cahn | Frederick the Great, discussion post 5: or: Yuletide requests are out!

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Frederick the Great, discussion post 5: or: Yuletide requests are out!

All Yuletide requests are out!

Yuletide related:
-it is sad that I can't watch opera quickly enough these days to have offered any of them, these requests are delightful!

-That is... sure a lot of prompts for MCS/Jingyan. But happily some that are not :D (I like MCS/Jingyan! But there are So Many Other characters!)

Frederician-specific:
-I am so excited someone requested Fritz/Voltaire, please someone write it!!

-I also really want someone to write that request for Poniatowski, although that is... definitely a niche request, even for this niche fandom. But he has memoirs?? apparently they are translated from Polish into French

-But while we are waiting/writing/etc., check out this crack commentfic where Heinrich and Franz Stefan are drinking together while Maria Theresia and Frederick the Great have their secret summit, which turns into a plot to marry the future Emperor Joseph to Fritz...

Master link to Frederick the Great posts and associated online links

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Hey, I had three and a half years of French in school! (One year I couldn't fit it in my schedule and it was with a tutor -- the lovely French teacher I'd mentioned before, who had retired at that point -- but because I wasn't taking it for credit we probably got through about half the curriculum.) I'm feeling very learned right now, having had the most French of the three of us! ;) :P

Of course I didn't keep it up, so it's not like I can read any better than either of you at this point :P And my pronunciation was always execrable.

Ohhh okay! I didn't go far enough! Man, he was in a major snit, wasn't he.

W to F: I am convinced that my brother was not lacking in good will. The grace you've shown him in entrusting the leadership of the army to him was a mighty incentive to deserve it. Only you, my dearest brother, are free of flaws in this regard. You cannot demand of others what you ask from yourself. His despair (...) is a very harsh punishment for him. His mistake will teach him to be smarter, and he will make up for it, I am sure!

<33333 Wilhelmine is so great, I love her <3 And now that I know more about AW I'm even more :((((((( about him :( <3

I will keep all that in mind! Thank you for the notes :D

Whoa, I didn't even know you could borrow books on archive.org! HMMMM.

My library doesn't have it in text, though it does have it in videocassette?? which is really weird to me. (This is of course not at all helpful to me, as I don't have a VHS player and even if I did, I have all this stuff queued up to watch!)

Ooh, this sounds amazing. I have put it on my Amazon wishlist! (Not going to have time to watch any movies until after Christmas, and also not really buying anything until then so as to give my family things to buy for me, but after that!) Thank you for the rec!

I mean, this all sounds great, but

improvising a duet from Mozart's Don Giovanni (or rather, making an aria into a duet) which as Casanova (historically correctly) mentions he saw the premiere performance of in Prague

...I am all about this, as you knew I would be :D

Neither did I! But I went looking for it for you and discovered this.

Much to my delight, yesterday I also accidentally stumbled across volume 2 of Catt's memoirs online, which I *had not* been able to find despite extensive looking. Funnily enough, I was trying to track down an 18th century place name for somewhere in Poland, and Catt came up. So I have downloaded that and have it on my to-read list, when I can read things again, ugh. (It's kind of horrible to have gone from "can't read physical books" to "can't read books" but at least I'm hopeful that has an easier fix.)

V. H. S???? Wow. Okay, library!

Ooooh, this group bio is Relevant To My Interests. This is great! :D

I feel like I saw her books around at the library when i was growing up! I... don't think I read any of them, though. (I read a whole metric ton by someone named... Jean Plaidy, I think? I don't remember anything about them, only that she wrote a bunch and I read them, but all the actual historical content seeped out of my head shortly after reading.)

Historical linguistics is full of neat explanations for things, or at least I think so. When people want to know why such-and-such is, I take delight in being able to explain the history of the word over the last one to two thousand years. (This comes up a lot when I'm doing ESL with a French-speaking friend. He likes to joke that it's good to know there's usually a reason behind the chaos that is the English language, but that it's not scalable to expect all foreigners to get a PhD so the language can make sense to them!)

Oh, man, that takes me back. I think I read everything by Jean Plaidy back in the day, and yes, it is a metric ton. I'm not surprised they seeped out of your head, they were fairly forgettable as literature goes, but they were super useful for me in retaining history. My MO for history in high school was nonfiction to know what to believe, and historical fiction so I had a hope of retaining it. So it's partly thanks to her that I remember any European history outside the 18th century.

Haha, I read a Stephen/Maud-shipping romance that, while it was full of inaccuracies and implausibilities, was probably responsible for more of my vague memories persisting to this day than the few actual histories I read.

My biggest problem is that I find Fritz's extremely many faults endearing too, seeing as how he is safely long dead and thus practically fictional in my mental ontology. I'm now more inclined to see them as faults than I was as a teenager *cough*, but they still give me warm and fuzzies as long as they aren't actively harming anyone currently living. (Everyone in the 18th century just lived in hell, that's all there is to it.)

