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

[cahn]

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

Comments

Re: Fritz chronological maps, or a labor of love

[mildred_of_midgard]

I did it! I finished the map based on the political correspondence! I even converted it into a movie so you can navigate it, pause, etc., instead of a gif you're stuck watching beginning to end.

I have to go to bed now, but I'm planning to get it uploaded this weekend, and then I'll pass on the link.

:-DDDDDD

Re: Hohenzollern Family Reunion

[selenak]

Success! I managed a decent jpeg scan and afterwards marked the particularly relevant passages for you:









ETA: incidentally, if anyone is wondering, Amalie and Heinrich made up, they did see each other (and talked to each other) again. Also, by now I know Amalie had an argument with SD just a day before SD's death which ended with SD refusing to let Amalie kiss her hand when parting (which apparantly was how you said goodbye to Mom even in old age) and did not talk to her, so, really bad feelings.

Re: Hohenzollern Family Reunion

[mildred_of_midgard]

Thank you so much!

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

[mildred_of_midgard]

So remember our friend the shepherd at Neuruppin, whom Fritz was offering to kidnap? One of my bios actually says--no citation given--that the attempt to take him alive failed, and he was shot to death, "but Frederick gained credit for trying." I don't see this in Fontane, but let's just have another moment of silence for poor 6 foot 4 guy minding his sheep.

I am also reminded that this was not just PTSD-ed son independently trying to appease his father, but an expectation of all commanders in the Prussian army to supply FW with their quota of tall soldiers for his viewing pleasure.

*silence for everyone impressed into the Prussian army under father or son*

Re: Fritz chronological maps, or a labor of love

[mildred_of_midgard]

Here we go! It's on YouTube!

I'm super stoked about this. :D

Re: Algarotti

[mildred_of_midgard]

Here I am summarizing the Lady Mary Wortley Montagu/Algarotti letters up through 1741, when she discovered he really, really didn't want to live with her in Italy.

---

Apr 1736
LM to A: I waited THREE HOURS for you. Quote: "Three Hours of expectation is no small Tryal of Patience, and I beleive [sic] some of your Martyrs have been canoniz'd for suffering less."

May 1736
LM to A: Come visit me tomorrow! If you don't reply, I'll take that to mean you're coming.

Aug 1736
LM to A: Now writing in the Language of Losing Your Mind to Love, aka French. Almost swooned at the thought of seeing you again.

Sep 1736
LM to A: Will love you forever, spend all my time agonizing over whether telling you so will offend you.

Sep 1736
LM to A: Remember Dido? Foreign guy comes to visit her, she falls in love, he abandons her, she kills herself. THAT'S ME RIGHT NOW. I mean, I think I'm tougher than that, but the thought did cross my mind, just so you know.

I had dinner with an acquaintance last night. She said you were the most attractive [aimable--translation the editor's] person she'd ever seen. I made her stay and talk until two am. Not because we talked about you, because we didn't. But just so I could enjoy the company of someone who had once enjoyed yours. THAT'S how far gone I am. The only other pleasure I have in life is writing letters you never answer. I realize this is irrational!

Also, since I never get anything in return, I maintain that makes my love the purest. When people pray to the Virgin Mary, they expect to get something in return. You've made it quite clear I can expect nothing. I LOVE YOU ANYWAY.

Sep 1736
LM to A: You're still not writing to me. I don't think your ship sank, or I would have heard about it. I'm going to go ask Lord Hervey if he has any news. Brb.

LH to LM: Yes, Algarotti writes to me, and no, he never mentions you. And yes, he knows you and I talk. Draw your own conclusions.

Sep 1736
LM to A: OMG, you wrote to me! I went to see Lord Hervey to ask him if you'd arrived safely in Paris. But I was such an emotional mess that I couldn't get this simple question out, and he got super annoyed with me.

LH to A: Omg, I tried to get out of talking to her, and then she caught me, and we had this incredibly painful, extended, and unsuccessful interview. What does she want?! FML

LH to LM: "It is not strange that any body who labours as much as you do to be unintelligible should be misunderstood, but if you will send me word what hour to night I may see you, I will call upon you for better information, if it be but for a minute, to show you that at least it is not willfully (as you say) that I misunderstand."

Oct 1736
LM to A: Pretty sure you haven't written to me. Your letters can't possibly be going astray. I have retired to the countryside to look at trees. Since I can't look at you, I don't want to look at other people.

Addendum later that day: OMG YOU WROTE TO HERVEY AGAIN? You bastard.

Dec 1736
Please find enclosed an unsolicited portrait of me. If you can't come to England, I'm moving to Italy so we can live together.

Feb 1738
LM to A: Everything sucks.

Jun 1738
LM to A: Haven't heard from you in over a month. Remember, me moving to Italy forever just to be with you is totally an option.

