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

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.)

Re: Marriage

[mildred_of_midgard]

I think the key with Fritz is that you're supposed to get married because you *have* to (e.g. he makes you), never because you *want* to. (No projection of personal traumas there, no sirree.) So if you're getting married and nobody's making you, you'd better have a reason.

Agree: re Mrs. Fredersdorf, and I'm glad Fredersdorf had some friendly affection in his last days.

Re: Marriage

[cahn]

ahahahaha, I'm just imagining all the Prussian generals and staff exchanging continual gossip on how to handle Fritz. "So if he falls off his horse... don't say anything... and if you want to get married, tell him it's because you need a nurse. He's OK with that."

Re: Marriage

[mildred_of_midgard]

You know, this is survival mode when you've got a domineering, short-tempered boss!

So if he falls off his horse... don't say anything

If I'm recalling correctly, this happened when he was a teenager, on parade during a review, and FW beat him for it. I can imagine it's a trigger later on. :/