Okay, so one thing I want to ramble about that's tangentially related to my canon-divergent AUs is the fact that Peter Keith keeps showing up in them, which is why I nominated him for Yuletide. And a while back, I was digging around the internet looking for whatever I could find on him (not much, and much of it contradictory). Biggest find was that he seems to have been acquainted with Lord Chesterfield, who helped him in his flight from Wesel to the Netherlands to England to Portugal after Fritz's failed escape attempt. (One always says "the escape attempt" because Fritz failed, but one of the three did actually make it.)
Well, rough chronology is that he escapes in 1730, goes to Portugal, serves in the army for 10 years, comes back in late 1740/maybe early 1741, as soon as Fritz becomes king and pardons him. Fritz gives him some money and honors (the interesting one being membership in the Academy of Sciences), lets him get married (I wonder if Fritz was displeased with people getting married this early, or if he and Peter* just weren't close enough any more for him to care), and generally they have little to do with each other thereafter. Which makes sense. The last time they'd seen each other was 1728, when they were both ~16, I don't know if they had a chance to correspond after 1730, and drifting apart is to be expected.
* I have to call him Peter, because there were at least 5 Keiths in Fritz's life. That's too many!
So I keep reading that Peter was complaining until he died about not getting repaid enough for the sacrifices he made for Fritz. Now, he died in 1756, and the only documentary evidence I've found is a letter from 1741 saying that the cost of living in Berlin was so high that the money Fritz had given him wasn't enough. Is there any reason to believe Fritz was the kind of person who would have persuaded to give him more money? No, not likely, especially since I'm convinced that somewhere in the back of Fritz's head, maybe consciously, maybe not, a voice was yelling, "Katte DIED with JOY in his heart, and you lived and you're complaining about MONEY?!!" (It's not fair, but Fritz was traumatized, and since when is he fair on most subjects, much less this one?)
Anyway, either someone is extrapolating from 1741 to 1756 and not saying so, or there's documentary evidence for 1756 that they're not giving. Anyway.
The super interesting thing when I started digging was a letter from one of Fritz's friends to Fritz explaining that Keith, who is in Berlin while Fritz and the army are in Silesia, would like a commission. Because while he appreciates the great honor Fritz has done him and only wants to serve him obediently, all the other young men are joining the army for the First Silesian War, and Peter doesn't feel right staying home. (This is a very common phenomenon among young men in wartime.)
Given that Peter was a lieutenant in the Prussian army in 1730, and served in the Portuguese army for the last ten years, and given that there's a war on when he gets home to Prussia, the fact that he wasn't immediately assigned to a regiment and, in fact, is having to *explain* why he'd like to be in the army...
It feels very much to me, reading between the lines, that Fritz was trying to keep Peter safe. And given how extremely sensitive Fritz was about people not supporting his wars and how willing he was to use force to recruit (okay, these are early days, this isn't the Seven Years' War yet, but look at how upset he gets with Wilhelmine for not appearing to support his wars whole-heartedly)...that feels pretty exceptional. I know he pulled Fredersdorf out of the army and gave him a civilian role as valet, then as chamberlain, but that's the only exception that's coming to mind off the top of my head, whereas the number of times he went the other way ("help me fight my wars or else") is high.
The most natural way for me to read this is Fritz trying to keep Peter safe because he feels bad. Especially given the speed (<1 month) with which he started bestowing promotions and titles on Katte's dad as soon as he became king.
In sum, Fritz trying to keep Peter safe gives me sad shippy feelings. :/ Not OTP shippy feelings, but some regret that they drifted apart and never really did anything about it. (Because remember: 19-yo Peter *was* willing to risk his life for Fritz's plan and go into possibly permanent exile with him, and even Wilhelmine, who Did Not Like him, wrote that 17-yo Peter really was devoted to Fritz and not just because he was Crown Prince.) This is really unusual for me as a shipper; normally I want nothing to do with ships that start when people are that young. But Peter and Katte are kind of exceptions...because of reasons that I haven't quite figured out yet.
