Fredersdorf: Prime Suspect?
Sep. 16th, 2020 09:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mildred_of_midgard posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
rheinsbergAuthor: selenak, with help from mildred_of_midgard
Original discussion: https://cahn.dreamwidth.org/168804.html?thread=2075236#cmt2075236
Envoy report:
In the past summer, [Fredersdorf's] credit fell suddenly and starkly; for the King threw his favour at a subaltern officer of his personal guard named Georgii, while [Fredersdorf] was told only to enter the King's tent anymore when he'd been called for, when he used to have unlimited access to it at all times before. But after Georgii just a few weeks later intentionally put a bullet in his head, a deed for which so many contradictory and partly extremely impudent causes have been named, which I do not dare to put down here, [Fredersdorf] has reclaimed the former royal favor and grace entirely.
So, to recapitulate, we have the following possibilities:
1.) Nothing happened beyond possibly Fritz wanting to have privacy for some kind of action in his tent. Rumours took it from there and became ever more extravagant in the retelling.
2.) Georgii the handsome hussar did happen, and with bad timing, too, because it was just at the time when Fritz and Fredersdorf were still readjusting to the changes coming from Fritz' new warrior absolute king self, Fritz wanted to make a pointed gesture to reassure himself he was boss (after Mollwitz would be psychologically ideal), and Fredersdorf starts to wonder whether Zernikow could have been meant as a farewell gift and he's being eased out of Fritz' life, and decides to take action (by putting Georgii under intense scrutiny).
1.) would be nicer for rl, but 2.) certainly is more conductive to fanfiction! One would, of course, have to figure out what kind of dirt Fredersdorf then unearths on Georgii that leads Georgii to shoot himself. Gambling debts is traditional but would not work in this case, because who doesn't have those? Georgii responding to being newly favoured by the King with taking bribes could be blown off by Georgii with the same rationale we speculated on for Fredersdorf above. Hm.... I know! Georgii turns out in his free time to have composed odes to MT! Okay, more seriously, some kind of Austrian connection is the only thing I can think of right now.
Or: wait! My inner pulp fiction plotter awakens! Georgii, whose name rounds Russian anyway, has orginally come to Fritz' attention by a rec letter from the (recently) late Suhm, who supposedly met this fine young gent at St. Petersburg. Fredersdorf finds evidence that this letter was forged and someone coldbloodedly exploited Fritz' affection and grief for Suhm. This, Fritz would not forgive! And now that Georgii actually has gotten to know him a little, he nows that. Ergo suicide. (If faking a Suhm rec letter is not enough, then we could escalete it to "not only was the rec letter faked but Georgii POISONED Suhm (in the service of whichever enemy Suhm had), which Fredersdorf discovers and then gives Georgii an ultimatum).
Yes, the poisoning is probably too much, and the exploiting of Suhm grief and mourning is more insidious and devastating. Now we only have to figure out who does the forging of the rec letter, and why. I mean, I'm assuming Fritz would have been familiar enough with both Suhm's handwriting and that of his secretary, and if no one until Fredersdorf suspects Georgii might have made it up, Georgii must have known enough Suhm essentials to pass. (Doesn't mean intimate details, but enough so he doesn't make the mistake of describing him as bald when he had hair, that kind of thing.
Now, could be Czarina Anna's (who's then reigning unless I'm mistaken, this is pre Elizabeth's coup) Duke of Curland wants to place a spy near Fritz to have an eye on the new Prussian monarch, and they think dying Suhm + Fritz liking handsome man = chance to plant spy. But if we don't want too much international intrigue, than let's say Georgii was a husar who didn't get anywhere in Russia, really wanted that job in Prussia and one day in the tavern heard Suhm's secretary complain that all these letters from the Crown Prince/New King are headache to keep straight, expecially those with requests for BOOK LOANS. Georgii befriends the secretary who is maybe somewhat irked that Suhm, urgently hurrying home despite being in a bad state of health, intens to leave him behind, and so can persuade the secretary to forge him a rec letter. At this point he just figures it'll get him a good comisssion in the army, nothing more, and that once he's there, he'll prove himself so no one will ask Suhm whether he really knows this guy. But then the unexpected combination of Suhm actually dying and Fritz noticing Georgii when told that Suhm recced him, enough to have a short chat with him happens, and Georgii can't resist, he puts it on thick with how tight he was with Suhm etc. Presto!