Jul 1738
LM to A: What do you mean, I didn't reply to your letter? You know I always reply to your letters the same day I get them. I am your Penelope. You're just lying so you can pretend you didn't get the many letters I sent you. P.S. I love you anyway.

Jul 1738
LM to A: I keep writing to you. I really hope you're getting all these letters. I'm going crazy here.

Aug 1738
LM to A: Ditto above.

Nov 1738
LM to A: Why are you upset with me? I do everything for you! If you're upset, it's all your fault. P.S. If I can't see you again, I want to die. Immediately.

Jan 1739
LM to A: I said I wasn't going to write to you any more until I heard from you, but here I am writing to you. You're probably infatuated with some beautiful Parisian woman. I am in very real danger of falling out of love with you here.

Feb 1739
LM to A: OMG, you're coming to London??!! Yes, I will totally pay for your trip! OMG OMG OMG OMG!!!

Mar 1739
LM to A: ...And now you're unhappy with my method of payment. Fine. We'll do it your way, despite the great inconvenience to me.

Jul 1739
LM to A: Since you managed to leave immediately after arriving, I am officially declaring: fuck this. I'm going to Italy, and we're going to be together forever.

Sep 1739
LM to A: I'm at the foot of the Alps and about to arrive in Italy. Trembling with anticipation. I went all the way through France without thinking about anything except you.

Algarotti: *hasn't been anywhere near Italy for years*
Algarotti: *currently hanging out with Crown Prince Fritz at Rheinsberg*

Dec 1739
LM to A: What the actual fuck. Now you're claiming you had no idea I was coming to Venice to live with you? You think I came here for the freaking Carnival*? NO I cannot go to Paris! You agreed to this plan! I'm staying here, I like it here, and if you don't want to join me, you can just stay wherever the heck you are now and feel bad about me coming all this way for you, you ingrate. You know, I could be happy here if it weren't for you.

* Footnote: the Carnival in Venice is kind of a big deal. You go there at the furthest removed time from Carnival, i.e. autumn, and you're like, "Wow, Carnival masks for sale everywhere."

Mar 1740
LM to A: What do you mean, you told me not to come to Italy? You totally agreed I should come to Italy! I have it in writing! I would have gone to Japan for you. Now. Seriously. I'm going to stay here, unless you tell me you really want me, and then I'll go anywhere. But you need to be super clear about it if you expect me to relocate again.

July 1740
LM to A: Still waiting for you.

Oct 1740
LM to A: Prepared to go anywhere in the world with you. Just say the word.

May 1741
LM to A: Newton did not study light more than I studied you. And when I looked into the prism of your eyes, I saw only indifference toward me. I'm sure this is my fault for not being interesting enough to spark emotion in a soul like yours.

Footnote: Critically, this letter is undated. Its content makes the most sense if it dates to May 1741, when they ran into each other in Turin, met up, and it was unpleasant enough that she stopped writing to him for the next decade and a half. BUT. The ink and paper are most similar to letters she wrote in England in the 1730s, so she might have gone through a period of disillusionment with him after his brief visit to London in spring 1739.

---

I'm sort of torn between sympathy and horror. Train wreck much? Without Algarotti's letters (of course, there aren't many), it's hard to say how much he encouraged her, but aside from the one where she claims he agreed to live in Venice with her, it sounds like not much. She's clearly suffering, but she's also clearly driving him crazy and she *knows* it (she repeatedly says so), so I am also totally sympathetic to Algarotti here. Since he was apparently a notorious people pleaser, I could imagine him going, "Suuuuuure, you should tooootally come to Venice for, like, a two-day visit" hoping she didn't follow through, and making sure she didn't know he was far, far away when she did.

Nothing about everything I know about Algarotti indicates that he was any good at confrontation, like, at all, so he probably carries some share of the blame here, but I can imagine him trying to be distantly polite in the face of her relentlessness, and her latching onto the least bit of encouragement and ignoring all the attempts at discouragement he claims to have made. It's also quite possible he wrote something that read to him as, "If you're in town, you're welcome to my guest room," and to her as, "Drop everything and come to Venice so we can fulfill our destiny of being together forever."

In the end, I'm glad she managed to enjoy Italy more than England and be much happier there than she was at home, to the point where she lived there for the next twenty years without him. Silver lining?

Re: Algarotti

[selenak]

Good grief. Unrequiited love sucks. For both sides, especially when combined with such relentlessness. Mind you, if he did let her pay for the trip to England, I‘d say this at least was encouragement?

But yes, silver lining. BTW, Burgdorf the unreliable GAY GAY AND DID I MENTION GAY Fritz biographer of course lists Alagarotti among the Fritzian conquests and assures his readers that never ever did Algarotti consort with anyone female ever. For verily, bi people do not exist. Sigh.

