18th-Century Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 35

[cahn]

In the previous post Charles II found AITA:

Look, I, m, believe in live and let live. (And in not going on my travels again. Had enough of that to last a life time.) Why can't everyone else around me be more chill? Instead, my wife refuses to employ my girlfriend, my girlfriend won't budge and accept another office, my brother is set on a course to piss off everyone (he WILL go on his travels again), and my oldest kid shows signs of wanting my job which is just not on, sorry to say. And don't get me started about Mom (thank God she's living abroad). What am I doing wrong? AITA?

Comments

Re: Louis XIV gossip

[selenak]

Antonia Fraser's book: here's a quote from the introduction which I thought would amuse you. It comes after she lays out her goals for the book, mentions that she won't just focus on the mistresses, but also on the other women in Louis' life he was emotionally attached to and who impacted his life, to wit, his mother, the two Madames (Minette and Liselotte), his illegitimate daughters, and his granddaughter-in-law (and daughter of Victor Amadeus), Adelaide, who was the favourite relation of his old age.

Inevitably, therefore, the story also reflects something of the condition of women of a certain sort in seventeeth century France. What were their choices and how far were they, mistresses and wives, mothers and daughters, in control of their own destinies? A portrait will, I trust, emerge of Louis XIV himself, the Sun King and like the sun the centre of his univierse. But as the title and subtitle indicate, this is not a full study of the reign, so fruitfully dealt with elsewhere, in studies both ancient and modern, to all of which I acknwoledge my deeep gratitude. It was Voltaire, in the first brilliant study of 'le grand siècle, published twenty-odd years after the King's death, who wrote: "It must not be expected to meet here with a minute detail of the wars carried on in this age. Everything that happens is not worthy of the record.' This is a sentiment which one can only humbly echo.

Consider me entirely unsurprised battles weren't Voltaire's priority in "The Age of Louis XIV", which I really must read one of these days.

and here's a quote from a Louis-attached lady - not Liselotte - on Eugene from late in the book:

(Marlborough) had the assistance of Prince Eugene, who, as the son of Olympe Mancini, was regarded at Versailles as some kind of spiritual traitor even if, as a Savoyard, he was not technically one: 'I hate Prince Eugene in the most Christian way I can', observed Madame de Maintenon some years later.

Should have offered him a job while he was still in France, then. Anyway, browsing through the book reminded me of something which I think I've brought up before, to wit, Dame Antonia adding a footnote to the brief tale of Sophie Charlotte/Figuelotte being promoted as a possible second Mrs. Louis XIV for a short while by her parents. The footnote points out that she married F1 instead and thus became the grandmother of Fritz, leading one to speculate what warrior descendants would have resulted from a marriage between her and Louis. To which I say, since any such kid would have lacked not just the FW type parenting but the FW introduced military schooling, starting essentially at age 7, and definitely would have lacked the well cared for, well drilled Prussian army and the nicely filled treasury: none?

Re: Louis XIV gossip

[mildred_of_midgard]

"It must not be expected to meet here with a minute detail of the wars carried on in this age. Everything that happens is not worthy of the record.' This is a sentiment which one can only humbly echo.

Hahaha. There is a lot of military history out there, it's true, but good military history is harder to come by. I have opinions.

Consider me entirely unsurprised battles weren't Voltaire's priority in "The Age of Louis XIV", which I really must read one of these days.

Same, it's on my list if I make to studying French! And I have to say, reading all these Schultz bios is leading me back to sources in French that I can't read, thus supplying me with more motivation... :)

'I hate Prince Eugene in the most Christian way I can'

LOL, that is so great. Maintenon, if you think that's bad, just wait until his cousin Victor Amadeus defects again! (again again) :D

To which I say, since any such kid would have lacked not just the FW type parenting but the FW introduced military schooling, starting essentially at age 7, and definitely would have lacked the well cared for, well drilled Prussian army and the nicely filled treasury:

Yeah, as you and I have agreed, recreating the army and filling the treasury were not a thing that Fritz, for all his military genius, was going to do on his own.