! Especially since I was disappointed that Blanning starts in 1780 and thus skips all the travels.
That is a shame, because those travels were highly interesting, defining of who Joseph was as a person and a monarch both (like I said eons ago, no other monarch managed to travel that much, even those ruling over a comparably large territory). Also what he wrote and observed show him at his best, which works as something of a balance to the failures of ramming his reforms through (and also show where he came from, emotionally, in pushing so hard) in the MT less decade. Though as the "Five Princesses" and the travel author both point out, during the 15 years of co-regency it wasn't always MT holding back and Joseph pushing forward, there were also reform ideas where MT was the more progressive one. (Though in a minority.) Incidentally, in the afterword to "Der Kaiser reist inkognito" where Czernin talks about other books and her sources etc., one of said works she drew from makes a fascinating comparison in the title already: "Last of the Enlightened Despots: Joseph II. and Mikhail Gorbachev". I can sort of see that, thinking about it.
(I guess that makes Leopold Yeltsin and reactionary Franz II. Putin? Sort of works.)
This is why I kind of think Fritz didn't have a personal pet dog in 1730, since we never hear about one. But with his correspondence to Wilhelmine during this period being destroyed, I can't be sure.
I'm with you, and while I think the only thing we know for sure is that Biche was the first Italian Greyhound, not the first dog, the way he was inseparable from his dogs later (and everyone noticing) would argue that if he had had a dog before her, people would have noticed and remarked on it, too. (If we're wrong and he did have a pet dog pre 1730, though, I'm assuming he intended to leave it with Wilhelmine when escaping.)
Teen MA not even allowed to bring her dog with her for symbolism's sake gains some extra pathos if you consider the symbolism didn't even work, given how she was always seen as "l'Autrichienne". I do wonder who ended up with the dog - the book doesn't say. Presumably the lady in waiting who was her companion till the border?
Re: Update on Vienna Joe
That is a shame, because those travels were highly interesting, defining of who Joseph was as a person and a monarch both (like I said eons ago, no other monarch managed to travel that much, even those ruling over a comparably large territory). Also what he wrote and observed show him at his best, which works as something of a balance to the failures of ramming his reforms through (and also show where he came from, emotionally, in pushing so hard) in the MT less decade. Though as the "Five Princesses" and the travel author both point out, during the 15 years of co-regency it wasn't always MT holding back and Joseph pushing forward, there were also reform ideas where MT was the more progressive one. (Though in a minority.) Incidentally, in the afterword to "Der Kaiser reist inkognito" where Czernin talks about other books and her sources etc., one of said works she drew from makes a fascinating comparison in the title already: "Last of the Enlightened Despots: Joseph II. and Mikhail Gorbachev". I can sort of see that, thinking about it.
(I guess that makes Leopold Yeltsin and reactionary Franz II. Putin? Sort of works.)
This is why I kind of think Fritz didn't have a personal pet dog in 1730, since we never hear about one. But with his correspondence to Wilhelmine during this period being destroyed, I can't be sure.
I'm with you, and while I think the only thing we know for sure is that Biche was the first Italian Greyhound, not the first dog, the way he was inseparable from his dogs later (and everyone noticing) would argue that if he had had a dog before her, people would have noticed and remarked on it, too. (If we're wrong and he did have a pet dog pre 1730, though, I'm assuming he intended to leave it with Wilhelmine when escaping.)
Teen MA not even allowed to bring her dog with her for symbolism's sake gains some extra pathos if you consider the symbolism didn't even work, given how she was always seen as "l'Autrichienne". I do wonder who ended up with the dog - the book doesn't say. Presumably the lady in waiting who was her companion till the border?