Wilhelmine may have expected Fritz to summon her straight to Berlin after he became king. I've always been surprised that he didn't!
First of all: when did Wilhelmine's one and only visit to Rheinsberg (which coincided with the last time Fritz was there as far as I recall, after he was King already) happen? I just have a vague "early in his rule" memory, but that's covering anything between 1740 and the end of the first Silesian War.
As to why he didn't call her to Berlin straight away: honestly, I think it's for the Prince Hal/Henry V. reason. Everbody but everybody knew how close he and Wilhelmine had been throughout their childhood and adolescence. People also expected her to play a big role in his regime. (See Seckendorff the younger noting that SD might have miscalculated by dissing her daughter so much because Fritz, Seckendorff the younger thought, was going to resent that once he was King when Wilhelmine surely would be a major star at his court.) And remember that letter he wrote to Queen Caroline about how he'd never marry anyone but Princess Emily, one of the earliest things he apologized to FW for? (Not least because he could objectively see it had been a big mistake, no future monarch should tie himself down like this.) This letter, so said Fritz to several people and so Wilhelmine admits in her memoirs, had not only been written at Mom's urgings, but also Wilhelmine's. And because FW was so very publically angry about this, this was known to all and sunder as the example of Fritz politically influenced by women (tm), specifically, his mother and sister. Incidentally, bear also in mind the greater context. It's telling he wrote that letter to Caroline, not to Uncle George. Even in Prussia, they evidently knew Caroline was the brains of that operation. And while Reinette was not yet Louis XV's maitresse en titre, otherws were. In Russia, you had a Czarina on the throne. So: you have several major European powers dominated (in the public eye) by women, even when they were nominally ruled by men.
So I think Fritz, very set on remaking himself in the eyes of the public as der Einzige König, wanted to make it absolutely clear that no, he was NOT going to be influenced or dominated by anyone, including his favourite sister. Hence no immediate summonings. (Algarotti and Duhan were different - no one had expected them to exert any influence on him. People very much expected Wilhelmine to. Ergo: no summonings to make it clear she won't be the Power behind his Throne. Later visists, once he's won glory for himself and impressed everyone, are different, of course.
The saying actually is "ich wünschte, die Tage hätten mehr als 24 Stunden". I suspect the editor slipped up and didn't catch some leftout words.
Herbal tea: commonly associated with curing cold. You get doused with it by your doctors. Very sensible, not-well-tasting and unerotic. Note Fritz is casting Voltaire as his mistress there.
First of all: when did Wilhelmine's one and only visit to Rheinsberg (which coincided with the last time Fritz was there as far as I recall, after he was King already) happen?
October 1740, so the same time as Voltaire, who was also disappointed that he didn't get an immediate summons and an offer like Algarotti.
So I think Fritz, very set on remaking himself in the eyes of the public as der Einzige König, wanted to make it absolutely clear that no, he was NOT going to be influenced or dominated by anyone, including his favourite sister.
That does make sense. I've always thought that was part of the same reason he kept Peter at a distance (beyond the timing: Peter only returned to Prussia at the time Fritz was busy planning the Silesia invasion): he didn't want Peter trying to parlay his sacrifice into power. I originally had him spelling this out in the fic, but after revisions there wasn't really a place for it, and so that whole exchange got condensed down to, "I don't have to worry about you making a power grab, I gather?"--the implication being that that had been on his mind.
Paranoid Fritz is paranoid Fritz, as you say. And beyond that, public opinion matters a lot to him.
The saying actually is "ich wünschte, die Tage hätten mehr als 24 Stunden". I suspect the editor slipped up and didn't catch some leftout words.
Ah. We have that saying too! (It's hard enough to read in German without words getting left out, lol. This is like the time I managed to struggle my way through two pages of blackletter font, except where half a letter didn't get printed and I guessed the wrong letter, which changed the whole meaning of the word.)
Herbal tea: commonly associated with curing cold. You get doused with it by your doctors. Very sensible, not-well-tasting and unerotic.
Ah, okay. I don't have those connotations with herbal teas. (Maybe other Americans do, idk.) That makes sense, thank you.
Note Fritz is casting Voltaire as his mistress there.
