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rheinsbergWe have in our library the three volume biography of Prince Eugene of Savoye by Alfred von Arneth, which yours truly did not have the time to read so far, but has dipped into for points of Frederician interest, to wit, the Eugene-Seckendorff relationship, the lead up and aftermath of the 1730 escape attempt from the Austrian pov. Arneth is writing this very obviously from a defensive position where almost all 19th century readers/writers have adopted the Prussian Hohenzollern narrative.
(mildred_of_midgard: Obvious, cahn, because Arneth was an Austrian. He was the head of the state archives, and he published reams of historical documentation, including a 10-volume bio of MT and a ton of correspondence, which is how we know MT did not, in fact, write to Madame Pompadour.")
selenak: Which means not only is he correcting but he sometimes goes over the top in defending. Some examples for both:
Clement affair (remember, the guy had sold FW on a Eugene masterminded scheme where FW gets killed or kidnapped at Wusterhausen and Fritz gets raised as a Catholic and controlled by Vienna): bonkers. Says a lot about FW that he actually believed this, and even after Clement admitted the forgery thought it was more likely Clement recanted out of fear and had originally said the truth. Incidentally, the Clement Affair and another minor issue led to Seckendorff's appointment as envoy in Berlin. Eugene had picked him explicitly to get FW out of his paranoid "Team Habsburg and Eugene wanted to kidnap/assassinate me and raise my kid!" mind frame and back to (at least mostly) supporting his Emperor. Because Seckendorff was a bona fide general (and successful as such), and FW knew and approved of him since Stralsund, and because he was able to keep a poker face and didn't let himself be rattled, Seckendorff was deemed ideal for this tricky job.
FW in general: let's get one thing straight, Prussians. For all your insistence that honest honest poor FW was hoodwinked by Team Austria, "honest" FW kept making contradictory treaties with both sides and kept wavering and also, good lord, that temper. Also, my guy Eugene was an actual military hero who nonetheless didn't shout abuse at people and kick them, he was super generous instead of miserly, and he loved culture. He was the A plus combination of what's best of French and German traits. Whereas FW... Well, okay. He did make Prussia rich and solvent this way and created a good army.
So far, so good. But then.
Bribery: Okay. Yeah. Seckendorff was instructed to bribe everyone, and Grumbkow was the best example, except I don't mention any sums because I want to frustrate the salon. I do mention sums of everyone else's briberies, because EVERYONE was bribing officials in that century, see Louis offering sum x, Peter the Great sum Y, and also this and also that, and why are we the ones getting stuck with the "slimy bribery guys" reputation, is what I want to know.
Hohenzollern family politics: Look here, Prussians, all these complaints that Seckendorff is to blame for enlarging the rift between FW and his two oldest kids are totally unfair. On the contrary, lemme quote Eugen's letters instructing Seckendorff to get tight with the Crown Prince as well because Eugene knew FW could die of a stroke any time and then it would have been bad to start with an Austria-hating new monarch. Seckendorff was to signal friendliness and willingness to reconcile father and son. Okay, Seckendorff was also instructed to work against the English marriages, but that was politics! Oh, and fyi, shut up with all the "how dare Team Austria intervene with Fritz' and Wilhelmine's marriages, what business was that of theirs" - I never hear you asking "how dare FW say he'd rather lose his country and his people than allow MT to marry Don Carlos of Spain!" That never gets quoted by you, does it?
(mildred_of_midgard: Reminder: the 1725 Treaty of Hanover, which formed an alliance between Prussia, France, Britain, and Hanover (later including Sweden and the Netherlands), was in response to the Spanish-Austrian alliance, which was when the MT/Don Carlos marriage idea was tossed around. (Charles VI was never going to do it, but he kept Philip and Isabella dangling with hints, and the rest of Europe was worried he was serious.))
selenak, continuing to paraphrase Arneth the defensive Austrian: Which is why I'm quoting it now. Marriages of future royalty were ALWAYS politics, and so every other monarch minded and commented and pushed. Though btw, why FW thought marrying his kids to the Brits would make them too Brit friendly and why Eugene & Seckendorff thought the same is beyond me, given that FW's own marriage was the primary example of how you can be married to the sister of the King of England and still hate his guts. Speaking of England:
FW/G2 almost duel crisis of 1729:
Eugene: Thumbs up! I like it. That G2 is getting way to big for his breeches and Prince Elector of Hanover. Seckendorff, tell FW if there's war, I'm totally joining in .
FW/G2 reconciliation happens.
Eugene: Go figure. That man is so unreliable. Any news on the "make the kid like us" front, Seckendorff?
Seckendorff: Well, he's taking money from me, but if you want my opinion, that kid is evil (böse) and false (falsch) to the core, and if you're hoping for gratitude once FW kicks the bucket, forget it.
Eugene: ...Keep trying to reconcile them anyway. I'm trying to be an optimist here, and he's the future monarch.
(Arneth: SEE!!!!)
Eugene: Still, maybe it can't hurt to make nice with the Brits ourselves.
Brits: We want it in writing that you're never, ever, going to marry MT to Fritz.
Eugene: Perfidious Albion. Firstly, no one in their right mind would believe FW would ever go for such a marriage. But he WOULD be incredibly insulted if such a clause is in a treaty anyway. Secondly, us refusing to include such a clause will undoubtedly be useful as propaganda claiming we intend this marriage. I'm getting too old for this crap.
Arneth: SEEEEEEE!!!!!
Arneth compares and contrasts FW with Eugene
Arneth's "compare and contrast" of FW and Eugene at times was so close to Sophie's letters that I wondered whether he read them, but if so, he'd have to read them in the Prussian State Archive, as they hadn't been published yet. BTW, the way he sees FW's attitude to Eugene is:
Crown Prince FW: Hero worship because 'twas the era for fanboying Eugene.
Young King FW: *hears a Eugene critique about promised Pussian support showing up, is insulted* =>cooling down, but still respect. Arneth says FW was constitutionally incapable of ever accepting he might have done something wrong, of course.
FW in Clement Plot era and shortly thereafter: ET TU, EUGENE? I see through you now!
FW post Seckendorff's arrival through the 1730s: Eugene: still the man... I guess. I'm sending animals for his menagerie as presents and tokens of respect because he won't accept any money, jewelry or silver drinking cups like August. But much as he's a military legend, he's also a Catholic, and I'm still not sure whether he wouldn't have kidnapped and assassinated me back in 1719 to get his hands on Fritz...
Eugene's attitude to FW throughout: I respect him as a monarch who actually works. But as I am the type of general who thinks parades are boring, I don't get his thing for them. As for his much praised army, I suspect the first time they see actual battle instead of parades and maneuvres, a full third of them will desert. And good lord, that temper!
Katte's execution, the Eugene and Seckendorff take:
mildred_of_midgard:
Which seems to be a three parter: 1) "I really hope FW listens to 80-yo Grandpa Wartensleben and me and spares Katte's life." 2) "Welp, after all that executing Katte and especially under Fritz's eyes, FW can expect his reputation to take a hit, especially in England." 3) "I just had a look at the Punctae, where Katte tells Fritz to be obedient to his father and not to buy into flattery. Which, if you read between the lines, tells you a lot about what Katte was up to before,"...and then the endless sentence went on and I ran out of time to finish it, but my impression is, "Maybe it was for the best."
selenak: Having read it, the later two reactions are from Eugene, not Seckendorff (seems Grumbkow sent a copy of the Punctae to Eugene), but yeah, that's what it amounts to, i.e. the final conclusion is that the Punctae show pre-death sentence Katte must have been a flatterer goading Fritz against his father in an already incindiary situation, and maybe he is better off dead.
