Links to all fanfiction I've written in various fandoms. That I'm admitting to.

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( Babylon 5 )

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A few words about my personal selection criteria. I had to find cut-off points, not least because there are so many interesting ladies. But I decided not to pick any who while born in the 18th century had the majority of their lives happening in the 19th, and/or key events of their lives, which meant, among others, no Emma Hamilton (who should definitely get a miniseries), and no Rahel Varnhagen. (Generally speaking, I used the French Revolution as a cut off point, not least because it felt like the beginning of a new era, though in one case I picked somone who did experience that era and beyond, will explain there.) Conversely, I didn't pick any lady who lived into the 18th century but had the majority of their lives happening in the 17th, which means, alas, no Liselotte (Elisabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate, she who was married to Philippe d'Orleans, Monsieur, the gayest man of his time and our German correspondent in Versailles with ALL the good gossip) and not her favourite Aunt, Sophia of Hannover (almost Queen of England but for Cousin Anne surviving her for a few months), either. (Both definitely deserve their own series.)

Also, I tried to consider the demands of tv, i.e. someone like Laura Bassi, philosopher, physicist and sole female member of the University of Bologna has the drawback that her life went too smoothly, the patriarchy not withstanding. She got the recognition. She married the man she loved (despite some grumblings from the university which was prepared to accept chaste Minervas but not married women as lecturers (of men, omg!). Her husband was a champ who didn't oppress her or stand in her way but supported her. She was financially independent. Basically, unless you invent a lot and make her life very different from what it was, there are no big obstacles to overcome. I could see a movie made about Laura where the grumblings about her getting married are the obstacle and the happy ending is when she continues to teach as a wife and mother, but it's not enough for a miniseries, never mind a multi season one. On the other end of the scale, there's Luise Gottsched, one of the female pioneers of German writing, who had a very very depressing life in that her husband (also a writer) demanded she devote herself to his work first and foremost, exploited her, and in the end cheated on her. Leaving aside the difficulty of dramatizing the act of writing (always tricky with writers who didn't have another job), it's just one depressing thing after another, and no satisfying pay off because it would take centuries until she was properly appreciated in cultural history.

All this being said: here are some fascinating women from the 18th century with series format friendly lives, belonging in several (overlapping) categories: ladies of the theatre, ladies of science, writers, politicians and courtiers. This is by no means a complete list, but Darth Real Life has returned to me.


Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

Who was she? Georgian wit, writer, traveller and member of a bisexual love triangle

Miniseries or multi season: Both possible; you could focus on just one era of her lilfe (miniseries) or cover the decades from her childhood where she's teaching herself Latin when she's not cheeky with members of the Hellfire Club to her middle and old age in Italy when she's dealing with Italian robbers when she's not shocking young Horace Walpole by dancing and having bodily fluids while over 50.

Lady Mary's most famous work as a writer were the Embassy Letters, from when her husband was the British Ambassador to Turkey. (Which also led to her becoming a medical pioneer who brought inocculation against smallpox to Britain.) You can read my review of her biography here and a summary of her part in the bisexual love triangle here.

Émilie du Châtelet

Who was she? French Mathematician, physicist and philosopher; had a stormy decades long love affair with Voltaire

Miniseries or multi season: Miniseries. Alas, she died at age 42 in the aftermath of childbirth, so you can do the childhood, youth and getting married thing in the first episode and devote the rest to her career as a scientist and love affairs, of which there were several in addition to the main one with Voltaire, until she dies early and tragically but not before finishing her magnum opus, the translation and commentary of Newton's Principia into French which is still the one in use today.

Reviews of several biographical works about her can be read here.

Caroline Neuber "Die Neuberin"

Who was she? German actress, company manager (which women just weren't in those days, so people constantly felt obliged to say she had a manly spirit) and German theatre reforming pioneer

Miniseries or multi season: Both are possible, again depending on whether you pick just one era of her life or cover the whole thing. Given teenage Caroline has an abusive Dad to escape from (seriously: he whips her, she has a scar from that in her face for the rest of her llife, and given she's an actress, a great many people get to see it, and then after her first escape attempt he gets her locked up in prison for 14 months, but then she escapes again and for good), it starts with great drama right from the beginning. What she's most famous for is a) working with the Gottscheds (see above for Luise and her exploitative but important for German literary history husband) to produce dramas in German on the stage that weren't just Punch-and-Judy farces, thus proving the claim you can do serious drama in German instead of French, and b) leading her company instead of letting a man do it. Her life ended mid 7 Years War, so about as dramatic as it started, and there really is enough material for a a whole series, but equally you can do a classical theatre drama (i.e. focus on Caroline getting her company going against the odds and landing her first successful performances, something like that.

Her wiki entry is here.


