cahn | Historical Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 39

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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.)

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From:

mildred_of_midgard

Oh, and as for Fritz trying to dissolve his marriage: if he had wanted to after his father's death, he could have done it.

Indeed, but I have a very faint memory of reading that he tried it/talked about it in the 1730s. But that could have been another unreliable modern "historian", or it could have been something I'm confusing with something else.

It's not like EC was the aunt of Charles V.

*snort*

From:

selenak

Oh, I could buy him talking about it in the 1730s to some friends. (Though the way I recall it is him saying it will be goodbye, Madame, as soon as FW croaks it, which his listeners understood to mean he won't live with her anymore, not that he'd divorce her.) But not when he could actually do it, from the 1740s onwards.

And let's not forget there are examples of Protestant royal divorces: his grandfather G1 did get divorced from poor SD the older. G3's sister who was married to Christian of Denmark got divorced. And of course, nephew FW2 from his first wife.

From:

mildred_of_midgard

But not when he could actually do it, from the 1740s onwards.

No, by then he didn't need to, he had all the power, and she hadn't actually done anything wrong. And that's what I took "tried to dissolve" to mean--if he'd "tried" after 1740, he presumably would have succeeded. And I feel like I remember him exploring his options in the 1730s, although I could be wrong.

From:

selenak

Though it would have to be awfully discreet exploring, given in any event he would have needed FW's permission (just as FW2 needed his, and Heinrich, too, hence no divorced Mina), and he must have known that short of EC blatantly cheating on him with the French ambassador in front of FW, no permission would have been given.