Direct quotes from letters between Eugene and Seckendorff from Arneth's footnotes:
Eugene to Seckendorff, Sept. 20th 1727: ...it would be very good if you'd manage a good standing with the Queen and the Crown Prince, especially the later. Do anything reasonable to win him over, and convert him to good principles bit by bit, but in a decent way, and you'll know to be careful enough not to expose yourself too much with the Queen...
Seckendorff to Eugene, Sept. 14th 1728: The King's discontent about the Crown Prince and the Princess Royal's (Kronprinzessin, not Kronprinz, i.e. Wilhemine) displeasure caused by their Lord Father rises more by the day, for the King doesn't hesitate at public meals to shower the Crown Prince with such titles as the most common and low of men would hesitate to give to his son.
This is nearly two years before the flight attempt, note. In a letter from October to Eugene, Seckendorff claims to have reconciled father and son. Which, well, if he did does not last long, as Seckendorff himself documents. Seckendorff also testifies the famous hair dragging event:
Seckendorff to Eugene, December 3rd 1729: I have to tell your grace in deepest confidence that yesterday in the morning, the King has grabbed the Crown Prince at his hair and dragged him around since (FW) had noticed that (Fritz) hadn't been clean and well dressed enough. After the Crown Prince had been finally released, he talked to Lieutenant Colonel Rochow who has been assigned to him about this with tears in his eyes. Rochow, following my advice, has decided to admonish the King somewhat on this matter. ("dem König Vorstellungen darüber zu machen" is difficult to translate. It's not "chiding", which Rochow can't do to his monarch, but it's stronger than just "talk to him about".)
Anyway, Arneth quotes all this as proof Seckendorff wasn't campaigning to deepen the rift between FW and Fritz but tried to help Fritz. (Not selflessly but in order to gain a good standing with the next monarch, but he did try.) Arneth also has a point that FW's dislike of G2 would have ensured the British marriages would not have happened in any case, even without the Austrians campaigning against them. But what he doesn't say and what is undoubtedly also true is that Team HRE throwing their weight against the British marriages at a point where FW was pro HRE did inevitably contribute to make things worse for Fritz and Wilhelmine since their mother had made the English marriages not only their filial duty to her but presented them as their own possible escape from FW.
Eugene to Seckendorff, September 20th 1730 (i.e. post arrest, pre execution): It is the Emperor's opinion and order that you behave in this matter that has evolved between the King and the Crown Prince as delicatedly and sensibly as possible, to prevent any further escalation, to pour water into the fire, to help and assist the Prince as much as you possibly can...
Seckendorff to Eugene, October 9th 1730 (still before the execution, but after a lot of interrogations): Due to the Crown Prince's very false, secretive and malicious temper, I have little faith regarding a continuation of the Imperial Alliance in the future.
Eugene's reply letter is dated October 31st 1730 and says that while such a temper as Seckendorff ascribes to the Crown Prince probably won't know gratitude, and Fritz is undoubtedly still in the France/England Yay! mindframe he's been indoctrinated with by his mother: "His Imperial Majesty is not deterred by this from insisting on you following the instructions as given through me, for this matter has to end one way or another, and it is therefore better if his Imperial Majesty gets the credit, especially since your Excellency reports that the Queen and the entire Prussian cabinet seems to believe the Emperor alone would be able to mediate and reconcile the Crown Prince with the King, and if this doesn't happen all the evilminded people will spread the word that the Emperor rejoices in this disaster and that he has advised the King to be relentless. Eugene also expresses the hope that even if Seckendorff is right about Fritz now, he's still very young and has years to learn better, and also, he (Eugene, not Fritz) has read the interrogation protocol forwarded to him by Grumbkow & Seckendorf and thought hat: The King's questions were put very sharply, while the Prince's replies were given rather modestly and with short sentences just as the King prefers.
Seckendorff in 1759, kidnapped and locked up in Magdeburg: I stand by my opinion on Fritz' temper.
Eugene and Marlborough
mildred_of_midgard in her summary of the War of the Spanish Succession : So harmonious and unselfish was their [Eugene and Marlborough's] co-operation that popular medals were struck depicting them as Castor and Pollux.
selenak: Horowski also points out they were the military international bromance of the 18th Century, despite being very different men. Re: what was more the norm - remember how the 7 Years War, the first Miracle of the House of Brandenburg happened because after soundly defeating Fritz at Kunersdorf, the anti-Fritz-Alliance didn't march onto Berlin? One explanation for this were hierarchical arguments in the international leadership. On the other side, G2's son Bill the Butcher before failing ignomiously early in the 7 Years War also kept arguing with both his Hannover and his Prussian allies. Marborough and Eugene forming a dream team really was the absolute exception to the rule when it came to big name generals from different realms working together.
Re: the military bromance, I see Eugene and Marlborough have their military history issue, but I'm not sure it's worth ordering considering the blurb already makes a massive mistake, for it says:
Marlborough and Eugene were very different characters. The former was a largely self-made man who had risen through merit and court favour, whereas the latter was a man born to aristocratic privilege. While Marlborough was vain, avaricious, and concerned with his own advancement, Eugene took wealth and power for granted.
No, he didn't, because ever since Mom hightailed it out of France, he was a kid without either, and he had to run away from France and work hard to get it. Also, re: Marlborough rising through merit and court favour, here I have to bring up not Shaw's version but Charles II.'s actual quip re: young Jack Churchill/Barbara, and future Marlborough trying to apologize once he realised Charles knew: "I forgive you, young man, for I know you earn your bread this way."
The Encyplopedia Britannica's description of the Battle of Blenheim isn't as cool as Mildred's, but it does provide an example of how exactly the Marlborough-and-Eugene team work went:
Prince Eugene mounted a strong diversionary assault on his flank while Marlborough’s general Lord John Cutts mounted two unsuccessful assaults upon Blenheim. Cutts’s attacks forced Tallard to commit more reserves to defend Blenheim than he had intended, and thus served to further weaken the French centre. Since Eugene kept Marsin fully occupied, Marlborough then launched the main attack across the Nebel River against the French centre. Marlborough’s advance was hotly contested by French cavalry attacks, and only his personal direction and Eugene’s selfless loan of one of his own cavalry corps enabled Marlborough to maintain the momentum of his attack. Once successfully launched, however, the attack proved irresistible. The Allied cavalry broke through the French centre, dividing Marsin’s army from that of Tallard, and then wheeled left, sweeping Tallard’s forces into the Danube River.
Have some more quotes:
Eugene about his multinationality: "I have three hearts, a passionate Italian heart with which to confront my enemies, and obedient French heart for my monarch and a loyal German heart for my friends."
(Eugene: lived long before the French Revolution. Seriously though, you can tell he spent his youth in the France of Louis XIV by that remark, which indeed prized obedience to the (absolute) monarch.)
