cahn | 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...

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From:

selenak

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."

From:

mildred_of_midgard

Do we know what Wilhelmine died of? I had it in my head that it was tuberculosis (the same as Algarotti), but when I recently went googling for her name and tuberculosis or consumption, I couldn't find anything. It would be consistent with her emaciated appearance and later attempt to get a change of climate in Italy, and I guess it's not impossible that it would take more than ten years to kill her, but...do we know?

From:

selenak

According to the biography, Wihelmine died of edema/dropsy as a follow up on her earlier tuberculosis. ("Dropsy" aka Wassersucht seems to have been something a great many Hohenzollern - FW most famously, but also several of her sisters - were prone to have; Wilhelmine didn't show any symptoms until the last year of her life, but then it came with a vengeance. The tuberculosis, otoh, had been ongoing far longer and was a reason for the France & Italy trip, yes.

From:

mildred_of_midgard

Aha, thank you. And yes, everyone had dropsy, including Fritz in that last year of his life. It's a very non-specific medical term and just means fluid retention, which has many causes. One is congestive heart failure--which, of course, is my guess for what Fritz died of. Googling suggests tuberculosis can, in some cases, also play a role in heart failure. Sympathy of their fates striking again? Or limited diagnostic evidence? Who can know?