't seem to keen on his superior Liechtenstein). But what his boss in Vienna is most interested in is what the hell is going on with Fritz and his family. What kind of King will he be, if he ever makes it to the throne?
There are all kinds of interesting cross connections, like this one. Remember, Biberius = Grumbkow. The Countess Fuchs may be chief lady in waiting to the current empress, but more importantly, she's the governess of the archduchess Maria Theresia, and will be the only non-Habsburg buried in the Kapuzinergruft at MT's orders. Pöllnitz is the gossipy writer/courtier surviving four Hohenzollern regimes.
I know from Biberius, that Pöllnitz wrote to the countess Fuchs, grand-mistress of the Empress, a twenty page letter with sharp sayings from Orondates. And the Devil will try to ingratiate himself with Pöllnitz so that Pöllnitz shows him the letter, which is sure to make for an entertaining reading. "It is very good that Orondates is gone: because with his suspicions he would have ruined everything, and given all the trouble which he enjoyed stirring between the crownl prince and the king, he would soon have put everything into confusion and disunity."
More than it already is, you mean?
Borck (the general). He told Biberius that the king according to Gotter sounds friendly towards Orondates: “It's not true that I don't like him. I deem him to be a great General and a reasonable and capable man."
The journal mentions "Katte" repeatedly, but context makes it apparant it's always Hans Heinrich. Also, in 1734, when journal writer Seckendorff arrives, FW has one of his worst dropsy attacks resulting in touching father-son scene on page 11 already:
The Crown Prince is truly touched by the king's situation; there are always tears in his eyes, he's cried his heart out, has worked to get a more comfortable bed for the King; hadn't wanted to leave Potsdam. At last the King has forced him to, and told him not to return before Saturday afternoon. "As long as the king does live, I would give an arm to extend his life by twenty years." The King has called him "Fritzchen" all the time.
In case anyone thinks Wilhelmine is exaggarating Mom's hostility towards her (and EC) in the first half of the 1730s in her memoirs, here's Seckendorff backing her up, on page 69, June 8th:
Olympia. She seems to be very indifferent to the subject of Vitellius' disease, so apparently is tired lying to him, and hoping well for the future; but she could be terribly wrong in her calculation: because, although she hates the crown princess and the later being liked by Junior the most, Olympia at the same time also hates the heriditary princess of Bayreuth and does her ill services with her father, telling him all kind of odious stories about her. And that's where she spoils everything with Junior, who values this Bayreuth sister beyond expression and who, according to appearances, will make make her shine in favour one day.
Well, she won't "spoil everything with Junior" but it supports that at least 1730s Fritz was aware SD was a different mother to Wilhelmine than she was to him. Now I knew via Wilhelmine's memoirs she hadn't given up her English marriage intentions but transferred them to Charlotte, only to be foiled again. Something I've also learned through Seckendorff's diary is that SD then transferred them to Ulrike, no more with the Prince of Wales - who'd tied the knot by then - but a younger brother. No dice, though as we know, Ulrike will be the only daughter to become Queen. And this, Hohenzollern boys, is why your sisters have a different impression of Mom than you do. Not that FW as a father to his daughters was anything to write home about. Voit was the Bayreuth envoy to Prussia.
June 13th: Voit from Bayreuth gets an audience with the King. - "Should I congratulate or send my condolences? My daughter has to let herself be f... better."
The news question can't have been the birth of his granddaughter, since that girl was already born in August 1732, so I'm assuming it was the death of the old Margrave? Anyway, the FW quote is in German, and either the editor or Seckendorf writes f.... , this isn't me being coy. Same word as in English, if you're wondering, with an i instead of an u.
Everyone distrusts everyone else on the court. Discussed is whether or not Fritz gets to join the already sadly senile Eugene at Philippsburg:
28th: The king graciously refuses to permit the crown prince permission to join the campaign. Alexander Wartensleben tells me that the King's illness is just pretense, and that father and son are in good standing with each other.
29th: The King gives the Crown Prince permission to join the campaign, under the condition that the two imperials corpses join his etc.
No detail is too insignificant to be noted down for its potential political implication, as when FW orders little Ferdinand to get a Polish page so he picks up some of the language. Potential Prussian designs on Poland? Also, here's other Seckendorff on a much debated topic:
Frederic Wartensleben tells me, that crown prince sleeps with the crown princess, and that he reprimanded Count Truchsess for what the later said about my uncle and me.
On July 6th, FW is having second thoughts again about letting Fritz hang out with Eugene:
The King is afraid that Junior might become too good an Imperial if he leaves him too long with the (imperial) army. (No danger there, FW.)
So what's your opinion on chatty Pöllnitz, FW?
"Pöllnitz is a writer. A writer doesn't have a clue about soldiers. If Pöllnitz tells me about the Ansbach and Bayreuth courts, I believe him; but if he talks about complete an incomplete armies, he doesn't know what he's talking about.
When Fritz is feeling let down by Eugene who has lost most of his memory not being the legendary figure he expected, and the campaign is mostly boring, FW is gleeful:
Judge for yourself whether I shouldn't bee happy that the old guy is made fun off, especially since I can't stand the fact the Emperor and I share a Field Marshal. You may write all this in confidence to General Seckendorff.
