The Courting General

By Sune Christian Pedersen

01. Aug. 2006

All is fair in love and war, it is said. It could also the motto of superior Post Office employee Christian Erlund. His left documents give proof of a low-down trick which caused an opponent deep-felt grief.
 

One of Christian Erlund's letters on flawless French for Miss Bülow. The text reads as follows in translation:
"Miss Bülow,
You will probably be very surprised to receive a letter without signature. But, Miss, please forgive me this boldness as I do not do it for any other reason than an amenable and pious appreciation of you and His Excellency, your father as I am an old servant of your house. I have heard and found out, and people are talking frankly about it, that you, Miss, are to marry General Ranck in the service of His Highness the Prince of Hesse.
I am most surprised that you want to …"
 

Conrad von Ranck was a successful general and diplomat of the Swedish government. The Hessian-born nobleman was the chief architect behind the marriage negotiations between the Swedish heir presumptive Ulrike Leonora and the Hessian Prince, later King, Friedrich; a marriage of great political importance. A "poisonous and sworn arch-enemy of Denmark", Christian Erlund writes about Ranck in his autobiography.

During the Great Nordic War when all Swedish mail through Denmark was blocked, Swedish diplomats used Dutch and French ambassadors' envelopes to send their letters through Denmark by the Danish postal service - and for carry on personal corres-pondence, including love letters. To Conrad von Ranck this would prove to be a bad idea. All diplo-matic letters were secretly opened and read by Christian Erlund at Copenhagen Post Office.

A Secret Proposal ...

In February 1715 Erlund discovered a genuine letter of proposal from von Ranck to the only daughter of the Hanoverian General Lieutenant Bülow. Von Ranck had been trained in secret correspondence and had developed an ingenious way of corres-ponding with the girl he wanted for his wife. First he sent the letters of proposal under the Dutch ambas-sador's envelope to Hamburg, and then "via a mer-chant, very well-known and famous, in an envelope with the superscription: "This letter shall be en-trusted to Mrs Wittib Heüern for her to deliver in the Market Street, in the house of lieutenant-colonel Stechgaum in Hanover"; the envelope contains another envelope for Mademoiselle Cathrina Öhl-garten, sealed in Hanover, and the letter for the young lady is in this other envelope". In the same
round von Ranck sent the usual love letters to his
mistresses in The Hague, but by other messengers,
of course.

... and a Simple Exchange

Erlund feared that the match would draw the powerful and influential Hanoverian general too far in Swedish direction to the damage of the Danish Crown for as he writes: "Now that I discovered that general Ranck on one hand wrote secretly without the knowledge of her father through the chamber-maid [...] in Hamburg; and on the other hand at the same time wrote the most disgraceful obscene letters to two of his mistresses left in The Hague; I once took one of these hideous letters, put it into Mrs. Bülow's envelope and sent it to the previously mentioned address [in Hamburg] soundly and well conditioned [which probably means: sealed so that no suspicion would be aroused] towards Hanover, whilst I sent the letter intended for the young lady to the lecherous whores in The Hague who had been so thoroughly dismissed".

In this way it seemed obvious that the unfortunate suitor had by accident exchanged the envelopes which - Erlund emphasizes - were sealed with the greatest care so that not "the least damage was perceptible to the eye". The trick succeeded, he writes. The mistresses were furious at being slighted whilst "Miss Bülow being a noble and virtuous person was extremely upset with General Ranck's frivolous way of writing".
 

Erlund refers consistently to the general’s mistresses as "lecherous whores". In the early 18th century it was, however, the rule rather than the exception that a gentleman belonging to the high nobility such as von Ranck would have mistresses just as we know it from the Danish Kings. To keep an amorous correspondence was an important part of the relationship with the mistresses. Undated copper engraving after painting by Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725-1805).
 

Propaganda or a bad Joke?

What is most surprising about the matter is that Erlund chose to make himself known. Among his seized documents are copies of letters that he sent both to General Bülow and to the general's daugh-ter in which he explained the case and warned them against the Swedish "libertine". It appears from the letters that he knew the general. He refers repeatedly to himself as "an old and very humble servant of His Excellency's house", but obviously he knew the general mainly through correspondence. He justifies his gross interference with the fact the von Ranck had corresponded secretly with the girl - and Erlund adds to the father that "Monsieur Ranck has found pleasure in deceiving more than ten young ladies, of whom he still keeps two in The Hague with whom he amuses himself".

For the sake of good order Erlund mentions that he has been married for more than 10 years and therefore has no personal interest in the girl. The girl deserves a German, not a "Swede who for 25 years has been carrying on like the young liber-tines". The subtle chaining together of nationality and virtue/honour has certainly been perceived by the Hanoverian and here lies probably the real explanation of Erlund's letter: He has undoubtedly regarded the whole intrigue as an anti-Swedish propaganda manoeuvre which could be used to represent the Swedes as deceitful, unreliable, and immoral; a rather thin pretext.

The exchange of the letters may also have been a kind of coarse jest from Erlund's side, meant for the Danish Court. He might have thought they would have a good laugh of the unfortunate Swede and be-come even more aware of the sly post spy. Therefore he also entered the story in his autobiography.

A Ghost in the Night Hours

About Conrad von Ranck it is said that he walks at night around the manor house of Blomsholm in Bohuslän province where he used to live. He saw his own son drown and died in the attempt to res-cue him. So he did get married - in June 1718, but to Anne Meta von Schlitz. Riding a brown horse, impeccably dressed, wearing a wig and a three-cornered hat, he is now meeting passers-by in the night hours warning them of impending calamities and how to avoid these calamities. A similar kind of foresight might have saved him from anguish in 1715.
 

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