I mean, between the fact that I'm still fascinated by military history, and the fact that I sometimes outright cheer for the villains in movies...Fritz fits right into my brain's "problematic faves <333" slot, and he hasn't budged yet.

Prove me wrong :P :D

Ahem.

selenak can prove you wrong, if she likes. I'm standing over here glaring at FW and hugging Fritz and Katte protectively. (And whispering in Fritz's ear, or more accurately having my Athena muse whisper, "You know, if you did such-and-such, you could probably hold Silesia with a lower death toll, and maybe Bohemia and Saxony too." While glancing shiftily around in case my actual principles can hear me. :PP)

(Athena's backstory with FW in this unwritten AU has kind of a hilarious intersection with some of today's topics, and it's been making me laugh.)

OMG LOOOOOL I love your take on this! That could totally be it!

So when I say, "hate the sin," I mean on principle, not why I'm in this fandom. Purely from a fandom perspective, I'm more like: "Go and sin no lots more!" :-PP

So he was. Which is probably yet another reason why Wilhelmine once letterly reconciliation had ensued didn't want to leave it at that but conspired with EC's lady in waiting she met at the spa and went with her to Berlin the next year. All reports agree that Fritz just melted when, quoth her biographer Uwe Oster "he took his emaciated sister - "the most beautiful skeleton of Europe," she jested -, in his arms and would not let her go."

Re: AW, naturally Fontane covers him as well in his travel guide, apropos Oranienburg, the palace Fritz gave him when Heinrich got Rheinsberg. It had been one of their grandfather's favored residences, which meant of course that FW had shut it down and ignored it for the three decades of his rule as part of his saving money to balance the state budget policy. This, however, meant that by the time AW got it and reopened it, the park had grown wild and really made it look like a fairy tale residence. Now Fontane quotes an older Prussian courtier - who did remember the F1 days - describing the party AW threw for his mother and siblings there. As it is a great example of a rokoko festivity, here is the description as quoted by Theodor Fontane: "On April 14," it says, "the Queen Mother set out from Berlin and arrived in Oranienburg in the afternoon of the same day. Her court followed her in a long line of bodies, probably thirty in number. The princess Amalie sat in the car of the queen. As soon as the approach of the train was announced to Prince August Wilhelm, he hurried up the great avenue towards the train, leapt from the horse in the face of the Queen's carriage, and greeted her, with his head bare, at the door of the carriage. Then he quickly swung himself back into the saddle and hurried forward in full gallop to repeat the honors at the entrance to the castle. At his side stood his wife, the Princess of Prussia (a born princess of Brunswick), the princes Heinrich and Ferdinand, and the court ladies of Wollden, Henckel, Wartensleben, Kamecke, Hacke, Pannewitz and Kannenberg. The queen most tenderly embraced her sons, greeted the bystanders, and was then led up the great staircase to the bedchamber destined for her, the same that King Frederick I used to inhabit during his visits to Oranienburg Castle. The queen found in this room a state bed of red damask, as well as an armchair, a fire-screen, and four taburets of the same cloth and the same color. Soon after the noble woman had settled in and enjoyed the view of the park and the landscape, the prince appeared to present her with three beautiful figures of Dresden porcelain, which the Queen Mother, as the prince knew, was particularly enamored by. But the queen mother was not alone in attracting the attention of this amiable prince, and Baron von Pöllnitz was also honored with similar attention. His Royal Highness well knew the fondness of the old Baron (von Pöllnitz) for all the antiquities and curiosities of the time of King Frederick I, who had always been a good and gracious lord to him, and mindful of that fondness, His Royal Highness presented the old baron with a morning cap, richly embroidered with gold, and a pair of slippers, which King Frederick I used to wear during his visits to Oranienburg, and who for more than thirty-two years had stood unnoticed and unappreciated in a half-forgotten chest. After sunset, promenades followed in the park, then game tables were arranged until about ten the welcome message that the supper was served, the game interrupted. What subtleties and surprises from the kitchen, which highly qualified wines, what cheerfulness, what cheerfulness of the guests! And yet at last the inevitable happened, as King Dagobert bitterly lamented at the time that even the best society had its end and had to part.

That was on April 14th. Early the next morning, and sooner than we liked, unfamiliar sounds woke us; the shepherd drove his flock past the castle, out into the fresh fields. The decision was made by a bull of such extra-elegant beauty that he could be none other than the well-known happy lover of the Virgin Europe; indeed, the manner in which he wore, and the strength of his breast tones, seemed to indicate that he would steal our Ladies at the different windows of the castle. But he was deceived, our ladies, who may have read the story, were afraid and held back so as not to expose themselves and their charms to similar dangers. However that may be, the morning slumber was disturbed, and in place of sleep, which refused to come again, promenades in a light, fluttering morning costume and, after breakfast, the mutual visits. The Princess Amalie received the tributes offered to her beauty; she wore a corset of black satin quilted with white silk and beneath it a silver-embroidered dress, embroidered with natural flowers. In this costume she stood and practiced the flute: Euterpe itself could have been the envy.