Re: Algarotti

[mildred_of_midgard]

Mind you, if he did let her pay for the trip to England, I‘d say this at least was encouragement?

True. As we've seen elsewhere, he was on a desperate job hunt at the time, hence his very brief stay, buuuut, you're right, that may not have been the most ethical move ever.

BTW, Burgdorf the unreliable GAY GAY AND DID I MENTION GAY Fritz biographer of course lists Alagarotti among the Fritzian conquests and assures his readers that never ever did Algarotti consort with anyone female ever. For verily, bi people do not exist.

Sigh, sigh, and sigh. I mean, Algarotti is generally listed among the Fritzian conquests (orgasm poem, anyone?), but Algarotti was almost certainly bi! And not just because of Lady Mary. Omg, reactionary historians are terrible.

Why you should never marry a Hohenzollern: The Wives' Tale

[selenak]

Have read this book now, which is pretty short, and pretty depressing, though not in all regards. One of the frustrating things about the three brothers is that they were capable of not being assholes to women in unwanted marriages, even of befriending them... as long as they themselves weren't married to the ladies in question.

(BTW, considering the Heinrich bio was Eva Ziebura's first book on matters Hohenzollern and this is one of her latest, with nearly fifteen years between the time of publication, it's interesting to see her getting more critical on her fave Heinrich (re: his wife only, though) while also also presenting Fritz as not quite as much of a jerk, well, other than to his wife and brothers.)

Since we have a lot repeating names (several Wilhelmines and Amalies), I've decided to come up with a nickname system to avoid confusion.

Wilhelmine - is our Margravine of Bayreuth
Mina - is Heinrich's wife, otherwise known as Princess Wilhelmine of Hessen-Kassel
Wilhelmine Minor - is AW's daughter Wilhelmine, favored niece of Fritz

Amalie - is the unmarried sister, music lover and sharp tongued mother critisizer
Louise - is Louise Amalie, AW's wife, also EC's sister

Ferdinand - youngest Hohenzollern brother
Ferd - EC's and Louise's brother, not dying in one of Fritz' battles

Elisabeth Christine can stay EC, as only her aunt, MT's mother is called the same, and that lady does not show up in this tale.

So: EC and her sister Louise, the two Braunschweig-Bevern girls, have one big disadvantage from the start when marrying into this family, well, other than their grooms not wanting them in general - they don't have the cultural education that SD provided for her daughters, and they don't have wit - or to put it French, as the brothers did - ésprit. They also either stuttered or, as Ziebura speculates based on the description, lisped, meaning people had trouble understanding them at first. And both were pretty shy when arriving in the crazy dysfunctional clan of doom. (Mina, however, will later prove that you can be beautiful, witty, well educated and a hit in society and still get your life trainwrecked by marrying a Hohenzollern.) Fritz' unflattering description of his fiancee in letters to all and sunder, not just Wilhelmine, are well known.

EC, who notices she's seen as a disappointment, knocks herself out to improve. She studies French and music. She intercedes for Fritz with her terrifying father-in-law, who likes her (modest, silent in public - just what a woman should be). She gets him money loans from brother Ferd. And for the Rheinsberg years, this all seems to pay off. They get along. He's nice, even calls her "sweet" in a letter not adressed to Dad. Then FW dies, Fritz becomes king, and immediately makes it clear how things will be from now on. That he does not want her as part of his life in any way he can possibly avoid. This, incidentally, doesn't just mean homoscial life with the boys, it includes family outings with other female Hohenzollerns present - when he's visiting SD and Amalie, either together or apart. When it's Carnival time in Berlin EC has no idea whether or not she's supposed to participate until less than a day before getting short notice that yes, she's supposed to show up at event x and reprsent with him. Otoh, when there is a big state event in Sanssouci and Fritz belatedly realises he needs some ladies present, does he ask his wife? He does not. He really does not want her there. Instead, he quickly drags his sister and a few other ladies from Berlin and has them brought back there late at night. Writes a lamenting EC to brother Ferd, when her husband and those of his siblings currently around are off to one a non-Wusterhausen Hohenzollern country residence: "They're all gone, and I'm sitting around here like a prisoner."

So she's possibly the only person who is really really happy when AW marries her sister Louise. (Since she won't be alone anymore and will have an ally at court who loves her.) That marriage had been arranged in FW's time but happened post-Fritz ascending to the throne. Like I said in an earlier post, AW was, at best, indifferent. They had sex, they had kids, but zilch interaction beyond that. Louise during AW's life time is hardly noticed by anyone, she's regarded as utterly bland and dull and just trying to please everyone as best she can. After falling in love with Sophie von Pannwitz, AW tries to get permission from his brother to divorce her, but no dice. (She is, though, the one case which actually gets a surprisingly happy ending... of sorts... later.) In the last year of his life, post disgrace, AW, proving that he's not immune from "when miserable,kick downwards" syndrome so popular in his family, and changes his will stating that his wife is to be pensioned of but the kids are to be raised by his sister-in-law. Given his wife is actually pregnant at the time of his death, this comes across as stunningly cold and cruel, so it's a lucky thing Fritz decides to ignore that part of the will, but more about this later.)

