Five Princesses and Joseph II
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rheinsbergA few notes on two books focused on Joseph II, son of Maria Theresia, not so secret fan of Frederick the Great (with an understanding of fandom that includes "going to war with" eventually), brother of Marie Antoinette, reform minded multi travellling Emperor and comic relief in Amadeus.
One is in English - Rebecca Gates-Coon: The Charmed Circle. Joseph II and the "Five Princesses", 1765 - 1790" - and one in German, Monika Czernin: Der Kaiser reist inkognito.
The later is brand new, so to speak, uses Joseph's various travels both as co-regent to MT and as sole Emperor for a character portrait of him and of a portrait of his Empire through them, and is entertainingly written. Not too complicated language from what this native speaker can tell. The author is a self confessed Stefan Zweig fan and actually tries to bring back the Biographie Romancee style in this book, i.e. it's written like a novel, with statements about Joseph resenting this or loving that without the cautionary "maybe", but most of the dialogue lines hail from letters. Also, she and Gates-Coon agree that the best Joseph biography out there is a two volume magnum opus by Derek Beales (first volume: In the Shadow of Maria Theresia, second volume: Alone against the World). Czernin has also read Tim Blanning, btw. And there are footnotes to each chapter pointing out which sources she used for which scenes if she does provide unscripted dialogue. On the MT front, she's read Stollberg-Rillinger (with whom she often but not always agrees) and also is the editor of an edition of letters from MT to her favourite lady in waiting which I've also read. Here's one detail which despite having read about the Joseph visit to Marie Antoinette at Versailles before I somehow missed, possibly because of the distracting hilarity of the marital sex counselling. One of the things MA asked her brother during their first encounter, as part of asking about family members etc., was whether her dog was still cared for. When the fifteen years old Archduchess Maria Antonia had crossed the French border, as you may or may not recall, she had to not only leave literally everything she wore behind (and ceremoniously was dressed in French clothing), but her pet dog as well, much to her grief. That she asked about the dog (apparantly still alive!) seven years later with longing is something I felt I had to tellmildred_of_midgard.
(About the sex counselling: now I had seen sources swearing Joseph had to talk Louis into an operation, and sources quoting the letter from Joseph to Leopold about the problem being Louis', err, penetration - or lack of same - and ejaculation - or lack of same technique to prove it was this and not an operation. This book quotes not only the letter but the follow up letter one and a half months later where Joseph tells Leopold that yay, the talk helped, pregnancy achieved, they figured it out! It really was just laziness and lack of imagination and knowledge, not a physical impediment, told you.)
(As sharp tongued Joseph is in that letter to Leopold, in general he did talk well about Marie Antoinette, who was his favourite sister, much as she worried him. *insert the famous "the revolution will be cruel" quote here* He defended her to the ladies who had heard worrying tales from France once he was back in Vienna. They were somewhat critical of her but basically fond - they had all known her as a girl, don't forget - and as opposed to Joseph, they were still alive when she died, which horrified them on a very personal level, not just on an aristocratic one.)
