* Ziebura presents at face value Wilhelmine's claim that Fritz, present at her wedding, was "free, free because she had submitted to the King's will."
But last I checked, he was still at Küstrin under house arrest for three more months. Chronologically this was immediately after he agreed to marry EC, and everyone says it was to get a longer leash from FW, but I admit I'm blanking on a primary source for cause and effect. Could it have been that he would have gone to Ruppin anyway, and what EC got him was permission to pick out an estate (Rheinsberg) and have it restored and move in with her 4 years later?
* Fritz is cold to Wilhelmine at the wedding because "his father's trust was more important to him than his sister's happiness." In her memoirs, she would accuse him many years later of not appreciating her sacrifices.
No mention of: - At least parts of the memoirs being written during their falling out. - Her memoirs and their letters showing more affection through the 1730s after that first day. - Grumbkow's BOUNDARIES letter. - Fritz's letter telling her *not* to marry to get him out of prison. - Any particularly good reason why the opinion of your abusive father and absolute monarch in the country in which you live might be validly more urgent than the happiness of your living far away and totally powerless and unwilling to execute you in any case sister.
Give Fritz a hard time for how he treated his siblings after 1740, by all means, but for god's sake, cut him some slack for trying to navigate a difficult situation on his first day out of prison/house arrest.
* In the early 1730s, FW learned to value Fritz's intelligence and capability, and Fritz learned to respect his father. Oh, and he stopped having to worry that Fritz was going to ruin everything after his death.
Was this the Koser take on things? I forget who it was who was all, "And after that regrettable 1730 year, our two great monarchs learned to see eye-to-eye again, thank god!"
More accurately, I would say they learned to have seriously mixed feelings during the 1730s. Between Fritz still being worried about being cut out of the succession until--was it as late as 1739?, the remark passed on by AW that FW expects him to run everything into the ground with palaces and mistresses but he's too old to change, and Fritz's frequently expressed hopes that FW dies...the "worthy successor" and "there stands one who will avenge me" remarks are only part of the picture.
* cahn, since you recently finished AW, it's worth knowing that Ziebura read an article after publishing that book and switched her diagnosis of AW's death from meningitis to porphyria. Aka the hereditary disease that scholars think FW, Fritz, and Friederike Luise (among others?) may have had, and that the Hanovers may also have had (most notably mad King George III!).
FW and Fritz post Küstrin learning to appreciate each other: It‘s the Preuss, Koser and traditional Prussian historians take. Deconstructionists like Jürgen Luh by contrast do quote the „Dad: still not dead, argh“ letters, but they do so as part of the „Fritz the calculating machine who could not have lost against his father anyway“ interpretation.
it's worth knowing that Ziebura read an article after publishing that book and switched her diagnosis of AW's death from meningitis to porphyria. Aka the hereditary disease that scholars think FW, Fritz, and Friederike Luise (among others?) may have had, and that the Hanovers may also have had (most notably mad King George III!).
Huh! But it obviously wasn't fatal to FW or Fritz for quite some time (did FW die of it? I know Fritz must not have or I would have known by now :) ), so are we back to thinking that he died of grief that the emotions/stress of those years made it much worse? (Which I know is typical of many diseases! But I don't know anything about porphyria.)
Yeah, there are very few conditions stress can't make *worse*, because it negatively impacts your immune system, affects your life choices (like seeking medical treatment), and just generally undermines your mental heath.
But porphyria can attack the nervous system, so given the intracranial bleeding they found, it's possible AW would have died anyway.
Wikipedia is telling me that porphyria comes in both acute and chronic forms, and that even today the acute attacks can be fatal, so maybe AW was unlucky enough to get an acute attack that was fatal back then even if it wouldn't have been now.
did FW die of it? I know Fritz must not have or I would have known by now :)
Judging by their symptoms, Fritz, FW, and Wilhelmine seem to have died of heart failure, aka dropsy, aka water retention because the circulatory system was slowly giving out. Probably in conjunction with other things, although in Fritz's case it may merely have been that he was 74 and had been imbibing tobacco by the metric ton for most of his life. I'm more surprised he lasted as long as he did!
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Re: No Pity for the Sons readthrough - post Küstrin
Date: 2020-09-12 01:18 am (UTC)But last I checked, he was still at Küstrin under house arrest for three more months. Chronologically this was immediately after he agreed to marry EC, and everyone says it was to get a longer leash from FW, but I admit I'm blanking on a primary source for cause and effect. Could it have been that he would have gone to Ruppin anyway, and what EC got him was permission to pick out an estate (Rheinsberg) and have it restored and move in with her 4 years later?
* Fritz is cold to Wilhelmine at the wedding because "his father's trust was more important to him than his sister's happiness." In her memoirs, she would accuse him many years later of not appreciating her sacrifices.
No mention of:
- At least parts of the memoirs being written during their falling out.
- Her memoirs and their letters showing more affection through the 1730s after that first day.
- Grumbkow's BOUNDARIES letter.
- Fritz's letter telling her *not* to marry to get him out of prison.
- Any particularly good reason why the opinion of your abusive father and absolute monarch in the country in which you live might be validly more urgent than the happiness of your living far away and totally powerless and unwilling to execute you in any case sister.
Give Fritz a hard time for how he treated his siblings after 1740, by all means, but for god's sake, cut him some slack for trying to navigate a difficult situation on his first day out of prison/house arrest.
* In the early 1730s, FW learned to value Fritz's intelligence and capability, and Fritz learned to respect his father. Oh, and he stopped having to worry that Fritz was going to ruin everything after his death.
Was this the Koser take on things? I forget who it was who was all, "And after that regrettable 1730 year, our two great monarchs learned to see eye-to-eye again, thank god!"
More accurately, I would say they learned to have seriously mixed feelings during the 1730s. Between Fritz still being worried about being cut out of the succession until--was it as late as 1739?, the remark passed on by AW that FW expects him to run everything into the ground with palaces and mistresses but he's too old to change, and Fritz's frequently expressed hopes that FW dies...the "worthy successor" and "there stands one who will avenge me" remarks are only part of the picture.
*
Re: No Pity for the Sons readthrough - post Küstrin
Date: 2020-09-12 01:55 am (UTC)Re: No Pity for the Sons readthrough - post Küstrin
Date: 2020-09-12 04:59 pm (UTC)Re: No Pity for the Sons readthrough - post Küstrin
Date: 2020-09-13 09:15 pm (UTC)Huh! But it obviously wasn't fatal to FW or Fritz for quite some time (did FW die of it? I know Fritz must not have or I would have known by now :) ), so are we back to thinking that
he died of griefthat the emotions/stress of those years made it much worse? (Which I know is typical of many diseases! But I don't know anything about porphyria.)Re: No Pity for the Sons readthrough - post Küstrin
Date: 2020-09-13 11:06 pm (UTC)But porphyria can attack the nervous system, so given the intracranial bleeding they found, it's possible AW would have died anyway.
Wikipedia is telling me that porphyria comes in both acute and chronic forms, and that even today the acute attacks can be fatal, so maybe AW was unlucky enough to get an acute attack that was fatal back then even if it wouldn't have been now.
did FW die of it? I know Fritz must not have or I would have known by now :)
Judging by their symptoms, Fritz, FW, and Wilhelmine seem to have died of heart failure, aka dropsy, aka water retention because the circulatory system was slowly giving out. Probably in conjunction with other things, although in Fritz's case it may merely have been that he was 74 and had been imbibing tobacco by the metric ton for most of his life. I'm more surprised he lasted as long as he did!