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: Goldstone is wrong, chapters 2 and 3

[felis]

Ha, I see English Wiki illustrates its Potsdam Giants page with a picture of James Kirkland, a.k.a. exceptionally tall Irishman who got kidnapped in London. Which cost FW 8862 thaler! Even Förster called that wasteful spending. German Wiki on the other hand has one of the Russians that were sent by Peter the Great, but does not mention the tall women I note.

But speaking of Förster, he has one sentence on it in his section on Grenadier recruiting - Für einen großen Nachwuchs suchte der König durch Verheirathung der Grenadiere mit ebenbürtigen Landestöchtern zu sorgen und forderte auch aus den Provinzen Bericht über große Kinder ein. - but he doesn't tell me where he got it from. He also includes what seems to be a rather widespread Giants anecdote, which sounds very much like a legend to me: Allegedly, FW went for a ride near Potsdam, saw a tall peasant girl and told his adjutant to sent her to town with the order to immediately marry one of the Grenadiers. The girl got suspicious, gave the letter with the order to an old woman to deliver, who was then married to said Grenadier despite all protests. When FW noticed later, he annulled the marriage.

One other thing I found, in a 2007 book about the Giants: "considerations of his regimental medic prompted Friedrich Wilhelm to attempt to marry grenadiers to tall women". That detail seems oddly specific, but it doesn't give a name or even a year, let alone a citation. (That said, one of the book's sources is Kloosterhuis' Lange Kerls tome, which is mostly a publication of primary sources related to them, including social life and marriages. If there's any actual evidence to be found beyond anecdotes, it's probably in there.)

Re: Goldstone is wrong, chapters 2 and 3

[mildred_of_midgard]

Ah, yes, Kirkland, he who gets mentioned a million times in my reading, either by name or as "a really tall Irishman." :D

That said, one of the book's sources is Kloosterhuis' Lange Kerls tome, which is mostly a publication of primary sources related to them, including social life and marriages. If there's any actual evidence to be found beyond anecdotes, it's probably in there.

Oh, wonderful! If I understand correctly, selenak, who's now back in Munich, is planning on checking that out in October.