Yes, that I noticed! Later, of course, he will cast him as Aeneas and himself as Dido. And Voltaire will cast Fritz as Alcina. Look, even if that letter was totally faked, Voltaire, you're still gay-as-hell-for-Fritz. :P
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Re: Oster Wilhelmine readthrough - 1740s
First of all: when did Wilhelmine's one and only visit to Rheinsberg (which coincided with the last time Fritz was there as far as I recall, after he was King already) happen? I just have a vague "early in his rule" memory, but that's covering anything between 1740 and the end of the first Silesian War.
As to why he didn't call her to Berlin straight away: honestly, I think it's for the Prince Hal/Henry V. reason. Everbody but everybody knew how close he and Wilhelmine had been throughout their childhood and adolescence. People also expected her to play a big role in his regime. (See Seckendorff the younger noting that SD might have miscalculated by dissing her daughter so much because Fritz, Seckendorff the younger thought, was going to resent that once he was King when Wilhelmine surely would be a major star at his court.) And remember that letter he wrote to Queen Caroline about how he'd never marry anyone but Princess Emily, one of the earliest things he apologized to FW for? (Not least because he could objectively see it had been a big mistake, no future monarch should tie himself down like this.) This letter, so said Fritz to several people and so Wilhelmine admits in her memoirs, had not only been written at Mom's urgings, but also Wilhelmine's. And because FW was so very publically angry about this, this was known to all and sunder as the example of Fritz politically influenced by women (tm), specifically, his mother and sister. Incidentally, bear also in mind the greater context. It's telling he wrote that letter to Caroline, not to Uncle George. Even in Prussia, they evidently knew Caroline was the brains of that operation. And while Reinette was not yet Louis XV's maitresse en titre, otherws were. In Russia, you had a Czarina on the throne. So: you have several major European powers dominated (in the public eye) by women, even when they were nominally ruled by men.
So I think Fritz, very set on remaking himself in the eyes of the public as der Einzige König, wanted to make it absolutely clear that no, he was NOT going to be influenced or dominated by anyone, including his favourite sister. Hence no immediate summonings. (Algarotti and Duhan were different - no one had expected them to exert any influence on him. People very much expected Wilhelmine to. Ergo: no summonings to make it clear she won't be the Power behind his Throne. Later visists, once he's won glory for himself and impressed everyone, are different, of course.
The saying actually is "ich wünschte, die Tage hätten mehr als 24 Stunden". I suspect the editor slipped up and didn't catch some leftout words.
Herbal tea: commonly associated with curing cold. You get doused with it by your doctors. Very sensible, not-well-tasting and unerotic. Note Fritz is casting Voltaire as his mistress there.
Re: Oster Wilhelmine readthrough - 1740s
October 1740, so the same time as Voltaire, who was also disappointed that he didn't get an immediate summons and an offer like Algarotti.
So I think Fritz, very set on remaking himself in the eyes of the public as der Einzige König, wanted to make it absolutely clear that no, he was NOT going to be influenced or dominated by anyone, including his favourite sister.
That does make sense. I've always thought that was part of the same reason he kept Peter at a distance (beyond the timing: Peter only returned to Prussia at the time Fritz was busy planning the Silesia invasion): he didn't want Peter trying to parlay his sacrifice into power. I originally had him spelling this out in the fic, but after revisions there wasn't really a place for it, and so that whole exchange got condensed down to, "I don't have to worry about you making a power grab, I gather?"--the implication being that that had been on his mind.
Paranoid Fritz is paranoid Fritz, as you say. And beyond that, public opinion matters a lot to him.
The saying actually is "ich wünschte, die Tage hätten mehr als 24 Stunden". I suspect the editor slipped up and didn't catch some leftout words.
Ah. We have that saying too! (It's hard enough to read in German without words getting left out, lol. This is like the time I managed to struggle my way through two pages of blackletter font, except where half a letter didn't get printed and I guessed the wrong letter, which changed the whole meaning of the word.)
Herbal tea: commonly associated with curing cold. You get doused with it by your doctors. Very sensible, not-well-tasting and unerotic.
Ah, okay. I don't have those connotations with herbal teas. (Maybe other Americans do, idk.) That makes sense, thank you.
Note Fritz is casting Voltaire as his mistress there.
Yes, that I noticed! Later, of course, he will cast him as Aeneas and himself as Dido. And Voltaire will cast Fritz as Alcina. Look, even if that letter was totally faked, Voltaire, you're still gay-as-hell-for-Fritz. :P