Happy Fritzmas! (*) / Frederician discussion post 7

[cahn]

Frederician fandom is the best! 3 stories in main archive and 2 stories in Madness, eeeeeeee and I have only managed to read my own gifts so far (well, I guess Madness isn't open yet either, but even if it had been I wouldn't have managed to have read them) but they are so goooooood

Also, I would like to apologize on behalf of the fandom that none of us apparently managed any Fritz/Voltaire. Some of us, uh, didn't know enough about Voltaire, and we are Taking Steps to attempt to rectify this in the future if anyone requests it, say, next year. Just saying.

I'm making this post because the last one has an insane number of comments, but I still owe SO many comments on the last post and I kiiiinda would like to read and comment on Yuletide stories for the next week as time permits so I almost hope this post doesn't get much action and then we resume in the new year? (Especially since there is a limited amount of discussion we can do on the fics right now!) :D I was thinking of making another post anyway for reveals.

(*) My husband D came up with this :P :)

Comments

[mildred_of_midgard]

we are Taking Steps to attempt to rectify this

HAHAHAHAAA. Steps are Being Taken. *official sounding voice*

I almost hope this post doesn't get much action and then we resume in the new year?

If you're suggesting I hold off another week on my textual criticism, I suppooose. :P It's true I would like to give you time to catch up on comments to existing discussions, and then selenak is probably too busy with her own holidays to read and comment on 10,000 words of cross-referencing and analyzing 7 primary sources.

(Especially since there is a limited amount of discussion we can do on the fics right now!)

Alternatively, you could lock the post to the three of us for a week? How wedded are you two to maintaining the pretense that last 0.00001% of uncertainty as to author identity? If you are, that's fine, I'm just...proposing alternatives?

[mildred_of_midgard]

Okay, you know what? You left "Gott bewahre dir!" in a comment to an anonymous author on the assumption that anyone who wrote a fic about Wilhelmine and Katte avenging Fritz by appealing to the Imperial Diet has read the Fredersdorf letters, I SWEAR all pretense has been abandoned, we could totally lock this post and hit the ground running. :P

[selenak]

Re: Business, very, as long as I'm still with the family, which will be until January 2nd or 3rd. Which isn't to say I won't be able to read and at least comment a bit, because I'm burning with curiosity about the intertextual crossreferencing of seven primary sources.

Secondly, mes amies, we have to ask yourselves: what would Fritz and Voltaire do? Remain anonymous with their pamphlets and attribute them to other people, that's what. More seriously, I'm thinking (oblique) tactics. Maybe some reading friends of cahn's will find their curiosity triggered by Yuletide and will want to check out our discussion posts, which they can't when they're locked.

Thirdly, I want to gush about the amazing quote from Catt's memoirs that you posted in the last post: He saw the seal and cried: "Ah, Catt, it is from Voltaire. He still remembers then that I exist." He opened and read or rather devoured with his eyes the letter.

Yep. Would definitely have eloped with Voltaire to London, or for that matter, Lappland, if it had been an option. >After all the arguments and fallouts.

Voltaire *sitting on a street corner holding up a cardboard sign*: Will Satirize Fritz for Money
Voltaire *sotto voce*: Will also do it on my own time, unpaid.

Which is clearly why MT made the Parnassos quip instead of hiring him. I mean, she could count. Why waste money for something that you'll get for free anyway?

More seriously: what do we think Voltaire saw in Fritz? Other than a source of money (as any writer would have done) and, early on before he got disabused of the notion, a chance to change at least some part of the world by shaping an enlightened monarch? (I would say "play Aristotle to an Alexander", but being Alexander always comes with starting wars and conquering, and Voltaire did not want Fritz to do that.) Because as far as I know, Voltaire's other long term feuds - most famously with Rousseau, the other Most Famous French Writing Philospher Of The Enlightenment - did not come with the "can't do without" dimension of "can't do with", and he certainly didn't make Alcina and marriage comparisons. Spiritual/emotional kinship (ranging from love of sarcasm and feuds to evil fathers)? The one homoromantic exception in an otherwise het life? (And I do think Voltaire was straight, and not in a repressed FW fashion) because seriously, if he'd wanted to have sex with men, he would have.) What?

Glasow

[mildred_of_midgard]

I am ashamed to admit I've been misspelling "Glasow" as "Glosow" in many of my comments. I know why, it's because of how often the place-name Głogów cropped up in my map work, and then got stuck in my head. Anyway. Glasow.

Refresher on who Glasow is:

- Fritz's batman.
- Went with him to the Netherlands on the incognito trip.
- Lehndorff really wanted to go with Fritz on the Netherlands trip.
- Lehndorff said Fredersdorf retired because he was jealous of Glasow.
- We're not sure about Fredersdorf, but pretty sure Lehndorff is jealous of Glasow.
- Imprisoned for something, historians debate what.
- Maybe attempting to poison Fritz.
- Maybe unauthorized use of his seal.
- So basically another Marwitz or Trenck, possibly less exciting (but possibly very exciting if only we had more data).

Anyone who wanted to write crackfic that included Glasow, Marwitz, *and* Trenck would have a lot of material to work with. :P Lehndorff's head would explode from all the envy. "Why does he keep picking these charismatic bastards when he could have meeee?"

Attn Lehndorff: You have to make cow eyes at siblings *after* you start working for Fritz, not before.

Re: Glasow

[selenak]

Lehndorff: That's all fine advice, but what about those of us he never notices because they are working for his wife even before they fall for the most adorable of heroes THE Prince a sibling? I never would have used poison or stolen a seal or spied for the Austrians! And I may not have been able to be a batman through no fault of mine but that of a clumsy midwife, but I could be a reader! I love reading and discussing books! Heinrich and I read a lot of books together. His reading of CYRUS ALONE...I am fluent in French! Why the King keeps looking abroad for readers instead to his loyal subjects is beyond me. And now you must excuse me. I am meeting a friend at the opera. It is a good thing that I am a philosopher now, for he will probably bring along some tall, handsome and dastardly mannered creature as well.

Not Lehndorff: How long did Glasow stay imprisoned for whatever it was? And does Catt say anything about him?

Re: Glasow

[selenak]

Going back to Lehndorff brought Glasow results! Seems during my first quick reading, I must have skipped this Paragraph. 1757, 9 - 12th April:

Easter Holidays. One enters church and leaves it. One only talks of the Glasow matter. This fellow, the son of a soldier from the Brieger Garnison, had been hired as the King's batman a while ago. The King has overwhelmed him with kindness and even made him his valet, so he could come and go into the King's rooms whenever he wanted. The villain has now abused his gracious master's kindness by doing nothing but steal and rob, and even more, he's betrayed the King's secrets by making copies of all the writings he could get his hands on. There's even talk of him having tried to poison the King. At last, his villainy was uncovered by his servant, and he was caught red-handed. They found a lot of money and jewelry with him; rumor also has it he was the Countess Brühl's spy. This lady has been brought across the Polish border a few days after her arrest. There's also a rumor that Count Wackerbart has been arrested and has been brought to Küstrin. In short, we live in extrarordinary times.

