I was thinking of Lehndorff! He falls under "easy for us 21st century-ers to figure out he was actually bisexual" but also "easy for early 20th century editors to grab their smelling salts and proclaim that it was just those 18th century over-the-top platonic love declarations, doncha know."
For those who don't know, Lehndorff was SO openly bi in his diaries that one of his descendants went through the texts with an intent to publish them, tried changing the "he"s and "him"s of his love declarations to "she"s and "her"s, then gave it up as a lost cause. The diaries were not published until later, with "he" and "him" left in, along with obligatory "everyone was this emo then!" disclaimers. To quote from Selenas's write-up:
I have to tell you, the introduction is worth reading because that, too, is a document of its times. The Editor (writing in the year 1907) tries to be gentle and prepare his readers for all that rococo shamelessness, saying he’d have cut it but for historical considerations, for lo, it seems that (Fritz-derived) image historians had of the Prussian court only turning sensual and adulterous once FW2 the playboy got on the throne? Is wrong! The Fritzian court was not a bastion of chaste stoic Prussian masculinity after all. On the other hand, we’re told to keep in mind everyone is emo in those days, so Lehndorff bursting into tears when his beloved Heinrich isn’t around for a few days is UTTERLY NORMAL. Oh, and about 800 letters from Heinrich to Lehndorff have never been transcribed. (As of the publication of these journals.) „Doubtlessly,“ the editor tells us, „the King himself bears some of the blame, due to the nature of his married life. We have suppressed some names and cut the worst passages, though.“
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For those who don't know, Lehndorff was SO openly bi in his diaries that one of his descendants went through the texts with an intent to publish them, tried changing the "he"s and "him"s of his love declarations to "she"s and "her"s, then gave it up as a lost cause. The diaries were not published until later, with "he" and "him" left in, along with obligatory "everyone was this emo then!" disclaimers. To quote from Selenas's write-up:
I have to tell you, the introduction is worth reading because that, too, is a document of its times. The Editor (writing in the year 1907) tries to be gentle and prepare his readers for all that rococo shamelessness, saying he’d have cut it but for historical considerations, for lo, it seems that (Fritz-derived) image historians had of the Prussian court only turning sensual and adulterous once FW2 the playboy got on the throne? Is wrong! The Fritzian court was not a bastion of chaste stoic Prussian masculinity after all. On the other hand, we’re told to keep in mind everyone is emo in those days, so Lehndorff bursting into tears when his beloved Heinrich isn’t around for a few days is UTTERLY NORMAL. Oh, and about 800 letters from Heinrich to Lehndorff have never been transcribed. (As of the publication of these journals.) „Doubtlessly,“ the editor tells us, „the King himself bears some of the blame, due to the nature of his married life. We have suppressed some names and cut the worst passages, though.“