What the Danish Envoy Said
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mildred_of_midgard posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
rheinsbergKloosterhuis reports that according to Danish ambassador Poul Vendelbo-Lövenörn, Katte broke down in tears when his death sentence was read to him. This contradicts Wilhelmine's account that he heard his sentence without changing color.
The citation for the claim was Stefan Hartmann, Beziehungen Preußens zu Dänemark von 1688 bis 1789.
selenak got a hold of this book and translated the relevant passage for us.
Background: relations are tense because FW suspects the Danes of conspiring with the Brits to put a British pawn on the Swedish throne.
The discovery of the escape plans of the Prussian Crown Prince in the beginning of August 1730, behind which King Friedrich Wilhelm suspected English scheming, heightened those tensions even more. The arrest of young Friedrich, his imprisonment in the fortress Küstrin and the death penalty for Lieutenant Katte were observed with great attention in Denmark. Crown Prince Friedrich had indeed confided his escape plans to the Danish envoy Lovenorn, but hadn't found agreement from the later. Lovenorn had done everything to dissuade the Prince from his intent hand had tried to influence Katte to the same purpose. His efforts remained unsuccessful. When the King learned of Lovenorn's entanglement in his son's plans, he felt betrayed by the envoy. The Prussian cabinent secretary von Borck had to write a letter to Lovenorn at (FW's) command in which it was said: "I had believed him (Lovenorn) to be my good friend, but not anymore since Katte and Fritz, c'est le Prince, have testified that he'd known what they had planed, and that the later had confided it to him at Prince Galitzin's party. If he as my friend had told me about it, this unfortunate affair would not have happened."'
(Source Footnote: The letter itself from the archive. Galitzin was Prince Sergey Dimitr. Galitzin, Russian envoy in Berlin 1729/1730.)
While Lovenorn could successfully convince the King of his innocence in later conversations, but due to the unpleasant situation at the Prussian court he was glad, when an order from Christian VI., who had ascended to the Danish throne in October 1730, commanded him back to Copenhagen.
Source Footnote: Letter dated September 10th, 1730.)
Legation secretary von Johnn was chosen as his successor, who was lower in rank than Lovenorn.
Footnote to this: "Rekreviditiv" - I have no idea how to translate this - by Lovenorn from December 26th, 1730. In his report from November 5th, 1730, Lovenorn describes that when the death sentence was read to him, Katte had lost all "contenance" and burst into tears.
End of footnote. And of text about the escape attempt, the next passage is about fishing disputes. There is nothing about the pamphlet, Lovenorn or Johnn as possible sources, or Lovenorn having had a good relationship with Fritz before. I'll read the entire book, which includes Fritz' own reign, so there might be more, but this is the passage Mildred was most interested in. As you can see, while the Katte description is only in a footnote, it is sourced directly to Lovenorn's report from the archives.
mildred_of_midgard Footnote to this: "Rekreviditiv" - I have no idea how to translate this
Looks like that's a typo for "Rekreditiv", which Duden tells me is "written confirmation of receipt of a diplomatic letter of recall by the head of state," which makes perfect sense in context.
I'm still confused about the chronology of the recall:
October 12, 1730: Frederik IV dies.
?: Lovenorn is recalled.
November 5, 1730: Lovenorn is writing envoy reports on Katte's execution.
November 6, 1730: Lovenorn is appointed Danish chief war secretary as his post-ambassador career.
December 26, 1730: Written confirmation of receipt of a diplomatic letter of recall by the head of state.
??
While Lovenorn could successfully convince the King of his innocence in later conversations, but due to the unpleasant situation at the Prussian court he was glad, when an order from Christian VI., who had ascended to the Danish throne in October 1730, commanded him back to Copenhagen.
Source Footnote: Letter dated September 10th, 1730.)
I'm also confused about this chronology: which part of that is September 10? Just the part where he convinced FW of his innocence in later conversations? Not the part where he was glad to get recalled in later months, surely!
Fritz, c'est le Prince
Wait, I just processed this, because I'm so used to us calling him Fritz. But of course, the person who called him Fritz the most was FW. FW said Fritz, and Borck added "c'est le Prince"? Wow.
selenak: Recall schedule: I can't tell you more than I did translate. The footnote to the letter comes at the end of the sentence, i.e. "...nach Kopenhagen zurückberief."
ETA: I liked "c'est le Prince" after "Fritz", too, as one of these touches where you see there are two people writing the letter.
Borck: At least I didn't call him "Junior"!
Summary of the book as a whole byselenak:
who turns out to be a gigantic Fritz fan of the type more likely to write books before WWII, not a Nazi in disguise, I hasten to add, just veerrrrry biased in his favor. See, Fritz took Silesia only because it belonged to Prussia by right. All the other wars weren't just to defend his legal aquisition by invasion, it was because MT from the get go wanted to make him a Margrave again and destroy the Kingdom of Prussia. The strategic genius was just defending himself preemptively! (Source: Fritz' Histoire de Mon Temps and Fritz' Seven Years War History and Droysen.) But Hartmann's true masterpiece comes when he has to talk about Poland. See, Danish PM Bernstorff, about whom more in a moment, predicts Fritz would want to divide the country in 1768 already. However, says Hartmann: Bernstorff's judgment on the Prussian policy towards Poland did not reflect reality. From 1772 onwards, Berlin didn't promote the plan of a partioning of Poland, just of separating some Polish territories and adding them to the Hohenzollern state, with the sole intent of not letting Russian influence in the Commonwealth get too powerful.
