[1] First printed at Augsburg in 1596; a German edition was published
at Berlin in 1896.
FREDERICK III. (1415-1493), Roman emperor,--as Frederick IV., German
king, and as Frederick V., archduke of Austria,--son of Ernest of
Habsburg, duke of Styria and Carinthia, was born at Innsbruck on the
21st of September 1415. After his father's death in 1424 he passed his
time at the court of his uncle and guardian, Frederick IV., count of
Tirol. In 1435, together with his brother, Albert the Prodigal, he
undertook the government of Styria and Carinthia, but the peace of these
lands was disturbed by constant feuds between the brothers, which lasted
until Albert's death in 1463. In 1439 the deaths of the German king
Albert II. and of Frederick of Tirol left Frederick the senior member of
the Habsburg family, and guardian of Sigismund, count of Tirol. In the
following year he also became guardian of Ladislaus, the posthumous son
of Albert II., and heir to Bohemia, Hungary and Austria, but these
responsibilities brought only trouble and humiliation in their train. On
the 2nd of February 1440 Frederick was chosen German king at Frankfort,
but, owing to his absence from Germany, the coronation was delayed until
the 17th of June 1442, when it took place at Aix-la-Chapelle.
Disregarding the neutral attitude of the German electors towards the
papal schism, and acting under the influence of Aeneas Sylvius
Piccolomini, afterwards Pope Pius II., Frederick in 1445 made a secret
treaty with Pope Eugenius IV. This developed into the Concordat of
Vienna, signed in 1448 with the succeeding pope, Nicholas V., by which
the king, in return for a sum of money and a promise of the imperial
crown, pledged the obedience of the German people to Rome, and so
checked for a time the rising tide of liberty in the German church.
Taking up the quarrel between the Habsburgs and the Swiss cantons,
Frederick invited the Armagnacs to attack his enemies, but after meeting
with a stubborn resistance at St Jacob on the 26th of August 1444, these
allies proved faithless, and the king soon lost every vestige of
authority in Switzerland. In 1451 Frederick, disregarding the revolts in
Austria and Hungary, travelled to Rome, where, on the 16th of March
1452, his marriage with Leonora, daughter of Edward, king of Portugal,
was celebrated, and three days later he was crowned emperor by pope
Nicholas. On his return he found Germany seething with indignation. His
capitulation to the pope was not forgotten; his refusal to attend the
diets, and his apathy in the face of Turkish aggressions, constituted a
serious danger; and plans for his deposition failed only because the
electors could not unite upon a rival king. In 1457 Ladislaus, king of
Hungary and Bohemia, and archduke of Austria, died; Frederick failed to
secure either kingdom, but obtained lower Austria, from which, however,
he was soon driven by his brother Albert, who occupied Vienna. On
Albert's death in 1463 the emperor united upper and lower Austria under
his rule, but these possessions were constantly ravaged by George
Podebrad, king of Bohemia, and by Matthias Corvinus, king of Hungary. A
visit to Rome in 1468 to discuss measures against the Turks with Pope
Paul II. had no result, and in 1470 Frederick began negotiations for a
marriage between his son Maximilian and Mary, daughter and heiress of
Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy. The emperor met the duke at Treves
in 1473, when Frederick, disliking to bestow the title of king upon
Charles, left the city secretly, but brought about the marriage after
the duke's death in 1477. Again attacked by Matthias, the emperor was
driven from Vienna, and soon handed over the government of his lands to
Maximilian, whose election as king of the Romans he vainly opposed in
1486. Frederick then retired to Linz, where he passed his time in the
study of botany, alchemy and astronomy, until his death on the 19th of
August 1493.
Frederick was a listless and incapable ruler, lacking alike the
qualities of the soldier and of the diplomatist, but possessing a
certain cleverness in evading difficulties. With a fine presence, he had
many excellent personal qualities, is spoken of as mild and just, and
had a real love of learning. He had a great belief in the future
greatness of his family, to which he contributed largely by arranging
the marriage of Maximilian with Mary of Burgundy, and delighted to
inscribe his books and other articles of value with the letters
A.E.I.O.U. (_Austriae est imperare orbi universo_; or in German, _Alles
Erdreich ist Oesterreich unterthan_). His personality counts for very
little in German history. One chronicler says: "He was a useless
emperor, and the nation during his long reign forgot that she had a
king." His tomb, a magnificent work in red and white marble, is in the
cathedral of St Stephen at Vienna.
See Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini, _De rebus et gestis Friderici III_.
(trans. Th. Ilgen, Leipzig, 1889); J. Chmel, _Geschichte Kaiser
Friedrichs IV. und seines Sohnes Maximilians I_. (Hamburg, 1840); A.
Bachmann, _Deutsche Reichsgeschichte im Zeitalter Friedrichs III. und
Maximilians I_. (Leipzig, 1884); A. Huber, _Geschichte Oesterreichs_
(Gotha, 1885-1892); and E. M. Fuerst von Lichnowsky, _Geschichte des
Hauses Habsburg_ (Vienna, 1836-1844).
FREDERICK III. (c. 1286-1330), surnamed "the Fair," German king and duke
of Austria, was the second son of the German king, Albert I., and
consequently a member of the Habsburg family. In 1298, when his father
was chosen German king, Frederick was invested with some of the family
lands, and in 1306, when his elder brother Rudolph became king of
Bohemia, he succeeded to the duchy of Austria. In 1307 Rudolph died, and
Frederick sought to obtain the Bohemian throne; but an expedition into
that country was a failure, and his father's murder in May 1308 deprived
him of considerable support. He was equally unsuccessful in his efforts
to procure the German crown at this time, and the relations between the
new king, Henry VII., and the Habsburgs were far from friendly.
