Today's anecdotes (you can tell the anecdotes are tapering off) from FW's A+ parenting:
On the one hand, he did the over-the-top parenting thing with executing Katte in front of Fritz's eyes for the express purpose of breaking Fritz's heart and hoping to inspire a reversion to religious orthodoxy (seriously, his orders were "Head falls, my son watches, chaplain steps into his cell ready to comfort him and lead him back to the faith"; what they got instead was 3 days of Fritz screaming hysterically and refusing to eat*), which we all know about.
* How long this would have gone on, we don't know, but somebody finally reminded Fritz that his mother and sister would be pretty darn upset if he starved himself to death, and then he consented to eat, and the rehabilitation process began. (Which his jailers had to beg FW to allow them to tone down at one point, because they were seriously worried Fritz was going to lose his reason under the kind of treatment he was being given.)
On the other hand, FW engaged in less-well-known and much more standard homophobic parenting as well. Boyfriend-before-Katte, Peter Keith, was caught doing...something...inappropriate with Fritz when they were about 16/17. Since he was a lieutenant in the army, FW promptly stationed him somewhere far, far away. Like, 300 miles away.
Now, this is relevant to our story, because Keith was that third conspirator during the escape attempt that I told you about. Unlike Katte, who was stuck in Berlin, the heart of FW territory, Keith was stationed right near the border with the Netherlands. So when he got word that their cover was blown, he darted without hesitation across the border to safety, then for good measure from there into England, where FW tried to have him extradited, and the response of the English was basically, "Screw you, and also WTF was that with Katte?" As I mentioned, Keith, after a 10-year stint in the Portuguese army, went back to Prussia after Fritz inherited, and sadly they seem to have quarreled.
Keith: was originally a page for FW, used to report his doings to Fritz and warn him of anything bad coming his way. Was hanged in effigy in front of his regiment after FW couldn't get him extradited.
Katte: has a very famous anecdote, which is in all the fics on AO3 and a bunch of the bios, in which he was standing guard outside Fritz's room while Fritz did some illicit flute-playing inside. When Katte heard FW's footsteps approaching, he came running to warn Fritz, then helped him hide all the evidence, while Fritz changed quickly into uniform, and Katte hid in a closet alongside Fritz's flute instructor. Unfortunately, Fritz's fancy French hairstyle gave away that he'd been up to something, and his fancy French dressing gown (and I think French books) was found by his father and burned, but Katte and Quantz were not found in their hiding place. That must have been a stressful day.
Keith and Katte: have just arrived safely in England with Fritz in one of my many fix-it WIPs. ;) Keith is a little jealous of Katte's new place in Fritz's heart, but Katte is busy smoothing things over, and everyone's going to live happily ever after.
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On the one hand, he did the over-the-top parenting thing with executing Katte in front of Fritz's eyes for the express purpose of breaking Fritz's heart and hoping to inspire a reversion to religious orthodoxy (seriously, his orders were "Head falls, my son watches, chaplain steps into his cell ready to comfort him and lead him back to the faith"; what they got instead was 3 days of Fritz screaming hysterically and refusing to eat*), which we all know about.
* How long this would have gone on, we don't know, but somebody finally reminded Fritz that his mother and sister would be pretty darn upset if he starved himself to death, and then he consented to eat, and the rehabilitation process began. (Which his jailers had to beg FW to allow them to tone down at one point, because they were seriously worried Fritz was going to lose his reason under the kind of treatment he was being given.)
On the other hand, FW engaged in less-well-known and much more standard homophobic parenting as well. Boyfriend-before-Katte, Peter Keith, was caught doing...something...inappropriate with Fritz when they were about 16/17. Since he was a lieutenant in the army, FW promptly stationed him somewhere far, far away. Like, 300 miles away.
Now, this is relevant to our story, because Keith was that third conspirator during the escape attempt that I told you about. Unlike Katte, who was stuck in Berlin, the heart of FW territory, Keith was stationed right near the border with the Netherlands. So when he got word that their cover was blown, he darted without hesitation across the border to safety, then for good measure from there into England, where FW tried to have him extradited, and the response of the English was basically, "Screw you, and also WTF was that with Katte?" As I mentioned, Keith, after a 10-year stint in the Portuguese army, went back to Prussia after Fritz inherited, and sadly they seem to have quarreled.
Keith: was originally a page for FW, used to report his doings to Fritz and warn him of anything bad coming his way. Was hanged in effigy in front of his regiment after FW couldn't get him extradited.
Katte: has a very famous anecdote, which is in all the fics on AO3 and a bunch of the bios, in which he was standing guard outside Fritz's room while Fritz did some illicit flute-playing inside. When Katte heard FW's footsteps approaching, he came running to warn Fritz, then helped him hide all the evidence, while Fritz changed quickly into uniform, and Katte hid in a closet alongside Fritz's flute instructor. Unfortunately, Fritz's fancy French hairstyle gave away that he'd been up to something, and his fancy French dressing gown (and I think French books) was found by his father and burned, but Katte and Quantz were not found in their hiding place. That must have been a stressful day.
Keith and Katte: have just arrived safely in England with Fritz in one of my many fix-it WIPs. ;) Keith is a little jealous of Katte's new place in Fritz's heart, but Katte is busy smoothing things over, and everyone's going to live happily ever after.