Chronology
May 30, 1740: FW dies.
July 1740: Fritz and Suhm finally get on the same page about Suhm definitely wanting to join his court.
Late August/early September 1740: Suhm sets out from St. Petersburg.
Approx. October 1, 1740: Suhm arrives in Warsaw, too sick to travel further.
October 17, 1740: Czarina Anna dies.
October 20, 1740: HRE Charles VI dies.
November 8, 1740: Suhm dies in Warsaw.
April 10, 1741: Mollwitz.
Summer 1741: Georgii episode (supposedly).
November (O.S.)/December 1741: Elizaveta's coup.
So not only does the Georgii/Suhm timing line up, but Fritz's grief will be fresh. GRRRR.
And yes, Anna died in late 1740. That was a year of European monarch turnover, what with her, MT's dad, and FW all going.
Excellent! Well, for us, not poor, grief-exploited Fritz. I also think it makes more sense if Georgii isn't a professional spy but just someone whose first lie escalates, snowball-wise, until he can't take anything back even if he wanted to. (Which he doesn't; until Fredersdorf starts his research, things are going fine for Georgii.)
Details: Suhm had a wife and daughter, right? Or just the daughter? Whom Fritz took care of? How old/young was she? If she's a small kid, there's no reason why she should have known some hussar her father recced, and it's not a problem. If she's a bit older, she could be perhaps the one who gives Fredersdorf the key clue (perhaps she knows Dad didn't write any rec letters for army people that last year, something like that)? Because going by how Fredersdorf was the one to organize the taking care of Keyserlingk's daughter, I'm assumung he'd also have been in charge of taking care of Suhm's relations.
Question: if Georgii was partly a pointed gesture on Fritz' part, what could Frederdorf have done which Crown Prince Fritz would have been okay with, but new King Fritz post Mollwitz would not?
[Mildred provides details on the Suhm family here]
I say Ernst was with Dad in St. Peterburg. Whether he should in Silesia: otoh, Heinrich was at age 16, so why not, otoh, Heinrich is Heinrich the brat, third brother, whereas Ernst is Oldest Son Of Beloved Suhm, that's why not. Also if Ernst was in Silesia, Georgii could have been outed by him directly (to Fritz). So it's more convenient if he's not, and we have roughly this series of events:
Fredersdorf: does thing that would have been okay with Crown Prince Fritz but not with King Fritz
Fritz: discovers Georgii, is told Georgii was personally recced by Suhm, chats with him; Georgii can't resist going from "yeah, he recced me" to "yeah, we totally were bffs those last months in St. Petersburg, he saw a young guy who needed help, he helped, you know how he was"
Fritz: promotes Georgii to batman and makes pointed gesture of temporarily removing Fredersdorf's unlimited access, possibly even sending him back to Berlin to look after things there (this will later gossip-wise, transform in "Fredersdorf fell out of favour/was put back into his old regiment)
Fredersdorf: checks on Suhm's family, which he'd have done anyway, but is also now for the first time since their initial getting together somewhat worried about his place with Fritz, plus he's distrustful of this Georgii fellow but can't tell whether that's instinct or jealousy, so he asks Ernst whether he knew Georgii
Ernst: Hasn't, but of course it's theoretically possible that his father could have had a protegé without him knowing
Fredersdorf: has Ernst look at original rec letter, which is in proper secretary's handwriting, decides the secretary is key, finds out secretary is now in Dresden, has spy interlude in Dresden, returns to the front several weeks later to give Georgii an ultimatum
Georgii: By now has gotten to know Fritz well enough to conclude he's toast if Fredersdorf does spill the beans = > suicide
[On oldest son not being in Silesia] I agree. Plus the more I thought about it while writing that post, the more I concluded historical Ernst probably went to university before joining the army, for the following reasons:
- eldest son and Suhm family tradition,
- Fritz sponsoring education,
- only a lieutenant in 1757, suggesting a recent advent to his military career.
