1740 and All That

This one has two different subtitles. The British edition says „Britain‘s most misunderstood King“, while the American edition is subtitled „The last King of America“. Either way, our author is a fan making his case, starting off on an indignant note by describing the version of George III that appears in Hamilton. I mean, I get it, the King George of Hamilton is a type, not a portrait (much like the version of Joseph II in Amadeus - both are supposed to be types of monarchs, with little or no communality to the specific monarchs they’re named after, and since they are minor characters, they don‘t need to be much more), but I also thought all this earnest indignation over a musical is somewhat overdone. This said, he‘s also serious about a more serious matter, refuting 20 of the 22 personal accusations against George III listed in the Declaration of Independence. As opposed to, say, Robert Caro in his LBJ biographies, he definitely doesn‘t believe in three dimensional opponents of his main character, and when he‘s not fuming over the hypocrisy of Thomas Jefferson, he‘s eviscarating Thomas Paine, gunning at Charles Fox and being utterly scornful over the „Whig Oligarchy“. Mind you, given that the Whig Party was in power for most of the century ever since Queen Anne‘s death, it‘s not that I think he‘s wrong about a couple of aristocratic Whig families having come to regard the running of the country as their personal right and fiefdom, and that a change of party in government was direly needed. (It‘s not good for ANY party to be that long in power.) But he‘s so incredibly defensive and angry at anyone critisizing his hero that much of his cast doesn‘t come across as human beings, and that is to the detriment of the book.

( On the positive side: young George's education and relationship with his parents )

( George and Charlotte: A Love Story )

( Taxation No Tyranny )

( The Madness of King George )

Lastly: there is no question our author is of the Tory persuasion, not just in the case of G3‘s various cabinets. The French Revolution was a menace from the get go, not just during the Terreur. France in general is always presented as scheming and manipulating. Fox with his unpatriotic wishes that first the American Rebels should win and then later with his sympathies for fraternité, liberté, egalité is a dirty traitor. The problem with long term British historiography is that Whigs wrote history while Tories made history. And so forth. It makes one go right away to Byron's Vision of Judgement in satiric protest.

The "Rothschild" in the title made me a bit wary because invoking the Rothschilds was such a popular antisemitic slander (these days, it's more George Soros who gets drafted for the same type of insinuation), but whatever else this book is, it's not antisemitic. In fact, even when the 7 Years War Fritzian war crimes complete with coin clipping are invoked, the author doesn't, as opposed to, say, Poniatowski in his memoirs, connects this with some antijudaistic slurs. Which doesn't mean the author doesn't have other axes to grind, because boy, does he ever. (More in a second.) But as this book is a passionate Brühl defense, "Rothschild" was - like Medici and Richelieu - meant as a compliment, signifying rich patron of the arts (in addition to master politician etc.).

Now, about those axes. Here's my experience reading the preface (as is my wont, and how we've discovered many an interesting thing, including Henri de Catt, RPF writer.)


( AvB: How WWI could have been avoided: by MT winning the 7 Years War )

( General overview of the biography )

Okay, on to details.

( Portrait of the Brühl as a young man )

( 1730s Diplomacy: Send Tall Guys )

( Ulrich von Suhm: Trusted Brühl Envoy and Master of Realpolitik )

( Time Warp: Remember Manteuffel bribing courtiers and prostitutes? )

( Brühl and MT during Silesia 1 and 2: He wasn't sure she was serious! )

( Brühl sponsors the Arts in Peace Time and plots the Diplomatic Revolution )

( Fritz destroys Saxony and Brühl's reputation )

This book, "transcribed from the original manuscript at Ickworth and edited by David Erskine" as the front page says, was published in 1754 when David Erskine, a 20th century Hervey descended, talked his grandmother, the then owner of the Hervey papers, into letting him do this. His amusing and very well written introduction proves he has the Hervey literary gift, and I wish I could quote it entirely, but a few choice quotes and paraphrases about the maddest Herveys will have to do. (Lord Hervey the memoirist isn't one of them, and not because David Erskine straightwashes him.)