Eugene about Marlborough, when they first joined up: “a man of high quality, courageous, extremely well-disposed, and with a keen desire to achieve something; with all these qualities he understands thoroughly that one cannot become a general in a day, and he is diffident about himself.”
From a doctoral thesis, about which more in a moment:
In spite of historians’ different takes on the generalships of Eugene and Marlborough, Marlborough would later write that “Prince Eugene and I shall never differ about our share of laurels.”216 Both generals, however, “exposed their person repeatedly,” reported one officer. “Eugen went so far that it is almost a miracle that he escaped with his life.”
You can see why Fritz was a fan (though feeling let down when meeting old Eugene in person, which changed somewhat in his recollection once he himself had gotten old).
Googling about Eugene and Marlborough, btw, can bring you weird places. Not this doctoral thesis, something else. Here I was, reading what first came across as a solid esay about Eugene, here, and then there's this passage:
In 1716 Austria and Venice went to war with Turkey and at Peterwardein in present day Serbia, Eugene defeated an army twice his army's size. This earned him from the Pope a consecrated had and sword which was the customary Papal award for victories over the infidel. Dare I hope that such a hat and sword be awarded by His Holiness to Eugene's successor victor over the infidels, Secretary Rumsfeld, for his victory at Baghdad over the infidel Saddam?
....What? thought I. Is this sarcasm? Irony? Alas, no. Later on:
But in a brilliant surprise counterattack, in which Eugene had been careful to well-fortify his troops with wine, brandy and beer, the Turks were again annihilated and Belgrade was won for Christendom (let's pray that Mr. Rumsfeld can pull off a similar coup).
...yeah. I checked the date - seems the essay was a lecture given in 2003 by one William B. Warren in New York City. Good lord. Well, Fritz had The Worst Fanboys. Go figure that Eugene has The Terrible Fanboys. Just for the record, William B. Warren, I suspect Eugene might have figured out you can't invade a country under a blatantly forged pretext, piss off nearly all your former allies ahead of this, expect the population to applaud you and then leave behind chaos. Given the importance he put on making and keeping alliances, you might say he'd have done the opposite. Also, if you're actually comparing the war against the Turks (who were doing the invading) with the Iraq Invasion, then you were definitely not a member of the reality based community in 2003 already.
Gossipy Sexuality Debate:
Because when refreshing my memories via wiki, the following amuses me.
German wiki: even in his life time, there were rumors that Eugene was gay. "Mars without Venus" being the nice form of same, and then there's Liselotte writing about him in a letter: " „incommodiert er sich nicht mit Damen, ein paar schöne Pagen wären besser sein Sach!“ ("He doesn't bother with ladies, a few beautiful pages would be more to his taste") Though it can't be proven 100%.
English wiki: NO PROOF. Liselotte wrote that when Eugene was already busy fighting against her brother-in-law Louis. Clearly, she was slandering a man who was humiliating her brother-in-law on the battlefield, out of offended French patriotism.
selenak: Wiki people, short of coming across Eugene's love letters, or memoirs of a boytoy, I don't see how it could be proven 100%, one way or the other. However, let's be clear about something here:
1.) Liselotte had mixed feelings about Louis and his wars herself, what with him invading her home realm, the Palatinate, using her marriage to his brother as a pretext. She had been devastated by that. Some of her half brothers fought on the other side of those endless wars, including her very favourite brother, Carl-Lutz. Whose death made her very sad indeed. When her Hannover relations (aka her favourite aunt Sophie's husband and brother-in-law) were responsible for a Louis battlefield loss, she was a bit gleeful, even. So I'm really doubtful she'd have felt offended French patriotism and the need to avenge same by slandering Eugene.
2.) Also, Liselotte, with a clain of being married to the gayest noble not just of France but of Europe, and living surrounded by a lot of other gay and bi courtiers of same, presumably had a reasonably good gaydar. If young Eugene before his getaway from France had struck her as gay, I'm inclined to believe her.
3.) Also, Liselotte didn't see gayness per se as something negative. She wrote in December 1705 to her half sister Amelise: „Wo seydt Ihr und Louisse denn gestocken, daß ihr die weldt so wenig kendt? (…) wer alle die haßen woldt, so die junge kerls lieben, würde hier kein 6 menschen lieben können." ("What's gotten into you and Louise that you know so little of the world? (...) If one would hate all those who love young men, one couldn't love six people here. (In Versailles.)") Morever, while she was an inveterate gossip reporter in her letters, I don't think anyone has accused her otherwise of making it up. Doesn't mean the gossip she reports has to be accurate, of course, and naturally her own biases against people get into it - she definitely believed in the old order and superiority of noble bloodlines, for example, and she loathed Madame de Maintenon, louis' mistress and later morganatic wife -, and the fact that Eugene was the son of an Italian adventuresss who only married into the top French nobility because her uncle had been Cardinal Mazarin would have biased her against him. But not likely to have made her invent stories she hadn't heard.
4.) While there are reasons for not marrying other than being gay, it's still worth considering that if you are a penniless refugee without any family connections in a world that lives by those, it's absolutely remarkable not to try to form them by marrying into one of the big families. But escaped-from-France Eugene didn't do that when showing up in the HRE. He really owed his remarkable career (and massive fortune) to his skills.
In conclusion, I wish whoever wrote those passages in the English wiki would meet Johannes Kunisch, who is the German Fritz biographer who made my AP argue for a while that maybe Fritz was just pretending to be gay because Eugene and Turenne had made it fashionable. (I kid you not.)
cahn: I remember you citing this before, but of course I'd forgotten it until you mentioned it again <3 Liselotte! <33
selenak: Same here. Now of course she could have been wrong in her guesses as to how many completely straight men existed in Versailles in 1704, but honestly, I'm trusting her more than English wikipedia on this, what with her actually living there! Morever: English wiki brings up Eugene's memoirs (in a different context, for a quote about hating Louis XIV' guts). I hadn't known Eugene wrote any memoirs, so I googled, and lo, he had not, but, see see here, there were several fake memoirs making the rounds in the 18th and early 19th century. Remember, this was a thing. There were also fake memoirs of Madame de Maintenon, for example, which Lehndorff reads at some point in his early diaries. Writing "memoirs" for a dead celebrity was a very profitale enterprise, and in the 18th century, it wasn't like they could sue you for it. (Which is why it wasn't completely irrational when people upon eventual publication of Wilhelmine's memoirs first said it had be be an anti-Prussian forgery until being presented with the manuscript in her handwriting.) However, 21st century dictionaries are supposed to be better versed about which sources are fakes!
The "memoirs" English wiki fell for were written by our old acquaintance the Prince de Ligne, and they have their own doctoral thesis written about them, which I did subsequently read. The self appointed ghost writer of Eugene's memoirs was: Charles-Joseph, Prince de Ligne, whom we've met before; he was, among other things, part of Joseph's entourage at Neisse when Joseph met Fritz and is responsible for both the "Fritz & Co. wear white uniforms to "spare Austrian feelings" anecdote and the story about Fritz visiting the Antinous statue (which btw used to belong to Eugene, remember? Then Lichtenstein, then Fritz). He didn't write the fake Eugene memoirs for cash; in fact, they were not published within his life time, but only after his death, when they were found among his papers. The doctoral thesis, which compares to the memoirs to their 18th century source, Mauvillon's biography "Life of Prince Eugene", which they are far too close to for, the thesis writer argues, contemporaries not to notice, or they should have, i.e. Ligne didn't expect them to be taken in. He mainly wrote them because he hero-worshiped Eugene and had literary ambitions, plus he wanted to vent about the French (post Diplomatic Revolution Austria's allies, about which de Ligne was not happy). Basically, it's fannish first person RPF. However, whatever his expectations, there were enough people taking the memoirs for the genuine article in the 19th century that they kept being used as sources, and some (i.e. English wiki, though not, note, German wiki) do so to this day.