I dare say. Now, Lehndorff obviously wasn't present at the arrest, nor is he in charge of the interrogation; he's simply reporting the stories making the rounds at court, and I suppose there's the possibiliity that Glasow was framed. At the same time, "being caught red handed" - auf frischer Tat ertappt - sounds like they caught him incriminating himself by doing some of the things he was accused of. And if he did steal, spy and try to poison Fritz, it would have definitely made the later conclude that it's not paranoia when they're really after you.

At the same time, since Lehndorff reports nothing of the sort about Fredersdorf - and I did run the name in a variation of spellings through the search machine, just to be sure I didn't miss an entry about Fredesdorf - , I'm even more sceptical that wiki is right about the grounds for his dismissal. If batman/valet Glasow the spy/thief/wannabe poisoner was a a sensation, the Prussian Pompadour being accused of embezzling would have easily topped that.

Holstein Pete and P(Russian) Pete

[cahn]

I thought about commenting to mildred's comment on the chatfic but maybe it more belongs here? (I can move it to the fic itself if that is preferable.) Okay, I'm probably forgetting because it was a while ago, how did this go down in real life?!

Re: Holstein Pete and P(Russian) Pete

[selenak]

He was born in Kiel as Karl Peter Ulrich von Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf, son of the Duke Karl Friedrich von Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf. The claim to the Russian throne came through his mother Anna Petrowna, daughter of Peter I. and sister of the Czarina Elizabeth. When Elizabeth - being unmarried and childless (at least officially, there were rumors, but nothing could ever be proven ) - needed an heir, Peter came to Russia, converted to the Russian Orthodox Faith and was rechristened Pjotr Fjodorewich.

Re: Holstein Pete and P(Russian) Pete

[mildred_of_midgard]

I'm in favor of keeping historical commentary here. :)

I don't think we told you all of this, which I was writing up when selenak gave her shorter rundown, so here's the longer version:

Peter III was born Karl Peter Ulrich in Holstein, which was a duchy in the HRE at the time, and today is part of Schleswig-Holstein in northern Germany, just south of Denmark. His mother was a daughter of Peter the Great. She died after giving birth to him. His father claimed the the Swedish throne but never managed to sit on it. Dad more successfully managed to be duke of Holstein, but, alas, lost Schleswig to the Danes. So when Peter was born, he was duke of Holstein (and Gottorp, which doesn't enter into this story). There were wars, there were treaties, territories changed hands, it's complicated.

Anyway, Peter grows up a German-speaking prince in a Germany duchy. This is relevant to his story.

Elizaveta (sorry, her name is etched in my brain in this form), daughter of Peter the Great and aunt of young Karl Peter Ulrich, becomes Tzarina of Russia. She's the one who haaaates Fritz's guts, fairly so as he also hates her. They will end up fighting the Seven Years' War against each other, and her troops will hand him his worst defeat at Kunersdorf. (After which he handed over command to one of his generals, talked about abdicating and letting Heinrich run things, and considered suicide. Through a combination of control issues and terrier personality, Fritz was back in sole command in a week or two.)

Anyway, back in Holstein. When he's 11, Peter Karl Ulrich's dad dies and he becomes Duke of Holstein. But if you think that's exciting, wait until he turns fourteen.

Finland: Congratulations, Karl Peter Ulrich, you're king!
Sweden: Congratulations, Karl Peter Ulrich, you're heir presumptive!
Russia: Congratulations, Karl Peter Ulrich, you're heir presumptive! Elizaveta may or may not have a secret husband and may or may not have secret kids, but she sure hasn't produced any heirs to the throne.
Finland, Sweden, Russia: *catch up on the news*
Finland, Sweden, Russia: ...Wait a minute! You can't be all those things!
Sweden: Takesy-backsies!
Sweden and Russia: Ha, no, what were we thinking, letting the Finns have a king. Finland belongs to Sweden, which definitely does not belong to Karl Peter Ulrich.
Russia: Hey, Karl Peter Ulrich, what kind of weirdo foreign name is that? Your name is Pyotr Fyodorovich, you're moving to St. Petersburg, and you're Orthodox now. Congratulations, Grand Duke Pyotr, you're now heir presumptive to your aunt Elizaveta! I hope you like Russia.

And so it was that HolsteinPete became RussianPete. But RussianPete did not like Russia so much, and in his heart he was still German, hence (P)RussianPete. And if you're German, who's the coolest? Fritz is the coolest, that's who.

Fritz: *has just conquered Silesia for the first time*
ViennaJoe: *is one year old*

Evidently (working off DW and tumblr write-ups here), young Karl Peter is separated from his BFF Christian August von Brockdorff, who is not allowed to accompany him to Russia, on grounds of being a bad influence. But Brockdorff is a persistent BFF. After being turned away at the Russian border, he manages to slip in incognito, make it to St. Petersburg, and be welcomed by Peter and made chamberlain. The slashers go wild.

A few years later, Fritz arranges for one of his general's daughters, Sophie Friederike, to move to St. Petersburg to marry Grand Duke Pyotr, in hopes that after Elizaveta dies, Russia will become (P)Russia. When she's on her way to Russia, that episode happens that we told you about, where she's young and nervous and sitting next to Fritz at dinner, and Fritz charms her, and they have a nice conversation about music and such.

But young Sophie Friederike moves to St. Petersburg, changes her name to Catherine, becomes Orthodox, and sees which way the wind is blowing. She becomes fluent in Russian (albeit with a German accent), and embraces her new religion instead of speaking German and making fun of Orthodoxy. When she was deeply ill and lying on her sickbed facing the possibility of death, she's said to have refused Lutheran religious comfort and sent for an Orthodox priest, thus making all the Russians happy with their new Grand Duchess.

When Elizaveta dies, (P)RussianPete decides his first moves as Tsar Peter III will be to:
1) Tell Fritz he is the coolest.
2) Switch sides in the war and basically place his army at Fritz's disposal, instead of attacking him all the time and making him consider suicide.
3) Return to Prussia all the Prussian lands that the Russian army had conquered under Elizaveta. For free. Just because "OMG Fritz I'm SO SORRY about my predecessor."
4) Institute a bunch of reforms in imitation of Fritz. (Russia was in desperate need of reforms, I kid you not.)
5) Try to get Schleswig back from the Danes, because *clearly* what is most important to Russia is some minor German principality. And this principality is totally worth pissing off the Danes over, right after you've handed over recently conquered Russian territory to the Prussians.

Re (5), I have read that even Fritz suggested to Peter that this might not be the best idea ever, in that it might not go over so well with the Russians.