I'm still staring at that sentence, refusing to believe it was published in 1983.
Aaaannyway. As you may gather, I did read the book, though I admit I skipped a lot early on because as opposed to Mildred, my interest in the Great Northern War is limited. Suffice to say the impression I got was: Denmark hates on Sweden, but after an early rebuff drops out of the war for nine years until the tide has turned against Charles XII for good, and then it drops back in to get a share of the goodies. Prussia and Denmark keep an uneasy eye on each other, due to partially conflicting interests, though they are nominally allies. Oh, and Denmark falls out with Russia once Russia becomes top dog and they realise getting rid of Charles might have created another monster in the neigborhood, but also because the Danish Queen refuses to meet the Tsarina (aka Peter the Great's wife Catherine the later I., due to her origins as Baltic peasant and possible serf) when Peter and Catherine are touring Europe (again). Peter does not forget this.
Of interest to salon of the later eras: FW really did like Lovenorn, and no wonder, though I needed to look him up at German wiki to fully understand why. Lovenorn had an excellent military career, though mostly with the Russians, serving first Peter the Great's buddy Menshikov and then rising. He was present and distinguished himself at the battle of Poltava (aka where Peter kicked Charles' butt) and while eventually returning to Denmark ended his military career as Generalmajor due to gout. Like Manteuffel, he was in Berlin twice, with interruptions. FW had liked him and made him member of the Tobacco Colleague, but Lovenorn was less of a fan and in fact was happy to leave Berlin for the first time because of not liking those Tobacco Parliament sessions. (I should add here that the reason why none of the Danes at the Prussian court was into the Tabacgie wasn't the one we'd assume, it was pure snobbery - FW had born commoners like Gundling there was well as noble men!) They sent him back because he was supposed to be good at FW handling, though.
Also: in the almost duel crisis between FW and G2, Denmark was approached by both Prussia and GB as to whether it would be an ally in the event of a Prussia/Hannover (GB) war, and basically took a DO NOT WANT attitude, which was one reason why Lovenorn had to go back and mollify FW, who took this refusal to join in his potential beating of his brother-in-law rather personal.
Since the Danes are ultra Protestants, they might find FW incredibly frustrating in terms of his changeable foreign policy in general, but they're always very impressed when he does things like offer shelter to the Salzburg Protestants when their Prince Bishop kicks them out. Danish public opinion (if not Danish policy) actually favors Fritz early in in the 7 Years War because it buys wholesale into his propaganda of being the champion of Protestantism against a French/Austrian Catholic takeover of the world. (Completely ignoring that Protestant Sweden and Orthodox Russia are fighting on the France & Austria side. Even Hartman has to admit Fritz was just using propaganda and wars didn't need religious reasons anymore in the 18th century anymore.)
But back to the FW era, where mollifying FW meant laying it on really thick as well, as when the Great Chancellor Holstein told Lovenorn to tell FW that the Danish King "loved the King in Prussia so well that if he learns the later is sick, he cannot wait for the next postal day to arrive so he can learn that Friedirch Wilhelm has recovered".
However, post Katte execution and replacement of Lovenorn by Johnn, FW kept feeling insulted, in this case by Lohnn only being a Legationssekretär, of lower rank than Lovenorn had been, and thus replaced his own envoy in Denmark, Biedersee, as well, calling him back at the end of May 1731 and replacing him with a Legationssekretär, Iwatzhoff, and fuming furtherly in a letter from June 2nd 1731 that Denmark had sent "to nearly all courts people of distinction and merit", except for Berlin, where they sent "only a bad man" - "einen schlechten Menschen" - "with the character of a Resident." Maybe FW suspected who'd been the source of that Katte pamphlet?
(Legationssekretär Iwatzoff protested against this assignment to Copenhagen as well, btw, his chief argument being that it was hideously expensive to live there and be at court, while FW was paying a lousy salary. FW wrote back Iwatzoff could do his job without good wardrobe and an equipage.)
Lastly (about this era, not the book), naturally Denmark and Prussia had a dispute about FW's most favourite thing, recruiting tall men. On December 31st, 1735, Prussian Captain von Vintzelberg leaves with two subalterns and ten soldiers from Emden in order to receive a nice tall soldier named Memme Siefken whom one Count Frydag has made a present of to FW. He's supposed to be escorted to Minden. But en route back, the Prussians stop at Wiefelstede near Oldenburg because the weather is terrible. What happened next is completely differently reported by the Prussians and the Danes respectively. According to Captain von Vintzelberg, about a hundred farmers armed to the teeth at around 9 pm stormed in and attacked the Prussian soldiers who were helpless because due to the terrible weather, they had taken their shoes and socks off to dry them at the fireplace. He personally when courageously throwing himself at the peasants was beaten up and robbed, and then the hundred farmers made off with his property and the tall recruit. FW, getting this report, was fuming and demanded either Memme Siefken or an equally tall and capable soldier in compensation. Also an apology.
