1033 



FREDERICK WILLIAM CHARLES. 



FREILIGRATH, FERDINAND. 



1031 



minded princes of his age. He was sincerely desirous of promoting 

 the welfare of his subjects ; but, wanting to accomplish it at once, he 

 overlooked the ordinary forms : finding nothing to support him in 

 the constitution of the country, which had been completely changed, 

 and being surrounded by interested or prejudiced counsellors, nume- 

 rous mistakes were committed. His military establishment was too 

 great for the dilapidated state of the finances, and indifference, if 

 not aversion, took the place of the affection of his people. The rest 

 is known. With his famous Black Hussars. he joined the Duke of 

 Wellington in 1815, and fell gloriously at Quatre-Bras on the 16th of 

 June 1815. 



FREDERICK WILLIAM CHARLES, King of Wiirtemberg, was 

 born at Treptow, in Pomerania, November 6, 1754 ; succeeded his 

 father, Frederick Eugene, as Duke of Wiirtemberg in 1797 ; became 

 elector in 1803; and assumed the royal title on the 1st of January 

 1806. In 1780 he married Augusta Caroline Frederica Louisa, princess 

 of Brunswick Wolfenbiittel, by whom he had two sons, William, the 

 present king, and Paul, and a daughter Catherine, who was married to 

 Jerome Bonaparte, king of Westphalia. As his father was personally 

 engaged in the Seven Years' War in the armies of Prussia, his early 

 education was very carefully directed by his mother, Sophia Dorothea, 

 daughter of the Margrave of Brandenbnrg-Schwedt, a highly-accom- 

 j.li-h d and excellent princess. After the peace in 1763 his father was 

 at leisure to attend to the education of his son, who possessed great 

 natural abilities. He was however brought up in many respects on 

 tlie French model, to which his four years' residence at Lausanne 

 contributed. His natural eloquence was aided by an extraordinary 

 memory ; he was well versed in mathematics, natural philosophy, 

 history, and geography, and cultivated his taste for the fine arts, 

 especially in his journey to Italy in 1782 ; but with too much vivacity 

 for calm examination, he often hastily adopted a false view, and was 

 thus led in his subsequent life into many errors. In many points he 

 took Frederick the Great for his model. As well as his seven brothers 

 he entered the Prussian service, and in the war of the Bavarian 

 succession attained the rank of major-general. After his return from 

 Italy, whither he accompanied his sister and her husband the Grand 

 Duke Paul of Russia, he was made lieutenant-general, and governor- 

 general of Russian Finland. He renounced this connection in 1787, 

 aud lived first at Monrepos, near Lausanne, and then at Bodenheim, 

 near Hentz. He witnessed at Versailles the first proceedings of the 

 National Assembly. When his father, after the death of two brothers 

 without male descendants, became Duke of Wurtemberg in 1795, 

 Frederick, as crown-prince, opposed in 1796 the entrance of the French 

 into Franconia, but was defeated. After this event he lived for a 

 time at Anspach, then at Vienna and London, where in 1797 he 

 married Charlotte Augusta Matilda, princess-royal of England, with 

 whom be returned to Stuttgardt in June the same year. 



When he succeeded to the government in December 1797, his 

 duchy, which had already suffered severely in the war with France, 

 was 153 German (about 3000 English) square miles in extent, with 

 600,000 inhabitants. Frederick, by his interest at the courts of Vienna 

 and St. Petersburg, obtained by the decision of the German diet of 

 the 23rd of February 1803, besides the electoral dignity, an ample 

 indemnity for his loss of territory on the left bank of the Rhine. The 

 chief object of his policy was to preserve and extend his dominions. 

 On the '2nd of October 1805 Napoleon arrived at Ludwigslust, and on 

 the following day issued the declaration of war against Austria. 

 Frederick was compelled to join France, and furnished 8000 men. 

 By steadily adhering to the system of Napoleon he acquired in and 

 after the peace of Presburg the possession of an independent kingdom 

 of the extent of 368 German (nearly 7400 English) square miles, with 

 1,400,000 inhabitants. After he had assumed the title of king, on 

 New Year's Day 1806, he published the organisation of his greatly- 

 enlarged dominions, by which a uniform system of administration was 

 introduced into the old and new provinces. Desirable as this might 

 be (and he is highly commended for it by some writers), it certainly 

 did not give satisfaction to his subjects. Accustomed, and indeed 

 compelled, to act with energy in his foreign affairs, he sought to make 

 everything in his internal government bend to his will, without regard 

 to long-cherished prejudices or even to long-established rights. He 

 joined the Rhenish Confederation, was at the meeting of Napoleon 

 and Alexander at Erfurt in October 1808, and in the campaign of 

 1812 furnished his contingent as member of the confederation. After 

 the battle of Leipzig he formally renounced, in November 1813, the 

 Rlicniah Confederation, and joined the allied powers against Franco. 

 He went in person to the congress at Vienna, where he was received 

 with great respect by the assembled sovereigns. In the thirteenth 

 article of the Act of Congress it was enacted that representative 

 assemblies should be introduced into all the states of Germany a 

 benefit for which Germany is in great measure indebted to the Prince- 

 Regent of England. The king of Wurtemberg (though he did not 

 accede to the German Confederation till the 1st of September 1815) 

 drew up a constitution, which he presented as an ordinance to the 

 states which he had convoked; but it was unanimously rejected : the 

 deputies required the ancient constitution, and speedy relief for the 

 miseries of the people. Accustomed to implicit obedience, and not a 

 little astonished at this behaviour, he still redressed many grievances, 

 and after dissolving the assembly in August 1816, he called another 

 woo. BIT. VOL. it 



in October, and unexpectedly prescribed fourteen propositions as the 

 basis of a constitution, which were favourably received by the people. 