Margaret "Peg" Woffington

Who was she? Georgian Irish stage actress, successful in both female and male parts (her debut was as Macheath)

Miniseries or multi season? Miniseries; another lady who made it barely past 40, alas. But she died wealthy and admired, i.e. the exact opposite of the contemporary cliché involving actresses with lots of love affairs and fiery rivalries.

Her wiki entry is here.


Barbara "La Barbarina" Campanini

Who was she? Italian Ballet dancer, international European superstar of her day

Miniseries or multiseason?: Miniseries, this time not because of an early death but because once she retires into respectability and heading charities in Silesia, there's not much tv friendly material for her old age.

Here is a highly entertaining summary of her dramatic life (and love life) written by mildred_of_midgard; let me add that since then, we found out the Scot Barbarina was either engaged or married to when Frederick the Great kidnapped her was the brother of Lord Bute (as in teacher of George III, short lived PM of same, son-in-law of Lady Mary, because it's a small 18th century world).


Gertrud Elisabeth Schmeling Mara

Who was she? musical violinist Wunderkind turning soprano European superstar; marries debauched cellist and boyfriend of Prussian Prince.

Miniseries or multi season? Miniseries, but one devoting the entire first episode on her wunderkind phase where her father is a wannabe Leopold Mozart, not least because it's an interesting possible reply to "what if Leopold had continued to tour with Nannerl as well as Wolfgang once she hit puberty?" Conversely, the last episode will have to cover her entire old age once Napoleon invades Russia and this sets her retirement funds literally aflame. The dramatic middle point being of course her time in Prussia, complete with bisexual love triangle and dramatic escape attempt. (Again; what is it with Prussia and dramatic escape attempts?)

All the juicy details about her life are to be found here.

Julia von Mengden

Who was she? Livonian courtier, favourite and likely lover of Anna Leopoldovna; was involved in Anna Leopoldovna becoming Regent in 1740, got engaged to Anna's male fave, Saxonian Envoy Lynar (if you're thinking threesome, you're thinking what everyone was thinking at the time); after Elizaveta Petrovna's coup that deposed Anna, chose so go with Anna into exile and imprisonment; was eventually freed by Catherine II.

Miniseries or multiseason? Miniseries, with the last episode devoted to the decades of imprisonment - entire seasons of same would not offer much drama, after all.


Julia has only a short wiki entry in English, but I picked her for a couple of reasons: a) as a courtier, she experiences four female Russian rulers in a row (Anna Ivanova, Anna Leopoldovna, Elizaveta and Catherine), but by focusing on her instead of them, the miniseries has the chance for simultanous closeness and critical distance; Julia's loyalty to Anna Leopoldovna is genuinely touching; it's one in the eye for Putin's homophobia and machismo.

Maria Theres(i)a

Who was she? Archduchess of Austria, Queen of Hungary, Queen of Bohemia, Empress (Consort, technically) of the Holy Roman Empire, etc., etc. One of the most important rulers of the 18th century. She and Frederick the Great were each other's Arch Nemesis. English speaking folk mainly know her as the mother of Marie Antoinette, which is a source of frustration to me.

Miniseries or multi season? Multi season. There has been a series in recent years which was basically three different miniseries, one for young, one for middle aged and one for old MT, but while it had some good bits, by and large I felt all the changes were hugely talking down to the audience, assuming it wouldn't get 18th century politics or female main characters as problematic in their way as their male counterparts. So I really want a series that covers her entire life (okay, fine, it can start when she's a teenager) in the spirit of John Adams.

Her English Wiki entry is okay as a start, but if you want something less dry with original quotes that are fun to read and give a good idea of her personality and why I find her interesting, here is a collection of quotes by her and Frederick about each other during their life time rivalry.


The other days

lirazel asked me this. Now, to me, a biography I'd reccommend should ideally:

- offer a compelling portrait of its subject in the context of the times and other people said subject lives in

- be decently annotated, because it's not a novel, and I do want to know which primary source material the author bases their conclusions on, especially when it comes to motivations (so if you're telling me X loathed Y, I would like a footnote somewhere telliing me "See letter blablah blah")

- be fluently written; I've read biographies that are good with the facts and the sources but manage to come across as very dull due to the (lack of) writing style.

These demands can sometimes come into conflict. For example, a few years ago I read Nancy Goldstones "Daughters of the Winter Queen", which was very entertainingly written and came across as informative, and told me a lot of new things about historical characters I didn't know much about before, with one exception (i.e. one of the daughters I did know things about, having read her memoirs). Then I read Nancy Goldstone's "Ihe Shadow of the Empress", about historical figures I knew a lot about. This was also entertainingly written, but alas, I found big mistakes or at best omissions to produce a certain impression, or downright falsifications every second page. This in turn made me distrustful towards the earlier book. So no more Goldstone recs, though she can write well. Otoh, Simon Beale's two volume biography of Joseph II is thorough and reliable and dense - but not easy to read, especially if that's your first going at the era and the people in question.

