We all know those moments when our steady efforts seem to progress at a snail’s pace – and then, suddenly, the last piece of the puzzle falls into place, and as if by revelation, we grasp the whole picture. That is exactly what Archduchess Marianne experiences in St Stephen’s Cathedral while waiting for the service to begin. The enlightening flash in her mind has nothing to do with blind luck; quite the contrary, it is the result of her diligent and persistent research.
The two key figures – Countess Karolina von Althann and the Danish diplomat Count Heinrich von Reventlow – have now been correctly identified. As Karolina’s main biographical details are already interwoven into the narrative, I shall briefly outline Monsieur Reventlow’s here:
Born in 1678 into a well-connected noble family, he was the nephew of the Danish Prime Minister Conrad von Reventlow and the cousin of Queen Anna Sophia, the second wife of King Frederick IV. Reventlow made his career primarily as a Privy Councillor and Provost in the service of the King of Denmark and the Duke of Holstein. His two diplomatic missions to Vienna – in 1706–1707 (when he married Countess von Althann) and again in 1710–1711 – are of vital importance to the narrative.
Access to the Metatext via placing an order for an augmented product. See Terms of Use
