Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst marries Heinrich
Sep. 15th, 2020 10:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mildred_of_midgard posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
rheinsbergAuthor: selenak, mildred_of_midgard
Original discussion: https://cahn.dreamwidth.org/168804.html?thread=2067556#cmt2067556
mildred_of_midgard: AU where Anhalt Sophie never leaves for Russia, and when Fritz forces Heinrich to get married, he picks childhood BFF? And they have an open marriage and become a power couple. Maybe Sophie's the one who nudges sibling collector Glasow in the direction of poisoning Fritz? Because she's distinctly Done With His Shit? (Maybe we can push the date forward, till after Kolin, or even Kunersdorf. It's an AU!)
Then things become complicated, because they're both strong-willed and, yes, might fall for the same guy, and might clash politically even if they manage to avoid that. And she's going to have a hard time pulling off enough coups to get herself into a position of direct power, to the point where I'd be surprised if she even entertained it. This isn't Russia. Which means Heinrich's always going to have the upper hand, and she's not going to take that lying down (especially one who's gone to all the trouble of getting him to be regent in the first place). So unless they manage to unite their political interests *and* keep their respective (or joint) lovers from causing trouble, I could see this ending badly. Not to mention when FW2 gets old enough to have opinions of his own and wants to end the regency.
So...bad for real life, excellent for plotty fic. Much like actual history with all its dysfunctional family dynamics and unhappy marriages, lol.
selenak: Sophie/Heinrich = Prussian Macbeths AU: yes, given the conditions in Prussia, she's always going to need a man as an intermediary to exert power through. Even if both young FW and Henricus Minor die of smallpox or measles or any of the many illnesses available after AW's death, and thus Heinrich does become the next in line for the throne. I suppose if she has a son whom he has acknowledged as his, she could, in theory, become regent once Heinrich himself dies, if none of the predecessors made it explicit law to have no female regents, but: that only lasts a few years, too, and then she's back where she started. For "no woman shall rule in Salic lands". And those are a lot of necessary deaths happening first. Heinrich wasn't the Augustus from I, Claudius and Catherine wasn't Livia. He also was emotionally invested in AW's kids, and had a sound sense of self preservation. With no Fritz holding him back from a divorce, it probably would have been, if she'd really tried to achieve such a scenario in the way Graves' Livia did, divorce at best, Küstrin at worst. But I'm not sure she would have gone this route in the first place, because she was realist, and trying for a few years of shared regency post Fritz death with the option of remaining the most important advisor/power behind the throne once FW2 reaches his majority would have been a far more sensible policy. Especially since young FW2 liked the ladies, and I don't just mean sexually. The smartest play for Sophie would be to make herself his second mother figure and understanding ear early on, and leave the issuing of unpopular dos and don'ts after Fritz' death to Heinrich.
Now I'm trying to decide whether they could, in theory, have fallen for the same guy. As opposed to what I believed, Heinrich actually did have Kaphengst with him during the first Russia trip (though not the seoond), and him being sex on legs is pretty much the only explanation any biographer could find as to why Heinrich put up with him for so long despite of all the ever increasing downsides. And Kaphengst would have had zilch restraint to exchange being a prince's favourite to becoming an Czarina's favourite. However, in Catherine's life this would have been where Grigorij Orlov was still around and Potemkin (who of all her lovers is the one with the biggest claim to the "love of life" title) was up and coming, plus she really liked Heinrich, so she probably would have looked at Kaphengst and thought, nah.
selenak, mildred_of_midgardOriginal discussion: https://cahn.dreamwidth.org/168804.html?thread=2067556#cmt2067556
mildred_of_midgard: AU where Anhalt Sophie never leaves for Russia, and when Fritz forces Heinrich to get married, he picks childhood BFF? And they have an open marriage and become a power couple. Maybe Sophie's the one who nudges sibling collector Glasow in the direction of poisoning Fritz? Because she's distinctly Done With His Shit? (Maybe we can push the date forward, till after Kolin, or even Kunersdorf. It's an AU!)Then things become complicated, because they're both strong-willed and, yes, might fall for the same guy, and might clash politically even if they manage to avoid that. And she's going to have a hard time pulling off enough coups to get herself into a position of direct power, to the point where I'd be surprised if she even entertained it. This isn't Russia. Which means Heinrich's always going to have the upper hand, and she's not going to take that lying down (especially one who's gone to all the trouble of getting him to be regent in the first place). So unless they manage to unite their political interests *and* keep their respective (or joint) lovers from causing trouble, I could see this ending badly. Not to mention when FW2 gets old enough to have opinions of his own and wants to end the regency.
So...bad for real life, excellent for plotty fic. Much like actual history with all its dysfunctional family dynamics and unhappy marriages, lol.
selenak: Sophie/Heinrich = Prussian Macbeths AU: yes, given the conditions in Prussia, she's always going to need a man as an intermediary to exert power through. Even if both young FW and Henricus Minor die of smallpox or measles or any of the many illnesses available after AW's death, and thus Heinrich does become the next in line for the throne. I suppose if she has a son whom he has acknowledged as his, she could, in theory, become regent once Heinrich himself dies, if none of the predecessors made it explicit law to have no female regents, but: that only lasts a few years, too, and then she's back where she started. For "no woman shall rule in Salic lands". And those are a lot of necessary deaths happening first. Heinrich wasn't the Augustus from I, Claudius and Catherine wasn't Livia. He also was emotionally invested in AW's kids, and had a sound sense of self preservation. With no Fritz holding him back from a divorce, it probably would have been, if she'd really tried to achieve such a scenario in the way Graves' Livia did, divorce at best, Küstrin at worst. But I'm not sure she would have gone this route in the first place, because she was realist, and trying for a few years of shared regency post Fritz death with the option of remaining the most important advisor/power behind the throne once FW2 reaches his majority would have been a far more sensible policy. Especially since young FW2 liked the ladies, and I don't just mean sexually. The smartest play for Sophie would be to make herself his second mother figure and understanding ear early on, and leave the issuing of unpopular dos and don'ts after Fritz' death to Heinrich.Now I'm trying to decide whether they could, in theory, have fallen for the same guy. As opposed to what I believed, Heinrich actually did have Kaphengst with him during the first Russia trip (though not the seoond), and him being sex on legs is pretty much the only explanation any biographer could find as to why Heinrich put up with him for so long despite of all the ever increasing downsides. And Kaphengst would have had zilch restraint to exchange being a prince's favourite to becoming an Czarina's favourite. However, in Catherine's life this would have been where Grigorij Orlov was still around and Potemkin (who of all her lovers is the one with the biggest claim to the "love of life" title) was up and coming, plus she really liked Heinrich, so she probably would have looked at Kaphengst and thought, nah.
