cahn | Historical Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 43

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Still going! Still clearing Fritz's valet/chamberlain Fredersdorf's name from the calumny enshrined in wikipedia that he was dismissed for financial irregularities!

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From:

mildred_of_midgard

By the way, Selena, back when I started my Danish kick, I asked you if you remembered how Bernstorff the anti-Prussian had felt about the marriage to Juliana Maria, and you said you didn't remember. When I got to the relevant part in Hartmann, I discovered that you didn't remember because there was nothing to remember: he doesn't talk about it. I had to learn Danish to find out! And as I expected, Bernstorff the anti-Prussian is anti the Brunswick marriage.

I'm just impressed that the king didn't want the marriage and the foreign minister didn't want the marriage, but the chamberlain wanted the marriage, so the marriage *happened*. We see who has the real power here. Moltke would definitely be the man to bribe, Fritz, if only he were bribable!

Speaking of which, I'm still amused by his account of how the British tried to bribe him:

British: We like your monarch's marriage to a British princess, Moltke, and are interested in keeping relations friendly! Can we offer you, O most powerful man in Denmark, a pension?

Moltke: I do like money, but I like my king more, and he would have to okay this "pension".

British: Well, we were thinking of something more, how do we say this, unofficial.

Moltke: And did I mention, only if it's a lump sum.

British: *sigh* That would defeat the purpose of having a long-term hold over you.

Moltke: But when I'm no longer in service to the king and thus have no power or influence at all, I'll be happy to accept a pension from you.

British: ...You're willfully missing the point, aren't you?

Moltke: Willfully! But it doubles as being diplomatic and not offending you by refusing your "pension" outright, and also as seeing if you're stupid enough to give me money in a way that doesn't benefit you at all.

British: The word you are looking for here is "no."

Moltke: Eh, it was worth a try. :D

ETA: But who *was* a fan of Fritz was Frederik V. You can tell he had no power, because he was all, "Fritz is so cool! I could be more like Fritz! Denmark could be more like Prussia!" and you can almost see Moltke and Bernstorff going, "Maybe the silver lining to all the drunken orgies is that they distract him from having the application to carry out ideas like this. D: MEANWHILE, Denmark will be remaining neutral."

Frederik: :( Oh, all right, where's my wineglass? There's got to be some upside to being king if I can't start wars.

Edited Date: 2023-05-07 07:56 am (UTC)

From:

cahn

British: ...You're willfully missing the point, aren't you?

Moltke: Willfully! But it doubles as being diplomatic and not offending you by refusing your "pension" outright, and also as seeing if you're stupid enough to give me money in a way that doesn't benefit you at all.

British: The word you are looking for here is "no."

Moltke: Eh, it was worth a try. :D

LOLOLOL! This is pretty great. Have I mentioned I like Moltke? :)