18th-Century Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 37

[cahn]

More diaries of our favorite 18th-century Prussian diary-keeper have been unearthed and have been synopsized!

January 18th: Blessed be thou to me! Under your light, my Prince Heinrich was born!

Comments

Re: "Empress Elizabeth" and "Five Empresses" by Evgenii Anisimov - II

[felis]

Seydlitz: Kings should be responsible for not intentionally hitting their horses between the eyes with sticks, FRITZ.

Wait, what's this? That doesn't seem very in character.

Re: "Empress Elizabeth" and "Five Empresses" by Evgenii Anisimov - II

[mildred_of_midgard]

It's something I've run into numerous times ("Fritz didn't use spurs, but he did hit his horses, and Seydlitz didn't approve"), and I kept hoping it was apocryphal, but at some point I ran into it somewhere that made me conclude it was probably legit...but of course I no longer remember where or what the source was, so it could be apocryphal! (But Fritz hitting his horses, especially in battle, doesn't strike me as terribly out of character, either. Refusing to use spurs as a matter of course is not the same thing as not having temper outbursts.)