Denmark to FW: That's totally not what happened! Firstly, this guy Memme Siefken was born in the county of Oldenburg, so he's a citizen of Denmark. (cahn, Oldenburg is in Germany today, but back then it was in Denmark. Check out Mildred's explanations about Schleswig and Holstein.) Secondly, we all know about Prussian "recruiters" and their methods of "recruiting", FW, and so do the good citizens of Oldenburg. which is why several of them, hearing one of theirs had been "recruited", which they took to mean "kidnapped", decided to help the poor guy. When they arrived at the Wiefelstadt Inn, one of the farmers asked the "recruit": "Memme, is that you? If you are supposed to serve the King in Prussia, you might as well serve the King of Denmark". And when Memme Siefkin said he'd totally prefer that, the next two Prussian soldiers drew their swords, so naturally our poor peasants had to defend themselves! As for your Captain: no one robbed him. Lastly, guess what: Memme Siefkin isn't on Danish territory anymore. He escaped to Holland and wants to stay there. So: you're not getting any tall guys from us!"
FW: Grrr. Argh. You're so lucky I'm not into wars of aggression!
As mentioned, our author is a fan. It therefore very much grieves him that Fritz developed a low opinion of Denmark during his reign, which leads to Fritz snarking in that excellent work of history, Histoire de mon temps: "Under Frederick IV., Denmark had taken the Duchy Schleswig from the House of Holstein; under Christian VI., one wanted to conquer the Kingdom of Heaven. (...) If the imagination of a Prince is delighted by the heavenly Jerusalem, he despises the shit of this world. All moments devoted to the execution of state business, he regards as wasted."
Hartmann thinks this is unfair and mostly due to Fritz developing an intense dislike to Johann Hartwig Ernst von Bernstorff, de facto Danish PM for much of Fritz' reign, including the 7 Years War, and a firm believer in diplomacy over war and in Denmark staying neutral instead of supporting Fritz. Bernstorff is the only person whom Hartmann fanboys as much as he fanboys Fritz, and he very much regrets Fritz wasn't able to see that Bernstorff was his only equal as a statesman in Europe at the time, the only other genius in a top position.
Bernstorff, who was in fact German, from Mecklenburg, (and didn't learn Danish in 20 years of ruling Denmark), also wasn't fan of Fritz, but he didn't let it get personal, nor did he try to use the kind of negative propaganda tactics Fritz used early on to attempt to get rid of Bernstorff. (About whom early on his envoy in Denmark had given him a report to the effect Bernstorff was a lightweight and all vanity, and Hartmann admists that he thinks the envoy was just writing what Fritz wanted to hear.) Now, one problem Denmark had was from the moment HolsteinPete became (P)RussianPete, i.e. was appointed by Elizaveta as her successor, there was the possibility that a member of the House of Holstein with the backup of Russian might would try to take back Schleswig once his aunt was dead. Said problem only grew because Peter, growing up, made no secret he intended to do just this. Since he also made no secret of his Fritz fanboying, the Danes did try to win Fritz around as a mediator, which wasn't made easier by the fact both Denmark and Prussia wanted Ostfriesland (and Prussia put its troops there once th elast native Prince was dead). And then there was the Bentinck Affair.
Renember Countess Bentinck, she of Mission: Seduce Heinrich!fame, young Sophie's horse riding heroine, she who first shocked and then befriended Lehndorff, and palled around with Voltaire? The reason why she'd come to Prussia in the first place hadn't been to seduce Heinrich, it was to win Fritz as an ally because she was engaged in a serious territory involving argument with her ex husband. How did this involve the Danes? Well, to quote the wiki summary (the one in the book is way more complicated and longer): Since she herself exercised the government over Varel and Kniphausen, she delayed the payment of the apanage due to the divorced Count Bentinck and also led the interest rates due for the capital of 337,000 gulden to the other Dutch creditors. Bentinck asked the Danish King Christian V., who had guaranteed the marriage contract between the now-enemy spouses to mediate. With the consent of the Emperor, Christian V took over the chairmanship of an inquiry commission to determine the debts of the Grievite Aldenburg House. This found that Charlotte Sophie had incurred debts of more than 60,000 talers in seven to eight years, three times as much as she was allowed to spend due to her income. In order to be able to satisfy the demands of the creditors at least partially partially, the Commission put the Aldenburg estates, as far as the Danish Government had access to them, finally under forced management.
Charlotte Sophie could first retain Kniphausen, which wasn't under Danish control. After William Bentinck had called the Danish king to help, she also used the friendship to Albrecht Wolfgang to be able to process with his support as a German Reichsfürstin in front of the Reichshofrat. Albrecht Wolfgang's sudden death on September 24, 1748 was therefore a heavy blow. His son Wilhelm succeeded and began to renovate the almost bankrupt country. Charlotte Sophie was then forced to leave the court in Bückeburg and to look for a new protector.
Fritz was her choice. Now, the entire affair dragged on for years, and the Danish envoy's report offers a tiny glimpse at another Fritz boyfriend, for, in August 1752:
The Danish envoy Thienen reported depressedly to Copenhagen that 'he didn't take his eyes of the Bentinck matter, but the Countess Bentinck had found many good friends in his absence here, and with her, even persuasion would not accomplish anything. In such circumstances, he would have to resort to trying the channel Fredersdorf. He asked for direction of how far he could go, as he guesses he won't get taken seriously below 1000 pistols.
After explaining that bribery wasn't unusual in that century (you think?), Hartmann continues: The sources, however, are silent as to whether the Danish court listened to Thielen's advice. Moreover, not only Fredersdorf seems to have been the target of bribery attempts. On September 1752, Thienen reports that "he had sounded out a friend of Fredersdorf's, who had said that the Countess in question was handing out very good pensions to cabinet members, which meant that it would be very expensive to outbid her".
