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: The End

[cahn]

(traveling again soon, but grabbing a few moments before that because at least I am going to finish replying to the H-W posts if it kills me)

H-W to P, after that last meeting: I love and adore you, as a child whom I have brought up: remember that.

Oh, that really is touching :(

Our auithor(s) argue that while cynics may claim Catherine was just using H-W, she meant it, she would have called him back if he'd been still alive by the time she became Czarina

Ah, but would she have given him a Socrates walking stick, that's what I want to know!

Says the book: Whether from noxious drugs or from more natural causes, Sir Charles became completely deranged during those days in Hamburg.

...omg!

(I also found the resulting discussion about whether the letter might be a forgery very interesting!)

Re: Charles Hanbury-Williams: The End

[selenak]

Ah, but would she have given him a Socrates walking stick, that's what I want to know!

LOL. Well, on the one hand, once she was crowned and had the goods, Catherine was as famed for her generosity as Fritz was for his thriftiness, which is why she pinched so many people from him. Otoh, that Socrates design seems to have been a very Fritzian one, complete with "I'm your Alcibiades" reference, and Catherine was more prone to hand out portraits of herself encased in big diamonds. (Lehndorff gets shown one by Grigory Orlov and by Heinrich. I.e. that was her go too present.)

Says the book: Whether from noxious drugs or from more natural causes, Sir Charles became completely deranged during those days in Hamburg.

...omg!

That was the first thing I brushed up when realising early the the book they were painstakingly avoiding the S-word because I needed to know how they explain his breakdown and death in that case.