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: Crackfic

[mildred_of_midgard]

started "a life long correspondance in letters". (? This is news to me. Have not seen a single letter to or from Orzelska quoted in any biography so far.)

What. (Trier doesn't have anything either. WTF, author.)

Then Burgdorf adds that any thought Fritz actually slept with her even once has clearly to be a fairy tale conjured up by 19th century Prussian historians in a desperate attempt to make their hero less gay.

What.

he adds this negative opinion "was purely jealousy, as Wilhelmine had fallen for Katte herself".

What.

"The King's love could be deadly. Katte wasn't the only one who lost his life. A young officer, Gregorii, shot himself when Friedrich turned towards a new favourite."

What. Like you say, it may be true, but it's news to me. Citation required. Also, shooting yourself when your boyfriend moves on (why?) is not exactly comparable to being executed by your boyfriend's father.

after Fredersdorf had died, Fritz asked his widow to return his (i.e. Fritz') letters. She did send two packages of letters back which were duly burnt, but as it turns out kept the majority of letters, which meant we still have them; they were not published until 1926, though.

Okay, that's interesting. Friiitz! Inquiring minds need to know about your relationship with Fredersdorf so we can write curtain fic.

(My dear Lord Chamberlain, the Marquise famously held her position long beyond Louis' sexual interest, till her death. Just saying.)

Maybe he's implying that she needs to step down too? :P Wikipedia tells me 1757 was 6 years after she ceased to be official chief mistress, which would mean he moved on sexually when she was about 30, and she's 35 now. (Lehndorff can hardly be held responsible for knowing in 1757 that she would still be influential in 1764, but yes, he should know about the last 6 years, though he may be stating his disapproval.) At any rate, he seems to be indicating that the stepping down was voluntary on Fredersdorf's part.

Okay, found the relevant passage in his diaries online: "His sickness, his jealousy of the famous Glasow*, his wealth, and especially his desire to live quietly, made him beg the king until he relieved him of all his offices." I really want to know what the primary source is for Fredersdorf's involuntary dismissal on grounds of dishonesty. Hopefully the letters will clear that up when they arrive.

Anyway, Burgdorf seems highly unreliable. I am not impressed.

Glasow: I had to refresh myself, but he was apparently a private soldier in the infantry with a pretty face, turned Fritz's favorite starting in 1755, then he ended up in Spandau in 1757 with no reason given. Secondary sources give two accounts: 1) he was part of a plot to poison Fritz, 2) he used his Fritz's seal in an unauthorized manner to issue orders of his own. The same source that says he used to be required to sleep in Fritz's bedroom is the same sources that other sources dismiss as unreliable for the poisoning account. It's pretty clear we have no idea what's going on here, even my secondary sources say that.

Man, I need to reread all the Fritz bios in e-book form. It's only been a few months since my last stint, but thanks to our discussion, there are so many things I actually have context for now that might jump out at me as interesting, like the monkey episode that I had apparently entirely forgotten when I read it the first time (because I had no one to share cool things with). As I was scrolling through volume 1 of Catt yesterday, I was realizing all the military details that I had skimmed because it was a bunch of meaningless place names, now have meaning to me. Totally unexpected side benefit of all that map work. So now I want to reread volume 1.

But! First I need to finish said map-making, and then I need to get my health sorted so I have the concentration to read even e-books again.