The "Five Princesses" author, incidentally, says Beales was the first to use the letters by and to said Princesses and take note of the importance of Joseph's relationship with them, with previous biographers only taking note of one, Eleonore Liechtenstein (niecer-in-law to the Antinuous owner), who was the only one of the five with whom Joseph was for a short time in unrequited love. She handled it brilliantly (given the gazillion problems a love affair would have had - a) it would have pissed off her husband, who had already made trouble with her previous affair with a sexy Irishman, and made threats, b) it would have cost her MT's regard (and MT still was the key power in the co-regency era), and c) who could know whether Joseph wouldn't get tired of her quickly? Otoh, saying no to the second most powerful person in your world is also tricky. So she did go for "friendship yes, love no", and made sure she wasn't alone with him ever in this initial phase. From this, the circle of five - plus two of his male friends - developed. His infatuation passed, but the friendship didn't, and he started to develop friendly relationships to all four of the other women. Pre-Beales, biographers treated the other women were just as chaperones during the aborted not-love affair, and he unearthed and put together the material demonstrating they were, in fact, a group of friends, which remarkably unchanging members until Joseph's death. (Instead one or the other of the ladies leaving or new ones being added. This just didn't happen. Basically, the group consolidated in the early 1770s and remained thus till Joseph's death.) The two non-Joseph male members of the club, Lacy and Orsini-Rosenberg, weren't always present, but the women were, who all had relationships with each other as well as with the Emperor. Whom they at times were extremely critical about, not least because they were against a great many of his reforms, but also because Joseph shared a lot of Fritzian traits designed to drive you bonkers at close range - the mansplaining, the sarcasm, the meddling and micromanaging, the inability to admit he could be at fault for a subsequent disaster. (BTW, this is also why I doubt he and Fritz outside of crack fic would have worked as a couple.) But they also had unfaked (as voiced to each other, not to him) praise for his positive sides - he wrote travel letters for each when on the road, for example, and as with Wilhelmine's travel letters different ones, not copied over ones, thus making it clear he valued each individual relationship as well as the group one, and when one of the ladies (not Eleonore) had lost two children in short order he was a true comfort (remember, he had lost his only daughter and been heartbroken over it, so she knew he knew whereof he spoke). Gates-Coon never loses sight of the inevitable power differential - i.e. if Joseph had simply been Mrs. Habsburg's know-it-all son in the neigborhood, maybe they would have cut off relations at some point. But all of them had husbands (who were not wanted at the group gatherings, btw) and children and families to network, though Joseph tried really hard not to be the kind of ruler encouraging nepotism and enriching faves, with the result that he sometimes by trying to be impartial was harsher than necessary which ticked people including the ladies off. What they gained through their connection to him weren't additional lands or jobs for the husbands (with one exception), but of course people after a while took notice that the Emperor kept seeking out their company (in peace times, they met at one of the ladies' at least once or twice a week), and access to the monarch is always a highly envied privilege in a monarchy, so this in turn enhanced their already high social status. And while he denied to brother Leopold that he talked politics with them (Leopold wrote Joseph not once but two very disapproving "why do you keep hanging out with these women!!!" letters set years apart), their own letters prove he did, in fact, occasionally talk politics with them. The book is also good source material on Austrian nobility in the relevant period, and the author repeatedly takes to charge one British source that got quoted and copied through centuries who said the Viennese ladies in MT's time read only lives of saints and not the latest French literature or Madame de Sevigné and thus were uneducated due to Catholic bigotry. Whereas the letters of the five princesses prove that not only had they read Madame de Sevigné (still a near century after her life time THE role model for female letter writers) but they were familiar with a great many secular literary classics. She's also good at pointing out the fierce inner Catholic debates - pro and contra Jansenism, for example - which tend to be overlooked by Protestant contemporary sources.
Anyway: also an interesting book, but darker and more depressing than the travel-oriented one.
A few more notes on the Five Princesses.
Firstly, who were the five Princesses? Four of the five were related, all were Austrian aristocracy. Since all of them, being Austrian Catholics, had "Maria" in their names, and their titles were lengthy, biographers tend to simplify our lives by referring to them by another Christian name and the name of the family they married into. This still means a doubling of first names in one case! Reality is just badly written this way. Anyway, they were:
Josepha Clary: The oldest one, already in her midthirties when Joseph became Emperor after his father's death in 1765. The peacemaker of the group, praised by both locals and foreign visitors for her friendly disposition and kindness. Josepha Clary's company, Leopoldine (Kaunitz) told her sister Eleonore Liechtenstein, was like "a sweet perfume that completely envelopes you. (...) She inspires respect and trust."
Sidonia Kinsky: her one years younger sister, the other senior member. Small (as noted by Zinzendorf), according to Lady Mary Coke "the most pleasing figure without being a regular beauty that I ever saw; & her manner extremely agreeable". Prussian envoy Fürst thinks Kaunitz the famous chancellor was romantically interested in Sidonia, but got rebuffed. A great reader and concert lover.
Both sisters were born Hohenzollern-Hechingen; this Swabian line of Hohenzollerns split from the Brandenburg line in the middle ages and remained Catholic.
Leopoldine Liechtenstein: born a Sternberg, married at 16 and thus already a society matron when Joseph becomes Emperor. The only one of the group with out a blood relationship with the other members. Also flirted with Kaunitz the Chancellor a bit without getting serious. More imperious in temper than the older sisters and more serious in manner, but basically kind. Married to a nephew of Wenzel von Liechtenstein the Antinous owner, who after the death of his uncle becomes the next family head.
