I trust Orieux to know his stuff in French history more than Bodanis.
I trust Bodanis to know pretty much nothing. Though I have to say, I grabbed the first Voltaire bio I could find on Kindle, by Ian Davidson, and wow, he hates on Émilie, and he thinks Bentinck scored with Heinrich! (And Fritz was upset about that.) So I now think there are worse things than Bodanis. (Davidson is still useful for providing dates in footnotes, which I'm planning to work into the chronology as time and health allow.)
Semi-unrelated, since I mentioned Peter Keith elsewhere in this thread as a Fritzian boyfriend for whom we have some documentary evidence for sex (the only such boyfriend now that I'm leaning toward putains for Algarotti), and if my admittedly flimsy case is correct...it would make a lot of sense if the boys tried to downplay it as "masturbation practical demo and technique sharing between two totally het randy young men," because this would account for:
1) How it took FW 18 years to discover apparently through experience* that your son might commit masturbation if left to his own devices. 2) Why Peter got off so easy as to get a promotion to lieutenant (in an obscure regiment as far away as possible) instead of a cashiering for sodomy.
Ahhh. I'd been trying to remember where I read online that Fritz was sent to Wusterhausen to "repent of his sins" when Peter was sent away. English Wikipedia, Fritz article, of course, and the source cited is 1929 biographer Goldsmith. Now, I love her because she openly ships Fritz/Katte like whoa (like I wish she were alive today to post stuff on AO3), but I also hate her because she doesn't provide sources.
Ooh, now that I've opened my copy, I see that she dates it to September 1728. Which, thanks to Kloosterhuis, we know is wrong, but explains where all the fanfic with that dating comes from (including my own, pre-Kloosterhuis). I really think the archivist guy was the first one to step outside Wilhelmine's memoirs and figure out the real chronology.
Anyway, per FW's order with the later kids, "sins" in his mind could just as easily include "masturbation" and bawdy talk with Peter as open sodomy. Now, *we* know Fritz and Peter were totally getting it on, but of course they talked fast and convincingly when caught. Headcanon!
And if you wonder whether FW would fall for this...he's the father who apparently thought that the guy who wasn't interested in women was the perfect role model and sexual warden for his younger sons! (And he was, just not in the way FW intended. I'm so glad Heinrich had him, though.)
* Remember, it was only in 1731 that a royal edict went out against lending money to minors of the royal family. And it's not like FW hadn't known about Fritz's money-spending habits before the big escape attempt and trial. He was like, "Don't do it again." And then Fritz did it again.
So while on the one hand FW believed Fritz was the worst, I think specifics kept taking him by surprise. And masturbation might have been one of those.
Re: The STD thread
I trust Bodanis to know pretty much nothing. Though I have to say, I grabbed the first Voltaire bio I could find on Kindle, by Ian Davidson, and wow, he hates on Émilie, and he thinks Bentinck scored with Heinrich! (And Fritz was upset about that.) So I now think there are worse things than Bodanis. (Davidson is still useful for providing dates in footnotes, which I'm planning to work into the chronology as time and health allow.)
Semi-unrelated, since I mentioned Peter Keith elsewhere in this thread as a Fritzian boyfriend for whom we have some documentary evidence for sex (the only such boyfriend now that I'm leaning toward putains for Algarotti), and if my admittedly flimsy case is correct...it would make a lot of sense if the boys tried to downplay it as "masturbation practical demo and technique sharing between two totally het randy young men," because this would account for:
1) How it took FW 18 years to discover apparently through experience* that your son might commit masturbation if left to his own devices.
2) Why Peter got off so easy as to get a promotion to lieutenant (in an obscure regiment as far away as possible) instead of a cashiering for sodomy.
Ahhh. I'd been trying to remember where I read online that Fritz was sent to Wusterhausen to "repent of his sins" when Peter was sent away. English Wikipedia, Fritz article, of course, and the source cited is 1929 biographer Goldsmith. Now, I love her because she openly ships Fritz/Katte like whoa (like I wish she were alive today to post stuff on AO3), but I also hate her because she doesn't provide sources.
Ooh, now that I've opened my copy, I see that she dates it to September 1728. Which, thanks to Kloosterhuis, we know is wrong, but explains where all the fanfic with that dating comes from (including my own, pre-Kloosterhuis). I really think the archivist guy was the first one to step outside Wilhelmine's memoirs and figure out the real chronology.
Anyway, per FW's order with the later kids, "sins" in his mind could just as easily include "masturbation" and bawdy talk with Peter as open sodomy. Now, *we* know Fritz and Peter were totally getting it on, but of course they talked fast and convincingly when caught. Headcanon!
And if you wonder whether FW would fall for this...he's the father who apparently thought that the guy who wasn't interested in women was the perfect role model and sexual warden for his younger sons! (And he was, just not in the way FW intended. I'm so glad Heinrich had him, though.)
* Remember, it was only in 1731 that a royal edict went out against lending money to minors of the royal family. And it's not like FW hadn't known about Fritz's money-spending habits before the big escape attempt and trial. He was like, "Don't do it again." And then Fritz did it again.
So while on the one hand FW believed Fritz was the worst, I think specifics kept taking him by surprise. And masturbation might have been one of those.