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.)
Sorry, I'm lost -- remind me?
Yeah. :/ Unfortunately, unlike (parts of) his bad condolence letters, I don't think the part that [personal profile] cahn reacted to was just lack of emotional intelligence: I suspect this one was very deliberate.
Yes, I think it must have been deliberate; the condolence letters do read to me like someone who was just thinking of himself rather than others, but Fritz wasn't emotionally stupid, and there is no way he could have missed how this was going to come off to AW. WOW.
The one fascinating exception I can think of is Richelieu...
Most other men (and a few women) of power, though, seem to have suffered from that syndrome described in Robert Graves' "I, Claudius", where successive emperors are absolutely on board with appointing someone they know to be worse as their successor because it'll make them look better in the eyes of posterity instead of them being outshone.
Wow, this is really interesting! Both that it's such a common problem and that Richelieu was the exception (which I didn't know). We're nominating him for Yuletide, right? Do you have any thoughts on why he was an exception?
Also I need to read I, Claudius again. I read it in... high school or college? A really long time ago, and have forgotten everything about it.
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Replies from last post
Date: 2020-09-03 05:09 am (UTC)Sorry, I'm lost -- remind me?
Yeah. :/ Unfortunately, unlike (parts of) his bad condolence letters, I don't think the part that [personal profile] cahn reacted to was just lack of emotional intelligence: I suspect this one was very deliberate.
Yes, I think it must have been deliberate; the condolence letters do read to me like someone who was just thinking of himself rather than others, but Fritz wasn't emotionally stupid, and there is no way he could have missed how this was going to come off to AW. WOW.
The one fascinating exception I can think of is Richelieu...
Most other men (and a few women) of power, though, seem to have suffered from that syndrome described in Robert Graves' "I, Claudius", where successive emperors are absolutely on board with appointing someone they know to be worse as their successor because it'll make them look better in the eyes of posterity instead of them being outshone.
Wow, this is really interesting! Both that it's such a common problem and that Richelieu was the exception (which I didn't know). We're nominating him for Yuletide, right? Do you have any thoughts on why he was an exception?
Also I need to read I, Claudius again. I read it in... high school or college? A really long time ago, and have forgotten everything about it.