After dinner, the queen-mother received all the ladies present in her bedroom; those who preferred hand-crafting to card-playing sat on tabourets for the queen, while Baron Pöllnitz took his place as a reader, continuing in the reading of "La Manche or The Adventures of Monsieur. Bigaud". The queen followed the lecture and took off gold threads (se à à effiler de l'or). The decision of the day was made by a ball in the brightly lit dance hall, followed by a supper in the state room, at the end of the porcelain gallery. As the queen entered the state room, she suddenly noticed through the high windows opposite, as it suddenly did, in the middle of the dark park, like a flame-tree growing out of the earth. The picture became ever clearer, until at last it stood like a fiery arcade, which bore a crown at the highest point and below it the words "Vivat Sophia Dorothea."

Indeed, that's the one poor Sophie ended up with. Now, the reasons why FW absolutely wanted to have him as a son-in-law were three fold. On the hand, it was strategic, because the von Schwedts were actually Hohenzollerns from a younger branch of the family, which meant that if by some misfortunate Fritz and all his siblings had been struck by lightning before they could procreate, this guy would have ended up on the Prussian throne, as a prince of the blood. (Fritz has a very sarcastic comment about princes of the blood in general in his political testament.) As the von Schwedts were ambitious, giving them one of the princesses basically bound them to the royal family in FW's mind, instead of giving them reason to plot against it. Secondly, that Margrave, between loving to hunt, loving to drink beer and loving rough pranks was just FW's type of fellow. And thirdly, the very fact that Milhelmine had refused him, given how FW related to his two oldest children at that point.

He was, however, sick during the actual wedding, which meant Fritz was the one who gave Sophie away in church. And if he provided her with an authorized knight to shield her from Schwedt's abuse, I'd say Fritz must have had a pretty clear idea about what that brother-in-law was like from the beginning, too.

Like I said: among the choices she had, Wilhelmine clearly picked the right guy.

I don't know about endearing, though if you like, you could use "FW, surprise! midwife" here - according to Wilhelmine, SD hadn't realised she was pregnant with Amalie until shortly before giving birth, because she thought it was the change and the stress and she was at last past childbirth, which meant there were zilch preparations, which meant when baby Amalie came, SD had to be birth assisted by one lady in waiting and her husband, who didn't budge and came through on that occasion.

But while Prussia's foremost abusive father, FW certainly was remarkable, and not in the ironic or "remarkably awful" sense, and prettty much unique among the princes of his time, in applying hardcore protestant work ethics to himself as well as his entire kingdom, making having a sense of duty, of service to the state, as a part of national self definition in a way that was not there for any other realm of the era. Even Peter the Great, that other worker and reformer on the throne of FW's generation, didn't abandon personal splendour (I mean, during military campaigns he did, but not when residing somewhere); FW took the whole "restoring my overdebted kingdom" thing to mean "thriftiness starts with me".) Von Krockow makes an intriguing comparison to Robesspierre, starting with a quote comparison daring the reader to guess whether it was FW or Max the revolutionary who said this, and I can totally see his point. They are pretty similar both in the ways they are remarkable and in the ways they are appalling, and FW was a revolutionary from the top in the context of his time and what he was trying to achieve.

(The quote: "We want to replace egoism by moral in our country, honor by decency, habits by princples, etiquette by duty, enforced tradition by the rule of common sense, the condemnation of misfortune by the condamnation of vice (...) and so-called good society by good people.")

(Obvious problem for both FW and Robespierre, and all ideologues - zero tolerance towards people who didn't want to be reformed to their way of thinking.)

Another unironic remarkable thing about FW is that for all his militarization of an entire country, and his army fetish, he didn't start a single war. He only fought in wars others had started, usually in his capacity of being a prince of the HRE and being called for duty by MT's dad. Now you'd think that once he had created the most modern army of Europe, he'd been dying to try it out, not least because there were two pieces of land he thought he had a claim on (neither of them Silesia btw) and hoped, in vain, MT's dad would give him as reward for his consistent loyalty, but no. If you were a soldier in FW's army, you might have been kidnapped for your body size or otherwise gang pressed, but you had a pretty good chance of survival, which, err, changed once his successor got on the throne.

(Von Krockow in his ponderings on Prussia per se states that for good or ill, the emergence of Prussia as a European power and its subsequent rise to THE German power, dominating all the others and changing them in its image, really depended on the combination of FW and Fritz as monarchs following each other. If F1 had been followed by a successor like himself, Prussia had never become more than a tiny overindebted principality with delusions of grandeur for calling itself a kingdom instead of a dukedom. If FW had been followed by "an avarage, or just an honorable man", then "Maria Theresia ascends to the throne untroubled, the Pragmatic Sanction holds" because no one wants to be the first to break it, and "Prussia remains a third rate German principality", financially sound and with a great civil service for a generation, true, but not in any way a model for any of the others. Again, an argument can be made that this would have been better in the long term. But it is not what happened, and I can see von Krockow's point - which is not his alone but a pretty popular one among traditional historians - that the entirety of subsequent German history depended on that father-son combination.

