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: Oster Wilhelmine - reply to 1730s

[mildred_of_midgard]

WOW it took a REALLY long time to get there, given all the interminable wedding negotiations! There were sure a lot of them.

That's what I thought! I was like, we're almost done with the book and she's still not married yet?? I mean, I was being hyperbolic, but still. :P

I LOVE that you and I had the same fic-related reactions!

OMG. That would have been HILARIOUS and I am deeply mourning the missed opportunity :D

I now have this mental image of your FW painting your Fredersdorf, it's GREEEEAT. :D

I hope that was partly a rhetorical device!

I know, right? Especially since she ended up taking care of the kid for a while!

Well, that's exactly why I hope it was exaggerated for effect! If the kid didn't end up in her care, it wouldn't matter.

Definitely emotional incest going on here.

So I just got to the part in W's memoirs where she's like, "My new husband's sister, Wilhelmine, was hoping to marry my brother, and it would have been awesome if they'd been well-suited to each other, but she was kind of awful, so no."

And I was like...symbolic double incest? Also, can you imagine if Fritz's wife was named Wilhelmine, our heads would explode from all the confusion. :P I confess I'm glad that one didn't work out. BAD ENOUGH that I kept reading "Wilhelmine and Friedrich" in Oster as the siblings.

Re: Oster Wilhelmine - reply to 1730s

[selenak]

re: emotional incest - there is this later quote in the Oster biogrpahy from one of Wilhelmine's letters during her 1750 visit to Prussia. The Margrave is already en route back to Bayreuth, Wilhelmine has fallen sick and stays behind in Berlin, Fritz is currently busy with something or the other, but the younger sibs try to entertain her, and she writes that it's nice to spend some time with them but "the one who owns all my heart" not being there makes her long for him. There's no question she doesn't write this about the Margrave.

Bayreuth Friedrich: I, too, am glad my sister did not marry the Great. I would have ended up dead on one of his battlefields for sure. As for name confusion, I will say that my mistress being called Wilhelmine Dorothea (von Marwitz) did make things easier in bed...

Re: Oster Wilhelmine - reply to 1730s

[mildred_of_midgard]

As for name confusion, I will say that my mistress being called Wilhelmine Dorothea (von Marwitz) did make things easier in bed...

LOL forever.

And yes, I remember that Oster quote and thinking, yep, sounds like those two. "This lute will be your only rival" indeed.