Leopoldine Kaunitz: married to a son of Kaunitz the chancellor. Has charm when animated, but isn't pretty, as noted by all observers. Otoh, well educated, sharply intelligent, can be relied on for the occasional bon mot and terse comment. Her husband was Austrian envoy in Naples when Sir William Hamilton was English envoy there, MT's daughter had married the King and Joseph was visiting, which is why we have Leopoldine Kaunitz' letters on these events, too. Letters directed at her sister, who was:
Eleonore Liechtenstein: the youngest of the group, in her 20s when the group forms. Married to another nephew of Wenzel von Liechtenstein, Charles. Eleonore is praised as beautiful, dignified and intelligent but more modest about it than her sister (read: she knows how to play it down); Charles Greville, nephew of Sir William Hamilton and ex-lover of Emma whom he has handed over to his uncle, meets her when travelling through Vienna and notes frustratedly she's very devout and won't give him the time of the day. Her being very religious will cause many a clash with Joseph, who starts the group by falling in love with her. Eleonore is also more thin skinned and more easily insulted than the others, yet another reason why she and Joseph would have been a terrible romantic couple, but she's absolutely loyal as a friend (and no matter how fiercely she critisizes Joseph, which is VERY fierce, she will not allow anyone not a member of the group to do so.).
Both sisters were born Öttingen-Spielberg, which means they actually hail from the Bavarian part of the HRE.
The two male members of the "charmed circle" other than Joseph:
In the audio commentary to Amadeus, Peter Shaffer says that "Franz Xavier Orsini-Rosenberg" is the most Austro-Hungarian k.u.k monarchy type of name imaginable, and I see his point. :) Though the real man was far less of an humorless control freak than the one in the play. (One of the main things Amadeus turns on its head re: the supporting cast is that Joseph didn't need Salieri or Orsini-Rosenberg to form his musical opinions. Like Fritz, he was more the know-it-all type all too ready to offer his own opinions. Or, as the author of the "Charmed Circle" book puts it: Throughout the late 1770s and the 1780s Rosenberg acted as the emperor's chief advisor and manager for court theatrical productions, but Joseph's own active interest in theatrical activities robbed the post of independent authority. To the emperor, Rosenberg was a trusted servitor rather than a mentor and advisor, as Lacy (the other male member of the circle) was. Chamberlain Khevenhüller noted that Rosenberg's jovial humor made his company attractive to his sovereign.
Lady Mary Coke, meeting him in Vienna in 1773, had this to say: He is one of the most Amiable sensible Men I never knew: amon gother talents has that of languages beyond anybody, and has as much knowledge of English as I have: the accent is the only thing that wou'd make you know him for a foreigner. The good English came to be because Orsini-Rosenberg had started his career at age 19 as secretary of the Hungarian ambasssador in London in 1742. (Meaning: Mt's ambassador. Remember, Queen of Hungary in 1742, and FS was not yet Emperor, Wittelsbach Charles was.) MT trusted him considerably. During the Seven Years War, he was ambassador in Madrid, and then she made him minister and advisor to son Leopold in Tuscany from 1766 to 1770. Since Leopold's reign in Tuscany is one of the most successful ones by a Habsburg in that century, he probably was good at his job, and all that international knowledge and experience was one reason why Joseph befriended him once Orsini-Rosenberg was back in Vienna.
The other male member of the club was Count Moritz Lacy, who started out as a protegé of Wenzel von Liechtenstein, was a military man and a workhorse able to power through 14 hours a day of work, thus impressing first MT and then Joseph. (Who wasn't aware that Lacy was still corresponding with MT when being his friend, otherwise the friendship might have been not as intimate, as Joseph was very much in his rebelling against Mom phase.) Grave, discreet, good looking, gives nothing away of what he's thinking. At his best in intimate gatherings (like the ones of the circle) when he can relax, not in larger parties where comes across as aloof. Lacy's friendship with Joseph will go through a big crisis when the two military disasters - first the Bavarian War and then the Turkish-Russian one - demonstrate what happens if you adopt Fritz as your role model but don't have the same military talent to go with it. Lacy loses faith in Joseph as a commander-in-chief then and doesn't recover it. But he's present when Joseph dies, holding his hand, and had already been present to console Joseph when Joseph's only daughter died.
