1740 and All That

Nothing new here, just a set of "best of" excerpts from the more comprehensive Suhm post here.

Ulrich Friedrich von Suhm, born 1691, was the Saxon envoy to Berlin from 1720 - 1730. His nickname was "Diaphane", meaning transparent, letting light through. The reason for this name is unknown.

He married Charlotte von der Lieth on November 1, 1721. In 1727, FW threatened to hang him because he was mad at actions of the Saxon ministers, who were mad at him over illegal recruiting practices. Suhm fled Prussia, and Augustus made him go back.

In October 1728, Suhm witnessed the episode at the St. Hubertus feast where FW forced Fritz to get drunk. He is our main source for this episode, in the form of two dispatches he wrote to August.

During this episode, Fritz is hanging onto Suhm's arm quite tightly, telling him that he hates drinking, and later Suhm is one of the people who puts him to bed.

Some time in 1730, Suhm's wife died. In January of that same year, he was released from service and gets a pension. Judging by his correspondence, he divides his time between Berlin and Dresden during this period.

Between 1732 and 1736, after Fritz was released from Küstrin and given his own regiment at Ruppin, Fritz used to come for a few weeks during the winter holidays to stay at Berlin. During this time, Fritz and Suhm used to sit by the fireside, talking late into the night about philosophy and the like.

Their extant Trier correspondence starts with Suhm responding to Fritz's request for a translation of Wolff's Metaphysics (the one Voltaire thought Fritz had translated, lol). Much of their early correspondence centers on the contents of Wolff, and the translation process. This is the manuscript that Mimi the monkey sets on fire, which we learn about because Fritz recounted the episode in a letter to Suhm. Fortunately, there was another copy! Unfortunately, someone had to recopy it for Fritz. Said copyist wasn't happy.

Then in 1737, shortly after Fritz moved into Rheinsberg, Suhm got an assignment to go be Saxon envoy to St. Petersburg. He really didn't want to go. But he convinced himself it was the right thing to do. Fritz really didn't want him to go. He failed to talk him out of going. They never saw each other again.

Once he gets to St. Petersburg, a lot of their correspondence centers on the loans Suhm's able to get Fritz from the Russians. They use the same code that Fritz uses with Seckendorff and the Austrians: books. Any time you see Fritz asking for a book not by Wolff in the second half of the correspondence, he's asking for money. If he's asking for 12 copies, he wants 12 times that amount. There are also other code words for loans in the form of other things he wants to obtain from the Russians. Oh, and also algebraic problems. Any algebraic problem is just code for "Solve for x, where x is the amount of money I want this time."

Amazingly, one of my sources says Fritz paid it all back within a few months of becoming king, and indeed, one of the postscripts to Suhm after he becomes king is "Ask the Duke (the de facto ruler of Russia at the time, who'd been lending Fritz money for years) where he'd like the money sent." I guess when your boyfriend is getting you money from the Russians, you're in a bigger hurry to pay it back than when Seckendorff is getting you money from the Austrians!

Then FW dies, and Fritz writes to Suhm the same message he writes to all his favorite people: "Dad just kicked it; come be an intellectual at my court!"

Sadly, Suhm had been having health problems for a few years, was very sick when he set out from St. Petersburg to Berlin, made it as far as Warsaw, lingered there for a month--excused from attending the court (remember, his boss Augustus* the Elector of Saxony is also the King of Poland) because of how sick he was--then finally realized he was dying, wrote to Fritz to ask him to take care of his kids, and died, November 8, 1740, without ever seeing Fritz. Not as tragic as Fritz/Katte, not as frustrating as Fritz/Peter Keith, still sad.

This is Fritz writing to Algarotti on Suhm's death: "I have just learned of Suhm's death, my close friend, who loved me as sincerely as I loved him, and who showed me until his death the confidence he had in my friendship and in my tenderness, of which he was convinced. I would rather have lost millions. We hardly find people who have so much spirit joined with so much candor and feeling. My heart will mourn him, and this in a way deeper than for most relatives. His memory will last as long as a drop of blood flows through my veins, and his family will be mine. Farewell; I cannot speak of anything else; my heart is bleeding, and the pain is too great to think of anything other than this wound."

The Fritz correspondence:

( Wolff )

( Franz Stephan )

( Russia )

( In Sickness and in Health )

( Shipping Mode )

1740 chronology
Reading the 1740 letters, you can watch Suhm set out from St. Petersburg immediately, drag himself mile by painful mile in the letters, going as fast as he can, against all medical advice and the demands of his body, and only stopping for good when he reports himself being unable to get out of bed and being excused from attending court. He also, if I'm reading the correspondence correctly, decided to submit his request to resign his position at St. Petersburg *before* he even had an offer in hand from Fritz. Wow, rereading more closely, before he'd heard from Fritz at all.