While FW will indeed be indignant about not being told of the FS/MT marriage until after the fact, he evidently knew Franzl was a primary candidate for her hand, because in October 1735, i.e. before the marriage, the journal notes:
He charged Gotter with all the demonstrations of submission imaginable for the emperor and as many for the duke of Lorraine. "He should lay himself on the feet of the Emperor and kiss his ass."
FW is also protesting again and again how much he hates the French and how he'd never desert the Emperor for them. This is why Austria trading Lorraine to the French for the Pragmatic Sanction acknowledgment (remember, FS had to give up his dukedom for marrying MT) is regarded by him as as a betrayal (though not as much as the fact MT's dad doesn't back his claim on Jülich and Berg).
In January 1736, relationships between FW and Fritz are on the downslide again:
Biberius tells me about the secrets, that Junior confided in Pöllnitz. The King encourages him to produce children, had him made a marital bed out of velvet. Biberius does not believe, that Junior will survive the father, but that pessimus Wilhelmus will succeed one day.
Pessimus Wilhelmus, the worst William, is of course AW. But mostly FW is busy getting in advance indignant about the impeding marriage and the other claims on Jülich and Berg:
The Emperor treats me and all HRE princes like pushovers, which I certainly do not deserve form the Emperor. God knows I never arlied with France. I always ask myself whether I ever went against the Emperor's interests, and I can't find anything. And now I'm pushed aside for that son of a whore Mantelsack, and I doubt they'll notify me of the Duke of Lorraine marriage!
The Emperor, soothingly, sends some tall guys. Observes Seckendorff the journal writer, in German: "If France had as many tall fellows to offer as the Emperor, Prussia might be French by now, but this wouldn't have any more real effects as the professed allegiance to the Emperor.
And finally, the entry that caused Mildred to track down the journal to begin with, in May:
The king is outraged at the ignominious manner in which the mperial court treated him to what he claims in the matter of the preliminaries of peace, as well as regarding the report of the marriage of the duke of Lorraine, and the way the court still neglects him to this very hour. The king doesn't give a f- about the tall guys that the emperor can give him; he wants to be honored and distinguished as he thinks he deserved by his past conduct, which he always seeks to justify, saying by pointing at the Crown Prince: "Here is someone who will one day avenge me". And although the king begins to moderate a lot in his passions and speeches, he cannot yet moderate anger when it comes to the negligence of the imperial court towards him,and tears come out of him in anger.
This has to be the biggest tantrum thrown about not getting a wedding invite in that century. Then follows the amazing "What I really think about my family: By Fritz" entry courtesy of Mantteuffel, which I'm posted above.
Evidently, Mantteuffel got instructions to dig a little more into Junior's sex life. No, not that way. (We think?)
More spicy crown prince gossip reported by the Devil to Seckendorff Jr.: Manteuffel advised Fritz to try harder with the procreation business:
"(...)because it would make your state now happier, and would save you from many future worries, because when we see that You have no lineage, we will marry your brother Wilhelm, and then the scheming and plotting will be inevitable" .
Junior agreed to all this; "But", he said, "I can't embrace my wife with passion, and when I sleep with her, I do it rather out of duty than by inclination."
Mantteuffel points out that the earth would be barren if the only children born were born to couples who loved each other, and hey, gird your loins, I hear she's got at least a nice exterior?
Junior: ,, This is true, her form is very pretty; but I have never been in love with her. However, I should be the last man, in the world if I didn't esteem her: because she has a very sweet nature, a more docile woman one cannot imagine, she's excessively compliant, and hastens to do everything she believes can please me. Also, she can't complain that I'm not sleeping with her. I truly don't know why there isn't a child there already."
In case Seckendorff Jr. is slow on the uptake, Manteuffel has a literary hint for him:
The Devil makes me read the Roman History of Des Echarts and points out the character of Junior, who is the same as that of Emperor Hadrian.
Footnote for strangers to Roman history: Hadrian wasn't known for his heterosexuality. His love for his favourite Antinous meant that he was a gay icon in Rokoko times already.
On December 1st (still 1736), FW is not a fan of Suhm: Upon hearing of the appointment of Suhm as envoy to the court of Petersburg, the King says: "He's an arch villain, and I'm sorry I didn't hang him while I had him here."