Then there's Mina. That her marriage came to be counts as one instance where Ziebura argues Fritz was actually being more a jerk than FW, because at least the enforced Fritz/EC marriage had a dynastic reason, as Fritz was the crown prince. Otoh, the only point of Heinrich's marriage was to put him through the same thing Fritz had been put through, and never mind the unlucky bride. There was zero dynastic reason - AW at that point had already sired two male Hohenzollern kids, and between his brothers and those nephews, the royal line was definitely secure.

So Mina arrives in Berlin, she's, as mentioned, beautiful, witty, charming, well educated, and as opposed to poor dull EC and Louise, she's a hit with the royal family and everyone else from the start. SD adores her (this never happened with her sisters-in-law). AW and Ferdinand both flirt intensely with her, Fritz approves of her and is complimentary in letters about her. Heinrich, at that point, is at least polite and it looks like they can have an arrangement that works. (He's also okay with his brothers flirting with her, since this provides at least the platonic romantic games he has no interest in playing.) She's nicknamed "the fairy" - "die Fee" - which in German and French, btw has no slang connotations with homosexuality. (Considering that AW beyond the courtly flirtations keeps up an intense correspondance with her - which Heinrich knows about and is asked for permission for -, they probably would have worked out splendidly as a couple, btw. When he already knew he was dying, the last time he saw her in Berlin before going to Oranienburg to die, she was joking, so he didn't have the heart to tell her how unwell he was, and pretended. And then he went to die in Oranienburg with Amalie at his side, because if there's one thing this generation of Hohenzollern were consistent about, it's that in the end, you are always closer to your siblings than to anyone else.) So do we have a tolerable marriage here with Mina the Fairy and Heinrich? We do not. Because the death of AW and the Seven-Years-War change all.

Far from grieving AW together with her, both Ferdinand and Heinrich completely alter their behaviour towards Mina. Ferdinand doesn't just stop the flirting, he stops any friendly interaction whatsoever and is completely cold. Heinrich returns form the war with PtSD, a massive chip on his shoulder, and unhealed grief. He doesn't take it out on servants (he's great to those) or subjects in general (championing anyone from occupied Saxons to soldiers without a pension is a thing), but he does take it out on his unwanted wife in incredible petty ways. He changes her staff, dismissing the people she liked and trusted with people of his choice she doesn't even know before he inflicts them on her, and bear in mind the two have separate households,so there was no reason why he should care. He keeps withholding her budget so she has to humiliate herself and ask for the money repeatedly. And then, when she's finally allowed at Rheinsberg again, you get a soop opera style intrigue because one of Heinrich's boyfriends is about to be replaced by another (the other being Kaphengst), and not taking it well. Whereupon the about to be dumped boyfriend concludes that if he does Heinrich a favor, Heinrich won't dump him. So what does he do? Compromises Mina in public with a fake embrace/attempted kiss. There are other ladies present to testify she did not want this, but Heinrich does take the excuse to banish his wife from his presence once and all and reduce her budget some more. (The old boyfriend gets still dumped.) If anyone in Berlin receives Heinrich, his wife must never ever be there.

At the end of all this, the previously spirited, cheerful Mina is now so cowed and downbeaten that she doesn't permit herself to critisze anyone in even the slightest manner and practically asks for permission to breathe. (She'll survive Heinrich, who at least in his will leaves her a decent sum and states it their "situation" wasn't her fault, but goes blind and deaf in her old age, and will be left in Berlin once the great nieces and great nephews get out of town to escape Napoleon. That's FW3 and the famous Queen Louise, btw.)

Meanwhile, previous wallpaper Louise experiences a stunning reversal of roles. Because Fritz, possibly because this is the one person in connection with AW who didn't love AW and thus doesn't grieve for him as a person, just is impacted by his death in her role as (former) crown princess, decides to atone for his treatment of AW by being consistently kind to his widow. Also, it dawns to everyone that in this very dysfunctional clan, Louise is someone who is just... nice. She always has time for everyone. She doesn't hold a grudge. If you ask her to mediate between quarrelling family members - say, Heinrich and Amalie re: the "who was worst" argument - she will. She'll comfort you if you're in distress. The very sharp tongued Amalie when writing a "we all suck here, be warned" letter to future FW2's second wife to be, makes an exception for Louise who she says is "an angel". This combination of regard by the King and everyone liking her means Louise the widow florishes. She voices opinions in public. And lo, she has a mind of her own no one previously noticed. She plays hostess at receptions far more than her sister EC does. As mentioned, Fritz keeps that altered last will from her; on the contrary, other than unfortunate future FW2, she gets to raise her kids. Whenever she wants something, Fritz has time for her. As she doesn't respond to this by gloating but by spreading the kindness to other family members as best she can, her credit with everyone rises even more. (She also gets Fritz to be a bit nicer to EC in his old age; Lehndorff notes that unprecedented in 24 years, the King spends two hours in conversation with the Queen, alone!!!)