To summarize: HolsteinPete proved that he was nominally RussianPete but really PrussianPete, or at the very least StillExtremelyGermanPete.

Well, the Russians are indeed not too thrilled about all this, and there are a few more of them in Russia than Peter's German buddies, and they speak Russian with their Russian-speaking Grand Duchess (well, I suppose now that Elizaveta's dead, she's Empress Consort), with the result that 6 months later, former Grand Duchess/Empress Consort is reigning Tzarina/Empress Catherine the soon-to-be-Great, and Peter III is twiddling his thumbs in prison for about a week, before he dies of Extremely Natural and Not At All Suspicious Causes. (Historians debate.)

And since AnhaltSophie, the cow who didn't even get Fritz's autograph for (P)RussianPete at that dinner, has become RussianCatherine, the pro-German foreign policy ends, and she gets to stay Tzarina for more than 5 minutes 6 months. She will undo Peter's reforms, then re-issue a bunch of them in her own name because they were such obviously good ideas to any product of the Enlightenment, plus add in a bunch more reforms, and she will fangirl Voltaire (although not stage Semiramis for him) and be very sad when he dies. Like Fritz, though, the longer she hangs onto absolute power, the more conservative she becomes.

Catherine: Idk, maybe freeing the serfs is a noble cause for an enlightened monarch.
Serfs: *riot*
Catherine: On second thought, that sounds scary.

So that is the story of HolsteinPete, AnhaltSophie, (P)RussianPete, and RussianCatherine. :)

External links

[mildred_of_midgard]

Other discussions that are happening outside this space but are Highly Relevant to this space:

The fics in our fandom are popular!

Newcomers love crackfic!

This person is clearly one of us, and I am trying to get them to join us, and also Selena commented so then this happened.

Re: External links

[selenak]

*high fives*

Italian Greyhounds

[mildred_of_midgard]

To keep historical commentary on people's fics and comments here, I want to add something to one of cahn's comments:

A week later, Friedrich’s replacement flute wasn't up to par any more than Eichel's replacement was

LOL Have I mentioned Oh Fritz lately?!

Fictional detail is historically accurate! We have a letter from Fritz complaining that the new flute was "nicht recht gut," and he wanted a different one. As for Eichel, I have no data, but I assume no replacement could live up to him on his first day on the job; the man could out-work Fritz and Fredersdorf.

Another historically accurate detail is that we don't know exactly on what day the dogs were returned, but the letter complaining about the flute dates to October 9, as does a letter to EC. (It is in fact, the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad* condolence letter about her brother's death.) I like the author's implication that Fritz was killing time by writing to her. :P

* In case our native of Germany is not familiar, this is an allusion to a children's book called Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Thanks to my wife, I have learned that no matter how up on American popular culture you are, you may still miss the children's book references.

Re: Italian Greyhounds

[selenak]

Indeed I would have missed the reference. Just tell me didn't complain to EC about the flute and the dogs in said condolence letter?

Re: Italian Greyhounds

[cahn]

OK, that is an amazing historically accurate detail :D

Münchow

[mildred_of_midgard]

Subdetective selenak, would you be able to tell from Gallus

1) What Münchow Jr.'s first name is?
2) When the letter was written?

I'm putting some finishing touches on the textual criticism write-up, like context for the authors of our sources, and the font is freaking defeating me here. :/

Re: Münchow

[selenak]

This took some detecting, as Gallus mentions Münchow Jr is a healthy 80 years old as of the publication of this letter, but does not mention his first names, while the wiki entry on Münchow Sr provides first names for all his sons, but otoh no birthdates which fit with someone who‘d have been seven years old in 1730. The closest we get is the youngest, Alexander Christoph von Münchow, who was born in 1726 and died in 1806 and according to wiki was the one to continue the Münchow line as all his brothers died without surviving male issue before him. Wiki links its sources for the Münchow family tree, various well renowned almanachs of the nobility, so I assume these dates are correct. Which would mean Münchow Jr was only four, not seven years old when Katte died. No wonder he was confused about the length of time Fritz spent at Küstrin!

ETA: Wiki entry on Münchow Sr.: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Ernst_von_Münchow

Re: Münchow

[mildred_of_midgard]

This is not really a subdetective request so much as a German-speaker request: can you help me with the underlined part of "bedeckte sich mit einer weißen Mütze, welche er zuvor zu dem Ende bei sich gesteckt hatte"? He'd done what with his cap?

Voltaire and Ulrike

[mildred_of_midgard]

Okay, I've now dug up the full set of poems, instead of relying on other people's excerpts, and you can judge for yourself, but it does seem to me like Fritz is being playful rather than upset while discouraging Voltaire. He also, amazingly, manages to drag Émilie into it, because Émilie is his main romantic rival in life right now.

So here's Voltaire's poem to Ulrike:

Souvent un peu de vérité
Se mêle au plus grossier mensonge.
Cette nuit, dans l'erreur d'un songe,
Au rang des rois j'étais monté;
Je vous aimais, princesse, et j'osais vous le dire.
Les dieux à mon réveil ne m'ont pas tout ôté;
Je n'ai perdu que mon empire.

Fritz then wrote three [god, this is so in character, "Hamilton wrote the other fifty-one" describes him perfectly] separate replies, apparently:

1) C'est pour vous faire part, monsieur, de l'aventure la plus étrange de ma vie que j'ai le plaisir de vous écrire. Comme vous y avez donné lieu, je ne pouvais me dispenser de vous en faire le récit. Retirée dans ma solitude, dans le temps que Morphée sème ses pavots, je goûtais le plaisir d'un sommeil doux et tranquille. Un songe charmant s'emparait de mes sens. Apollon, d'un port majestueux, l'air doux et gracieux, suivi des neuf Sœurs, se présente à ma vue. « J'apprends, dit-il, jeune mortelle, que tu reçus des vers de mon favori. Une chétive prose fut toute ta réponse; j'en fus offensé. Ton ignorance fit ton crime; te pardonner, c'est l'ouvrage des dieux. Viens, je veux te dicter. » J'obéis en écrivant ce qui suit :

Quand vous fûtes ici, Voltaire,
Berlin, de l'arsenal de Mars,
Devint le temple des beaux-arts;
Mais trop plein de l'objet dont le cœur vous sut plaire,
Émilie, en tous lieux présente à vos regards ....
Enfin l'illusion, une douce chimère,
Me fit passer chez vous pour reine de Cythère.
Au sortir de ce songe heureux,
La vérité, toujours sévère,
A Bruxelles bientôt dessillera vos yeux;
Je sens assez de nous la différence extrême.
O vous, tendres amis, qui vous rendez fameux!
Au haut de l'Hélicon vous vous placez vous-même;
Moi, je dois tout à mes aïeux.
Tel est l'arrêt du sort suprême:
Le hasard fait les rois, la vertu fait les dieux.

