Well, one of this strengths as a general was noticing and studying efficient strategies. *g*
Wilhelmine: the Traun of the Hohenzollern siblings. :D
Friederike Luise had once been a spirited girl whose cheeky telling FW that the food he gives his children is lousy triggered the occasion where he threw with the plates at Wilhelmine and Fritz; she was the first to get married, and by the time she died, she was an utterly depressed lonely woman hardly able to talk anymore.
Yeah. :/ Her appearance in the last part of Wilhelmine's memoirs is filled with sibling rivalry and resentment.
Wilhelmine: She said to wake up early so we could go on a trip, and then when I Got up early, she stayed in bed and said she didn't feel like going, but she looked fine to me! Her maid said it was just moodiness.
Me: Could be clinical depression.
Wilhelmine: I'm mad at her because she didn't follow my lead in standing on ceremony with this one guy who didn't agree with me about how to treat me as a King's daughter, and she's mad at me because I insisted on my rights! Naturally, everyone at her court agreed with me.
Me: You just keep telling yourself that.
Wilhelmine: And then she insulted me by insisting on standing on ceremony with me and treating me as her social superior! Which technically I am, but I never insist on that with family. This was an insult!
Me: Judging by the previous anecdote, I CAN SEE WHERE SHE GOT THE IDEA she needed to stand on ceremony with you!
Wilhelmine: And then my totally changed now-king brother *shocked* me by wanting to see her when he came to visit me, because he never liked her before. And then he was nicer to her than to me and gave her more presents!
Me: To quote selenak, have I mentioned yet that you all need therapy?
More memoir updates:
* Wilhelmine buying into toxic masculinity: When an unmarried woman is flirting with every man in sight and her doctors have essentially diagnosed her with sexual frustration, her father is obliged to hit her, otherwise no one will be able to control her. Also, my father-in-law was forced to lock up my mother-in-law because of her bad behavior.
Me: Go back to the horseback riding!
* Wilhelmine says FW abdicated the day he died (remember, there was some ambiguity in different editions of Fritz's correspondence whether it was the day of or the day before), but as caveats, she wasn't there, she was writing 4 years later, and she reports the final parting at 7 am instead of Fritz's 5 am.
Oh, and hilariously, when FW dies and she's sad because none of her relatives would let her come (apparently her husband, brother, and mother were all against it, although to be fair, Fritz said, "Up to you, though,"), she reports that Fritz and SD withdrew into another room and cried together, but whether the tears were genuine or fake, I can't tell.
Probably a little of both? The occasion would have been moving, and Fritz *clearly* had strong feelings, and also this was the last chance for FW to do a "Well done, son." Which, judging the exchange with Voltaire and also the dreams 20 years later, did not happen to Fritz's satisfaction. So I'm guessing the tears were real, which doesn't mean he wasn't also thinking, "Oh, thank God."
* Her dog dies and she takes the opportunity to talk about how dogs are better than people.
I honor the loyalty of dogs; it seems to me that they have the advantage here over people, who are so fickle and changeable (veränderlich).
Granted I'm reading in translation, I'll have to keep an eye out when it comes time for French, but she's writing this in 1744 (the dog died back in 1735; this isn't Folichon), and "verändert" is the word she most often uses of Fritz in this volume. :/
Worth pointing out that she says on his way to the siege at Phillipsburg, he was all sweetness; but her husband wrote her letters from the front talking about how he had changed, and she reports that never after that did she meet the Fritz she used to know; on his way back a few weeks later, he was awful (mocking the "little" court at Bayreuth, that sort of thing).
Now, I know she's writing with hindsight during their fallout and trying to convince herself she should have seen it coming, and I know she reports the first signs of him changing in 1731 (and vacillation after that, until 1734), but given how Fritz *did* seem to have an at-war mode he switched into, and given how absolutely common that is among veterans, I actually buy it.
Mind you, she also says Fritz of Bayreuth "changes" toward her on multiple occasions: immediately after he inherits, and after he recovers from a serious illness and starts checking out Marwitz.
Aaaand, I see why she appreciated her dogs. Therapy animals for everyone.