Lastly, an anecdote he quotes about FW's death, which you may or may not find endearing: On his deathbed the pious soldier had a choral being sung for him, the song by Paul Gerhardt "Warum sollt ich mich grämen? Hab ich doch Christum noch..." ("Why should I mourn? For I have Christ with me...") In the second verse, the lines go "Nude I lie on the floor/as I came into this world, took my first breath/ nude will I leave it..." When hearing these words, the pain-tormented majesty rose once more and thundered: "What do you mean, nude? I arrive, of course, in uniform!"

AHAHAHAHA Well, you tried, Fritz...

Or, how a more sober writer puts it:

The Swedish envoy in Berlin, Carl Rudenschöld, inspected them and recommended that the proposal be made to Ulrika. Frederick the Great himself preferred Amalia for the Swedish marriage: he described Amalia for the Swedish representatives as goodhearted and more suitable for Sweden, while Ulrika was arrogant, temperamental and a plotting intriguer. It has been suggested that Fredrick's judgment was given because he believed that Amalia would be easier to control as a Prussian agent in Sweden than the strong willed and dominant Ulrika. After having consulted Adolf Frederick, however, the Swedes chose Ulrika, and her brother gave his consent on 1 March 1744. She was given tuition about Sweden, was advised not to get involved in politics, and converted to Lutheranism 28 June.

All I can say on this occasion is: Swedes, you had it coming. But I do want to know whether Fritz was being sincere or was using reverse psychology on that occasion.

I had no idea that 18thC Sweden was such a hotbed of sensational gossip!

And you being a Verdi fan, no less. Also, there's always Axel von Fersen who is almost ridiculously perfect as a tragic romantic hero, and other than his childhood bff Gustav certainly was the most sensationally gossipped about Swede of his age. Zweig's MA biography will introduce you to details, but for now, have some tidbits:

Young Axel on the Grand Tour, meeting Voltaire: I was struck by the beauty of his eyes and the vivacity of his expression. It was, I confess, curiosity rather than admiration which led me to seek his acquaintance (...) He was not only extremely clever, but also very lucky; and one of the reasons of his success was that he was disliked, admired and befriended by different great people in such a way that his fame could not fail to spread.

(How's that for a diss, Fritz?)

Then our young, good-looking count gets to Paris. And meets a young masked lady at the opera. Sparks fly, but upon learning she is, in fact, the (married) Dauphine of France, young Axel hastily resumes his Grand Tour, then goes back to Sweden, serving childhood bff Gustav for the next few years. Then he goes to France once more, meets the by then Queen again, and sparks fly enough for people to notice and gossip. Since our hero, unlike most nobles, actually is aware that being gossipped about is starting to be a bad thing about the young Queen of France, he hastily withdraws again, this time to the American Revolution, no less, where he fights for the revolutionaries (whom France is allied with, remember). He duly distinguishes himself and goes back to Sweden, which is when Gustav makes a trip through central Europe, including France, and takes him along.

By this point, the necklace affair has happpened and ruined MA's reputation with the French population, as it turns out, for good. (No matter that in this case, all historians agree she was entirely innocent.) In the aftermath, von Fersen decides to stay with her. And remains through the early Revolution. He organized the ill fated escape attempt to Varennes and almost every other escape attempt thereafter, and tried his best to get first brother Leopold, then nephew Franz to do something for MA, he did manage to get Gustav on board with the "rescue the French Royals" train but then, well, masque ball. Axel von Fersen like a rl Scarlet Pimpernell managed to get into Revolutionary France again and again, but he could not save MA. He then returned to Sweden, heartbroken and full of guilt about having failed.

Fast forward to Gustav IV. Adolf being deposed by his uncle Charles; von Fersen leads the pro-Gustavian party in Sweden and gets blamed by public rumor for the death of Charles' only son (who when reviewing troops fell from his horse and died of apoplexy). When Axel von Fersen, in his capacity of peer of the realm, took part in the crown prince's funeral, he was, literally, torn apart by the mob. I kid you not. Quoth wiki: First curses then copper coins and various missiles were hurled at the carriage till its windows were broken; then savage threats and showers of stones become continuous, and, at last in the Riddarhustorget, at the instant when the escort was turning to the right, a tremendous crowd barred the way of Fersen's carriage ... the [guards] remained passive while the rabble unharnessed the horses, and dragged Fersen out of the coach.

Von Fersen, with a violent effort, flung back one of the assailants who grasped him and shook himself free of the others who were pressing round. There was a momentary lull, and the curses shrank from shouts to mutterings. Von Fersen's face bled where a stone had cut it, his decorations glittering in the sun. The guards, who were supposed to protect him, gazed at him with a sort of curious expectancy.

It was at this moment when Beaumont arrived on the scene with General Silfversparre and a small detachment of troops. This intervention further enraged the large crowd. Von Fersen, realizing that the authorities planned to do nothing, turned and dashed into the first door he could find. The crowd converged on this spot, and a few ran into the house in pursuit of him.

