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: Oh Brother! More impressions of the Heinrich bio

[selenak]

Thank you so much for all those Lehndorf quotes! Presumably for reasons of copyright, I can't read the online edition here in Germany. (There was a 2007 new edition of the diaries, though that was only a "best of" selection.)

German wiki, btw, mentions, as did Ziebura, that Lehndorf was married (twice) while all this was going on. Not of course unusual for someone in this era even when not being a Royal. He was also really bitter about Fritz never promoting him, realising chamberlain to EC was a dead-end job in that it paid well but really wasn't how you distinguished yourself and got some juicy or glorious promotion, and eventually retiring to the countryside.

"The sight of Prince Henry in tight riding breeches and looking 'as beautiful as an angel' was enough to send Lehndorff into erotic rapture."

ETA: This also proves how far gone Lehndorff must have been, because even when young, Heinrich was never more than avarage looking, and when older, usually people found him downright ugly when first meeting him (Most of them were however subsequently wowed by his charm, which he must have had in considerable degree if he tried - very useful in a diplomat -, so a typical description of Heinrich from French, Russian and Swedes - he visited Ulrike in Stockholm, too - goes "huh, at first I thought, this little dry wrinkly man is the hero of the 7 Years War, but then he opened his mouth and wow! So smart! So charming! So witty! Swoon!"

Re: small, he was literally smaller than the not tall Fritz and both his other brothers. There's a famous anecdote of Heinrich motivating the guys from his first serious command by jumping into the muddy river and saying "men, if I can cross this depite it going to my waist, then so can you!"

Lehndorff

[mildred_of_midgard]

Presumably for reasons of copyright, I can't read the online edition here in Germany.

Oh, noes! Oh, you're right, my link says "US access only." And I can only download one page at a time, even though it says it's public domain. Oh, well. Presumably when you get home, you can get your hands on a copy? Your write-ups are always awesome (thank you for Trenck, btw), and Lehndorff seems like he's full of the good stuff.

[ETA: I have asked a friend, but the friend may also not have access. We'll see.]

He was also really bitter about Fritz never promoting him, realising chamberlain to EC was a dead-end job in that it paid well but really wasn't how you distinguished yourself and got some juicy or glorious promotion, and eventually retiring to the countryside.

Yep, I almost quoted this but left it out because it wasn't about Heinrich: "It must have occurred to him that his senior position in the queen’s household was not calculated to endear him to Frederick."

This also proves how far gone Lehndorff must have been

Yes, I was going to say that, but I forgot! Thank you! Yes, Heinrich was no prize physically. Hey, he was Fritz's other self: of course he was short, far from good-looking, and charismatic when he wanted to be. :P

Re: Lehndorff

[mildred_of_midgard]

[ETA: I have asked a friend, but the friend may also not have access. We'll see.]

DMed you.