Frederick the Great, discussion post 6

[cahn]

...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

Comments

Random

[mildred_of_midgard]

Since Voltaire write-ups are beyond me today, have this.

There's this one anecdote that I somehow haven't run across in all my reading of the last several months, so it's probably apocryphal, but I used to run into it all the time lo those many years ago, and it's funny enough that I still remember it. So I'm going to share it, and you can treat it like the potato guards: apocryphal until proven otherwise.

So Fritz is doing one of his military reviews where he stops and talks to individual soldiers, so that he knows them and they know him. And being Fritz, he always asks the same questions, in the same order (he used to rotate his reading material and musical scores in a set order as well):

- "How old are you?"
- "How long have you been serving in the army?"
- "Are you satisfied with your pay and working conditions?"

Sometimes he and his men didn't have a language in common, though. So on one occasion, this one soldier had been prepped in advance with the answers to the questions, which he memorized and recited in order. Only on that occasion, Fritz decided to change up the order.

"How long have you been serving in the army?"

"42 years, Sire."

"You don't look old enough for that. How old are you?"

"Three years."

"Are you mad, or am I mad?"

"Both, if it please Your Majesty."

Reportedly, Old Fritz had a good laugh when the situation was explained.

Re: Random

[selenak]

That is a fun anecdote, and headcanon until we're told explicitly otherwise. Along with Fredersdorf smuggling letters at Küstrin and Marwitz the former page surviving the Seven Years War to pounce on yet more Hohenzollern.

Re: Random

[mildred_of_midgard]

Those are all excellent headcanons!

Re: Random

[cahn]

LOL!