(mildred_of_midgard: I ran across the episode where FW threatened to hang Suhm while he did have him there, in Carlyle. As usual, a diplomatic incident starts with FW's recruiters of tall men recruiting men they weren't supposed to, and this time the Saxon officials chased them onto Brandenburg territory, captured them, and imprisoned them. Tracking down Carlyle's source tells me this took place in 1727, and that Mauvillon is writing no later than 1741! And Mauvillon cites the letters between August and FW, so we have primary sources for this episode. Anyway, here's Carlyle:
"Captain Natzmer to swing on the gallows? Taken on Brandenburg territory too, and not the least notice given me?" Friedrich Wilhelm blazes into flaming whirlwind; sends an Official Gentleman, one Katsch, to his Excellenz Baron von Suhm (the Crown-Prince's cultivated friend), with this appalling message: "If Natzmer be hanged, for certain I will use reprisals; you yourself shall swing!" Whereupon Suhm, in panic, fled over the marches to his Master; who bullied him for his pusillanimous terrors; and applied to Friedrich Wilhelm, in fine frenzy of indignant astonishment, "What, in Heaven's name, such meditated outrage on the law of nations, and flat insult to the Majesty of Kings, can have meant?" Friedrich Wilhelm, the first fury being spent, sees that he is quite out of square; disavows the reprisals upon Suhm. "Message misdelivered by my Official Gentleman, that stupid Katsch; never did intend to hang Suhm; oh, no;" with much other correspondence; [In Mauvillon (ii. 189-195) more of it than any one will read.]— and is very angry at himself, and at the Natzmer affair, which has brought him into this bad pass. Into open impropriety; into danger of an utter rupture, had King August been of quarrelsome turn. But King August was not quarrelsome; and then Seckendorf and the Tobacco-Parliament,— on the Kaiser's score, who wants Pragmatic Sanction and much else out of these two Kings, and can at no rate have them quarrel in the present juncture,— were eager to quench the fire. King August let Natzmer go; Suhm returned to his post; [Pollnitz, ii. 254.] and things hustled themselves into some uneasy posture of silence again;— uneasy to the sensitive fancy of Friedrich Wilhelm above all. This is his worst collision with his Neighbor of Saxony; and springing from one's Hobby again!—
In early 1737, Seckendorff is not impressed with teenage AW: Prince Wilhelm had a weak spell yesterday at the parade; however he was obliged to dine with us, where he cut a sad figure.
On the other hand, he has a soft spot for coming menace Ferdinand, when it's Ferdinand's turn to dine with Dad and his smoking chums in the tobacco c ollege:
Little Prince Ferdinand did not contribute much, other than his kindness to keep the king in good spirits. But above all, this kind child deserves to be reported because, wanting to have something of Biberius, who was sitting next to him, he uses the expression: Your excellence, be as gracious as to give me something of this." To which Bberius replied: "I can't dole out graces; the King alone is capable of providing grace." To which the prince replied: "OH yes, your excellency, but you are Field Marshall now, so you will be able to act gracefully." Biberius couldn't help but show his amusement. The King smiled; but the Beard" - La Barbe, the Beard, is der alte Dessauer, Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Dessau - behaved with the air of a Hercules in his fury.
(Because Grumbkow has been made a Field Marshal.)
Seckendorff Jr. has the bad luck that Original Seckendorff, the Field Marshall, temporarily falls from grace back home in Vienna and has been arrested and imprisoned in Graz, where he'll stay until MT ascends to the throne. (She'll release him.) This means Seckendorff the nephew is called back from Prussia. In Vienna, he first tries to make good weather for uncle and also shares gossip with people bitching about MT's new husband. Remember, they all think Franzl is the future ruler, nobody considers MT will rule, and they aren't impressed by his lack of military prowess. Also, he's a foreigner from Lorraince, so basically half French, and everyone hates the French. So Seckendorff Jr. notes:
Dissension at home. The Duke of Lorraine has all Austrians as enemies. He is at odds with his parents-in-law and they are displeased with him; the archduchess alone stands by her husband. The Duke is very annoyed with Bartenstein and has cause to be. He's only told of the May decisions after his return to the army. Bartenstein has told him to his face that after the Emperor has done him the honor of giving him his inheriting daughter, he was to submit himself to the Emperor's will in everything.
Like I said elsewhere: Franzl's early life in Vienna was one long humiliation conga. (With the important exception of MT standing by him, as he would stand by her in the years to come.)
On page 206, Seckendorff the nephew during his debriefing is asked to give his assessment on the topic: Fritz: Hot or not? Well, he also has to say whether or not he thinks FW is still trustworthy, but we have our priorities here, don't we?
About the feelings of the King. Myself: "The King has a good heart, he is at his core imperially minded and remembers the dinner in Prague with enoyment." Himself: "Ah, if only his actions would fit with this supposed good heart!" Myself: "One has to bind him by solid and mutually beneficial conditions." Himself: "One has to see how that could be accomplished."
About the person of the Crown Prince. His figure: handsome, looks like a Hannover, wears his own hair, looks pretty masculine, if flabby." "Does he love horses and hunting?" "No, he is a terrible rider and hunter; he loves reading, music, magnificence and "la bonne chère"."
(mildred_of_midgard: Google tells me "la bonne chère" means "good food." Which is definitely true of Fritz. His desire to set a good table for himself and his friends is half the reason he's chronically in debt at Rheinsberg, and as we've seen, he was still setting a good table on August 5, 1786. (cahn, Fritz dies August 17.) He can go without food during war (and evidently loses a lot of weight during the Seven Years' War), but given the choice, will put mustard and peppercorns in his coffee and fine food on his table!)
