The Princesses of Courland

I’ve been doing research for my third Malcolm & Suzanne Rannoch book, which is set in Paris after Waterloo (the second book takes place before and during the battle). The setting offers me the chance to revisit many of the real historical characters I wrote about in Vienna Waltz (there I am to the left celebrating Vienna Waltz's release with my editor Audrey LaFehr and my agent Nancy Yost). The characters I'm revisiting in the new book include the fascinating Wilhelmine, Duchess of Sagan, and her younger sister Dorothée de Talleyrand-Périgord. Both sisters were in Paris in that tumultuous summer, and both were involved in tangled love affairs. Wilhelmine, after a brief affair with Caroline Lamb’s brother Frederick, had become involved with Lord Stewart, the hot-tempered half-brother of British foreign secretary Lord Castlereagh, while Alfred von Windischgrätz (her lover in Vienna Waltz) was still pursuing her. And of course, Prince Metternich was in Paris as well and far from over Wilhelmine (I don’t know that Metternich ever entirely got over her). Meanwhile, Dorothée was continuing the affair with Count Karl Clam-Martinitz (which begins in Vienna Waltz). Her husband, despite his own numerous affairs, was far from complacent, and fought a duel with Clam-Martinitz. Prince Talleyrand, Dorothée’s uncle by marriage, had his own complicated feelings for Dorothée, which Dorothée perhaps reciprocated more than she would even admit to herself. The life of a Courland princess was never simple.

Courland, located in what is now Latvia, had been a semi-autonomous duchy nominally paying fealty to Poland. In 1795, Peter von Biron, Duke of Courland, Wihelmine and Dorothée’s father (who plays a key role in the backstory of Vienna Waltz), ceded the duchy to Russia. However, Duke Peter had purchased substantial estates that stretched to Sagan in Silesia, only a day’s journey from Berlin. He left Sagan to Wilhelmine, the eldest of his four daughters.

The four Courland princesses, Wilhelmine, Pauline, Jeanne, and Dorothée, grew up almost in their own court, with lavish house parties, a resident troupe of actors, a private orchestra. When Jeanne was sixteen she fell in love with Arnoldi, a violinist from the orchestra who had been hired to teach the music to the Courland sisters. Jeanne became pregnant, and she and Arnoldi ran off together. A Prussian officer discovered her and packed her home. Duke Peter disinherited her in a fit of temper shortly before he died. She had to give the baby up for adoption. Meanwhile, Count Wratislaw, Chief of the Bohemian Police, who became the girls’ guardian on their father’s death, lured Arnoldi back to Bohemia, probably with a forged letter from Jeanne, and had him imprisoned and executed.

Jeanne was married off to the Neapolitan Duke of Acerenza. By the time of the Congress of Vienna in 1814, both she and her sister Pauline (married to Friedrich Hermann Otto, Prince of Hohenzollern-Hechingen) were separated from their husbands and sharing a house in Vienna. Jeanne had a long time liaison with a Monsieur Borel, and the two of them were apparently like an old married couple.

Duke Peter’s marriage to his much younger wife, Anna Dorothea, had been a dynastic union. Dorthothée (who was ten years younger than Jeanne, the sister nearest to her in age) was almost certainly the daughter of her mother’s lover Count Alexander Batowski. Not long after Duke Peter died, the duchess ended her affair with Batowski and began a liaison with the Baron Gustav Armfelt. Armfelt took a keen interest in the education of clever young Dorothée. Unfortunately the interest he took in Wilhelmine, then eighteen, was less fatherly. They began an affair. One night the duchess noticed someone had taken a candle and went to see who was abroad at such an hour only to find her daughter in the arms of her lover. She slapped Wilhelmine. Her sapphire ring drew blood.

