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: More Peter Keith findings: Berlinische Nachrichten

[mildred_of_midgard]

This all makes a lot of sense. I do think there must have been a lot of contradictory emotions, conscious and subconscious.

I don't think Fritz ever stopped making points to dead FW

So very true.

AW: *sob*

I was surprised to learn Algarotti actually had lunch with FW as part of the big wedding of Anna Ivanova delegation when it passed through Berlin before he ever met Fritz)

I didn't know the details, but I knew he'd met FW first. Fritz mentions him obliquely to FW in their correspondence: "Hier ist der englische Mylord durchpassiret, welcher in Potsdam gewesen ist," with a footnote by Preuss that this is Lord Baltimore, in company with Algarotti.

That must be Anna Leopoldovna, though, right?

Sidenote: actually, plenty of 19th and early 20th century biographies of Fritz do point out how the fact Peter never became a fave at his court proves that Küstrin Made Frederick Great.

Oh, ugh, of course they do. Ugh, stop having opinions, 19th and early 20th century biographers! Stick to meticulous documentation of facts so I can admire your work ethics.

Plus I'm pretty sure that Peter, who hasn't seen Fritz for a decade and had him fixed in his memory as the desperate 18-years-old, was probably showing up ready for a real emotional reunion

Oh, yes, I'm pretty sure this is true...unless maybe Peter's son's letter is correct and he and Fritz already been wrangling over favors owed by letter beforehand, at which point Peter might have known to expect little when he arrived. (Keith Jr.'s letter is full of inaccuracies, but if this part is correct, it *would* explain the rumor that Felis found that Fritz was annoyed at Peter for coming back without permission. He came back with permission, as we know, but Fritz was so secretive about that that even Peter's mother thought Fritz had forgotten about him, so the report-writers can be forgiven for not knowing that. And if Fritz and Peter had already been wrangling by letter, Fritz might have been annoyed before Peter arrived, leading people to draw reasonable if inaccurate conclusions about why.)

complete with hugs

And I feel like Peter, even if they hadn't already had a conflict behind them during that first meeting, didn't have the effusive Keyserlingk/Katte/Algarotti personality needed to hit the right emotional note for Fritz. Like you, I assume he started out formal around King Fritz but fully expecting Fritz to make the first move, and things could have gone sour quickly when neither of them got what they were looking for.

Well, that's why I wrote a wish-fulfillment/wishful thinking fix-it fic where they got to kiss and make up in the 1750s. :/