Christian's first governor is a religious fanatic who considers it his job to beat Christian and yell at him to save his soul.
I'm reminded of future F1 and Prussian Severus Snape, Danckelmann, not least because adult F1 also had these mixed feelings about Danckelmann, but of course future F1 had his much loved mother to intervene on his behalf for his early childhood, and he had siblings he was close to. I take it Christian wasn't close to Juliana's son, but did he have full siblings? I don't recall from the movie. (The movie being "A Royal Affair".)
he cast her as the evil stepmother who wanted him dead so her son could inherit
This also reminds me of F1 and stepmother Dorothea the founder of the Schwedt line. As more than one biographer said, both can be true: that it's psychologically easier to blame the stepmother as opposed to blaming one's father, and that the stepmothers in question once they had children of their own of course promoted and fought for them, though not to the degree that they wanted their stepsons actively dead.
So now Struensee's in power. He's therapist to the king, and as we'll see, therapist to the queen as well, then probably her lover, he's entrusted with their son's education, and now he's allowed to reform the country. The king even seems fine with the menage a trois they have going.
Everything is great for about five minutes! But there is a snake in paradise. Workaholic Struensee becomes obsessed with all the good he can do as minister. He stops having time for Christian.
That is his big mistake in the movie as well. On the one hand, one feels like yelling "buddy, how could you forget that all the power you have derives exclusively from keeping Christian happy!", but on the other, giving the state of Denmark and the chance for reforming, it's all too understandable that Struensee prioritized, as it turns out, wrongly. I'm reminded that the Chevalier de Lorraine, a far worse man as a human being, is an example of a favourite who always got it right. It's not that he didn't have sex with other people, even women, shock, horror, but Philippe the Gay was never for a moment in doubt he was the Chevalier's primary priority and central focus. Then again, the Chevalier didn't have the chance to run the kingdom. Hm, perhaps a better comparison would be to Madame de Pompadour, who also had no power beyond what her King gave her, but who managed to maintain Louis XV' favour even when he wasn't sexually interested anymore, not least because not only did she was emotionally available to him whenever he wanted to reassure, amuse and praise, but she could delegate. (I.e. promote her allies into Louis' cabinet, she didn't have to do all the work and thus had time for Louis.)
Reinette: Being and remaining Maitresse en titre wasn't as easy as it looks like! And no one ever suspected me of ordering black masses.
Christian is supposedly distracted with a lot of festivals and parties from realizing what was going on and having time to reflect and change his mind.
His German wiki entry says he wrote an a paper "Ich hätte gerne beide gerettet" (meaning Struensee and Brandt) and that he kept referring to Struensee as a great man. Alas.
Re: Danish kings and their favorites: Christian VII
I'm reminded of future F1 and Prussian Severus Snape, Danckelmann, not least because adult F1 also had these mixed feelings about Danckelmann, but of course future F1 had his much loved mother to intervene on his behalf for his early childhood, and he had siblings he was close to. I take it Christian wasn't close to Juliana's son, but did he have full siblings? I don't recall from the movie. (The movie being "A Royal Affair".)
he cast her as the evil stepmother who wanted him dead so her son could inherit
This also reminds me of F1 and stepmother Dorothea the founder of the Schwedt line. As more than one biographer said, both can be true: that it's psychologically easier to blame the stepmother as opposed to blaming one's father, and that the stepmothers in question once they had children of their own of course promoted and fought for them, though not to the degree that they wanted their stepsons actively dead.
So now Struensee's in power. He's therapist to the king, and as we'll see, therapist to the queen as well, then probably her lover, he's entrusted with their son's education, and now he's allowed to reform the country. The king even seems fine with the menage a trois they have going.
Everything is great for about five minutes! But there is a snake in paradise. Workaholic Struensee becomes obsessed with all the good he can do as minister. He stops having time for Christian.
That is his big mistake in the movie as well. On the one hand, one feels like yelling "buddy, how could you forget that all the power you have derives exclusively from keeping Christian happy!", but on the other, giving the state of Denmark and the chance for reforming, it's all too understandable that Struensee prioritized, as it turns out, wrongly. I'm reminded that the Chevalier de Lorraine, a far worse man as a human being, is an example of a favourite who always got it right. It's not that he didn't have sex with other people, even women, shock, horror, but Philippe the Gay was never for a moment in doubt he was the Chevalier's primary priority and central focus. Then again, the Chevalier didn't have the chance to run the kingdom. Hm, perhaps a better comparison would be to Madame de Pompadour, who also had no power beyond what her King gave her, but who managed to maintain Louis XV' favour even when he wasn't sexually interested anymore, not least because not only did she was emotionally available to him whenever he wanted to reassure, amuse and praise, but she could delegate. (I.e. promote her allies into Louis' cabinet, she didn't have to do all the work and thus had time for Louis.)
Reinette: Being and remaining Maitresse en titre wasn't as easy as it looks like! And no one ever suspected me of ordering black masses.
Christian is supposedly distracted with a lot of festivals and parties from realizing what was going on and having time to reflect and change his mind.
His German wiki entry says he wrote an a paper "Ich hätte gerne beide gerettet" (meaning Struensee and Brandt) and that he kept referring to Struensee as a great man. Alas.