All this being said, here are some recs for biographies which I found both readable and reliable (with the caveat that research always marches on, so with older biographies you can always have the experience that new discoveries can mean some earlier assumptions are now outdated or disproven). I've also separated them for biographies focused on one person (or two), and books focused on an era which is described through the eyes of an ensemble of (historical) characters; not classic biographies but still biographical and historical in nature.

A) Biographies of individuals

Emma Southon: Agrippina. For a more detailed review, see here. Short version: Gets around the source problems by directly adressing them, creates a vivid portrait, since I have it on audio I keep relistening to favourite passages.

Claire Tomalin: Charles Dickens. A detailed review is here. Short version: Tomalin comes near the platonic ideal of a biographer as someone who on the one hand is empathic and makes it clear in non-abstract terms why the reader should care about this person but on the other doesn't shy away from depicting the flaws in a non-prettifying manner. Why this one and not her earlier biography of Ellen Ternan, The Invisible Woman? Frankly, because Dickens himself offers far more material to write about than Nelly, who herself is included in the Dickens bio.

Mike Duncan: Hero of Two Worlds: The Marquis de Lafayette in the Age of Revolution. A detailed review is here; again, it's a biography with great empathy for its subject that doesn't shy away from the less admirable parts of said subject's life.

Jean Orieux: Voltaire. You can find a detailed review and plenty of quotes here; it's an older biography (i.e. we're talking several decades here), and highly opinionated, but a) the author makes clear when it's his opinion he voices, instead of disguising them and/or treating them as facts, and b) it definitely fulfills the requirements of being both compellingly written and offering annotations for all its assertions.


Robert Caro's The Years of Lyndon Johnson series (still unfinished, the last published volume ended with Johnson's first year in office: Now, the sheer size of each volume - I think each over 1000 pages - is a challenge, but I can say without hesitation that these are the best political biographies I've ever read. Caro makes the US political institutions comprehensible to a non-American like yours truly, how the Congress works, how the Senate works, the appointment of Judges etc. He gets across how many people are actually involved in the legislative process without this reader feeling adrift, and he brings these many people to life. He never demonizes Johnson's opponents to build up Johnson. He manages to get across both Johnson's gazillion flaws ("flaws" is at times putting it mildly), but also his incredible strengths. If you have a competence kink for politics, and getting things done, Johnson is your man. At the same time, Caro notably builds up to the not yet reached Vietnam era because it's pretty clear that some of the same traits that enabled Johnson to make it to the top and push through more social reform legislation than any other president since FDR will also cause him to make misjudgment after misjudgment on Vietnam. More detailed reviews of volumes I and III, and volume IV. Let me add that when I watched Spielberg's Lincoln, I had the problem which another European commenter memorably described of watching that film feeling like attending a service of a religion you're not part of. (At times, you can literally see the halo around Lincoln's head because of the way Spielberg frames him.) This is definitely not the case here. Now of course LBJ is a very different character from Abraham Lincoln, and one of Caro's points is actually that the lessening of respect for the Presidency and the person of the President (which he regrets) started with Johnson, not, as commonly seen, with Nixon, but for me, Johnson the infinitely flawed but ultra competent is both more believable and more compelling than Lincoln the Saint.

b) Portrait of Eras via Biographies

It's getting German. Thankfully, several of these have been translated, so I can rec them to non-German speakers.

Uwe Wittstock: February 33: The Winter of Literature In which our author describes how a Republic turns into a fascist dictatorship within a few weeks through the eyes of some of Germany's greatest writers, male and female, Jewish or not. If you're German, you're probably more familiar with some of these than if you're not, but all of them are brought to life, and the quotes are from their letters, diaries and interviews at the time, not with hindsight. The contemporary relevance is obvious, but even leaving that aside, it's just a damn good read. Wittstock has published last year "Marseille 1940", in which he describes the intellectuals fleeing the Nazis in increasingly occupied France, which is excellent as well, but hasn't been translated into English yet.

Evelyn Juers: House of Exile. In which Ms. Juers uses the same quoting from letters and diaries technique to describe the fates of a couple of European exiles ending up in the US, focused on Heinrich Mann and his wife Nelly, with brother Thomas, Brecht and others also playing important parts; a detailed review is here. (My only complaint is that it also includes Virginia Woolf - not because I have anything against her, or that she's not ably described, but she really has no connection to the other characters who are all connected to each other.) Very moving, vivid, and again of great contemporary relevance.


