event was soon followed by the general peace est part of their forces. This spirited enter- FREDERIC, I. king of Prussia, III. as elector of Brandenburg, son of the preceding by his first wife, was born at Konigsberg, in 1657. Being deformed, and of a weak constitution, his education was neglected; and the artifices of his step mother so prejudiced his father against him, that he was inclined to have deprived him of the succession. In fact, the elector made a will, by which he devised all the consort, Sophia-Charlotta of Hanover (sister to George I.), a woman of a superior understanding, and truly philosophical temper, was so little pleased with her elevation, that she said to one of her women, "She was extremely mortified to go to Prussia and act the part of a stage-queen in presence of her Esop." An anecdote is related, which curiously marks the opposite characters of the royal pair. As they sat in high state, opposite each other, during the performance of the coronation ceremony, the queen, who could not exist without perpetual snuff-taking, gently stole her hand to her box at an instant she thought herself unobserved. The king, however, watched her so closely, that he perceived it; and immediately sent a gentleman to ask her, "Whether she remembered the place where she was, and the rank she held there?" acquisitions of territory he had himself made, to be divided among his children of the second bed. This disposition, however, did not take place, and Frederic succeeded to the whole inheritance in 1688. About that time war broke out between the empire and France, and a grand alliance was formed against the latter power, which Frederic joined. He himself took the command of his troops in the campaigns upon the Rhine in 1689, 1690. He had an interview in 1691, with king William, which the difference of their characters rendered little satisfactory. William was cold, simple in his manners, solid in his views. Frederic was impatient, filled with notions of his own grandeur, and rigidly attentive to all points of etiquette. The distinction of a chair with arms and without, was near embroiling them for ever; but the elector at length agreed to send 15,000 men to join William's army in Flanders. He likewise It was to be supposed that a sovereign of sent a considerable succour to the emperor in such a disposition would dignify his new title his war with the Turks. The great object of by all the magnificence he was capable of dishis ambition was to obtain the rank of royalty. playing; and Frederic was profuse in this reFor this purpose he favoured the erection of spect, to a degree which his country was ill able Hanover into a ninth electorate; and to this to support. One laudable direction of this spiend he directed all his politics. His ministers, rit was the institution of the Royal Academy of who opposed the project as chimerical and fri- Sciences at Berlin, in consequence of the solivolous, were disgraced. He purchased the citations of his queen, who persuaded him that good-will of the emperor, by resigning to him it was a fit appendage of royalty. The remainthe circle of Schwibus; and he continued, ing events of his reign were not highly importwhile the war lasted, to send his troops to the ant. When Charles XII. of Sweden became Imperial armies. It was not, however, till the formidable by his victories, he obtained a neuwar on account of the Spanish succession, that trality for Prussia. On the decease of king he ventured to open his design. He then made William, he asserted his right to the succession it a principal condition of his co-operation with of part of his estates in consequence of the testhe emperor, that he should be recognised king tament of his grandfather Frederic-Henry prince of Prussia; and a treaty to this effect was con- of Orange. His troops continued to serve cluded at Vienna in 1700. It was concurred in against France in the succession war, and he by the powers of the North and England, and even declared war against Lewis XIV. In 1705 the coronation took place in 1701. At this so- he lost his queen Sophia-Charlotta, who was his lemnity it was remarked that he himself put the second wife. She died with the most philosocrown upon his head; and certainly no mo- phical calmness, and her husband consoled himnarchy has been less clogged with conditions on self with the magnificence of the funeral solemthe part of the people. Though his own in- nities. By the persuasion of his ministers he ducement to assume royalty was chiefly a frivo- married in 1709, for a third wife, a princess of lous love of pomp and title, yet the descendant Mecklenburg-Schwerin, though he was then in who occupied his throne with so much distinc- an infirm state of health. In the ensuing year tion has, in the Memoirs of his family, consi- Prussia suffered greatly from a pestilential disdered this step as eventually a master-stroke of order, which was attended with the deepest policy, and that which raised the house of Bran- distress among the people, and carried off great denburg to its independence on that of Austria. numbers. The court did nothing for their rePrince Eugene viewed it in the same light, when lief, all the revenues being absorbed in vain and he said, "The emperor ought to hang those ostentatious expences; but the prince-royal at