May 31: FW dies.
June 14: Fritz writes a letter to Suhm telling him that he's king now and would Suhm like to come?
~June 15: The news reaches St. Petersburg. Fritz's June 14 letter is still on the way.
~June 15: Suhm writes to Dresden asking permission to leave St. Petersburg and go live with Fritz.
June 15: Suhm writes a letter congratulating and praising Fritz. He hasn't received Fritz's June 14 letter yet.
June 29: Fritz gets Suhm's June 15 letter. He thanks Suhm for the compliments, but says what he really was hoping for from the letter was to find out if Suhm wanted to join him. He sounds a little hurt.
July 2: Suhm gets Fritz's June 14 letter. He replies that he hadn't even waited for the formal invitation from the King but rather, relying on the Crown Prince's promises, immediately started trying to quit his job and is still waiting to hear back on that. Translation: "DUH, I want to be with you. I thought that went without saying."
July 15: Fritz gets Suhm's July 2 DUH letter. He is delighted.

So it seems to me like Suhm was motivated by love rather than a search for a position. Perhaps idealized love, and certainly not love that predicted the next 46 years, but one that was based on something real during the last 20.

This is a snapshot of 1720s foreign policy, geared toward providing a context for answering the question of what happens when a runaway Prussian crown prince shows up in France in 1730.

Trending topics

In this section, I'm sharing a selection of major issues that the major international players care about, i.e. their trending topics.

There are a lot, obviously. I'm ignoring ones that don't seem likely to directly affect Fritz in 1730, like Jacobitism, many of the ones having to do with trade and colonies overseas (although not all, as you'll see), and, like, Russia.

( Wittelsbachs as emperors )

( Wittelsbach subsidies )

( Jülich & Berg )

( Dunkirk )

( Gibraltar )

( Parma and Tuscany )

( Pragmatic Sanction )

( Ostend Company )

( Bremen and Verden )

( Holstein-Gottorp and Schleswig )

( Mecklenburg )

Decision-making Characters

In this section, I'm talking about some characters that will be relevant to the decision-making process about a Prussian crown prince seeking asylum.

They're French, because this was researched for a fictional AU (unwritten) in which Fritz shows up in France.

( Cardinal Fleury )

( Chauvelin )

( Rottembourg )

International relations

( Britain-France )

( Britain-Austria )

( Britain-Spain )

( Britain-Bavaria )

( Britain-Prussia )

( Austria-Spain )

( Austria-France )

( Austria-Prussia )

( France-Spain )

( Netherlands )

( Russia )

Diplomacy

These are SOME of the relevant treaties made in our period.

1725: Treaty of Vienna
1725: Treaty of Hanover
1726: Treaty of Wusterhausen
1727: Preliminaries of Paris
1728: Peace of Pardo
1729: Treaty of Seville
1731: Treaty of Vienna
1733: Bourbon Family Compact

( 1725: Treaty of Vienna )

( 1725: Treaty of Hanover )

( 1726: Treaty of Wusterhausen )

( 1727: Preliminaries of Paris )

( 1728: Peace of Pardo )

( 1729: Treaty of Seville )

( 1731: Treaty of Vienna )

( 1733: Bourbon Family Compact )

( FW, awkward negotiator )

Salon Discussion

( Saxony )

Having just reread the Suhm letters, here are my observations.

( Suhm letters )

AKA "Suhm: Fritz's other other other boyfriend?"

So I got interested in Suhm when he kept cropping up here and there in obscure but interesting episodes, and then finally I saw one biographer say, "Was the relationship homosexual? We don't know, but they sure used the language of romantic friendship in their correspondence."

And now that I've read it, OH BOY DID THEY.

So who was Suhm?

( Suhm's Life )

( Suhm family history )

( Suhm Family and Saxon Diplomacy )

Episodes from Fritz's life:

( Mimi the Monkey )

( Hubertus Feast )

Suhm also recorded an incident where FW was giving twelve-year-old Fritz advice on running a kingdom, and in front of everyone, started patting him on the cheeks, with increasing force until he was hitting him.

The Fritz correspondence:

( Wolff )

( Franz Stephan )

( Russia )

( In Sickness and in Health )

( Shipping Mode )

Exchange between mildred_of_midgard and selenak on the question of how much is flattery and how much is real:

( Flattery )

( 1740 Chronology )

Character portrait of Fritz

felis reports:

I also came across this 1787 edition of their letters (Correspondance familiere et amicale de Frederic second, roi de Prusse, avec U. F. de Suhm - english translation) and it starts with a Portrait du Prince Royal de Prusse, Par M. de Suhm, dated April 2nd, 1740, which I hadn't heard about before!

In regard to felis' questioning whether the document is authentic, mildred_of_midgard reports:

Starting on page 164 of this volume on Saxon history is a review of a work (more on which shortly) on the beginning of Frederick the Great's reign. The reviewer mentions that in the spring of 1740, Count Brühl, future prime minister of Saxony of whom we've heard so much, commissioned write-ups on the character of Soon-to-Be-King Fritz from his diplomats Manteuffel and Suhm.

Suhm's was very concise and cautious, Manteuffel went on for pages and pages in great detail.

mildred_of_midgard's write-up of Suhm's character portrait of Fritz. Wildly paraphrased!

( Write-up of the character portrait )

( Comments on the character portrait )

Some digressions.

( Speculations on why Suhm stepped down when he did )

( Fleeing the Country )

( Anna Sophia of Denmark )

( Fritz and Coffee )