She still goes through heartbreak - that baby she was pregnant with when AW died, another son, doesn't surivee the year, and of course much later Henricus Minor dies. But she ends up hands down as the one of the three unwanted wives faring best in her later years.

Though EC also gets some royal regard after Fritz has died, because as it turns out, nephew FW2, in tune of doing the opposite of what his uncle did, goes out of his way to be nice to her, invites her to concerts, receptions, visits her regularly (which encourages others to visit, as this is how things go at a court), even offers her Sanssouci if she wants it. (She doesn't, as, she states, Fritz hadn't wanted her there when he was alive, she would not go against his wishes now he's dead.) EC in her old age throws herself into supporting charities and ends up at peace. Lehndorff once notes down that she loves visiting the zoo, and how strange it is that such a minor thing should give a Queen such pleasure.

And thus ends the warning tale of why you should not ever marry a Hohenzollern. At least not a male one. Sources for all this, because Ziebura is a laudable author in always providing them: Mina's diary, Louise's letters to brother Ferd, EC's letters to brother Ferd, and of course all the Hohenzollern sibling correspondence with each other.

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

[selenak]

Nope, Fontane does not mention the poor guy died. Also, what you said. Alas.

Wilhelmine's father-in-law the old Margrave, btw, was understandably pissed off when the tall-guy-napping by Prussian "recruiters" started in his realm as well, and hit the roof when it got him into trouble with the neighbouring principality of Bamberg (aka my hometown), because naturally those Prussian "recruiters" did not always pay attention to borders, and thus ended up kidnapping a subject of the Prince Bishop of Bamberg, who was decidedly NOT willing to provice one of his people for the King in Prussia to drool over.

Add to this that this was while FW was simultanously bullying his new son-in-law, and Team Bayreuth must have wondered whether they should not have married Bayreuth Friedrich to ANYONE ELSE but a Prussian princess. It's to future Margrave's credit he never took it out on her.

(Note, Hohenzollern brothers: it's possible not to relieve your own trauma/anger/frustration by taking it out on your wives. See newest book report below.)

Re: Fritz chronological maps, or a labor of love

[selenak]

You are the queen of mapmakers, and I salute you.

Oh Brother! More impressions of the Heinrich bio

[selenak]

Which I've finished now. Like I said, this was likely Ziebura's first outing with the Hohenzollern, not, as I originally thought when seeing her list of works, a later one; it's from 1999. It also has that first time outing "Here's why my fave is cool!" drive (whereas her later outings are more of "my problematic fave is at times problematic, but still cool" persuasion.

Bits of interest I haven't already mentioned:

Heinrich was chief Prussian negotiatior in the Partitioning of Poland. He actually visited Catherine repeatedly, in St. Petersburg and elswhere, and they hit it off famously beyond negotiating; she made so much of him that people were confused because Heinrich being so obviously gay, he was the one man she showed such fondness to who never ever was suspected of having an affair with her. Heinrich was very into Catherine as well. When she died, he wore mourning for her, writing to brother Ferdinand: I am wearing (mourning) in memory of the friendship she's shown towards me, and of her genius. For losing it is a loss to the whole world. (...) She had supreme qualities. I can never forget her attention, her amiability and the power of her mind. What remains now is very small, compared to her. Of course, from a political point of view her death is a stroke of luck for us.

(In fact, in between negotiations, this had happened: Catherine to Fritz: Mind if I keep your brother as my personal satrap and make him King of Wallachia? Fritz: YES. NO HEINRICH FOR YOU.)

Other Catherine visits by Heinrich happened apropos the Swedes, as briefly mentioned at the tail of the Hohenzollern reunion saga. And you might remember she bought his paintings so he had cash to pay his boyfriend Kaphengst's debts.

Speaking of Heinrich's boyfriends, he seems to have had a thing for rough trade, with a few notable exceptions, such as the French Emigré count who was his last lover, and Mara who still fell into the charismatic money waster category most of the others did.

(Meanwhile, Lehndorff is going: "I'm right here! Would totally go for a more permanent thing! Dammit!What does he see in Krackow/Kaphengst/Tauentzien/ "50 others so far" that he doesn't see in me?)