Anyway, poor Peter has one (1) fic on AO3, in German, a modern AU where he's apparently trying to help Fritz put together a surprise birthday party for Katte. I'm trying my darnedest to give him a fixit fic, even if just friendly ex in exile with the Fritz/Katte OTP. <3 But really my brain is going straight to polyamory for maximum happily ever after, so sue me. :P
Peter Keith
Well, rough chronology is that he escapes in 1730, goes to Portugal, serves in the army for 10 years, comes back in late 1740/maybe early 1741, as soon as Fritz becomes king and pardons him. Fritz gives him some money and honors (the interesting one being membership in the Academy of Sciences), lets him get married (I wonder if Fritz was displeased with people getting married this early, or if he and Peter* just weren't close enough any more for him to care), and generally they have little to do with each other thereafter. Which makes sense. The last time they'd seen each other was 1728, when they were both ~16, I don't know if they had a chance to correspond after 1730, and drifting apart is to be expected.
* I have to call him Peter, because there were at least 5 Keiths in Fritz's life. That's too many!
So I keep reading that Peter was complaining until he died about not getting repaid enough for the sacrifices he made for Fritz. Now, he died in 1756, and the only documentary evidence I've found is a letter from 1741 saying that the cost of living in Berlin was so high that the money Fritz had given him wasn't enough. Is there any reason to believe Fritz was the kind of person who would have persuaded to give him more money? No, not likely, especially since I'm convinced that somewhere in the back of Fritz's head, maybe consciously, maybe not, a voice was yelling, "Katte DIED with JOY in his heart, and you lived and you're complaining about MONEY?!!" (It's not fair, but Fritz was traumatized, and since when is he fair on most subjects, much less this one?)
Anyway, either someone is extrapolating from 1741 to 1756 and not saying so, or there's documentary evidence for 1756 that they're not giving. Anyway.
The super interesting thing when I started digging was a letter from one of Fritz's friends to Fritz explaining that Keith, who is in Berlin while Fritz and the army are in Silesia, would like a commission. Because while he appreciates the great honor Fritz has done him and only wants to serve him obediently, all the other young men are joining the army for the First Silesian War, and Peter doesn't feel right staying home. (This is a very common phenomenon among young men in wartime.)
Given that Peter was a lieutenant in the Prussian army in 1730, and served in the Portuguese army for the last ten years, and given that there's a war on when he gets home to Prussia, the fact that he wasn't immediately assigned to a regiment and, in fact, is having to *explain* why he'd like to be in the army...
It feels very much to me, reading between the lines, that Fritz was trying to keep Peter safe. And given how extremely sensitive Fritz was about people not supporting his wars and how willing he was to use force to recruit (okay, these are early days, this isn't the Seven Years' War yet, but look at how upset he gets with Wilhelmine for not appearing to support his wars whole-heartedly)...that feels pretty exceptional. I know he pulled Fredersdorf out of the army and gave him a civilian role as valet, then as chamberlain, but that's the only exception that's coming to mind off the top of my head, whereas the number of times he went the other way ("help me fight my wars or else") is high.
The most natural way for me to read this is Fritz trying to keep Peter safe because he feels bad. Especially given the speed (<1 month) with which he started bestowing promotions and titles on Katte's dad as soon as he became king.
In sum, Fritz trying to keep Peter safe gives me sad shippy feelings. :/ Not OTP shippy feelings, but some regret that they drifted apart and never really did anything about it. (Because remember: 19-yo Peter *was* willing to risk his life for Fritz's plan and go into possibly permanent exile with him, and even Wilhelmine, who Did Not Like him, wrote that 17-yo Peter really was devoted to Fritz and not just because he was Crown Prince.) This is really unusual for me as a shipper; normally I want nothing to do with ships that start when people are that young. But Peter and Katte are kind of exceptions...because of reasons that I haven't quite figured out yet.
Anyway, poor Peter has one (1) fic on AO3, in German, a modern AU where he's apparently trying to help Fritz put together a surprise birthday party for Katte. I'm trying my darnedest to give him a fixit fic, even if just friendly ex in exile with the Fritz/Katte OTP. <3
But really my brain is going straight to polyamory for maximum happily ever after, so sue me. :P