18th-Century Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 38

[cahn]

Gonna go ahead and make this post even though Yuletide is coming...

But in the meantime, there has been some fic in the fandom posted!

Holding His Space (2503 words) by felisnocturna
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 18th Century CE RPF, 18th Century CE Frederician RPF
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf/Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great
Characters: Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf, Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great
Additional Tags: Protectiveness, Domestic, Character Study
Summary:

Five times Fredersdorf has to stay behind - and one time Friedrich doesn't leave.

Using People (3392 words) by prinzsorgenfrei
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 18th Century CE RPF
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great/Hans Hermann von Katte
Characters: Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great, Hans Hermann von Katte
Additional Tags: Fluff, Idiots in Love, reading plays aloud while gazing into each others eyes
Summary:

Friedrich had started to talk to him because he had thought of him as a bit of a ditz.
And now here he was. Here he was months later, bundled up in this very same man’s blankets with a cup of hot coffee in front of him, its scent mixing with that of Katte’s French perfume.
_
Fluffy One Shot about one traitorous Crown Prince and the sycophant he accidentally fell for.

Comments

Re: Normans and Popes

[mildred_of_midgard]

granting somebody something you already don't own is cheaper than paying them, so, "If you can conquer Sicily, you can keep it as far as I'm concerned!" is a pretty sweet deal for a Pope who has an emperor and Roman nobility to deal with.

I should add that the geopolitics here is even more complex than that: precisely because the popes had no claim on southern Italy and Sicily, there was some quid pro quo at work here. If the Pope formally *grants* this land to the Normans, and they do homage for it to him and receive it from his hands (after they conquered it), then that gives the popes a claim to overlordship over southern Italy and Sicily, which they didn't have before.

Now, everyone (i.e. the Byzantines and Germans, the other contenders for overlords) realizes this is totally bogus and "You can't do that!" But it was an A+ chess move by the popes, who managed to hang onto at least nominal overlordship until well into our period, the 18th century. (I forget which king of Sicily and Naples neglected to pay homage to the Pope as he thought was his right, but I remember it being a thing that came up.)

Re: Normans and Popes

[selenak]

After my fave died, still excommunicated, the then Pope Innocent IV invited the House of Anjou in to take over the Kingdom of Sicily & southern Italy. While my fave's sons managed to hang on to the kingdom for some years more and managed one big stand under Manfred (favourite son of Frederick II the Emperor), the Anjous then won, and most gruesomely dealt with Manfred's children, locking them up under inhuman conditions in tiny cells and abusing them there for the rest of their lives, I mentioned this once before when we talked about how killing really wasn't the worst that could happen to an enemy's children. As for what happened to Sicily when Charles d'Anjou moved in, see Verdi, cahn, the Sicilian Vesper.

Re: Normans and Popes

[cahn]

WOW. That is definitely... a move... and I am rather admiring the effrontery. (I imagine you are even more :D )

Re: Normans and Popes

[mildred_of_midgard]

I'm now imagining this scenario:

mildred_of_midgard: Valiant Selena, I hereby grant you Cahn's house!
selenak: I accept your offer of Cahn's house, generous Mildred!
cahn: But...it's...not your house to grant???
mildred_of_midgard: It is now!

:D