Leonard Horowski: Das Europa der Könige. Alas, not translated into English, but a must-read if you can read German and are in any way interested in the later 17th and in the 18th century. It's an incredibly entertaining overview of Europe (that includes you, Brits!) from the later Louis IV era to just about the end of the French Revolution, and feels as if you're told all the good (and hot) gossip by an insider of the various courts, whether it's one of the big ones (i.e. Versailles) or the smaller scale German principalities. Horowski uses memoirs and letters but also - as opposed to, say, John Julius Norwich - points out when an entertaining story is extremely unlikely to have happened, and if there is counter evidence. And he's really great at making constant connections. (Not just all the royals are related to each other all over the continent, but so are a lot of their courtiers, lovers and mistresses, and that does matter.) It's witty, it's fun, it's immensely readable, and disproves anyone who believes to remain factual you have to be boring.

Lastly: Happy Birthdaylirazel!


The other days

Some more distraction from the urge to vomit or cry when thinking about Recent Events and Future Events:


An incredible 3 D Tour through St. Peter. Among other things. Having been to St. Peter repeatedly two decades or so or ago, I can tell you that with all the tourist crowds, it's impossible to experience it in this much detail and quiet in real life. Amazing. Also highly informative.


A really well made overview of the story of The White Rose, the student resistance group, by YouTuber Feli. I've said it before, I'll say it again: what I find most encouraging about the Scholls and their friends is that they weren't somehow naturally immune to fascism, that, growing up in the Third Reich, they did for a time not just obey but truly believe, and were still able to develop critical and moral thinking and emerge from this to a readiness to risk everything (none of them was under any illusions as to what would happen if they were caught) in order to fight against the cruel system they had grown up in. They weren't saints automatically making all the right choices (though this video informs me that the Russian Orthodox Church has actually made Alex Schmorrell into St. Alexander of Munich), they lived in what was truly the darkest time of German history in the city that sadly in many ways was the heart of the Nazi movement - and yet said no, said: we need to do something. To use their favourite Goethe quote, Allen Gewalten zum Trotz sich erhalten.



On a less reverential and more black humored note, what this positive review of Gladiator II tells me is that I definitely don't want to watch Gladiator II. I don't need a repeat of the plot beats of the original, especially not our hero(es) wanting to restore the freaking Roman Republic centuries after its end, and again, I ask: Where are the Julias and why are the sons of the first African Roman Emperor and his Syrian wife chalky Joffrey Baratheon lookalikes? On the other hand, this trailer for what appears to be an actual, non-ironical, non-GCI heavy take on The Odyssey looks like it could be just what the Doctor ordered for me:




Starring Ralph Fiennes as Odysseus and Juliette Binoche as Penelope. (BTW, it says something about my own fictional priorities that what this combination brought to mind for me at once were these two as Heathcliff and Cathy in what is still the best Wuthering Heights adaptation I've watched so far (doesn't mean it doesn't leave great room for improvement, but it actually uses the entire novel, Hareton and Catherine II included), not these two in The English Patient. Anyway, Fiennes actually makes Odysseus' beggar alias actually believable, and it looks like this version will do something with the moral complications for when this tale turns from outwitting the bullies story to bloody revenge story. Colour me intrigued.

All in all: enjoyable on the same level Spartacus the tv show was, i.e. unabashedly trashy yet wish some surprisingly engaging character development. Given Roland Emmerich is responsible for one of my least favourite historical or "historical" movies, "The Patriot" and also for the Oxfordian eloge Anyonymous which I haven't watched, I liked this far better than I expected. My main reason for watching was that it's set in the Flavian era, which hasn't been cinematically and tv wise milked to death yet, and I had recently reread my definitely favourite work of Lion Feuchtwanger, the Josephus trilogy. BTW, I gather there's a book of the same title - i.e. "Those about to die" - which serves as inspiration but not isn't a historical novel but a non-fiction work covering the entire development from funeral games in ye early republic to elaborate mass productions throughout much of the Empire. As I haven't read said book, I only base this assumption on wikipedia and can't say whether it's any good, and can't compare or contrast, either.

( On to the gloriously trashy saga )

In conclusion: not a must, but if you liked Spartacus (the tv show) back in the day, you'll probably like this one, too. Oh, and if you've read Lindsey Davis' mystery series starring Marcus Didius Falco and want some visuals, you could do worse.

Me, watching the trailer to Gladiator II:

- okay, so more or less fictional son of Lucilla is the hero this time, taking fictional Maximus as his role model, go figure

- at least no one wants Rome to be a Republic again this time around? Instead, the master plan is "make the Empire fall", and since Commodus since Gibbon often works as the start of the Decline and Fall, kinda works, except that the Empire still has a few centuries more to go, and even a millennium, if you count Byzantium, which you should, but aren't we doing Septimius Severus at all?

- hang on, who ware these two Joffrey Baratheon wannabes? Are they meant to be Caracalla and Geta? Where's Julia Domna then? And her sister and nieces? and also, why are they blond and white?