Both Orsini-Rosenberg and Lacy are bachelors. The Ladies are all married, but none of the husbands is ever allowed to attend the meetings. Joseph doesn't dislike them exactly, he just has no interest in them.
Population of Vienna: in 1764, a year after the 7 Years War ended, 155 3000. By 1783, more than 202 700. The second largest city under direct Habsburg control is Prague with 72 824 residents in 1784. Vienna has night time illuminations with 3446 oil lamps burning from dusk til 1:00 am in the streets as of the 1770s.
Eleonore Liechtenstein's husband Charles, who was way older than her, didn't object to her relationship with the Emperor the way he had to her with dashing Irishman O'Donnell, but he did have an affair of his own, with, wait for it, none other than Mt's favourite daughter Maria Christina, aka Mimi, aka Isabella's only love. I must say this surprised me because it happened when Maria Christina had already been married to her husband Prince Albert, with whom she supposedly had a happy relationship, having been the only one of Mt's children allowed to marry for love. This happened when Albert was serving as governor in Pressburg (Hungary), and Charles Liechtenstein was stationed there while Eleonore remained in Vienna. How do we know? Because Eleonore and her sister Leopoldine Kaunitz refer to this affair in their letters; said letters, which are mostly preserved, are the most important source for the entire circle. (The letters of other members also exist, but not in the same quantity.) Anyway, Eleonore wasn't a fan of Mimi but years and years later when Joseph was already dead and Leopold bit the dust, too, Mimi was the sole one of MT's children still left in Vienna and Eleonore found herself warming up to her for this reason, and they became amiable in their old age.
Description of Joseph by English traveller Swinburne from the 1770s: His manners are easy, his conversation lively, voluble and entertaining; running rapidly from one subject to another, and displaying frequently a vast variety of knowledge. Perhaps he minifests too great a consciousness of possessing extensive information; and he may be repreached likewise with frequently anticipating the answers of the personsn with whom he converses. A mixture of vanity and impetuoasity conduce to this defect. (...) His accent is rather harsh and nasal. His French is very good, except for a few Germanisms.
Partition of Poland: According to the Prince de Ligne (writer of Prince Eugene memoirs, was present at Neisse), this exchange between Joseph and his ladies happened:
During a gathering of the Dames with the emperor that occurred soon after the Polish partitions when the conversation turned upon the recent hanging of a thief, one of the women had remarked, "How was it possible for Your Majesty to condemn him after having stolen Poland?"
The emperor had responded that his mother the empress, who was respected by the Dames and attended mass fully as often as they did, had bene perfectly willing to take her share of Poland; "I am merely the first of her subjects."
The author thinks Ligne isn't above stretching the truth for the sake of an anecdote, but otoh it could have happened, and also illustrates that Joseph was fibbing when telling brother Leopold that he doesn't discuss politics with his ladies.
That despite emotional ups and downs this circle of friends, having established itself in the early 1770s, remained until Joseph's death in 1790s, as opposed to some members leaving or being exchanged for new favourites (as is common with other monarchs) the author thinks is connected to Joseph's emotional disposition, and the fact his know-it-all-ness, verbal sharpness, ramming down reforms people's throats and lacking the charm with MT - who had her own faults - had and used with people ensured that he was increasingly isolated from people willing to be friends, not sycophants, and/or whom he was able to trust. But these five ladies and two men remained.
Here's the final letter Joseph wrote literally on the evening of his death (it's dated February 19th 1790, and Joseph died in the early morning hours of February 20th), adressed to "Five ladies joined together in society who tolerated me": Mesdames, it is time, my end approaches, to acknowledge to you once more here through these lines all my appreciation and gratitude for the kindness, patience, and friendship, and even flattering concern which you have been good enough to show me and to bestow on me during the many years that we have been together in society. I miss each of those days, not once were there too many for me, and never to see you again is the only meritorious sacrifice that I make in leaving this world, be so good as to remember me in your prayers, I cannot be sufficiently grateful for the grace and infinite mercy of providence to me, in complete accord therewith I await my hour, farewell then, you will be unable to read this scribbling, the handwriting attests to my condition.
Eleaonore Liechtenstein, who had often been very critical about Joseph (especially since she didn't agree with most of his reforms, also because she and Joseph were the two most hot tempered members of the group) wrote to her sister Leopoldine Kaunitz We were often infuriated by him, but how much verve, life, enthusiasm and love for justice did he awaken in all of us!
