Frederick the Great and Other 18th-C Characters, Discussion Post 31

[cahn]

And in this post:

-luzula is going to tell us about the Jacobites and the '45!

-I'm going to finish reading Nancy Goldstone's book about Maria Theresia and (some of) her children Maria Christina, Maria Carolina, and Marie Antoinette, In the Shadow of the Empress, and selenak is going to tell us all the things wrong with the last four chapters (spoiler: in the first twenty chapters there have been many, MANY things wrong)!

-mildred_of_midgard is going to tell us about Charles XII of Sweden and the Great Northern War

(seriously, how did I get so lucky to have all these people Telling Me Things, this is AWESOME)

-oh, and also there will be Yuletide signups :D

Comments

Voltaire and Charles XII

[mildred_of_midgard]

Also, the preface of Voltaire‘s Histoire de Charles XII makes for an entertaining and witty defense of why source scepticism is a good thing, where he brings up several ancient historians as examples, which makes mincemeat of the preface to the Montesquieu Roman history editor‘s argument that of course Montesquieu believed the Roman historians were the real deal always and he could trust them implicitly, no 18th century guy with love of history and writings would have thought differently.

Yes, this is true! Remember when we went over the exchange between Fritz and Voltaire on the reliability of the Romulus and Remus myth, and Voltaire was pooh-poohing it, and Fritz was all, "But I, as a Rheinsberg Remusberg local, can prove it!"? And felis pointed out the follow-up letter where Fritz goes, "Well, I was just sharing the anecdote for whatever it was worth, obviously we have to be skeptical," which the only possible way I can read that sequence is that Fritz changed his mind and didn't want to lose face, so he pretended like he meant that all along.

I only skipped the book about a year ago - Voltaire‘s, that is - but I really need to read it properly because I do think his characterisations of Charles and Peter, both written pre Fritz, so to speak, should make an interesting point about what Voltaire thought re: warrior kings and reform czars autocrats before getting into a relationship with one.

I haven't finished it, because reading in German, but I did hit "King Charles XII, perhaps the most extraordinary person who ever lived," and laughed so hard. You say that in 1731, Voltaire!

Incidentally, when Suhm is telling Fritz about a "life of Charles XII" that he's recently read, in Christmas 1732, in "With You, There's a Heaven," that was meant to be Voltaire's, which had just come out the year before.

Why there was a French and a Russian party in Swedish parliament - which affected Ulrike

And why the rule was parliamentary at all: that started right at the end of the Great Northern War, because everyone was fed up with the recently deceased Charles XII and his twenty-one-year war that ended disastrously for Sweden. They told his successors that they could be monarchs, but they had to give up absolute power. (There was precedent for this in Sweden, but Charles XII and his father had ruled absolutely for the last 40 or so years.)

Re: Voltaire and Charles XII

[cahn]

Incidentally, when Suhm is telling Fritz about a "life of Charles XII" that he's recently read, in Christmas 1732, in "With You, There's a Heaven," that was meant to be Voltaire's, which had just come out the year before.

Ha, excellent. I feel like you might have told me this in beta but since I had no idea who Charles XII was and knew a lot less about Voltaire than I do now, the information didn't really stick at all :P

ahhhhhh now I feel like I should take a stab at Voltaire's Charles XII, now that I'm going to be finding out who he is :D

And why the rule was parliamentary at all: that started right at the end of the Great Northern War, because everyone was fed up with the recently deceased Charles XII and his twenty-one-year war that ended disastrously for Sweden. They told his successors that they could be monarchs, but they had to give up absolute power. (There was precedent for this in Sweden, but Charles XII and his father had ruled absolutely for the last 40 or so years.)

Oh, okay, interesting, yeah, I can see why everyone was like "dude, Ulrike, don't mess with this."