starts between Silesian Wars, she says, when otoh AW is made Prince of Prussia (and hence officially designated as heir), but so far out of the loop for anything military and political that he has no idea Fritz will start the second Silesian War a week before it happens
Interesting. I was wondering when exactly this started, because you only see the occasional flare-up in the letters, not a clear point of change. But now that you've said it ... I initially read AW's "when can I go to war? now? how about now?" letters in 1744/45 as very similar to how Fritz wrote to FW in 1735, at the exact same age (except that he was hoping to get away from his father, whereas AW wants to join Fritz), but looking at them again, I see that "I feel useless" shows up already. Also "ambition, preached to us from childhood on", which is rather telling, and "I'd be inconsolable if you thought me useful only for having children", which is rather sad.
Fritz' first reply in 1744 is "you should trust me, it's not the first time you do me injustice this way [!], but since it's not winter, come join me if you want" and then in 1745, he says that there isn't anything going on yet and nothing to do, so wait a while, and also, there are infectious diseases going around and he doesn't want to risk AW's "precious life" unnecessarily, what with him being the heir and all. (And by the way, AW to Mina in 1757: "As you know, the thing I always feared the most was to have one of my brothers with me; at least it doesn't seem like there's going to be a battle.")
Ziebura says Fritz continued his campaign to get AW reading and to encourage him to self educate well into his kingship through their correspondence, and that AW responds positively
Yeah, there a quite a few letters to that effect and they do occasionally talk about what AW read and even send each other books. Fritz also mentions AW's position as his heir a lot, not just when it comes to procreation - it comes up in the context of studying and accompanying him on trips and getting a look at how things worked as well. Case in point, February 1750, AW reports that he's visited the mint because there's been a coinage reform and Fritz answers: I see you are submerged in finance. It's very well that you educate yourself and learn about everything that's happening. You would delight me if you concerned yourself with it even more, because a prince of our house who will one day reign, should not be new to these things. He has to know about everything, to be able to deal with everything himself. Everything you learn now will shorten your way later. Whatever I get done, there'll be much good to do after my death, and if you know the state affairs and their inner relations, you can earn much glory. [etc, being useful and hard-working is good, etc]
So, just from the letters, I didn't get the impression that he deliberately kept AW away from everything, but letters and actions can of course differ and Fritz' paranoia was still a thing. And of course, studying is different from actually being in the loop and getting to act and I can see how Fritz might not have gone for the latter. Still, I'm wondering if some of this was another case of mismatched expectations.
Ziebura also analyses the memoranda AW wrote after the second Silesian War with "What I'd do were I in charge of Prussia" ideas.
Huh. Any great ideas?
Whereas Fritz probably thought he was doing young AW a favor when not shoving responsibilities on him and letting him enjoy his youth a bit longer
Possibly. There are a couple "you are young, enjoy it" lines (as opposed Fritz himself, old and decrepit :P - although, to be fair, the 1747 stroke reverberated for a while).
(By the way, does Ziebura mention a kerfuffle (somebody being indiscreet with information?) happening in late 1742, early 1743? The two letters dealing with this are quite cryptic and Volz says he couldn't determine what they were about.)
I think part of the inherent tragedy is also that Fritz, as sovereign, has taken over the father role for his siblings in addition to the older brother role. Because mutual fraternal ribbing is possible and enjoyable in their society, but you can't tease Dad The King back
Yeah, that makes sense. And I think Fritz was torn here as well - demanding freedom to act as souvereign and trying to educate his brothers for example (not to mention his "I know no family in military matters"), but also wanting an easy and fraternal relationship with them, and AW in particular, which he didn't get. I believe that he saw what AW and Heinrich (and even Ferdinand) had with each other and was somewhat envious there - yes, he did have a similiarly close relationship with Wilhelmine, but she was far away and she wasn't a brother - and he might have felt like AW chose Heinrich over him as the person to be close to.
The possibilities for Fritz not naming names: Volz believes it's #2, i.e. he's talking about Heinrich, and I agree that it's most likely in this case, because it's only a couple months after the Heinrich argument, Fritz already alluded to said argument to explain why he thinks AW is still a bit resentful, and he might be thinking that AW should have gotten the hint as to who he was talking about, so he isn't going to spell it out again and provoke yet another argument. And he did end the earlier one with "you took Heinrich's side, so I'm not going to say anything else" as well, similarly shutting things down.