A ces mots je m'éveillai; à mon réveil vous perdîtes un empire, et moi, l'art de rimer. Contentez-vous, monsieur, qu'une deuxième fois, en prose, je vous assure de l'estime parfaite avec laquelle je suis

Votre affectionnée
Ulrique.

2) On remarque pour l'ordinaire
Qu'un songe est analogue à notre caractère :
Un héros peut rêver qu'il a passé le Rhin,
Un marchand, qu'il a fait fortune,
Un chien, qu'il aboie à la lune.
Mais que Voltaire, en Prusse, à l'aide d'un mensonge,
S'imagine être roi pour faire le faquin,
Ma foi, c'est abuser du songe.

3) Je ne fais cas que de la vérité;
Mon cœur n'est pas flatté d'un séduisant mensonge.
Je ne regrette point, dans l'erreur de ce songe,
La perte du haut rang où vous étiez monté;
Mais ce qui vous en reste, et que vous n'osez dire,
S'il est vrai que jamais il ne vous soit ôté,
Vaut à mes yeux le plus puissant empire.

Admittedly my French is no great shakes, but Fritz seems more peeved about Voltaire leaving him for Émilie (this was written after Voltaire was on his way away from Fritz's court back to Brussels) than about anything Voltaire may be thinking of doing with Ulrike. He seems still quite taken with Voltaire in these.

Lol, I went and looked again at that article on how the Voltaire-Ulrica relationship evolved (long story short, once she became queen he became far more interested in her as a potential patron than as a woman), and it contains these lines: "Implied here is the notion that a liaison is just as conceivable between the poet and the Princess, as between the poet and the King." I mean, that's *exactly* what I got out of these poems. "Yes, yes, you're interested in my sister, that's nice, what about meeeeee??? Freaking Émilie."

It's also evidently been questioned whether Fritz was even the author of (2).

Classical mythology references that may be a little on the obscure side, forgive me if they're well-known to everyone:
- Cythère = Cythera, home of Aphrodite
- Helicon = Mount Helicon, haunt of the Muses

Re: Voltaire and Ulrike

[selenak]

"Yes, yes, you're interested in my sister, that's nice, what about meeeeee??? Freaking Émilie."

That's my impression, too. Meanwhile, the younger sibs:

Amelie: So... Voltaire hits on Ulrike, and he writes poems to him?

Heinrich: *glowers* They're still better than the prose he used in his supposed novel titled Henri and the beautiful Marwitz. At least he didn't try to embarass Ulrike, except with his rhymes.

Trenck: Clearly, I should have hit on Émilie du Chatelet as well. That would have solved everything. No prison and chains; Instead, he'd given me a medal! Now why didn't I think of that?

Zeithain

[mildred_of_midgard]

So the "Five Ways" fic has a reference to Katte at Zeithain. Ever since I read (lol, "read"--Google translated sizable chunks, heavily skewed toward the end) the novel by that name, I've wondered: is there evidence that Katte accompanied FW and Fritz on that trip? Or is that pure historical fiction?

Re: Zeithain

[selenak]

I think I've read it elsewhere as well, but I don't remember where right now, and can't look it up - am buried in post holidays rl stuff, too.

For what it's worth: if I had to guess, I would suspect Roes found the name appealing "Zeithain" appealing and would have been tempted to make it a meaningful place for the relationship for that reason alone. (i.e. let Katte come along on that trip.) (cahn, in Roes' novel Katte and Fritz have their first time experience there.) In German, it sounds pretty poetical - it means "grove of time". Or maybe I'm projecting, since I certainly find it appealing for that reason. :)

Protocol

[mildred_of_midgard]

Okay, I have so many questions about protocol. :P Okay, I've trimmed this down to the important ones:

1) When is Fritz king "in Prussia" vs. "of Prussia"? I've seen sources I don't trust say that Fritz became king "of" Prussia after conquering Silesia, i.e. in the 1740s, and others that it wasn't until after the Partition of Poland, after 1772, when he acquired most of the historical domains of Prussia.

I've no objection to an author using "of Prussia" to avoid confusing AO3 readers, but I am curious for my own purposes when the change actually happened. I've always gone with the latter as it makes the most sense to me, but I'd like to be more confident.

2) Would anyone here know why Archduchess MT is called Her Most Serene Highness in "Fiat Justitia", instead of Her Royal Highness?

3) Similarly, why Fritz alternates between being His Majesty and His Grace in "Five Ways" at Neisse?

I assume we've all read these wonderful fics, even though (or because?) not all of us have commented on them. ;)

ETA: A couple of wonderful quotes from Fritz himself on the unimportance of protocol:

1) "When the late Field Marshal Grumbkow had written to the crown prince in old age complaining that he had not been addressed as ‘your excellency’, Frederick had pretended that he was perfectly confused when it came to titles: ‘I accord count, marquis, duke, cousin, excellency, brother, etc., to anyone and everyone, without knowing whether I have got it right or not.’"

2) "We don’t have any differences of rank here and we don’t recognise any either. I don’t intend to introduce any. You wear my Order [the Black Eagle] therefore you have the same position as my ministers and the others who have received it. When Charles V was in Milan a storm blew up between two of the first ladies of the court as to which of the two walked before and which behind the other. The quarrel reached his ears and he decided that the stupidest came first. That decision removed all distinction and the women came in in whatever order they chose. I don’t want to know about any ceremonial either, when you get to the door first, you enter first; when another reaches it before you, he precedes you."

Another case where Fritz's priorities = my priorities. <3 (I only want to know about protocol so I can get it right when writing characters who do care, or alternatively, so Fritz can get it wrong on purpose. :P)

Re: Protocol

[selenak]

When is Fritz king "in Prussia" vs. "of Prussia"?

Pleschinski in his footnotes says the first time Fritz uses "of Prussia" is in his Histoire de la maison de Brandenburg. He keeps doing it until more and more of Europe gives in and uses it as well, though it's never officially declared by a HRE. (Certainly MT never made a fuss out of in versus von the way Fritz made one about her being the Queen of Hungary.) (Then again, "that evil man in Potsdam/Sanssouci" avoids his title entirely, so.) (Joseph refered to him as the King of Prussia, unsurprisingly.) Also, Grandpa F1 had to concede the "in" instead of "von" to make the Poles happy, and since we all know what happened to Poland in the later part of the Frederician reign...

Teenage Archduchess MT isn't a royal highness at all. Archdukes and Archduchess before they got their own dukedoms (or kingdoms) as adults, like, say, Leopold later got Tuscany, were Durchlaucht, which usually gets rendered as "Serene Highness" in English, and for someone like MT as the older Archduchess and heiress presumptative, Most Serene Highness, "Durchlauchtigste Hoheit".