ministers who had given him such a perfidious length obtained the dismission of his ministers, counsel." At the time, it was generally thought who had abused the king's confidence. that Frederic had solicited an honour which his Amidst the subsequent disturbances of the power was inadequate to support. Even his North, Frederic employed his efforts to recon cile the different parties, and preserve his own dominions in quiet; but he did not live to see the establishment of a general peace. The effects of a slow disease carried him off in the beginning of 1713. His descendant has sketched his character with a very free pencil. The following sentence deserves particular remark, as written by a king: "He was magnificent and generous; but at what a price did he purchase the pleasure of gratifying his passions! He trafficked in the blood of his people with the English and Dutch, like the wandering Tartars, who sell their herds to the butchers of Podolia." The epithet of carcase-butchers, applied to the petty princes of Germany, is then sanctioned by the authority of a royal author, of their own country! The sum of the character is, that this prince was great in little things, and little in great things." Mém. de Brandenb.-A. FREDERIC-WILLIAM, king of Prussia, the I. of both his names, the II. as Frederic, was the son of the preceding, by Sophia-Charlotta, of Hanover. He was born in 1688, and at an early age displayed a passion for military exercises. He served in the allied army against the French, and distinguished himself at the siege of Menin and the battle of Malplaquet. In 1706 he married the princess Sophia-Dorothea, daughter of the elector of Hanover, afterwards king George I. He succeeded to his father's crown in 1713. Of a character in many respects the direct reverse of that of his predecessor, he immediately made great reductions in all the establishments of royal pomp; and applied his whole attention to secure the two great points in which he conceived the true strength of a kingdom to consist, a full treasury and a powerful army. He set an example of contempt of luxury and parade in his own person, by the utmost plainness of apparel, and by laying aside the formalities of his station. He applied closely to business, saw every thing with his own eyes, was easy of access, and received and answered letters from the meanest of his subjects. On the other hand he was stern, violent, and arbitrary, and on every occasion shewed himself the despotic master rather than the gracious sovereign. By the reforms he introduced into the finances and expenditure, he was soon enabled to gratify his first wish of keeping a great military establishment; and he made the commencement of that exact discipline and regularity for which the Prussian troops have been so much admired. It was a childish passion which rendered him so fond of tall men for soldiers, and he indulged it to a degree of ridiculous extravagance. He had a regiment com posed solely of giants, whom he picked up from all the neighbouring countries at a vast expence. Many of these were entrapped, or forced into his service, and he was involved in several quarrels on account of these irregular practices. He was equally attentive to propagate the breed, by matching them with the tallest women in his dominions, who were arbitrarily compelled to the union. Nothing, indeed, could be more despotic than his whole military system. He appointed to every captain a certain district throughout the extent of his dominions, out of which he might take such recruits as he should choose, without distinction, provided they were unmarried men; and no young man was permitted to marry without the consent of this officer. As far, however, as could be compatible with such a galling servitude, he studied the happiness of his subjects and the prosperity of his states. He abolished all useless expences, and applied his savings to the encouragement of manufactures and agriculture. He repeopled the countries desolated by the plague, by means of colonies drawn from the neighbouring states, which he settled with great advantages. He liberally rewarded the industry and ingenuity of the introducers of new arts; and many of the richest fabrics in the country owe their establishment to him. But his favour was entirely confined to what he deemed useful. Being himself void of science and ornamental literature, and not pos sessing sufficient enlargement of mind to perceive their connection with the public prosperity, he regarded them with contempt and dislike, and treated their professors with every spécies of discouragement. Poetry and abstract philosophy were equally his aversion. He banished a man of letters for placing some Latin verses over the gate of the palace, and expelled the celebrated Wolf for his metaphysical opinions to the last act, indeed, he seems to have been instigated by his theologians. He was a great lover of order in every department; and impartial in the administration of justice between man and man; but rigorous in his punishments, and more inclined to aggravate than mitigate them. He caused all sentences of the civil and military courts to be laid before him, and altered them at his pleasure; which practice, though perhaps sometimes favourable to equity, yet substituted his own despotic will to