 A new constitution was drawn up ; but before it could be discussed 

 he died, on the 30th of October 1816, in the sixty-second year of his 

 age and the nineteenth of his reign. His character was essentially 

 despotic, but he had too much good sense aud too enlightened an 

 understanding to be systematically a tyrant. He desired the good of 

 his people, though of the means of promoting that -he conceived 

 himself to be the best judge. It nmat be said to his praise that his 

 edict of the 15th of October 1806, secured to all his Christian subjects 

 equal security for their rights and the free exercise of their religious 

 worship. He introduced neither French laws nor French forms of 

 administration; everything in Wurtemberg remained German; and 

 Wurtemberg was happily preserved from the degradation of becoming 

 a French province. 



FREDRO, MAXIMILIAN, palatine of Podolia, a celebrated Polish 

 author, who died in 1676. He spent his life in serving bis country, 

 in the camp as well as in the council, and occupied many important 

 posts. His active life gave 'him excellent opportunities for making 

 observations on many subjects connected with war and politics ; 

 which he has transmitted to posterity in his works, which are chiefly 

 in Latin. His writings are full of interesting details, his observations 

 are shrewd, and his opinions on various subjects are remarkably 

 sound; whilst the vigour and conciseness of his style procured for 

 him the name of the Polish Tacitus. His principal works are 1, 

 ' Vir Consilii mouitis ethicorum, nee non prudentise civilis disceudum 

 instructus ; ' 2, ' Monita politico-moralia et icon iugeniorum ; ' 3, 

 'Militarium seu axiomatum belli ad harmoniam toga; aecommodatoruui 

 libri ; ' 4, 'Fraginenta Seriptorum togre et belli;' 5, 'Considerations 

 on the Military service,' in Polish; 6, 'Proverbs and Advice, moral, 

 political, and military,' in Polish. This last work, which is very 

 popular in Poland, has mainly contributed to establish the reputation 

 of Fredro, who has here displayed an extraordinary kuowledge of the 

 world, and an intimate acquaintance with the habits aud character of 

 all ranks of society. 



* FREILIGRATH, FERDINAND, a. distinguished German poet, 

 was born June 17, 1810, at Detmold, in the German principality of 

 Lippe. His father was a teacher, and gave him his first instruction. 

 He afterwards studied in the gymnasium of his native town. In 1825 

 he was placed in the counting-house of a merchant at Soest, in West- 

 phalia. From 1831 to 1836 he was employed in a banking-house at 

 Amsterdam, and from 1837 to 1839 in a merchant's house at Barmen, 

 in the Prussian Rhein-Provinz. His earliest poems were published in 

 the journals of Westphalia, and iu the ' Musen-Almauach ' for 1835. 

 The first collected edition of his poems was published at Stuttgardt in 

 1838, and the earliest poems included in it havo the date of 1826. 

 Freiligrath's ' Gedichte ' consist of about two-thirds of original lyrical 

 poems, and one-third of translations. The original poems are dis- 

 tributed by the poet into Day-Book-Leaves (' Tagebuchbliitter '), Ballads 

 and Romances, Terziues, Alexandrines, Mixed Poems, and Occasional 

 Poems; the translations are from the French and English, the largest 

 number of the latter being from Scott and Moore. The reception of 

 his poems was so favourable that he resolved to relinquish his com- 

 mercial employments, and devote himself to poetical literature. He 

 then lived mostly near the Rhine, and at Unkel became acquainted 

 with his present wife, a native of Weimar, and then a governess with 

 an English family. He married in 1811, and after Ms marriage 

 removed to Darmstadt. In the year 1842 the King of Prussia 

 granted him a yearly pension of 300 thalera (about 44i.), after which 

 he returued with his family to the Rhiue, and lived about two years 

 at St. Goar. 



There had existed for some years iu Germany, especially in the 

 Prussian Rhine-Provinces, a large party very decidedly opposed to the 

 government on account of the censorship of the press and other 

 restrictive and arbitrary measures. Freiligrath had become attached 

 to this party, and had written and shown to his associates several 

 poems expressive of his political opinions and feelings. In opposition 

 to the advice of some of the more prudent of his friends, he resolvid 

 to make a public profession of. his political belief by the publication 

 of these poems ; and as lie would thus place himself in direct oppo- 

 sition to the government of the King of Prussia, he considered that 

 he had no longer any claim on the royal bounty, aud resigned his 

 pension. In 1844 he published his volume of political poems under 

 the title of ' Ein Glaubensbekenntniss ; Zeitgedichte,' &c. (' A Con- 

 fession of Faith; Poems of the Times,' &c.) The impression made by 

 these poems was su'lden aud extensive; within a few days the book 

 was in circulation throughout the whole of Germany, and excited 

 among the liberal, party the greatest enthusiasm. As might have 

 been expected, the censorship ordered the book to be suppressed, and 

 the government commenced a prosecution against the author. He 

 therefore took the prudent course, and left Germany in the autumn 

 of 1844 ; he resided in Belgium, in Switzerland, and lastly in Londou, 

 where he resumed his original occupation of a clerk in a bauking- 

 house. In 1845 ho published a translation into German of the 

 Lyrical Poems of Victor Hugo, and in 1846 a volume of poems 

 translated from recent English writers, ' Englisclio Gedichte aus 

 Neuerer Zeit, uach Felicia Hemans, L. E. Landon, Robert Southey, 

 Alfred Tennyson, Henry W. Longfellow, und Andern,' 8vo, Stutt.-ardt 



3 x 



