Separately, re: would have MT gone along with having an affair to get an heir especially if Fritz was unwilling/unable from the get go and annulment was not an option?
Definitely not if he'd advised her to sleep with his brother. That would have been spiritual incest (since, post-marriage, his siblings were her siblings as well) in addition to being adultery, and a MT unhappy in her marriage would have been more likely to throw herself into her religion to compensate, not less.
However: in rl she never was in the situation of being in love with someone she absolutely could not have. So I'm not completely sure she wouldn't have had an affair with Franz Stefan (who definitely was okay with adultery) if he'd tried, because she really was deeply in love with him already at the point where the timelines would have diverged. Not immediately, I think she would have given this marriage an honest, dutiful try, but some frustrating years later? Just about possible for young MT, foiled in love, no realm ruling to put her energies into and stuck with Fritz as a husband.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Her side
Date: 2019-10-02 11:30 am (UTC)Definitely not if he'd advised her to sleep with his brother. That would have been spiritual incest (since, post-marriage, his siblings were her siblings as well) in addition to being adultery, and a MT unhappy in her marriage would have been more likely to throw herself into her religion to compensate, not less.
However: in rl she never was in the situation of being in love with someone she absolutely could not have. So I'm not completely sure she wouldn't have had an affair with Franz Stefan (who definitely was okay with adultery) if he'd tried, because she really was deeply in love with him already at the point where the timelines would have diverged. Not immediately, I think she would have given this marriage an honest, dutiful try, but some frustrating years later? Just about possible for young MT, foiled in love, no realm ruling to put her energies into and stuck with Fritz as a husband.