( Historical spoilers for the Severan dynasty and the fates of who members of same showing up in the trailer ensue )

But fine. Fine. Gladiator the first was as ahistorical as they come and a smash hit too. I'm still chewing on the chalky blondness of Caracalla and Geta, though. Because: their father (Septimius Severus) was African. Their mother (Julia Domna) was Syrian. And before you use the "African Romans could be entirely descended from the whitest of white Italians" argument, we actually have a painting of Septimius Severus and his family (little Geta's face is scratched out because brother Caracalla did the thing he did and then declared damnatio memoriae):





So, Septimius Severus: not white. His sons: not chalky blond boys. Now, it's not that the trailer doesn't show a person of colour as well - but as far as I can tell, it's another fictional character played by Denzel Washington. Definitely not Septimius Severus, if he wants to bring the Empire down.)o Wait, hang on: googling tells me he's playing "Macrinus". What? THAT Macrinus? Okay, that one was from Mauretania. Okay, carry on. But still: why the Joffrey Baratheon look for the boys who definitely did not have it? At first I thought, the logic escapes me, and then I thought, maybe it's precisely because Caracalla and Geta aren't (either in history, nor, it seems, in this movie) meant to be sympathetic characters, so the production team didn't want to cast people of color for them?

Which might actually also explain why no one tackled the Severans yet in film or tv, full stop, despite them being Rome's first non-European Imperial dynasty. (Not non-Italian - the Spaniards via Trajan and Hadrian got there first.) . They can easily compete in sheer melodrama and twists with any other dynasty (and as Emma Southon has pointed out should be called the other Julians anyway, given that except for Septimiius Severus himself and Caracalla the psycho, it's three ladies called Julia who call the shots and build up and depose Emperors), there are assassinations galore, female power brokers, incest accusations, too, and one of them may or may not have been binary - but role models, they're not. The only nice one is the kid at the end of the dynasty, Severus Alexander, and he dies for prefering negotiations over battles, so where's the moral in that?

I'm not just mocking. After the success of I, Claudius, the BBC tried repeatedly to follow it up with another historical tv show focused on ruthless powerful families. Their take on the Borgias must have been so bad no one even bothered to bash it, and then they went for the Ptolemies in the tv show The Cleopatras, which going by reviews apart from suffering from bad 80s music also had a believability problem despite its outrages (all the royal incest combinations and familiy murders) all being authentic.... and without having seen either show, just based on reading about them, I think I know what the problem was. The writers didn't bother with sympathetic characters. I, Claudius has some of the best villains in tv history with its Livia and Caligula, and even the minor villains like Sejanus are highly memorable, but the whole thing wouldn't work if the show hadn't made its narrator Claudius a sympathetic character who gets an "eternally underestimated and abused underdog makes it to the top" story. (And there's a reason why once he's actually Emperor the story wanders into some difficulties.) And there are some other non-evil characters besides Claudius getting screentime, too. Flamboyant and clever villains are always a treat, but if there's no non-evil character having non-monstrous emotions in sight, you have a narrative problem.

Now, there's no reason why you couldn't still tell the story of the Severans; aside from the Hiistoria Augusta slandering her, Julia Domna has a good press as a patron of the arts and Septimus Severus' partner in power, and Julia Maesa who doesn't is admitted to have been highly effective, organizing an impossible comeback and creating not one but two Emperors, clearly seeing the first one she installed does not work out despite him being her grandson. It should be possible to write these ladies in a multi dimensional way. Or you could add a fictional character, maybe a friend of the Julias from Syria who comes to Rome when they do and gets increasingly appalled when they watch th "all power corrupts" principle at work. But there's no happy ending in store unless you go completely Quentin Tarantino in terms of historical endings, and maybe producers figure that "The first African-Syrian dynasty ruling Rome: just as messed up as all the others" isn't what people want to see?

At least that's how it worked out for me, in terms of my contributions this year. Both of my stories - for cahn - are set in the Stuart era, one early, one later; the first one features what was arguable the biggest sex and crime scandal at the scandal-heavy court of King James VI and I, and features the perspective of the two women who are bound to be antagonists in the upcoming series Mary and George, seeing as one of them was married to the titular George's (Buckingham's) rival for the favour of King James and the other became forced to marry George's older brother very much against her will and wasn't taking it quietly. Both ladies were called Frances and I very much enjoyed giving their perspective; anything you need to know about the history is in the story itself.