FWIW, he never mentions any other friends of AW's, as far as I recall, so if he did have someone else in mind, I haven't got the first idea who. Also, if Volz didn't cut it, King Fritz - unlike Crown Prince Fritz - does not talk negatively about FW. AW is the only one who does, once, during the Heinrich argument, when he goes for the compare-and-contrast.
As for the trope, that is a possibility of course, but I still think it's mostly Heinrich he's talking about.
Also, on that topic, AW is actually the first to invoke it (at least in writing), again during the Heinrich argument, where, unsurprisingly, "maybe some scheming people biased you against Heinrich, please remember how this happened to you with FW" does not have the desired results.
I expect Fritz and AW would not have been rooting for Uncle George.
I expect so as well, not least because Fritz for one listed "G2 treated FW with contempt" as one of his reasons for starting the First Silesian War in his History of My Time. He even expands on that and says that Uncle George called FW "Brother Corporal" and a "King of Country Roads and the Empire's Arch-Sand-Distributor". I'm really wondering where he got that from.
Biche - I totally forgot to mention that her Austria adventure gets a shout-out! AW writes that Fritz might have to admonish their Mecklenburg neighbours for their behaviour re: recruits, Fritz answers that vague admonishments won't do much, he needs dates and facts, like so: But if you say: "Your partisan Nadasdy stole my English wippet called Biche on September 30th, 1745, while my servant Klaus was taking care of her", Nadasdy has to deny he has her, or give her back. :D (AW's reply has ellipses, so I sadly have no idea if he commented on this choice of example, but I for one was delighted that this is what came to mind. Wait, when did Biche die? ... December 1751, and this is April 1752. Aw.)
I'm having trouble not to read "pleasure" as sex in this context, either.
Quite. And I think he'd see reading and music as culture, not nature.
whether AW in 1750 instinctively defining pleasure as sexual pleasure until this is pointed out to him by Maupertuis supports or argues against Fritz using the term in the same sense - I could see it either way
Yeah. Either way, AW is quite happy to be living under Fritz' rule for a change, see his take on the Austrian court a couple months later: Suppers aren't fashionable and games take up the time for conversation. One has to live as chaste as a hermit to be well regarded at court. This has to be a sad and depressing life. Epicurus's pupils are treated there like the Jews in Spain; the only thing that's missing is the stake, but the inquisition is already there. I thank God, dear brother, that he gave you different views. You make your subjects happy - you enjoy the delights of life and you allow us to do the same!
Volz then quite predictably edits Fritz' reply, boo.
Re: Fritz/AW Correspondence
Interesting. I was wondering when exactly this started, because you only see the occasional flare-up in the letters, not a clear point of change. But now that you've said it ... I initially read AW's "when can I go to war? now? how about now?" letters in 1744/45 as very similar to how Fritz wrote to FW in 1735, at the exact same age (except that he was hoping to get away from his father, whereas AW wants to join Fritz), but looking at them again, I see that "I feel useless" shows up already. Also "ambition, preached to us from childhood on", which is rather telling, and "I'd be inconsolable if you thought me useful only for having children", which is rather sad.
Fritz' first reply in 1744 is "you should trust me, it's not the first time you do me injustice this way [!], but since it's not winter, come join me if you want" and then in 1745, he says that there isn't anything going on yet and nothing to do, so wait a while, and also, there are infectious diseases going around and he doesn't want to risk AW's "precious life" unnecessarily, what with him being the heir and all. (And by the way, AW to Mina in 1757: "As you know, the thing I always feared the most was to have one of my brothers with me; at least it doesn't seem like there's going to be a battle.")
Ziebura says Fritz continued his campaign to get AW reading and to encourage him to self educate well into his kingship through their correspondence, and that AW responds positively
Yeah, there a quite a few letters to that effect and they do occasionally talk about what AW read and even send each other books. Fritz also mentions AW's position as his heir a lot, not just when it comes to procreation - it comes up in the context of studying and accompanying him on trips and getting a look at how things worked as well. Case in point, February 1750, AW reports that he's visited the mint because there's been a coinage reform and Fritz answers: I see you are submerged in finance. It's very well that you educate yourself and learn about everything that's happening. You would delight me if you concerned yourself with it even more, because a prince of our house who will one day reign, should not be new to these things. He has to know about everything, to be able to deal with everything himself. Everything you learn now will shorten your way later. Whatever I get done, there'll be much good to do after my death, and if you know the state affairs and their inner relations, you can earn much glory. [etc, being useful and hard-working is good, etc]
So, just from the letters, I didn't get the impression that he deliberately kept AW away from everything, but letters and actions can of course differ and Fritz' paranoia was still a thing. And of course, studying is different from actually being in the loop and getting to act and I can see how Fritz might not have gone for the latter. Still, I'm wondering if some of this was another case of mismatched expectations.
