Also random facts gathered from the estimable Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger:
Context for soon to be quoted quote for cahn: The outcome of the 7 Years War was an utter PR desaster for MT. Now, she might have lost the first two Silesian Wars, too, but back then, she'd won a lot of respect and sympathy, and while everyone had been impressed by Fritz' military skills they were also somewhat horrified at his ruthlessness, whether or not they joined in wanting a piece of the Austrian cake later. But in the 7-Years-War, he in the public pov was the underdog against whom MT had allied herself with France and Russia, thereby evoking bad memories of the 30 years War and several nations duking it out on German soil. He was the David winning against Goliath, and, depending on one's priorities, the Defender of Protestants against Catholic tyranny (both Habsburg and Bourbons being Catholic dynasties; the Romanows sure weren't, but that was incidental) and/or the Defender of Germans against the Evil French and Russians whom traiterous MT had instead befriended. This was the era in which baby Schiller (from a Würtemberg, not Prussian family) was named Friedrich after him along with hundreds of other babies in the country. Decades later, Goethe (who was Hessian, not Prussian, either), who was eight years old when the war ended, writes about being a Fritz fanboy (which he totally was at that age, along, again, with about 90% of German speaking boys): "And thus I was a Prussian, or rather, a Fritzian partisan; for what was Prussia to us? It was the personality of the Great King which had everyone excited. I joined my father in exulting over his victories, jotted down the victory songs and even more enjoyed jotting down the taunting songs about the opposition, as silly as those rhymes were. That there were parties, or that he was partisan was beyond the boy I was. On the contary, that boy was all the more certain to be in the right and to be fair since he acknowledged Maria Theresia's personal goodness, her beauty and her other virtues."
(And yes, Goethe does write "Fritzian", i.e "fritzisch".)
Less fun was that a lot of pamphlets followed Fritz in pointing out that it had been three women (MT, Madame de Pompadeour and the Czarina Elizabeth) allied against him. A pamphlet concluded: "As the holy apostle wrote: A woman should not talk in the community. Many people exclude the female line completely from succession and don't allow female regents, either. The great misery often caused by womenfolk surely has merited this habit. While it can't be denied that good things, too, have been achieved by some women, these are the few exceptions that prove the rule. Now that war bears the names of Maria Theresia and Elizabeth, everyone may judge for themselves. As the poet says: Intolerabilis nihil est quam femina dines." (Nothing is more unbearable than a powerful woman.)
Re: Random facts
Context for soon to be quoted quote for
"And thus I was a Prussian, or rather, a Fritzian partisan; for what was Prussia to us? It was the personality of the Great King which had everyone excited. I joined my father in exulting over his victories, jotted down the victory songs and even more enjoyed jotting down the taunting songs about the opposition, as silly as those rhymes were. That there were parties, or that he was partisan was beyond the boy I was. On the contary, that boy was all the more certain to be in the right and to be fair since he acknowledged Maria Theresia's personal goodness, her beauty and her other virtues."
(And yes, Goethe does write "Fritzian", i.e "fritzisch".)
Less fun was that a lot of pamphlets followed Fritz in pointing out that it had been three women (MT, Madame de Pompadeour and the Czarina Elizabeth) allied against him. A pamphlet concluded:
"As the holy apostle wrote: A woman should not talk in the community. Many people exclude the female line completely from succession and don't allow female regents, either. The great misery often caused by womenfolk surely has merited this habit. While it can't be denied that good things, too, have been achieved by some women, these are the few exceptions that prove the rule. Now that war bears the names of Maria Theresia and Elizabeth, everyone may judge for themselves. As the poet says: Intolerabilis nihil est quam femina dines." (Nothing is more unbearable than a powerful woman.)