Finally, Eugene, the historical novel:
I found another literary footnote: a really long novel about Prince Eugene from the 1950s, written by Louise Eisler (divorced wife of composer Hanns Eisler) and her next husband Ernst Fischer. They were both Marxists. Hanns Eisler, who'd composed the songs for Brecht's play Die Maßnahme and had gone into exile, had fallen foul of the HUAC once the war was over, and ended up in the GDR, composing the East German national anthem. Louise after divorcing him ended up in Austria again, marrying Fischer. And that's really all I know about her; she had befriended my doctoral thesis subject Lion Feuchtwanger while in Exile and he wrote an epilogue for her Eugene novel, which is how I came across it. So the novel is in some way Eugene: The Communist View. It's also written entirely in dialogue, like a stage play, but at novel length, starting in Versailles after young Eugene is refused a job by Louis one time too often and ending shortly after his death and funeral in Vienna.
Characterisation: young Eugene does want fame and a job, and picks Team Habsburg/Austria precisely because they're about to hit rock bottom and a seemingly hopeless cause (all the more impressive if he can make a career there), but he also has an inner idealist waiting to get out pretty soon, falling in love with not the HRE but Austria and the people (naturally), with the jealeaous nobility (intruder alert) hating his guts and the clergy ditto. (Evil Jesuits about.) Soon his goals shift and he basically fights with a reformed, modern Austrian state as the endgame in mind. His tragedy is that he's stuck with three mediocre Emperors in a row who do figure out they need him but are incapable to realize the greater vision, and all too prone to listening to his enemies. His larger tragedy is, as two female characters tell him, that he's fighting for the wrong cause; instead of defeating Racoczky, he should have joined forces with him and fought for Hungarian independence, for starters. (At which point I checked, and Louise Eisler Fischer was born Louise Goztony.) But also while he's doing his best for the people under his command, he doesn't realise you can't reform a rotten system from above.
On the less doctrinaire side, the book actually has its share of interesting relationships and characters. Mind you, it's a early 1950s publication, which means no, no one is openly gay. In the opening Versailles scene, one courtier tells another courtier who has spotted Eugene in the waiting room and wonders who he is that Lselotte has said about him that, and here the direction goes "she whispers the rest in his ear", and that's it. Eugene later has a platonic soulmate relationship with the Countess Eleonore Batthany, nee Strattmann, but while she is unambigiously in love with him, he at least sexually is not in love with her (or anyone else), though he cares deeply for her. We get two scenes with Queen Anne, one with Sarah, one with Abigail, and you can read it as just capricious bored monarch and (platonic) favourite or as subtextual ("nasty rumors" are mentioned). But that's it in terms of hints that not everyone may be straight. Otoh,
Eugene is given a "my best enemy" relationship with Villars, who also shows up already in the Versailles introduction scene, and the two keep running into each other through the years before Malplaquet, always respecting the hell out of each other. This makes Villars one of two competent and sympathetic male aristos who aren't Eugene. The other one is Marlborough. (All other male aristocrats are either incompetent, malicious, or both. The female characters are more more layered; even those working against Eugene, like Mt's Dad's Spanish mistress, are given sympathetic or even noble motives.) Since he's really working for Britain, not Anne, like Eugene is working for Austra, not his three Emperors, their bffness is assured. (Marlborough feels as if he hails directly from Winston Churchill's characterisation of him. The novel also likes his wife a lot and is definitely pro-Sarah and anti-Abigail; so much so that when Marlborough mentions some of what Britain has gained at the end of the war, Sarah is sincerely shocked that this includes slave trading rights and is basically Britain's first anti-slavery-aristocrat, giving her husband a "how could you?" (He points out that since he's out of a job now, what's he supposed to do about it?)
In addition to the historical upper class characters, we also get servants, soldiers, engineers and farmers. The most prominent of whom is Ursula, who starts out in Eugene's service, like her brother, and Eugene okay with her wearing men's clothing and basically running his first estate, until some stupid and evil Austrian aristocrats show up who want to provoke the (absent) Eugene by running havoc with his estate. One of them tries to rape Ursula who because she has a pistol can fight him off, but this is it for her; she changes sides and joins the Hungarian rebellion, and once that's defeated doesn't return into Eugene's service anymore, either, unlike her brother Martin who keeps serving him as a soldier. Ursula hold Eugene responsible because he has the insight to understand what's necessary and has managed to achieve genuine power, but he still won'tjoin the revolution overthrow the rotten system instead of stabilizing it.
This is also the criticism of Eleonore, who argues with him a lot - not least because he infuriates her by always seeing his enemy's pov as well, even if said enemies are courtiers scheming against him, EXCEPT in the case of Racoczky and FREE HUNGARY NOW - but also adores him and is the novel's uncontested heroine who gets the last but one word on Eugene once he's dead. (The very last word is given to the people passing his coffin, saying the man in it is "more than the Emperor - one could almost say he's Austria".
The novel's interpretation of Eugene at Philippsburg is that he's not senile, he's just become sick of war and especially sees no point in this particular one. He gets a big scene with Crown Prince Fritz who is indeed One Dangerous Young Man, during which Eugene demonstrates he could still come up with brilliant attack plans if he wanted to, but he doesn't want to. He can see a bit of his thirsting for glory youngest self in Fritz, but what's missing in Fritz is any kind of consideration for his people whatsoever (cue the quote from a letter to Voltaire during Silesia 1 about how war is like Europe having a fever with the inevitable bloodletting). He says he wants a battle like Malplaquet and Eugene gets more appalled by the second. This is definitely a Fritz written post WWII. (And, I suspect, influenced by Lavisse mainly.) Team Eisler & Fischer really have done their research, though, since earlier when eveyone is discussing possible husbands for MT, one of the ministers says "what about the Crown Prince of Prussia, he has SAID he wants to!" and Eugene cuttingly replies that Fritz clearly just wanted to make trouble between Berlin and Vienna when springing that proposal on Grumbkow, pay attention, will you, and no way should it be considered as serious. MT herself also gets two in person cameos as a strong willed and clearly brighter than Dad, Uncle and Granddad girl, but Fritz isn't mentioned in either of them.
Let's see, what else: this Eugene isn't obsessed with avenging himself on Louis (though his mother, who gets one single scene, definitely is), and gets over the "I'll show him" part of his motivation pretty quickly because he starts to bond with the Austrian people. Our authors mention Ligne in the footnotes, thus are ware the memoir is a fake. Otoh, he has a blind spot about Racoczky (see above), and is prone to idealize England until Marlborough and Sarah present him with the downsides during his visit. The one scene with his mother has the implication tht his inability to let anyone get closer than "friendship" level despite being increasingly lonely hails from being regarded as the also ran even before she left. While he mostly is depicted outwitting his opponenets, he's shown to make mistakes as well, at times with devastating consequences for other people (i.e.the servants who get abused by his rivals at court), and, in the end, despite wanting the best Tragically On The Wrong Side of history.