( General Overview: )

Now, on to the quotes.

( The Hervey Family *snap* *snap* )


From now on, I'm quoting Augustus directly, not Erskine's introduction anymore:


( Augustus marries the most famous noble bigamist of the century )

( Augustus the Florence Tourist )

( Two Hannover princes: The Augustus Hervey pov )


Later that year, our enterprising young Augustus Hervey visits Paris and Versailles:

The next day I was presented to the Queen, she spoke to none of us; afterwards to the Dauphin at his apartment, then to the Dauphiness in hers. Then we went to Madame Pompadour's apartment. She was at her toilette, and the handsomest creature I think I ever saw, and looked like a rock of diamonds. Then we went to Madame L'Infanta de Parma. and Mesdames. The Infanta of Parma spoke to me directly and asked me how I liked Paris, and how Italy. I was the only one spoke to that was presented, and that only by her Royal Highness and Madame Pompadour, who had all FRance round her toilette and seemed to have much more court paid to her than to the Queen.

Reminder: the Infanta of Parma is of course daughter to Louis XV, mother to Isabella the future wife of Joseph, and to the unfortunate education experiment Ferdinand. Mesdames are Louis XV' unmarried daughters who will still be around and edge on a teenage Marie Antoinette to snub Madame Dubarry decades later. The Dauphin and Dauphiness are both doomed to die relatively young, they're the parents of Louis XVI. Madame de Pompadour receiving people at her morning toilette is something near royal only the Maitresse en Titre would do.

1750: It's time for Hervey family trouble!

( Herveys and Hannovers: The Family Arguments War is On! )

In 1752, Augustus is off to Portugal, and this is when the English Casanova designation comes in. According to himself, of course.

( Sexy Portuguese Nuns For the Win! )


Anyway, this is fairly typical for peace time Augustus with the navy. I should add that if his ship is tasked to ferry nobility around, as wiht the Marquis de Bernis, brother to the famous Cardinal (French politician) and his wife (the Marquis is Ambassador at Venice and that's where they are headed), as opposed to concerts and sex this can hahppen:

The 18th we lay thirteen hours under a mainsail with a very violent gale of wind indeed, these people all sick and frightened to death. Most of my own servants were sick too, and I was night and day attending this poor Madame de Bernis, even to giving her the chamber-pot and holding her head and the basin eternally whilst she was sick.

( Visiting Roman Ruins Near Naples )

( A Ravishing Duchess and the Earthquake of Lissabon )

As far as the French and British are concerned, the 7 Years War then starts not with Fritz invading Saxony but earlier with the French taking Minorca after the Brits lose the previous sea battle, leading to the government scapegoating Admiral Byng, Augustus' boss.

( The Tragedy of Admiral Byng )

Or, one of the most notorious fanboy vs fanboy(s) flame wars since Platon & Co. argued whether Achilles or Patroclos topped. Johann Georg (von, but not yet) Zimmermann started out as a (practising, not just studied) doctor, with literature as his second passion, then started to publish as well, became a member of various Academies of Sciences in various countries as well as court physician of George III. in Hannover. (Bear in mind here that George III. was the first of the Hanover Georges to never visit Hannover (it came with also being the first to being born on British soil and having grown up with English as his primary language); G3 still was reigning Prince Elector of Hanover, though, and as such maintained a separate Hanover court. (Once his younger sons were old enough to study in Göttingen, which was a university the House of Hannover sponsored, they were present.) And that's where Zimmermann was court physician. Zimmermann first met Fritz, whom he idolized, in 1771, and this personal encounter was even in Rococo age terms very intense. To quote one of Fritz' latest biographers, Tim Blanning:

After his first encounter with his hero in 1771 [Zimmermann] left the room in floods of tears, exclaiming, “Oh, my love for the King of Prussia is beyond words!”

