So you think Hervey didn't try, as opposed to tried unsuccessfully?
Well, the thing is: Hervey was able to get a peerage for Stephen Fox (a Tory) out of Robert walpole (a Whig). Granted, this was because Fox and friends (ahem) had voted with Walpole and friends to deny the Prince of Wales' friends' motion that the King should grant him a higher budget, and Hervey was able to argue that Stephen had done so at risk of his future career, because Fritz of Wales wasn't likely to forget that once he did become King, and so Fox wasn't likely to become a peer then. Still: Hervey was tight with Queen Caroline, Algarotti was an international celebrity, and Caroline was very much culturally interested, and a voracious reader. So I can't imagine Hervey reccommending Algarotti to her as, say, an art collector, or as someone she could be a patron to (by perhaps giving her Algarotti's Newton For Ladies book) and Caroline turning him down flat.
Now: this is all speculation on my part. Halsband's biography only mentions what Hervey did do for Algarotti (giving him a suite of rooms at his various residences, presents, love letters), and the letters he quotes from Algarotti to Hervey announcing his return (on the occasion of the second England trip, say) certainly sound affectionate and don't include a "so how about a job?" passage. But it's still noteworthy that Hervey seems not to have made an attempt to introduce Algarotti to any of the Royal family (that we know of), let alone the Queen, while of course Algarotti was social as hell with other nobles (like Lady Mary *g*).
At any rate, I can *totally* see this for Hervey and Fritz of Wales, and think that it had a much better chance of playing out exactly like this. Which, alas, doesn't mean it was nearly as successful as Fritz/Fredersdorf, where I suspect Fredersdorf's caution actually helped.
The caution, and, paradoxically, the class difference. Fredersdorf wasn't a prominent member of the nobility who'd gotten into a duel over the accusation of being gay with the accuser explicitly saying this wasn't a vice that worked on one's lonesome. Conversely, Fritz of Wales seems to have been okay with the existence of Stephen Fox in Hervey's life (see the teasing letter making a reference to him), and can you imagine Fritz of Prussia putting up with another man Fredersdorf writes love letters to?
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2020-10-05 07:16 am (UTC)Well, the thing is: Hervey was able to get a peerage for Stephen Fox (a Tory) out of Robert walpole (a Whig). Granted, this was because Fox and friends (ahem) had voted with Walpole and friends to deny the Prince of Wales' friends' motion that the King should grant him a higher budget, and Hervey was able to argue that Stephen had done so at risk of his future career, because Fritz of Wales wasn't likely to forget that once he did become King, and so Fox wasn't likely to become a peer then. Still: Hervey was tight with Queen Caroline, Algarotti was an international celebrity, and Caroline was very much culturally interested, and a voracious reader. So I can't imagine Hervey reccommending Algarotti to her as, say, an art collector, or as someone she could be a patron to (by perhaps giving her Algarotti's Newton For Ladies book) and Caroline turning him down flat.
Now: this is all speculation on my part. Halsband's biography only mentions what Hervey did do for Algarotti (giving him a suite of rooms at his various residences, presents, love letters), and the letters he quotes from Algarotti to Hervey announcing his return (on the occasion of the second England trip, say) certainly sound affectionate and don't include a "so how about a job?" passage. But it's still noteworthy that Hervey seems not to have made an attempt to introduce Algarotti to any of the Royal family (that we know of), let alone the Queen, while of course Algarotti was social as hell with other nobles (like Lady Mary *g*).
At any rate, I can *totally* see this for Hervey and Fritz of Wales, and think that it had a much better chance of playing out exactly like this. Which, alas, doesn't mean it was nearly as successful as Fritz/Fredersdorf, where I suspect Fredersdorf's caution actually helped.
The caution, and, paradoxically, the class difference. Fredersdorf wasn't a prominent member of the nobility who'd gotten into a duel over the accusation of being gay with the accuser explicitly saying this wasn't a vice that worked on one's lonesome. Conversely, Fritz of Wales seems to have been okay with the existence of Stephen Fox in Hervey's life (see the teasing letter making a reference to him), and can you imagine Fritz of Prussia putting up with another man Fredersdorf writes love letters to?