In the end, in August 1754 Countess Bentinck, having received no further aid from Fritz and strong signals that she should accept the compromise the two French envoys had negotiated, she did accept it (this included her two sons getting all her German estates and her getting a yearly allowance). But there is no more Fredersdorf mention, not even, as Hartman says, whether or not Thienen spoke to him directly or just to a "friend of Fredersdorf's", and whether or not the Danish court sprang the money for the bribe.
When Peter becomes Czar, the Danes spent six very uncomfortable months, but they don't twiddle their thumbs; Bernstorff manages to get an army led aby a French General in place, but before there is a battle, Catherine overthrows Peter, and there is much Danish rejoicing. The basic problem didn't completely go away, since her son Paul inherited Peter's claim to the Duchies of Holstein and Schleswig, but Paul is a kid for now, and Catherine isn't interested in starting a war with Denmark. Which doesn't mean she's going to leave her son's heritage to the Danes who generously offer to rule Holstein for Paul while he's a kid, btw. Catherine appoints none other than Uncle Georg Ludwig (aka the former niece molestor, but also a born HOlstein-Gottorf) as Regent of Holstein, but also appoints Caspar von Saldern to do the the actual governing instead of Uncle Bad Touch, evidently not trusting his abilities. The Danes withdraw their commissioners from Holstein and are content that they won't get attacked by a Russian army.
I already told you the way Hartmann interprets the Prussian part of the Partitioning of Poland. Now, remember Lehndorff had a "Messalina!!!" candidate other than EC2, to wit, Caroline Mathilde, sister to G3, Danish Queen, also heroine of the movie "A Royal Affair"? Well, Hartmann's presentation of the story of Struensee is similarly... interesting. Struensee, as a reminder, is a German physician and Enlightenment believer who befriends mentally and emotionally unstable Danish King Christian VII and his Queen, probably has a love affair with the Queen, in any case ousts not just Hartmann's fave genius Bernstorff from government but completely overhauls said government, becoming essentially Danish PM himself and subjects the country to the most radical reforms this side of FW in 1713 Prussia, only without the military fetish and the Protestantism. He then learns that freeing the press also means you can get bashed by fake news left right and center, becomes hated as a sinister German atheist in pious Denmark, and is the victim of a palace coup in which he and Caroline Mathilda get arrested by army officers in the pay of King Christian's stepmother Juliana Maria. This is retrospectively justified when Juliana Maria makes the King sign the warrent. The people and the rest of the world are told that Struensee intended to declare Christian insane and himself Regent with the help of the evil adulterous Queen (this is how Lehndorff heard the story), with his stepmother and noble friends saving the King in the nick of time. Struensee gets executed after a show trial, Caroline Mathilda gets exiled to Hannover because no one wants to risk war with the Brits and G3 is her brother.
Now, how is this story told by Hartmann? As Struensee for entirely selfish reasons scheming his way to power and toppling masterful politician Bernstorff, and then thankfully getting his just deserts at the hands of Fritz fan Juliana. Why is Juliana a Fritz fan? Because Juliana is Juliana of Braunschweig-Wolffensbüttel, (much younger) sister to EC and Louise (Juliana was born in 1729). Fritz hasn't been keen on either Bernstorff or Struenseen, but he's not going to waste the opportunity of another fan on the throne of a neigboring country. He's writing Juliana about 300 letters for the rest of her life, treating her better than any other family member (with the arguable exception of Louise in the post AW years) and certainly way better than his wife. Juliana remains a fan. Since her son also becomes Regent for his half brother King Christian, who of course is declared insane practically as soon as Struensee is dead and Caroline Mathilda banished, this means Juliana is the power behind the throne for the next years... until Caroline Mathilda's son has grown up and really really Really is not a fan of step grandmother, retiring her to a palace in the provinces.
Now, what truly gets me is the presentation of Struensee as a selfish schemer taking over Denmark purely to enrich himself. As a reminder, these are the reforms, completely unmentioned by Hartmann and all revoked by Juliana, for which Struensee is responsible:
abolition of torture
abolition of unfree labor (corvée)
abolition of the censorship of the press
abolition of the practice of preferring nobles for state offices
abolition of noble privileges
abolition of "undeserved" revenues for nobles
abolition of the etiquette rules at the Royal Court
abolition of the Royal Court's aristocracy
abolition of state funding of unproductive manufacturers
abolition of several holidays
introduction of a tax on gambling and luxury horses to fund nursing of foundlings
ban of slave trade in the Danish colonies
rewarding only actual achievements with feudal titles and decorations
criminalization and punishment of bribery
re-organization of the judicial institutions to minimize corruption
introduction of state-owned grain storages to balance out the grain price
assignment of farmland to peasants
re-organization and reduction of the army
university reforms
reform of the state-owned medical institutions
Yep, sounds like a selfish schemer, alright. If I hadn't already been amused at the presentation of the Fritz/MT feud and stunned at the presentation of the Prussian part in the Polish Partioning, this alone retrospectively would have made me question everything else Hartmann wrote before. In conclusion: no, Mildred, you don't have to buy the book. But we do know a bit more than we did before.