The book that made Zimmerman known internationally as well as in the German states before Fritz' death was "Über die Einsamkeit" ("About Loneliness"), dealing with melancholy and its effects, published 1784/1785. Among other things, it got him a correspondence with Catherine the Great, a membership in the St. Petersburg Academy and an annoblement from Catherine, which was very recent in the years we're talking about. He was summoned by Fritz to Sanssouci from June 23rd to July 11th 1786 and thus was among the last foreign visitors to encounter the dying King. Now, until and including this point, Zimmermann had been on friendly terms with Berlin's literary circles, including with Friedrich Nicolai. In 1788, when Nicolai published the first of his six volumes of Frederician anecdotes, he mentions Zimmermann as a friend and encourager of his anecdote collecting project in the preface.

However, in 1788, Zimmermann also published, and not with Nicolai: " Über Friedrich den Grossen und meine Unterredungen mit ihm kurz vor seinem Tode. Von dem Ritter von Zimmermann." Leipzig 1788, one and a half year after Friedrich's death. ("About Frederick the Great and my conversations with him shortly before his death. By the baronet von Zimmermann.") Even in the flood of anecdote collections and memoirs, this was a bestseller, since Zimmermann had the undeniable advantage of near deathbed conversations, as well as a until then excellent reputation, both as a doctor and a writer.

( Conversations: Review of a bestseller )

While the book sold very well, there was some snark about Zimmermann's early anti Enlightenment digs as well as about his pride in his now being Ritter von Zimmermann (confidant of monarchs) in the reviews. This, Zimmermann saw as mere envy and betrayal, especially on the part of (now former) friends like Nicolai, whom he attacks as a Fritz misunderstanding ignoramus in his next publication, Fragmente über Friedrich den Großen, zur Geschichte seines Lebens, seiner Regierung und seines Charakters, von dem Ritter von Zimmermann (1790, Leipzig, Weidmannsche Buchhandlung), about which you can read my detailed summary in the entry I just linked. This was the book that made Zimmermann go from famous to notorious, as it presents what we nicknamed the "broken penis" theory. (Briefly: far from disliking women, Frederick the Great had too much sex with them as a young man, got STD, got a supposed cure by a medical hack recced to him by his Schwedt Cousin, married EC, had six months of blissful marital sex with her before the STD resurfaced, then had a operation on his penis which was botched, resulting in a malformed penis and psychological (not actual, this point is important to Zimmermann) impotence, which Frederick then tried to cover up by pretending to be gay. Fragments thus became the primary canon for a lot of no homo historians through the centuries. One more thing: in true Chinese whisper fashion, I've seen the claim that Zimmermann, as Fritz' (temporary) doctor, ought to know since presumably would have seen the broken penis in question. However, he himself makes no such claim. Fritz' notorious later years dislike of being seen in the nude by anyone is in fact part of his theory as to the reason for it.

After "Fragments" got published, a publication storm broke loose. Not just because of Zimmermann's main theory but because of a couple of additional theories he voices in this book as well as its general anti Enlightenment tendency. Nonetheless, Zimmermann's book is why the world has signed and written testimonies on the state of Frederick the Great's penis, which first saw the light of day in the publications by Büsching and Friedrich Nicolai that were immediately written and published to counter Zimmermann's claim. Nicolai's book is a detailed refutation of Zimmermann's everything, which is why you now get a review and summary of:

( Friedrich Nicolai: Freymüthige Anmerkungen über des Herrn Ritters von Zimmermann Fragmente über Friedrich den Großen )