Before long, one man appeared at the window "and with a triumphant shout" hurled down von Fersen's cloak and sword, which were seized by the angry crowd. Von Fersen was dragged back out into the square. His gloves were pulled off and thrown in his face, and his coat torn off and trampled upon. Silfversparre, attempting to save von Fersen, offered to arrest him and have him tried in court for the Crown Prince's murder. At this moment, the mounted escort turned and rode away. The mob "had been almost quiet, but now raised yells of delight and triumph, and fell upon von Fersen".

Von Fersen's contemporary, Baron Gustaf Armfelt, stated afterward:

One is almost tempted to say that the government wanted to give the people a victim to play with, just as when one throws something to an irritated wild beast to distract its attention. The more I consider it all, the more I am certain that the mob had the least to do with it ... But in God's name what were the troops about? How could such a thing happen in broad daylight during a procession, when troops and a military escort were actually present?

Axel von Fersen died that day in Stockholm as Sweden's highest-ranking official next to the King; his death sent shock waves throughout the country. The cause of death was determined to be "crushing of the ribcage" when the Swedish-Finn Otto Johan Tandefelt jumped with both feet on Fersen's chest.

He had never married. His sister buried him with this enscription on his tomb:

To an unforgettable brother, the courage in his last moments on 20 June 1810, bears testimony to his virtues and clean conscience.

Same here. It also goes directly against the "well-meaning, dumb jock" image 19th century historians have given him. If you want a bit more heartbreak, Fontane points out that before their fall-out, despite the bossing around, Fritz actually showed consistently signs of being fond of AW, for that praise-and-instruction poem from his crown prince time turns out not to have been a singular event: "(Fritz) dedicated his great poem to him. "The art of war," he also dedicated to him "The History of Our House" and pronounced it in the masterful introduction of this work in front of the whole world and the future, why he held this brother, who was to succeed him, especially dear as both friend and prince. "The gentleness, the humanity of your character, is what I treasure; a heart open to friendship is above sublime ambition; you know no commandment other than justice, and no other will, than the desire to earn the esteem of the wise. "

Fontane's summary of the disastrous event: As my readers know, Prince August Wilhelm was put in command of those troops who were to withdraw to Lausitz; Winterfeldt was added to him. Things went badly, and when the two brothers met again, that terrible scene took place, which Count Schwerin, Winterfeldt's adjutant, described as follows: "A circle of witnesses was formed in which the prince and all his generals stood. Not the king entered the circle, but Winterfeldt instead of him. On the King's orders he had to say: 'They would all deserve to have a council of war over their conduct, where they would not escape the dictum of losing their heads; however, the King did not want to push it so far, because he did not forget his brother in the General. "The King was standing near the circle," continues Count Schwerin, "and paid attention as to whether Winterfeldt was using the expressions demanded of him. Winterfeldt did so, but with a shudder, and he could at once see the impression of his words, for the prince immediately left the circle and rode to Bautzen without speaking to the King."

Now how much of this was scapegoating for a military disaster, or correct blame for a military disaster, or at long last channelling some buried resentment toward's Dad's favorite, or channelling his father in the worst way, or all and any of this, biographers have been debating ever since.

Or maybe someone had already pawned it! /have read waaaaay too much Agatha Christie, half of which has this plot

Good point. After all, F1 had left the country in debt for 20 Million Reichstaler, his administration was famously corrupt, and secret jewlry sales would fit right in. FW didn't buy any new jewelry - whatever Ulrike got in his lifetime was from what was left from her grandfather's day. Fritz might have bought her something new on the occasion of her wedding, but....

The first of my ordered books has arrived. To state the negative first, the first name of Heinrich's mystery man is still in the dark. The documents Ziebura quotes don't mention it. Also, she provides no quote for her speculation that this was Heinrich's first boyfriend, or that he's identical with the Marwitz from the obelisk. What she does provide are extensive quotes from the (dated) letters Fritz wrote to Heinrich about this guy, as well as the entry in someone's diaries referring to this affair. Now, she mentions the letters were "unpublished", but her biography predates the Trier project, so I'm not sure whether not they are there at all. This all being said, quote time!

Diaries of Count Ernst von Lehndorff, Chamberlain to the Queen, dated January 9th 1757: "I renewed my aquaintance with a man whom I hadn't seen since 1749. It is a young Marwitz who started his career as page to the King and became his as well as Prince Heinrich's favourite. This affection went so far that the two royal brothers were fiercely arguing with each other for his sake. The young page was sent away, but after urgent petitions by Prince Heinrich rehired."

Now for letter excerpts. (All by Fritz, Heinrich's replies don't exist anymore.) Heinrich got sick near the end of carnival time and thus is in Berlin, when Fritz (who is in Potsdam) writes to him on March 3rd, 1746:

"I am glad to hear you are recovering from your colic. Don't go out again too early, and allow your body time to recover. Your little favourite is doing very well, and if he remains good, you'll soon see him again. Right now, he's pining for love and is composing elegies full of hot kisses in your honor which he intends to give you upon your return. I advise you not to exhaust yourself so that you have enough strength to express your love. The happiness of the immortals will not be equal to yours, and you will be able to drink rivers of lust in the arms of your beloved.
Adieu, mon cher Henri. I hope your illness will be the last with which you will worry my friendship for you, and that I shall soon be able to enjoy your amiable company without having to worry about you."