Frederick asked not only to be confirmed in the possession of Austria,
but to be invested with Moravia, a demand to which Henry refused to
accede; but an arrangement was subsequently made by which the duke
agreed to renounce Moravia in return for a payment of 50,000 marks.
Frederick then became involved in a quarrel with his cousin Louis IV.,
duke of Upper Bavaria (afterwards the emperor Louis IV.), over the
guardianship of Henry II., duke of Lower Bavaria. Hostilities broke out,
and on the 9th of November 1313 he was defeated by Louis at the battle
of Gammelsdorf and compelled to renounce his claim.
Meanwhile the emperor Henry VII. had died in Italy, and a stubborn
contest ensued for the vacant throne. After a long delay Frederick was
chosen German king at Frankfort by a minority of the electors on the
19th of October 1314, while a majority elected Louis of Bavaria. Six
days later Frederick was crowned at Bonn by the archbishop of Cologne,
and war broke out at once between the rivals. During this contest, which
was carried on in a desultory fashion, Frederick drew his chief strength
from southern and eastern Germany, and was supported by the full power
of the Habsburgs. The defeat of his brother Leopold by the Swiss at
Morgarten in November 1315 was a heavy blow to him, but he prolonged the
struggle for seven years. On the 28th of September 1322 a decisive
battle was fought at Muehldorf; Frederick was defeated and sent as a
prisoner to Trausnitz. Here he was retained until three years later a
series of events induced Louis to come to terms. By the treaty of
Trausnitz, signed on the 13th of March 1325, Frederick acknowledged the
kingship of Louis in return for freedom, and promised to return to
captivity unless he could induce his brother Leopold to make a similar
acknowledgment. As Leopold refused to take this step, Frederick,
although released from his oath by Pope John XXII., travelled back to
Bavaria, where he was treated by Louis rather as a friend than as a
prisoner. A suggestion was then made that the kings should rule jointly,
but as this plan aroused some opposition it was agreed that Frederick
should govern Germany while Louis went to Italy for the imperial crown.
But this arrangement did not prove generally acceptable, and the death
of Leopold in 1326 deprived Frederick of a powerful supporter. In these
circumstances he returned to Austria broken down in mind and body, and
on the 13th of January 1330 he died at Gutenstein, and was buried at
Mauerbach, whence his remains were removed in 1783 to the cathedral of
St Stephen at Vienna. He married Elizabeth, daughter of James I., king
of Aragon, and left two daughters. His voluntary return into captivity
is used by Schiller in his poem _Deutsche Treue_, and by J. L. Uhland in
the drama _Ludwig der Bayer_.
The authorities for the life of Frederick are found in the _Fontes
rerum Germanicarum_, Band i., edited by J. F. Boehmer (Stuttgart,
1843-1868), and in the _Fontes rerum Austriacarum_, part i. (Vienna,
1855). Modern works which may be consulted are: E. M. Fuerst von
Lichnowsky, G_eschichte des Hauses Habsburg_ (Vienna, 1836-1844); Th.
Lindner, _Deutsche Geschichte unter den Habsburgern und Luxemburgern_
(Stuttgart, 1888-1893). R. Doebner, _Die Auseinandersetzung zwischen
Ludwig IV. dem Bayer und Friedrich dem Schoenen von Oesterreich_
(Goettingen, 1875); F. Kurz, _Oesterreich unter Koenig Friedrich dem
Schoenen_ (Linz, 1818); F. Krones, _Handbuch der Geschichte
Oesterreichs_ (Berlin, 1876-1879); H. Schrohe, _Der Kampf der
Gegenkoenige Ludwig und Friedrich_ (Berlin, 1902); W. Friedensburg,
_Ludwig IV. der Bayer und Friedrich von Oesterreich_ (Goettingen, 1877);
B. Gebhardt, _Handbuch der deutschen Geschichte_ (Berlin, 1901).
FREDERICK II. (1534-1588), king of Denmark and Norway, son of Christian
III., was born at Hadersleben on the 1st of July 1534. His mother,
Dorothea of Saxe-Lauenburg, was the elder sister of Catherine, the first
wife of Gustavus Vasa and the mother of Eric XIV. The two little
cousins, born the same year, were destined to be lifelong rivals. At the
age of two Frederick was proclaimed successor to the throne at the
_Rigsdag_ of Copenhagen (October 30th, 1536), and homage was done to him
at Oslo for Norway in 1548. The choice of his governor, the patriotic
historiographer Hans Svaning, was so far fortunate that it ensured the
devotion of the future king of Denmark to everything Danish; but Svaning
was a poor pedagogue, and the wild and wayward lad suffered all his life
from the defects of his early training. Frederick's youthful, innocent
attachment to the daughter of his former tutor, Anna Hardenberg,
indisposed him towards matrimony at the beginning of his reign (1558).
After the hands of Elizabeth of England, Mary of Scotland and Renata of
Lorraine had successively been sought for him, the council of state grew
anxious about the succession, but he finally married his cousin, Sophia
of Mecklenburg, on the 20th of July 1572.
The reign of Frederick II. falls into two well-defined divisions: (1) a
period of war, 1559-1570; and (2) a period of peace, 1570-1588. The
period of war began with the Ditmarsh expedition, when the independent
peasant-republic of the Ditmarshers of West Holstein, which had stoutly
maintained its independence for centuries against the counts of Holstein
and the Danish kings, was subdued by a Dano-Holstein army of 20,000 men
in 1559, Frederick and his uncles John and Adolphus, dukes of Holstein,
dividing the land between them. Equally triumphant was Frederick in his
war with Sweden, though here the contest was much more severe, lasting
as it did for seven years; whence it is generally described in northern
history as the Scandinavian Seven Years' War. The tension which had
prevailed between the two kingdoms during the last years of Gustavus
Vasa reached breaking point on the accession of Gustavus's eldest son
Eric XIV. There were many causes of quarrel between the two ambitious
young monarchs, but the detention at Copenhagen in 1563 of a splendid
matrimonial embassy on its way to Germany, to negotiate a match between
Eric and Christina of Hesse, which King Frederick for political reasons
was determined to prevent, precipitated hostilities. During the war,
which was marked by extraordinary ferocity throughout, the Danes were
generally victorious on land owing to the genius of Daniel Rantzau, but
at sea the Swedes were almost uniformly triumphant. By 1570 the strife
had degenerated into a barbarous devastation of border provinces; and in
July of the same year both countries accepted the mediation of the
Emperor, and peace was finally concluded at Stettin on Dec. 13, 1570.