Adult Archduchess MT once she gets crowned as Queen of Hungary would have been a Royal Highness, of course. Or Majesty. So far, if letters and memoirs are anything to go by, "Majesty" seems to have been used mostly by lower ranking Prussians and Austrians for their respective rulers. Members of the royal/imperial family and princes of the blood when adressing monarchs, otoh, seem to go more with "Euer Gnaden" if they didn't use a family designation like brother/sister/cousin.

(I think Fritz in his post-Neisse meeting letter to Joseph used both "brother" and "your imperial highness" - Kaiserliche Hoheit/altesse imperiale - not royal highness, because Joseph, being a man, never gets to be "The King of Hungary" in Prussian court speak.)

Voltaire, Fritz and Deaths

[selenak]

...which are a major subject in this part of the correspondance, along with a lot more needling and snark once our two correspondants have actually met. Have now reached the letters immediately after Wilhelmine's deaths.

First, a P.S. to the earlier installment - Voltaire, veteran of father/son emotional bloodshed, in his "congrats, you're king!" letter writes: The is one thing I would never ask a King about, but which I want to know from a human being: it is this - has the former King before his death at last recognized and loved the qualities of my charming Prince? I know that the qualities of the former King were very different from yours, so it may be that he didn't recognize your very different virtues; but if he should have warmed to them near his ending, if he justified the admirable affection you've demonstrated for him through your letters, I would be somewhat content.

To which our antihero replies: I arrived on Friday evening in Potsdam, where I found the late King in such a sad state that I knew his ending was near. He gave me a thousand signs of his friendship and talked to me for a good hour about inner and foreighn affairs, and did this in complete clarity of mind, and with the firmest common sense. On Saturday, Sunday and Monday, too, he appeared very calm, did not hope for any improvement regarding himself, and bore his immense suffering with the greatest firmness; on Tuesday morning at 5 am, he put the government into my hands, and tenderly said farewell to my brothers, of all deserving officers, and of myself. The Queen, my mother and I were with him in his final hours, during which he showed the stoicism of a Cato. He died with the curiosity of a physicist who wants to know what happens with him in the hour of his death, and with the heroic courage of a great man; he left us in sincere sadness about his loss and with the example of a brave dying.

Note what he didn't answer at all? Voltaire's actual question.

Anyway. King Fritz is a great deal more prone to sarcasm and demands than Crown Prince Fritz, as could be seen in his point blank "you're welcome, Emilie is not" statement as quoted in my last account. Of course, he still thinks Voltaire is the greatest writer of them all. Voltaire, for his part, is still immensely flattering, and pays compliments during the first Silesian war about the new Caesar/Alexander/ etc., but he also starts with the needling. As when he's discussing his new play Mahomet. Which was mostly him using Mohammed as an example of how religious prosecution and theocracy is evil, something he and Fritz of course agree on, but then there's also this:

I know Mohammed hasn't committed exactly the type of treason which is the subject of this tragedy. (...) But whowever carries war into his own country and dares to claim this happens in the name of God and justice - isn't such a man capable of anything?

You tell me, Sire. You tell me. Fritz, writing back from Silesia, does not address this matter at all but sticks to religion as the source of tyranny. Voltaire gets a bit more pointed after one of his many illnesses:

I only touched the Styx with one foot, but I am extremely angry about the number of the poor unfortunates whom I saw transported across this river. Some came from Schärding, the others from Prague or Iglau. Will you and your fellow monarchs never stop ravaging this earth which you claim you want to make happy?

And then he tops this by writing an ode... to Maria Theresia, I kid you not. In July 1742. (I.e. post Silesia 1, pre Silesia 2. This does not make Fritz happier than Wilhelmine meeting her will do:

The Queen of Hungary can count herself fortunate to have found a champion so well versed in the seductive art of words as you. I am glad our little disputes aren't fought in trials, for if I consider your affection for this queen, as well as your talents, I could not help but be defeated by Apollo and Venus.
You thunder against those who fight for their right with weapons in their hands and armed by their claims; but I remember a time when you, if you had been in possession of an army, would certainly have set it marching against the Desfontaines, the Rousseaus, the van Durens etc. etc. etc. As long as the platonic judgment of the Abbot de Sainte Pierre cannot happen, the monarchs of this earth will have no choice but create facts to end their disputes. (...) Misery and misfortune caused by this are like illnesses of the human body. You may regard the last war as a little attack of an eternal fever which has Europe as quickly as it has made Europe shake.

Voltaire not staying permanently in Berlin after his second trip in 1743 does not make Fritz happy, either:
I was your greatest defender, I would have fought anyone who dared to besmirch your genius. But you are an ingrate, the walls of Caucasus have given birht to you, a tigress has been your nurse, your heart is harder than Alpine rock and the marble of Paros; there can be only mercy for you if you come back here, ask for my forgiveness properly and bring those of your works which I find you owe to me with you. These are the conditions under which I am ready to agree to our reconciliation.

Voltaire: does not come back until after Émilie has died. Fritz doesn't get the Pucelle until then, either. Otoh, the widowed Duchess of Würtemberg (previously very briefly mentioned as the mother of Carl Eugen, Wilhelmine's dastardly son-in-law; Fritz can't stand her and won't let her raise her sons who are at his court) does. This is totally not Voltaire's fault. He says. 'Twas his secretary who let her secretary make a copy, in passing.

Émilie dies. Voltaire proves he's one of those men, like Fritz, C.S. Lewis and John Lennon, who think the highest compliment they can pay a woman is to say she's an honorary man. Or maybe he does so because he's writing to Fritz, and wants to get across to him how much Émilie meant to him, I don't know. But:

After twenty five years, I have lost a friend, a great man, who had only one flaw, that of being a woman, who is now mourned and honored by all of Paris. They may not have done her justice in life, and perhaps you would not have judged her as you did if she had had the honor of being presented to your majesty in person. But a woman who was able to translate Newton and Virgil and who had all the virtues of a gentleman will be undoubtedly be mourned by you as well.

Don't count on it, Voltaire. Btw, in the same letter he asks for Fritz to give him a medal as a little consolation, to wit, the newly founded Pour le Merite, which is available for civilians as well as the military. He won't get it until he's in Berlin, though. Given Fritz' track record of condolence letters, I was fearing the worst, but if he wrote a dastardly one following this, Pleschinski doesn't include it. Voltaire brings up Emilie and her death at irregular intervals through the years (for example, the court of King Stanislaus - "where I saw Madame du Chatelet die a hundered times more cruelly than you can possibly imagine has become a place of horror to me" ) but Fritz: *crickets* Instead, Fritz snarks about Voltaire not being with him already:

You will never lack good excuses for not coming; such a vivid imagination as yours is inexhaustible. (...) Thus I believe in your journey even less than in the arrival of the Messiah whom the Jews are still counting on.