His relationship with the King his father. "In public, things are well. But there are still needling phrases. Besides, the Prince in his heart has never forgotten his arrest in Wesel, and he hates with an eternal hatred all which contributed, i.e. Derschauer." Himself: "But not Grumbkow?" "No. Biberius is corresponding with him; he sits at his table and drinks from his wine."
(Goes to show how good a dissembler our antihero has come to be. When Grumbkow dies, he's downright cheerful about it in a letter to Wilhelmine.)
His relationship with the Crown Princess. "Good; she's pretty, compliant; they sleep together."
His religion: "That of an honest man; God; all confessed will be forgiven." The Crown Prince loves pomp and grandeur; he'll reestablish all the court offices; he wants to have princes and counts at his court.
See, Seckendorff Jr., with that kind of intelligence it's not surprising poor MT was caught unawares. If she even had time to read the files before he invaded. It's on page 206 ff if you want to read it for yourself.
Anyway: Once it's apparant Uncle Seckendorff isn't going to get out of Graz any time soon, Seckendorff the nephew decides that his career in Austrian services is doomed for now, and requests to be allowed to transfer to Anhalt. Where he'll continue to work for Fritz' brother-in-law, one of the two odious ones. Which is how this volume concludes. Seckendorff the Younger's online biography linked above tells me that when in 1756 the 7-Years-War started, he was afraid the Prussians would get their hands on his diary and destroyed a great deal of it, so it's a wonder we have as much as we do.
Not surprisingly given he's being an envoy at a court whose king once had threatened to hang another envoy, Seckendorff the younger often uses code names in his journal. (It's not paranoia when they're really after you.) Though they're usually none too subtle. Junior = Fritz. (Yes, really. It sounds anachronistic, but isn't.) Olympia = Queen Sophia Dorothea, his mother. Biberius = Grumbkow. "Le Diable", i.e. "The Devil" = Manteuffel, currently the Saxon envoy, also on the Austrian payroll and supposed to get close to Fritz and spy on him for the Iimperials. Orondates = Joseph Wenzel, Prince of Liechtenstein, curent official Imperial envoy in Berlin, and also current owner of that same Antinous statue Fritz will aquire later.
Language: the diary is written in a mixture between French and German, about two thirds French, one third German, sometimes switching between paragraphs and quotes. Fritz is usually quoted in French, his father in German. A typical untranslated diary entry reads thusly:
Fréderic Wartensleben me raconte des particularités de Potsdam. Der König ist gesund, sagt er, wünscht zu sterben und hernach wieder auf zustehen, um die Veränderung mit anzusehen. Alexandre veut parier sa tête, que Junior n'a pas donné commission à Lichtenstein, de m'éloigner d'ici. Der Kronprinz hält mich vor unconversabel.
(Attempted translation into English: "Friedrich Wartensleben told me of the Potsdam oddities. The King is healthy, he says, wishes to die and to resurrect, in order to get to watch the changes. Alexander wants to bet his head on Junior not having given Lichtenstein the comission to get rid of me. The crown prince doesn't consider me worthy of conversation.")
With these explanations made, onwards to Seckendorff the younger's intel on dysfunctional Prussian royalty. Manteuffel did manage to become a part of Fritz' social circle, and duly reported on him. According to the German editor of the Trier letter archive, Fritz was aware of this at least in the later 1730s. Whether or not he already was aware of it when he makes the following statements to the guy, I leave to you to judge. But on page 144,ff July 2nd 1736: Mantteuffel - le Diable - reports that Fritz after dinner after showing him "all the tendernesses imaginable", took him into his room afterwards and there confided in him about his family.
Dad:
About his Father, Junior is always very unhappy, since he lets him suffer so much and doesn't give him enough to live in dignity and according to his fancy. Because Junior frankly confessed to the Devil, that there were days when he doesn't have a penny in his pocket, and that with all of that, in addition to the ordinary expenses, a lot of extraordinary expenses to be made, for example more than five to six hundred ECU per year in small gifts for the servants of the king (..)
Meaning: Gimme more money, Austrians!
Mom:
To Olympia Junior does the justice that she raised her children worthily, as much as the King had left this in her hands to do so, and besides, the she does everything in the world to please him, Junior.
August Wilhem
Of his brother Wilhelm, he says that the later has a good nature and a lot of common sense, and should do something good, if he can still get into good hands; but that the bad education he receives endeavours to make him stupid like a real peasant, with the result that you can't look at him without feeling pity. He fears that if this goes on for four or five years more, the bad result will become second nature, and (Wilhelm) will become a truly bitter man because it will be impossible to correct later on.
Heinrich and Ferdinand:
Of his two younger brothers, Heinrich and Ferdinand, he has an even worse opinion, since he judges that they don't have the same good nature that Wilhelm has, and thus they will take all the more easily the bad form which must result from the education given to them. Especially from Ferdinand he says that he has all the bad qualities of the father and that when this great childlike vivacity that he inherited from his progenitor, will have passed, he will become the most wicked child of the king.
Let's pause here for the only moment good old Ferdinand, age six at this point (Heinrich is ten), gets singled out for the prediction he'll exceed in anything. Ferdinand, coming menace, this was your day! Also, Heinrich, what did you do that Fritz deemes you not as good natured as AW? (One hopes for a kick under the table during the winter holidays.)