ETA: One nice thing Juliana did: she took in the surviving siblings of locked up Czar Ivan IV. who were after all her nieces and nephews when Catherine finally released them from the end of the world. But she did have Catherine pay for their upkeep.
The citation for the claim was Stefan Hartmann, Beziehungen Preußens zu Dänemark von 1688 bis 1789.
selenak got a hold of this book and translated the relevant passage for us.Background: relations are tense because FW suspects the Danes of conspiring with the Brits to put a British pawn on the Swedish throne.
The discovery of the escape plans of the Prussian Crown Prince in the beginning of August 1730, behind which King Friedrich Wilhelm suspected English scheming, heightened those tensions even more. The arrest of young Friedrich, his imprisonment in the fortress Küstrin and the death penalty for Lieutenant Katte were observed with great attention in Denmark. Crown Prince Friedrich had indeed confided his escape plans to the Danish envoy Lovenorn, but hadn't found agreement from the later. Lovenorn had done everything to dissuade the Prince from his intent hand had tried to influence Katte to the same purpose. His efforts remained unsuccessful. When the King learned of Lovenorn's entanglement in his son's plans, he felt betrayed by the envoy. The Prussian cabinent secretary von Borck had to write a letter to Lovenorn at (FW's) command in which it was said: "I had believed him (Lovenorn) to be my good friend, but not anymore since Katte and Fritz, c'est le Prince, have testified that he'd known what they had planed, and that the later had confided it to him at Prince Galitzin's party. If he as my friend had told me about it, this unfortunate affair would not have happened."'
(Source Footnote: The letter itself from the archive. Galitzin was Prince Sergey Dimitr. Galitzin, Russian envoy in Berlin 1729/1730.)
While Lovenorn could successfully convince the King of his innocence in later conversations, but due to the unpleasant situation at the Prussian court he was glad, when an order from Christian VI., who had ascended to the Danish throne in October 1730, commanded him back to Copenhagen.
Source Footnote: Letter dated September 10th, 1730.)
Legation secretary von Johnn was chosen as his successor, who was lower in rank than Lovenorn.
Footnote to this: "Rekreviditiv" - I have no idea how to translate this - by Lovenorn from December 26th, 1730. In his report from November 5th, 1730, Lovenorn describes that when the death sentence was read to him, Katte had lost all "contenance" and burst into tears.
End of footnote. And of text about the escape attempt, the next passage is about fishing disputes. There is nothing about the pamphlet, Lovenorn or Johnn as possible sources, or Lovenorn having had a good relationship with Fritz before. I'll read the entire book, which includes Fritz' own reign, so there might be more, but this is the passage Mildred was most interested in. As you can see, while the Katte description is only in a footnote, it is sourced directly to Lovenorn's report from the archives.
mildred_of_midgard Footnote to this: "Rekreviditiv" - I have no idea how to translate thisLooks like that's a typo for "Rekreditiv", which Duden tells me is "written confirmation of receipt of a diplomatic letter of recall by the head of state," which makes perfect sense in context.
I'm still confused about the chronology of the recall:
October 12, 1730: Frederik IV dies.
?: Lovenorn is recalled.
November 5, 1730: Lovenorn is writing envoy reports on Katte's execution.
November 6, 1730: Lovenorn is appointed Danish chief war secretary as his post-ambassador career.
December 26, 1730: Written confirmation of receipt of a diplomatic letter of recall by the head of state.
??
While Lovenorn could successfully convince the King of his innocence in later conversations, but due to the unpleasant situation at the Prussian court he was glad, when an order from Christian VI., who had ascended to the Danish throne in October 1730, commanded him back to Copenhagen.
Source Footnote: Letter dated September 10th, 1730.)
I'm also confused about this chronology: which part of that is September 10? Just the part where he convinced FW of his innocence in later conversations? Not the part where he was glad to get recalled in later months, surely!
Fritz, c'est le Prince
Wait, I just processed this, because I'm so used to us calling him Fritz. But of course, the person who called him Fritz the most was FW. FW said Fritz, and Borck added "c'est le Prince"? Wow.
selenak: Recall schedule: I can't tell you more than I did translate. The footnote to the letter comes at the end of the sentence, i.e. "...nach Kopenhagen zurückberief."ETA: I liked "c'est le Prince" after "Fritz", too, as one of these touches where you see there are two people writing the letter.
Borck: At least I didn't call him "Junior"!
Summary of the book as a whole by
selenak:who turns out to be a gigantic Fritz fan of the type more likely to write books before WWII, not a Nazi in disguise, I hasten to add, just veerrrrry biased in his favor. See, Fritz took Silesia only because it belonged to Prussia by right. All the other wars weren't just to defend his legal aquisition by invasion, it was because MT from the get go wanted to make him a Margrave again and destroy the Kingdom of Prussia. The strategic genius was just defending himself preemptively! (Source: Fritz' Histoire de Mon Temps and Fritz' Seven Years War History and Droysen.) But Hartmann's true masterpiece comes when he has to talk about Poland. See, Danish PM Bernstorff, about whom more in a moment, predicts Fritz would want to divide the country in 1768 already. However, says Hartmann: Bernstorff's judgment on the Prussian policy towards Poland did not reflect reality. From 1772 onwards, Berlin didn't promote the plan of a partioning of Poland, just of separating some Polish territories and adding them to the Hohenzollern state, with the sole intent of not letting Russian influence in the Commonwealth get too powerful.
