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: Six Degrees

[selenak]

Incidentally, I keep wondering how much Alexei's gruesome fate contributed to saving Fritz' life. Not just in the instance Wilhelmine describes in her memoirs, during FW's brutal homecoming where SD's lady in waiting impressed him with her "don't be like Peter the Great and Philip of Spain, remember what happened to their bloodline!" Because FW was just supertitious - or if you like, religious - enough to believe that Peter's younger sons all dying after he had Alexei killed, with the result that his successors in FW's life time were basically all women (shock! Horror!), was God's judgment. And that something similar might happen if he caused his own oldest son's death.

Conversely, Alexei's death might also have contributed to all those European monarchs writing "don't kill your son!" letters to FW, knowing there was precedent, I mean. I do wonder how MT's mother felt about the whole Alexei situation, though. Because he was her brother-in-law and had made her sister's life hell in those few years of marriage, and Charlotte died at only 21 years of age. So she might not have been that heartbroken when he left his Austrian exile. (German wiki's entry on Charlotte - that's Alexei's wife - claims that 50 years after her death, gossip showed up that claimed she'd faked said death and escaped to live as a French officer's life in the American colonies, then returned to spend her last years financially secure due to her niece, MT, in Europe. Sounds like a better fate than dying in the aftermath of childbirth at 21, but alas is entirely invented.

Re: Six Degrees

[cahn]

Incidentally, I keep wondering how much Alexei's gruesome fate contributed to saving Fritz' life.

Because FW was just supertitious - or if you like, religious - enough to believe that Peter's younger sons all dying after he had Alexei killed, with the result that his successors in FW's life time were basically all women (shock! Horror!), was God's judgment. And that something similar might happen if he caused his own oldest son's death.

Ooooof, yeah, I can totally see that. Like, not even necessarily at a conscious forebrain level, but lurking in the back of his head.

(okay, I did laugh at the "shock! Horror!" bit)