Reading Sam Coull’s biography of James Keith this evening, I came across what to me was a startling revelation.
During the peace between the Wars of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years War, Keith had been recruited by Frederick II of Prussia. Keith was appointed Feldmarschall, rather in the way that football managers or top players move from club to club, across Europe. In fact Coull hints that there might have been more to it than a straight resignation from Romanov St Petersburg FC and suspiciously swift signing by Hohenzollern Berlin. Was this a case of ‘tapping up’?
Apparently Keith was a bit of a spendthrift (undermining the Scottish stereotype) and used to absent himself from court whilst he waited for the next pay day. And there followed the following (unsourced) passage:
One wonders what rules (if any) were used in these games, or was it free Kriegspiel? Did they play on a table or on the floor like HG Wells? Was this an opportunity for F the G to play out his nascent Oblique Attack? I like to think of Keith stretched out in the ground with his paper armies when the King arrived. I also suspect that Old Fritz would have refused to be bound by rules. He would surely have broken them if there were any.
This is the first reference I have ever seen to Frederick playing wargames. Admittedly I’ve only read one general biography of him, but surely it would have been mentioned.
POSTSCRIPT
Neil kindly found a reference to other Wargaming in the Frederician period, which I’d forgotten. It concerns Giuseppe Gorani, a young noble at school in Milan, then part of the Austrian empire. Gorani went on in 1757 to serve in the Austrian infantry regiment Andlau. Here is the relevant passage of Christopher Duffy’s Instrument of War, Emperor’s Press, Rosemont Il, 2000
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| An interesting question has just occurred to me (apart from asking if the lead shot was melted down to make the figures or used to knock them over). Where did Gorani get his ideas from about how to make toy soldiers and canon? Does this suggest the practice was more widespread? |
Many thanks to Neil for ferreting it out.
Duffy relates the memoires of an Austrian officer who manufactured wargames miniatures out of various materials and I have memory of a German prince who had miniature soldiers made of precious metal.
ReplyDeleteBeing soldiers I think there would have been more "inherent military probability" at work than dice and chance cards. .....
Neil
Oh! I don't remember that. Which book was that in Neil?
DeleteThe first of the two volumes on the Austrian army, from memory somewhere towards the rear third of the book. I'll see if I can dig it out.
DeleteNeil
Thanks Neil. Don’t search for it on my account. I’ll dig it out.
DeleteChris
I posted a pic or two on my blog this morning of gold toy soldiers made for a Danish king now in a palace in Copenhagen. Late 17th or 18th century.
DeleteAlan Tradgardland
Dug mine out too but not found it yet…
DeleteAlan Tradgardland
"The fledgling officer " chapter VII Austrian Officers Giuseppe Gorani page 143 in my edition. Admittedly, while at college.
DeleteNeil
Thanks Neil. I’ll pop up a picture of that passage.
DeleteChris
It stuck in my mind as an example of an early wargamer!
DeleteI must admit rather than him casting the figures, I thought he had made them out of wax and wire and clothed them in coloured paper.....the shot and steel I was less sure about!
It looks like tin flats were just starting to emerge:
https://regency-explorer.net/tin-toys/
http://www.larsdatter.com/18c/toys.html
Scroll down to toy knights...
http://www.faqs.org/childhood/Th-W/Toy-Soldiers-Tin-Soldiers.html
Neil
Interesting find Chris. I remember a line drawing from a generic book on Wargaming I had as a teenager in the 70's, of some monarch in this era being taught tactics using soldiers cast in silver - but I think that was one of the many French Louis's to be honest, not Freddy.
ReplyDeleteCome to think of it, I remember something like that. It may have been the young Frederick when Frederick William was trying to steer him to 'manly' pursuits.
DeleteIf his behavior at Mollwitz and later at Lobositz was any indication, I'll bet Frederick was the type of wargamer who always had to win or he'd go home :) We all know gamers like that!
ReplyDeleteI also think, had I lived then, I'd much rather play at war with toy soldiers than at cards with the other officers.
:-D I know what you mean about Old Fritz. It'd have to be the Portable Wargame, unless you were a general.
DeleteNow that is very interesting! And I tend to agree that Frederick would probably have been an "I have to win or I'm going home" sort of gamer... ;-)
ReplyDeleteAt least he wouldn't take his soldiers home, and they'd win without him ;-)
DeleteOh yes indeed! :-)
DeleteFascinating snippet there, both on Keith having to absent himself due to lack of funds and both playing with toy soldiers too:).
ReplyDeleteYes. Because Keith was in exile for his and his brother’s (the Earl Marishal) involvement in the Jacobite uprisings in 1715 and 1719, the family property was sequestered so he only had his salary to depend on. He had built up estates in Russia too, but had to leave them behind in a hurry.
DeleteChris
Interesting post I like the premier league manager analogy!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Fortunately for Old Fritz things never got quite bad enough to appoint Big Sam.
DeleteChris