I'm still staring at that sentence, refusing to believe it was published in 1983.
Aaaannyway. As you may gather, I did read the book, though I admit I skipped a lot early on because as opposed to Mildred, my interest in the Great Northern War is limited. Suffice to say the impression I got was: Denmark hates on Sweden, but after an early rebuff drops out of the war for nine years until the tide has turned against Charles XII for good, and then it drops back in to get a share of the goodies. Prussia and Denmark keep an uneasy eye on each other, due to partially conflicting interests, though they are nominally allies. Oh, and Denmark falls out with Russia once Russia becomes top dog and they realise getting rid of Charles might have created another monster in the neigborhood, but also because the Danish Queen refuses to meet the Tsarina (aka Peter the Great's wife Catherine the later I., due to her origins as Baltic peasant and possible serf) when Peter and Catherine are touring Europe (again). Peter does not forget this.
Of interest to salon of the later eras: FW really did like Lovenorn, and no wonder, though I needed to look him up at German wiki to fully understand why. Lovenorn had an excellent military career, though mostly with the Russians, serving first Peter the Great's buddy Menshikov and then rising. He was present and distinguished himself at the battle of Poltava (aka where Peter kicked Charles' butt) and while eventually returning to Denmark ended his military career as Generalmajor due to gout. Like Manteuffel, he was in Berlin twice, with interruptions. FW had liked him and made him member of the Tobacco Colleague, but Lovenorn was less of a fan and in fact was happy to leave Berlin for the first time because of not liking those Tobacco Parliament sessions. (I should add here that the reason why none of the Danes at the Prussian court was into the Tabacgie wasn't the one we'd assume, it was pure snobbery - FW had born commoners like Gundling there was well as noble men!) They sent him back because he was supposed to be good at FW handling, though.
Also: in the almost duel crisis between FW and G2, Denmark was approached by both Prussia and GB as to whether it would be an ally in the event of a Prussia/Hannover (GB) war, and basically took a DO NOT WANT attitude, which was one reason why Lovenorn had to go back and mollify FW, who took this refusal to join in his potential beating of his brother-in-law rather personal.
Since the Danes are ultra Protestants, they might find FW incredibly frustrating in terms of his changeable foreign policy in general, but they're always very impressed when he does things like offer shelter to the Salzburg Protestants when their Prince Bishop kicks them out. Danish public opinion (if not Danish policy) actually favors Fritz early in in the 7 Years War because it buys wholesale into his propaganda of being the champion of Protestantism against a French/Austrian Catholic takeover of the world. (Completely ignoring that Protestant Sweden and Orthodox Russia are fighting on the France & Austria side. Even Hartman has to admit Fritz was just using propaganda and wars didn't need religious reasons anymore in the 18th century anymore.)
But back to the FW era, where mollifying FW meant laying it on really thick as well, as when the Great Chancellor Holstein told Lovenorn to tell FW that the Danish King "loved the King in Prussia so well that if he learns the later is sick, he cannot wait for the next postal day to arrive so he can learn that Friedirch Wilhelm has recovered".
However, post Katte execution and replacement of Lovenorn by Johnn, FW kept feeling insulted, in this case by Lohnn only being a Legationssekretär, of lower rank than Lovenorn had been, and thus replaced his own envoy in Denmark, Biedersee, as well, calling him back at the end of May 1731 and replacing him with a Legationssekretär, Iwatzhoff, and fuming furtherly in a letter from June 2nd 1731 that Denmark had sent "to nearly all courts people of distinction and merit", except for Berlin, where they sent "only a bad man" - "einen schlechten Menschen" - "with the character of a Resident." Maybe FW suspected who'd been the source of that Katte pamphlet?
(Legationssekretär Iwatzoff protested against this assignment to Copenhagen as well, btw, his chief argument being that it was hideously expensive to live there and be at court, while FW was paying a lousy salary. FW wrote back Iwatzoff could do his job without good wardrobe and an equipage.)
Lastly (about this era, not the book), naturally Denmark and Prussia had a dispute about FW's most favourite thing, recruiting tall men. On December 31st, 1735, Prussian Captain von Vintzelberg leaves with two subalterns and ten soldiers from Emden in order to receive a nice tall soldier named Memme Siefken whom one Count Frydag has made a present of to FW. He's supposed to be escorted to Minden. But en route back, the Prussians stop at Wiefelstede near Oldenburg because the weather is terrible. What happened next is completely differently reported by the Prussians and the Danes respectively. According to Captain von Vintzelberg, about a hundred farmers armed to the teeth at around 9 pm stormed in and attacked the Prussian soldiers who were helpless because due to the terrible weather, they had taken their shoes and socks off to dry them at the fireplace. He personally when courageously throwing himself at the peasants was beaten up and robbed, and then the hundred farmers made off with his property and the tall recruit. FW, getting this report, was fuming and demanded either Memme Siefken or an equally tall and capable soldier in compensation. Also an apology.