I left the Silesia possibility in there only in case it was of use to you for the fic.
selenak, with help from mildred_of_midgardOriginal discussion: https://cahn.dreamwidth.org/168804.html?thread=2075236#cmt2075236
Envoy report:
In the past summer, [Fredersdorf's] credit fell suddenly and starkly; for the King threw his favour at a subaltern officer of his personal guard named Georgii, while [Fredersdorf] was told only to enter the King's tent anymore when he'd been called for, when he used to have unlimited access to it at all times before. But after Georgii just a few weeks later intentionally put a bullet in his head, a deed for which so many contradictory and partly extremely impudent causes have been named, which I do not dare to put down here, [Fredersdorf] has reclaimed the former royal favor and grace entirely.
So, to recapitulate, we have the following possibilities:
1.) Nothing happened beyond possibly Fritz wanting to have privacy for some kind of action in his tent. Rumours took it from there and became ever more extravagant in the retelling.
2.) Georgii the handsome hussar did happen, and with bad timing, too, because it was just at the time when Fritz and Fredersdorf were still readjusting to the changes coming from Fritz' new warrior absolute king self, Fritz wanted to make a pointed gesture to reassure himself he was boss (after Mollwitz would be psychologically ideal), and Fredersdorf starts to wonder whether Zernikow could have been meant as a farewell gift and he's being eased out of Fritz' life, and decides to take action (by putting Georgii under intense scrutiny).
1.) would be nicer for rl, but 2.) certainly is more conductive to fanfiction! One would, of course, have to figure out what kind of dirt Fredersdorf then unearths on Georgii that leads Georgii to shoot himself. Gambling debts is traditional but would not work in this case, because who doesn't have those? Georgii responding to being newly favoured by the King with taking bribes could be blown off by Georgii with the same rationale we speculated on for Fredersdorf above. Hm.... I know! Georgii turns out in his free time to have composed odes to MT! Okay, more seriously, some kind of Austrian connection is the only thing I can think of right now.
Or: wait! My inner pulp fiction plotter awakens! Georgii, whose name rounds Russian anyway, has orginally come to Fritz' attention by a rec letter from the (recently) late Suhm, who supposedly met this fine young gent at St. Petersburg. Fredersdorf finds evidence that this letter was forged and someone coldbloodedly exploited Fritz' affection and grief for Suhm. This, Fritz would not forgive! And now that Georgii actually has gotten to know him a little, he nows that. Ergo suicide. (If faking a Suhm rec letter is not enough, then we could escalete it to "not only was the rec letter faked but Georgii POISONED Suhm (in the service of whichever enemy Suhm had), which Fredersdorf discovers and then gives Georgii an ultimatum).
Yes, the poisoning is probably too much, and the exploiting of Suhm grief and mourning is more insidious and devastating. Now we only have to figure out who does the forging of the rec letter, and why. I mean, I'm assuming Fritz would have been familiar enough with both Suhm's handwriting and that of his secretary, and if no one until Fredersdorf suspects Georgii might have made it up, Georgii must have known enough Suhm essentials to pass. (Doesn't mean intimate details, but enough so he doesn't make the mistake of describing him as bald when he had hair, that kind of thing.
Now, could be Czarina Anna's (who's then reigning unless I'm mistaken, this is pre Elizabeth's coup) Duke of Curland wants to place a spy near Fritz to have an eye on the new Prussian monarch, and they think dying Suhm + Fritz liking handsome man = chance to plant spy. But if we don't want too much international intrigue, than let's say Georgii was a husar who didn't get anywhere in Russia, really wanted that job in Prussia and one day in the tavern heard Suhm's secretary complain that all these letters from the Crown Prince/New King are headache to keep straight, expecially those with requests for BOOK LOANS. Georgii befriends the secretary who is maybe somewhat irked that Suhm, urgently hurrying home despite being in a bad state of health, intens to leave him behind, and so can persuade the secretary to forge him a rec letter. At this point he just figures it'll get him a good comisssion in the army, nothing more, and that once he's there, he'll prove himself so no one will ask Suhm whether he really knows this guy. But then the unexpected combination of Suhm actually dying and Fritz noticing Georgii when told that Suhm recced him, enough to have a short chat with him happens, and Georgii can't resist, he puts it on thick with how tight he was with Suhm etc. Presto!