The only writer of note siding with Zimmermann in this argument was dramatist August von Kotzebue (himself to later suffer a tragic fate: he was assassinated by a student, an event which triggered the so called Karlsbader Beschlüsse that were to plunge the post Napoleonic German states into a miasma of censorship, harsh prison sentences and general conservatism decades later), who published a pamphlet called "Doctor Bahrdt mit der eisernen Stirn, oder Die deutsche Union gegen Zimmermann". Since Kotzebue did this not under his own name, but by pretending the Freiherr von Knigge, famously the author of a "how to behave among gentlemen" treatise, was the author, Knigge sued, not Kotzebue but Zimmermann. And then Georg Christoph Lichtenberg wrote a Zimmermann satire for good measure. At which point Zimmermann wrote his petition to the ruling Emperor (who was Leopold, brother of Joseph, MT s second surviving son) asking for a really hard smackdown of all these people whose lack of morals and ethics were what you got if were were free thinker without being such an exceptional human being as Frederick the Great. The state of whose genitals was now better documented than that of any other of his contemporaries. Not that this has stopped no-homo historians to pick up on Zimmermann's key theory and run with it ever since.

Thanks to prinzsorgenfrei, I watched the musical Friedrich: Mythos und Tragödie, of which I previously knew some of the songs - the ones which are up at YouTube - but not all, and had read a summary in German.

( A spoilery review for the musical ensues )

A second review of this musical by the musical far more astute than I cahn:

( ...why is Katte here? )

James Boswell, 18th century diarist, biographer, and tireless celebrity gatecrasher extraordinaire provides us with some terrific glimpses on the German states in 1764, directly after the Seven Years War, starring various Fredericians, which I've collected and am sharing in this post.

First, a note on the source material.

( The edition(s) of Boswell's journal I used )

The preface - always useful, prefaces! - also contains information on just how - i.e. by which transport means - Boswell travelled through the German principalities. This is highly useful in case anyone wants to write other 18th century people hitting the road, so, check it out:

( Cheap and expensive ways of travelling through the German states )

Amusingly the editors also point out that Boswell by managing to get himself invited a lot in the various towns and residences he visited saved a considerable sum of money for meals. (He also promoted himself to "Baron von Boswell" in order to score all these invites, though not when gatecrashing chez Rousseau and Voltaire.

I tried to order the quotes by subject, starting with George Keith, Lord Marischal, whom Boswell brings to life in a way the various Fritz biographies I've read don't.

( George Keith, Lord Marischal: Travelling with Frederick's BFF )

( All Things Fritz: of parades and STDS )


Naturally, Boswell visits the British envoy and his father's old pal in Berlin.

( Meeting Mr. Mitchell, Envoy Extraordinaire )

Boswell doesn't just meet exiled Scots and German nobility, though. He befriends a couple of families which I had to skip, and also, being a good tourist, checks out more than palaces and parades.

( If I ever laugh at Germans, I am a villain! )

With his talent for structuring his life like a novel, Boswell reserved the two most famous celebrities for the last (before moving on to Italy, that is): in Switzerland, he managed to talk his way into not one but several meetings (each) with both Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Voltaire.

( Talking about sex with Rousseau )

Boswell did go to Corsica – and wrote a book about the cause of the Corsicans as a result – but went to visit the other greatest philosopher of the age and arch-rival of Rousseau first, to wit, Voltaire. Unlike Rousseau, Voltaire was fluent in English, so most of the transcripts here are in English, and they give a great, vivid impression of what Voltaire was like in his 70s.

( He said the King of Prussia wrote like your footboy )

Farewell indeed. While it's a shame Boswell didn't manage an audience with Fritz himself, this hands-down most vivacious of English language diarists of the 18th century provided us with more than enough gems.

On to Part II. Frederick the Great said as early as the Seven Years War, and several times thereafter, that the only place where he'd been truly happy had been Rheinsberg, the namesake of our community. He was there for only four years (1736 to 1740). Later, he gave it to his brother Heinrich, who lived there for nearly half a century. When Fontane visited in the 1850s and 1860s, he was a bit frustrated that Heinrich by then was nearly forgotten, and the four years of Fritz were all anyone talked about, but I'm happy to report this is no longer the case. Lots of Heinrich stories provided by the audio guide and the inscriptions, though on the downside, the real life castellans are trying to convince you of Frederick's heterosexuality and swear he had a romance with a local Rheinsberg girl named Sabine. (In addition to being a married man, of course; this was the only time Frederick and his wife Elisabeth Christine truly lived together.) Never you mind, though: Rheinsberg!



