Speaking of SD's politics, I keep seeing in places like Ziebura and Oster that she was disappointed that Fritz didn't let her influence him politically. Is there evidence for this, or just an assumption?
I've seen this, too, starting with good old Preuß and Koser, but never with a footnote saying "see letter X" or "memoirs y", or "ambassadorial report Z". So until I see a citation, I'm going with "assumption", based on the fact that SD had these political battles with FW for all those years and, I suspect, also a very 19th century moralistic desire to see her punished in some fashion. "She got what she wanted, only to find out her son wasn't her puppet at all but his father's worthy successor and our national hero!", that kind of thing. (Because SD is the outright villain in Der Vater, that's certainly how this novel plays it.) But, you know, I never had the impression SD cared about Prussian politics as such, other than "English marriages for my kids, Grumbkow & Seckendorff defeated". The marriages were none-issues by the time Fritz became King, Grumbkow was dead, and Seckendorff far away, and Fritz made it very clear that SD, not EC was the first lady of Prussia, so my impression was she revelled in this and was otherwise an admiring mother (to Fritz) applauding his mighty deeds, bossy only when it came to his wardrobe.
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Re: Hervey's Memoirs: King Lear's Family has nothing on this
Date: 2020-09-24 11:46 am (UTC)I've seen this, too, starting with good old Preuß and Koser, but never with a footnote saying "see letter X" or "memoirs y", or "ambassadorial report Z". So until I see a citation, I'm going with "assumption", based on the fact that SD had these political battles with FW for all those years and, I suspect, also a very 19th century moralistic desire to see her punished in some fashion. "She got what she wanted, only to find out her son wasn't her puppet at all but his father's worthy successor and our national hero!", that kind of thing. (Because SD is the outright villain in Der Vater, that's certainly how this novel plays it.) But, you know, I never had the impression SD cared about Prussian politics as such, other than "English marriages for my kids, Grumbkow & Seckendorff defeated". The marriages were none-issues by the time Fritz became King, Grumbkow was dead, and Seckendorff far away, and Fritz made it very clear that SD, not EC was the first lady of Prussia, so my impression was she revelled in this and was otherwise an admiring mother (to Fritz) applauding his mighty deeds, bossy only when it came to his wardrobe.