Heinrch had the same "German literature? No such thing!" attitude Fritz did, and since he lived a while longer, his theatre at Rheinsberg ended up as one of the few places in the German states where French plays - in French - were still produced. During his first visit to Paris, he saw the 50th performance of "Figaro's Wedding", Beaumarchais' original play, not later Mozart opera, of course, and thought it hilarious. And cahn, you'll love this - Beaumarchais told Heinrich he wanted to work together with a composer working at Joseph's court, to wit: Salieri!

In another strange moment of deja vu, this happened:

Mirabeau: comes to Prussia during Fritz' last year and stays on for another year.

Heinrich: Such a wonderful example of a witty French intellectual! Let's spend time together!

Mirabeau: *publishes trashy tell all about the Prussian court, old and new, with particular highlights being "So, the supposedly "great" Fritz was an emo weakling, his successor is a dumb playboy run by his dick, and as for Prince Heinrich, he's an incompetent old homo who can't get over himself! Let me tell you all the sex tales I've heard!"

....yeah. Fritz, in one of those moments of emotional self awareness that make him such an interesting enigma, did refer to Heinrich as "l'autre moi-meme", "my other self" on more than one occasion. (He also called him "my brother Narcissus".) This was definitely the hateship of Heinrich's life, though. And one he turned out to be addicted to, because when, after yet another of their arguments post (not much of a)War of Bavarian Succession, he managed to keep up the "not talking to you" attitude for a record one and a half years, and in theory should have been happy at Rheinsberg, with a tolerable boyfriend, country at peace and no Fritz around... he discovered he was bored to tears. And lo:

Heinrich: *starts dropping hints in letters to mutual relations and aquaintances that he's got time at his hands*

Fritz: So, Amalie may have told me you're currently somewhat idle. Want to become weekly pen pals again, with the occasional bickering visit to Potsdam?

Heinrich: YES GOD YES. You bastard.

*weekly correspondance with lengthy letters about philosophy, politics, literature and bickering*: Resumes.


He was, of course, still planning for that obelisk. The last time Heinrich saw Fritz alive was in January 1786. Upon his return, he wrote to brother Ferdinand: If you go to Potsdam next week, you can see for yourself how the old man is doing. I await with resignation the inevitable. Amalie has assured me she would like to follow him into death. I can't say the same for myself. I don't know whether we'll be bedded on roses once he's gone, but one thing I know, there will be fewer thorns than during the last 46 years.

(Amalie survived Fritz for only a year. The big Mom argument aside, she got on very well with Heinrich, who when moving into Rheinsberg had several rooms furbished as her permanent guest rooms, and kept shopping for her whenever he was somewhere interesting, whether it was Meißen - where he bought her porcellan figurines - or Paris, or St. Petersburg. She also had a better relationship with Fritz than she does in Mein name ist Bach, who not only paid her debts on a regular basis but did actively seek out her company in their later years. Other than his personnel, she was one of the last people to see him alive.)

Back to Fritz' last months.

Heinrich to Ferdinand: "I know exactly that I won't be able to cry over the death of an evil man who was like the sword of Damocles over my entire life."

Fritz: *writes deeply sad letter*

Heinrich: I don't - fuck it. Want me to come to Berlin?

Fritz: Nope, not up to our usual sessions. Maybe next month. But I'm sending you some fruits, I hear you have a cold yourself.

Heinrich to Ferdinand: This is a cunning plan to keep me from feeling relieved once he kicks it. But it won't work. DAMMIT.

Fritz dies, the funeral happens, and Heinrich assumes that since he's gotten on pretty well with Son of Favourite Brother so far, he'll be asked for advice. He's even prepared several memoranda on various political aspects.

FW2: Don't get me wrong, Uncle Heinrich, I really like you. But. Ahem. I sort of want to start a new regime here.

Heinrich: With you there.

FW2: Without the most prominent reminder of the old regime I can imagine. I mean, you were his...

Heinrich: Don't say it.

FW2: Other self.

Heinrich: Fine. I'm visiting Paris again. Vive la France!

This turns out his last Paris visit, as he barely misses the storming of the Bastille when he leaves. It's still a good visit, except this happens:

Tauentzien (boyfriend du jour, son of Fritzian general of the same name): Guess what, the Comedie Francaise plays a German drama in French translation! Let's go!
Heinrich: Why would I want to watch a German drama?
Tauentzien: Come in, it'll be fun.
*German drama starring one Frederick the Great, with the actor personally coached by Tauentzien in Fritz mannerisms and voice intonation*: Ensues
Heinrich: *sits frozen in his seat for the rest of the play, but does not run out*

During Fritz' lifetime, Heinrich had advocated for easing up on the Austrians and maybe even an alliance, but that was when MT and Joseph were on the throne. Leopold ruled only two years after Joseph's death, and then his son Franz took back all reforms and became the most reactionary Emperor since a century at least. Simultanously, the French revolution happens and happens and happens. Heinrich keeps writing memoranda, though unlike his letters to Fritz, who always argued back, these get rarely replies beyond "there, there".

