Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 30

[cahn]

In 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

Comments

Re: Stuarts escaping the British government, reprised

[cahn]

1.) This is the period around which a lot of successful fiction featuring noble Scots and dastardly Englishmen is centred, notably Outlander. Also two flashback episodes from Highlander: The TV Series.

Oh, I didn't know that's when Outlander was set! (I never watched Highlander.) Although I did know about Flight of the Heron! (Which I actually know nothing more about, except that luzula is a fan, which is how I know it has something to do with the Jacobites. I do have it downloaded so one day...)

2.) The one and only time I did research at the Scottish National Library (about a 19th century painter whose diaries were stored there), I had next to me in the reading room a middle aged guy who looked like he was a biker - jeans, white haired pony tail, tattoos - and whom did he research? Flora MacDonald!

That is awesome!

faced not with underarmed Highlanders but with professional French soldiers, he fared terribly and even gave up Hannover itself to Voltaire's old schoolmate Richelieu-not-that-one. Caroline was dead by then, but G2 was incensed, William stopped being his fave and was never forgiven for this.

Woooow. Karma indeed. (Also, I am charmed that it was Richelieu that he gave up Hanover to, and find it hilarious that Richelieu is now Richelieu-not-that-one :D )

Re: Stuarts escaping the British government, reprised

[selenak]

Checking,I see William already had been unscuccessful against the French pre-Culloden, at the battle of Fontenoy, on the French side co-starring Maurice de Saxe (aka Moritz von Sachsen, bastard son of August the Strong) and Richelieu-not-that-one, with Louis XV. being present in person, which is why this battle was the one and only time Voltaire got to do a French court poet-cum-historian thing in praising it. In case you're wondering about the Händel tune: See the conquering hero comes, ending up in the Judas Maccabeus oratorio. Which is a far cry from what G2 said in public when Cumberland returned home after the giving-Hannover-to-Richelieu fiasco: "Here is my son who has ruined me and disgraced himself."

G2 and FW: truly birds from a feather, weren't they?

Re: Stuarts escaping the British government, reprised

[luzula]

Ha, yes, I was just going to comment saying that Cumberland had already failed at Fontenoy...and de Saxe was apparently ill and in great pain during the battle, too!

Re: Stuarts escaping the British government, reprised

[selenak]

Let's face it, even all moral considerations about warfare aside, in a generation where you have Frederick the Great and his brother Henry, both of whom were able to win in scenarios where their opponents were the ones with bigger numbers and better arms, first cousin Cumberland looks terrible. Having read his mother's biography now in addition of other Hannover-related stuff, I suspect it was a classic case of parental projecting. G2 always was nostalgic about those six months in his youth he spent in the War of the Spanish Succession where he got commended for his bravery (and ever after clung to that bit of poetry calling him "young Hanover brave"). Cumberland was the son he and Caroline got to raise themselves, unlike Fritz of Wales the unfave, G2 and he were together at Dettingen, so clearly, young William was a military genius who'd do all his father didn't get to do on account of G1 never letting him back with the army again after those six months.

Re: Stuarts escaping the British government, reprised

[cahn]

I suspect it was a classic case of parental projecting.

OMG, that makes SO much sense.

Re: Stuarts escaping the British government, reprised

[mildred_of_midgard]

It does!

Re: Stuarts escaping the British government, reprised

[cahn]

omg THAT Handel tune, huh! Wooooow. I am going to have a whole new set of associations in my head for it now...