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: Wilhelmine/Fritz letters

[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.

Re: Wilhelmine/Fritz letters

[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?