FREDERIC II. 



317 



companied his father. Some incautious expressions 

 of Katt betrayed the intentions of the prince. He 

 was overtaken, brought to trial at Custrin, and 

 obliged to be an eye-witness of the execution of his 

 friend Katt. Keith made his escape from Wesel, and 

 lived in Holland, England, and Portugal, till Frede- 

 ric's accession to the throne, when he returned to 

 Berlin, in 1741, and was made lieutenant-colonel, 

 equerry and curator of the academy of sciences. 



Whilst the prince remained in the closest confine- 

 ment in Custrin, and was undergoing examination, 

 the king sent a proposal to him to renounce the suc- 

 cession, on condition that he should have the liberty 

 of pursuing his own inclinations in regard to his 

 studies, travelling, &c. "1 accept the proposal," 

 said the prince, " if my father declares that I am not 

 really his son." Upon this answer, the king, who 

 looked on conjugal fidelity with religious respect, 

 relinquished his plan. That the king was inclined 

 to sentence his son to death is certain. But the pro- 

 vosts Reinbeck and Seckendorf. who had before in- 

 trigued against the prince, now saved his life ; the 

 latter, in particular, by availing himself of the inter- 

 ference of the emperor. 



The prince was not admitted to court till on occa- 

 sion of the nuptials of the princess Frederica with 

 Frederic, crown-prince of Bayreuth, and was obliged 

 by his father, in 1733, to marry the princess Elizabeth 

 Christina (q. v.), daughter of Ferdinand Albert, duke 

 of Brunswick-Be vern. Frederic William gave the 

 castle of Schonhausen to her, and, to the prince, the 

 county of Ruppin, and, in 1734, the town of Rheins- 

 berg, where he lived devoted to study till he 

 ascended the throne. Among his daily visitors were 

 literati, musicians, and painters. He corresponded 

 with foreign scholars, particularly with Voltaire, 

 whom he greatly admired. Several of his writings, 

 in particular his Antimachiavel, had their origin in 

 the rural tranquillity of Rheinsberg. 



The death of his father raised him to the throne, 

 May 31, 1740. Frederic, on his accession to the 

 throne, found in his estates a population of only 

 2,240,000 men. At his decease, he left 6,000,000. 

 He raised Prussia to this pitch of greatness by his 

 talents as a legislator and general, assisted in the 

 field and in the cabinet, during a reign of forty-six 

 years, by many distinguished men. His father, 

 in expectation of a war, on account of the succession 

 of the duchy of Juliers, had an army of 70,000 men 

 on foot. Frederic II., who had already excited 

 great expectations, retained for the most part the 

 institutions and laws of his father, but eave to the 

 latter more extent and vigour. The death of the 

 emperor Charles VI. was a favourable moment, of 

 which Frederic II. took advantage, to revive the 

 claims of the house of Brandenburg with regard to 

 the Silesian principalities, Jagerndorf, Liegnitz, 

 Brieg, and Wolau, so far as to ask from the queen 

 Maria Theresa, the duchies of Glogau and Sagan, 

 in return for which he promised her assistance 

 against all her enemies, his vote for the election of 

 her husband as emperor, and 2,000,000 Prussian 

 dollars. But these proposals being rejected, he oc- 

 cupied Lower Silesia, in December, 1740, and 

 defeated the Austrians under Neipperg, April 10, 

 1741, near Molwitz. This victory, which was 

 almost decisive of the fate of Silesia, raised new 

 enemies against Austria. France and Bavaria united 

 with Prussia, and the war of the Austrian succession 

 commenced. The only ally of the queen of Hungary 

 and Bohemia, George II. of England, advised her to 

 make peace with Prussia, because Frederic II. was 

 her most active and formidable enemy. After the 

 victory of Czaslau (Chotusitz), gained by Frederic, 

 May 17, 1742, the first Silesian war was terminated 



by the preliminaries signed at Breslau, under British 

 mediation (June 11), and by the peace signed at 

 Berlin, July 28, 1742. Frederic obtained Lower and 

 Upper Silesia, and the county of Glatz, with the 

 exception of Troppau, Jagerndorf and Teschen, with 

 full sovereignty. On the other hand, Frederic 

 renounced all claims to the other Austrian terri- 

 tories, assumed a debt of 1,700,000 Prussian dollars 

 charged upon Silesia, and promised to respect the 

 rights of the Catholics in Silesia. Saxony acceded 

 to this peace, of which England and Russia were the 

 guarantees. 



