I am also wondering, assuming that no way no how would Fritz have a daughter as heir, if he would go for AW and his kids, or for his daughter's children. AW is born 1722, while Hypothetical Daughter is born between 1733 and 1740, so marrying her to one of AW's kids would come with a potentially problematic age gap.
that no way no how would Fritz have a daughter as heir
It's not just a question of "Wouldn't", he literary couldn't. Salic law and all that applying to German principalities. (Note MT is not, repeat, not, technically Empress Regnant of the HRE, she's the Empresss Consort once FS has become Emperor. What she is undisputed Queen Regnant of is Hungary and Bohemia, where Salic Law does not apply.) (Hence when we speculate how Catherine the Great would have fared if she hadn't married (P)Russian Pete but had remained Sophie von Anhalt Zerbst and married Heinrich instead, there's no scenario where she could have done what she did in rl and end up as single Queen Regnant. (Regent, yes. Queen Consort, yes. Queen Regnant, no.)
I think while going for hypothetical daughter's children would have been possible if there were no alternative male heirs, the fact that Fritz not only had three living brothers but that two of them (AW and Ferdinand) had themselves sons, not to mention that his Great Grandfather, the Great Elector, had spawned a whole separate line of Hohenzollern in his last marriage (the Schwedt cousins, one of whom Bach wrote the Brandenburg Concertos for) would have meant such a scenario need not apply. Besides, and speaking of the Schwedt cousins, another of those married in RL Fritz' sister Sophie. Presumably he could have married a daughter to a Schwedt cousin instead in that alternate timeline in order to reunite the two Hohenzollern branches and avoid any foreign prince getting to be King in Prussia.
(Not 100% sure he'd have done it if only because he didn't have a very high opinion of the Schwedt cousins, but it would have made 18th century dynastic sense.)
I always get confused about where Salic law does/does not apply, and went for 'doesn't' here because of Anna of Prussia--and the assumption that the HRE was an elective oddity.
Well, probably for the best that Fritz can't try and create a perfect grandson via his daughter, as the daughter tries to take MT as a role model. And I think she'd be the wrong age to marry Paul of Russia, however much he might like the idea.
It's not just a question of "Wouldn't", he literary couldn't. Salic law and all that applying to German principalities.
I'm reminded that in the 13th century, a Hohenzollern Swabian Duke got permission from Rudolf of Habsburg that a woman could inherit if the male line died out...but I agree that nobody would see having 3 brothers and however many nephews as the male line dying out.
(Not 100% sure he'd have done it if only because he didn't have a very high opinion of the Schwedt cousins, but it would have made 18th century dynastic sense.)
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timeasmymeasure
Re: Counterfactuals...
Date: 2025-05-29 07:00 pm (UTC)Re: Counterfactuals...
Date: 2025-05-30 06:45 am (UTC)It's not just a question of "Wouldn't", he literary couldn't. Salic law and all that applying to German principalities. (Note MT is not, repeat, not, technically Empress Regnant of the HRE, she's the Empresss Consort once FS has become Emperor. What she is undisputed Queen Regnant of is Hungary and Bohemia, where Salic Law does not apply.) (Hence when we speculate how Catherine the Great would have fared if she hadn't married (P)Russian Pete but had remained Sophie von Anhalt Zerbst and married Heinrich instead, there's no scenario where she could have done what she did in rl and end up as single Queen Regnant. (Regent, yes. Queen Consort, yes. Queen Regnant, no.)
I think while going for hypothetical daughter's children would have been possible if there were no alternative male heirs, the fact that Fritz not only had three living brothers but that two of them (AW and Ferdinand) had themselves sons, not to mention that his Great Grandfather, the Great Elector, had spawned a whole separate line of Hohenzollern in his last marriage (the Schwedt cousins, one of whom Bach wrote the Brandenburg Concertos for) would have meant such a scenario need not apply. Besides, and speaking of the Schwedt cousins, another of those married in RL Fritz' sister Sophie. Presumably he could have married a daughter to a Schwedt cousin instead in that alternate timeline in order to reunite the two Hohenzollern branches and avoid any foreign prince getting to be King in Prussia.
(Not 100% sure he'd have done it if only because he didn't have a very high opinion of the Schwedt cousins, but it would have made 18th century dynastic sense.)
Re: Counterfactuals...
Date: 2025-05-30 10:33 am (UTC)Well, probably for the best that Fritz can't try and create a perfect grandson via his daughter, as the daughter tries to take MT as a role model. And I think she'd be the wrong age to marry Paul of Russia, however much he might like the idea.
Re: Counterfactuals...
Date: 2025-05-31 07:33 pm (UTC)I'm reminded that in the 13th century, a Hohenzollern Swabian Duke got permission from Rudolf of Habsburg that a woman could inherit if the male line died out...but I agree that nobody would see having 3 brothers and however many nephews as the male line dying out.
(Not 100% sure he'd have done it if only because he didn't have a very high opinion of the Schwedt cousins, but it would have made 18th century dynastic sense.)
Agreed on both counts.