Historical Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 40

[cahn]

I'm trying to use my other account at least occasionally so I posted about my Yuletide gifts there, including the salon-relevant 12k fic that features Fritz, Heinrich, Voltaire, Fredersdorf, Saint Germain, Caroline Daum (Fredersdorf's wife), and Groundhog Day tropes! (Don't need to know canon.)

Comments

Re: Pope Gregory vs Henry IV: the Byzantine version

[mildred_of_midgard]

not envoys. I mean, Lieutward of Cremona (Otto I's envoy who was supposed to bring home an imperial bride) bitches a lot about how snobby everyone treated him, but he doesn't fear for his life. For that matter, come the Crusades, one of the many things that made the Crusaders so distrustful of the Byzantines was that they exchanged envoys with the Turks and treated them respectfully.

No, not for their lives, but Barbarossa's envoys were, at least according to Latin accounts, locked up by Isaac II Angelos:

The following day they described their imprisonment as shameful and dishonourable, how they had been robbed of their belongings, had endured hunger and the filth of the dungeon, but above all had been exposed to the scorn and derision of Saladin's ambassadors, for it was to them [Saladin's ambassadors' that the basileus had given valuable horses that they [Barbarossa's ambassadors] had given him [the basileus] as gifts from Barbarossa, and they [Saladin's ambassadors] mounted the horses right before their [Barbarossa's ambassadors's eyes and demonstrated their riding skills.

Source, Görich's biography of Barbarossa. It's not mutilation, though, it's true!

You might even do it to your own child, though, which is what Romanos I. Lekapenos did with his illegitimate son Basil, to ensure he would not be a danger to his legitimate offspring. The irony is that Basil - who grew up to be one of the most powerful eunuch officials of the Byzantine Empire and managed to serve and survive several Emperors in a row - did not betray Romanos, but his legitimate sons did.

*facepalm*

Henry II of England*: I tried keeping my sons from knowing what the succession arrangements were, so they wouldn't look forward to my death...so they started to feel insecure and revolted against me. Why is being a royal father so hard?

FW: Tell me about it. Not a single god-fearing offspring!

* Aka the Lion in Winter, cahn.