(
mildred_of_midgard: Obvious, cahn, because Arneth was an Austrian. He was the head of the state archives, and he published reams of historical documentation, including a 10-volume bio of MT and a ton of correspondence, which is how we know MT did not, in fact, write to Madame Pompadour.")selenak: Which means not only is he correcting but he sometimes goes over the top in defending. Some examples for both:Clement affair (remember, the guy had sold FW on a Eugene masterminded scheme where FW gets killed or kidnapped at Wusterhausen and Fritz gets raised as a Catholic and controlled by Vienna): bonkers. Says a lot about FW that he actually believed this, and even after Clement admitted the forgery thought it was more likely Clement recanted out of fear and had originally said the truth. Incidentally, the Clement Affair and another minor issue led to Seckendorff's appointment as envoy in Berlin. Eugene had picked him explicitly to get FW out of his paranoid "Team Habsburg and Eugene wanted to kidnap/assassinate me and raise my kid!" mind frame and back to (at least mostly) supporting his Emperor. Because Seckendorff was a bona fide general (and successful as such), and FW knew and approved of him since Stralsund, and because he was able to keep a poker face and didn't let himself be rattled, Seckendorff was deemed ideal for this tricky job.
FW in general: let's get one thing straight, Prussians. For all your insistence that honest honest poor FW was hoodwinked by Team Austria, "honest" FW kept making contradictory treaties with both sides and kept wavering and also, good lord, that temper. Also, my guy Eugene was an actual military hero who nonetheless didn't shout abuse at people and kick them, he was super generous instead of miserly, and he loved culture. He was the A plus combination of what's best of French and German traits. Whereas FW... Well, okay. He did make Prussia rich and solvent this way and created a good army.
So far, so good. But then.
Bribery: Okay. Yeah. Seckendorff was instructed to bribe everyone, and Grumbkow was the best example, except I don't mention any sums because I want to frustrate the salon. I do mention sums of everyone else's briberies, because EVERYONE was bribing officials in that century, see Louis offering sum x, Peter the Great sum Y, and also this and also that, and why are we the ones getting stuck with the "slimy bribery guys" reputation, is what I want to know.
Hohenzollern family politics: Look here, Prussians, all these complaints that Seckendorff is to blame for enlarging the rift between FW and his two oldest kids are totally unfair. On the contrary, lemme quote Eugen's letters instructing Seckendorff to get tight with the Crown Prince as well because Eugene knew FW could die of a stroke any time and then it would have been bad to start with an Austria-hating new monarch. Seckendorff was to signal friendliness and willingness to reconcile father and son. Okay, Seckendorff was also instructed to work against the English marriages, but that was politics! Oh, and fyi, shut up with all the "how dare Team Austria intervene with Fritz' and Wilhelmine's marriages, what business was that of theirs" - I never hear you asking "how dare FW say he'd rather lose his country and his people than allow MT to marry Don Carlos of Spain!" That never gets quoted by you, does it?
(
mildred_of_midgard: Reminder: the 1725 Treaty of Hanover, which formed an alliance between Prussia, France, Britain, and Hanover (later including Sweden and the Netherlands), was in response to the Spanish-Austrian alliance, which was when the MT/Don Carlos marriage idea was tossed around. (Charles VI was never going to do it, but he kept Philip and Isabella dangling with hints, and the rest of Europe was worried he was serious.))selenak, continuing to paraphrase Arneth the defensive Austrian: Which is why I'm quoting it now. Marriages of future royalty were ALWAYS politics, and so every other monarch minded and commented and pushed. Though btw, why FW thought marrying his kids to the Brits would make them too Brit friendly and why Eugene & Seckendorff thought the same is beyond me, given that FW's own marriage was the primary example of how you can be married to the sister of the King of England and still hate his guts. Speaking of England:FW/G2 almost duel crisis of 1729:
Eugene: Thumbs up! I like it. That G2 is getting way to big for his breeches and Prince Elector of Hanover. Seckendorff, tell FW if there's war, I'm totally joining in .
FW/G2 reconciliation happens.
Eugene: Go figure. That man is so unreliable. Any news on the "make the kid like us" front, Seckendorff?
Seckendorff: Well, he's taking money from me, but if you want my opinion, that kid is evil (böse) and false (falsch) to the core, and if you're hoping for gratitude once FW kicks the bucket, forget it.
Eugene: ...Keep trying to reconcile them anyway. I'm trying to be an optimist here, and he's the future monarch.
(Arneth: SEE!!!!)
Eugene: Still, maybe it can't hurt to make nice with the Brits ourselves.
Brits: We want it in writing that you're never, ever, going to marry MT to Fritz.
Eugene: Perfidious Albion. Firstly, no one in their right mind would believe FW would ever go for such a marriage. But he WOULD be incredibly insulted if such a clause is in a treaty anyway. Secondly, us refusing to include such a clause will undoubtedly be useful as propaganda claiming we intend this marriage. I'm getting too old for this crap.
Arneth: SEEEEEEE!!!!!
Arneth compares and contrasts FW with Eugene
Arneth's "compare and contrast" of FW and Eugene at times was so close to Sophie's letters that I wondered whether he read them, but if so, he'd have to read them in the Prussian State Archive, as they hadn't been published yet. BTW, the way he sees FW's attitude to Eugene is:
Crown Prince FW: Hero worship because 'twas the era for fanboying Eugene.
Young King FW: *hears a Eugene critique about promised Pussian support showing up, is insulted* =>cooling down, but still respect. Arneth says FW was constitutionally incapable of ever accepting he might have done something wrong, of course.
FW in Clement Plot era and shortly thereafter: ET TU, EUGENE? I see through you now!
FW post Seckendorff's arrival through the 1730s: Eugene: still the man... I guess. I'm sending animals for his menagerie as presents and tokens of respect because he won't accept any money, jewelry or silver drinking cups like August. But much as he's a military legend, he's also a Catholic, and I'm still not sure whether he wouldn't have kidnapped and assassinated me back in 1719 to get his hands on Fritz...
Eugene's attitude to FW throughout: I respect him as a monarch who actually works. But as I am the type of general who thinks parades are boring, I don't get his thing for them. As for his much praised army, I suspect the first time they see actual battle instead of parades and maneuvres, a full third of them will desert. And good lord, that temper!
Katte's execution, the Eugene and Seckendorff take:
mildred_of_midgard: Which seems to be a three parter: 1) "I really hope FW listens to 80-yo Grandpa Wartensleben and me and spares Katte's life." 2) "Welp, after all that executing Katte and especially under Fritz's eyes, FW can expect his reputation to take a hit, especially in England." 3) "I just had a look at the Punctae, where Katte tells Fritz to be obedient to his father and not to buy into flattery. Which, if you read between the lines, tells you a lot about what Katte was up to before,"...and then the endless sentence went on and I ran out of time to finish it, but my impression is, "Maybe it was for the best."
selenak: Having read it, the later two reactions are from Eugene, not Seckendorff (seems Grumbkow sent a copy of the Punctae to Eugene), but yeah, that's what it amounts to, i.e. the final conclusion is that the Punctae show pre-death sentence Katte must have been a flatterer goading Fritz against his father in an already incindiary situation, and maybe he is better off dead.Direct quotes from letters between Eugene and Seckendorff from Arneth's footnotes:
Eugene to Seckendorff, Sept. 20th 1727: ...it would be very good if you'd manage a good standing with the Queen and the Crown Prince, especially the later. Do anything reasonable to win him over, and convert him to good principles bit by bit, but in a decent way, and you'll know to be careful enough not to expose yourself too much with the Queen...
