cahn

I love the Iron Mask bit! I didn't know that at all about Fritz & W, but it makes so much sense.

what was Wilhelmine was doing was actually filfilling a life long dream for both of them. And he never got to do it, and he never would.

So, I've been wondering for a long time now: after 1740, was anything stopping him except his own priorities? Like, I know arranging a royal visit is non-trivial, and traveling incognito doesn't always work when you're a monarch, but...other monarchs managed to travel, and even Fritz made it to the Netherlands. If he hadn't been so obsessed with micromanaging his own country and invading others, would it have been that hard to visit Paris and Italy at some point in 1740-1786?

cahn, anecdote I've always found hilarious.

It's 1740. Fritz has been king for a couple of months. He hasn't invaded Silesia yet (MT's dad is still alive). After visiting Wilhelmine, he decides, "I'm going to France!" Algarotti is with him, along with a few others.

Fritz: Forges a passport under an assumed name, crosses the border* into Strasbourg.
Fritz: Yay, now I get to be an anonymous tourist and enjoy myself just like everyone else. :D
*approximately five minutes later*
Guy in Strasbourg: OMG, it's the new King of Prussia! Hey, everyone! Look!
Fritz: No, no, you're mistaken. I'm the count of something else, definitely not the King of Prussia.
Guy in Strasbourg: Hi, Fritz! Omg, fancy running into you here! You look exactly like your picture, which I conveniently have a copy of right here. Look, everyone!
Algarotti: Listen. I've known this man my whole life, and okay, he's *related* to the King of Prussia, but I promise you, he is *not* the King of Prussia.
Everyone in Strasbourg: Hey, Fritz! Can we get your autograph? Can I host you? No, me, I want to host you!
Fritz: ...
Fritz: *sad panda*

* Someone on tumblr said, "What *is* it with this man and illegally crossing borders?" which made me laugh.

Then he canceled the rest of the incognito France trip (although he also got hit by a bout of malaria around that time, which was probably a major reason for canceling too), and never did that again. In France. A couple decades later, he met his future reader Catt in the Netherlands, while pretending to be a musician.

Catt: You ask a lot of questions for a musician.
Fritz: Um. Yes. Sorry. But I am definitely just a musician, nothing suspicious about me at all, nothing to see here, this is not the king you are looking for. Sorry, gotta go! Bye!

Then as soon as Fritz went back to being the King of Prussia, Catt got a job offer.

I used to say that Fritz was no Odysseus when it came to disguises, but then I remembered the time Odysseus snuck his men out of the Cyclops' cave under an assumed name, then shouted his real name at the heavens as soon as he was free, thus royally pissing off Poseidon and triggering a sequence of events that led to all of his men getting killed and him taking 10 years to get home. Yeah, no, that's Fritz for you, lol.

Anyway, it's always made me sad that Fritz never made it to Paris or Italy, which is why I keep coming up with AUs where he does. WITH KATTE. ;)

So a part of him must have found it impossible to let her enjoy it without him.

Oh, Fritz. :-( Don't do that. Come to my AU, you will like it. <3 I promise.