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: Secret library

[luzula]

Wow, that must have cost a ton of money, considering how much books cost in those days. So did he have a large allowance, then, even if his father was harsh and abusive?

Re: Secret library

[mildred_of_midgard]

No, he got into huge debt! That was one of the things FW had investigated during the trial. Fritz had already been in trouble earlier that year (and recent years, I think), when his enormous debts were discovered. FW issued an edict saying "No lending to royal princes!", meaning Fritz.

People of course continued to do it, so he had amassed a lot more debts by the time of the escape attempt. (Katte had loaned Fritz money too. When asked during his interrogation why he had done this contrary to the edict, all he could say was that Fritz had promised to pay him back. My comment was, "Katte. That's what a loan *is*. :P")

Plus Fritz got money from people like the British, who were willing to pay him good money not to escape, come to Britain, and start an international incident. (See also my example of that when you asked about Katte and blame.)

That's why my next to last sentence in this post was, "Also, I am not yet in debt, but at $71 for this apparently 50 page volume, I understand Fritz getting into debt for his library. ;)"

After Fritz got out of prison, he continued amassing debts by borrowing from foreign courts right up until the minute FW died. Some of those debts didn't get fully paid off until the 1770s. (His correspondence with envoys is delightful in that he refers to loan money in code as books, specifically "the life of Prince Eugene", which is a book he needs MANY MANY copies of, because all his friends are asking him for a copy. It's hilarious to read.)

In Fritz's defense, getting into debt was a thing most nobles of the time did; Katte was also in debt when he died. This was the exact kind of thing FW's austerity measures (his father had gotten Prussia into debt and left FW with those debts) were meant to avoid, and part of the reason he was so angry with Crown Prince Fritz. A crown prince who runs himself into debt over frivolities is going to turn into a king who runs the country into debt over frivolities, and that will ruin FW's life work. That's (one reason) it was SO VERY personal for FW when he hated on Fritz for not being exactly like him. It made him feel existentially threatened.

Re: Secret library

[selenak]

Sometimes I'm morbidly curious as to what would have happened if FW had found out, as felis discovered when reading the Volz edited Fritz/AW correspondence, that Fritz made AW get into debt on his behalf as well in FW's final years....

Re: Secret library

[mildred_of_midgard]

Nothing good, I'm sure. Remember when tiny tot AW says he doesn't want to be an officer because FW cuts off his officers' heads, and even FW stan Stratemann says what happened next is best passed over in silence? :/

Re: Secret library

[luzula]

I am amused at milking the ambassadors for money. *g*

Fritz: Ha! I told him double the amount I actually needed for my debts, so I could use the rest as running-away money. And I never promised not to run away if Dad did take me on the trip. Loophole FTW!
Hee!

To be fair, if I had a child, I too would be worried if they got themselves hugely into debt--although of course this does not excuse FW’s abusiveness.

Re: Secret library

[mildred_of_midgard]

I mean, me too, with my modern values! But part of the reason Fritz went so much in debt was FW's abusiveness in the first place: the things Fritz wanted were things that normal princes and nobles got as a matter of course, and instead of FW going, "Well, you can have them, but in small doses, because we have to save money," FW would repeatedly beat him if he caught Fritz doing any of these forbidden things, so Fritz doubled down in secret.

Ugh.