This is still sounds like more or less good natured big brotherly teasing (for Fritz). The next letter, alas, does not. It's dated on March 6th, 1756.

"My dear Heinrich, no, there is no crueller martyrdom than separation! How to live for a moment without the one you love? (...) Our sighs travel on country roads, and we pour our heart out as messages of our unhappy souls flying away like doves. Oh! Oh! The faithless man has forgotten me! says a certain person. Already a day has passed without a sigh of his has reached me! Surely, he's become faithless! He doesn't love me anymore! No, he doesn't love me anymore! If I had the courage, I'd tell this charming sad person: "That's no more than you deserve, you damned whore! Didn't you want to infect my poor brother with your gonorhoe? Oh! If he listened to me, he'd turn his love towards a worthier object and would send you to hell with all your nice little qualities, of which your STD, your vanity, your lies and your recklessness are but the least.
I do apologize for having committed the sacrilege of having dared to speak so dismissively of your angel's qualities. I do hope you'll forgive me."

Whatever Heinrich replied, Fritz was still not done, and wrote again the next day, March 7th:

"There is little more admirable than your fidelity. Since Pharamon and Rosamunde, Cyrus and Mandone, Pierre de Provence and the beautiful Madlone one hasn't seen the like. If you'll allow me, I'll write a novel titled "Fidelity. Love. Henri and the beautiful Marwitz", and it would be a novel so delicate, so tender, so sentimental and so sensual that it would be instructive to our youth. I would paint the gonorhea-ridden Marwitz in such lovely colors, I'd equip him with all the wit he believes himself to have, and I would above all describe all his coy affectations, as far as I was able to, with which he seems to signal silently to everyone: 'Look at me, am I not a pretty boy? Doesn't everyone have to love me, adore me, worship me? What, you little villain, you resist? You haven't yet put your heart at my feet? As for you, my angel, you'll have to die of love for me.'
Afterwards, I must describe the details of his figure, the charm of his wide shoulders, his supposedly heavy but actually seductive walk - in a word - but I can't continue, for otherwise my novel will be written by someone else. To you, my dear Heinrich, I reccommend to eat a lot, drink a lot and sleep a lot. Stay for some more days in Berlin, and do justice to my tenderness for you."

Again, we don't have Heinrich's reply. Fritz sounds a bit more apologetic and tries to pass it off as fraternal teasing in the last letter relating to this affair, dated March 9th:

"I do hope, my dear Heinrich, that this explanation will mollify you. I haven't said anything detrimental regarding your fidelity. I only listed the famously faithful couples known in history, with whom, incidentally, you can't really compare yourself, for your separation has lasted only ten days so far, and your little sweetheart lives only four miles away from you. Moreover, you can be sure to see him again soon. Pharamon had to wait for ten years before seeing Rosamonde again. I dare say there's a difference. I do hope, dear Heinrich, that this silliness don't rob me of your friendship, and that you will do me more justice in the future. But don't demand me of me that I should take your little romance seriously, and don't sulk over my jokes regarding a matter which wasn't an insult. Adieu, mon cher Henri, and believe me, I didn't hurt you intentionally. "

Edited 2019-11-26 12:18 (UTC)

Look at my latest comment below. I finally got my hands on the Marwitz-the-page related letters by Fritz.

Going through Ziebura's Heinrich bio sporadically instead of in linear fashion, as I am pressed for time, I must share less tragic events wherein Fritz is not the villain.

So, the 7 Years war is long over, we're in the 1770s.

Gustav: I'm on my Grand Tour, and have just heard my old man has kicked it. Might as well say to hi to Uncle Fritz, Most Famous Monarch Of Europe while I'm on my way back. I've got plans, people! Visiting Paris just illustrated to me how much absolute monarchy rocks.

Fritz to Heinrich: Ulrike's kid is coming. Mind dropping by? "For I believe the two of us are not too many to preach restraint to him, or at least quench his initial fire."

Heinrich: Okay. Gustav, you don't know how rare an event this is, but the two of us agree on something, and that something is that a coup d'etat in Sweden IS A REALLY BAD IDEA.

Fritz: Which I'm not willing to finance. Ever.

Gustav: Whatever. Bye, Uncles!

Ulrike: I am womanfully ignoring your dastardly letter about Henricus Minor, Fritz, if you finance a state visit for me. For some reason, newly crowned Gustav thinks he doesn't need my advice anymore and calls me "interfering" and "arrogant".

Heinrich: Come on, invite Ulrike. Who knows whether we'll ever see her again otherwise?

Fritz: Fine. Ulrike, you're invited.