By that time Wilhelmine was pregnant. Armfelt, being an aristocrat, was not executed like Arnoldi, but Wilhelmine, like Jeanne, was compelled to give up her child, a loss that haunted her through the years and that drove many of her actions at the time of the Congress of Vienna (and in the plot of Vienna Waltz). She was hastily married off to the well-born but penniless Louis de Rohan, but her affair with Armfelt continued, with the three of the them traveling together and living off Wilhelmine’s extensive dowry. Eventually Wilhelmine shed both men, first breaking off with Armfelt, then divorcing de Rohan. She later married the Russian Prince Troubetskoi, but by 1814 she had divorced him as well. In 1813, though in the midst of a love affair with the dashing cavalry officer Alfred von Windischgrätz (to whom readers of Vienna Waltz will know she would later return), she began an affair with Austrian foreign minister Prince Metternich. An affair which was still intense when the Congress of Vienna opened. Metternich swore to use his influence to help Wilhelmine recover her daughter (then fourteen). The child was in Finland with Armfelt's relatives. Finland was then under Russian control. Metternich said he would intercede with Tsar Alexander and told Wilhelmine he would make the safety of Russia depend on it. However, at the Congress, Metternich and Tsar Alexander were increasingly acrimonious rivals everywhere from the council chamber to the boudoir. Eventually Wilhelmine appealed to the tsar directly. She also broke with Metternich, possibly at the tsar's insistence. But even with the tsar's support, she never recovered her daughter.

Dorothée meanwhile, much younger than her sisters, had fallen into adolescent love with Polish Prince Adam Czartoryski (the longtime lover of Tsarina Elisabeth of Russia, wife of Tsar Alexander). Czartoryski, though still in love with Elisabeth, was open to the marriage, but through the connivance of Dorothée’s mother and Prince Talleyrand, Dorothée instead end up married to Talleyrand’s nephew Edmond. It was not a happy match. Dorothée, as Suzanne thinks in Vienna Waltz, loved books. Edmond, a cavalry officer, was more likely to be found with his horses or at the gaming tables. Or with his mistresses.

In 1814, Dorothée’s mother once again found herself losing a lover to a daughter. Duchess Anna Dorothea was Talleyrand’s mistress before the Congress of Vienna (he wrote very eloquent letters to her when Paris was falling to the Allies). But it was Dorothée Talleyrand took with him to Vienna as his hostess. In Vienna, he began to see her as more than his nephew’s wife, a story that begins to be dramatized in Vienna Waltz and that I’ll continue to explore in the book I’m now beginning.

What are some of your favorite real historical characters in fiction? Has a novel ever driven you to seek out nonfiction history and biographies to learn more about a particular person? Writers, which historical characters you've written about have particularly captured your imagination?

Celebrating Vienna Waltz: An Interview with Teresa (Tracy) Grant

Nothing is fair in love and war…

Europe’s elite have gathered at the glittering Congress of Vienna—princes, ambassadors, the Russian tsar—all negotiating the fate of the Continent by day and pursuing pleasure by night. Until Princess Tatiana, the most beautiful and talked about woman in Vienna, is found murdered during an ill-timed rendezvous with three of her most powerful conquests…

Suzanne Rannoch has tried to ignore rumors that her new husband, Malcolm, has also been tempted by Tatiana. As a protégé of France’s Prince Talleyrand and attaché for Britain’s Lord Castlereagh, Malcolm sets out to investigate the murder and must enlist Suzanne’s special skills and knowledge if he is to succeed. As a complex dance between husband and wife in the search for the truth ensues, no one’s secrets are safe, and the future of Europe may hang in the balance…

” Shimmers like the finest salons in Vienna…a perfect blend of history, mystery, romance, and suspense." - Deborah Crombie

“Meticulous, delightful, and full of surprises." - Tasha Alexander

“Glittering balls, deadly intrigue, sexual scandals. . .the next best thing to actually being there!” - Lauren Willig

“Absolutely gripping. . .historical intrigue at its finest." - Deanna Raybourn

“Murder, deception, and romance, drenched in a richly detailed portrait of early nineteenth century Vienna." - C.S. Harris

What sparked this book? Was it a character? An historical event? A scene you just couldn't get out of your head?