During the course of this Seven Years' War Frederick II. had narrowly
escaped the fate of his deposed cousin Eric XIV. The war was very
unpopular in Denmark, and the closing of the Sound against foreign
shipping, in order to starve out Sweden, had exasperated the maritime
powers and all the Baltic states. On New Year's Day 1570 Frederick's
difficulties seemed so overwhelming that he threatened to abdicate; but
the peace of Stettin came in time to reconcile all parties, and though
Frederick had now to relinquish his ambitious dream of re-establishing
the Union of Kalmar, he had at least succeeded in maintaining the
supremacy of Denmark in the north. After the peace Frederick's policy
became still more imperial. He aspired to the dominion of all the seas
which washed the Scandinavian coasts, and before he died he succeeded in
suppressing the pirates who so long had haunted the Baltic and the
German Ocean. He also erected the stately fortress of Kronborg, to guard
the narrow channel of the Sound. Frederick possessed the truly royal
gift of discovering and employing great men, irrespective of personal
preferences and even of personal injuries. With infinite tact and
admirable self-denial he gave free scope to ministers whose superiority
in their various departments he frankly recognized, rarely interfering
personally unless absolutely called upon to do so. His influence, always
great, was increased by his genial and unaffected manners as a host. He
is also remarkable as one of the few kings of the house of Oldenburg who
had no illicit _liaison_. He died at Antvorskov on the 4th of April
1588. No other Danish king was ever so beloved by his people.
See _Lund_ (_Troels_), _Danmarks og Norges Historie i Slutningen af
det XVI. Aarh._ (Copenhagen, 1879); _Danmarks Riges Historie_
(Copenhagen, 1897-1905), vol. 3; Robert Nisbet Bain, _Scandinavia_,
cap. 4 (Cambridge, 1905). (R. N. B.)
FREDERICK III. (1609-1670), king of Denmark and Norway, son of Christian
IV. and Anne Catherine of Brandenburg, was born on the 18th of March
1609 at Hadersleben. His position as a younger son profoundly influenced
his future career. In his youth and early manhood there was no prospect
of his ascending the Danish throne, and he consequently became the
instrument of his father's schemes of aggrandizement in Germany. While
still a lad he became successively bishop of Bremen, bishop of Verden
and coadjutor of Halberstadt, while at the age of eighteen he was the
chief commandant of the fortress of Stade. Thus from an early age he had
considerable experience as an administrator, while his general education
was very careful and thorough. He had always a pronounced liking for
literary and scientific studies. On the 1st of October 1643 Frederick
wedded Sophia Amelia of Brunswick Lueneburg, whose energetic, passionate
and ambitious character was profoundly to affect not only Frederick's
destiny but the destiny of Denmark. During the disastrous Swedish War of
1643-1645 Frederick was appointed generalissimo of the duchies by his
father, but the laurels he won were scanty, chiefly owing to his
quarrels with the Earl-Marshal Anders Bille, who commanded the Danish
forces. This was Frederick's first collision with the Danish nobility,
who ever afterwards regarded him with extreme distrust. The death of his
elder brother Christian in June 1647 first opened to him the prospect of
succeeding to the Danish throne, but the question was still unsettled
when Christian IV. died on the 28th of February 1648. Not till the 6th
of July in the same year did Frederick III. receive the homage of his
subjects, and only after he had signed a _Haandfaestning_ or charter, by
which the already diminished royal prerogative was still further
curtailed. It had been doubtful at first whether he would be allowed to
inherit his ancestral throne at all; but Frederick removed the last
scruples of the _Rigsraad_ by unhesitatingly accepting the conditions
imposed upon him.
The new monarch was a reserved, enigmatical prince, who seldom laughed,
spoke little and wrote less--a striking contrast to Christian IV. But if
he lacked the brilliant qualities of his impulsive, jovial father, he
possessed in a high degree the compensating virtues of moderation,
sobriety and self-control. But with all his good qualities Frederick was
not the man to take a clear view of the political horizon, or even to
recognize his own and his country's limitations. He rightly regarded the
accession of Charles X. of Sweden (June 6th, 1654) as a source of danger
to Denmark. He felt that temperament and policy would combine to make
Charles an aggressive warrior-king: the only uncertainty was in which
direction he would turn his arms first. Charles's invasion of Poland
(July 1654) came as a distinct relief to the Danes, though even the
Polish War was full of latent peril to Denmark. Frederick was resolved
upon a rupture with Sweden at the first convenient opportunity. The
_Rigsdag_ which assembled on the 23rd of February 1657 willingly granted
considerable subsidies for mobilization and other military expenses; on
the 15th of April Frederick III. desired, and on the 23rd of April he
received, the assent of the majority of the _Rigsraad_ to attack
Sweden's German provinces; in the beginning of May the still pending
negotiations with that power were broken off, and on the 1st of June
Frederick signed the manifesto justifying a war which was never formally
declared. The Swedish king traversed all the plans of his enemies by his
passage of the frozen Belts, in January and February 1658 (see CHARLES
X. of Sweden). The effect of this unheard-of achievement on the Danish
government was crushing. Frederick III. at once sued for peace; and,
yielding to the persuasions of the English and French ministers, Charles
finally agreed to be content with mutilating instead of annihilating the
Danish monarchy (treaties of Taastrup, February 18th, and of Roskilde,
February 26th, 1658). The conclusion of peace was followed by a
remarkable episode. Frederick expressed the desire to make the personal
acquaintance of his conqueror; and Charles X. consented to be his guest
for three days (March 3-5) at the castle of Fredriksborg. Splendid
banquets lasting far into the night, private and intimate conversations
between the princes who had only just emerged from a mortal struggle,
seemed to point to nothing but peace and friendship in the future. But
Charles's insatiable lust for conquest, and his ineradicable suspicion
of Denmark, induced him, on the 17th of July, without any reasonable
cause, without a declaration of war, in defiance of all international
equity, to endeavour to despatch an inconvenient neighbour.