Ulrike: *arrives with one of her daughters, gets state visit reception in Potsdam; her sister Charlotte comes from Braunschweig, which means all three of the surviving sisters as well as all surviving brothers are together at the same place at the same time*

Ulrike: Boys, I've just got a wonderful idea! Why don't we make a family trip to darling old Wusterhausen, where dear old Dad used to spend the summer holidays with us! I missed that place so much in Sweden, I can't tell you.

Fritz: You mean the house of horrors where I spent some of the worst times of my life, only made bearable by Wihelmine WHO IS NO LONGER THERE! Nope. Not coming.

Heinrich: Come on. "We will remember every corner where we were scolded and sometimes hit. But even the sufferings one remembers from one's childhood cause joy in one's advanced years."

Fritz: To you, maybe. NOT COMING.

Heinrich: Have it your way. Girls, Ferdinand, off we go.

Hohenzollern Sisters: Wow. That place brings memories. Dad was - well. But you know, Mom was worse.

Hohenzollern Brothers: WTF? Dad was way worse than Mom!

Family quarrel: *ensues*

(No really, they have a giant sibling face off about which of their parents was worse. In the end, Ulrike and Charlotte as well as Ferdinand give up, whereas Heinrich and Amalie still keep going, with Heinrich insisting FW was worst and Amalie insisting SD was worst until they swear never to talk to each other again.)

Fritz: Had a good time in dear old Wusterhausen, did we?

Heinrich: Shut up.

Ulrike: So, Heinrich, I'm hearing wonders about Rheinsberg. Why don't I visit your place next?

Heinrich: By all means. I have these wonderful musicians, including Mara the very hot Cellist, my current boyfriend. Party time for my royal sister! Fritz, mind if I borrow Gertrud Elisabeth Schmeling? Ulrike deserves to hear the best soprano of our time while she's visiting me.

Fritz: You know....

Heinrich: You're not getting thrifty, are you?

Fritz: Sure, you can have her.

Reinsberg visit by Ulrike with lots of Rokoko parties: *ensues*

Mara/Schmeling love affair: *ensues*

Heinrich: I'm not sure how that was a plot by Fritz, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was. Ah well. Mara was getting expensive. At least now La Schmeling can pay his bills.

Fritz: Ulrike, the six months I promised to finance your state visit for are almost over. Just saying.

Ulrike: Heinrich, you've got to help me with my kid. That was so touching, you defending Mom to Amalie. I'm just like her! There is no end to a mother's love!

Heinrich: Dear Nephew Gustav, be nice to your mother. "Forget the many little misunderstandings that have caused your quarrel. (...) The Queen loves you with all her heart. She talks of you with tears in her eyes, and since she loves you so much, her vulnerability is the greatest."

Gustav: Fine. Mom, you can come home. Incidentally - I've just successfully reintroduced absolute monarchy to Sweden. Next thing on my to do list: get an heir!

Ulrike: GUSTAV, I AM PROUD OF YOU. Okay, brothers, sisters, lovely to have seen you again. Farewell! Off I go to Sweden.

Fritz: Did our nephew just...

Heinrich: He did. Brace yourself, I'm still agreeing with you that this is not a good idea.

Fritz: In that spirit of rare fraternal unity, please go visit Catherine in St. Petersburg. Because I don't think she'll like an all powerful Swedish king next door.

Heinrich: *takes off to visit Catherine*

Edited 2019-11-26 15:02 (UTC)

This is practically a Yuletide fic. Like, no even needs to fictionalize it--I got my fic for this year. This is it.

Wow. I just...can't.

Heinrich: Come on. "We will remember every corner where we were scolded and sometimes hit. But even the sufferings one remembers from one's childhood cause joy in one's advanced years."

Fritz: To you, maybe. NOT COMING.

And in a stunning role reversal, Fritz displays the MOST emotional intelligence of the (surviving) Hohenzollern kids! Or maybe just the most traumatized-at-Wusterhausen. Either way. Fritz, sometimes I despair of you, but sometimes you make me so proud.

The rest of you, OMG, we said family therapy and hugs and music, not family poking of old wounds! HOW did you think this was a good idea?? Heinrich! You're supposed to be smarter than this!

Hohenzollern Sisters: Wow. That place brings memories. Dad was - well. But you know, Mom was worse.

Hohenzollern Brothers: WTF? Dad was way worse than Mom!

Guys, *we* figured out the gender-based difference in your upbringing just from reading about your wacko upbringing three centuries later! Surely maybe you could get a clue and realize that different kids can have different experiences with the same parents? Like, you know how upset you all are that Fritz treated Wilhelmine better than the rest of you? Maybe Mom and Dad had their favorites too?

Also, this is all supporting my guess that the worse Dad treated someone the better Mom treated them, and vice versa. Hence Fritz and his "Saint Mom" experience to go with, "Oh, yeah, Dad totally had to be talked out of executing me, and that's *after* the times he had to be dragged away from trying to strangle me with a cord around my neck, which caused me to run away in the first place. Heinrich, you say you want to reminisce about the times he 'sometimes' hit you? Have fun with that. Amalie, you say ONE FUCKING WORD about Dear Departed Mom and that's IT."

