selenak: (Default)
selenak ([personal profile] selenak) wrote in [personal profile] cahn 2020-02-04 11:06 am (UTC)

Re: But what is really going on here?: The Austrian Dossier (Seckendorff III)

Haha! It would only work if Fredersdorf were super reluctant and only willing to make the great sacrifice for his prince. But even then, Fritz would have to propose it, and...no.

Gustav: whereas I had no problem getting myself obeyed in that department. Sure, my guy put everything in writing and had it deposed to the Swedish Academy, so the entire world eventually found out, and sure, Mom hit the roof when brother Charles told her about it, but hey! An heir was had!

SD's fertility contributing to Fritz coming quickly to the conclusion that EC isn't fertile and hence he's not obliged to try anymore: Sounds very likely! And you know, they're not the Habsburgs, but the Hohenzollerns of Fritz' generation otherwise procreated quickly if they tried. Wilhelmine got pregnant in her first year of marriage, same with the other sisters, AW might have been a negligent and indifferent husband to Louise but the first two kids happened quickly, and then the later two with a gap but still, they happened. Ferdinand/his niece produced offspring, too. So Friedrich and Heinrich being the two exceptions from the "marry, multiply" rule rather points to the obvious element in common as the reason...

By which I don't mean the gayness - that never stopped Philippe D'Orleans from getting both of his wives pregnant multiple times, even though not all kids survived - but the stubborn " you can make me marry her, Dad/Fritz, but you can't make me have sex with her!" attitude.

feel like it's the act of non-procreative-and-church-authorized sex that's the problem, not the baby-making per se. I mean, masturbation is also off the table, and we have the Biblical "he who lusts in his heart after a woman is guilty of adultery" prohibition that I feel that FW totally bought into, and the idea that chasing women makes you not only a sinner but effeminate and weak and likely to spend money on them, all of which I feel were a bigger deal to FW than any inadvertent babies.

Yes. He doesn't seem to have been worried Fritz would inflict lots of bastards on the royal line even when thinking Fritz/poor Doris Ritter were an item. He had that midwife test her for virginity, not pregnancy. Also WHORES. Both FW and his son had a lot to say about men being ruled by same - meaning usually, but not exclusively Louis XV. With FW, "no whores!" is on the Opening paragraph of the Political Testament. With Fritz, of course, some of the Catt (memoirs) quotes are now suspicious, but I just read, courtesy of Mildred' algorithm, in the diary:

page 406:   His Majesty was very tired. We talked about Berlin and the way of life. I let many things pass. There is a lot of coquetry, he tells me, among the great world. I say to them one day: Ladies, you do what we do everywhere; but do try a little more decency. I do not say anything. I tolerate these intrigues if they are a result of passion; but when it's out of interest, it's awful. I prefer one who pays, than one who is paid. I have often said to husbands who came to complain: You are doing something stupid, it will be disclosed.

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