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

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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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

selenak

Apparently so! I wonder, did the early American ambassadors at Versailles also fulfill this noble duty in their reports to Congress? I suppose Franklin and Jefferson wouldn't have had a problem with it, but John Adams might, given he thought Franklin had adopted French (lack of) morals far too much anyway.

From:

cahn

Man, now I really want Franklin to have done this :P (Though I don't know if he did -- my terrible historical knowledge extends to American history as well, though it's not quite as bad as my European history.)

From:

selenak

The Duc de Croy, who had an endearingly open mind for an older gent and was fascinated by the sciences, mmet Franklin repeatedly and thought Franklin rocked. The first time, he did what a fanboy (at whatever age) would and had Franklin explain electricity to him. The second meeting he writes at length about came after our Duke had read about the exploits of Captain James Cook, and was mightly impressed:

Emmanuel de Croy: Wow. Just wow. Captain Cook is a most valiant man. May he go on exploring the planet some more and write about it so I can read it! Hang on, zomg, I've just remembered: He's British. We're at cold-hot-cold-hot war with England. What if our ships meet him at seas and stop this most wonderful man from exploring? #saveJamesCook

*goes on to write a memo to the French admirality that all French ships should be told to treat Captain Cook with the utmost courtesy should they meet him*

Admirality: Okay, Monsieur Le Duc, you have the requisite number of ancestors, so... I guess we'll forward the memo.

EdC: Excellent! But wait! What if AMERICAN buccaneers encounter and harm wonderful Captain Cook? #saveJamesCook

*off he goes to Franklin*

F: Hi, glad to see you. We're as always out of money and guns and would be grateful for more of same. More Lafayettes, too.

EdC: I sympathize, but that's not why I'm here. We must #saveJamesCook! Promise me! No American ship must ever harm him and stop him from exploring!!!!

F:...Okay.

When I read that I thought the Duke was lucky not to have run into the considerably more short tempered John Adams, who was replacing Franklin as Ambassador until he in turn was replaced by Jefferson. BTW, the Duke was also thrilled when the brothers Montgolfier did their great balloon launch at Versailles, something that's wonderfully visualized in the miniseries John Adams, because Adams, Abigail and Jefferson watched it together, here.

The Duke was so thrilled that he made his own little balloon (without a living person in it) afterwards and send it across the channel in the general direction of Dover, noting in his diary how lucky he was to have lived into a time where people could now fly and the wonderful Captain Cook was exploring the other side of the planet. #saveJamesCook