Terror was the first feeling produced at Copenhagen by the landing of
the main Swedish army at Korsoer in Zealand. None had anticipated the
possibility of such a sudden and brutal attack, and every one knew that
the Danish capital was very inadequately fortified and garrisoned.
Fortunately Frederick had never been deficient in courage. "I will die
in my nest" were the memorable words with which he rebuked those
counsellors who advised him to seek safety in flight. On the 8th of
August representatives from every class in the capital urged the
necessity of a vigorous resistance; and the citizens of Copenhagen,
headed by the great burgomaster Hans Nansen (q.v.), protested their
unshakable loyalty to the king, and their determination to defend
Copenhagen to the uttermost. The Danes had only three days' warning of
the approaching danger; and the vast and dilapidated line of defence had
at first but 2000 regular defenders. But the government and the people
displayed a memorable and exemplary energy, under the constant
supervision of the king, the queen, and burgomaster Nansen. By the
beginning of September all the breaches were repaired, the walls
bristled with cannon, and 7000 men were under arms. So strong was the
city by this time that Charles X., abandoning his original intention of
carrying the place by assault, began a regular siege; but this also he
was forced to abandon when, on the 29th of October, an auxiliary Dutch
fleet, after reinforcing and reprovisioning the garrison, defeated, in
conjunction with the Danish fleet, the Swedish navy of 44 liners in the
Sound. Thus the Danish capital had saved the Danish monarchy. But it was
Frederick III. who profited most by his spirited defence of the common
interests of the country and the dynasty. The traditional loyalty of the
Danish middle classes was transformed into a boundless enthusiasm for
the king personally, and for a brief period Frederick found himself the
most popular man in his kingdom. He made use of his popularity by
realizing the dream of a lifetime and converting an elective into an
absolute monarchy by the Revolution of 1660 (see DENMARK: _History_).
Frederick III. died on the 6th of February 1670 at the castle of
Copenhagen.
See R. Nisbet Bain, _Scandinavia_, caps. ix. and x. (Cambridge, 1905).
(R. N. B.)
FREDERICK VIII. (1843- ), king of Denmark, eldest son of King
Christian IX., was born at Copenhagen on the 3rd of June 1843. As crown
prince of Denmark he took part in the war of 1864 against Austria and
Prussia, and subsequently assisted his father in the duties of
government, becoming king on Christian's death in January 1906. In 1869
Frederick married Louise (b. 1851), daughter of Charles XV., king of
Sweden, by whom he had a family of four sons and four daughters. His
eldest son Christian, crown prince of Denmark (b. 1870), was married in
1898 to Alexandrina (b. 1879), daughter of Frederick Francis III.,
grand-duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin; and his second son, Charles (b.
1872), who married his cousin Maud, daughter of Edward VII. of Great
Britain, became king of Norway as Haakon VII. in 1905.
FREDERICK I. (1657-1713), king of Prussia, and (as Frederick III.)
elector of Brandenburg, was the second son of the great elector,
Frederick William, by his first marriage with Louise Henriette, daughter
of Frederick Henry of Orange. Born at Koenigsberg on the 11th of July
1657, he was educated and greatly influenced by Eberhard Danckelmann,
and became heir to the throne of Brandenburg through the death of his
elder brother, Charles Emil, in 1674. He appears to have taken some part
in public business before the death of his father; and the court at
Berlin was soon disturbed by quarrels between the young prince and his
stepmother, Dorothea of Holstein-Gluecksburg. In 1686 Dorothea persuaded
her husband to bequeath outlying portions of his lands to her four sons;
and Frederick, fearing he would be poisoned, left Brandenburg determined
to prevent any diminution of his inheritance. By promising to restore
Schwiebus to Silesia after his accession he won the support of the
emperor Leopold I.; but eventually he gained his end in a peaceable
fashion. Having become elector of Brandenburg in May 1688, he came to
terms with his half-brothers and their mother. In return for a sum of
money these princes renounced their rights under their father's will,
and the new elector thus secured the whole of Frederick William's
territories. After much delay and grumbling he fulfilled his bargain
with Leopold and gave up Schwiebus in 1695. At home and abroad Frederick
continued the policy of the great elector. He helped William of Orange
to make his descent on England; added various places, including the
principality of Neuchatel, to his lands; and exercised some influence on
the course of European politics by placing his large and efficient army
at the disposal of the emperor and his allies (see BRANDENBURG). He was
present in person at the siege of Bonn in 1689, but was not often in
command of his troops. The elector was very fond of pomp, and, striving
to model his court upon that of Louis XIV., he directed his main
energies towards obtaining for himself the title of king. In spite of
the assistance he had given to the emperor his efforts met with no
success for some years; but towards 1700 Leopold, faced with the
prospect of a new struggle with France, was inclined to view the idea
more favourably. Having insisted upon various conditions, prominent
among them being military aid for the approaching war, he gave the
imperial sanction to Frederick's request in November 1700; whereupon the
elector, hurrying at once to Koenigsberg, crowned himself with great
ceremony king of Prussia on the 18th of January 1701. According to his
promise the king sent help to the emperor; and during the War of the
Spanish Succession the troops of Brandenburg-Prussia rendered great
assistance to the allies, fighting with distinction at Blenheim and
elsewhere. Frederick, who was deformed through an injury to his spine,
died on the 25th of February 1713. By his extravagance the king
exhausted the treasure amassed by his father, burdened his country with
heavy taxes, and reduced its finances to chaos. His constant obligations
to the emperor drained Brandenburg of money which might have been
employed more profitably at home, and prevented her sovereign from
interfering in the politics of northern Europe. Frederick, however, was
not an unpopular ruler, and by making Prussia into a kingdom he
undoubtedly advanced it several stages towards its future greatness. He
founded the university of Halle, and the Academy of Sciences at Berlin;
welcomed and protected Protestant refugees from France and elsewhere;
and lavished money on the erection of public buildings.