One is in English - Rebecca Gates-Coon: The Charmed Circle. Joseph II and the "Five Princesses", 1765 - 1790" - and one in German, Monika Czernin: Der Kaiser reist inkognito.
The later is brand new, so to speak, uses Joseph's various travels both as co-regent to MT and as sole Emperor for a character portrait of him and of a portrait of his Empire through them, and is entertainingly written. Not too complicated language from what this native speaker can tell. The author is a self confessed Stefan Zweig fan and actually tries to bring back the Biographie Romancee style in this book, i.e. it's written like a novel, with statements about Joseph resenting this or loving that without the cautionary "maybe", but most of the dialogue lines hail from letters. Also, she and Gates-Coon agree that the best Joseph biography out there is a two volume magnum opus by Derek Beales (first volume: In the Shadow of Maria Theresia, second volume: Alone against the World). Czernin has also read Tim Blanning, btw. And there are footnotes to each chapter pointing out which sources she used for which scenes if she does provide unscripted dialogue. On the MT front, she's read Stollberg-Rillinger (with whom she often but not always agrees) and also is the editor of an edition of letters from MT to her favourite lady in waiting which I've also read. Here's one detail which despite having read about the Joseph visit to Marie Antoinette at Versailles before I somehow missed, possibly because of the distracting hilarity of the marital sex counselling. One of the things MA asked her brother during their first encounter, as part of asking about family members etc., was whether her dog was still cared for. When the fifteen years old Archduchess Maria Antonia had crossed the French border, as you may or may not recall, she had to not only leave literally everything she wore behind (and ceremoniously was dressed in French clothing), but her pet dog as well, much to her grief. That she asked about the dog (apparantly still alive!) seven years later with longing is something I felt I had to tell
mildred_of_midgard.(About the sex counselling: now I had seen sources swearing Joseph had to talk Louis into an operation, and sources quoting the letter from Joseph to Leopold about the problem being Louis', err, penetration - or lack of same - and ejaculation - or lack of same technique to prove it was this and not an operation. This book quotes not only the letter but the follow up letter one and a half months later where Joseph tells Leopold that yay, the talk helped, pregnancy achieved, they figured it out! It really was just laziness and lack of imagination and knowledge, not a physical impediment, told you.)
(As sharp tongued Joseph is in that letter to Leopold, in general he did talk well about Marie Antoinette, who was his favourite sister, much as she worried him. *insert the famous "the revolution will be cruel" quote here* He defended her to the ladies who had heard worrying tales from France once he was back in Vienna. They were somewhat critical of her but basically fond - they had all known her as a girl, don't forget - and as opposed to Joseph, they were still alive when she died, which horrified them on a very personal level, not just on an aristocratic one.)
The "Five Princesses" author, incidentally, says Beales was the first to use the letters by and to said Princesses and take note of the importance of Joseph's relationship with them, with previous biographers only taking note of one, Eleonore Liechtenstein (niecer-in-law to the Antinuous owner), who was the only one of the five with whom Joseph was for a short time in unrequited love. She handled it brilliantly (given the gazillion problems a love affair would have had - a) it would have pissed off her husband, who had already made trouble with her previous affair with a sexy Irishman, and made threats, b) it would have cost her MT's regard (and MT still was the key power in the co-regency era), and c) who could know whether Joseph wouldn't get tired of her quickly? Otoh, saying no to the second most powerful person in your world is also tricky. So she did go for "friendship yes, love no", and made sure she wasn't alone with him ever in this initial phase. From this, the circle of five - plus two of his male friends - developed. His infatuation passed, but the friendship didn't, and he started to develop friendly relationships to all four of the other women. Pre-Beales, biographers treated the other women were just as chaperones during the aborted not-love affair, and he unearthed and put together the material demonstrating they were, in fact, a group of friends, which remarkably unchanging members until Joseph's death. (Instead one or the other of the ladies leaving or new ones being added. This just didn't happen. Basically, the group consolidated in the early 1770s and remained thus till Joseph's death.) The two non-Joseph male members of the club, Lacy and Orsini-Rosenberg, weren't always present, but the women were, who all had relationships with each other as well as with the