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: Royal Affairs

[selenak]

He may have deserved it but I must confess my first reaction was actually "gosh, that was not a smart move, Mary!" Heh, which probably says more about me than about her...

Well, it wasn't, and he deserved it. These are not mutually exclusive truths. :) Like Elizabeth C. later, she wanted the mistress position, she had already boasted of it and claimed she'd kick Amalie the German mistress out and what not, and as the former governess she must have known G2's temper. Now if he'd made unwanted advances and she wanted to get rid of him, she could not have chosen a better method, but the way Worsley describes it, this wasn't the case. (Not that Worsley is under the delusion Mary D. found G2 himself so hot, but she did want to be Maitresse en titre.) Then again: she was an alcoholic, so probably was not entirely able to think things through when she pulled that chair.

I was charmed to find that even though she was found guilty, she absconded with her fortune and as far as I can tell from English wiki, continued to live her best life until she died. That's awesome!

In an age where women die of make up if they don't die of childbirth or the after effects so often, it definitely is!