The Devil's Law Case (5951 words) by Selena
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 17th Century CE RPF
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Frances Howard (1591 - 1632) & Frances Coke (1602 - 1645), Frances Howard (1591 - 1632)/ Robert Carr 1st Earl of Somerset, Robert Carr 1st Earl of Somerset/James VI and I of Scotland and England, James VI and I of Scotland and England/George Villiers 1st Duke of Buckingham, Robert Carr 1st Earl of Somerset/Thomas Overbury, Frances Coke (1602 - 1645) & George Villiers 1st Duke of Buckingham, Frances Coke (1602 - 1645)/Robert Howard (1598 - 1653), Frances Howard (1691 - 1632)/ Robert Devereux 3rd Earl of Essex
Characters: Frances Howard (1591 - 1632), Frances Coke (1602 - 1645), Robert Carr 1st Earl of Somerset, George Villiers 1st Duke of Buckingham, James VI and I of Scotland and England, Thomas Overbury, Edward Coke (1552–1634), Robert Howard (1598 - 1653), Sir John Villiers Viscount Purbeck, Elizabeth Hatton, Robert Devereux 3rd Earl of Essex
Additional Tags: POV Female Character, Murder Mystery, Trials, Scandal, Whydonit, women being complicated, Canon Gay Relationship, Rivalry, Friendship
Summary:

They were the two most scandalous women of their scandalous time. Ditching their unwanted husbands, marrying the King's lover, committing murder or escaping by the skin of their teeth; Frances Howard and Frances Coke have done it all. This is their story.

The second story I wrote deals with the youngest daughter of Charles I, Charles II's favourite sister, Henriette Anne aka Minette. Viewers of the tv show Versailles might recall her from the first season, which features her less than happy marriage with her (very gay) cousin Philippe d'Orleans and her affair with his brother Louis XIV, though the show is, shall we say, taking its usual liberties. I've always had a soft spot for Minette, and using the 5 plus 1 format for her felt like a good way of writing a portrait. (In terms of previous fictionalisations of Minette, this adhers to the novel The King's Touch by Jude Morgan, though again, it stands on its own if you are not familiar with said novel.

Cover Her Face (5778 words) by Selena
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The King's Touch - Jude Morgan, 17th Century CE RPF
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Relationships: Charles II of England & Henrietta Anne Stuart | Henriette d'Angleterre, Henrietta Anne Stuart | Henriette d'Angleterre/Philippe I duc d'Orléans, Henrietta Anne Stuart | Henriette d'Angleterre & James Scott Duke of Monmouth, Henrietta Anne Stuart | Henriette d'Angleterre & Henriette Marie de France Queen of England, Louis XIV de France/Henrietta Anne Stuart | Henriette d'Angleterre, Philippe Chevalier de Lorraine/Philippe I duc d'Orléans
Characters: Henrietta Anne Stuart | Henriette d'Angleterre, Charles II of England, James Scott Duke of Monmouth, Philippe I duc d'Orléans, Louis XIV de France, Henriette Marie de France Queen of England
Additional Tags: Character Study, Siblings, Unconventional Families, Cousins, Exile, Declarations Of Love, Friendship/Love, POV Female Character
Summary:

Five times someone told the Princess Henrietta of England they loved her, and one time she said it to someone else.

This seemingly harmless question by avrelia runs into the trickiness of language and history both. First of all, the English term “princess” can be translated in two different ways into German. Either as “Prinzessin”, as in, daughter of a monarch, or as “Fürstin”, someone who can be a ruling monarch herself, not necessarily a Queen, even; a ruling Duchess, say, can be a Fürstin, but so can an Empress be.

Secondly, “German”. Which definition does apply? Citzien of a realm which is located in territory that either today is in Germany or used to be in Germany pre WWI? How far back does this go, i.e. would we count the Frankish Carolingians? (Charlemagne: seen as German in Germany and French in France. Ditto for his offspring.) Do ladies count who came from decidedly non-German (by any definition) countries but who spent the majority of their lives as a princess of the HRE (think Theophanu, originally of Byzantium, or Irene who was married to Philip of Swabia)?

Conversely: what about princesses who are definitely the daughters of German monarchs but spent their entire lives in non-German realms (even by the definition of their era) and who did not speak German, to boot, but who were actively involved in German (by the definition of their era and ours, too) politics? I’m thinking of Margaret of Austria the daughter of Maximilian I (HRE) here. Born in Burgundy, raised in France, moved to Spain for a few years, returned to Burgundy, then Savoy, ended up as regent of the Netherlands for first her father and then her nephew. (Margaret and her Dad corresponded in French with the occasional Latin thrown in. She never spoke a word of German in her life. But she was a princess of the HRE all her life, and without her, it’s questionable whether nephews Charles would have become Emperor, or indeed whether the Habsburgs wouldn’t have lost their hold on the German and “Roman” crown after two generations again and gone back to being one (powerful) House among others within the HRE. (Okay, extra powerful because Charles inherited Spain via his mother, now with new colonies. But still.)

Or: how about princesses who start out German (in whichever sense of the above) and move to another country where they spend most of their lives? Catherine the Great being just one of the more famous cases in point - those first fourteen years as a German versus decades as a Russian definitely would favour “Russian” as the category to put her in, but she did start out as a German princess. Same for every Queen Consort of England starting with Caroline (of Ansbach, wife of George II) until Alexandra (Danish, wife of Edward VII).