Heinrich: Don't join the alliance against revolutionary France, nephew. Prussia and France should ally against reactionary Austria, now they've given up on reforms altogether; we are the champions of the enlightnment! We should not fighting France, and I'm not just talking as a Francophile here!

FW2: Yeah, no. But you do do you in Rheinsberg, uncle.

Prussian forces along with other forces: keep suffering humiliating defeats against revolutionary France

Napoleon: *starts to get noticed*

Heinrich: Nephew, please read my memos for once, "he'll make our Fritz look like an amateur"!

Heinrich: *keeps getting ignored as advisor, with only literary or family matters talked about*

Heinrich by now was too old to scuttle between Rheinsberg and Berlin, and with great regret decided to to settle closer to Berlin for his main residence. (He didn't want to move permanently into town.) Now, in his last will, FW1 had specified that if Fritz died without an heir and was succeeded by AW or AW's heirs, Wusterhausen should go to Heinrich. Which meant:)

Heinrich: Dear Ferdinand, have moved into Wusterhausen after all, put up AW's portrait in the room we used to share as kids and pretend the last twelve years never happened. Have installed a guest room for you, too.

(No, really. He moved in in March 1799. I have preserved as much of the old days as I could. I believe I can forget here what happened in the last twelve years, and I don't want to think of what will happen in the fuiture. I have put up the portrait of our mother next to my bed, and the portrait of our brother Wilhelm at the opposite wall where I can see it always. I indulge in illusions about the past and push away the present. One can't burden the mind too much with matters one cannot change.)

Ferdiand: *counts* Twelve years? Counting back from March 1799? You mean, when...

Heinrich: Don't you dare.

Moving into Wusterhausen did mean he got more family visits from the younger relations and could go and visit Berlin without that much effort. Sadly, Ziebura doesn't say, or it's not known, what the Comte de La Roche-Aymon, aka Heinrich's last boyfriend, made of exchanging Rheinsberg for Wusterhausen and AW's portrait on the wall. In 1801, when he was sick enough to know he die, Heinrich returned to Rheinsberg, though. He'd methodically organized his own funeral and tomb, and unlike Fritze's, his last instructions were obeyed.

Re: Oh Brother! More impressions of the Heinrich bio

[mildred_of_midgard]

Every time you post an update from the Hohenzollerns, I have to read it multiple times before I can believe it.

Fritz called Heinrich his other self??!!* Heinrich picked back up a correspondence with him because he needed someone to bicker with?? Heinrich moved to Wusterhausen in 1799 so he could forget about the last twelve years??!!

??!!!???!!!???!!!

Woooow, this just keeps getting better. I guess you need your other-self hateship in your life so you can have someone who will at least argue back. FW2 really *was* committed to doing things differently. :P I mean, I think a key part of the whole Fritz/Voltaire addiction was the fact that both of them would at least argue back.

* This just goes to show that having self-awareness does not equal knowing what to do about it, which is consistent with my experiences with other highly intelligent, self-aware people with severe trauma, even in the twenty-first century.

Also, if the correspondence resumption was post Bavarian Succession, then Voltaire had recently died, and Fritz must have been feeling a void where there was once a hateship. :P More seriously, Maria Antonia died around this time as well, and he cut off Catt, and I can imagine he was desperate for someone to talk to as well.

FW2: Without the most prominent reminder of the old regime I can imagine. I mean, you were his...

Heinrich: Don't say it.

FW2: Other self.

Ferdiand: *counts* Twelve years? Counting back from March 1799? You mean, when...

Heinrich: Don't you dare.

OMG, this is Fritz/Voltaire levels of hateshipping, wow. This may even put them to shame. Wow wow wow.

Heinrich: YES GOD YES. You bastard.

I may have choked on my drink here. You seriously do the best write-ups.

Heinrich: Nephew, please read my memos for once, "he'll make our Fritz look like an amateur"!

He kinda did, yeah. I can't remember if I've mentioned that the epic rap battle perfectly and concisely encapsulates the fact that Alexander, like Napoleon, was a specialist, while Fritz was a polymath.

I brought foes to their knees in Phoenicia/breezed through Gaza to Giza/had the Balkans, Persia, Syria, Iraq, and Pakistan in my expansion pack

I've got creative talents and battle malice/hard as steel on the field, genteel in the palace

Silesia. He conquered Silesia. He couldn't even hold onto Bohemia or Saxony. But he did keep it all from falling apart at his death. And I think everyone agrees his poetry was mediocre, his flute-playing excellent on slower tempos but wobblier on faster tempos, his compositions decent, and so on, such that he wasn't the best at any one thing, but he was good enough at a wide range of things to make people sit up and pay attention. Algarotti and I can relate, Fritz. *hugs*

*German drama starring one Frederick the Great, with the actor personally coached by Tauentzien in Fritz mannerisms and voice intonation*: Ensues
Heinrich: *sits frozen in his seat for the rest of the play, but does not run out*

What. Why would you do that to your boyfriend? Do you know him at ALL? I'm with Lehndorff, Heinrich, you need better boyfriends. I'm glad the setting sun cast a final beam of warming light on you, because seriously. Hohenzollern relationships are fucked up. Other self indeed.