I’ve been fascinated by the Congress of Vienna ever since I first read about it in Georgette Heyer’s The Grand Sophy when I was ten. Sophy and her father have been at the Congress and the tidbits mentioned about it are very intriguing. A wonderful lecture about the Congress my freshman year at Stanford further caught my interest. It was such an exciting time. After Napoleon was exiled to Elba, representatives of countries across Europe gathered in Vienna to redraw the Continental map. There was a great deal of intriguing, both political and romantic. In the autumn of 1814, the Congress of Vienna was the place to be. Imagine a combination of a modern international political conference and the Cannes Film Festival. Some claimed the delegates spent as much time waltzing as negotiating. The Festivals Committee, appointed by Austrian Emperor Francis I, felt it their duty to keep the foreign delegations entertained with events each more lavish than the last. There were masquerade balls, balloon ascensions, sleigh rides, a re-creation of a medieval tournament, nights at the theatre and the opera. I used the Congress as part of Charles and Mélanie’s backstory in Secrets of a Lady and Beneath a Silent Moon. I even referred to them investigating a murder there. I found myself really wanting to dramatize those events. There’s a vogue now for including more real historical people in historical fiction, and the Congress seemed the perfect opportunity to write a novel of intrigue that combined real and fictional historical people and events.

How does Vienna Waltz fit in with your Charles and Mélanie Fraser books?

Vienna Waltz is essentially the story of Charles and Mel’s adventures at the Congress of Vienna. Their time at the Congress is referred to Secrets of a Lady and Beneath a Silent Moon as I mention above. But my new publisher wanted new names, so they are called Malcolm and Suzanne Rannoch. However, I wrote the book using their “real” names to I could keep the characters and chronology consistent, and I think readers will recognize that they are very much the same characters. I like to think that Charles and Mel lead such adventurous lives it’s no wonder some of their adventures are chronicled under aliases :-).

Why are you Teresa Grant for Vienna Waltz?

Kensington wanted me to have a more historical sounding name. I chose Teresa, because Tracy can be a nickname for it, so I can still be Tracy online and interact with readers as Tracy. I’m still the same person, and I still write the same books.

Did you have to do any major research for his book? Did you stumble across anything really interesting that you didn't already know?

Definitely. I know the era, but I’d never written a book set in Vienna. I’m used to most of my primary sources being in English. I don’t read German or Russian or Polish. Fortunately I do read French, and a lot of the diplomatic correspondence from the period is in French, but I also ended up reading a lot in translation. I delved into the events of the Congress, from the maneuvering around Saxony and Poland to the lavish parties such as the Carrousel, a re-creation of a medieval tournament (which turns unexpectedly violent in my fictional retelling) and a Beethoven concert which is the scene of the book’s denouement (and a--fictional--assassination attempt).

I also got to know the real people who were important players at the Congress and who are major characters in Vienna Waltz. French foreign minister Prince Talleyrand, who supported the French Revolution, left France during the Reign of Terror, returned to France during the Directoire, became Napoleon Bonaparte’s foreign minister, and survived Napoleon’s downfall to represent the restored royalist government at the Congress, where he adroitly managed to maneuver himself into the heart of the negotiations despite France being the defeated power. His beautiful young niece-by-marriage, Dorothée, who he brought to the Congress as his hostess and fell in love with, despite being thirty-nine years her senior (and despite the fact that her mother had recently been his mistress). Lovely, unhappy Tsarina Elisabeth of Russia who at the Congress found herself reunited with Adam Czartoryski, the charismatic Polish patriot who was probably the love of her life (and had also been her husband’s best friend). Her husband, Tsar Alexander, and the Austrian foreign minister, Prince Metternich, who were fierce rivals at the negotiating table and were entangled with two of the same women, Princess Catherine Bagration (“the naked angel”) and the brilliant Wilhelmine, Duchess of Sagan (Dorothée’s sister). Mysteries always involve past secrets. In Vienna Waltz I was able to weave some real life secret scandals into the plot.

