18th-Century Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 32

[cahn]

:) Still talking about Charles XII of Sweden / the Great Northern War and the Stuarts and the Jacobites, among other things!

Comments

Re: The Gottorp fury; Charles XII

[mildred_of_midgard]

I'm genuinely trying to think of a comparison here. FW founded the anti-sobriety society, the Spartans had gay sex, uptight Victorian gentlemen were in prostitutes up to their ears (or such is my impression of the "not my period" century)...anyway, some extreme of abstemiousness.

ETA: Obviously many individuals throughout history have been famously hardcore! I'm just trying to think of either a big name from the Fritzian fandom, or groups of people whose name became a byword for self-denial. Monks, I suppose, although as an analogy that's narrowed to sexual self-denial from the original many forms of self-denial they practiced.

Btw, Charles was apparently not a prude, unlike FW, and did find sex talk and sex jokes compatible with his form of piety. It was actual sex, including in marriage, that either held no charms for him or else he was worried that it would hold way, way too many charms. (After the drunken bear, I can see why he might not want to take the risk!)