Frederick the Great, discussion post 16

[cahn]

We have slowed down a lot, but are still (sporadically) going! And somehow filled up the last post while I wasn't looking!

...I was asked to start a new thread so that STDs could be discussed. Really! :D

Comments

Re: AW readthrough

[selenak]

Well, remember during the cashiering, Fritz says that AW may be fit to command a harem, but not troops. If you ask me, he used AW's heterosexuality and sex drive as a weapon to keep him in his place, i.e. Erzeuger1 of the continuation of the Hohenzollern line, not an actual viable rallying point for an alternative to Fritz as ruler.

Lehndorff agrees with you, because that harem jibe made it to Berlin, or rather Magdeburg, where he writes in an entry dated November 7th (1757) about how Heinrich's page has arrived at court and has reassured everyone Heinrich's wound was harmless (remember, this is post Roßbach and Lehndorff has been a bit salty about Mina fainting at the news Heinrich was wounded), and that Fritz has promoted Heinrich to top boss in Saxony. But also, Lehndorff continues:
"At the same time, I am inconsolable not just to hear about the sad state of health of the Prince of Prussia, but also of all the grief that has come to him. After that unfortunate Bohemian march and the burning of Zittau, fortune seems to have left him entirely, which is all the more regrettable since he put his all into wanting to serve and earn glory. The King knows his weak spot and taunts him with writing him that he's evidently only fit to command a harem, not an army. He became ill, went to Dresden, then Torgau, then Wittenberg, finally to Lepzig."

Now, presumably Lehndorff either learned this from Heinrich's page, or via a letter the page brought from Heinrich (currently in Leipzig with AW), or even a letter from AW himself. But either way, it's telling that of all the jibes in Fritz' letters of that time, the "the only thing you're good for is sex" seems to have struck hardest. (Or at least Lehndorff thinks it did.)

"have inordinate pride over" is the correct translation, btw.

What if that one kid of yours dies? Get fucking!

See, this is why I'm loving the apocryphal story about Elisabeth's reaction to a similar Fritz command so much. (And am without pity for George Keith, if it was him who brought the command.)

Re: AW readthrough

[mildred_of_midgard]

But either way, it's telling that of all the jibes in Fritz' letters of that time, the "the only thing you're good for is sex" seems to have struck hardest. (Or at least Lehndorff thinks it did.)

Yeah. :/ Unfortunately, unlike (parts of) his bad condolence letters, I don't think the part that cahn reacted to was just lack of emotional intelligence: I suspect this one was very deliberate.

See, this is why I'm loving the apocryphal story about Elisabeth's reaction to a similar Fritz command so much. (And am without pity for George Keith, if it was him who brought the command.)

I so hope that story was real. You go, Messalina!