I'm glad you liked my write up on the Princesses (plus two). And I have to credit one tumblr entry which a year and a half ago alerted me to their existence, otherwise this part of 18th century history might have escaped me, and it's interesting and at times touching.
We did tell you about the Bavarian War - that was the one where no actual battle in the conventional sense happened, but much scourging for shire/countryside, and which no one other than Joseph was keen on, where Heinrich dropped out after one more Fritz argument and where MT went behind Joseph's back to make peace with Fritz. (Causing Matthias Claudius to write his admiring "Sie machte Frieden!" poem about her when she died not too long afterwards despite being a Protestant Northern German. I did translate that poem for you.) If you want to reread MT telling Joseph why this war is a bad idea, the letter is here.
The Austro-Russian-Turkish one I'll leave to Mildred. BTW, Lacy was also the guy who was involved in defeating Fritz at Hochkirch the day Wilhelmine died, so his own military credentials were good.
like mildred says, role models, ViennaJoe! Verily. And he was warned. The sad thing is, when he died he was massively unpopular - and knew it - but just a few years later (relatively speaking), after Leopold had died as well and Leopold's son Franz II turned out to be an arch reactionary who walked back not just the reforms hs father and uncle had made but even those MT had made in her day, the Viennese changed their mind and loved him, including making up a rhyme of how Joseph should get down from the one statue in Vienna depicting him, rule again and should put Franz there as a statue in his place.
But as you said: he kept being able to feel and receive affection till the end.
Re: The Charmed Circle
We did tell you about the Bavarian War - that was the one where no actual battle in the conventional sense happened, but much scourging for shire/countryside, and which no one other than Joseph was keen on, where Heinrich dropped out after one more Fritz argument and where MT went behind Joseph's back to make peace with Fritz. (Causing Matthias Claudius to write his admiring "Sie machte Frieden!" poem about her when she died not too long afterwards despite being a Protestant Northern German. I did translate that poem for you.) If you want to reread MT telling Joseph why this war is a bad idea, the letter is here.
The Austro-Russian-Turkish one I'll leave to Mildred. BTW, Lacy was also the guy who was involved in defeating Fritz at Hochkirch the day Wilhelmine died, so his own military credentials were good.
like mildred says, role models, ViennaJoe! Verily. And he was warned. The sad thing is, when he died he was massively unpopular - and knew it - but just a few years later (relatively speaking), after Leopold had died as well and Leopold's son Franz II turned out to be an arch reactionary who walked back not just the reforms hs father and uncle had made but even those MT had made in her day, the Viennese changed their mind and loved him, including making up a rhyme of how Joseph should get down from the one statue in Vienna depicting him, rule again and should put Franz there as a statue in his place.
But as you said: he kept being able to feel and receive affection till the end.