law. The public events of Frederic-William's reign were of no great importance. Soon after his accession, he was recognised as king of Prussia in a treaty with France, and his right to the sovereignty of Neufchatel and Valangin was confirmed. He preserved a neutrality with respect to the war then subsisting among the Northern Powers till after the return of Charles XII.; when that monarch not agreeing to the proposal of his forbearing to carry his arms into Poland or Saxony, the king of Prussia in 1715 declared war against him. Joining his forces to those of Denmark, he took Stralsund. No other action of consequence followed; and after the death of Charles XII. peace was restored between the two crowns. He interfered with spirit and effect in favour of the Protestants of some neighbouring countries who were oppressed and ill-treated by their catholic sovereigns; and particularly interested himself in the atrocious affair of Thorn. A dispute occasioned by the conduct of his enlisting-parties in Hanover produced a violent quarrel between him and his brother-in-law George II. (between whom and himself a mutual antipathy prevailed from their infancy), which brought on a challenge to single combat between the monarchs. It ended, how ever, in idle vapour, as such royal bravadoes have always done; and a congress at Brunswick settled the matter in debate: A singular domestic event took place in 1730, which strongly characterises the disposition of this sovereign. His eldest son, the prince-royal, had acquired a great fondness for polite literature and music. As both of these were objects of his father's detestation, his tastes were continually thwarted in the most forbidding manner; and his situation was in other respects rendered so uncom fortable, that he took the resolution of privately quitting the Prussian dominions, and travelling to France or England. His design was discovered, and its execution prevented; and the prince himself, with two young officers whom he had made his confidents, were proceeded against as criminals. One of them had the good fortune to make his escape. The other, named Katte, an amiable youth, son to a general officer, was condemned to death by the stern and relentless monarch, who obliged his son to be a spectator of the execution. The prince was confined in the citadel of Custrin; and it seems probable that his father entertained serious intentions of beheading him for his disobedience; and that he was saved only in consequence of the interposition of the emperor and some other princes, and the earnest entreaties of the queen. close confinement of several months, - the prince at length received his pardon; and some time after, the king went to Custrin and was formally reconciled to him: but such a parent could never thenceforth inspire any other affection than that of terror. He had about the same time caused a young woman of Potsdam, suspected of an intrigue with the prince, to be publicly whipped through the streets of Berlin. In 1734 the king sent a body of troops to the Rhine to act under prince Eugene in favour of the emperor against the French; and he himself, accompanied by the prince-royal, repaired to the imperial camp. No military action of consequence, however, took place. FredericWilliam about this time fell into a bad state of health, which increased the natural violence and irritability of his disposition. He behaved. with brutality to his physicians, but was held in some respect by the spirited remonstrances of the celebrated Hoffman. At length he became tranquil and resigned, and died without a strug-gle in May, 1740, in his 52d year. He held several conferences before his death on publicaffairs with the prince-royal, for whom he tes-tified great regard. If, as is affirmed, he pleaded with him in favour of his tall regiment, his recommendation proved fruitless. He left to his son a fine army and a full treasury, which, by his own confession, prepared the extraordi nary efforts and successes of the following reign. His issue was four sons and six daughters, one of whom became queen of Sweden.. Mém. de Brandenb. Moreri. Nouv. Dict. Hist. Towers's: Life of Frederic III.-A. FREDERIC II. king of Prussia, by some: reckoned the IIId. but better distinguished by the title of The Great, which he deserved be-. yond any monarch of his time, was son of the preceding, and was born at Berlin on January 24, 1712. He was baptised by the name of Charles-Frederic, but afterwards chose entirely to drop the former of these names. When a child, he was committed to the care of a French. governess, from whom he derived a readiness. in that language, and a predilection for it, which he retained during life. In the progress. of education, he enjoyed few advantages; for it was his father's principal object to render him thoroughly versed from childhood in military discipline, and in this he succeeded at the ex-pence of other acquisitions.. As he grew. towards manhood, however, a decided taste for polite literature began to display itself. It was formed by the French books which were put into his hands, and to which all his reading was confined; and it fostered that gentleness and polish of manners which distinguished him the more, from the contrast it afforded to his father's roughness. He became likewise a great lover