Chronology
May 30, 1740: FW dies.
July 1740: Fritz and Suhm finally get on the same page about Suhm definitely wanting to join his court.
Late August/early September 1740: Suhm sets out from St. Petersburg.
Approx. October 1, 1740: Suhm arrives in Warsaw, too sick to travel further.
October 17, 1740: Czarina Anna dies.
October 20, 1740: HRE Charles VI dies.
November 8, 1740: Suhm dies in Warsaw.
April 10, 1741: Mollwitz.
Summer 1741: Georgii episode (supposedly).
November (O.S.)/December 1741: Elizaveta's coup.
So not only does the Georgii/Suhm timing line up, but Fritz's grief will be fresh. GRRRR.
And yes, Anna died in late 1740. That was a year of European monarch turnover, what with her, MT's dad, and FW all going.
Excellent! Well, for us, not poor, grief-exploited Fritz. I also think it makes more sense if Georgii isn't a professional spy but just someone whose first lie escalates, snowball-wise, until he can't take anything back even if he wanted to. (Which he doesn't; until Fredersdorf starts his research, things are going fine for Georgii.)
Details: Suhm had a wife and daughter, right? Or just the daughter? Whom Fritz took care of? How old/young was she? If she's a small kid, there's no reason why she should have known some hussar her father recced, and it's not a problem. If she's a bit older, she could be perhaps the one who gives Fredersdorf the key clue (perhaps she knows Dad didn't write any rec letters for army people that last year, something like that)? Because going by how Fredersdorf was the one to organize the taking care of Keyserlingk's daughter, I'm assumung he'd also have been in charge of taking care of Suhm's relations.
Question: if Georgii was partly a pointed gesture on Fritz' part, what could Frederdorf have done which Crown Prince Fritz would have been okay with, but new King Fritz post Mollwitz would not?
[Mildred provides details on the Suhm family here]
I say Ernst was with Dad in St. Peterburg. Whether he should in Silesia: otoh, Heinrich was at age 16, so why not, otoh, Heinrich is Heinrich the brat, third brother, whereas Ernst is Oldest Son Of Beloved Suhm, that's why not. Also if Ernst was in Silesia, Georgii could have been outed by him directly (to Fritz). So it's more convenient if he's not, and we have roughly this series of events:
Fredersdorf: does thing that would have been okay with Crown Prince Fritz but not with King Fritz
Fritz: discovers Georgii, is told Georgii was personally recced by Suhm, chats with him; Georgii can't resist going from "yeah, he recced me" to "yeah, we totally were bffs those last months in St. Petersburg, he saw a young guy who needed help, he helped, you know how he was"
Fritz: promotes Georgii to batman and makes pointed gesture of temporarily removing Fredersdorf's unlimited access, possibly even sending him back to Berlin to look after things there (this will later gossip-wise, transform in "Fredersdorf fell out of favour/was put back into his old regiment)
Fredersdorf: checks on Suhm's family, which he'd have done anyway, but is also now for the first time since their initial getting together somewhat worried about his place with Fritz, plus he's distrustful of this Georgii fellow but can't tell whether that's instinct or jealousy, so he asks Ernst whether he knew Georgii
Ernst: Hasn't, but of course it's theoretically possible that his father could have had a protegé without him knowing
Fredersdorf: has Ernst look at original rec letter, which is in proper secretary's handwriting, decides the secretary is key, finds out secretary is now in Dresden, has spy interlude in Dresden, returns to the front several weeks later to give Georgii an ultimatum
Georgii: By now has gotten to know Fritz well enough to conclude he's toast if Fredersdorf does spill the beans = > suicide
[On oldest son not being in Silesia] I agree. Plus the more I thought about it while writing that post, the more I concluded historical Ernst probably went to university before joining the army, for the following reasons:
- eldest son and Suhm family tradition,
- Fritz sponsoring education,
- only a lieutenant in 1757, suggesting a recent advent to his military career.
I left the Silesia possibility in there only in case it was of use to you for the fic.
