Yes, the video has the walking outside (in tears!) bit, and tops it with declaring he even contemplated killing himself before getting married, which, no. As for the letter to Wilhelmine, cahn, I think you're thinking of the one he wrote to her after the engagement ceremony, not the marriage, which says basically "nice figure, boring personality, bad education, can't stand her, you're my number one girl forever, please send me a ribbon you've worn on your dreass for fourteen days at least".
Transverse flute: I don't think FW cared which kind of flute, one way or the other. He objected to Fritz playing an instrument as his main passion, full stop. (Though, note, not to one of his children playing an instrument per se - he was fine with the girls, from Wilhelmine downwards, doing so. And remember that FW essay that claimed FW even played the flute himself, based on Charlotte's letter to him, where she jests about missing his "piping" or something like that (where I questioned the essay writers translation of this into "playing the flute"?)
As for the mistakes, here are the main ones I found and promptly commented on in that vid's comment section:
1.) Axe instead of sword. 2.) (Now I'm copying my comments) "Frederick William had a massive hang up about French, but actually had French at his own first language as well, not unusually so for a German prince of his era, especially in Brandenburg, where there had been a huge influx of Huguenot immmigrants after Louis XIV had revoked the edict on Nantes in FW‘s grandfather‘s day. His own governess had been a French Huguenot woman, and he later made her Frederick‘s governess as well. Now why he then was surprised about Fritz prefering French is a mystery, or would be, if not for the consistent fact that FW believed his oldest should be exactly like him and couldn‘t understand why Fritz responded differently to similar things. 3.) Frederick William did not put Latin on the school schedule for Fritz. He himself had hated Latin, and thought his son would be grateful for not having to learn it. Instead, Duhan (the teacher you mean, another French Huguenot, btw) taught it for a while in secret until found out, which caused a great storm and the end of Latin lessons. Frederick the Great did always regret not speaking Latin. 4.) Frederick William did not shut down the Academy of Science. He severely cut down funding, and he expressed his contempt by making Jakob Paul Gundling its President, but he let it continue. (Gundling is an incredibly tragic figure. He had started out as a true scholar under FW‘s father Frederick I., and then FW treated him as a mixture of court fool and scientific advisor, with a lot of physical abuse, including setting bears on him, and a lot of offices on the other. Gundling took the office of President of the Academy seriously, btw, and kept the Academy going, with publications of essays, books, meetings etc, but it would only regain the funding and prestige it had once enjoyed once Frederick the Great took over. ) 5.) The quote you mean isn‘t „if I had disgraced my father like that, I‘d have killed myself“, but the arguably worse, „if my father had treated me this way, I‘d have killed myself“. 6.) It would have been worth mentioning that the military tribunal twice refused sentencing Katte to death, but FW overrode that judgment. 7.) „In exchange for staying Crown Prince“ - that‘s not true. One of the few leverages young Fritz had was that FW could not by himself change the order of succession, though he tried some pressure very early on, in September 1730 (the flight attempt happened in August, Katte got executed in November), whereupon his son, still confident nothing worse could happen, said he‘d only resign from his succession right if FW declared his mother to be a whore and himself to be illegitimate. Ironically, once he was woken up at 5 am in November and told Katte would get executed, he did offer to resign from the succession of that meant Katte would live, but by then it was too late. So Frederick remaining Crown Prince, or not, was never under debate afterwards. The agreement to marry Elisabeth Christine had been part of the submission his father demanded, true, but not „in exchange for staying Crown Prince“. Lastly, I do appreciate the detail of Elisabeth Christine being drawn as slightly taller, which she was, which was one of many things Frederick held against the poor woman (who did do everything she could to please him but was forever the symbol of his submission to his father in his mind).
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Re: Pop Quiz opportunity for Fredericians
Date: 2023-01-21 01:50 pm (UTC)Transverse flute: I don't think FW cared which kind of flute, one way or the other. He objected to Fritz playing an instrument as his main passion, full stop. (Though, note, not to one of his children playing an instrument per se - he was fine with the girls, from Wilhelmine downwards, doing so. And remember that FW essay that claimed FW even played the flute himself, based on Charlotte's letter to him, where she jests about missing his "piping" or something like that (where I questioned the essay writers translation of this into "playing the flute"?)
As for the mistakes, here are the main ones I found and promptly commented on in that vid's comment section:
1.) Axe instead of sword. 2.) (Now I'm copying my comments) "Frederick William had a massive hang up about French, but actually had French at his own first language as well, not unusually so for a German prince of his era, especially in Brandenburg, where there had been a huge influx of Huguenot immmigrants after Louis XIV had revoked the edict on Nantes in FW‘s grandfather‘s day. His own governess had been a French Huguenot woman, and he later made her Frederick‘s governess as well. Now why he then was surprised about Fritz prefering French is a mystery, or would be, if not for the consistent fact that FW believed his oldest should be exactly like him and couldn‘t understand why Fritz responded differently to similar things. 3.) Frederick William did not put Latin on the school schedule for Fritz. He himself had hated Latin, and thought his son would be grateful for not having to learn it. Instead, Duhan (the teacher you mean, another French Huguenot, btw) taught it for a while in secret until found out, which caused a great storm and the end of Latin lessons. Frederick the Great did always regret not speaking Latin. 4.) Frederick William did not shut down the Academy of Science. He severely cut down funding, and he expressed his contempt by making Jakob Paul Gundling its President, but he let it continue. (Gundling is an incredibly tragic figure. He had started out as a true scholar under FW‘s father Frederick I., and then FW treated him as a mixture of court fool and scientific advisor, with a lot of physical abuse, including setting bears on him, and a lot of offices on the other. Gundling took the office of President of the Academy seriously, btw, and kept the Academy going, with publications of essays, books, meetings etc, but it would only regain the funding and prestige it had once enjoyed once Frederick the Great took over. ) 5.) The quote you mean isn‘t „if I had disgraced my father like that, I‘d have killed myself“, but the arguably worse, „if my father had treated me this way, I‘d have killed myself“. 6.) It would have been worth mentioning that the military tribunal twice refused sentencing Katte to death, but FW overrode that judgment. 7.) „In exchange for staying Crown Prince“ - that‘s not true. One of the few leverages young Fritz had was that FW could not by himself change the order of succession, though he tried some pressure very early on, in September 1730 (the flight attempt happened in August, Katte got executed in November), whereupon his son, still confident nothing worse could happen, said he‘d only resign from his succession right if FW declared his mother to be a whore and himself to be illegitimate. Ironically, once he was woken up at 5 am in November and told Katte would get executed, he did offer to resign from the succession of that meant Katte would live, but by then it was too late. So Frederick remaining Crown Prince, or not, was never under debate afterwards. The agreement to marry Elisabeth Christine had been part of the submission his father demanded, true, but not „in exchange for staying Crown Prince“. Lastly, I do appreciate the detail of Elisabeth Christine being drawn as slightly taller, which she was, which was one of many things Frederick held against the poor woman (who did do everything she could to please him but was forever the symbol of his submission to his father in his mind).