Ziebura also analyses the memoranda AW wrote after the second Silesian War with "What I'd do were I in charge of Prussia" ideas.
Huh. Any great ideas?
Whereas Fritz probably thought he was doing young AW a favor when not shoving responsibilities on him and letting him enjoy his youth a bit longer
Possibly. There are a couple "you are young, enjoy it" lines (as opposed Fritz himself, old and decrepit :P - although, to be fair, the 1747 stroke reverberated for a while).
(By the way, does Ziebura mention a kerfuffle (somebody being indiscreet with information?) happening in late 1742, early 1743? The two letters dealing with this are quite cryptic and Volz says he couldn't determine what they were about.)
I think part of the inherent tragedy is also that Fritz, as sovereign, has taken over the father role for his siblings in addition to the older brother role. Because mutual fraternal ribbing is possible and enjoyable in their society, but you can't tease Dad The King back
Yeah, that makes sense. And I think Fritz was torn here as well - demanding freedom to act as souvereign and trying to educate his brothers for example (not to mention his "I know no family in military matters"), but also wanting an easy and fraternal relationship with them, and AW in particular, which he didn't get. I believe that he saw what AW and Heinrich (and even Ferdinand) had with each other and was somewhat envious there - yes, he did have a similiarly close relationship with Wilhelmine, but she was far away and she wasn't a brother - and he might have felt like AW chose Heinrich over him as the person to be close to.
The possibilities for Fritz not naming names: Volz believes it's #2, i.e. he's talking about Heinrich, and I agree that it's most likely in this case, because it's only a couple months after the Heinrich argument, Fritz already alluded to said argument to explain why he thinks AW is still a bit resentful, and he might be thinking that AW should have gotten the hint as to who he was talking about, so he isn't going to spell it out again and provoke yet another argument. And he did end the earlier one with "you took Heinrich's side, so I'm not going to say anything else" as well, similarly shutting things down.
FWIW, he never mentions any other friends of AW's, as far as I recall, so if he did have someone else in mind, I haven't got the first idea who. Also, if Volz didn't cut it, King Fritz - unlike Crown Prince Fritz - does not talk negatively about FW. AW is the only one who does, once, during the Heinrich argument, when he goes for the compare-and-contrast.
As for the trope, that is a possibility of course, but I still think it's mostly Heinrich he's talking about.
Also, on that topic, AW is actually the first to invoke it (at least in writing), again during the Heinrich argument, where, unsurprisingly, "maybe some scheming people biased you against Heinrich, please remember how this happened to you with FW" does not have the desired results.
I expect Fritz and AW would not have been rooting for Uncle George.
I expect so as well, not least because Fritz for one listed "G2 treated FW with contempt" as one of his reasons for starting the First Silesian War in his History of My Time. He even expands on that and says that Uncle George called FW "Brother Corporal" and a "King of Country Roads and the Empire's Arch-Sand-Distributor". I'm really wondering where he got that from.
Biche - I totally forgot to mention that her Austria adventure gets a shout-out! AW writes that Fritz might have to admonish their Mecklenburg neighbours for their behaviour re: recruits, Fritz answers that vague admonishments won't do much, he needs dates and facts, like so: But if you say: "Your partisan Nadasdy stole my English wippet called Biche on September 30th, 1745, while my servant Klaus was taking care of her", Nadasdy has to deny he has her, or give her back. :D (AW's reply has ellipses, so I sadly have no idea if he commented on this choice of example, but I for one was delighted that this is what came to mind. Wait, when did Biche die? ... December 1751, and this is April 1752. Aw.)
I'm having trouble not to read "pleasure" as sex in this context, either.
Quite. And I think he'd see reading and music as culture, not nature.
whether AW in 1750 instinctively defining pleasure as sexual pleasure until this is pointed out to him by Maupertuis supports or argues against Fritz using the term in the same sense - I could see it either way
Yeah. Either way, AW is quite happy to be living under Fritz' rule for a change, see his take on the Austrian court a couple months later: Suppers aren't fashionable and games take up the time for conversation. One has to live as chaste as a hermit to be well regarded at court. This has to be a sad and depressing life. Epicurus's pupils are treated there like the Jews in Spain; the only thing that's missing is the stake, but the inquisition is already there. I thank God, dear brother, that he gave you different views. You make your subjects happy - you enjoy the delights of life and you allow us to do the same!
Volz then quite predictably edits Fritz' reply, boo.