Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 28

[cahn]

That is a lot of posts! :D <3

Comments

Re: From Pyrmont With Love? Waters, Spies, and Dogs

[mildred_of_midgard]

Yeah, I don't think you were around for our Trenck discussion, when Selena thought pardons were something only Peter Keith and Prussian Trenck got, and I thought they were rather more common. I wasn't sure how common in peacetime, but we've now got an example of a mass peacetime pardon. (Well, sort-of peacetime: Europe was at war, and Prussia ended up rejoining hostilities in just 2 years, and Heinrich later said Fritz should have been able to predict that he would need to go back to war, so perhaps he was predicting it, or at least would rather have deserters back in the army where they could be useful in case of need than dead!)

What's unusual about Trenck is still that he's getting a pardon so as *not* to rejoin the army. But pardons per se evidently weren't a big deal, which does change the picture of just how unusual Trenck's pardon was. (There's a difference between pardoning someone that's commonly pardoned for a different reason, and pardoning someone for something that virtually always has the death penalty enforced.)