He then gets back into flirting mode and writes a poem in which Voltaire is Danae and he's Zeus, who, as you'll recall, came to Danae in the shape of a rain of Gold:

For a brilliant beauty/Who attracted his fervent desire/ Jupiter devised to become/a splendid suitor/ Gold rained, and its enchantment/ compelled the harsh cruelty/ of the too chaste beloved/ (...)I who do not have the honor/to be this mighty God's replica/ I will in this agrarian place/still provide you with as much/imitate I will this rain/ which her suitor showed Danae with...

That does it. Voltaire rhymes back: "You very aged Danae/ will leave her little home/The gold which Jupiter sends/ is not her heart's desire/ She loves with a devoted heart/ Jupiter and not his pouring."

He arrives Disaster ensues. You've told the tale already, so let me skip forward to the 7 Years War, where Voltaire gets suicidal letters from Fritz (before Wilhelmine's death) and replies thusly:

You want to die. I won't speak to you of the painful horror this plan inflicts. (...) Let me instead add that nobody will regard you as freedom's martyr. You have to do justice to yourself; you know how many courts insist on regarding your invasion of Saxony as a violation of international law. What will people at these courts say? That you have avenged this invasion at yourself, that the grief to have acted against the law overwhelmed you. Do you want that? (...)
I, too, would have been in a mood to die when I lost my country because of you and my niece was dragged through the streets of Frankfurt on your orders. (...) He senses that such a dark decision is moved by speculation for an honor which won't be given to him. He feels that he doesn't want to be humiliated by personal enemies. So he makes that decision out of hurt, desperate vanity. Follow instead your superior reason despite such feelings; your reason will tell you you've not been humiliated and that you never can be; it tells you that you are a man like any other who even in the worst of circumstances will keep what makes other people happy: wealth, office, dignity, friends. (...)Can you truly claim to be a philospher if you couldn't live as a private citizen or if you, a former souvereign, could not bear anyone opposing you? (...) I am sixty five years old; I was born ill; I only have but one more moment to live; I was very unhappy, as you know; but I would die happily if I could leave you back alive on this earth and if you only practiced what you have so often written about.

Then Wilhelmine dies. Fritz writes to Voltaire on December 6th 1758, i.e. two months later:

You won't have found it difficult to measure the pain this loss has caused me. There are misfortunes which one can face with steadfastness and some courage; and then there are others against which all the steadfastness with one wishes to arm oneself and all the talk of philosophy is nothing, is useless help. (...) Never lose the memory of her, and please, I beg you, collect all your powers to create a monument in her honor. You only have to do her justice; and without needing to depart from truth at all, you will have the most beautiful and inexhaustible subject. I wish you more happiness and peace than I will now ever have. Federic.

So Voltaire writes a first draft of an ode to Wilhelmine ("femme sans préjugés, sans vice et sans molesse" and "ton cher frère aujourd'hui, dans un noble repos/recueillerait son ame à soi meme rendue;/ Le philosophe, le héros,/Ne serait affligé que de t'avoir perdue"). And so forth. But far from taking his loss stoically, for the first time, Fritz is not impressed by a Voltaire poetical work.

I received the verses you've written. Obviously I didn't express myself clear enough. I want something more splendid and more representative of her. All of Europe needs to cry with me for a virtuous woman far too little known. It's not necessary that my name is mentioned in this ode; all the world must know that she is worthy of immortality, and it is up to you to give her a place among the immortals!

They say that only Apelles was worthy of painting Alexander, and I believe that your pen is the only one worthy of serving the one being who will forever be the cause of my tears. I'm sending you verses I've written in a camp and which I have sent her a month before the cruel catastrophe which has taken her from me forever. These verses are assuredly not worthy of her, but they were at least a true expression of my emotions. In a word: I will only be able to die content if you manage to surpass yourself in this sad task I am giving you.

Pray for peace, but unless victory would give her back to me, neither peace nor victory nor anything in this universe could soothe the pain which eats me up inside.

(Voltaire writes a second version of the ode to Wilhelmine, which ends up in the first edition of Candide, and Fritz professes himself satisfied. But really, he wanted her back, and that was a task beyond any writer.)

Re: Voltaire, Fritz and Deaths

[mildred_of_midgard]

Wow. Thank you for all this.

Voltaire not staying permanently in Berlin after his second trip in 1743 does not make Fritz happy, either:

See, that's what I think he's getting at with the Ulrike poetry I posted. (Lmk what you think.)

the walls of Caucasus have given birht to you, a tigress has been your nurse, your heart is harder than Alpine rock and the marble of Paros;

Classical reference alert! In the Iliad, book 16, Patroclus says to Achilles, "Pitiless one, thy father, meseems, was not the knight Peleus, nor was Thetis thy mother, but the grey sea bare thee, and the beetling cliffs, for that thy heart is unbending," and echoing that passage, Vergil has Dido say to Aeneas, "False one, no goddess was your mother, nor was Dardanus the founder of your line, but rugged Caucasus on his flinty rocks begot you, and Hyrcanian tigresses suckled you." (Vergil modeled the Aeneid very closely on Homer, both Iliad and Odyssey, so there's a lot of this kind of echoing going on.) Also, all translations from theoi.com, because I'm lazy like that.

Now, note, this is Dido to Aeneas right after Aeneas announces that he's going to abandon her, his lover, in favor of going to a foreign country. Dido was a popular figure to invoke when you felt abandoned by your lover, especially when he came from another country, stayed a short while, and then left the country: see also Lady Mary to Algarotti after his brief visit to England. Dido, of course, commits suicide out of grief.

Once again, Fritz is casting himself and Voltaire as lovers.

Given Fritz' track record of condolence letters, I was fearing the worst, but if he wrote a dastardly one following this, Pleschinski doesn't include it.

No, but 9 days after she dies, he writes this sentence (no context) to Algarotti: "Voltaire déclame trop dans son affliction, ce qui me fait juger qu'il se consolera vite."

Now. Is he saying that Voltaire's so upset about Émilie that he must be protesting too much? This from the man who loses his mind every time someone dies? Granted he hasn't lost Wilhelmine yet, but...Fritz. I've seen your letters when other people have died. And we all know about Katte.

When you're grieving, all of Europe needs to grieve with you; when someone else is grieving, they're faking it?

Do you...seriously think you're the only person capable of experiencing grief? That is some emotional stunting right there, Fritz. But it would explain a lot.

Fritz and Voltaire: The Sunset Years.

[selenak]

Okay, the finale. As the 7 Years War continues, Voltaire writes to Fritz what is probably the most famous of his statements about their relationship, so Mildred is bound to be familiar with it, but Cahn is not.

I admit to be very rich, very indedependent and very happy; but you are the one thing I am missing in my happiness, and soon I will die without having seen you again; you hardly care, and I try to work on not caring, either. I love your verses, your prose, your ésprit, your bold and firm mind. I couldn't live without you, nor with you. I do not speak to the King right now, to the hero, that is the business of monarchs. I speak to the one who has bewitched me, whom I have loved and who never ceases to infuriate me.