(It occurs to me that Amalie is the unmarried one who kind of lives with or at least near Fritz, and is most financially dependent on him. I kind of have to wonder if she was so free with her opinions about Mom around him, or if the details of this fight got back to him, and if so if he had anything to say to her.)

Next thing on my to do list: get an heir!

I love how you threw that in there! This is definitely the show where material from earlier episodes pays off in in-jokes in later episodes. :D

Fritz: In that spirit of rare fraternal unity, please go visit Catherine in St. Petersburg. Because I don't think she'll like an all powerful Swedish king next door.

Wikipedia tells me that in fact she did not, and she and Gustav were at war between 1788-1790, so starting two years after Fritz died (Heinrich was alive and well for another decade and more). Also that Gustav was assassinated in 1792. Can't say I'm surprised by either of these facts.

Look. Gustav. If your uncles manage to agree on something, maybe you should sit up and pay attention.

Also, this:

Gustav: I have received an anonymous tip that there is a plan to assassinate me at the next masked ball. In keeping with the excellent judgment I've displayed so far, how about I go to the ball, hang out in an opera box overlooking the dancing floor as a prime shooting target, and dare anyone to kill me.

Gustav in the box: Bring it, bitches!

Ten minutes later...

Gustav: Well, if they were going to shoot me, they would have shot me by now. Let's go down and enjoy the party. Seems perfectly safe.

Gustav at the ball: *gets shot*

To add insult to injury, it wasn't even a fatal shot in and of itself, but 18th century medicine happened, and he died two weeks later when the wound became infected. *facepalm*

Oh, Gustav.

Also, adding to the whole eerie parallel with the Ides of March, there was a literal soothsayer involved, at least tangentially. Gustav had visited one a few years earlier, she had said something that could be interpreted as a prediction of this plot, and she was interrogated after the assassination. Apparently she was found innocent, but it's a bit eerie.

Gustav, I don't know if you share your uncle's opinions about Shakespeare, but surely you can at least read your Plutarch? But then I guess Sweden would not be the Dallas of Rococo Scandinavia. And your aunts and uncles and mother are keeping the bar high for Hohenzollern Crazy. That family tradition is a lot to live up to.

Thank you for quoting these! I had definitely read them, but I can't find them on the Trier project, so it must have been somewhere else.

Speaking of the Trier project, as far as I can tell, it's mostly reposting books from the nineteenth and early twentieth century, and the 76 volumes comprising the Oeuvres and Politische Correspondenz definitely do not include anything published after 1939.

I discovered today that the political correspondence was published 1876-1939, covering everything through April 1782 in 46 volumes (this much I knew), then the project stalled, then volumes 47 and 48 were published in 2003 and 2015, bringing us up to June 1783. Trier only has up through 46, or at least I can't find the most recent two.

Also missing are most of the Fredersdorf letters, apparently, about which more in another comment.

And I'm starting to think Marwitz's first name just hasn't been preserved. But maybe it'll turn up! (Along with a family tree, detailing just *how* intertwined this family is with the Hohenzollern soap opera.)

"I would wish he'd be the first servant of the state, the most useful man of the kingdom, and if he worked the hardest, then he would be rewarded accordingly." This is not at all a hint for your husband to be more like Fritz and work harder.

Wait, so he actually said, non-paraphrased literal quote, "first servant of the state"? Yeah, that's not subtle at aaaallll.

Also, way to have constitutional monarchical principles that are flexible enough to accommodate Dad and Older Bro, AW. A+ mental gymnastics.

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Page 11 of 16

Frederick the Great, discussion post 5: or: Yuletide requests are out!

Re: French pronunciation

Re: Wilhelmine/Fritz letters

Re: Marie Antoinette's children

Re: Marie Antoinette's children

Re: Casanova

Re: Marie Antoinette's children

Re: Crackfic

Re: Merrie Olde England

Re: French pronunciation

Re: Merrie Olde England

Re: More Book Reports: AW bio, Fritz and Heinrich double portrait/lengthy essay

Re: More Book Reports: AW bio, Fritz and Heinrich double portrait/lengthy essay

Re: More Book Reports: AW bio, Fritz and Heinrich double portrait/lengthy essay

Re: Wilhelmine/Fritz letters

Re: More Book Reports: AW bio, Fritz and Heinrich double portrait/lengthy essay

Re: More Book Reports: AW bio, Fritz and Heinrich double portrait/lengthy essay

Sweden: the Dallas of Rokoko Scandinavia

Re: More Book Reports: AW bio, Fritz and Heinrich double portrait/lengthy essay

Re: Heinrich the Younger, AW's son

Two Brothers, One Marwitz

Re: What the Prussian Ambassador Wrote

Hohenzollern Family Reunion

Re: Hohenzollern Family Reunion

Re: Two Brothers, One Marwitz

Re: Heinrich the Younger, AW's son