And what about his sisters?
Wilhelmine, Charlotte and Sophie:
Between his sisters Junior gives preference to that of Bayreuth for the strength of her mind, in saying: "She's a fine fly, who knows more "Long than you think".
Footnote from
mildred_of_midgard: Une fine mouche, "a fine fly," is someone clever, astute, observant. As early as 1389, used to designate someone good at spying and concealing what they know. It's a bit like English "fly on the wall": someone who can listen and learn without being detected.He is corresponding with her on literary matters. The Margravine tends to take the party of the philosopher Descartes and Junior that of Wolff. He promised to show the Devil this correspondance.
For the Duchess of Wolffenbuttel - of Braunschweig-Wolffenbüttel, i.e. Charlotte - he esteems her also very much because of the liveliness of her manners and her laughter. He says: „She is a true Harlequin, who also expresses by her letters her humor and will die joking etc."
Princess Sophie, Junior judges to have the best heart of the world, and beautiful common sense, but he fears she will be ruined by her husband, the Margrave of Schwedt, whom he regards as the greatest fool and the greatest villain of the king's states.
For the Duke of Wolffenbuttel - i.e. Charlotte's husband, EC's brother - Junior esteems him genuinely, saying he is a good sort. „He is not a big genius," he continued, "but a prince who does not know what it is to act badly, and as a mark of his good heart, you can see that when his fortune changed by his becoming reigning Duke, he did not change his behavior in any way."
For the Margrave of Bayreuth, he puts him beneath the Duke of Wolffenbuttel in his esteem, and the other princesses there was not discussed this time. (...)
And now comes something that's especially delicious if, like me, you've read the Pleschinski translated Voltaire correspondance relatively recently. Because remember, Fritz had send Voltaire, in the year 1736, a Socrates head - which Émilie reported to Voltaire as showing Fritz, and then they had the Socrates/Alkibiades exchange? I later found out what this actually was was not a bust but a golden knob for a walking stick. So imagine my cackling when I came across this gem, just a few lines after the sibling assessments:
Junior showed the Devil a small present that he intends for him. It's a golden apple for a cane
that he had comissioned to be made. It represents the image of Socrates and there are engraved French verses above, which Junior composed himself. This composition is most flattering for the Devil: because Junior in these verses represents himself as Alcibiades and looks at the Devil like Socrates.
Oooookay. *wipes tears from eyes*
So:
1.) Fritz, cheating on Voltaire this early on in the relationship? Also, did you have multiple Socrates images made? I thought you were practically broke? Who was the original intended recipient, Voltaire or Mantteuffel?
(
mildred_of_midgard: Oh, please, Fritz is only broke because he's a total spendthrift. He runs through money like water and can never get enough. Commissioning golden walking stick heads for prospective2.) Heinrich totally kicked him under the table. Or Ferdinand did, since he gets to be the coming menace. I mean, it's totally true that Heinrich isn't as good natured as AW, but he's also ten at this point, so it's remarkable Fritz gets this opinion of him. Alternate possibility: Heinrich wondered out loud whether Fritz cultivating AW was because Fritz wanted to use AW to cajole favors from Dad?
3.) Younger brothers, your educational day will come. Junior is a man with a mission here, clearly.
4.) So did he have sex with Mantteuffel, and do we count Mantteuffel among the boyfriends?
(
mildred_of_midgard: What I think was most likely going on was primarily self-interest. I'm sure he would have loved another Suhm, but I don't think realizing that wasn't what he had slowed him down one bit in his quest for leverage and money.) Seckendorff the Younger might not get overly chummy with Fritz himself, but he has other sources in addition to Manteuffel, and besides, the Hohenzollern are crazy enougoh that new stories write themselves nearly every day. While our diary writer has his own axe to grind (he doesn't seem to keen on his superior Liechtenstein). But what his boss in Vienna is most interested in is what the hell is going on with Fritz and his family. What kind of King will he be, if he ever makes it to the throne?
There are all kinds of interesting cross connections, like this one. Remember, Biberius = Grumbkow. The Countess Fuchs may be chief lady in waiting to the current empress, but more importantly, she's the governess of the archduchess Maria Theresia, and will be the only non-Habsburg buried in the Kapuzinergruft at MT's orders. Pöllnitz is the gossipy writer/courtier surviving four Hohenzollern regimes.
I know from Biberius, that Pöllnitz wrote to the countess Fuchs, grand-mistress of the Empress, a twenty page letter with sharp sayings from Orondates. And the Devil will try to ingratiate himself with Pöllnitz so that Pöllnitz shows him the letter, which is sure to make for an entertaining reading. "It is very good that Orondates is gone: because with his suspicions he would have ruined everything, and given all the trouble which he enjoyed stirring between the crownl prince and the king, he would soon have put everything into confusion and disunity."
More than it already is, you mean?
Borck (the general). He told Biberius that the king according to Gotter sounds friendly towards Orondates: “It's not true that I don't like him. I deem him to be a great General and a reasonable and capable man."