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Re: Oster Wilhelmine readthrough
Date: 2020-10-15 03:06 am (UTC)Wilhelmine: the Traun of the Hohenzollern siblings. :D
Friederike Luise had once been a spirited girl whose cheeky telling FW that the food he gives his children is lousy triggered the occasion where he threw with the plates at Wilhelmine and Fritz; she was the first to get married, and by the time she died, she was an utterly depressed lonely woman hardly able to talk anymore.
Yeah. :/ Her appearance in the last part of Wilhelmine's memoirs is filled with sibling rivalry and resentment.
Wilhelmine: She said to wake up early so we could go on a trip, and then when I Got up early, she stayed in bed and said she didn't feel like going, but she looked fine to me! Her maid said it was just moodiness.
Me: Could be clinical depression.
Wilhelmine: I'm mad at her because she didn't follow my lead in standing on ceremony with this one guy who didn't agree with me about how to treat me as a King's daughter, and she's mad at me because I insisted on my rights! Naturally, everyone at her court agreed with me.
Me: You just keep telling yourself that.
Wilhelmine: And then she insulted me by insisting on standing on ceremony with me and treating me as her social superior! Which technically I am, but I never insist on that with family. This was an insult!
Me: Judging by the previous anecdote, I CAN SEE WHERE SHE GOT THE IDEA she needed to stand on ceremony with you!
Wilhelmine: And then my totally changed now-king brother *shocked* me by wanting to see her when he came to visit me, because he never liked her before. And then he was nicer to her than to me and gave her more presents!
Me: To quote
More memoir updates:
* Wilhelmine buying into toxic masculinity: When an unmarried woman is flirting with every man in sight and her doctors have essentially diagnosed her with sexual frustration, her father is obliged to hit her, otherwise no one will be able to control her. Also, my father-in-law was forced to lock up my mother-in-law because of her bad behavior.
Me: Go back to the horseback riding!
* Wilhelmine says FW abdicated the day he died (remember, there was some ambiguity in different editions of Fritz's correspondence whether it was the day of or the day before), but as caveats, she wasn't there, she was writing 4 years later, and she reports the final parting at 7 am instead of Fritz's 5 am.
Oh, and hilariously, when FW dies and she's sad because none of her relatives would let her come (apparently her husband, brother, and mother were all against it, although to be fair, Fritz said, "Up to you, though,"), she reports that Fritz and SD withdrew into another room and cried together, but whether the tears were genuine or fake, I can't tell.
Probably a little of both? The occasion would have been moving, and Fritz *clearly* had strong feelings, and also this was the last chance for FW to do a "Well done, son." Which, judging the exchange with Voltaire and also the dreams 20 years later, did not happen to Fritz's satisfaction. So I'm guessing the tears were real, which doesn't mean he wasn't also thinking, "Oh, thank God."
* Her dog dies and she takes the opportunity to talk about how dogs are better than people.
I honor the loyalty of dogs; it seems to me that they have the advantage here over people, who are so fickle and changeable (veränderlich).
Granted I'm reading in translation, I'll have to keep an eye out when it comes time for French, but she's writing this in 1744 (the dog died back in 1735; this isn't Folichon), and "verändert" is the word she most often uses of Fritz in this volume. :/
Worth pointing out that she says on his way to the siege at Phillipsburg, he was all sweetness; but her husband wrote her letters from the front talking about how he had changed, and she reports that never after that did she meet the Fritz she used to know; on his way back a few weeks later, he was awful (mocking the "little" court at Bayreuth, that sort of thing).
Now, I know she's writing with hindsight during their fallout and trying to convince herself she should have seen it coming, and I know she reports the first signs of him changing in 1731 (and vacillation after that, until 1734), but given how Fritz *did* seem to have an at-war mode he switched into, and given how absolutely common that is among veterans, I actually buy it.
Mind you, she also says Fritz of Bayreuth "changes" toward her on multiple occasions: immediately after he inherits, and after he recovers from a serious illness and starts checking out Marwitz.
Aaaand, I see why she appreciated her dogs. Therapy animals for everyone.