Emperor. Whom they at times were extremely critical about, not least because they were against a great many of his reforms, but also because Joseph shared a lot of Fritzian traits designed to drive you bonkers at close range - the mansplaining, the sarcasm, the meddling and micromanaging, the inability to admit he could be at fault for a subsequent disaster. (BTW, this is also why I doubt he and Fritz outside of crack fic would have worked as a couple.) But they also had unfaked (as voiced to each other, not to him) praise for his positive sides - he wrote travel letters for each when on the road, for example, and as with Wilhelmine's travel letters different ones, not copied over ones, thus making it clear he valued each individual relationship as well as the group one, and when one of the ladies (not Eleonore) had lost two children in short order he was a true comfort (remember, he had lost his only daughter and been heartbroken over it, so she knew he knew whereof he spoke). Gates-Coon never loses sight of the inevitable power differential - i.e. if Joseph had simply been Mrs. Habsburg's know-it-all son in the neigborhood, maybe they would have cut off relations at some point. But all of them had husbands (who were not wanted at the group gatherings, btw) and children and families to network, though Joseph tried really hard not to be the kind of ruler encouraging nepotism and enriching faves, with the result that he sometimes by trying to be impartial was harsher than necessary which ticked people including the ladies off. What they gained through their connection to him weren't additional lands or jobs for the husbands (with one exception), but of course people after a while took notice that the Emperor kept seeking out their company (in peace times, they met at one of the ladies' at least once or twice a week), and access to the monarch is always a highly envied privilege in a monarchy, so this in turn enhanced their already high social status. And while he denied to brother Leopold that he talked politics with them (Leopold wrote Joseph not once but two very disapproving "why do you keep hanging out with these women!!!" letters set years apart), their own letters prove he did, in fact, occasionally talk politics with them. The book is also good source material on Austrian nobility in the relevant period, and the author repeatedly takes to charge one British source that got quoted and copied through centuries who said the Viennese ladies in MT's time read only lives of saints and not the latest French literature or Madame de Sevigné and thus were uneducated due to Catholic bigotry. Whereas the letters of the five princesses prove that not only had they read Madame de Sevigné (still a near century after her life time THE role model for female letter writers) but they were familiar with a great many secular literary classics. She's also good at pointing out the fierce inner Catholic debates - pro and contra Jansenism, for example - which tend to be overlooked by Protestant contemporary sources.
Anyway: also an interesting book, but darker and more depressing than the travel-oriented one.
A few more notes on the Five Princesses.
Firstly, who were the five Princesses? Four of the five were related, all were Austrian aristocracy. Since all of them, being Austrian Catholics, had "Maria" in their names, and their titles were lengthy, biographers tend to simplify our lives by referring to them by another Christian name and the name of the family they married into. This still means a doubling of first names in one case! Reality is just badly written this way. Anyway, they were:
Josepha Clary: The oldest one, already in her midthirties when Joseph became Emperor after his father's death in 1765. The peacemaker of the group, praised by both locals and foreign visitors for her friendly disposition and kindness. Josepha Clary's company, Leopoldine (Kaunitz) told her sister Eleonore Liechtenstein, was like "a sweet perfume that completely envelopes you. (...) She inspires respect and trust."
Sidonia Kinsky: her one years younger sister, the other senior member. Small (as noted by Zinzendorf), according to Lady Mary Coke "the most pleasing figure without being a regular beauty that I ever saw; & her manner extremely agreeable". Prussian envoy Fürst thinks Kaunitz the famous chancellor was romantically interested in Sidonia, but got rebuffed. A great reader and concert lover.
Both sisters were born Hohenzollern-Hechingen; this Swabian line of Hohenzollerns split from the Brandenburg line in the middle ages and remained Catholic.
Leopoldine Liechtenstein: born a Sternberg, married at 16 and thus already a society matron when Joseph becomes Emperor. The only one of the group with out a blood relationship with the other members. Also flirted with Kaunitz the Chancellor a bit without getting serious. More imperious in temper than the older sisters and more serious in manner, but basically kind. Married to a nephew of Wenzel von Liechtenstein the Antinous owner, who after the death of his uncle becomes the next family head.
