Quiz results!

[selenak]

Replies to yesterday's Frederician quiz, for the curious, and protected by a cut for anyone who still wants to take it. BTW, honestly, just two and a half years ago, I would not have known the majority of the replies, either. There's nothing like falling in with a fandom to get the reading and research juices going, what can I say. :)

So, answers with explanations and source quotations below the cut.



The tragic boyfriend who was killed in front of young Friedrich was Hans Herrmann von Katte, but if I had phrased it a bit differently - "boyfriend who died in front of Friedrich", Keyserlingk, nicknamed Caesarion by Frederick, might also have kind of qualified. That is, we don't know whether he was a boyfriend, but he was definitely a favourite, and he died of natural causes to Frederick's great distress, so herself_nyc, you weren't completely wrong.

British (or rather, Hanover) relations: Frederick's mother, Sophia Dorothea, was the sister of George II and daughter of George I. George III., a generation younger than Frederick (G3 was G2's grandson, due to G3's father, another Frederick, dying before G2's death), was an early frontrunner which I ascribed to the American Revolution and his therefore being the most famous George of all the crowned Georges. But in terms of relationship, he was Frederick's nephew once removed, if anything.

Everyone got Voltaire right! He would be very pleased.

Two of Frederick's siblings other than Wilhelmine (his favourite sister): well, Frederick was one of fourteen kids all in all, and one of ten to survive into adulthood, which means eight non-Wilhelmine names to choose from. I did name drop another sibling in a late question - Heinrich/Henry, his fourteen years younger brother who was way too much like him for the two ever to get along well - but I think only schneefink and mildred_of_midgard noticed. :) Incidentally, I don't blame anyone. Before I got in this fandom, I vaguely knew there were a lot of siblings and one of the brothers had been gay as well, but not much more than that. cahn naming the most often forgotten sibling of them all, Ferdinand, was A plus fandom achievement. If anyone into Swedish history reads this: Friedrich's sister Ulrike/Ulrica was the mother of Gustav III., he who was assassinated at a masque ball and provided Verdi opera material. German readers familiar with certain headlines: the current Hohenzollern, presently engaged in absurd law suits, are all descended from Frederick's next in age brother August(us) William/Wilhelm.

On the female monarch whom Frederick spent a life time feuding with question, I provided two legit answers - though if you want to get technical, the only right answer was Maria Theresa (of Austria), since he and Elizabeth I. of Russia intermittently were allies (which he and Maria Theresa never were) and he and Catherine the Great were always allies (on paper, anyway) or neutral. Maria Antonia of Saxony he actually got along with, which was a rarity for Frederick, which is why "What you do mean, only one?" is a totally valid answer. (Sadly, the Marquise de Pompadour wasn't a monarch, otherwise I'd have listed her as an option. Hostility throughout.)

(Michael Gabriel) Fredersdorf, nicknamed by one biographer "the Prussian Pompadour" and arguably the man closest to Frederick in his life, started out as his valet but held all the other offices listed as well, hence "all of the above" being correct.

The guy involved in an M/M/M love triangle with Frederick and his younger brother Heinrich was called Marwitz, and you can read all the non-fictional insanely screwed up and hilarious original quotes about it here and a fictional take here.

Speaking of quotes: color me amused that the one quote most people didn't want to believe was said by Frederick about Maria Theresa, aka his life long arch nemesis, was "I have regretted the death of the Empress-Queen: she brought honor to her throne and sex". He did write this about her after her death, to D'Alembert. All the quotes are either from Frederick's letters, from envoy reports on conversations with Frederick or from his reader Henri de Catt's diary, except for the most famous of these quotes, which I only one and a half years ago found out he never actually said or wrote. Which was a snarky comment he supposedly made re: the first Partition of Poland, which was him, Catherine and Maria Theresa doing the dividing: ""She cried, when she took; the more she cried, the more she took!"" Sounds like Frederick, right? That's probably what the nineteenth century writer thought who saw this comment made by a by now forgotten nonety and ascribed it to Frederick the Great instead of a "famous quotes" collection. From there, it became a fixture in Frederick and/or Maria Theresa biographies until someone in the later 20th century actually took the trouble to wonder to try and track it down to its original source. (When it's quoted, it usually shows up as "Frederick wrote in a letter...") And lo, turns out that not only is that remark not from any of the surviving letters, it also doesn't show up in any 18th century anecdotes collection or biography until an early 19th century writer makes the comment in his own name. Then, as mentioned, in the later 19th century someone thought Frederick ought to have said it, and it became another case of "let them eat cake", aka a famous quote ascribed to a person who never said it.

Still in quote territory: The statement from Frederick about the only time he'd been really happy was made towards British Envoy Andrew Mitchell in 1757, during the 7 Years War - and Mitchell included a record of this conversation in his next dispatch back home. The time he named for that happiness were... his years in Rheinsberg, where he spent four years, all in all, between 1736 and 1740. Now granted, Frederick had more decades to live (he died in 1786), but there's no record on him changing his mind on the Rheinsberg years. Why was he the happiest then? The biographers' overall consensus: Because these four years were arguably the only time he could live as he liked, with a firm emphasis on music, art and literature, out of his father's supervision, and not yet with the insane work schedule he put on himself once he became King, not to mention that with one notable exception, the people he cared for were all still alive then. (With Sanssouci, he famously said, re: his grave which he had built there - "when I am there I shall be free of sorrow", punning with the name of the palace, but that was a prediction for being dead and at any rate a different category than happiness.)

Lastly, as to why we know without time travel how old Fritz would have treated his younger self: because of his relationship with his brother Heinrich, who, as mentioned, was all too much like him, and whom he even once or twice refered to as „my other self“. As for what kind of behavior towards another self we could expect, well, let‘s just say their father was a lasting role model in this regard…



Thanks to everyone for participating in this frivolity!