Historical Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 39

[cahn]

Last post, along with the usual 18th-century suspects, included the Ottonians; changing ideas of conception and women's sexual pleasure; Isabella of Parma (the one who fell in love, and vice versa, with her husband's sister); Henry IV and Bertha (and Henry's second wife divorcing him for "unspeakable sexual acts"). (Okay, Isabella of Parma was 18th century.)

Comments

Re: Leopold II

[cahn]

MT forbade the governesses to speak baby talk to the kids, and also gave orders that none of the kids should be allowed to bond with one particular chamberwoman, lest the kids refuse to get dressed or otherwise behave except for their favorite.

Me reading this, with a modern understanding of developmental psychology: "No, MT, no!!!"

Oh, that's so interesting. Like, it's sensible reasoning! And yet, of course... no. (Sort of like -- although much less seriously -- my parents didn't teach us Korean, because they quite sensibly decided it might interfere with our learning English. Which obviously we know now is not the case! But also I can't fault them for making that decision, which I totally would have if I'd been bringing up kids in the 80's.)

Her obsession with pedagogy, by the way, extended to the point where she later didn't want to her adult kids raise their own children their way, but instead just to follow the instructions she wrote out for her grandchildren. This especially drove Joseph and Leopold crazy, because they had inherited her obsession with pedagogy and had their own ideas, which didn't always align with MT's!

AHAHAHAHA omg this is not relatable AT ALL. (this is highly relatable! except that fortunately my mom didn't write out stuff and also isn't my empress)

Leopold changed all this.

Okay, so, this is actually really interesting! (I was going to ask how he stopped the famines, but I see that you talk a little more about this in the economic comment.)

Selena told us that Leopold introduced a law to treat mental illness the same as any illness, not as demonic possession. Not only that, but he developed this amazing public hospital:

I had forgotten this anyway, so! YAY.

Re: Leopold II

[mildred_of_midgard]

my parents didn't teach us Korean, because they quite sensibly decided it might interfere with our learning English.

Huh, when I started that sentence, I was expecting it to end the way Spanish ended in my family: because prejudice. Interesting that it was bilingualism!

AHAHAHAHA omg this is not relatable AT ALL. (this is highly relatable! except that fortunately my mom didn't write out stuff and also isn't my empress)

LOLOLOL, you mean you and your mother both have strong feelings on pedagogy? Who knew! (I knew. ;))

(I was going to ask how he stopped the famines, but I see that you talk a little more about this in the economic comment.)

Yeah, I don't have a ton of data, or rather I probably have a lot but Cochrane is not *that* readable, lol, so I've told you what little I know based on what I've read.

And yes, I had originally explained the famine-stopping thing here, and then I realized I had near-duplicate paragraphs in two comments, so I deleted the one here and left you all in suspense until you read my following comment. Sorry if that led to confusion, I should have left a pointer.