I mean, insinuating that the king is a bottom, and a bottom for his social inferiors, is WAY more slanderous than insinuating that he pets some pretty boys.
True and true in the best classical tradition. I mean, if you wanted to slander a political opponent in Rome you didn‘t just insinuate he was getting it on with men, that wasn‘t negative per se, but that he was getting topped by social inferiors. (Or non-Romans.) (Or both and by women - hardcore mode of trash talk!)
(See also Cicero about Mark Antony. Now there‘s a Roman Fritz would not have cared to be compared to.)
I absolutely believe Fritz was getting off, figuratively and/or literally, on the idea of having charismatic pretty boys at his disposal
We have another concensus. :)
Which contemporaries? Lehndorff (or his sources)? Gossipy sensationalists demand quotes!
I was extrapolating from comments like that of the Marquis de Bombelles, who writes when Heinrich is visiting Paris for the first time: This Prince whom one had assumed to be just the willing toy of his favourites now appears in France as an imposing, brilliant personality. His repliques show his intelligence, dignity and common sense while he also asks witty and persistent questions.
„Willing toy“ doesn‘t have to be a sexual position assumption, of course, but it could be, given the climate of the day.
(BTW, another Frenchman, Count Ségur, on the same occasion - Heinrich‘s first visit to France - sums up what I meant in an earlier reply to Iberiandoctor about first impressions based on looks vs personality: His enchanting conversation and his amiable nature soon won him everyone‘s love. When one talked with him one soon forgot his unimpressive height, and the disagreeableness of his face which at first even looked repellent. His mind ennobled his body, and soon one only noticed the great man and the most charming of humans.)
As for Lehndorff, what do you take him for? He would never get into this much detail about the most adorable of princes. Seriously now, when he‘s angry or eye-rolling about Heinrich and boyfriend du jour, the most he says is that „X had a pretty face, so of course the prince fell for him“ or makes the terse comment that everyone had to hear what a genius, say, Mara was when Heinrich was aflame, but he doesn‘t make physical insinuations. Re: his own physical interactions with Heinrich,i.e. the benefits part of friends with benefits, it doesn‘t get more detailed than „embraced me tenderly“ or the „Polterabend/Stag Night“ entry about Heinrich coming home with him to his old flat where they celebrated stag night and then went on to his new flat, and since the two of the are the only ones doing the celebrating and we get in the same entry a sentence like „ My heart feels the whole height of this pleasure as I haven't been able to enjoy it for such a long time“, at a point where he’s seeing Heinrich practically daily in terms of social interactions, well, this reader assumes they did a bit more than tenderly embrace. Another occasion where I‘m pretty sure something happened is in the 7 years war when he hasn‘t seen Heinrich for two years due to the war and mentions not leaving him until he‘s fallen asleep. Maybe they did just talk each other‘s ears off, of course, but despite having his then boyfriend Kalkreuth as trusted lieutenant with him and Lehndorff being a married man by then, I suspect Lehndorff the civilian and reminder of a life beyond the battlefield, no to mention Lehndorff the fellow mourner for AW and provider of constant affection since about a decade would have been someone Heinrich reached out physically on that occasion. As for Lehndorff, it‘s Heinrich. And a Heinrich now endowed with a new heroic reputation, - Lehndorff at one point goes a bit hipster - I loved him already when the lot of you were gossipping about his various boyfriends - when the court starts to talk about Heinrich‘s battle heroics ca. 1757/1758. Sorry, Mrs. Lehndorff, but not only do I doubt he‘d have said no, but I also think he might have been eager to assert a claim there.
Mind you, as opposed to the rough trade boyfriends I don‘t think Heinrich usually went for penetrative sex with Lehndorff, and that that whatever sexual elements their relationship had were mostly kissing, blow jobs plus petting. But on those two specific occasions? Mutual topping, i.e. switching, is my head canon.
Re: Toppings of all types, continued
True and true in the best classical tradition. I mean, if you wanted to slander a political opponent in Rome you didn‘t just insinuate he was getting it on with men, that wasn‘t negative per se, but that he was getting topped by social inferiors. (Or non-Romans.) (Or both and by women - hardcore mode of trash talk!)
(See also Cicero about Mark Antony. Now there‘s a Roman Fritz would not have cared to be compared to.)
I absolutely believe Fritz was getting off, figuratively and/or literally, on the idea of having charismatic pretty boys at his disposal
We have another concensus. :)
Which contemporaries? Lehndorff (or his sources)? Gossipy sensationalists demand quotes!
I was extrapolating from comments like that of the Marquis de Bombelles, who writes when Heinrich is visiting Paris for the first time: This Prince whom one had assumed to be just the willing toy of his favourites now appears in France as an imposing, brilliant personality. His repliques show his intelligence, dignity and common sense while he also asks witty and persistent questions.
„Willing toy“ doesn‘t have to be a sexual position assumption, of course, but it could be, given the climate of the day.
(BTW, another Frenchman, Count Ségur, on the same occasion - Heinrich‘s first visit to France - sums up what I meant in an earlier reply to Iberiandoctor about first impressions based on looks vs personality: His enchanting conversation and his amiable nature soon won him everyone‘s love. When one talked with him one soon forgot his unimpressive height, and the disagreeableness of his face which at first even looked repellent. His mind ennobled his body, and soon one only noticed the great man and the most charming of humans.)
As for Lehndorff, what do you take him for? He would never get into this much detail about the most adorable of princes. Seriously now, when he‘s angry or eye-rolling about Heinrich and boyfriend du jour, the most he says is that „X had a pretty face, so of course the prince fell for him“ or makes the terse comment that everyone had to hear what a genius, say, Mara was when Heinrich was aflame, but he doesn‘t make physical insinuations. Re: his own physical interactions with Heinrich,i.e. the benefits part of friends with benefits, it doesn‘t get more detailed than „embraced me tenderly“ or the „Polterabend/Stag Night“ entry about Heinrich coming home with him to his old flat where they celebrated stag night and then went on to his new flat, and since the two of the are the only ones doing the celebrating and we get in the same entry a sentence like „ My heart feels the whole height of this pleasure as I haven't been able to enjoy it for such a long time“, at a point where he’s seeing Heinrich practically daily in terms of social interactions, well, this reader assumes they did a bit more than tenderly embrace. Another occasion where I‘m pretty sure something happened is in the 7 years war when he hasn‘t seen Heinrich for two years due to the war and mentions not leaving him until he‘s fallen asleep. Maybe they did just talk each other‘s ears off, of course, but despite having his then boyfriend Kalkreuth as trusted lieutenant with him and Lehndorff being a married man by then, I suspect Lehndorff the civilian and reminder of a life beyond the battlefield, no to mention Lehndorff the fellow mourner for AW and provider of constant affection since about a decade would have been someone Heinrich reached out physically on that occasion. As for Lehndorff, it‘s Heinrich. And a Heinrich now endowed with a new heroic reputation, - Lehndorff at one point goes a bit hipster - I loved him already when the lot of you were gossipping about his various boyfriends - when the court starts to talk about Heinrich‘s battle heroics ca. 1757/1758. Sorry, Mrs. Lehndorff, but not only do I doubt he‘d have said no, but I also think he might have been eager to assert a claim there.
Mind you, as opposed to the rough trade boyfriends I don‘t think Heinrich usually went for penetrative sex with Lehndorff, and that that whatever sexual elements their relationship had were mostly kissing, blow jobs plus petting. But on those two specific occasions? Mutual topping, i.e. switching, is my head canon.