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: Charles Hanbury-Williams: Russia (The Life III)

[selenak]

...So what happens if H-W infects Catherine with syphilis?? (To Catherine and Russia, I mean. I don't care that much about H-W's relationship with her, and I suppose it's pretty self-evident what would happen to that.)

Catherine's marriage gets annulled and she gets put into an Orthodox nunnery by Elizaveta. (Babies with uncertain parentage are one thing, syphilis another, and Catherine has already produced a son when H-W comes to Russia, so technically they don't need her anymore, though of course resting the succession on the shoulders of a single child is always a big risk. However, since Peter the not yet III is around and alive, Elizaveta would probably have remarried him post haste so he can produce more babies. If he could. I don't think he had any illegitimate kids, or did he? Which given the question mark over Paul's parentage makes it questionable as to whether he might not have been sterile, since he definitely had sex with other women. And no more sex with Catherine at this point, so at least his aunt doesn't have to worry about him getting infected as well. (Thish is also why Catherine can't explain this away by blaming Peter.)

H-W is lucky if he gets out of Russia alive. There is of course no Russia/England treaty, and Elizaveta will demand incredibly favourite conditions to herself before she as much as talks to another envoy again, because hey, why not use this opportunity to the full? H-W, if he did make it out of Russia alive, is received by a monumentally pissed off government. Not being a member of the armed forces, he can't be shot like poor Admiral Byng, but undoubtedly unpleasant things are in store. Plus the third stage of his syphilis kicks in, which makes the unpleasant things academic since he ge gets locked up as a raving lunatic anyway.

H-W: Platonic mentorship it is!
Peter the only shortly III: I, on the other hand, like this AU.
The Danes: We don't.
Poland: We'd be all for it except we don't trust a Fritz fan like Peter not to say yes to partitioning us with even more parts going to Prussia anyway.
Orlov brothers and Russian army: You don't seriously believe we'd have put up with Peter if Catherine had been a locked up nun, do you? Not if he still gave our bloodily won territory to Fritz and made us find for stupid Holstein. We'd still have engineered a coup, reinstalled Ivan as Czar - remember Ivan? still alive at this point! as are his siblings and Dad in the back of beyond! -, appointed one of us as Regent, and then who knows what would have happened. But don't worry, Danes, it would not have been war with you. Or any kind of longer reign for Peter III.