Die Gräfin, die Gouvernante und der König

Could domestics of courtiers act politically? This question would mean to admit that those subaltern actors could exercise some power over their masters and mistresses, and it raises the issue of meaning and practices of politics in a household which included domestics. The function of domestics as messengers is revealing at this point. After a programmatic introduction, the article puts these questions to practice giving the example of the household of the Prussian nobles of Schwerin, especially the perspectives on domestics of the countess Louise Charlotte of Schwerin, describing a court scandal and her exile from Prussia in her memoirs. Two different models of a messenger can be distinguished: the automaton just acting as an instrument of the will of the mistress on one hand, and the proxy acting as a distinct persona having his/her own will on the other. The perspective on domestics as messengers in the latter case shows that courtly and political actions could include the doings of domestics, and in the given example, that to countess and king comes a third party – the governess

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