Frederic II. seized the opportunity of a peace, to 

 introduce useful institutions into the conquered ter- 

 ritories, and to render his army more formidable 

 In 1743, on the death of the last count of East 

 Friesland, he took possession of that country, the 

 reversion of which had been granted to lu's family, in 

 1644, by the emperor. The war of the Austrian 

 succession continued ; the emperor Charles VII. was 

 driven from his hereditary estates of Bavaria, and 

 the Austrians were everywhere victorious. Frederic 

 therefore, apprehensive that an attempt would be 

 made to recover Silesia, entered into a secret 

 alliance with France (April, 1744), and with the 

 emperor, the Palatinate and Hesse-Cassel, at Frank- 

 fort (May 22, 1744). He promised to support the 

 cause of the emperor by the invasion of Bohemia, 

 on condition that he should receive the circle of 

 Konigingratz. He entered Bohemia suddenly, Au- 

 gust 10, 1744, and captured Prague; but the Aus- 

 trians and Saxons under Charles, prince of Lorraine, 

 compelled him to evacuate Bohemia before the close 

 of the year. The death of the emperor (January 

 18, 1745,) and the defeat of the Bavarians at Pfaffen- 

 hofen, obliged Maximilian Joseph, the young elector 

 of Bavaria, to conclude the peace of Fuessen with 

 Maria Theresa, and occasioned the dissolution of the 

 alliance of Frankfort, after Hesse-Cassel had already 

 declared itself neutral. Besides this, Austria, England, 

 the Netherlands, and Saxony had entered into an al- 

 liance at Warsaw (January 8, 1745,) and Saxony had 

 concluded a separate treaty with Austria against Prus- 

 sia (May 18, 1745). But Frederic defeated the Aus- 

 trians and Saxons (June 4, 1745), at Hohenfriedberg 

 (Striegau), in Silesia, entered Bohemia, and gained 

 a second victory at Sor, after a very obstinate com- 

 bat, September 30, 1745. The victory of the Prus- 

 sians under Leopold, prince of Dessau, over the 

 Saxons, at Resseldorf, December 15, 1745, led 

 to the peace of Dresden (December 25), on the 

 basis of the peace of Berlin. Frederic retained 

 Silesia, acknowledged the husband of Maria Theresa, 

 Francis I., as emperor, and Saxony promised to pay 

 1,000,000 Saxon dollars to Prussia. 



During the eleven following years of peace, 

 Frederic devoted himself, with the greatest activity, 

 to the domestic administration, to the improvement 

 of the army, and, at the same time, to the muses. 

 It was at this time that he wrote his Memoires de 

 lirandenbourg, his poem LSArt de la Guerre, and 

 other works in prose and verse. He encouraged 

 agriculture, the arts, manufactures, and commerce, 

 reformed the laws, increased the revenues of the 

 state, perfected the organization of his army, which 

 was increased to 160,000 men, and thus improved 

 the condition of the state. 



Secret information of an alliance between Austria, 

 Russia, and Saxony, gave him reason to fear an 

 attack and the loss of Silesia. He hastened to 

 anticipate his enemies by the invasion of Saxony 

 (Aug. 24, 1756), with which the seven years' war 

 (q. v.), or third Silesian war, commenced. The 

 peace of Hubertsburg, February 15, 1763, of which 

 those of Breslau (1742) and Dresden (1745) were the 



