Daughters were a different species and he never expected them to be like himself.
Exactly. Much like the SD-Wilhelmine dynamic, vs. SD and Fritz.
AW as toddler had just enough similarities for FW to believe that this was finally the kid he'd wanted to have all along, to wit, he enjoyed playing with soldiers and canons, he liked sports - to overlook that actually, their tempers couldn't be more differently.
FW *definitely* latched onto superficials here. I mean, the kid that you're worried about being soft and effeminate is sticking to his guns in the face of increasing pain, humiliation, and fear of death. If that isn't a will of iron, I don't know what is.
And FW really was sentimental about the whole family concept, perhaps precisely because h'd been an only child. He wanted an adoring wife and many children surrounding him. So I don't think he'd been emotionally capable of, say, practically banishing his mother if Sophie Charlotte had lived, or forbidding his children to visit her.
Oh, very true, and good point.
I really have no idea how he'd have responded to her encouraging the grandkids culturally. Because as opposed to his wife, him trying to forbid her to do this would presumably just have resulted in a raised eyebrow and her doing it anyway. She definitely would not have felt threatened or intimdated, because he had no social power over her.
That is really interesting. But suppose it weren't FW, but someone less into respecting their parents. What would the actual consequences have been if he'd decided to physically keep his kids away from her and say that they were only allowed to carry out their military duties, attend church, and study the administration and smattering of history that he authorized? Because there's de jure power, and then there's de facto power. Who's on her side if he locks the kids away from her?
I guess it's the same as my question of "If Fritz had divorced EC, who would have *made* him get married again?"
Even today, at least in the US, parents have the right to keep their kids away from the grandparents, short of a court order (how that works depends on the state). I don't know about Germany.
But I agree with you that FW's personality would have led him to have a great deal of trouble defying Mom's wishes, in much the same way as he gave Dad the lavish funeral before beginning the reign of austerity. And I don't know how that would have played out in this AU.
Maybe it would have worked out better for poor Fritz and Wilhelmine. :(
what would SD have done? Because she wasn't a good mother-in-law even when it was no question of her oldest daughter-in-law being her rival, even when Fritz had made it clear from the get go she was the true first lady of Prussia. This was not a woman easily putting up with competition for the Queen spot. And Sophie Charlotte wouldn't just have been any Queen Mother.
In short, it would be like competing with royal glamour personified, while simultanously your husband starts his austerity program.
Oh, man. But Sophie Charlotte's presumably behind the English marriage, right? Is it possible they just become allies in the face of FW's crazy, and SC makes it so SD can have more glamor at her own court?
she wasn't a good mother-in-law even when it was no question of her oldest daughter-in-law being her rival, even when Fritz had made it clear from the get go she was the true first lady of Prussia.
How much of that was because she despised her daughters-in-law, though? How would she have reacted to Mina as Fritz's wife? (Not a rhetorical question.)
(I'm still not over adult AW in 1744, writing his "my life so far" retrospective for his newborn son, regarding four years old Heinrich moving in with him as the big event of 1730.)
I got to that yesterday, and I'm glad you prepared me, because that was really something else! And she does actually say that he doesn't mention either Ferdinand's birth or Fritz's escape and imprisonment. It's not just that she didn't quote them for us, which I think had been a point of doubt before.
Re: AW readthrough
Exactly. Much like the SD-Wilhelmine dynamic, vs. SD and Fritz.
AW as toddler had just enough similarities for FW to believe that this was finally the kid he'd wanted to have all along, to wit, he enjoyed playing with soldiers and canons, he liked sports - to overlook that actually, their tempers couldn't be more differently.
FW *definitely* latched onto superficials here. I mean, the kid that you're worried about being soft and effeminate is sticking to his guns in the face of increasing pain, humiliation, and fear of death. If that isn't a will of iron, I don't know what is.
And FW really was sentimental about the whole family concept, perhaps precisely because h'd been an only child. He wanted an adoring wife and many children surrounding him. So I don't think he'd been emotionally capable of, say, practically banishing his mother if Sophie Charlotte had lived, or forbidding his children to visit her.
Oh, very true, and good point.
I really have no idea how he'd have responded to her encouraging the grandkids culturally. Because as opposed to his wife, him trying to forbid her to do this would presumably just have resulted in a raised eyebrow and her doing it anyway. She definitely would not have felt threatened or intimdated, because he had no social power over her.
That is really interesting. But suppose it weren't FW, but someone less into respecting their parents. What would the actual consequences have been if he'd decided to physically keep his kids away from her and say that they were only allowed to carry out their military duties, attend church, and study the administration and smattering of history that he authorized? Because there's de jure power, and then there's de facto power. Who's on her side if he locks the kids away from her?
I guess it's the same as my question of "If Fritz had divorced EC, who would have *made* him get married again?"
Even today, at least in the US, parents have the right to keep their kids away from the grandparents, short of a court order (how that works depends on the state). I don't know about Germany.
But I agree with you that FW's personality would have led him to have a great deal of trouble defying Mom's wishes, in much the same way as he gave Dad the lavish funeral before beginning the reign of austerity. And I don't know how that would have played out in this AU.
Maybe it would have worked out better for poor Fritz and Wilhelmine. :(
what would SD have done? Because she wasn't a good mother-in-law even when it was no question of her oldest daughter-in-law being her rival, even when Fritz had made it clear from the get go she was the true first lady of Prussia. This was not a woman easily putting up with competition for the Queen spot. And Sophie Charlotte wouldn't just have been any Queen Mother.
In short, it would be like competing with royal glamour personified, while simultanously your husband starts his austerity program.
Oh, man. But Sophie Charlotte's presumably behind the English marriage, right? Is it possible they just become allies in the face of FW's crazy, and SC makes it so SD can have more glamor at her own court?
she wasn't a good mother-in-law even when it was no question of her oldest daughter-in-law being her rival, even when Fritz had made it clear from the get go she was the true first lady of Prussia.
How much of that was because she despised her daughters-in-law, though? How would she have reacted to Mina as Fritz's wife? (Not a rhetorical question.)
(I'm still not over adult AW in 1744, writing his "my life so far" retrospective for his newborn son, regarding four years old Heinrich moving in with him as the big event of 1730.)
I got to that yesterday, and I'm glad you prepared me, because that was really something else! And she does actually say that he doesn't mention either Ferdinand's birth or Fritz's escape and imprisonment. It's not just that she didn't quote them for us, which I think had been a point of doubt before.