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: Chronicle of a a failed foreign policy venture

[cahn]

Wow, this is all amazing.

literally was trained to become a royal mistress one day by her ambitious mother (despite not being of noble blood, which until then was a strict condition)

I gotta wonder how that even works. "This has never been possible before... but on the off chance that it is... you're going to do it, daughter!" No wait, on second thought, I've known a bunch of tiger moms, it just goes to show that some things transcend the ages, and one of them is over-ambitious moms who sometimes actually succeed.

When she married, she did warn her husband what she had in mind, but promised she would be loyal otherwise. (He became the father of her only daughter.)

That is suuuuper interesting.

In her most famous portrait, she's depicting holding a copy of the dictionary by Diderot and D'Alembert, which is a statement because that book was forbidden by censorship at the time.

So by the time I got to the end of htis paragraph, and before I even got to Austria, I was wondering if there is a decent biography of her I can look at. The first one that comes up at Amazon is by Nancy Mitford, which I'm discarding from consideration, of course. Do you happen to know any? I also came across the memoirs of one of her maids, which I've downloaded.

Pompadour: This country sure needs a new policy. We've been stuck in a rut since Louis XIV. Sign me on. But make it a strictly defense pact at first, that'll make it easier to sell it to Louis. To become a fighting alliance only if Fritz attacks first.

MT in Vienna: eh, he's bound to, being him. Okay, convey my thanks to the Marquise.

HEE.

Fritz: *hears about MT, Elizabeth and Pompadour ganging up on him* I'm the modern Orpheus, persecuted by a gang of women who want to tear me apart. Okay, time to pre-emptively invade Saxony.

As usual, all together: oh Fritz.

Pompadour: Dear mutual friend, tell the Margravine to tell her brother this is one whore he'll never be able to afford.

OMG she is awesome!

Re: Chronicle of a a failed foreign policy venture

[selenak]

Re: biography, can't help you, as the only one I ever read was eons ago and a German one - I was still in school then, and I don't remember the title, the author was Helmut something or the other.

But here are some nice things to look at, from the Doctor Who episode starring her. Basic background info for non-Whovians - the Doctor is an alien time traveller, but in this particular case, the way he keeps running into Reinette (btw that was an actual nickname, the episode didn't make that up, and that her mother nicknamed her "little Queen" already tells you all about her mother) isn't by his usual means of (time) transportation but via a portal in a mysterious space ship he and his friends are stranded on, full of automatons that want something from Reinette and keep showing up at different points in her life via said portal. Our hero follows and thus runs into her as well, first as a child, then as an adult.

first time the Doctor meets an adult Reinette, played by Sophia Myles who manages to radiate intelligence and mischief beautifully.

Rokoko era mindmeld, as the Doctor tries to figure out what the hell the automatons want from Reinette

Versailles under attack, and Reinette shows why she's the first woman of France

Doctor Who

[cahn]

OK, wow, she is awesome :D

(also I have to watch Doctor Who, don't I :P )

Re: Doctor Who

[selenak]

Well, I am a fan, but given the sheer number of seasons, it's very time consuming. You could watch The Girl in the Fireplace, though, it's a pretty self contained episode which wraps up its story at the end.