The king was married three times. His second wife, Sophie Charlotte
(1668-1705), sister of the English king George I., was the friend of
Leibnitz and one of the most cultured princesses of the age; she bore
him his only son, his successor, King Frederick William I.
See W. Hahn, _Friedrich I., Koenig in Preussen_ (Berlin, 1876); J. G.
Droysen, _Geschichte der preussischen Politik_, Band iv. (Leipzig,
1872); E. Heyck, _Friedrich I. und die Begruendung des preussischen
Koenigtums_ (Bielefeld, 1901): C. Graf von Dohna, _Memoires originaux
sur le regne et la cour de Frederic I^er_ (Berlin, 1883); _Aus dem
Briefwechsel Koenig Friedrichs I. von Preussen und seiner Familie_
(Berlin, 1901); and T. Carlyle, _History of Frederick the Great_, vol.
i. (London, 1872).
FREDERICK II., known as "the Great" (1712-1786), king of Prussia, born
on the 24th of January 1712, was the eldest son of Frederick William I.
He was brought up with extreme rigour, his father devising a scheme of
education which was intended to make him a hardy soldier, and
prescribing for him every detail of his conduct. So great was Frederick
William's horror of everything which did not seem to him practical, that
he strictly excluded Latin from the list of his son's studies.
Frederick, however, had free and generous impulses which could not be
restrained by the sternest system. Encouraged by his mother, and under
the influence of his governess Madame de Roucoulle, and of his first
tutor Duhan, a French refugee, he acquired an excellent knowledge of
French and a taste for literature and music. He even received secret
lessons in Latin, which his father invested with all the charms of
forbidden fruit. As he grew up he became extremely dissatisfied with the
dull and monotonous life he was compelled to lead; and his discontent
was heartily shared by his sister, Wilhelmina, a bright and intelligent
young princess for whom Frederick had a warm affection.
Frederick William, seeing his son apparently absorbed in frivolous and
effeminate amusements, gradually conceived for him an intense dislike,
which had its share in causing him to break off the negotiations for a
double marriage between the prince of Wales and Wilhelmina, and the
princess Amelia, daughter of George II., and Frederick; for Frederick
had been so indiscreet as to carry on a separate correspondence with the
English court and to vow that he would marry Amelia or no one. Frederick
William's hatred of his son, openly avowed, displayed itself in violent
outbursts and public insults, and so harsh was his treatment that
Frederick frequently thought of running away and taking refuge at the
English court. He at last resolved to do so during a journey which he
made with the king to south Germany in 1730, when he was eighteen years
of age. He was helped by his two friends, Lieutenant Katte and
Lieutenant Keith; but by the imprudence of the former the secret was
found out. Frederick was placed under arrest, deprived of his rank as
crown prince, tried by court-martial, and imprisoned in the fortress of
Cuestrin. Warned by Frederick, Keith escaped; but Katte delayed his
flight too long, and a court-martial decided that he should be punished
with two years' fortress arrest. But the king was determined by a
terrible example to wake Frederick once for all to a consciousness of
the heavy responsibility of his position. He changed the sentence on
Katte to one of death and ordered the execution to take place in
Frederick's presence, himself arranging its every detail; Frederick's
own fate would depend upon the effect of this terrible object-lesson and
the response he should make to the exhortations of the chaplain sent to
reason with him. On the morning of the 7th of November Katte was
beheaded before Frederick's window, after the crown prince had asked his
pardon and received the answer that there was nothing to forgive. On
Frederick himself lay the terror of death, and the chaplain was able to
send to the king a favourable report of his orthodoxy and his changed
disposition. Frederick William, whose temper was by no means so
ruthlessly Spartan as tradition has painted it,was overjoyed, and
commissioned the clergyman to receive from the prince an oath of filial
obedience, and in exchange for this proof of "his intention to improve
in real earnest" his arrest was to be lightened, pending the earning of
a full pardon. "The whole town shall be his prison," wrote the king; "I
will give him employment, from morning to night, in the departments of
war, and agriculture, and of the government. He shall work at financial
matters, receive accounts, read minutes and make extracts.... But if he
kicks or rears again, he shall forfeit the succession to the crown, and
even, according to circumstances, life itself."
