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cahnLast 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.)
Re: FW parenting
Date: 2022-12-22 07:18 am (UTC)I don't think FW ever got how that worked. I would blame part of it on him having been an only child, but he himself was so different from his father that it should have occured to him he wouldn't get a tiny replica with Fritz, either. Possibly the chain of thought was "yes, I was different from my father, but that was because I am a righteous Christian man and my father, with all respect I kept showing him, was not. Clearly, it was God's will I should become King and should do everything correctly. Which means that it can't be God's will to give me a son different from me, because what would be the point?!?
Anyway, that "promised to free him from their slavery as soon as he was 12 years old" is such a great quote for underlining this, indeed - tells you all about FW at age 12 hating his teachers (and beating them up, when he's not beating up Cousin George) and all enthusiastic about being seen as perfect Dad and manly comrade by his son(s), and then Fritz backstabs him by liking book learning! Does not compute!
if Fritz can regularly sneak not just out of his room but out of the palace at night and back in again, that's not just lack of Fritz supervision, that's a whole lot less palace security than I ever imagined!
I'm with you in considering this highly unlikely, and assuming Manteuffel is conflating two different stories into one. Though possibly his source has already done that. If he didn't get this from Fritz directly - and Fritz has been known to rewrite his past, ahem -, then, and I think that might have been the case here, he has it from one of the young men in Fritz' social circle like Wartensleben who might have listened with just half an ear, as we say in German, and thus in their reports to Manteuffel draw two stories together. Or, well, Manteuffel isn't the youngest, maybe he's the one making a logistic mistake her. Or employing hyperbole. Hardly unheard of among envoys and former envoys - I'm thinking of the French envoy who claims, as Voltaire will in his anonymous pamphlet, that AW could neither read or write for as long as FW was alive and only learned both when Fritz became King. This is obviously wrong, but builds on the kernel of truth that AW did have deficits in his education compared with other princes the sasme age (not to mention his older brother). (Most likely his governors took one look at the fate of Duhan and thought, yeah, no.) Which we know from his youthful correspondence with Fritz Fritz tried to motivate him to lessen, and which he later in life did try to fill in. (See also corresonding withi Maupertuis.) That's still a far cry from "couldn't read or write", but that nonetheless is how an actual envoy reported it home to France.
Re: FW parenting
Date: 2022-12-22 01:02 pm (UTC)Ugh, this makes so much sense! Of course, I would expect nothing less from the author of a certain recent ToT fic that also managed to get inside FW's head. ;)
all enthusiastic about being seen as perfect Dad and manly comrade by his son(s)
You know, I could almost feel sorry for him, if he hadn't reacted to disappointment by BEATING THE KID UP. I may have grown up in an unintellectual family, I may have been told not to study physics that wasn't in the Bible, I may have been forbidden to take certain classes (some of which I managed to take on the sly, some not), but it was nothing like this! Poor Fritz.
who might have listened with just half an ear, as we say in German
We have this one in English too.
That's still a far cry from "couldn't read or write", but that nonetheless is how an actual envoy reported it home to France.
True! And this was all 10 years before, so I can see how the story would change in the telling. Incidentally, Catt has the opposite: he has Fritz sneaking out of bed to read, almost getting caught by his governor Finck, and not daring to do it again. I also find that unlikely. I think there was a lot of sneaking. :P
Re: FW parenting
Date: 2022-12-23 06:40 pm (UTC)*nods* This makes a lot of sense. I would also though not underestimate people's ability (in general; FW's in particular) to be self-centric enough to understand that they are different from their parents, but not understand that about their own kids. (Source: a) my mom b) often I run into that mindset in myself with respect to my own kids, even knowing that this is a trap!)
Re: FW parenting
Date: 2022-12-23 06:56 pm (UTC)Regardless, even after FW figured out that Fritz *was* different, he thought it was disrespectful of Fritz to act differently: he said something like (paraphrased), "I know he doesn't think like me" and "If you love your father, you do exactly what he wants, not just when he's around, but all the time" (i.e. no sneaking out of bed to read, Fritz).