Now there, Fritz. You couldn't ask for a better love declaration, can you?

Our antihero replies (July 1759): You are indeed a unique creature; whenever I want to be angry with you, you speak two words to me, and my accusations die in the tip of my pen. (...) I know very well I have adored you for as long as I didn't regard you as a pest and a villain; but you have played so many dirty tricks on me - but let's no longer talk about this; I have forgiven you everything in my Christian heart. All in all, you've provided me with more joy than grief. I take more enjoyment in your works and only feel a little of the scratches. If you didn't have any flaws, you could make the human species look far too inferior, and the universe would have good cause to be envious of your qualities. As it is, one can say: Voltaire is the most beautiful genius of all centuries, but I am at least more calm, more agreeable and more soft hearted than he is. And this comforts a common man over the fact of your existence.

Now I'm talking to you as your father confessor would, if you had one. Don't be angry, and try to hone all your good traits into the perfection I want to admire in you with all my heart.

Rumor has it that you want to write a tragedy based on Socrates. I can hardly believe it. How could one introduce female characters in such a play? Love would only be a cold episode; the entire subject only offers a great fifth act, Plato's Phaidon one beautiful scene, but that is it. I have overcome a few prejudices - young Fritz early in the correspondance used to complain about romance in tragedies - and I must admit to you that I no longer consider love out of place in tragedy. No matter what anyone says, I can never read Berenice without shedding tears. Tell me I cry without reason if you must, think what you will; but nothing will be able to convince me that a play is bad which is able to touch me and move me.

Sudden work stops me from writing further. Live in peace; if you have no other care than my anger, you may allow your mind some rest on that count. Vale. Federic.

(Berenice: presumably Racine's version, about which more here. Draw your own conclusion about the fact that Titus, the hero of the play, was expected to live for love and marry the one he loved after his father Vespasian's death, but instead in the end follows the path of political duty, as does, in the end, Berenice.)

Once the war is over, it's noticable that the two decades age gap between our two correspondants has ceased to matter, because Fritz, who has aged rapidly, is in his own eyes and everyone else's eyes an old man now. But it's not all exchange of health tips and literary matters; Voltaire fights for two very worthy causes which illustrate his commitment to human rights beyond satire quite well. One is the Affaire Calas, about which more here, which thanks to Voltaire ended as nearly as much talked about as the far later victim of outrageous injustice by the state, Dreyfus, the other the matter of the Chevalier La Barre, beheaded and after his death burned for extreme blasphemy. (French law pre French Revolution: like that. Actually worse than in Italy, because the French church, like the Polish church today, prided itself on being more Catholic than the Pope. The Pope of the 1750s having been Benedict the Newtonian - aka the one whom Wilhelmine jested to Fritz about in her letters - whom Voltaire, in a typical move, dedicated his tragedy Mahomet to to avoid the accusation he was using Mohammed and Islam to satirize the Roman Catholic Church. This worked in as much as the Pope was amused, accepted the dedication and wrote a few encouraging letters, and didn't work in as much as Voltaire still couldn't get the play staged in France where the French church, see above, was more Catholic than the Pope.)

In the 1760s, Voltaire starts his correspondance with Catherine, who promptly gets referred to as "your Empress" or "your Imperiatrizia" by Fritz in his letters. Fritz also reports about his two meetings with Joseph, and what he writes before meeting ViennaJoe for the second time is downright crack ship encouraging, since it's not in a over the top letter between monarchs but in a personal one to Voltaire:

This Prince is amiable and truly deserving. He esteems your works and reads them as often as he an; he's not superstitious in the least. Consequently, he's an Emperor of a kind we haven't had in Germany since a long time. Neither he nor I like ignorants or barbarians; but this isn't a reason to kill them; if it was, the Turks would hardly be the only ones. How many nations have been dumbed down due to lacking enlightenment!

What he's alluding to here is that Voltaire in his old age has decided there is actually one worthy cause he wants Fritz to go to war to, allied with Joseph and Catherine both: against the Ottomans. Voltaire, it turns out, is really sincere idea that both Islam is the worst of the Abrahamatic religions and the Turks are the worst, and he wants Team Enlightened Monarchs to take them on militarily. I kid you not.

It's all very well to say that the Mohammadanian religion should pose a counterweight to the Greek religion and the Greek religion to the Catholic one. I'd love for you to be the counterweight. I'm always aggrieved at the idea that the feet of some pasha should walk through the ashes of Themistocles and of Alcibiades. This image makes me want to throw up as much as the one of Cardinals petting their doves at the tombs of Marcus Aurelius does.
Seriously, I don't understand why the Empress-Queen doesn't sell her household goods and equips her son, the Emperor, your friend - in as much as people of your rank can have friends - with her last Taler so he can go at the head of an army to Adrianopel and await Cathereine there. This enterprise strikes me as so natural, so easy, so beautiful that I can't understand why it has not yet been accomplished; of course your majesty would have received a good glass of wine out of this deal. Everyone has their chimera; this is mine.

(Voltaire, you don't want to know how "liberating" Muslim nations "for their own good" works out; you truly don't. Incidentally, Joseph and Catherine did fight the Ottomans together at a later point, post MT's death. This did not go well for Joseph.) Anyway, Fritz replies to this sudden pro war stance by Voltaire thusly:

You are amazed that neither the Emperor nor myself interfere in the oriental conundrums. As for the Emperor, you'd have to ask Prince Kaunitz; he will tell you the secrets of his policy. As for me, I provide the Russian operations with money, which I'm paying them for a considerable time already, and you should know than an ally doesn't provide both troops and money at the same time. I'm only indirectly concerned in this whole mess due to my relationship with your Empress. And speaking personally: I abstain from war out of fear to be excommunicated by my favourite philosopher.

(Shade throwing: still an art.)

Our antihero is of course aware he is not likely to see his favourite writer ever again. This comes up when Voltaire meets Wilhelmine's daughter.

If I cannot see you again in this life, I am glad you have encountered the Duchess of Würtemberg. Our way of hearing from each other via third parties does not replace the facie ad faciem. Greetings and letters do not replace Voltaire if one has once has had him in persona.
I am overjoyed at the virtuous tears you have shed in memory of my late sister. If I had been present during this sad scene, I would have united my tears with yours. Whether out of weakness or overwhelming affection, I have done for my sister what Cicero had planed to do for his Tullia. I have build her a temple dedicated to friendship; her statue stands in the back, and on every column there is a medaillon with an image of the heroes of friendship. I'm sending you a sketch in this letter. This temple I have placed in a part of my garden. I often go there, to remember her whom I have lost and of the happiness I once have enjoyed.