The journal mentions "Katte" repeatedly, but context makes it apparant it's always Hans Heinrich. Also, in 1734, when journal writer Seckendorff arrives, FW has one of his worst dropsy attacks resulting in touching father-son scene on page 11 already:
The Crown Prince is truly touched by the king's situation; there are always tears in his eyes, he's cried his heart out, has worked to get a more comfortable bed for the King; hadn't wanted to leave Potsdam. At last the King has forced him to, and told him not to return before Saturday afternoon. "As long as the king does live, I would give an arm to extend his life by twenty years." The King has called him "Fritzchen" all the time.
In case anyone thinks Wilhelmine is exaggarating Mom's hostility towards her (and EC) in the first half of the 1730s in her memoirs, here's Seckendorff backing her up, on page 69, June 8th:
Olympia. She seems to be very indifferent to the subject of Vitellius' disease, so apparently is tired lying to him, and hoping well for the future; but she could be terribly wrong in her calculation: because, although she hates the crown princess and the later being liked by Junior the most, Olympia at the same time also hates the heriditary princess of Bayreuth and does her ill services with her father, telling him all kind of odious stories about her. And that's where she spoils everything with Junior, who values this Bayreuth sister beyond expression and who, according to appearances, will make make her shine in favour one day.
Well, she won't "spoil everything with Junior" but it supports that at least 1730s Fritz was aware SD was a different mother to Wilhelmine than she was to him. Now I knew via Wilhelmine's memoirs she hadn't given up her English marriage intentions but transferred them to Charlotte, only to be foiled again. Something I've also learned through Seckendorff's diary is that SD then transferred them to Ulrike, no more with the Prince of Wales - who'd tied the knot by then - but a younger brother. No dice, though as we know, Ulrike will be the only daughter to become Queen. And this, Hohenzollern boys, is why your sisters have a different impression of Mom than you do. Not that FW as a father to his daughters was anything to write home about. Voit was the Bayreuth envoy to Prussia.
June 13th: Voit from Bayreuth gets an audience with the King. - "Should I congratulate or send my condolences? My daughter has to let herself be f... better."
The news question can't have been the birth of his granddaughter, since that girl was already born in August 1732, so I'm assuming it was the death of the old Margrave? Anyway, the FW quote is in German, and either the editor or Seckendorf writes f.... , this isn't me being coy. Same word as in English, if you're wondering, with an i instead of an u.
Everyone distrusts everyone else on the court. Discussed is whether or not Fritz gets to join the already sadly senile Eugene at Philippsburg:
28th: The king graciously refuses to permit the crown prince permission to join the campaign. Alexander Wartensleben tells me that the King's illness is just pretense, and that father and son are in good standing with each other.
29th: The King gives the Crown Prince permission to join the campaign, under the condition that the two imperials corpses join his etc.
No detail is too insignificant to be noted down for its potential political implication, as when FW orders little Ferdinand to get a Polish page so he picks up some of the language. Potential Prussian designs on Poland? Also, here's other Seckendorff on a much debated topic:
Frederic Wartensleben tells me, that crown prince sleeps with the crown princess, and that he reprimanded Count Truchsess for what the later said about my uncle and me.
On July 6th, FW is having second thoughts again about letting Fritz hang out with Eugene:
The King is afraid that Junior might become too good an Imperial if he leaves him too long with the (imperial) army. (No danger there, FW.)
So what's your opinion on chatty Pöllnitz, FW?
"Pöllnitz is a writer. A writer doesn't have a clue about soldiers. If Pöllnitz tells me about the Ansbach and Bayreuth courts, I believe him; but if he talks about complete an incomplete armies, he doesn't know what he's talking about.
When Fritz is feeling let down by Eugene who has lost most of his memory not being the legendary figure he expected, and the campaign is mostly boring, FW is gleeful:
Judge for yourself whether I shouldn't bee happy that the old guy is made fun off, especially since I can't stand the fact the Emperor and I share a Field Marshal. You may write all this in confidence to General Seckendorff.
While FW will indeed be indignant about not being told of the FS/MT marriage until after the fact, he evidently knew Franzl was a primary candidate for her hand, because in October 1735, i.e. before the marriage, the journal notes:
He charged Gotter with all the demonstrations of submission imaginable for the emperor and as many for the duke of Lorraine. "He should lay himself on the feet of the Emperor and kiss his ass."
FW is also protesting again and again how much he hates the French and how he'd never desert the Emperor for them. This is why Austria trading Lorraine to the French for the Pragmatic Sanction acknowledgment (remember, FS had to give up his dukedom for marrying MT) is regarded by him as as a betrayal (though not as much as the fact MT's dad doesn't back his claim on Jülich and Berg).
In January 1736, relationships between FW and Fritz are on the downslide again:
Biberius tells me about the secrets, that Junior confided in Pöllnitz. The King encourages him to produce children, had him made a marital bed out of velvet. Biberius does not believe, that Junior will survive the father, but that pessimus Wilhelmus will succeed one day.
