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: Reading group: In the Shadow of the Empress - Intro, Ch 1-2, half of Ch 3

[selenak]

And founder of a dynasty, in a way. Habsburgs post MT were called "Habsburg-Lothringen", Habsburg-Lorraine, just as Victoria's descendants from her marriage to Albert were not Hannovers anymore but, Mildred is waiting for this, Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha.

This whole thing reminds me of how both The Crown and Victoria (about guess whom) have their respective Prince Consorts go through gigantic crisis of masculinity as the result of having married queens, with, as far as I'm aware of, little historical basis. It's more like a lot of current day folk think this is how a man socialized in Olde Times ought to have reacted. Now maybe FS inwardly was seething in masculine angst and just had a good poker face, it's possible, we don't know. But one thing his contemporaries found so baffling about him and MT as a couple was that he gave every indication of being fine with her as the boss.

Re: Reading group: In the Shadow of the Empress - Intro, Ch 1-2, half of Ch 3

[mildred_of_midgard]

Fritz was certainly baffled. :P

Mildred is waiting for this, Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha.

:D

Re: Reading group: In the Shadow of the Empress - Intro, Ch 1-2, half of Ch 3

[felis]

Fritz was certainly baffled. :P

HA. Nightmare!

(This also reminded me that the issue came up in his correspondence with AW (1748), and I'm afraid that AW was just as baffled and biased: "there's nothing sadder for a man than being the servant of his wife. I'd prefer the most modest private life to all the crowns in the world, if such were the conditions attached to them. [...] I do not envy the Emperor his position".)

Re: Reading group: In the Shadow of the Empress - Intro, Ch 1-2, half of Ch 3

[mildred_of_midgard]

Having read AW's bio, with the frat boy letter, I am not in the least surprised.

Re: Reading group: In the Shadow of the Empress - Intro, Ch 1-2, half of Ch 3

[selenak]

Same here. I bet all of FW's sons would undersign this, though if Ferdinand would say it, people would smirk since public perception was that his wife was the boss of him.

Now while I don't doubt FS, growing up in the era, must have had times where the whole gender reverse status was troubling him both early and later in life - a saint, he was not -, by and large it looks to me as if the men of Europe were busy angsting on his behalf while he was enjoying his life and his unusual marriage.