Frederick the Great discussion post 12

[cahn]

Every time I am amazed and enchanted that this is still going on! Truly DW is the Earthly Paradise!

All the good stuff continues to be archived at rheinsberg :)

Comments

Re: The Lehndorff Report: We didn't start the fire! (1778 - 1780)

[cahn]

But enough about Heinrich's love life. On to politics!

lolololol. Are we ever really done with Heinrich's love life? :D

Though on the other hand, he could be, or at the very least torn. He is restless, he knows he's good at war, and like all of FW's kids, he believes in being useful. Then again, he probably imagines, like MT at the same time in Vienna, what a disaster another bloody war would be for everyone involved and shudders.

Yeah, like you guys, I can see mixed feelings making a lot of sense. Like he really doesn't want another war, but he knows he'd do well in one.

This is a great passage for illustrating the generational difference and the ongoing cultural shift in the German states

Thank you for this commentary -- it's really cool to be able to read this in context (and since I'm used to thinking of Lehndorff as a clueless 19-year-old, it's interesting to shift my view of him to an older guy in his 50's).

"I’m glad my sisters aren’t foreign princesses, for otherwise I’d have gotten in the position of having to marry one of them."

LOL.
Fritz: Whereas if Wilhelmine were a foreign princess, that would have solved a lot!

I do find it interesting that Prussian gossip about Voltaire’s death picks this, and not the question of whether or not he repented, or his arguments with the priests who tried a deathed confession out of him, which is the direct opposite of the gossip as recorded by the Duc de Croy in Paris.

So I wonder if this is partially Catholic vs. Protestant and partially Lehndorff just being uninterested? Like, as far as I know, confession specifically to a priest/pastor is a rather bigger deal in Catholicism than in Protestantism (though wikipedia tells me that prior to the nineteenth century it was more of a thing). Also, I mean, I know we're getting a highly curated version, but our man L. doesn't seem to be particularly invested in theological questions :)

Re: The Lehndorff Report: We didn't start the fire! (1778 - 1780)

[mildred_of_midgard]

Fritz: Whereas if Wilhelmine were a foreign princess, that would have solved a lot!

You know, my reaction to SD looking in the Mirror of Erised and seeing, "not Wilhelmine getting crowned as Queen of England, [but] Fritz getting crowned as King of England somehow while his proud mother watches," was:

Fritz and Wilhelmine: Why not both, Mom? Why not both. :D

Re: The Lehndorff Report: We didn't start the fire! (1778 - 1780)

[selenak]

Fritz and Wilhelmine as ancient Egyptian Royalty: would not have had a problem with this concept at all.