Leopoldine Kaunitz: married to a son of Kaunitz the chancellor. Has charm when animated, but isn't pretty, as noted by all observers. Otoh, well educated, sharply intelligent, can be relied on for the occasional bon mot and terse comment. Her husband was Austrian envoy in Naples when Sir William Hamilton was English envoy there, MT's daughter had married the King and Joseph was visiting, which is why we have Leopoldine Kaunitz' letters on these events, too. Letters directed at her sister, who was:
Eleonore Liechtenstein: the youngest of the group, in her 20s when the group forms. Married to another nephew of Wenzel von Liechtenstein, Charles. Eleonore is praised as beautiful, dignified and intelligent but more modest about it than her sister (read: she knows how to play it down); Charles Greville, nephew of Sir William Hamilton and ex-lover of Emma whom he has handed over to his uncle, meets her when travelling through Vienna and notes frustratedly she's very devout and won't give him the time of the day. Her being very religious will cause many a clash with Joseph, who starts the group by falling in love with her. Eleonore is also more thin skinned and more easily insulted than the others, yet another reason why she and Joseph would have been a terrible romantic couple, but she's absolutely loyal as a friend (and no matter how fiercely she critisizes Joseph, which is VERY fierce, she will not allow anyone not a member of the group to do so.).
Both sisters were born Öttingen-Spielberg, which means they actually hail from the Bavarian part of the HRE.
The two male members of the "charmed circle" other than Joseph:
In the audio commentary to Amadeus, Peter Shaffer says that "Franz Xavier Orsini-Rosenberg" is the most Austro-Hungarian k.u.k monarchy type of name imaginable, and I see his point. :) Though the real man was far less of an humorless control freak than the one in the play. (One of the main things Amadeus turns on its head re: the supporting cast is that Joseph didn't need Salieri or Orsini-Rosenberg to form his musical opinions. Like Fritz, he was more the know-it-all type all too ready to offer his own opinions. Or, as the author of the "Charmed Circle" book puts it: Throughout the late 1770s and the 1780s Rosenberg acted as the emperor's chief advisor and manager for court theatrical productions, but Joseph's own active interest in theatrical activities robbed the post of independent authority. To the emperor, Rosenberg was a trusted servitor rather than a mentor and advisor, as Lacy (the other male member of the circle) was. Chamberlain Khevenhüller noted that Rosenberg's jovial humor made his company attractive to his sovereign.
Lady Mary Coke, meeting him in Vienna in 1773, had this to say: He is one of the most Amiable sensible Men I never knew: amon gother talents has that of languages beyond anybody, and has as much knowledge of English as I have: the accent is the only thing that wou'd make you know him for a foreigner. The good English came to be because Orsini-Rosenberg had started his career at age 19 as secretary of the Hungarian ambasssador in London in 1742. (Meaning: Mt's ambassador. Remember, Queen of Hungary in 1742, and FS was not yet Emperor, Wittelsbach Charles was.) MT trusted him considerably. During the Seven Years War, he was ambassador in Madrid, and then she made him minister and advisor to son Leopold in Tuscany from 1766 to 1770. Since Leopold's reign in Tuscany is one of the most successful ones by a Habsburg in that century, he probably was good at his job, and all that international knowledge and experience was one reason why Joseph befriended him once Orsini-Rosenberg was back in Vienna.
The other male member of the club was Count Moritz Lacy, who started out as a protegé of Wenzel von Liechtenstein, was a military man and a workhorse able to power through 14 hours a day of work, thus impressing first MT and then Joseph. (Who wasn't aware that Lacy was still corresponding with MT when being his friend, otherwise the friendship might have been not as intimate, as Joseph was very much in his rebelling against Mom phase.) Grave, discreet, good looking, gives nothing away of what he's thinking. At his best in intimate gatherings (like the ones of the circle) when he can relax, not in larger parties where comes across as aloof. Lacy's friendship with Joseph will go through a big crisis when the two military disasters - first the Bavarian War and then the Turkish-Russian one - demonstrate what happens if you adopt Fritz as your role model but don't have the same military talent to go with it. Lacy loses faith in Joseph as a commander-in-chief then and doesn't recover it. But he's present when Joseph dies, holding his hand, and had already been present to console Joseph when Joseph's only daughter died.
Both Orsini-Rosenberg and Lacy are bachelors. The Ladies are all married, but none of the husbands is ever allowed to attend the meetings. Joseph doesn't dislike them exactly, he just has no interest in them.
