I don't know how she felt about Suhm or Fredersdorf (I find it possibly telling that Fritz doesn't write to her about Fredersdorf, even with the class differences), but I think Algarotti's the only other boyfriend we know that she liked.
Ah, but then everyone (except Lehndorff) liked Algarotti! Whereas decidedly not everyone liked Voltaire. I can think of something Voltaire and Algarotti have in common, though, to wit, the reason why I cast them both as cats. Neither guy is going to settle down with Fritz for good. They're intermittently living together, long-distance loves. Peter Keith and Katte come into Fritz' life when he's moved out out of the female sphere to the male one at court where Wilhelme can't follow him. Whereas Peter and Katte can hang out with him all day (in theory, baring FW, but you know what I mean). Fredersdorf is the one who actually gets to live with Fritz, as in live in the next room, be with him always when Fritz isn't campaigning or Fredersdorf isn't on business travels. (Including one to Paris as we now know. Presumably he took a translator with him?) Voltaire, even if the big explosion hadn't happened, wasn't likely to do that.
Incidentally, if Voltaire was on "tu" terms with Wilhelmine's daughter, it makes the two of them having a good cry about Wilhelmine as mentioned in Fritz' letter in the correspondance (you know, the one with "greetings and letters do not replace Voltaire if one has once had him in persona" in it) less likely to have been a courtly convenience and more likely to have been carried by real emotion.
Re: From our Parisian Correspondant in Sanssouci: Extra, extra!
Ah, but then everyone (except Lehndorff) liked Algarotti! Whereas decidedly not everyone liked Voltaire. I can think of something Voltaire and Algarotti have in common, though, to wit, the reason why I cast them both as cats. Neither guy is going to settle down with Fritz for good. They're intermittently living together, long-distance loves. Peter Keith and Katte come into Fritz' life when he's moved out out of the female sphere to the male one at court where Wilhelme can't follow him. Whereas Peter and Katte can hang out with him all day (in theory, baring FW, but you know what I mean). Fredersdorf is the one who actually gets to live with Fritz, as in live in the next room, be with him always when Fritz isn't campaigning or Fredersdorf isn't on business travels. (Including one to Paris as we now know. Presumably he took a translator with him?) Voltaire, even if the big explosion hadn't happened, wasn't likely to do that.
Incidentally, if Voltaire was on "tu" terms with Wilhelmine's daughter, it makes the two of them having a good cry about Wilhelmine as mentioned in Fritz' letter in the correspondance (you know, the one with "greetings and letters do not replace Voltaire if one has once had him in persona" in it) less likely to have been a courtly convenience and more likely to have been carried by real emotion.