Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 19

[cahn]

Yuletide nominations:

18th Century CE Federician RPF
Maria Theresia | Maria Theresa of Austria
Voltaire
Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great
Ernst Ahasverus von Lehndorff
Friedrich Heinrich Ludwig von Preußen | Henry of Prussia (1726-1802)
Wilhelmine von Preußen | Wilhelmine of Prussia (1709-1758)
Anna Amalie von Preußen | Anna Amalia of Prussia (1723-1787)
Catherine II of Russia
Hans Hermann von Katte
Peter Karl Christoph von Keith
Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf
August Wilhelm von Preußen | Augustus William of Prussia (1722-1758)

Circle of Voltaire RPF
Emilie du Chatelet
Jeanne Antoinette Poisson (Madame de Pompadour)
John Hervey (1696-1743)
Marie Louise Mignot Denis
Lady Mary Wortley-Montagu
Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis
Armand de Vignerot du Plessis de Richelieu (1696-1788)
Francesco Algarotti

Comments

Re: Peter Keith

[selenak]

Alas the chances are quite good then, I fear. Though to be fair: in Fiat Justitia, I achieve it by letting one general move somewhat slower in a spontanous situation. Executing Fritz, by contrast, would have given FW ample opportunity to think, and consider the consequences. Renember, in rl, Frau von Kameke saying "don't be like Peter the Great of Philip of Spain" had a sobering effect, and both these precedents were also impressive because the monarchs in question ended up having no son at all to pass their Empire on to. (Peter had two more other than Alexeij when killing him, but they both died. Hello, century of Czarinas.) FW was just the type to believe God would punish him for a son killing by taking his other sons if he has time to think it through. If he's in the same room with Fritz after having learned both Katte and Peter have made successful escapes, and Fritz, full of relief about that, can't resist taunting him, all bets are off.

Re: Peter Keith

[mildred_of_midgard]

Yep, I agree him having time to think about it lowers the odds. FW was in some ways someone who could be talked out of his initial impulses. But there's always the chance!

Re Mosel, is there any evidence for this episode outside Wilhelmine's memoirs? (I don't count Pöllnitz as an independent source, since he wasn't even in Prussia at the time, and they obviously conferred on their memoir writing.) It made a fantastic "what if?" for fiction, of course, but MacDonogh doubts whether it ever happened, because there's no contemporary evidence. And while it's the kind of thing you might try to hush up, is it the kind of thing you would be successful at hushing up?