Pessimus Wilhelmus, the worst William, is of course AW. But mostly FW is busy getting in advance indignant about the impeding marriage and the other claims on Jülich and Berg:
The Emperor treats me and all HRE princes like pushovers, which I certainly do not deserve form the Emperor. God knows I never arlied with France. I always ask myself whether I ever went against the Emperor's interests, and I can't find anything. And now I'm pushed aside for that son of a whore Mantelsack, and I doubt they'll notify me of the Duke of Lorraine marriage!
The Emperor, soothingly, sends some tall guys. Observes Seckendorff the journal writer, in German: "If France had as many tall fellows to offer as the Emperor, Prussia might be French by now, but this wouldn't have any more real effects as the professed allegiance to the Emperor.
And finally, the entry that caused Mildred to track down the journal to begin with, in May:
The king is outraged at the ignominious manner in which the mperial court treated him to what he claims in the matter of the preliminaries of peace, as well as regarding the report of the marriage of the duke of Lorraine, and the way the court still neglects him to this very hour. The king doesn't give a f- about the tall guys that the emperor can give him; he wants to be honored and distinguished as he thinks he deserved by his past conduct, which he always seeks to justify, saying by pointing at the Crown Prince: "Here is someone who will one day avenge me". And although the king begins to moderate a lot in his passions and speeches, he cannot yet moderate anger when it comes to the negligence of the imperial court towards him,and tears come out of him in anger.
This has to be the biggest tantrum thrown about not getting a wedding invite in that century. Then follows the amazing "What I really think about my family: By Fritz" entry courtesy of Mantteuffel, which I'm posted above.
Evidently, Mantteuffel got instructions to dig a little more into Junior's sex life. No, not that way. (We think?)
More spicy crown prince gossip reported by the Devil to Seckendorff Jr.: Manteuffel advised Fritz to try harder with the procreation business:
"(...)because it would make your state now happier, and would save you from many future worries, because when we see that You have no lineage, we will marry your brother Wilhelm, and then the scheming and plotting will be inevitable" .
Junior agreed to all this; "But", he said, "I can't embrace my wife with passion, and when I sleep with her, I do it rather out of duty than by inclination."
Mantteuffel points out that the earth would be barren if the only children born were born to couples who loved each other, and hey, gird your loins, I hear she's got at least a nice exterior?
Junior: ,, This is true, her form is very pretty; but I have never been in love with her. However, I should be the last man, in the world if I didn't esteem her: because she has a very sweet nature, a more docile woman one cannot imagine, she's excessively compliant, and hastens to do everything she believes can please me. Also, she can't complain that I'm not sleeping with her. I truly don't know why there isn't a child there already."
In case Seckendorff Jr. is slow on the uptake, Manteuffel has a literary hint for him:
The Devil makes me read the Roman History of Des Echarts and points out the character of Junior, who is the same as that of Emperor Hadrian.
Footnote for strangers to Roman history: Hadrian wasn't known for his heterosexuality. His love for his favourite Antinous meant that he was a gay icon in Rokoko times already.
On December 1st (still 1736), FW is not a fan of Suhm: Upon hearing of the appointment of Suhm as envoy to the court of Petersburg, the King says: "He's an arch villain, and I'm sorry I didn't hang him while I had him here."
(
mildred_of_midgard: I ran across the episode where FW threatened to hang Suhm while he did have him there, in Carlyle. As usual, a diplomatic incident starts with FW's recruiters of tall men recruiting men they weren't supposed to, and this time the Saxon officials chased them onto Brandenburg territory, captured them, and imprisoned them. Tracking down Carlyle's source tells me this took place in 1727, and that Mauvillon is writing no later than 1741! And Mauvillon cites the letters between August and FW, so we have primary sources for this episode. Anyway, here's Carlyle:"Captain Natzmer to swing on the gallows? Taken on Brandenburg territory too, and not the least notice given me?" Friedrich Wilhelm blazes into flaming whirlwind; sends an Official Gentleman, one Katsch, to his Excellenz Baron von Suhm (the Crown-Prince's cultivated friend), with this appalling message: "If Natzmer be hanged, for certain I will use reprisals; you yourself shall swing!" Whereupon Suhm, in panic, fled over the marches to his Master; who bullied him for his pusillanimous terrors; and applied to Friedrich Wilhelm, in fine frenzy of indignant astonishment, "What, in Heaven's name, such meditated outrage on the law of nations, and flat insult to the Majesty of Kings, can have meant?" Friedrich Wilhelm, the first fury being spent, sees that he is quite out of square; disavows the reprisals upon Suhm. "Message misdelivered by my Official Gentleman, that stupid Katsch; never did intend to hang Suhm; oh, no;" with much other correspondence; [In Mauvillon (ii. 189-195) more of it than any one will read.]— and is very angry at himself, and at the Natzmer affair, which has brought him into this bad pass. Into open impropriety; into danger of an utter rupture, had King August been of quarrelsome turn. But King August was not quarrelsome; and then Seckendorf and the Tobacco-Parliament,— on the Kaiser's score, who wants Pragmatic Sanction and much else out of these two Kings, and can at no rate have them quarrel in the present juncture,— were eager to quench the fire. King August let Natzmer go; Suhm returned to his post; [Pollnitz, ii. 254.] and things hustled themselves into some uneasy posture of silence again;— uneasy to the sensitive fancy of Friedrich Wilhelm above all. This is his worst collision with his Neighbor of Saxony; and springing from one's Hobby again!—
In early 1737, Seckendorff is not impressed with teenage AW: Prince Wilhelm had a weak spell yesterday at the parade; however he was obliged to dine with us, where he cut a sad figure.