Moving on somewhat nearer to the present, there’s the fact that today, Austria and Germany are two different nations. Both use the German language, but Austrians are not Germans and vice versa. (Unless you hold dual citizenship.) However, for most of our shared history, this did not apply. Mozart, born in (Austrian) Salzburg, referred to himself as a German in his letters, as of course did his father Leopold, born in (German) Augsburg. When a mid 18th century British pamphleteer calls the Maria Theresia versus Frederick the Great wars “a German civil war”, he’s not disingeneous, in that while Frederick was a Prussian and Maria Theresia an Austrian, they both also would have regarded themselves and each other as Germans.

(I’m just grateful that the question aims as princesses, not writers. Would you call Franz Kafka a) a Czech writer, b) an Austrian writer, c) a German writer? I’ve seen all three categorisations used.)

And lastly, what about German princesses who never lived but who were created (or at least solidified into written existence) by German writers? I mean, hello, Snow White? (Though my favourite fairy tale Grimm princess would probably be Allerleirauh - who runs from her father the King when he wants to marry her and lives dressed in animal skins for a while.)

With all this in mind, here’s a selection within different criteria:

Category: “Princess” as in Fürstin

Subcategory Imported Princesses

It’s a contest between my two favourite medieval Empresses, Adelheid (originally of Burgundy, kinda, sorta) and Theophanu. More about them here.

Subcategory exported or even completely extraterritorial Princesses:

Margaret of Austria; her praises sung here, here and here.

Subcategory not the daughter of a King and doesn’t rule a kingdom, but is a Fürstin in charge of a realm:

Anna Amalia of Saxe-Weimar: for contributing very much to Weimar’s a few decades long existence as the hotbed of German literature. Also for not using the Hohenzollern method of child raising on her own kids despite being a granddaughter of FW, for trying her best to keep her subjects out of Uncle Fritz’ recruitment clutches in the e/7 Years War, and for enjoying her retirement via travelling to Italy, staying there for a few years and (as a Protestan princess, no less) having an affair with a hot Catholic Bishop

Category: “Princess” as in Prinzessin

Subcategory: Exported to non-German country Princess: Anne of Bohemia, wife to Richard II (of England). I am admittedly influenced by her portrayal in various fictions, be they AU novels like Wheel of Fortune by Susan Howatch, straightforward history plays like Josephine Tey’s Richard of Bordeaux (though this one has a hilariously English-author-caused line where Anne, daughter of an HRE, refers to herself as provincial compared to Richard), or all the Richard II fanfiction on the A03, and won’t pretend not to be. But Anne comes across as a very sympathetic character all around, a patron of the arts, a loving spouse to her husband (who adored her and went bonkers when she died), doing her best to mediate between him and his family and nobles in an increasingly stressful situation.

Subcategory: Born into German realm, lived in (another) German realm: Wilhelmine of Bayreuth. Author of tell-all memoirs about her dreadful family, builder of magnificent Rokoko opera houses and palaces, one part of a co-dependent intense sibling relationship with brother Frederick the Great, like him a sometime composer and passionate music lover. Dreadful snob. (As noted by some snobbish themselves contemporaries.) (Hey, if both of your parents go after your self esteem throughout your childhood, you cling to whatever gives you a boost.) Great friend to have, though (ask Voltaire). More about her here.

The other days

..."scholarly" meaning non-fiction and thus excluding "The Daughter of Time", Josephine Tey's novel. mildred_of_midgard asked me this, knowing I'm somewhat well disposed towards the last Plantagenet myself. Well, it's decades old, but I still think Paul Murray Kendall's biography of Richard is a good entry point. He lists and footnotes his sources well while also providing a readable narrative text, and where he inevitably speculates, he says that he does, instead of doing so, then in subsequent chapters treating the previous speculation as fact, which is an annoying habit biographers of many a historical person fall into. This said, it's been decades since I've read Kendall's book myself, so who knows maybe today I would feel differently? Who knows. (BTW, you might have come across Kendall before, Mildred, since he also wrote a biography of Richard's contemporary Louis XI.)

Now, as mentioned my own deep dive into the Yorkist Kings is rather dated, so I checked how the Richard III Society is doing these days, and lo, their website is very well organized and offers a lot to people interested. It reminds me of our Frederician Salon. Contrary to the caricature going on that the big argument for Ricardians is "he was nice and did nothing wrong" , the website offers a good introduction of what they're about, a bunch of interesting scholarly articles - like this one about the early pro-Richard historians, which includes some Georgian familiars like Horace Walpole, or this one about Richard's military career. (mildred_of_midgard is way more interested in military aspects of any given field of history than I am, gentle readers.) Best of all, they've actually uploaded complete translations of several key documents, like the Titulus Regius, i.e. the Act of Parliament in which Richard's takeover and the removal of young Edward the no longer V and his brother was given its official justification and which Henry VII ordered to be destroyed (only three copies survived, which is good, because the arguments used in the Titulus Regius aren't exactly the same as Tudor era historians claim they were. Long live the internet, say I, because back in the early 1990s when I had my big Ricardian phase I only ever read quotes from the Titulus Regius and any other document in biographies, and we sure as hell didn't have the chance to read a translation of the complete thing ourselves.

