* I knew FW had acquired Vorpommern/Hither Pomerania from Sweden during his reign, but I had forgotten it was during the Great Northern War. I guess it doesn't count as a war of aggression if people are already fighting, and you're just joining in in hopes of getting some land out of it?
* Ziebura points out that FW learned from Fritz that you can't expect your sons to do what you want, and the instructions for AW were much stricter, "including the sentence that sounds so terrible to our ears: 'if he [AW] has his own head, as all children do, it must in time be broken,'" and she adds that this was much more applicable to Fritz than the people-pleasing AW.
Sigh.
* FW, after Grumbkow died, realized he'd been played for a fool by Grumbkow and Seckendorff? That must have been in the last few months of his life, since Grumbkow only predeceased him by a year. (I know FW got increasingly disenchanted with the HRE during the 1730s, hence "here stands one who will avenge me," but I'd forgotten or not realized that in hindsight he'd decided Grumbkow and Seckendorff had done him great harm.)
* Ziebura thinks FW might have been playing cat-and-mouse with Fritz, abusing him even more to try to provoke him into deserting so he would have an excuse to convict him of desertion and make AW the heir. I'm skeptical? It strikes me as about as likely as the claims that 18-yo abuse victim Fritz deliberately put together an incompetent escape plan in order to get attention from his father.
* Fritz tried to convince letter-forwarding Katte cousin to acquire horses for the escape attempt? I had missed that. Maybe it was in Hinrichs or Kloosterhuis?
I can't tell if Wives and Sons are actually both easier than AW, or if my German is getting better. cahn, maybe you can tell me when you start Wives. ;)
Because I was actually really tired today and shouldn't have been able to chew through 40 pages like it was nothing, on top of everything else I did. Maybe it's just easier because I already know most of what's happening, and also nobody is renovating their palace for pages and pages, which always involves *so* much architectural vocabulary.
I knew there were some disillusioned remarks about Grumbkow in the last year of FW's life, though not about Seckendorff (who at any rate had to leave years earlier, after the Fritz/EC marriage, I think, and was replaced by his nephew of the same name. In any event, any complaints on FW's side would be hypocritical, because he had written to the old Dessauer during Grumbkow's life time: "I know he is like that, but you need such people to do the business honourable people wouldn't want to soil their hands with. I get more out of him in an hour than I acquit with others in three."
Fritz tried to convince letter-forwarding Katte cousin to acquire horses for the escape attempt? I had missed that. Maybe it was in Hinrichs or Kloosterhuis?
That's in Kloosterhuis, who adds sarcastically that apparantly Fritz' "Apollonian charms" failed with the Katte cousin.
Ziebura thinks FW might have been playing cat-and-mouse with Fritz, abusing him even more to try to provoke him into deserting so he would have an excuse to convict him of desertion and make AW the heir. I'm skeptical? It strikes me as about as likely as the claims that 18-yo abuse victim Fritz deliberately put together an incompetent escape plan in order to get attention from his father.
With you there. It would have been way too risky, for starters; as you pointed out to me, too much resembling a Jacobite sitution, and FW was ever on the alert for English conspiracies. Now, I wouldn't exclude that in the moment when he shouted at Fritz that he'd have killed himself if his father had treated him this way, but Fritz was too dishonorable to do that - that FW at this moment did hope Fritz would kill himself. But not even once he'd calmed down.
In any event, any complaints on FW's side would be hypocritical, because he had written to the old Dessauer during Grumbkow's life time: "I know he is like that, but you need such people to do the business honourable people wouldn't want to soil their hands with. I get more out of him in an hour than I acquit with others in three."
Yeah, I've read a number of quotes where FW thought he could see right through Grumbkow and use him as a useful tool, but didn't believe Grumbkow was smart enough to manipulate *him*. Which, well...
Now, I wouldn't exclude that in the moment when he shouted at Fritz that he'd have killed himself if his father had treated him this way, but Fritz was too dishonorable to do that - that FW at this moment did hope Fritz would kill himself. But not even once he'd calmed down.
Agreed on both counts. The longer I live, the more examples I see of what's informally called the teleological fallacy: the idea that because something leads to some outcome, it must have been intended to lead to that.
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Re: No Pity for the Sons readthrough - FW and young Fritz
Date: 2020-09-10 01:41 am (UTC)* Ziebura points out that FW learned from Fritz that you can't expect your sons to do what you want, and the instructions for AW were much stricter, "including the sentence that sounds so terrible to our ears: 'if he [AW] has his own head, as all children do, it must in time be broken,'" and she adds that this was much more applicable to Fritz than the people-pleasing AW.
Sigh.
* FW, after Grumbkow died, realized he'd been played for a fool by Grumbkow and Seckendorff? That must have been in the last few months of his life, since Grumbkow only predeceased him by a year. (I know FW got increasingly disenchanted with the HRE during the 1730s, hence "here stands one who will avenge me," but I'd forgotten or not realized that in hindsight he'd decided Grumbkow and Seckendorff had done him great harm.)
* Ziebura thinks FW might have been playing cat-and-mouse with Fritz, abusing him even more to try to provoke him into deserting so he would have an excuse to convict him of desertion and make AW the heir. I'm skeptical? It strikes me as about as likely as the claims that 18-yo abuse victim Fritz deliberately put together an incompetent escape plan in order to get attention from his father.
* Fritz tried to convince letter-forwarding Katte cousin to acquire horses for the escape attempt? I had missed that. Maybe it was in Hinrichs or Kloosterhuis?
I can't tell if Wives and Sons are actually both easier than AW, or if my German is getting better.
Because I was actually really tired today and shouldn't have been able to chew through 40 pages like it was nothing, on top of everything else I did. Maybe it's just easier because I already know most of what's happening, and also nobody is renovating their palace for pages and pages, which always involves *so* much architectural vocabulary.
Re: No Pity for the Sons readthrough - FW and young Fritz
Date: 2020-09-10 08:35 am (UTC)Fritz tried to convince letter-forwarding Katte cousin to acquire horses for the escape attempt? I had missed that. Maybe it was in Hinrichs or Kloosterhuis?
That's in Kloosterhuis, who adds sarcastically that apparantly Fritz' "Apollonian charms" failed with the Katte cousin.
Ziebura thinks FW might have been playing cat-and-mouse with Fritz, abusing him even more to try to provoke him into deserting so he would have an excuse to convict him of desertion and make AW the heir. I'm skeptical? It strikes me as about as likely as the claims that 18-yo abuse victim Fritz deliberately put together an incompetent escape plan in order to get attention from his father.
With you there. It would have been way too risky, for starters; as you pointed out to me, too much resembling a Jacobite sitution, and FW was ever on the alert for English conspiracies. Now, I wouldn't exclude that in the moment when he shouted at Fritz that he'd have killed himself if his father had treated him this way, but Fritz was too dishonorable to do that - that FW at this moment did hope Fritz would kill himself. But not even once he'd calmed down.
Re: No Pity for the Sons readthrough - FW and young Fritz
Date: 2020-09-10 02:06 pm (UTC)Yeah, I've read a number of quotes where FW thought he could see right through Grumbkow and use him as a useful tool, but didn't believe Grumbkow was smart enough to manipulate *him*. Which, well...
Now, I wouldn't exclude that in the moment when he shouted at Fritz that he'd have killed himself if his father had treated him this way, but Fritz was too dishonorable to do that - that FW at this moment did hope Fritz would kill himself. But not even once he'd calmed down.
Agreed on both counts. The longer I live, the more examples I see of what's informally called the teleological fallacy: the idea that because something leads to some outcome, it must have been intended to lead to that.