Seckendorff to Eugene, Sept. 14th 1728: The King's discontent about the Crown Prince and the Princess Royal's (Kronprinzessin, not Kronprinz, i.e. Wilhemine) displeasure caused by their Lord Father rises more by the day, for the King doesn't hesitate at public meals to shower the Crown Prince with such titles as the most common and low of men would hesitate to give to his son.
This is nearly two years before the flight attempt, note. In a letter from October to Eugene, Seckendorff claims to have reconciled father and son. Which, well, if he did does not last long, as Seckendorff himself documents. Seckendorff also testifies the famous hair dragging event:
Seckendorff to Eugene, December 3rd 1729: I have to tell your grace in deepest confidence that yesterday in the morning, the King has grabbed the Crown Prince at his hair and dragged him around since (FW) had noticed that (Fritz) hadn't been clean and well dressed enough. After the Crown Prince had been finally released, he talked to Lieutenant Colonel Rochow who has been assigned to him about this with tears in his eyes. Rochow, following my advice, has decided to admonish the King somewhat on this matter. ("dem König Vorstellungen darüber zu machen" is difficult to translate. It's not "chiding", which Rochow can't do to his monarch, but it's stronger than just "talk to him about".)
Anyway, Arneth quotes all this as proof Seckendorff wasn't campaigning to deepen the rift between FW and Fritz but tried to help Fritz. (Not selflessly but in order to gain a good standing with the next monarch, but he did try.) Arneth also has a point that FW's dislike of G2 would have ensured the British marriages would not have happened in any case, even without the Austrians campaigning against them. But what he doesn't say and what is undoubtedly also true is that Team HRE throwing their weight against the British marriages at a point where FW was pro HRE did inevitably contribute to make things worse for Fritz and Wilhelmine since their mother had made the English marriages not only their filial duty to her but presented them as their own possible escape from FW.
Eugene to Seckendorff, September 20th 1730 (i.e. post arrest, pre execution): It is the Emperor's opinion and order that you behave in this matter that has evolved between the King and the Crown Prince as delicatedly and sensibly as possible, to prevent any further escalation, to pour water into the fire, to help and assist the Prince as much as you possibly can...
Seckendorff to Eugene, October 9th 1730 (still before the execution, but after a lot of interrogations): Due to the Crown Prince's very false, secretive and malicious temper, I have little faith regarding a continuation of the Imperial Alliance in the future.
Eugene's reply letter is dated October 31st 1730 and says that while such a temper as Seckendorff ascribes to the Crown Prince probably won't know gratitude, and Fritz is undoubtedly still in the France/England Yay! mindframe he's been indoctrinated with by his mother: "His Imperial Majesty is not deterred by this from insisting on you following the instructions as given through me, for this matter has to end one way or another, and it is therefore better if his Imperial Majesty gets the credit, especially since your Excellency reports that the Queen and the entire Prussian cabinet seems to believe the Emperor alone would be able to mediate and reconcile the Crown Prince with the King, and if this doesn't happen all the evilminded people will spread the word that the Emperor rejoices in this disaster and that he has advised the King to be relentless. Eugene also expresses the hope that even if Seckendorff is right about Fritz now, he's still very young and has years to learn better, and also, he (Eugene, not Fritz) has read the interrogation protocol forwarded to him by Grumbkow & Seckendorf and thought hat: The King's questions were put very sharply, while the Prince's replies were given rather modestly and with short sentences just as the King prefers.
Seckendorff in 1759, kidnapped and locked up in Magdeburg: I stand by my opinion on Fritz' temper.
Eugene and Marlborough
mildred_of_midgard in her summary of the War of the Spanish Succession : So harmonious and unselfish was their [Eugene and Marlborough's] co-operation that popular medals were struck depicting them as Castor and Pollux.selenak: Horowski also points out they were the military international bromance of the 18th Century, despite being very different men. Re: what was more the norm - remember how the 7 Years War, the first Miracle of the House of Brandenburg happened because after soundly defeating Fritz at Kunersdorf, the anti-Fritz-Alliance didn't march onto Berlin? One explanation for this were hierarchical arguments in the international leadership. On the other side, G2's son Bill the Butcher before failing ignomiously early in the 7 Years War also kept arguing with both his Hannover and his Prussian allies. Marborough and Eugene forming a dream team really was the absolute exception to the rule when it came to big name generals from different realms working together.Re: the military bromance, I see Eugene and Marlborough have their military history issue, but I'm not sure it's worth ordering considering the blurb already makes a massive mistake, for it says:
Marlborough and Eugene were very different characters. The former was a largely self-made man who had risen through merit and court favour, whereas the latter was a man born to aristocratic privilege. While Marlborough was vain, avaricious, and concerned with his own advancement, Eugene took wealth and power for granted.
No, he didn't, because ever since Mom hightailed it out of France, he was a kid without either, and he had to run away from France and work hard to get it. Also, re: Marlborough rising through merit and court favour, here I have to bring up not Shaw's version but Charles II.'s actual quip re: young Jack Churchill/Barbara, and future Marlborough trying to apologize once he realised Charles knew: "I forgive you, young man, for I know you earn your bread this way."
The Encyplopedia Britannica's description of the Battle of Blenheim isn't as cool as Mildred's, but it does provide an example of how exactly the Marlborough-and-Eugene team work went:
Prince Eugene mounted a strong diversionary assault on his flank while Marlborough’s general Lord John Cutts mounted two unsuccessful assaults upon Blenheim. Cutts’s attacks forced Tallard to commit more reserves to defend Blenheim than he had intended, and thus served to further weaken the French centre. Since Eugene kept Marsin fully occupied, Marlborough then launched the main attack across the Nebel River against the French centre. Marlborough’s advance was hotly contested by French cavalry attacks, and only his personal direction and Eugene’s selfless loan of one of his own cavalry corps enabled Marlborough to maintain the momentum of his attack. Once successfully launched, however, the attack proved irresistible. The Allied cavalry broke through the French centre, dividing Marsin’s army from that of Tallard, and then wheeled left, sweeping Tallard’s forces into the Danube River.
Have some more quotes:
Eugene about his multinationality: "I have three hearts, a passionate Italian heart with which to confront my enemies, and obedient French heart for my monarch and a loyal German heart for my friends."
(Eugene: lived long before the French Revolution. Seriously though, you can tell he spent his youth in the France of Louis XIV by that remark, which indeed prized obedience to the (absolute) monarch.)
Eugene about Marlborough, when they first joined up: “a man of high quality, courageous, extremely well-disposed, and with a keen desire to achieve something; with all these qualities he understands thoroughly that one cannot become a general in a day, and he is diffident about himself.”
