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: Swedish politics

[cahn]

Everyone's opinion was that if Sweden got an absolute monarch, it would be like the time Prussia got an absolute monarch and look what happened, or even the time when Sweden had an absolute monarch (through the death of Karl XII): i.e. not good for their neighbors who don't want to be invaded.

ahahahaha this is hilarious and informative, my favorite combination :)

Likewise, remember when August III of Poland died and Fritz said, "I hate these people who are always doing things at the wrong time?" August III died just after the close of the Seven Years' War, when Prussia was teetering on the brink of economic collapse and Fritz couldn't afford to impose his own candidate on the throne of Poland. So he had to support Catherine's candidate, Poniatowski, and he wasn't happy about it.

...I completely missed this context at the time. Thank you!