What did you find most challenging in writing Vienna Waltz?

Weaving together real and fictional people and events. This is the first time I’ve had real historical people as such major characters in one of my books. It’s a bit intimidating putting fictional words into the mouth of a real person and involving them in fictional events. Lauren and I talked about this a year ago when I was writing Vienna Waltz and she was writing The Orchid Affair (that’s us in New York more recently talking Napoleonic spies). I struggled with what it was fair to have a real person do, a particularly complicated question in a novel of intrigue. I spent a long time debating how far I could have Talleyrand go in his involvement in my fictional intrigues. But as Talleyrand was a master intriguer, I decided I could go pretty far with him in the book.

Then there the challenge of interweaving events. As I mention above, Catherine Bagration and Wilhelmine of Sagan were rivals in society at the Congress and were both involved with Tsar Alexander and Prince Metternich. I invented a third, fictional woman, Princess Tatiana Kirsanova, who is also involved with both Metternich and the tsar, who is found murdered on the night she has summoned Metternich, Tsar Alexander, the hero, Malcolm Rannoch (who is possibly her lover) and his wife, Suzanne, to her rooms, all at the same time. Not only did I have to weave the events of the book through the events at the Congress, I had to interweave Tatiana’s backstory with the histories of Metternich and Tsar Alexander and others whose path she crosses. I also had to weave events involving Malcolm and Suzanne's years in Spain and Portugal during the Peninsular War with the historical record.

Anything you flat-out altered or “fudged”? If so, why?

The timeline. It’s difficult to stretch a murder investigation out over too many days. I compressed real events slightly, so I could make the Carrousel the midpoint of the book and center the denouement round the Beethoven concert. I also enhanced Dorothée’s role in orchestrating the Carrousel and had Suzanne working with her. And I gave two of the real men who performed at the Carrousel fictional cases of the mumps so Malcolm and his friend Fitz could take their places.

Any gaffs or mea culpas you want to fess up to before readers get their hands on the book? I know I always seem to find one after the book has gone to press. *sigh*

Ditto. There was a glass instrument called a harmonium in the drawing room of the British delegation’s lodgings in the Minoritenplatz. It had a pedal and somehow I got it into my head it had keys like a piano as well. Only to learn otherwise from a (very kind) reader. Yet another reason to hope for a second edition—so I can correct it. I even have the young Schubert, who is also a character in the book, play the harmonium. Which he can still do—but without referring to keys.

Tell us a little about your hero. Something fun, like his favorite childhood pet, or his first kiss.

Malcolm Rannoch/Charles Fraser is deceptively reserved. He tends to duck out of large entertainments and hide out in the library with a book. (Fortunately for his diplomatic career he has a very socially adept wife). He also plays the piano and has a habit of quoting Shakespeare (he played Prince Hal in Henry IV Part I when he was at Oxford). And being good at code breaking runs in his family, which comes in particularly handy in Vienna Waltz.

What are you planning to work on next?

I just turned the next book in the series in to my editor. It’s a sequel to Vienna Waltz set in June 1815. Napoleon has escaped from Elba and returned to power in France. Malcolm and Suzanne have gone to Brussels with the Duke of Wellington as the allies prepare to fight the French. The book begins a few days before the battle of Waterloo, with Malcolm going to a rendezvous with an agent which turns into an ambush. A decorous young British wife is killed accidentally in the crossfire. Or perhaps, Malcolm and Suzanne discover as they investigate, it wasn’t so accidental. The last part of the book goes back and forth between the battle itself (where Malcolm is pressed into carrying messages) and Brussels where Suzanne is nursing the wounded. Writing the sequences at the Duchess of Richmond’s ball (which was interrupted by the news that Napoleon was on the march) and the battle itself was both exciting and challenging because they're such iconic historical events.