and a practitioner of music; and such was his apparent character at this period, that the baron de Pollnitz predicted a mild and peaceable reign, should he arrive at the crown. His at- occupying the place of an unamiable predecestempt in 1730 to escape from his father's tyran- sor. His very first act was to disband the tall ny, and its violent consequences, have been re- regiment, which, if not done in spite to his falated in the life of that king. A degree of dis- ther's memory, proved that he already entercountenance, which continued to be shewn him tained much more solid ideas of military power, after the public reconciliation, was of service by than those of idle parade. His liberal and enaffording him the leisure to pursue his studies lightened mind displayed itself in the institution in retirement; and he added mathematics and of a new order of knighthood, called that of other solid attainments to the more amusing Merit, which was to admit persons of desert in branches of literature. In 1733 his tranquillity arms or arts, without distinction of birth or was disturbed by a command from his father to country. He wrote to several of the most emimarry Elisabeth-Christina, a princess of the nent men of letters in different countries, invithouse of Brunswick Wolfenbuttle. Though ing them to settle in his dominions; and he reextremely averse to the union, he obeyed, but called the philosopher Wolf, and made him he refused to cohabit with his consort, and ad- head of the university of Halle. Voltaire, with hered to this resolution as long as he lived. It Maupertuis and Algarotti, had an interview is supposed that this conduct was not the mere with him near Cleves; the two latter soon after consequence of personal dislike; but that some took up their residence with him. He became physical cause existed, which, from the time of an author himself, and published "Anti-Mahis maturity, for ever withdrew him from the chiavel," a work intended to refute the dishoempire of Venus. His father's succour to the nest maxims of the celebrated Italian, relative imperial army in 1734, gave him the treat of a to the morals of sovereigns. This, indeed, was ́ conversation with prince Eugene on military af- written while he was prince; and it was unforfairs; and a visit in 1735 to Stanislaus, king of tunate that one of his first practical comments Poland, then a fugitive at Konigsberg, gratified upon it should be a seizure by military force of him with the friendship of an amiable and let some districts in the bishopric of Liege, upon tered sovereign. His connection with men of which he had an obsolete claim, and which he letters was extended; and in 1736 he began a afterwards restored for a large sum of money. correspondence with the great object of his ad- We shall soon see from other examples how miration, Voltaire, who had so considerable a far he thought the common rules of morality share in forming his taste and opinions. Whe- binding upon a sovereign. ther he derived more benefit or injury from the lessons of this celebrated man, will be differently determined by different judges; but if it was Voltaire who principally impressed him with that spirit of religious toleration which ever distinguished his reign, it may be asserted, that, as a sovereign, he could scarcely receive a more valuable gift. We may add, that Voltaire's philosophy led him to inculcate upon his pupil the duty in a governor of promoting the happiness of the people committed to his charge by justice, humanity, and the arts of peace; and that it was not his fault if Frederic afterwards gave way to the seductions of ambition and military glory. Baron Bielfeld, and other persons of literary distinction, formed a part of the prince's little court at Kheinsberg, which is represented as being the seat of the muses and graces; and the character sustained by the prince himself at this period, was that of one of the most polite and fascinating young men in Germany. In May, 1740, Frederic succeeded to the throne of Prussia, and immediately obtained the possession of all that popularity which usually waits upon a young sovereign, especially when The death of the emperor Charles VI., in October, 1740, had left a vast inheritance to his daughter Maria Theresa, which, though guaranteed by almost all the powers of Europe, was instantly regarded as a tempting prey by all her neighbours. Among these, the king of Prussia was the first to begin the meditated rapine. Among his motives, he has honestly enumerated, "An army fit to march, a treasury ready prepared, and, perhaps, the ambition of acquiring renown." (Hist. de mon Temps.) The immediate object was the seizure of the rich and contiguous province of Silesia, to parts of which his family had some antiquated claims. These, however, were so little producible, that he rather chose the plea of entering Silesia, "in order to cover it from being invaded and attacked." He knew, however, that the sword only could make good such a pretext; and he accordingly assembled a choice army of 30,000 men, at the head of which he put himself (though not recovered from an intermittent fever) in the middle of December of that year, beginning his march immediately after a grand masked ball. A feeling of propriety induced him to erase the word Deo from the motto of |