Historical Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 46

[cahn]

Background: The kids' school has a topic for "Unit" every trimester that a lot of their work (reading, writing, some math) revolves around. These topics range from time/geographic periods ('Colonial America') to geography ('Asia') to science ('Space') to social science ('Business and Economics'). (I have some issues with this way of doing things, but that's a whole separate post.) Anyway, for Reasons, they have had to come up with a new topic this year, and E's 7/8 class is doing "World Fairs" as their new topic.

Me: I know E's teacher is all about World Fairs and I know she is great and will do a good job. But I feel like if we had a different teacher who wasn't so into World Fairs, they wouldn't do such a good job and another topic would be better.
Me: Like... the Enlightenment!
D: Heh, you could teach that! But you'd have to restrain yourself from making everything about Frederick the Great.
Me: But that's the thing! Everyone does relate to each other in this time period! Voltaire -- and his partner Émilie du Châtelet, who was heavily involved in the discourse of conservation of energy and momentum -- well, I've told you Voltaire had a thing with Fritz -- and then there's Empress Maria Theresa, who went to war with him a few times -- and Catherine the Great --
D, meditatively: You know --
Me: *am innocently not warned even though this is the same tone of voice that is often followed by, say, a bad pun*
D: -- it's impressive how everyone from this 'the Great' family is so famous!
Me: *splutters*
D, thoughtfully: But of course there's probably selection bias, as the ones who aren't famous don't get mentioned. You never see 'Bob the Great' in the history books...
Me: *splutters more*

Comments

Re: Get thee to a nunnery!

[selenak]

I would be very surprised if the scriptwriters were aware that Amalia and the failed pedagogical experiment existed, whereas it's reasonable to suspect the MT scriptwriters did come across an FS biography where he sells arms supplies to the Prussians, so I don't think this is on the same level. :)

Louis XV did apparently tell MA that he might have to send her back to Vienna, but nothing about putting her in a convent that I'm aware of, no.

Something I didn't mention is that Louis XV - presumably on a "he was a dirty old man and he did have sex with a bunch of teenage girls as we know!" - rationale gets a bit handsy with young MA, nothing undeniable, i.e. you can pass it off as grandfatherly attention, but at one point he shows up in the middle of the night at her bedroom door, only our young heroine has been warned and thus isn't there, and then old Louis XV gets back to putting pressure on future Louis XVI to consummate the marriage and no longer considers solving the continuation of the Bourbon line problem by molesting his granddaughter-in-law.

Now, as opposed to the threat to put her into a French convent as opposed to sending her home to Vienna, I thought this was a bit more plausible an invention. So, do we think Louis XV would have? I'm mostly inclined to say no, because MA wasn't just any teenage girl, she was his grandson's wife, and for a believing Catholic, which Louis XV was, this would have been incest. (Also terrible power abuse etc., but not many absolute monarchs pay attention to that part.)

Re: Get thee to a nunnery!

[mildred_of_midgard]

I would be very surprised if the scriptwriters were aware that Amalia and the failed pedagogical experiment existed

Agreed, I'm just saying that had the situation been different in MA's case, a non-medieval convent was still a possible outcome in the 1770s.

no longer considers solving the continuation of the Bourbon line problem by molesting his granddaughter-in-law.

Louis XV: If there's one thing I know how to do...!

So, do we think Louis XV would have? I'm mostly inclined to say no, because MA wasn't just any teenage girl, she was his grandson's wife, and for a believing Catholic, which Louis XV was, this would have been incest.

I agree, I suspect the incest part would have stopped him, where sheer adultery didn't. OTOH, I don't know Louis XV's personality *that* well; maybe there's some counterevidence out there.

Re: Get thee to a nunnery!

[cahn]

because MA wasn't just any teenage girl, she was his grandson's wife, and for a believing Catholic, which Louis XV was, this would have been incest.

This seems plausible to me! (Whereas the terrible power abuse argument doesn't seem like it would be a factor, I agree...)