18th-Century Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 36

[cahn]

Starting a couple of comments earlier than usual to mention there are a couple of new salon fics! These probably both need canon knowledge.

felis ficlets on siblings!

Siblings (541 words) by felisnocturna
Chapters: 2/2
Fandom: 18th Century CE RPF
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great, Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf, August Wilhelm von Preußen | Augustus William of Prussia (1722-1758), Wilhelmine von Preußen | Wilhelmine of Prussia (1709-1758)
Summary:

Three Fills for the 2022 Three Sentence Ficathon.

Chapter One: Protective Action / Babysitting at Rheinsberg (Frederick/Fredersdorf, William+Henry+Ferdinand)
Chapter Two: Here Be Lions (Wilhelmine)

Unsent Letters fic by me:

Letters for a Dead King (1981 words) by raspberryhunter
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 18th Century CE RPF
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great & Friedrich Heinrich Ludwig von Preußen (1726-1802)
Characters: Friedrich Heinrich Ludwig von Preußen | Henry of Prussia (1726-1802)
Additional Tags: Epistolary, Love/Hate, Talking To Dead People, Canonical Character Death, Dysfunctional Family
Summary:

Just because one's king and brother is dead doesn't mean one has to stop writing to him.

Comments

Re: Backstory!

[mildred_of_midgard]

And to switch from characterization to history, I think the episode you're thinking of was when Fritz, after the Seven Years' War, raised a toast at dinner to Heinrich, the only one of the Prussian generals, Fritz included, who never made a mistake. Someone, maybe Krockow, said that Heinrich's response is unknown, but that he probably bowed in silence and returned to Rheinsberg asap.

I could see how something like that would make Heinrich feel even more underappreciated--like if Fritz could see that he was so good at what he did, why hold him back so much after the war? (The obvious answer being that Fritz could see exactly how good he was, and in Fritz's zero-sum power game, that meant a threat.)

Therapy for everyone, as I always say.

Re: Backstory!

[felis]

Yeah, that was one of the main anecdotes I had in mind, next to the bit where he acknowledged Heinrich's key role in the partition of Poland (if and when he felt like it). I seem to remember that Fritz praising Heinrich for his role in the war came up a couple of times - and of course he did put him in charge for a few days - although I would not know where to go for the primary sources at the moment. And yes re: holding him back after the war, that's why I brought up the symptomatic salute problem - although not to forget, once they hadn't talked for a year and Heinrich did give in and do the proper salute, Fritz promptly pulled him from the ranks again and had him ride by his side. Because of course he did. :P

But speaking of praising Heinrich, there's another instance I came across recently when I was reading the Rothenburg letters. Quote: My brother Henri distinguished himself extremely in our march of the 16th and we begin to know in the army his talents, of which I have spoken so often to you.
That's from October 1745, so well before the 1746 blow-up in which Fritz had an entirely different opinion on Heinrich's attitude towards the army, but I could easily see this as something that he didn't actually tell Heinrich to his face in 1745. Or maybe he did, who knows. But I was particularly surprised by the "so often" in that sentence when I read it. Heinrich might have been as well!

Re: Backstory!

[mildred_of_midgard]

next to the bit where he acknowledged Heinrich's key role in the partition of Poland (if and when he felt like it)

Yes, but by the 1780s he was giving himself and Joseph full credit, and in 1786, that's what's going to be fresh on Heinrich's mind!

It's funny, because when cahn wrote "if I managed to convince you, you would have probably decided it had been your idea all along," I commented while betaing, "Nice shout-out to the First Polish Partition!" To which she said she had forgotten about the partition credit-stealing and was just thinking, "What would Fritz do?" to which I said, "Exactly that!" :D

WWFD

Re: Backstory!

[mildred_of_midgard]

but I could easily see this as something that he didn't actually tell Heinrich to his face in 1745. Or maybe he did, who knows. But I was particularly surprised by the "so often" in that sentence when I read it. Heinrich might have been as well!

Indeed! But I suspect 1745 was before Fritz started to see Heinrich as a serious threat? So he was probably just pleased that his brothers wanted to be in his army. And I suspect anything he said before the 1746 watershed year (or at least from the evidence we have, I suspect it was something of a watershed year) would have been long forgotten by 1786, at least emotionally.

Re: Backstory!

[cahn]

Ohh... that's interesting! Now, my experiences have made me absolutely certain that Fritz would be capable of saying super nice things about Heinrich regularly to other people but not to Heinrich himself. (My mom does this regularly with my sister and me -- she'll say nice things about one of us to the other sister (and I think she brags about us to her friends), but she won't say the nice thing to the person whom it concerns! Which I know about because both sister and I then usually immediately tell each other, but we didn't learn how to do this reliably until we were both adults.)

Re: Backstory!

[mildred_of_midgard]

Lol, look at us applying our first-hand experience with dysfunctional families of the present to the study of dysfunctional families of the past. ;) And good for you and your sister, seriously.