Frederick the Great discussion post 9

[cahn]

...I leave you guys alone for one weekend and it's time for a new Fritz post, lol!

I'm gonna reply to the previous post comments but I guess new letter-reading, etc. should go in this one :)

Frederick the Great links

Comments

Re: Fritz and Wilhelmine Correspondance, Trier Version - I: Greek myths and living Italians

[selenak]

Calming Dad down, possibly; passing on information, possibly; asking for favors or even money, possibly.

*Nods* Sounds all plausible. You know, it would be really interesting to make a study of the varying ways FW & SD impacted their children. Fritz and Wilhelmine have the most overt damage, both as the oldest (i.e. most exposure), and Ferdinand as the youngest the least, but the ones in between offer a lot of varation. AW had a positive feedback loop with FW, but this being used from early days (read: toddler made to ask for soldier not to be hanged seems to have left him with the conviction it was his job and responsibility to achieve family harmony. (Not, say, SD's, as opposed to the cliché of the mother as the reconciliator. Note that when Fritz and Wilhelmine have their fallout, SD immediately and unhesitatingly sides with Fritz and writes angry "repent, you foolish girl!" missives to Bayreuth.)

Mysterious "innocent" things said by Algarotti misconstrued or magnified by Fritz: Gossipy sensationalists need to know!

Absolutely! We don't suppose Fritz had Algarotti's personal mail read, do we? (Because of the "the worst road: the road back to Prussia" remark in 1747.)

BTW, just recalled that while Fredersdorf does not comment on the ongoing Voltaire desaster at all, he does point out to Fritz Algarotti hasn't cashed in his Prussian Chamberlain salary, so probably does not intend to come back after Algarotti's (as it turns out) final Departure.

It's a rare example of Fritz putting himself in someone else's shoes, realizing they have needs

True. I also can't help but observe that Theseus eventually makes it out of the underworld. Pirithous remains trapped. Fritz the Galley slave again?

Re: Fritz and Wilhelmine Correspondance, Trier Version - I: Greek myths and living Italians

[mildred_of_midgard]

AW had a positive feedback loop with FW, but this being used from early days (read: toddler made to ask for soldier not to be hanged seems to have left him with the conviction it was his job and responsibility to achieve family harmony.

This is an excellent point. As you point out, the position was open!

We don't suppose Fritz had Algarotti's personal mail read, do we? (Because of the "the worst road: the road back to Prussia" remark in 1747.)

Oooh. I mean, it was quite normal for mail to be opened and read by several royal spies on its way to its recipient, is my impression of the 18th century. Voltaire complains that when he gets Fritz's poem on the Rossbach disaster, he can tell it's been opened, and he's furious at Fritz because people are going to think that he, Voltaire, had something to do with this poem.

Crackfic Fredersdorf: I can see how you might accidentally end up in bed with Voltaire thinking he was your boss. :P

But did Fritz have Algarotti's mail read? I don't know. While Fritz of course had spies at foreign courts (and I swear I read somewhere that he was spying on his own court), I never got the impression he had a particularly impressive spy network and he was often caught off guard by events. Largely, if you ask me, because his MO was always "isolate, entrench, and fight" not "take other people into account."

Maybe Ulrike had Algarotti's mail read, though, you think?

I also can't help but observe that Theseus eventually makes it out of the underworld. Pirithous remains trapped. Fritz the Galley slave again?

:-(

Oh, Fritz. (The only one enslaving you is you! Come on, you can do it. Cast off those chains!)