Denmark to FW: That's totally not what happened! Firstly, this guy Memme Siefken was born in the county of Oldenburg, so he's a citizen of Denmark. (
cahn, Oldenburg is in Germany today, but back then it was in Denmark. Check out Mildred's explanations about Schleswig and Holstein.) Secondly, we all know about Prussian "recruiters" and their methods of "recruiting", FW, and so do the good citizens of Oldenburg. which is why several of them, hearing one of theirs had been "recruited", which they took to mean "kidnapped", decided to help the poor guy. When they arrived at the Wiefelstadt Inn, one of the farmers asked the "recruit": "Memme, is that you? If you are supposed to serve the King in Prussia, you might as well serve the King of Denmark". And when Memme Siefkin said he'd totally prefer that, the next two Prussian soldiers drew their swords, so naturally our poor peasants had to defend themselves! As for your Captain: no one robbed him. Lastly, guess what: Memme Siefkin isn't on Danish territory anymore. He escaped to Holland and wants to stay there. So: you're not getting any tall guys from us!"FW: Grrr. Argh. You're so lucky I'm not into wars of aggression!
As mentioned, our author is a fan. It therefore very much grieves him that Fritz developed a low opinion of Denmark during his reign, which leads to Fritz snarking in that excellent work of history, Histoire de mon temps: "Under Frederick IV., Denmark had taken the Duchy Schleswig from the House of Holstein; under Christian VI., one wanted to conquer the Kingdom of Heaven. (...) If the imagination of a Prince is delighted by the heavenly Jerusalem, he despises the shit of this world. All moments devoted to the execution of state business, he regards as wasted."
Hartmann thinks this is unfair and mostly due to Fritz developing an intense dislike to Johann Hartwig Ernst von Bernstorff, de facto Danish PM for much of Fritz' reign, including the 7 Years War, and a firm believer in diplomacy over war and in Denmark staying neutral instead of supporting Fritz. Bernstorff is the only person whom Hartmann fanboys as much as he fanboys Fritz, and he very much regrets Fritz wasn't able to see that Bernstorff was his only equal as a statesman in Europe at the time, the only other genius in a top position.
Bernstorff, who was in fact German, from Mecklenburg, (and didn't learn Danish in 20 years of ruling Denmark), also wasn't fan of Fritz, but he didn't let it get personal, nor did he try to use the kind of negative propaganda tactics Fritz used early on to attempt to get rid of Bernstorff. (About whom early on his envoy in Denmark had given him a report to the effect Bernstorff was a lightweight and all vanity, and Hartmann admists that he thinks the envoy was just writing what Fritz wanted to hear.) Now, one problem Denmark had was from the moment HolsteinPete became (P)RussianPete, i.e. was appointed by Elizaveta as her successor, there was the possibility that a member of the House of Holstein with the backup of Russian might would try to take back Schleswig once his aunt was dead. Said problem only grew because Peter, growing up, made no secret he intended to do just this. Since he also made no secret of his Fritz fanboying, the Danes did try to win Fritz around as a mediator, which wasn't made easier by the fact both Denmark and Prussia wanted Ostfriesland (and Prussia put its troops there once th elast native Prince was dead). And then there was the Bentinck Affair.
Renember Countess Bentinck, she of Mission: Seduce Heinrich!fame, young Sophie's horse riding heroine, she who first shocked and then befriended Lehndorff, and palled around with Voltaire? The reason why she'd come to Prussia in the first place hadn't been to seduce Heinrich, it was to win Fritz as an ally because she was engaged in a serious territory involving argument with her ex husband. How did this involve the Danes? Well, to quote the wiki summary (the one in the book is way more complicated and longer): Since she herself exercised the government over Varel and Kniphausen, she delayed the payment of the apanage due to the divorced Count Bentinck and also led the interest rates due for the capital of 337,000 gulden to the other Dutch creditors. Bentinck asked the Danish King Christian V., who had guaranteed the marriage contract between the now-enemy spouses to mediate. With the consent of the Emperor, Christian V took over the chairmanship of an inquiry commission to determine the debts of the Grievite Aldenburg House. This found that Charlotte Sophie had incurred debts of more than 60,000 talers in seven to eight years, three times as much as she was allowed to spend due to her income. In order to be able to satisfy the demands of the creditors at least partially partially, the Commission put the Aldenburg estates, as far as the Danish Government had access to them, finally under forced management.
Charlotte Sophie could first retain Kniphausen, which wasn't under Danish control. After William Bentinck had called the Danish king to help, she also used the friendship to Albrecht Wolfgang to be able to process with his support as a German Reichsfürstin in front of the Reichshofrat. Albrecht Wolfgang's sudden death on September 24, 1748 was therefore a heavy blow. His son Wilhelm succeeded and began to renovate the almost bankrupt country. Charlotte Sophie was then forced to leave the court in Bückeburg and to look for a new protector.
Fritz was her choice. Now, the entire affair dragged on for years, and the Danish envoy's report offers a tiny glimpse at another Fritz boyfriend, for, in August 1752:
The Danish envoy Thienen reported depressedly to Copenhagen that 'he didn't take his eyes of the Bentinck matter, but the Countess Bentinck had found many good friends in his absence here, and with her, even persuasion would not accomplish anything. In such circumstances, he would have to resort to trying the channel Fredersdorf. He asked for direction of how far he could go, as he guesses he won't get taken seriously below 1000 pistols.
After explaining that bribery wasn't unusual in that century (you think?), Hartmann continues: The sources, however, are silent as to whether the Danish court listened to Thielen's advice. Moreover, not only Fredersdorf seems to have been the target of bribery attempts. On September 1752, Thienen reports that "he had sounded out a friend of Fredersdorf's, who had said that the Countess in question was handing out very good pensions to cabinet members, which meant that it would be very expensive to outbid her".