From a doctoral thesis, about which more in a moment:
In spite of historians’ different takes on the generalships of Eugene and Marlborough, Marlborough would later write that “Prince Eugene and I shall never differ about our share of laurels.”216 Both generals, however, “exposed their person repeatedly,” reported one officer. “Eugen went so far that it is almost a miracle that he escaped with his life.”
You can see why Fritz was a fan (though feeling let down when meeting old Eugene in person, which changed somewhat in his recollection once he himself had gotten old).
Googling about Eugene and Marlborough, btw, can bring you weird places. Not this doctoral thesis, something else. Here I was, reading what first came across as a solid esay about Eugene, here, and then there's this passage:
In 1716 Austria and Venice went to war with Turkey and at Peterwardein in present day Serbia, Eugene defeated an army twice his army's size. This earned him from the Pope a consecrated had and sword which was the customary Papal award for victories over the infidel. Dare I hope that such a hat and sword be awarded by His Holiness to Eugene's successor victor over the infidels, Secretary Rumsfeld, for his victory at Baghdad over the infidel Saddam?
....What? thought I. Is this sarcasm? Irony? Alas, no. Later on:
But in a brilliant surprise counterattack, in which Eugene had been careful to well-fortify his troops with wine, brandy and beer, the Turks were again annihilated and Belgrade was won for Christendom (let's pray that Mr. Rumsfeld can pull off a similar coup).
...yeah. I checked the date - seems the essay was a lecture given in 2003 by one William B. Warren in New York City. Good lord. Well, Fritz had The Worst Fanboys. Go figure that Eugene has The Terrible Fanboys. Just for the record, William B. Warren, I suspect Eugene might have figured out you can't invade a country under a blatantly forged pretext, piss off nearly all your former allies ahead of this, expect the population to applaud you and then leave behind chaos. Given the importance he put on making and keeping alliances, you might say he'd have done the opposite. Also, if you're actually comparing the war against the Turks (who were doing the invading) with the Iraq Invasion, then you were definitely not a member of the reality based community in 2003 already.
Gossipy Sexuality Debate:
Because when refreshing my memories via wiki, the following amuses me.
German wiki: even in his life time, there were rumors that Eugene was gay. "Mars without Venus" being the nice form of same, and then there's Liselotte writing about him in a letter: " „incommodiert er sich nicht mit Damen, ein paar schöne Pagen wären besser sein Sach!“ ("He doesn't bother with ladies, a few beautiful pages would be more to his taste") Though it can't be proven 100%.
English wiki: NO PROOF. Liselotte wrote that when Eugene was already busy fighting against her brother-in-law Louis. Clearly, she was slandering a man who was humiliating her brother-in-law on the battlefield, out of offended French patriotism.
selenak: Wiki people, short of coming across Eugene's love letters, or memoirs of a boytoy, I don't see how it could be proven 100%, one way or the other. However, let's be clear about something here:1.) Liselotte had mixed feelings about Louis and his wars herself, what with him invading her home realm, the Palatinate, using her marriage to his brother as a pretext. She had been devastated by that. Some of her half brothers fought on the other side of those endless wars, including her very favourite brother, Carl-Lutz. Whose death made her very sad indeed. When her Hannover relations (aka her favourite aunt Sophie's husband and brother-in-law) were responsible for a Louis battlefield loss, she was a bit gleeful, even. So I'm really doubtful she'd have felt offended French patriotism and the need to avenge same by slandering Eugene.
2.) Also, Liselotte, with a clain of being married to the gayest noble not just of France but of Europe, and living surrounded by a lot of other gay and bi courtiers of same, presumably had a reasonably good gaydar. If young Eugene before his getaway from France had struck her as gay, I'm inclined to believe her.
3.) Also, Liselotte didn't see gayness per se as something negative. She wrote in December 1705 to her half sister Amelise: „Wo seydt Ihr und Louisse denn gestocken, daß ihr die weldt so wenig kendt? (…) wer alle die haßen woldt, so die junge kerls lieben, würde hier kein 6 menschen lieben können." ("What's gotten into you and Louise that you know so little of the world? (...) If one would hate all those who love young men, one couldn't love six people here. (In Versailles.)") Morever, while she was an inveterate gossip reporter in her letters, I don't think anyone has accused her otherwise of making it up. Doesn't mean the gossip she reports has to be accurate, of course, and naturally her own biases against people get into it - she definitely believed in the old order and superiority of noble bloodlines, for example, and she loathed Madame de Maintenon, louis' mistress and later morganatic wife -, and the fact that Eugene was the son of an Italian adventuresss who only married into the top French nobility because her uncle had been Cardinal Mazarin would have biased her against him. But not likely to have made her invent stories she hadn't heard.
4.) While there are reasons for not marrying other than being gay, it's still worth considering that if you are a penniless refugee without any family connections in a world that lives by those, it's absolutely remarkable not to try to form them by marrying into one of the big families. But escaped-from-France Eugene didn't do that when showing up in the HRE. He really owed his remarkable career (and massive fortune) to his skills.
In conclusion, I wish whoever wrote those passages in the English wiki would meet Johannes Kunisch, who is the German Fritz biographer who made my AP argue for a while that maybe Fritz was just pretending to be gay because Eugene and Turenne had made it fashionable. (I kid you not.)
cahn: I remember you citing this before, but of course I'd forgotten it until you mentioned it again <3 Liselotte! <33selenak: Same here. Now of course she could have been wrong in her guesses as to how many completely straight men existed in Versailles in 1704, but honestly, I'm trusting her more than English wikipedia on this, what with her actually living there! Morever: English wiki brings up Eugene's memoirs (in a different context, for a quote about hating Louis XIV' guts). I hadn't known Eugene wrote any memoirs, so I googled, and lo, he had not, but, see see here, there were several fake memoirs making the rounds in the 18th and early 19th century. Remember, this was a thing. There were also fake memoirs of Madame de Maintenon, for example, which Lehndorff reads at some point in his early diaries. Writing "memoirs" for a dead celebrity was a very profitale enterprise, and in the 18th century, it wasn't like they could sue you for it. (Which is why it wasn't completely irrational when people upon eventual publication of Wilhelmine's memoirs first said it had be be an anti-Prussian forgery until being presented with the manuscript in her handwriting.) However, 21st century dictionaries are supposed to be better versed about which sources are fakes!The "memoirs" English wiki fell for were written by our old acquaintance the Prince de Ligne, and they have their own doctoral thesis written about them, which I did subsequently read. The self appointed ghost writer of Eugene's memoirs was: Charles-Joseph, Prince de Ligne, whom we've met before; he was, among other things, part of Joseph's entourage at Neisse when Joseph met Fritz and is responsible for both the "Fritz & Co. wear white uniforms to "spare Austrian feelings" anecdote and the story about Fritz visiting the Antinous statue (which btw used to belong to Eugene, remember? Then Lichtenstein, then Fritz). He didn't write the fake Eugene memoirs for cash; in fact, they were not published within his life time, but only after his death, when they were found among his papers. The doctoral thesis, which compares to the memoirs to their 18th century source, Mauvillon's biography "Life of Prince Eugene", which they are far too close to for, the thesis writer argues, contemporaries not to notice, or they should have, i.e. Ligne didn't expect them to be taken in. He mainly wrote them because he hero-worshiped Eugene and had literary ambitions, plus he wanted to vent about the French (post Diplomatic Revolution Austria's allies, about which de Ligne was not happy). Basically, it's fannish first person RPF. However, whatever his expectations, there were enough people taking the memoirs for the genuine article in the 19th century that they kept being used as sources, and some (i.e. English wiki, though not, note, German wiki) do so to this day.