She also had a better relationship with Fritz than she does in Mein name ist Bach

Oh, thank goodness. I mean, I knew it wasn't perfect, but that movie had me worried about them.

He'd methodically organized his own funeral and tomb, and unlike Fritze's, his last instructions were obeyed.

Oh, good. Is that like a first in this family? (ETA: rhetorical question)

Re: Why you should never marry a Hohenzollern: The Wives' Tale

[mildred_of_midgard]

I don't really have a lot to say to this, other than yeah, it's depressing, and of course, thank you for the write-up, because it was very informative. It sucks to be a woman, and it sucks to be a Hohenzollern, and it sucks to be a woman married to a Hohenzollern.

"Every happy family is alike. Every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. Most of those ways were explored by a Hohenzollern at some point."

Maybe when you're a Hohenzollern woman getting married to a Hohenzollern, you know what you're getting yourself in for, and it turns out better because incest is the least of your problems?

Re: Merrie Olde England

[cahn]

Yeah, I remember reading something by Jean Plaidy writing under another name! I don't think it was Eleanor Hibbert, though. And I don't care enough to look up the other name :)

mostly Fredersdorf

[cahn]

Yeah, that makes perfect sense to me -- I mean, it's pretty common for abused kids to grow up and be emotionally stunted, right? Especially in the absence of therapy.

Re Fredersdorf: so you think he was holding on to him, hmm, socially/politically and possibly sexually, but not emotionally? Interesting.

It also occurs to me also that there is an aspect of emotional relationship security that he couldn't have by definition with a subordinate who was paid to attend him, as Fredersdorf was. The closest he could get was Wilhelmine, which probably worked as a band-aid, at least, until she died.

what about a flute-bustin' Prussian

[cahn]

Lol, I was going to say, I am never gonna forget that Frederick the Great was known for the oblique order (although I may call it "oblique attack tactics" instead)

Re: Fredersdorf

[cahn]

Also, I refuse to write a book on Fritz until I can read both French and German, and that might take a while. :P

Heh. There is that. (My French background is sufficiently strong that, as long as I don't have to pronounce anything, I could probably be pretty good at reading fairly quickly, but my German is nonexistent, and more to the point my history and everything else is nonexistent, although as a result of being in this fandom for... four months?? ... I feel like I now know more about it than the average person, at least :P Possibly more than some biographers :PP)

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

[cahn]

Heh. I just think that FW would have hated Frederick the Great. I don't think he would have gotten over his visceral hate of Fritz as a child, and there's certainly enough there, as you say, that he could find plenty to justify that hate.

But that quote about wars is... actually... kind of endearing to me. FINE.

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

[cahn]

...it is super sad and WTF about these tall shepherds, and at the same time, from centuries of remove, I also kind of find it macabrely funny. (Not for the shepherds, of course.)

Man, Wilhelmine really did luck out -- by which I mean, married someone who wasn't horribly awful and/or had awful PTSD or both -- wow, my standards for 18thC marriage (from the woman's perspective) are super low. And probably still too high :P

Re: Hohenzollern Family Reunion

[cahn]

but she also was capable of writing "I am my father's daughter, I can face anything" early in the 7 Years War, i.e. retrospectively classifying those years of abuse as something she's currently drawing strength from in her miserable state.

Huh. I don't have context (are these in the memoirs? I stopped reading before that point) but is it possible that she's talking about FW's character (I mean, he seems to have been at least as stubborn as Fritz!) rather than the abuse in particular?

...but yeah, that all makes sense. (And Wilhelmine does seem like the most self-aware and peacemaking of them, in general.)

Re: Hohenzollern Family Reunion

[cahn]

When you run this through google translate, I want access to it too :P

Re: Hohenzollern Family Reunion

[cahn]

incidentally, if anyone is wondering, Amalie and Heinrich made up

I was. So thank you for letting me know :)

Re: Fritz chronological maps, or a labor of love

[cahn]

That is amazing! :D

Re: Algarotti

[cahn]

OMG. That is hilarious and sad/horrible at the same time. As someone who does try to wriggle out of confrontation, I am simultaneously empathetic towards Algarotti and tooooootally see him going, "Sure, come to Italy sometime," politely, not actually thinking she'd take him up on it, and potentially carrying some of the blame. As you say.

It is nice she liked Italy, though :P