In the end, in August 1754 Countess Bentinck, having received no further aid from Fritz and strong signals that she should accept the compromise the two French envoys had negotiated, she did accept it (this included her two sons getting all her German estates and her getting a yearly allowance). But there is no more Fredersdorf mention, not even, as Hartman says, whether or not Thienen spoke to him directly or just to a "friend of Fredersdorf's", and whether or not the Danish court sprang the money for the bribe.
When Peter becomes Czar, the Danes spent six very uncomfortable months, but they don't twiddle their thumbs; Bernstorff manages to get an army led aby a French General in place, but before there is a battle, Catherine overthrows Peter, and there is much Danish rejoicing. The basic problem didn't completely go away, since her son Paul inherited Peter's claim to the Duchies of Holstein and Schleswig, but Paul is a kid for now, and Catherine isn't interested in starting a war with Denmark. Which doesn't mean she's going to leave her son's heritage to the Danes who generously offer to rule Holstein for Paul while he's a kid, btw. Catherine appoints none other than Uncle Georg Ludwig (aka the former niece molestor, but also a born HOlstein-Gottorf) as Regent of Holstein, but also appoints Caspar von Saldern to do the the actual governing instead of Uncle Bad Touch, evidently not trusting his abilities. The Danes withdraw their commissioners from Holstein and are content that they won't get attacked by a Russian army.
I already told you the way Hartmann interprets the Prussian part of the Partitioning of Poland. Now, remember Lehndorff had a "Messalina!!!" candidate other than EC2, to wit, Caroline Mathilde, sister to G3, Danish Queen, also heroine of the movie "A Royal Affair"? Well, Hartmann's presentation of the story of Struensee is similarly... interesting. Struensee, as a reminder, is a German physician and Enlightenment believer who befriends mentally and emotionally unstable Danish King Christian VII and his Queen, probably has a love affair with the Queen, in any case ousts not just Hartmann's fave genius Bernstorff from government but completely overhauls said government, becoming essentially Danish PM himself and subjects the country to the most radical reforms this side of FW in 1713 Prussia, only without the military fetish and the Protestantism. He then learns that freeing the press also means you can get bashed by fake news left right and center, becomes hated as a sinister German atheist in pious Denmark, and is the victim of a palace coup in which he and Caroline Mathilda get arrested by army officers in the pay of King Christian's stepmother Juliana Maria. This is retrospectively justified when Juliana Maria makes the King sign the warrent. The people and the rest of the world are told that Struensee intended to declare Christian insane and himself Regent with the help of the evil adulterous Queen (this is how Lehndorff heard the story), with his stepmother and noble friends saving the King in the nick of time. Struensee gets executed after a show trial, Caroline Mathilda gets exiled to Hannover because no one wants to risk war with the Brits and G3 is her brother.
Now, how is this story told by Hartmann? As Struensee for entirely selfish reasons scheming his way to power and toppling masterful politician Bernstorff, and then thankfully getting his just deserts at the hands of Fritz fan Juliana. Why is Juliana a Fritz fan? Because Juliana is Juliana of Braunschweig-Wolffensbüttel, (much younger) sister to EC and Louise (Juliana was born in 1729). Fritz hasn't been keen on either Bernstorff or Struenseen, but he's not going to waste the opportunity of another fan on the throne of a neigboring country. He's writing Juliana about 300 letters for the rest of her life, treating her better than any other family member (with the arguable exception of Louise in the post AW years) and certainly way better than his wife. Juliana remains a fan. Since her son also becomes Regent for his half brother King Christian, who of course is declared insane practically as soon as Struensee is dead and Caroline Mathilda banished, this means Juliana is the power behind the throne for the next years... until Caroline Mathilda's son has grown up and really really Really is not a fan of step grandmother, retiring her to a palace in the provinces.
Now, what truly gets me is the presentation of Struensee as a selfish schemer taking over Denmark purely to enrich himself. As a reminder, these are the reforms, completely unmentioned by Hartmann and all revoked by Juliana, for which Struensee is responsible:
abolition of torture
abolition of unfree labor (corvée)
abolition of the censorship of the press
abolition of the practice of preferring nobles for state offices
abolition of noble privileges
abolition of "undeserved" revenues for nobles
abolition of the etiquette rules at the Royal Court
abolition of the Royal Court's aristocracy
abolition of state funding of unproductive manufacturers
abolition of several holidays
introduction of a tax on gambling and luxury horses to fund nursing of foundlings
ban of slave trade in the Danish colonies
rewarding only actual achievements with feudal titles and decorations
criminalization and punishment of bribery
re-organization of the judicial institutions to minimize corruption
introduction of state-owned grain storages to balance out the grain price
assignment of farmland to peasants
re-organization and reduction of the army
university reforms
reform of the state-owned medical institutions
Yep, sounds like a selfish schemer, alright. If I hadn't already been amused at the presentation of the Fritz/MT feud and stunned at the presentation of the Prussian part in the Polish Partioning, this alone retrospectively would have made me question everything else Hartmann wrote before. In conclusion: no, Mildred, you don't have to buy the book. But we do know a bit more than we did before.
ETA: One nice thing Juliana did: she took in the surviving siblings of locked up Czar Ivan IV. who were after all her nieces and nephews when Catherine finally released them from the end of the world. But she did have Catherine pay for their upkeep.