Finally, Eugene, the historical novel:
I found another literary footnote: a really long novel about Prince Eugene from the 1950s, written by Louise Eisler (divorced wife of composer Hanns Eisler) and her next husband Ernst Fischer. They were both Marxists. Hanns Eisler, who'd composed the songs for Brecht's play Die Maßnahme and had gone into exile, had fallen foul of the HUAC once the war was over, and ended up in the GDR, composing the East German national anthem. Louise after divorcing him ended up in Austria again, marrying Fischer. And that's really all I know about her; she had befriended my doctoral thesis subject Lion Feuchtwanger while in Exile and he wrote an epilogue for her Eugene novel, which is how I came across it. So the novel is in some way Eugene: The Communist View. It's also written entirely in dialogue, like a stage play, but at novel length, starting in Versailles after young Eugene is refused a job by Louis one time too often and ending shortly after his death and funeral in Vienna.
Characterisation: young Eugene does want fame and a job, and picks Team Habsburg/Austria precisely because they're about to hit rock bottom and a seemingly hopeless cause (all the more impressive if he can make a career there), but he also has an inner idealist waiting to get out pretty soon, falling in love with not the HRE but Austria and the people (naturally), with the jealeaous nobility (intruder alert) hating his guts and the clergy ditto. (Evil Jesuits about.) Soon his goals shift and he basically fights with a reformed, modern Austrian state as the endgame in mind. His tragedy is that he's stuck with three mediocre Emperors in a row who do figure out they need him but are incapable to realize the greater vision, and all too prone to listening to his enemies. His larger tragedy is, as two female characters tell him, that he's fighting for the wrong cause; instead of defeating Racoczky, he should have joined forces with him and fought for Hungarian independence, for starters. (At which point I checked, and Louise Eisler Fischer was born Louise Goztony.) But also while he's doing his best for the people under his command, he doesn't realise you can't reform a rotten system from above.
On the less doctrinaire side, the book actually has its share of interesting relationships and characters. Mind you, it's a early 1950s publication, which means no, no one is openly gay. In the opening Versailles scene, one courtier tells another courtier who has spotted Eugene in the waiting room and wonders who he is that Lselotte has said about him that, and here the direction goes "she whispers the rest in his ear", and that's it. Eugene later has a platonic soulmate relationship with the Countess Eleonore Batthany, nee Strattmann, but while she is unambigiously in love with him, he at least sexually is not in love with her (or anyone else), though he cares deeply for her. We get two scenes with Queen Anne, one with Sarah, one with Abigail, and you can read it as just capricious bored monarch and (platonic) favourite or as subtextual ("nasty rumors" are mentioned). But that's it in terms of hints that not everyone may be straight. Otoh,
Eugene is given a "my best enemy" relationship with Villars, who also shows up already in the Versailles introduction scene, and the two keep running into each other through the years before Malplaquet, always respecting the hell out of each other. This makes Villars one of two competent and sympathetic male aristos who aren't Eugene. The other one is Marlborough. (All other male aristocrats are either incompetent, malicious, or both. The female characters are more more layered; even those working against Eugene, like Mt's Dad's Spanish mistress, are given sympathetic or even noble motives.) Since he's really working for Britain, not Anne, like Eugene is working for Austra, not his three Emperors, their bffness is assured. (Marlborough feels as if he hails directly from Winston Churchill's characterisation of him. The novel also likes his wife a lot and is definitely pro-Sarah and anti-Abigail; so much so that when Marlborough mentions some of what Britain has gained at the end of the war, Sarah is sincerely shocked that this includes slave trading rights and is basically Britain's first anti-slavery-aristocrat, giving her husband a "how could you?" (He points out that since he's out of a job now, what's he supposed to do about it?)
In addition to the historical upper class characters, we also get servants, soldiers, engineers and farmers. The most prominent of whom is Ursula, who starts out in Eugene's service, like her brother, and Eugene okay with her wearing men's clothing and basically running his first estate, until some stupid and evil Austrian aristocrats show up who want to provoke the (absent) Eugene by running havoc with his estate. One of them tries to rape Ursula who because she has a pistol can fight him off, but this is it for her; she changes sides and joins the Hungarian rebellion, and once that's defeated doesn't return into Eugene's service anymore, either, unlike her brother Martin who keeps serving him as a soldier. Ursula hold Eugene responsible because he has the insight to understand what's necessary and has managed to achieve genuine power, but he still won't
This is also the criticism of Eleonore, who argues with him a lot - not least because he infuriates her by always seeing his enemy's pov as well, even if said enemies are courtiers scheming against him, EXCEPT in the case of Racoczky and FREE HUNGARY NOW - but also adores him and is the novel's uncontested heroine who gets the last but one word on Eugene once he's dead. (The very last word is given to the people passing his coffin, saying the man in it is "more than the Emperor - one could almost say he's Austria".
The novel's interpretation of Eugene at Philippsburg is that he's not senile, he's just become sick of war and especially sees no point in this particular one. He gets a big scene with Crown Prince Fritz who is indeed One Dangerous Young Man, during which Eugene demonstrates he could still come up with brilliant attack plans if he wanted to, but he doesn't want to. He can see a bit of his thirsting for glory youngest self in Fritz, but what's missing in Fritz is any kind of consideration for his people whatsoever (cue the quote from a letter to Voltaire during Silesia 1 about how war is like Europe having a fever with the inevitable bloodletting). He says he wants a battle like Malplaquet and Eugene gets more appalled by the second. This is definitely a Fritz written post WWII. (And, I suspect, influenced by Lavisse mainly.) Team Eisler & Fischer really have done their research, though, since earlier when eveyone is discussing possible husbands for MT, one of the ministers says "what about the Crown Prince of Prussia, he has SAID he wants to!" and Eugene cuttingly replies that Fritz clearly just wanted to make trouble between Berlin and Vienna when springing that proposal on Grumbkow, pay attention, will you, and no way should it be considered as serious. MT herself also gets two in person cameos as a strong willed and clearly brighter than Dad, Uncle and Granddad girl, but Fritz isn't mentioned in either of them.
Let's see, what else: this Eugene isn't obsessed with avenging himself on Louis (though his mother, who gets one single scene, definitely is), and gets over the "I'll show him" part of his motivation pretty quickly because he starts to bond with the Austrian people. Our authors mention Ligne in the footnotes, thus are ware the memoir is a fake. Otoh, he has a blind spot about Racoczky (see above), and is prone to idealize England until Marlborough and Sarah present him with the downsides during his visit. The one scene with his mother has the implication tht his inability to let anyone get closer than "friendship" level despite being increasingly lonely hails from being regarded as the also ran even before she left. While he mostly is depicted outwitting his opponenets, he's shown to make mistakes as well, at times with devastating consequences for other people (i.e.the servants who get abused by his rivals at court), and, in the end, despite wanting the best Tragically On The Wrong Side of history.