( Palace of Dreams, Obelisk of Fraternal Revenge )


Now, not far away from Rheinsberg are the estates given to two boyfriends of Hohenzollern princes with very different fates. Say about Fritz what you want, but his taste in long term boyfriends was A plus, whereas Heinrich invariably, with only one or two exceptions, ended up with charismatic money spending jerks. None spent more money than Kaphengst, until at last according to legend Fritz told Heinrich in unprintable language to kick him out of Rheinsberg. Heinrich did this via setting him up with Meseberg, a beautiful palace in which today the Federal Republic of Germany puts its guests of state when they visit for more than a few hours. Meseberg is near enough so Heinrich could visit easily, but Kaphengst managed to run it down and get into debts again, at which point Heinrich had to sell his collection of paintings to Catherine the Great in order to bail him out, though he did call it quits then. Considering the currentn day use and the needs of top security, you can't visit Meseberg from the outside, but you can have a look (and conclude Kaphengst must have been spectacular in bed):

( Meseberg the Beautiful )

Meanwhile, the guy who has the claim of having been Frederick the Great's most long term partner, Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf, starting out as his valet, got the much more small scale estate of Zernikow as soon as Frederick ascended to the throne in 1740, but he made it florish, being the extremely competent organizer and business man he was.

( Competence is sexy, and thus so is Zernikow )


And thus it's time to head back from the province to the capital in this pic spam. On the Part III!

This biography was reccommended to me by shezan after she commented on my Voltaire tale, as "opinionated but never bettered" as far as French Voltaire biographies go. It has nearly a thousand pages, and does qualify as a magnum opus.

( Assessment of Jean Orieux as a biographer )

( Orieux' general take on Friedrich II )

On to excerpts and interesting (usually new-to-me) details.

( Voltaire at school )


Even after havng read through the entire correspondance as published, Orieux still had some new or partially new to me juicy quotes from Fritz, Voltaire and Émilie about the Franco-Prussian dangerous liasons.

( You will admit this is a pretty rivalry we have )

So much for the first two decades. On to the next two, i.e. the fallout of the acrimonious divorce between King and writer.

( How to understand this change of heart? )

While a lot of the drama in Voltaire's life was about literature, feuding with people, and various campaigns for justice, a considerable part was also about money, Voltaire being one of the few writers of his or any other age with a solid buisiness sense. Unsurprisingly, one chapter is titled "Let's Talk About Money". Orieux gives an example of Voltaire the early modern Capitalist. "Gget wealthy" had been an early goal just as "become the greatest writer of the age" had been.

( Where Voltaire got his considerable income from (not from his writings) )

But of course, had Voltaire been just a good writer with a good (and at times shady) nose for business, the French wouldn't, to this day, refer to his era as "the age of Voltaire". Orieux covers the way Voltaire basically invented the idea of the modern French intellectual extensively. Two examples of this will do.

First, here's a great example of Voltaire's mixture of business sense, PR sense, artistic sensibility and generosity at their best (i.e. the light side counterpart to such stunts as those he pulled off in Prussia).

( The story of Mademoiselle Corneille )

And of course, the most famous of all campaigns-for-greater-justice Voltailre ever conducted:

( The Calas Affair )

As Orieux put it: of course there had been numerous show trials and murders by law before Calas. But until this affair, whoever was declared guilty, remained guilty. (Except for Jeanne d'Arc, but that was a very special case.) A victim once condemned remained condemned. The concept of the judicative being held to account for abuse, of a normal citizen's name being cleared, this was new. As was the idea of a publicity campaign for this goal, and intellectuals weighing or even spearheading the campaign; this was more than a century before Emile Zola and the Dreyfus affair.

Finally, the conclusion Orieux arrived at about Voltaire, which he put right in the preface, where he explains why he devoted six years of his life to writing this biography:

( This man without a God believed in human beings - without too many illusions. )

( Cahn reviews Orieux as well )