Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 30
Sep. 8th, 2021 09:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cahnIn which, despite the title, I would like to be told about the English Revolution, which is yet another casualty of my extremely poor history education :P :)
Also, this is probably the place to say that RMSE opened with three Fritz-fics, all of which I think are readable with minimum canon knowledge:
The Boy Who Lived - if you knew about the doomed escape-from-Prussia-that-didn't happen and tragic death of Fritz's boyfriend Hans Hermann von Katte, you may not have known about Peter Keith, the third young man who conspired to escape Prussia -- and the only one who actually did. This is his story. I think readable without canon knowledge except what I just said here.
Challenge Yourself to Relax - My gift, I posted about this before! Corporate AU with my problematic fave, Fritz' brother Heinrich, who's still Fritz's l'autre moi-meme even in corporate AU. Readable without canon knowledge if one has familiarity with the corporate world and the dysfunctions thereof.
The Rise and Fall of the RendezvousWithFame Exchange - Fandom AU with BNF fanfic writer Voltaire, exchange mod Fritz, and the inevitable meltdown. (I wrote this one and am quite proud of the terrible physics-adjacent pun contained within.) Readable without canon knowledge if one has familiarity with fandom and the dysfunctions thereof :P
Also, this is probably the place to say that RMSE opened with three Fritz-fics, all of which I think are readable with minimum canon knowledge:
The Boy Who Lived - if you knew about the doomed escape-from-Prussia-that-didn't happen and tragic death of Fritz's boyfriend Hans Hermann von Katte, you may not have known about Peter Keith, the third young man who conspired to escape Prussia -- and the only one who actually did. This is his story. I think readable without canon knowledge except what I just said here.
Challenge Yourself to Relax - My gift, I posted about this before! Corporate AU with my problematic fave, Fritz' brother Heinrich, who's still Fritz's l'autre moi-meme even in corporate AU. Readable without canon knowledge if one has familiarity with the corporate world and the dysfunctions thereof.
The Rise and Fall of the RendezvousWithFame Exchange - Fandom AU with BNF fanfic writer Voltaire, exchange mod Fritz, and the inevitable meltdown. (I wrote this one and am quite proud of the terrible physics-adjacent pun contained within.) Readable without canon knowledge if one has familiarity with fandom and the dysfunctions thereof :P
Re: The English Civil War: C1 - the Family and the Execution
Date: 2021-09-10 09:27 am (UTC)C2 spends a lot of time in this series headdesking between hardcore Protestant fanatics - who see "Popish plots" everywhere - and hardcore Catholic fanatics in his own family. (Mom and James, mainly.) Later on there was also this religious divide among his mistresses. One of the famous anecdotes from late in Charles' reign was when the people spotted a carriage with one of the royal mistresses inside, they first thought it was Louise de Kerroulle, Duchess of Portsmouth (French, Catholic) and yelled "Catholic Whore!", whereupon the mistress in question, Nell Gwyn, got out of the carriage and said "Good people, calm down - I am the Protestant whore!" Whereupon the people cheered her and let her pass.
Nell the actress had a similar reputation for wit as Charles did, whom she nicknamed "her Charles the Third" because two of her previous lovers also had the name Charles as their first name. When Charles died, his last words to brother James were "Be good to Portsmouth" (i.e. Louise) "and let not poor Nelly starve". Which in terms of sheer contrast to how his father died sort of sums up their different lives and mentality. :)
While I'm listing famous quotes, I'll remind you again of Charles' reaction to finding young Jack Churchill (future Duke of Marlborough, but for now, just a boytoy) with his mistress Barbara Villiers: "Young man, I forgive you, for I know you make your living this way."
And there's the famous summing up of C2 by Restoration bad boy Rochester, the son of Lord Wilmot the escape companion:
We have a pretty witty king,
Whose word no man relies on;
Who never says a foolish thing,
Nor ever does a wise one.
--
To which C2, proving Rochester's point, retorted: "This is very true: for my words are my own, and my actions are my ministers'...."
Then there's the quip which got ascribed to a couple of people after C2 as well, so it might be apocryphal: "I have always admired virtue, but I could never imitate it."
When especially annoyed with brother James, on an occasion when James told him not to be too familiar with people, because of assassination plots: "I am sure no man in England will take away my life to make you King."
Religion and sin: He [Charles II] said once to myself, he was no atheist, but he could not think God would make a man miserable only for taking a little pleasure out of the way.
and finally, on what makes a good joke vs a bad one: Good jests ought to bite like lambs, not dogs: they should cut, not wound.
On what James and Charles learned during their childhood and youth in the Civil War:
James: Dad was totally in the right, and if anything too much of a gentleman, too soft! That's what got him killed! If you give the rabble an inch, they'll take a mile! Royal pride forever! We're the champions of the uuuuuuuuniverse!
Charles: Never let yourself caught in a position without a bolthole, when in company, put people at ease, no matter whether they're nobles or commoners, even if you can't stand them, and above all, never let anyone know what you truly think. Proud declarations are for martyrs, and I have no intention of becoming one.
Re: The English Civil War: C1 - the Family and the Execution
Date: 2021-09-12 05:24 am (UTC)His mom refusing to see him thing is COLD. :(
Henrietta Maria retorts that clearly, her sainted late husband either didn't say that or if he did he meant the CATHOLIC religion he'd surely have converted to in his heart.
Heh, that rings true as lame justifications go :P
Which in terms of sheer contrast to how his father died sort of sums up their different lives and mentality. :)
Lol! I did watch the Horrible Histories with the kids today (we all enjoyed it, although I seem somehow to have raised kids who aren't into musicals?? so they were mostly politely confused by the musical part -- well, okay, also because they had not read your writeups -- but we all really enjoyed the rapid-fire war "forecast" part) and, well, I hadn't gotten "Charles II party boy" out of your writeups, but I have now :D
"Young man, I forgive you, for I know you make your living this way."
Loooool! I had forgotten that was C2, probably because I didn't know anything about him then! This is great, now I feel like I have this missing puzzle piece :D
"This is very true: for my words are my own, and my actions are my ministers'...."
Heh.
When especially annoyed with brother James, on an occasion when James told him not to be too familiar with people, because of assassination plots: "I am sure no man in England will take away my life to make you King."
Lolololol, this is my favorite.
James: Dad was totally in the right, and if anything too much of a gentleman, too soft! That's what got him killed! If you give the rabble an inch, they'll take a mile! Royal pride forever! We're the champions of the uuuuuuuuniverse!
Charles: Never let yourself caught in a position without a bolthole, when in company, put people at ease, no matter whether they're nobles or commoners, even if you can't stand them, and above all, never let anyone know what you truly think. Proud declarations are for martyrs, and I have no intention of becoming one.
Oh man. and... a quick look at wikipedia looks like it didn't work out too well for him, whoops. Gotta admire the political survivors :)