For about fifteen months Frederick lived in Custrin, busy according to
the royal programme with the details of the Prussian administrative
system. He was very careful not to "kick or rear," and his good conduct
earned him a further stage in the restoration to favour. During this
period of probation he had been deprived of his status as a soldier and
refused the right to wear uniform, while officers and soldiers were
forbidden to give him the military salute; in 1732 he was made colonel
in command of the regiment at Neuruppin. In the following year he
married, in obedience to the king's orders, the princess Elizabeth
Christina, daughter of the duke of Brunswick-Bevern. He was given the
estate of Rheinsberg in the neighbourhood of Neuruppin, and there he
lived until he succeeded to the throne. These years were perhaps the
happiest of his life. He discharged his duties with so much spirit and
so conscientiously that he ultimately gained the esteem of Frederick
William, who no longer feared that he would leave the crown to one
unworthy of wearing it. At the same time the crown prince was able to
indulge to the full his personal tastes. He carried on a lively
correspondence with Voltaire and other French men of letters, and was a
diligent student of philosophy, history and poetry. Two of his
best-known works were written at this time--_Considerations sur l'etat
present du corps politique de l'Europe_ and his _Anti-Macchiavel_. In
the former he calls attention to the growing strength of Austria and
France, and insists on the necessity of some third power, by which he
clearly means Prussia, counterbalancing their excessive influence. The
second treatise, which was issued by Voltaire in Hague in 1740, contains
a generous exposition of some of the favourite ideas of the 18th-century
philosophers respecting the duties of sovereigns, which may be summed up
in the famous sentence: "the prince is not the absolute master, but only
the first servant of his people."
On the 31st of May 1740 he became king. He maintained all the forms of
government established by his father, but ruled in a far more
enlightened spirit; he tolerated every form of religious opinion,
abolished the use of torture, was most careful to secure an exact and
impartial administration of justice, and, while keeping the reins of
government strictly in his own hands, allowed every one with a genuine
grievance free access to his presence. The Potsdam regiment of giants
was disbanded, but the real interests of the army were carefully
studied, for Frederick realized that the two pillars of the Prussian
state were sound finances and a strong army. On the 20th of October 1740
the emperor Charles VI. died. Frederick at once began to make extensive
military preparations, and it was soon clear to all the world that he
intended to enter upon some serious enterprise. He had made up his mind
to assert the ancient claim of the house of Brandenburg to the three
Silesian duchies, which the Austrian rulers of Bohemia had ever denied,
but the Hohenzollerns had never abandoned. Projects for the assertion of
this claim by force of arms had been formed by more than one of
Frederick's predecessors, and the extinction of the male line of the
house of Habsburg may well have seemed to him a unique opportunity for
realizing an ambition traditional in his family. For this resolution he
is often abused still by historians, and at the time he had the approval
of hardly any one out of Prussia. He himself, writing of the scheme in
his _Memoires_, laid no claim to lofty motives, but candidly confessed
that "it was a means of acquiring reputation and of increasing the power
of the state." He firmly believed, however, in the lawfulness of his
claims; and although his father had recognized the Pragmatic Sanction,
whereby the hereditary dominions of Charles VI. were to descend to his
daughter, Maria Theresa, Frederick insisted that this sanction could
refer only to lands which rightfully belonged to the house of Austria.
He could also urge that, as Charles VI. had not fulfilled the
engagements by which Frederick William's recognition of the Pragmatic
Sanction had been secured, Prussia was freed from her obligation.
Frederick sent an ambassador to Vienna, offering, in the event of his
rights in Silesia being conceded, to aid Maria Theresa against her
enemies. The queen of Hungary, who regarded the proposal as that of a
mere robber, haughtily declined; whereupon Frederick immediately invaded
Silesia with an army of 30,000 men. His first victory was gained at
Mollwitz on the 10th of April 1741. Under the impression, in consequence
of a furious charge of Austrian cavalry, that the battle was lost, he
rode rapidly away at an early stage of the struggle--a mistake which
gave rise for a time to the groundless idea that he lacked personal
courage. A second Prussian victory was gained at Chotusitz, near Caslau,
on the 17th May 1742; by this time Frederick was master of all the
fortified places of Silesia. Maria Theresa, in the heat of her struggle
with France and the elector of Bavaria, now Charles VII., and pressed by
England to rid herself of Frederick, concluded with him, on the 11th of
June 1742, the peace of Breslau, conceding to Prussia, Upper and Lower
Silesia as far as the Oppa, together with the county of Glatz. Frederick
made good use of the next two years, fortifying his new territory, and
repairing the evils inflicted upon it by the war. By the death of the
prince of East Friesland without heirs, he also gained possession of
that country (1744). He knew well that Maria Theresa would not, if she
could help it, allow him to remain in Silesia; accordingly, in 1744,
alarmed by her victories, he arrived at a secret understanding with
France, and pledged himself, with Hesse-Cassel and the palatinate, to
maintain the imperial rights of Charles VII., and to defend his
hereditary Bavarian lands. Frederick began the second Silesian War by
entering Bohemia in August 1744 and taking Prague. By this brilliant but
rash venture he put himself in great danger, and soon had to retreat;
but in 1745 he gained the battles of Hohenfriedberg, Soor and
Hennersdorf; and Leopold of Dessau ("Der alte Dessauer") won for him the
victory of Kesselsdorf in Saxony. The latter victory was decisive, and
the peace of Dresden (December 25, 1745) assured to Frederick a second
time the possession of Silesia. (See AUSTRIAN SUCCESSION, WAR OF THE.)
Frederick had thus, at the age of thirty-three, raised himself to a
great position in Europe, and henceforth he was the most conspicuous
sovereign of his time. He was a thoroughly absolute ruler, his so-called
ministers being mere clerks whose business was to give effect to his
will. To use his own famous phrase, however, he regarded himself as but
"the first servant of the state"; and during the next eleven years he
proved that the words expressed his inmost conviction and feeling. All
kinds of questions were submitted to him, important and unimportant; and
he is frequently censured for having troubled himself so much with mere
details. But in so far as these details related to expenditure he was
fully justified, for it was absolutely essential for him to have a large
army, and with a small state this was impossible unless he carefully
prevented unnecessary outlay. Being a keen judge of character, he filled
the public offices with faithful, capable, energetic men, who were kept
up to a high standard of duty by the consciousness that their work might
at any time come under his strict supervision. The Academy of Sciences,
which had fallen into contempt during his father's reign, he restored,
infusing into it vigorous life; and he did more to promote elementary
education than any of his predecessors. He did much too for the economic
development of Prussia, especially for agriculture; he established
colonies, peopling them with immigrants, extended the canal system,
drained and diked the great marshes of the Oderbruch, turning them into
rich pasturage, encouraged the planting of fruit trees and of root
crops; and, though in accordance with his ideas of discipline he
maintained serfdom, he did much to lighten the burdens of the peasants.
