Historical Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 48

[cahn]

Some awesome historical RPF candyheartsex stories for meeeeee (or by me, in one tiny case) with historical characters! I'm just going to note whom the stories are about here. They are all so good!!

Anne Boleyn/Catherine of Aragorn
Frances Howard and Frances Coke (or: James I's court was basically a HOTBED of scandal, omg)

And two that are also historical RPF but also consistent with the Jude Morgan novel The King's Touch, which is an excellent historical novel narrated by James ("Jemmy") Scott, Duke of Monmouth, Charles II's illegitimate son.

Princess Henrietta of England (Charles II's sister and wife of Philippe I duc d'Orleans)
James of Monmouth/William/Mary

Comments

Re: Maria Amalia of Spain

[mildred_of_midgard]

Yeah.

This reminds me, very early in salon, Selena listed all the 18th century monarchs she knew of who were faithful to their wives, for a grand total of 3: FW, G3, Louis XVI. Several years later (omg, we have a 5-year anniversary next month!), we can add a few more obscure monarchs: August III of Saxony-Poland, Philip V "the Frog" of Spain, and his two sons Ferdinand VI and Carlos III.

Re: Maria Amalia of Spain

[cahn]

uggggh. and who would have wanted to be married to any of them either! well, maybe G3 wasn't so bad. until he went mad, of course. gah!

G3 as a husband

[selenak]

I still haven‘t had the time to read a G3 biography, but he and Charlotte were famously devoted to each other. If you want to see G2 as a romantic hero, the Bridgerton prequel season/spin-off „Queen Charlotte“ is for my money actually the most interesting thing the series has done, possibly because they could depart from the strict romance/HEA formula and go for „bittersweet“ instead. Mind you, it‘s still strictly AU (both because of the basic Bridgerton-the-tv-show premise of Charlotte being a poc, with her marriage to George therefore starting black equality several centuries earlier, and because George‘s madness starts way earlier here than it did in rl), but it‘s highly enjoyable romantic trash with a surprisingly sensitive take on mental illness. (And the gruesome methods used on George when he believes this might cure him were sadly the least AU thing about that miniseries. Though again, years later.) The leads have good chemistry, there‘s an adorable supporting m/m couple (Charlotte‘s Lehndorff and George‘s Fredersdorf, basically), the actresses playing Charlotte truly make me believe they‘re the same person (there are two timelines, one telling the story of young Charlotte coming to England, getting married to George only to find out there‘s a massive problem no one told her about, and on set in the Bridgerton main timeline during the Regency decades later), and the same applies to the two actresses playing Lady Danbury (in the Bridgerton main timeline ,she‘s an awesome older lady, and in the prequel a young woman on the make who sees her chance in this new poc queen of England). You don‘t need to be familiar with Bridgerton the main series to enjoy the prequel, as the focus is strictly on Charlotte and George, and the main timeline scenes are understandable on their own. And the last scene with Charlotte and George in both timelines will make you sniffle (it did me) in a good way. (In the Bridgerton main timeline George is irrevocably sunk into madness, but he does have the occasional moment where people can get through to him.

Oh, and George‘s mother, Princess Augusta (aka Fritz of Wales‘ widow) is played by Michelle Fairlie, whom American watchers probably know best as Lady Catelyn Stark from Game of Thrones.

Re: Maria Amalia of Spain

[mildred_of_midgard]

That was actually Selena's original point when we had this discussion: MT had a better marriage with FS than most of the women in these marriages, despite the fact that her husband cheated on her.

I'm going to put in a good word for August III out of that list, though: of course, we have relatively little data, but what little data I have suggests he was a good husband, and he and his wife got along well.