cahn | Frederick the Great, discussion post 6

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...I think we need another one (seriously, you guys, this is THE BEST) and I'd better make it now before I disappear into the wilds of music performance.

(also, as of this week there are two Frederician fics in the yuletide archive and eeeeeeeeeee)
(huh, only one of them is actually tagged with Frederick the Great even though two with Maria Theresia and Wilhelmine, eeeeeee this is awesome I CAN'T WAIT)

Frederick the Great masterpost

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From:

mildred_of_midgard

Maybe. Or inherent personality differences. People react to trauma in character, as

rachelmanija says. Which is why I think if you swap the AW/Fritz birth order, you get a less abused Crown Prince, because AW is more of a people pleaser. Whereas if you swap Fritz and...other Fritz...I'm not entirely sure you don't get Heinrich invading Silesia and winning a Seven Years' War, notwithstanding that third-son absolute-power-less Heinrich is all "OMG WTF" at bloodthirsty Big Bro.

From:

selenak

Oh, absolutely. I mean, it's not a coincidence that Heinrich plays Fritz in that RPG he and AW run in the early 1750s. (Which, btw, Lehnsdorff knows about. He thinks it's cute. He is a bit shocked, though, when Dearest Of All Princes during a later discussion as to whether a prince does more for his people by ruling them in peace or adding territory by war takes the "war!" option.) (Granted, that's Heinrich in his 20s, when other than the enforced marriage nothing seriously bad in his life has ever happened to him yet, and his only actual war experience is from the later phase of the Second Silesian War, but still.) He was another terrier, he did have a ruthless streak a mile long, and without Fritz as the Überexample to react against, who knows?

From:

cahn

Which, btw, Lehnsdorff knows about. He thinks it's cute.

Cute??!! :P

From:

mildred_of_midgard

Awww, he wants to be like Big Bro! <33

:-PPP

From:

selenak

That, and this is the early stage where Lehndorff is prone to find just about everything Heinrich does either sexy or cute or glorious, depending what it is. Have now had the bright idea of looking up the footnotes, and at one typcial Lehndorff entry which goes "woe is me, it's all over between Heinrich and me, he doesn't love me one bit!", the footnote says that older Lehndorff, who apparantly checked out his old diaries now and then, added to this: "I was wrong. We're still firm friends now that we're both in our 60s. But back then, I was ragingly jealous of everyone he favored. In other words, I was a child."

It's a good reminder that both Heinrich and Lehndorff were in their 20s back then, with raging hormones.

From:

mildred_of_midgard

Oh, interestingly, Fritz tells Catt that AW would have become less trusting if he had been king, because while he was definitely harmed by all his trusting (of those bad advisors who were totally responsible for the bad blood between him and Fritz, because Fritz can't be responsible, noooo), when you're king you *really* can't afford to trust people.

Fritz: I used to trust people. Then I became king and realized everyone was out to get me.
Me: You know, I think 1730 might have had something to do with that. There have been trusting kings before, Fritz. Just not you.
AW: I could have been a ~~less paranoid~~ more trusting king!

From:

selenak

Meanwhile, Berlin gossip is sure the King was the one influenced by "evil advisors" against his brother. Lehndorff suspects Winterfeldt. But he notably stops that once AW is back in town; presumably AW made it clear no influencing had been necessary.

"Evil/bad advisors": everyone's favourite trope to avoid blaming the monarch.