With the caveat that rumors in Potsdam don't have to be identical to rumors in Copenhagen
Statistically speaking, I imagine there were a larger number of rumors in Copenhagen and more extreme rumors, just since people would have spent more of their time gossiping about the subject.
Oh, absolutely, especially since I doubt the 14 years old girl has seen a lot of Frederik in his cups. Or heard about the prostitutes and the BDSM.
Wikipedia said she was a lady-in-waiting at court, so it's possible she'd at least heard the stories. But maybe she's the type to try to reform a rake! Especially if she can comfort him! Or maybe she convinces herself the rumors or exaggerated, or maybe all she can think is QUEEN OF DENMARK.
Instinctively, I'd say it sounds like "Kill the King, overthrow the monarchy and found a Commonwealth with self as "Protector", i.e. NOT King but de facto ruler under another name", but maybe I'm too literal. :)
Or that! But I bet if he did that, he could still get Hirschholm Palace, so maybe Christian seriously entertained the possibility that Moltke was after the crown. ON THE OTHER HAND...well, you've seen the context for that anecdote now, so unless we find an older and more reliable source, I'm discounting it. I mean, it's the first I've heard that Christian had a lot of influence with his father and could get him to take back gifts to Moltke!
Otoh, with all those reforms, suspecting Struensee of having it in for not just the nobility but the monarchy isn't totally far stretched.
Except that one of his reforms was to get rid of the council and make the monarchy absolute again, a la Catherine, Joseph, Fritz, Gustav: this is how you reform a modern state!
But given how rumors work, who knows what people were speculating about his plans. Would be interesting to check out some of that "free press" material responsible for his downfall.
AW: Charles I and Cromwell, seriously? "Dearest sister, I should hope that your cause is more just than that of Charles, and that you are far from the tyrannical frame of mind of Cromwell, who under the name of protector became one of the worst tyrants England ever had."
I had forgotten this, thanks for the reminder! Go AW.
Re: Danish kings and their favorites: Frederik V and Moltke
Statistically speaking, I imagine there were a larger number of rumors in Copenhagen and more extreme rumors, just since people would have spent more of their time gossiping about the subject.
Oh, absolutely, especially since I doubt the 14 years old girl has seen a lot of Frederik in his cups. Or heard about the prostitutes and the BDSM.
Wikipedia said she was a lady-in-waiting at court, so it's possible she'd at least heard the stories. But maybe she's the type to try to reform a rake! Especially if she can comfort him! Or maybe she convinces herself the rumors or exaggerated, or maybe all she can think is QUEEN OF DENMARK.
Instinctively, I'd say it sounds like "Kill the King, overthrow the monarchy and found a Commonwealth with self as "Protector", i.e. NOT King but de facto ruler under another name", but maybe I'm too literal. :)
Or that! But I bet if he did that, he could still get Hirschholm Palace, so maybe Christian seriously entertained the possibility that Moltke was after the crown. ON THE OTHER HAND...well, you've seen the context for that anecdote now, so unless we find an older and more reliable source, I'm discounting it. I mean, it's the first I've heard that Christian had a lot of influence with his father and could get him to take back gifts to Moltke!
Otoh, with all those reforms, suspecting Struensee of having it in for not just the nobility but the monarchy isn't totally far stretched.
Except that one of his reforms was to get rid of the council and make the monarchy absolute again, a la Catherine, Joseph, Fritz, Gustav: this is how you reform a modern state!
But given how rumors work, who knows what people were speculating about his plans. Would be interesting to check out some of that "free press" material responsible for his downfall.
AW: Charles I and Cromwell, seriously? "Dearest sister, I should hope that your cause is more just than that of Charles, and that you are far from the tyrannical frame of mind of Cromwell, who under the name of protector became one of the worst tyrants England ever had."
I had forgotten this, thanks for the reminder! Go AW.