All kinds of manufacture, too, particularly that of silk, owed much to
his encouragement. To the army he gave unremitting attention, reviewing
it at regular intervals, and sternly punishing negligence on the part of
the officers. Its numbers were raised to 160,000 men, while fortresses
and magazines were always kept in a state of readiness for war. The
influence of the king's example was felt far beyond the limits of his
immediate circle. The nation was proud of his genius, and displayed
something of his energy in all departments of life. Lessing, who as a
youth of twenty came to Berlin in 1749, composed enthusiastic odes in
his honour, and Gleim, the Halberstadt poet, wrote of him as of a kind
of demi-god. These may be taken as fair illustrations of the popular
feeling long before the Seven Years' War.
He despised German as the language of boors, although it is remarkable
that at a later period, in a French essay on German literature, he
predicted for it a great future. He habitually wrote and spoke French,
and had a strong ambition to rank as a distinguished French author.
Nobody can now read his verses, but his prose writings have a certain
calm simplicity and dignity, without, however, giving evidence of the
splendid mental qualities which he revealed in practical life. To this
period belong his _Memoires pour servir a l'histoire de Brandebourg_ and
his poem _L'Art de la guerre_. The latter, judged as literature, is
intolerably dull; but the former is valuable, throwing as it does
considerable light on his personal sympathies as well as on the motives
of important epochs in his career. He continued to correspond with
French writers, and induced a number of them to settle in Berlin,
Maupertuis being president of the Academy. In 1752 Voltaire, who had
repeatedly visited him, came at Frederick's urgent entreaty, and
received a truly royal welcome. The famous Hirsch trial, and Voltaire's
vanity and caprice, greatly lowered him in the esteem of the king, who,
on his side, irritated his guest by often requiring him to correct bad
verses, and by making him the object of rude banter. The publication of
_Doctor Akakia_, which brought down upon the president of the Academy a
storm of ridicule, finally alienated Frederick; while Voltaire's wrongs
culminated in the famous arrest at Frankfort, the most disagreeable
elements of which were due to the misunderstanding of an order by a
subordinate official.
The king lived as much as possible in a retired mansion, to which he
gave the name of Sanssouci--not the palace so called, which was built
after the Seven Years' War, and was never a favourite residence. He rose
regularly in summer at five, in winter at six, devoting himself to
public business till about eleven. During part of this time, after
coffee, he would aid his reflections by playing on the flute, of which
he was passionately fond, being a really skilful performer. At eleven
came parade, and an hour afterwards, punctually, dinner, which continued
till two, or later, if conversation happened to be particularly
attractive. After dinner he glanced through and signed cabinet orders
written in accordance with his morning instructions, often adding
marginal notes and postscripts, many of which were in a caustic tone.
These disposed of, he amused himself for a couple of hours with literary
work; between six and seven he would converse with his friends or listen
to his reader (a post held for some time by La Mettrie); at seven there
was a concert; and at half-past eight he sat down to supper, which might
go on till midnight. He liked good eating and drinking, although even
here the cost was sharply looked after, the expenses of his kitchen
mounting to no higher figure than L1800 a year. At supper he was always
surrounded by a number of his most intimate friends, mainly Frenchmen;
and he insisted on the conversation being perfectly free. His wit,
however, was often cruel, and any one who responded with too much spirit
was soon made to feel that the licence of talk was to be complete only
on one side.
At Frederick's court ladies were seldom seen, a circumstance that gave
occasion to much scandal for which there seems to have been no
foundation. The queen he visited only on rare occasions. She had been
forced upon him by his father, and he had never loved her; but he always
treated her with marked respect, and provided her with a generous
income, half of which she gave away in charity. Although without charm,
she was a woman of many noble qualities; and, like her husband, she
wrote French books, some of which attracted a certain attention in their
day. She survived him by eleven years, dying in 1797.
Maria Theresa had never given up hope that she would recover Silesia;
and as all the neighbouring sovereigns were bitterly jealous of
Frederick, and somewhat afraid of him, she had no difficulty in inducing
several of them to form a scheme for his ruin. Russia and Saxony entered
into it heartily, and France, laying aside her ancient enmity towards
Austria, joined the empress against the common object of dislike.
Frederick, meanwhile, had turned towards England, which saw in him a
possible ally of great importance against the French. A convention
between Prussia and Great Britain was signed in January 1756, and it
proved of incalculable value to both countries, leading as it did to a
close alliance during the administration of Pitt. Through the treachery
of a clerk in the Saxon foreign office Frederick was made aware of the
future which was being prepared for him. Seeing the importance of taking
the initiative, and if possible, of securing Saxony, he suddenly, on the
24th of August 1756, crossed the frontier of that country, and shut in
the Saxon army between Pirna and Koenigstein, ultimately compelling it,
after a victory gained over the Austrians at Lobositz, to surrender.