I’m now starting a third book in the series, set in Paris after Waterloo during the White Terror, when the Ultra Royalists turned on Bonapartists.

And I’ve just released The Mask of Night, which is set in 1820, just after Secrets of a Lady, as a Kindle e-book.

Literary Happy Holidays

In the midst of finishing a draft, starting on revisions, and holiday decorating and shopping (so much left to do!) I found time to curl up with Lauren's The Mischief of the Mistletoe. It was an absolute delight. I tried to use it as writing motivation by telling myself I could read a section if I wrote so many words, but I ended up reading way more than I was supposed to. One of the many things I loved about it was sharing the holidays with favorite characters at a Christmas house party hosted by the Dowager Duchess of Dovedale.

I've always liked stories set during the holidays. There's something fun and fascinating about seeing how celebrations are both familiar and different with different characters, in different historical eras. A familiar frame, filled in in myriad ways. I confess, though I love most Dickens, A Christmas Carol has never been a favorite of mine. But growing up, I was fascinated by the glimpses into holidays in another era with the Christmas scenes in Little Women and also the Hanukah scene in the All of a Kind Family books. Emma has key scenes that take place at Christmas celebrations and Pride and Prejudice has the Gardiners' Christmas visit. Brideshead Revisited has Charles's Boxing Day arrival at Brideshead (vividly captured in the miniseries) moving into New Year's. Barbara Hambly's Darwath fantasy trilogy takes place in a parallel universe, but there's a major scene that takes place at a midwinter festival. Like The Mischief of the Misteltoe, Deanna Raybourn's Silent in the Sanctuary also offers a delightful (if dangerous) Christmas house party.

Writing this post, I realized a lot of my favorite holiday stories are television episodes. I write this I'm watching a Christmas-season episode of House as I write this post (not surprisingly, it steers well clear of sentimentality). The X-Files episode "How the Ghosts Stole Christmas" is probably my favorite holiday story ever. One of my holiday traditions is to watch it as I wrap packages. And of course Mulder and Scully had their first kiss on New Year's Eve (I usually watch "Millennium" while I'm dressing for New Year's Eve).

My mom and I wrote two Christmas novellas when we were writing traditional Regencies as Anthea Malcolm. They were a lot of fun to do. It's a bit of a challenge to write a Regency-set Christmas story, as so much of what we now associate with the holiday (such as Christmas trees) became popular in England in the time of Victoria and her German husband Albert. But one still has Yule logs and wassail bowls, mistletoe, pine boughs, and spiced wine.

I hadn't dealt with the winter holiday season in any of my novels until my forthcoming Vienna Waltz. Vienna Waltz takes place at the Congress of Vienna in late November 1814. A year ago, I was revising my first draft. I knew I needed a epilogue to wrap up some plot lines, but I hadn't written it yet. At a holiday show that included some early 19th century Christmas music, it occurred to me that I could set the epilogue during the holiday season.

Which tied in nicely with my research. Dorothée de Talleyrand-Périgord, Prince Talleyrand's niece-by-marriage (his nephew's wife) and his hostess at the Congress (and very likely later his mistress but that's another post) gave a party at the French Embassy at the Kaunitz Palace on Christmas Eve 1814. Dorothée is a major character in Vienna Waltz, and her Christmas Eve party became the setting for my epilogue. I was even able to include a Christmas tree. Dorothée had one by the staircase in the Kaunitz Palace and set quite a fashion at the Congress. It was called "Christmas Berlin style." Which made me realize in future books I could have my hero and heroine take the tradition back to Britain, long before Victoria and Albert made decorated trees part of a traditional English Christmas. As I writer I find it a challenge not to make a holiday scenes too sentimental. But in this case I think--I hope--the setting ended up being an interesting contrast to some of more disturbing revelations the characters are still dealing with in the epilogue.


What are some of your favorite holiday-set stories? Writers, have you written stories set during the holidays? What are some of the particular challenges?