The letters they write to each other in their sunset years are affectionate and barbed, with ongoing mutual admiration without this going into such extremes as the crown prince/Voltaire correspondance. One thing Pleschinski notes is that neither of them seems to be interested at all in what's going on in the British soon to be ex colonies during the 1770s. This despite the fact that Prussia actually had, via Steuben, some troops there. (Then again: Steuben: while venerating den einzigen König more of a Heinrich fan. cahn, did Mildred and I tell you yet about the time Steuben, he who fought in the American war of independence, wanted to make Heinrich King of America afterwards?) And you'd think Voltaire would be interested in revolution, especially one which actually gets armed support from France, but noooo. This is a contrast not just to younger people like Boswell - who is from another generation and a Scot and thus does root for the colonial rebels - but to the Duc of Croy (also translated by Pleschinski, remember my summaries and excerpts a few posts ago) who is of Fritz' age and very interested in what's going on overseas, and in Franklin. (And in wonderful Captain Cook, explorer of the Pacific. #saveJamesCook.) It's part of their mutual tendency to get increasingly isolated from the new world shaping around them, not just culturally. (Cue a few Fritz lines about omg, what are my people doing, staging godawful Shakespeare in godawful German translations in our theatres, we'll never be able to reach the French standard of literature that way!)

Voltaire's last letter is from Paris, where he's back after many years of exile and will experience one last triumph as his play Irene gets staged to thunderous applaus. It's the eve of the Revolution, of which he'll be regarded as a forerunner; he dies in Paris and the aftermath of his death is a story by itself, illustrating the need for revolution, among so many other things. Fritz, like I said, writes a heartfelt "why he was the greatest" speech to be read out loud at his academy. Earlier, he'd written to his problematic fave: "I am content to have lived in the age of Voltaire".

(Which is what the 18th century is actually known as in France - until the Revolution, of course. But Fritz said it first.)

Re: Fritz and Voltaire: The Sunset Years.

[mildred_of_midgard]

I honestly don't think we'd have a fandom, or our fandom would be much more meager, without you to read to us. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts (and here I think I can speak for cahn until she wakes up) as always! <3

You couldn't ask for a better love declaration, can you?

They just write their own fic. That was one hell of a forty-two-year relationship, that's all I can say.

I abstain from war out of fear to be excommunicated by my favourite philosopher.

Fritz may not have Voltaire's gift for words or especially verse, but he can snark with the best.

"I am content to have lived in the age of Voltaire".

I have that letter bookmarked. I kept seeing it quoted, but it was surprisingly difficult to track down the actual source. Btw, the context for that letter is specifically: German literature sucks now I should know, I've read exactly none of it, but it's going to get better...long after I (Fritz) am dead, but it's okay, because "je me console d'avoir vécu dans le siècle de Voltaire; cela me suffit."

I have build her a temple dedicated to friendship; her statue stands in the back, and on every column there is a medaillon with an image of the heroes of friendship.

cahn, the extremely homoerotic heroes of friendship, because that's how the Greeks and Romans swung.

I did *not* know about this temple when I was there, btw, but have seen pictures and am definitely planning on paying a visit in persona (as Fritz would say) next time.

Also, Fritz, more commemorative artwork, fewer letters of condolence or demands for immortal works of poetry!

did Mildred and I tell you yet about the time Steuben, he who fought in the American war of independence, wanted to make Heinrich King of America afterwards?

I know we've mentioned it, but I don't think we've gone into any more detail than that, primarily because that's about all the detail I know. Other than that there were a number of other candidates considered, one of whom was an elderly, exiled, alcoholic Charles Edward Stuart, who I think we can all say we're glad did not become king. Or at least cahn will be after we cover the Stuarts.

Voltaire, you don't want to know how "liberating" Muslim nations "for their own good" works out; you truly don't.

So evidently Voltaire went through an extremely anti-Semitic phase after his run-in with a Jewish financier in Berlin*, wrote some terrible things about Jews, then eventually decided he was an Enlightenment philosopher and allowed himself to be convinced that Jews should be taken on an individual basis like anyone else, but, at least according to Wikipedia, never got around to editing the anti-Semitism out of his works.

* This was the shady financial dealing that cast the first cloud over paradise during his early 1750s stay with Fritz. The reaction of all the anti-Semites around Voltaire was basically, "Wow, Voltaire just outswindled a Jew because he's the bigger crook of the two. That's impressive. In a totally terrible way, Voltaire."

Voltaire: This is all Maupertuis' fault. And also the Jews', I'm sure. [Yes. He blamed Maupertuis for convincing the Jewish financier to take him to court. Whether we have the least bit of evidence for this, idk, but Voltaire was apparently being incredibly shady and deserved to be taken to court, and also Voltaire won, but still. It's all proof that Maupertuis is terrible and Jews are terrible.]

Marriage

[mildred_of_midgard]

So remember when I speculated that Fritz may not have gotten upset with Fredersdorf for getting married because Fredersdorf was smart enough to present it as a nursing opportunity from the get-go?

I just saw his general Seydlitz doing the same thing, in 1760: "Your Majesty,—I pray most devotedly that you will give your permission that I may marry the youthful Countess of Hacke, on the day preceding that on which I take my departure hence to join the army. Not to be entirely subjected to servants, if I should be wounded at a future time, is one of the motives which causes me to venture to lay this petition before your Majesty."

I wonder if Fritz ever caught on? Or if it seemed reasonable to him that the only reason you'd want a woman around is in case you've been wounded in battle?

Seydlitz, btw, seems extremely het in the 19th century bio I have; whether that actually means he was bi, idk, but love affairs with women seem to be a thing for him (a thing that the author, who evidently much prefers manly chaste Prussians, laments). At any rate, where I was going with this was that he does not seem like the kind of person who gets married only to have a nurse. Which is not to say that womanizers don't have marriages of convenience and a lot of mistresses on the side, but I suspect some managing of Fritz here.

Re: Marriage

[selenak]

I suspect some managing of Fritz here.

I suspect you're right, though Fritz himself was an eager marriage arranger if it was a) for political benefits to Prussia/himself, b) as a psychological power play with his younger brother, or c) to enrich the Katte family.

If Seydlitz didn't fall into any of those categories, "I'm gonna need a nurse who is not a servant" is as good an excuse as any, and I'm pretty sure Fredersdorf followed the same policy. (Incidentally, for all that Lehndorff snips about Mrs. Fredersdorf getting engaged/married repeatedly according to gossip, in actual fact her remarriage didn't stop her from attending to her first husband's memory. Since she was the one with the money (being a banker's daughter) and husband no.2 (also a chamberlain of Fritz') was the one getting enobled, pretty much the sole reason why she should have cared about the burial place, making donatations and charities in his name etc. for future decades would be because she was fond of goold old Fredersdorf. Doesn't mean they need to have been romantically in love, but it argues for at least some friendly affection.)

[mildred_of_midgard]

I almost hope this post doesn't get much action

I like how the fact that it didn't means that it "only" got 120 comments!