On the other hand, he has a soft spot for coming menace Ferdinand, when it's Ferdinand's turn to dine with Dad and his smoking chums in the tobacco c ollege:
Little Prince Ferdinand did not contribute much, other than his kindness to keep the king in good spirits. But above all, this kind child deserves to be reported because, wanting to have something of Biberius, who was sitting next to him, he uses the expression: Your excellence, be as gracious as to give me something of this." To which Bberius replied: "I can't dole out graces; the King alone is capable of providing grace." To which the prince replied: "OH yes, your excellency, but you are Field Marshall now, so you will be able to act gracefully." Biberius couldn't help but show his amusement. The King smiled; but the Beard" - La Barbe, the Beard, is der alte Dessauer, Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Dessau - behaved with the air of a Hercules in his fury.
(Because Grumbkow has been made a Field Marshal.)
Seckendorff Jr. has the bad luck that Original Seckendorff, the Field Marshall, temporarily falls from grace back home in Vienna and has been arrested and imprisoned in Graz, where he'll stay until MT ascends to the throne. (She'll release him.) This means Seckendorff the nephew is called back from Prussia. In Vienna, he first tries to make good weather for uncle and also shares gossip with people bitching about MT's new husband. Remember, they all think Franzl is the future ruler, nobody considers MT will rule, and they aren't impressed by his lack of military prowess. Also, he's a foreigner from Lorraince, so basically half French, and everyone hates the French. So Seckendorff Jr. notes:
Dissension at home. The Duke of Lorraine has all Austrians as enemies. He is at odds with his parents-in-law and they are displeased with him; the archduchess alone stands by her husband. The Duke is very annoyed with Bartenstein and has cause to be. He's only told of the May decisions after his return to the army. Bartenstein has told him to his face that after the Emperor has done him the honor of giving him his inheriting daughter, he was to submit himself to the Emperor's will in everything.
Like I said elsewhere: Franzl's early life in Vienna was one long humiliation conga. (With the important exception of MT standing by him, as he would stand by her in the years to come.)
On page 206, Seckendorff the nephew during his debriefing is asked to give his assessment on the topic: Fritz: Hot or not? Well, he also has to say whether or not he thinks FW is still trustworthy, but we have our priorities here, don't we?
About the feelings of the King. Myself: "The King has a good heart, he is at his core imperially minded and remembers the dinner in Prague with enoyment." Himself: "Ah, if only his actions would fit with this supposed good heart!" Myself: "One has to bind him by solid and mutually beneficial conditions." Himself: "One has to see how that could be accomplished."
About the person of the Crown Prince. His figure: handsome, looks like a Hannover, wears his own hair, looks pretty masculine, if flabby." "Does he love horses and hunting?" "No, he is a terrible rider and hunter; he loves reading, music, magnificence and "la bonne chère"."
(
mildred_of_midgard: Google tells me "la bonne chère" means "good food." Which is definitely true of Fritz. His desire to set a good table for himself and his friends is half the reason he's chronically in debt at Rheinsberg, and as we've seen, he was still setting a good table on August 5, 1786. (cahn, Fritz dies August 17.) He can go without food during war (and evidently loses a lot of weight during the Seven Years' War), but given the choice, will put mustard and peppercorns in his coffee and fine food on his table!) His relationship with the King his father. "In public, things are well. But there are still needling phrases. Besides, the Prince in his heart has never forgotten his arrest in Wesel, and he hates with an eternal hatred all which contributed, i.e. Derschauer." Himself: "But not Grumbkow?" "No. Biberius is corresponding with him; he sits at his table and drinks from his wine."
(Goes to show how good a dissembler our antihero has come to be. When Grumbkow dies, he's downright cheerful about it in a letter to Wilhelmine.)
His relationship with the Crown Princess. "Good; she's pretty, compliant; they sleep together."
His religion: "That of an honest man; God; all confessed will be forgiven." The Crown Prince loves pomp and grandeur; he'll reestablish all the court offices; he wants to have princes and counts at his court.
See, Seckendorff Jr., with that kind of intelligence it's not surprising poor MT was caught unawares. If she even had time to read the files before he invaded. It's on page 206 ff if you want to read it for yourself.
Anyway: Once it's apparant Uncle Seckendorff isn't going to get out of Graz any time soon, Seckendorff the nephew decides that his career in Austrian services is doomed for now, and requests to be allowed to transfer to Anhalt. Where he'll continue to work for Fritz' brother-in-law, one of the two odious ones. Which is how this volume concludes. Seckendorff the Younger's online biography linked above tells me that when in 1756 the 7-Years-War started, he was afraid the Prussians would get their hands on his diary and destroyed a great deal of it, so it's a wonder we have as much as we do.
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