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: Early Fritz letter to Voltaire / Random Thoughts

[felis]

Hmmm, maybe I did misremember the Valory thing. Fritz told Voltaire that he didn't like him the minute he showed up and then Voltaire made a joke about the way Valory saw Fritz, so it's entirely possible that I put the wrong date on the Valory quotes in my head. (It's been a looot of new information in a very short time lately. :D)

re: Superville, I immediately saw him as a comics supervillain with a very on-the-nose name ;)

Re: Early Fritz letter to Voltaire / Random Thoughts

[selenak]

Given Superville met Crown Prince Fritz specifically in his capacity as doctor and given Fritz' opinion of doctors, I don't find it surprising he correctly predicted King Fritz from that encounter. :)

Valory: the most famous description he gave of Fritz which I had translated for Mildred and Cahn last year is from the early 1750s. However, Valory also gave a (less critical) description of Fritz in the early 1740s, when he saw quite a lot of him, since Valory, like Mitchell much later, was with Fritz on campaign now and then in the Silesian Wars. (Hence the plot of Th Palladion.) He also socialized with Fritz' brothers a lot in between. He wasn't the French envoy during all this time - in between, annother Scottish Jcobite exile had that job, Lord Tyrconnel - but he was reappointed French envoy after Tyrconnel's death.