Otoh: there's actually a Fritz letter to Wilhelmine from Küstrin saying "if they tell you your marriage would make things better for me, don't believe it", so if Fritz in Küstrin refutes that, he must have heard about it (from Wilhelmine?), or must have correctly worked out how his Dad's mind works.
Oh, I'd forgotten that! Is that the poem that wasn't in Trier?
There's also the fact Fritz was produced at Wilhelmine's wedding, if rather late into same. To me this looks like FW assuaging his conscience, because he now can tell himself he didn't lie to his daughter, he kept his promise, literally; Fritz was released at her wedding. (He hadn't promised Fritz wouldn't have to go back.)
That's *exactly* where I went with "Heaven":
their father said he would let Friedrich out if she did. Then he played word games and pretended he'd only meant he'd let the Prince attend the wedding, then go right back to Küstrin.
(Otoh I can see Wilhelmine in the spring of 1731 thinking he's being noble and that's why he denies it would make things better.)
</3 </3 </3 :-(
Especially since I think in both cases - Fritz and SD - this is about punishing Wilhelmine, not for anything they think Sonsine has or hasn't condoned. They knew Wilhelmine loved her.
Oh, yeah. That has to be what it's about. (That's what I assumed when reading it.)
Fake jewelry: You translated correctly. Presumably last year when I read all these books at top speed and then did the write up, I misremembered that it were parts of Ulrike's, not her brother-in-law's jewels that turned out to be fake.
Ahhh, okay. Yeah, I do that. (And I suspect that accounts for some of Blanning's mistakes, not incompetence or dishonesty.) My most egregious case almost made it into a journal, before the outside peer reviewer caught it. So it happens!
Re: AW readthrough: The in-laws
Oh, I'd forgotten that! Is that the poem that wasn't in Trier?
There's also the fact Fritz was produced at Wilhelmine's wedding, if rather late into same. To me this looks like FW assuaging his conscience, because he now can tell himself he didn't lie to his daughter, he kept his promise, literally; Fritz was released at her wedding. (He hadn't promised Fritz wouldn't have to go back.)
That's *exactly* where I went with "Heaven":
their father said he would let Friedrich out if she did. Then he played word games and pretended he'd only meant he'd let the Prince attend the wedding, then go right back to Küstrin.
(Otoh I can see Wilhelmine in the spring of 1731 thinking he's being noble and that's why he denies it would make things better.)
</3 </3 </3 :-(
Especially since I think in both cases - Fritz and SD - this is about punishing Wilhelmine, not for anything they think Sonsine has or hasn't condoned. They knew Wilhelmine loved her.
Oh, yeah. That has to be what it's about. (That's what I assumed when reading it.)
Fake jewelry: You translated correctly. Presumably last year when I read all these books at top speed and then did the write up, I misremembered that it were parts of Ulrike's, not her brother-in-law's jewels that turned out to be fake.
Ahhh, okay. Yeah, I do that. (And I suspect that accounts for some of Blanning's mistakes, not incompetence or dishonesty.) My most egregious case almost made it into a journal, before the outside peer reviewer caught it. So it happens!
when I read all these books at top speed
One day, I hope to read German at top speed too!