cahn | Historical Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 45

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Unfortunately, there was then at Berlin a King who pursued one policy only, who deceived his enemies, but not his servants, and who lied without scruple, but never without necessity.

(from The King's Secret - by Duke de Broglie, grand-nephew of the subject of the book, Comte de Broglie, and grandfather of the physicist) )

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From:

mildred_of_midgard

Oh, I forgot something I meant to add elsewhere, another new detail I learned through these biographies: FS had two surviving into adulthood siblings

Charlotte was also new to me! (I knew about Karl the general who kept losing, of course.)

From:

selenak

I am pleased Salon upholds the tradition of sibling discovery! Charlotte doesn't make it into historical fiction, mind - the MT series includes Karl the battle loser and their mother, but not Charlotte, for example - , so that's probably one big reason I never heard of her before. But all three biographies agree the surviving Lorraine siblings were close.

Speaking of siblings: I watched this lively debate of novelists who wrote about Alexander (the Great), and it very much amused me that one of them said that one of her special angles was a focus on his sister Cleopatra, because if you read/watch Alexander fiction, you'd think he was an only child, which he assuredly was not. I'm not invested in Alexander but at this point I exclaimed "hail, comrade!"

From:

mildred_of_midgard

My immediate reaction to a mention of Cleopatra: "Is that Jeanne Reames?" And then I clicked on the link (no, I did not watch, predictably), and saw Jeanne Reames straight off! I liked her Alexander books, can recommend. Cleopatra/Kleopatra is indeed a great character, and in general the characterization is good.

From:

cahn

one of them said that one of her special angles was a focus on his sister Cleopatra, because if you read/watch Alexander fiction, you'd think he was an only child, which he assuredly was not. I'm not invested in Alexander but at this point I exclaimed "hail, comrade!"

:D I am all about subscribing to the sibling newsletters! :D