Mes amies, I just checked, and now all my nominations for our Frederician RPF were approved. Yours?
The two Fritz biographies on loan which I was skipping told me Grumpkow, if he hadn't been a cynic himself, would have had reason to look alarmed at teenage Fritz' idea of marriage years earlier, too, when according to Grumpkow himself they had this chat:
15 years old Fritz, het-posing: So, dad told me lust quickly passes and cheating on your wife is an evil sin. I have therefore decided I'll wait with marriage until I'm ancient, like 40, and then I'll marry a 14 years old. Presumably she'll have some years ahead before getting fat and old herself. That way, I'll stay interested and won't cheat on her! Which would be a sin.
Given MT was five years younger than Fritz, it occurs to me that she would have been 14 to 15 when he came up with the desperate marriage/escape plot. I've now read a brief essay about the two of them (in a German book, thus not linkable) which provided me with more neat useable trivia for future reference: Fritz actually met Franz Stefan once before the later married MT. He also wrote to him, never to MT, in the brief upbuilding to the first Silesian War (cause you know, as a man clearly Franz Stefan was the one really making the decisions here). After he won the battle of Mollwitz (April 1741, cahn), he had the field preacher chose for his sermon that famous put-down by Paul in his letter to Timothy: "A woman should learn humility in quietness. I will not allow a woman to teach, nor that she should rule over a man; she should be quiet."
By the second Silesian War, he was, of course, aware who was really ruling in Vienna, but he couldn't figure out how that worked for MT and Franz Stefan as a couple (not surprisingly, because well, his model for m/f marriage were his parents), and asked a French visitor who'd also been to Vienna: "Don't they invite the comment that the woman is dressed up as a man and the man as a woman? At least the Emperor shows the behaviour of a hen-pecked husband who leaves everything to his wife. She must be a strange woman, more masculine than feminine. Does she appear to be very busy?"
(The French visitor told him that au contraire, MT was very feminine indeed, but also a workoholic like himself (imagine Fritz' face at that) who would accomplish great things if she had better ministers to work with, as the Prussian king did.)
(I would say in terms of business they were about even. Fritz probably slept less, but then again, Maria Theresia had those 16 kids during her rule. Of course she didn't hands-on raise them any more than other royalty did, but no one could take those nine months of pregnancy from her. I mean, she was pregnant with her fourth child - Joseph, actually - when Fritz invaded for the first time. She must have had an iron constitution.)
The essay contains the Fritz about MT quotes we already talked about - "the first man the Habsburgs produced in centuries, and it's a woman", "one of the three whores of Europe" (the others were Madame de Pompadour and Elizabeth of Russia, [Bad username or unknown identity: cahn"]), and then the reverse, to Henri de Catt, which I won't paraphrase but translate to let cahn enjoy the full, err, Fritzness: "Despite all the evil she's done to me, I must admit this princess invites much respect due to her morals. There are few women who resemble her in this regard. Most are whores, and the Queen despises whores. She's very industrious and gifted in more than one area." And once she was dead, he topped even that with what we already partially quoted: "I have regretted the death of the Empress-Queen; she brought honor to her throne and her sex; I went to war with her, but I was never her enemy."
The essay writer chides MT for not being similarly chill and praising about her arch nemesis. Leaving aside the fact as to who wronged whom, she didn't outlive him; it's always easier to speak well of the dead. The essay does quote the bit from the letter to Joseph, and also a comment MT made in another letter (early in the 7-years-war): "No, I am not unforgiving towards him. But my dislike is rooted in the experiences I've had with him. I am concerned, and not without reason, that I will never be able to feel safe for as long as this King is as powerful as he is now."
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Re: MT marriage AU, cont'd
Date: 2019-10-15 04:29 am (UTC)The two Fritz biographies on loan which I was skipping told me Grumpkow, if he hadn't been a cynic himself, would have had reason to look alarmed at teenage Fritz' idea of marriage years earlier, too, when according to Grumpkow himself they had this chat:
15 years old Fritz, het-posing: So, dad told me lust quickly passes and cheating on your wife is an evil sin. I have therefore decided I'll wait with marriage until I'm ancient, like 40, and then I'll marry a 14 years old. Presumably she'll have some years ahead before getting fat and old herself. That way, I'll stay interested and won't cheat on her! Which would be a sin.
Given MT was five years younger than Fritz, it occurs to me that she would have been 14 to 15 when he came up with the desperate marriage/escape plot. I've now read a brief essay about the two of them (in a German book, thus not linkable) which provided me with more neat useable trivia for future reference: Fritz actually met Franz Stefan once before the later married MT. He also wrote to him, never to MT, in the brief upbuilding to the first Silesian War (cause you know, as a man clearly Franz Stefan was the one really making the decisions here). After he won the battle of Mollwitz (April 1741,
By the second Silesian War, he was, of course, aware who was really ruling in Vienna, but he couldn't figure out how that worked for MT and Franz Stefan as a couple (not surprisingly, because well, his model for m/f marriage were his parents), and asked a French visitor who'd also been to Vienna: "Don't they invite the comment that the woman is dressed up as a man and the man as a woman? At least the Emperor shows the behaviour of a hen-pecked husband who leaves everything to his wife. She must be a strange woman, more masculine than feminine. Does she appear to be very busy?"
(The French visitor told him that au contraire, MT was very feminine indeed, but also a workoholic like himself (imagine Fritz' face at that) who would accomplish great things if she had better ministers to work with, as the Prussian king did.)
(I would say in terms of business they were about even. Fritz probably slept less, but then again, Maria Theresia had those 16 kids during her rule. Of course she didn't hands-on raise them any more than other royalty did, but no one could take those nine months of pregnancy from her. I mean, she was pregnant with her fourth child - Joseph, actually - when Fritz invaded for the first time. She must have had an iron constitution.)
The essay contains the Fritz about MT quotes we already talked about - "the first man the Habsburgs produced in centuries, and it's a woman", "one of the three whores of Europe" (the others were Madame de Pompadour and Elizabeth of Russia, [Bad username or unknown identity: cahn"]), and then the reverse, to Henri de Catt, which I won't paraphrase but translate to let
The essay writer chides MT for not being similarly chill and praising about her arch nemesis. Leaving aside the fact as to who wronged whom, she didn't outlive him; it's always easier to speak well of the dead. The essay does quote the bit from the letter to Joseph, and also a comment MT made in another letter (early in the 7-years-war): "No, I am not unforgiving towards him. But my dislike is rooted in the experiences I've had with him. I am concerned, and not without reason, that I will never be able to feel safe for as long as this King is as powerful as he is now."