(Sidenote: The third Matthew Shardlake novel, Sovereign, has its lawyer detective hero find a copy of the Titulus Regius in York along with some other, though fictional documents, which perhaps helped awakening interest beyond Ricardian circles.)

The Website also offers a bunch of articles previously published in its journal, including one on what German merchant Niclas von Popplau actually wrote about his encounter with Richard III, and that was very interesting for me not because the guy is German but because the books I read only quoted the same three or four lines, the physical description of Richard, but not the rest (which includes among other things Popplau having heard the rumor about the princes being dead but speculating they're still alive though hidden and imprisoned somewhere), or that Popplau had a reccommendation letter from sister Margaret (of Burgundy) for Richard.

Inconclusion: as far as books go, start with the Kendall, and if you already know a bit about who is who (by which I don't just been the dramatis personnae in Richard's life time but who contemporary sources like Mancini or the Croyland Chronicle are, or even if you don't, check out the articles and documents at the website.

The other days

If this year's Yuletide stories written by yours truly had a theme, it was "comedy with dark undertones". I had originally planned something else as my main gift to write, but then firstly a lot of real life stuff happened, and secondly I wanted to cheer myself up while writing, so I continued my quest to throw the most unlikely outrageous tropes at Frederick the Great. This time, it was babysitting comedy. Not involving an actual baby, but his ten years old brother, whom no one tries to eata, but it was still an eerie feeling to watch this year's Doctor Who Christmas Special and see that RTD had gone for babysitting comedy tropes as well. With my thing for messy family relationships in general and siblings relationships in particular, I always enjoy writing Frederick and the brother who was way too much like him for them to get on, and Frederick with my favourite of his long term boyfriends, Fredersdorf.


The Sitter (5885 words) by Selena
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 18th Century CE RPF, 18th Century CE Frederician RPF
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great & Friedrich Heinrich Ludwig von Preußen (1726-1802), Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf/Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great
Characters: Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great, Friedrich Heinrich Ludwig von Preußen | Henry of Prussia (1726-1802), Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf
Additional Tags: Siblings, Dysfunctional Family, Slice of Life, Queering The Tide, Family, Humor, Established Relationship, Yuletide 2023, Yuletide
Summary:

Tragedy is behind him, glory ahead: Crown Prince Friedrich of Prussia is about to enjoy the best years of his life. At least that's what he thinks when fate inflicts what might be his harshest trial: having to take care of his brat of a younger brother...

Otoh, this story is another example of my tendency to get drawn into a fandom and emerge being primarily interest in not the juggernaut pairing and/or the characters the friend who tried to get me interested in. Not that the Third Century Crisis followed by the Tetrarchy in the late Roman Empire is a megafandom, and thus does not have a juggernaut pairing. But if there was one, it surely would have been the Emperors Diocletian/Maximian, who are the guys mildred_of_midgard wants to hear/read about. But while I do find them interesting, I am even more interested in the women around them - and one woman who started out really low on the social scale but ended up not just on top but surviving the various changes in power which had much of the remaining cast drop off like flies was Helena. Yes, the mother of Constatine (the Great). No, she wasn't a British princess. Why not more people fictionalizing her used her actual origins as a barmaid which are way more interesting at least from the 20th century onwards is a mystery to me, but hey: all the more fun to write about her for me, and to provide her perspective on the late Roman Game of Thrones:



Invicta (4566 words) by Selena
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 3rd Century CE RPF
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Helena (Mother of Constantine)/Constantius, Helena (Mother of Constantine) & Diocletian, Emperor Diocletian/Emperor Maximian, Diocletian & Maximian & Constantius
Characters: Helena (Mother of Constantine), Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus | Emperor Diocletian, Flavius Valerius Constantius "Chlorus" | Emperor Constantius I., Marcus Aurelius Valerius Maximianus | Emperor Maximian, Constantine the Great (d. 337 CE), Aurelia Prisca (d. 315 CE)
Additional Tags: POV Female Character, Game of Thrones-esque, Yuletide Treat, Yuletide, Yuletide 2023, Origin Story
Summary:

Tell me if you’ve heard this one before: three future Emperors walk into a bar. The one who’s going to end up with the Empire is the barmaid.

 

Or: Helena, history has its eyes on you....