Historical Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 42

[cahn]

Last post, we had (among other things) Danish kings and their favorites; Louis XIV and Philippe d'Orléans; reviews of a very shippy book about Katte, a bad Jacobite novel, and a great book about clothing; a fic about Émilie du Châtelet and Voltaire; and a review of a set of entertaining Youtube history videos about Frederick the Great.

Comments

Re: Child Emperors and their Regents

[selenak]

WOOOW that's a great line!

What I thought. So did Robin the podcaster. (Who is British, btw, meaning the accent flows way more melodiously than of the Thugs and Miracles gy.)

That's one way to succeed!

One might even call it the Frederician one. :) Seriously, there are a lot of parallels, including young Basil II being thought of as a soft luxury loving party guy (well, what else was he to do before being allowed to govern), and then, once he ousted Great Uncle Basil Lekapenos, remaking himself as an austere warrior king famous for his victories, living with the army, not marrying and only having a close circle of friends but no court (he left that party of being an Emperor to younger brother Constantine). Oh, and instead of the overcrowded Imperial Mausoleums, he wanted to be buried alone next to his favourite palace. Dogs were not mentioned, though.

I forget which, but one of the books I read on the subject really emphasized how much Henry IV's attempt to work against the nobility instead of with them must have had a lot to do with how singularly unimpressed he was with how they had handled things when he was a minor. And that made a lot of sense to me.

Indeed. Yes, going against your nobles at the same time you're steering towards a showdown with the Pope is a terrible mistake, but good lord, once the last of the Henry III installed Popes had died, neither the secular nor the ecclesiastical princes Henry had personal contact with in his childhood and youth were anything to write home about.