Population of Vienna: in 1764, a year after the 7 Years War ended, 155 3000. By 1783, more than 202 700. The second largest city under direct Habsburg control is Prague with 72 824 residents in 1784. Vienna has night time illuminations with 3446 oil lamps burning from dusk til 1:00 am in the streets as of the 1770s.
Eleonore Liechtenstein's husband Charles, who was way older than her, didn't object to her relationship with the Emperor the way he had to her with dashing Irishman O'Donnell, but he did have an affair of his own, with, wait for it, none other than Mt's favourite daughter Maria Christina, aka Mimi, aka Isabella's only love. I must say this surprised me because it happened when Maria Christina had already been married to her husband Prince Albert, with whom she supposedly had a happy relationship, having been the only one of Mt's children allowed to marry for love. This happened when Albert was serving as governor in Pressburg (Hungary), and Charles Liechtenstein was stationed there while Eleonore remained in Vienna. How do we know? Because Eleonore and her sister Leopoldine Kaunitz refer to this affair in their letters; said letters, which are mostly preserved, are the most important source for the entire circle. (The letters of other members also exist, but not in the same quantity.) Anyway, Eleonore wasn't a fan of Mimi but years and years later when Joseph was already dead and Leopold bit the dust, too, Mimi was the sole one of MT's children still left in Vienna and Eleonore found herself warming up to her for this reason, and they became amiable in their old age.
Description of Joseph by English traveller Swinburne from the 1770s: His manners are easy, his conversation lively, voluble and entertaining; running rapidly from one subject to another, and displaying frequently a vast variety of knowledge. Perhaps he minifests too great a consciousness of possessing extensive information; and he may be repreached likewise with frequently anticipating the answers of the personsn with whom he converses. A mixture of vanity and impetuoasity conduce to this defect. (...) His accent is rather harsh and nasal. His French is very good, except for a few Germanisms.
Partition of Poland: According to the Prince de Ligne (writer of Prince Eugene memoirs, was present at Neisse), this exchange between Joseph and his ladies happened:
During a gathering of the Dames with the emperor that occurred soon after the Polish partitions when the conversation turned upon the recent hanging of a thief, one of the women had remarked, "How was it possible for Your Majesty to condemn him after having stolen Poland?"
The emperor had responded that his mother the empress, who was respected by the Dames and attended mass fully as often as they did, had bene perfectly willing to take her share of Poland; "I am merely the first of her subjects."
The author thinks Ligne isn't above stretching the truth for the sake of an anecdote, but otoh it could have happened, and also illustrates that Joseph was fibbing when telling brother Leopold that he doesn't discuss politics with his ladies.
That despite emotional ups and downs this circle of friends, having established itself in the early 1770s, remained until Joseph's death in 1790s, as opposed to some members leaving or being exchanged for new favourites (as is common with other monarchs) the author thinks is connected to Joseph's emotional disposition, and the fact his know-it-all-ness, verbal sharpness, ramming down reforms people's throats and lacking the charm with MT - who had her own faults - had and used with people ensured that he was increasingly isolated from people willing to be friends, not sycophants, and/or whom he was able to trust. But these five ladies and two men remained.
Here's the final letter Joseph wrote literally on the evening of his death (it's dated February 19th 1790, and Joseph died in the early morning hours of February 20th), adressed to "Five ladies joined together in society who tolerated me": Mesdames, it is time, my end approaches, to acknowledge to you once more here through these lines all my appreciation and gratitude for the kindness, patience, and friendship, and even flattering concern which you have been good enough to show me and to bestow on me during the many years that we have been together in society. I miss each of those days, not once were there too many for me, and never to see you again is the only meritorious sacrifice that I make in leaving this world, be so good as to remember me in your prayers, I cannot be sufficiently grateful for the grace and infinite mercy of providence to me, in complete accord therewith I await my hour, farewell then, you will be unable to read this scribbling, the handwriting attests to my condition.
Eleaonore Liechtenstein, who had often been very critical about Joseph (especially since she didn't agree with most of his reforms, also because she and Joseph were the two most hot tempered members of the group) wrote to her sister Leopoldine Kaunitz We were often infuriated by him, but how much verve, life, enthusiasm and love for justice did he awaken in all of us!
