cahn | Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 19

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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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

cahn

OK, so I was feeling a bit guilty about not even having made it through the 1730's but WOW it took a REALLY long time to get there, given all the interminable wedding negotiations! There were sure a lot of them.

* Oster has the "don't get married just to get me out of prison" letter, AWWW. I still love the mutual self-sacrifice between these two. YOU TWO. <3

<3

* Oster on Wilhelmine bringing Marwitz to Bayreuth: Little did she know that this girl would one day ruin her marriage.

That's right, blame the woman.

Oh, yeah. Although it is pretty ironic.

Speaking of Fritz and Fredersdorf, as we head into Christmas 1732, Fritz had been visiting FW at Wusterhausen before Wilhelmine arrived! I had missed that and assumed it was the first visit in a while, and wrote accordingly. Oh well! Fanfic takes liberties with chronology.

Ha! I had the same reaction.

[personal profile] cahn, you missed the chance to include that scene. :P (Though historically, as far as I can tell, FW hadn't taken up painting yet. What is fic for if not for chronological liberties!)

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

the Sonsfeld who takes care of little Friederike while Wilhelmine is in Berlin is not Sonsine the much loved, but her inexperienced sister who's like, "Halp, a baby, what do?" Or at least so Wilhelmine claims in her letter to try to get money for a proper nurse--I hope that was partly a rhetorical device!

I know, right? Especially since she ended up taking care of the kid for a while! But kid seems to have survived :)

* Judging by the letters and not the memoirs, Fritz had already left for his regiment when the German comedian episode happened, because Wilhelmine reports to him on it.

THAT is one chronological liberty I will stand and die by! Besides, we were writing fanfic of her memoirs. :P

I knoooooow I was so saaaad about that :P Oh well, it makes better fic this way :P

* Fritz of Bayreuth: *loves his baby*
Fritz of Bayreuth: Please don't tell your sarcastic brother-in-law.
Wilhelmine to Fritz: Please tease my husband about this.

Okay, Wilhelmine?

(And yes,

selenak, I do remember you giving us this part! <3 ) So, like...there were several parts, this one, and the bit where Fritz and Fritz of Bayreuth get into a competition to see who loves Wilhelmine most, where I start really remembering that little character sketch

selenak wrote about the Erbprinz... it's really kind of unsettling. Definitely emotional incest going on here.

From:

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.

From:

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...

From:

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.

From:

mildred_of_midgard

[personal profile] cahn, you missed the chance to include that scene. :P (Though historically, as far as I can tell, FW hadn't taken up painting yet. What is fic for if not for chronological liberties!)

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

We had an even better missed opportunity than I thought! I was reading Wilhlemine's memoirs today, and she's still in her 1732-1733 visit, and she refers to her father painting!

I demand an outtake! FW paints Fredersdorf!