Folio 93. To Trumbull. The elector of Brandenburg [Frederick III] has four brothers,...

Folio 93. To Trumbull. The elector of Brandenburg [Frederick III] has four brothers, all of them of age: margrave Philip, lt-gen and governor of Halle a/s and Magdeburg; 2. margrave Albert, lately declared governor of Halberstadt. 3. margrave Charles 'of that part of the Teutonic order (called St Johns) which is secularized & depends on the elector of Brandenburg, as souveraign of what wee call Ducall Brandenburg', now serving in Piedmont with the Brandenburg regiments sent by the elector into the service of the duke of Savoy; 4. margrave Christian who has a regiment in Dutch service and is believed to make the campaign with the King in Flanders. Of these four, the third, Charles, held to be the elector's favourite, is a dedicated and efficient officer, resembling his grandfather [the Great elector Frederick William I] 'both in his person & in his martiall inclinations' and was warmly commended by the King for his conduct in the battle of Landen [i.e. Neerwinden, 1693]. However, he has lately 'fallen in league with a lady at Turin, of an ordinary family ... widow to an upstart, count of Salmour, a woman of no fortune', aged 32 (he being but 22), a Papist, & (some say) a cast mistrisse of the elector of Bavaria's'. Whilst it is hoped that the duke of Savoy has taken care of the situation 'in clapping the mistriss into a convent if it had gone no further than an amours intrigue, ... at Berlin they fear they have proceeded as far as matrimony'. For further details of the scandal of the 'scandal' refers to a letter from a Lt-col Hackeborn travelling in the margrave's retinue and now as volunteer before Cassel, a copy of which he encloses. [For enclosure see folio 95].

Date and Place: 1695 June 19/29 Leipzig