Thus began the Seven Years' War, in which, supported by England,
Brunswick and Hesse-Cassel, he had for a long time to oppose Austria,
France, Russia, Saxony and Sweden. Virtually the whole Continent was in
arms against a small state which, a few years before, had been regarded
by most men as beneath serious notice. But it happened that this small
state was led by a man of high military genius, capable of infusing into
others his own undaunted spirit, while his subjects had learned both
from him and his predecessors habits of patience, perseverance and
discipline. In 1757, after defeating the Austrians at Prague, he was
himself defeated by them at Kolin; and by the shameful convention of
Closter-Seven, he was freely exposed to the attack of the French. In
November 1757, however, when Europe looked upon him as ruined, he rid
himself of the French by his splendid victory over them at Rossbach, and
in about a month afterwards, by the still more splendid victory at
Leuthen, he drove the Austrians from Silesia. From this time the French
were kept well employed in the west by Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick,
who defeated them at Crefeld in 1758, and at Minden in 1759. In the
former year Frederick triumphed, at a heavy cost, over the Russians at
Zorndorf; and although, through lack of his usual foresight, he lost the
battle of Hochkirch, he prevented the Austrians from deriving any real
advantage from their triumph, Silesia still remaining in his hands at
the end of the year. The battle of Kunersdorf, fought on the 12th of
August 1759, was the most disastrous to him in the course of the war. He
had here to contend both with the Russians and the Austrians; and
although at first he had some success, his army was in the end
completely broken. "All is lost save the royal family," he wrote to his
minister Friesenstein; "the consequences of this battle will be worse
than the battle itself. I shall not survive the ruin of the Fatherland.
Adieu for ever!" But he soon recovered from his despair, and in 1760
gained the important victories of Liegnitz and Torgau. He had now,
however, to act on the defensive, and fortunately for him, the Russians,
on the death of the empress Elizabeth, not only withdrew in 1762 from
the compact against him, but for a time became his allies. On the 29th
of October of that year he gained his last victory over the Austrians at
Freiberg. Europe was by that time sick of war, every power being more or
less exhausted. The result was that, on the 15th of February 1763, a
few days after the conclusion of the peace of Paris, the treaty of
Hubertusburg was signed, Austria confirming Prussia in the possession of
Silesia. (See SEVEN YEARS' WAR.)
It would be difficult to overrate the importance of the contribution
thus made by Frederick to the politics of Europe. Prussia was now
universally recognized as one of the great powers of the Continent, and
she definitely took her place in Germany as the rival of Austria. From
this time it was inevitable that there should be a final struggle
between the two nations for predominance, and that the smaller German
states should group themselves around one or the other. Frederick
himself acquired both in Germany and Europe the indefinable influence
which springs from the recognition of great gifts that have been proved
by great deeds.
His first care after the war was, as far as possible, to enable the
country to recover from the terrific blows by which it had been almost
destroyed; and he was never, either before or after, seen to better
advantage than in the measures he adopted for this end. Although his
resources had been so completely drained that he had been forced to melt
the silver in his palaces and to debase the coinage, his energy soon
brought back the national prosperity. Pomerania and Neumark were freed
from taxation for two years, Silesia for six months. Many nobles whose
lands had been wasted received corn for seed; his war horses were within
a few months to be found on farms all over Prussia; and money was freely
spent in the re-erection of houses which had been destroyed. The coinage
was gradually restored to its proper value, and trade received a
favourable impulse by the foundation of the Bank of Berlin. All these
matters were carefully looked into by Frederick himself, who, while
acting as generously as his circumstances would allow, insisted on
everything being done in the most efficient manner at the least possible
cost. Unfortunately, he adopted the French ideas of excise, and the
French methods of imposing and collecting taxes--a system known as the
Regie. This system secured for him a large revenue, but it led to a vast
amount of petty tyranny, which was all the more intolerable because it
was carried out by French officials. It was continued to the end of
Frederick's reign, and nothing did so much to injure his otherwise
immense popularity. He was quite aware of the discontent the system
excited, and the good-nature with which he tolerated the criticisms
directed against it and him is illustrated by a well-known incident.
Riding along the Jaeger Strasse one day, he saw a crowd of people. "See
what it is," he said to the groom who was attending him. "They have
something posted up about your Majesty," said the groom, returning.
Frederick, riding forward, saw a caricature of himself: "King in very
melancholy guise," says Preuss (as translated by Carlyle), "seated on a
stool, a coffee-mill between his knees, diligently grinding with the one
hand, and with the other picking up any bean that might have fallen.
'Hang it lower,' said the king, beckoning his groom with a wave of the
finger; 'lower, that they may not have to hurt their necks about it.' No
sooner were the words spoken, which spread instantly, than there rose
from the whole crowd one universal huzzah of joy. They tore the
caricature into a thousand pieces, and rolled after the king with loud
'_Lebe Hoch_, our Frederick for ever,' as he rode slowly away." There
are scores of anecdotes about Frederick, but not many so well
authenticated as this.
There was nothing about which Frederick took so much trouble as the
proper administration of justice. He disliked the formalities of the
law, and in one instance, "the miller Arnold case," in connexion with
which he thought injustice had been done to a poor man, he dismissed the
judges, condemned them to a year's fortress arrest, and compelled them
to make good out of their own pockets the loss sustained by their
supposed victim--not a wise proceeding, but one springing from a
generous motive. He once defined himself as "l'avocat du pauvre," and
few things gave him more pleasure than the famous answer of the miller
whose windmill stood on ground which was wanted for the king's garden.
The miller sturdily refused to sell it. "Not at any price?" said the
king's agent; "could not the king take it from you for nothing, if he
chose?" "Have we not the Kammergericht at Berlin?" was the answer, which
became a popular saying in Germany. Soon after he came to the throne
Frederick began to make preparations for a new code. In 1747 appeared
the _Codex Fridericianus_, by which the Prussian judicial body was
established. But a greater monument of Frederick's interest in legal
reform was the _Allgemeines preussisches Landrecht_, completed by the
grand chancellor Count Johann H. C. von Carmer (1721-1801) on the basis
of the _Project des Corporis Juris Fridericiani_, completed in the year
1749-1751 by the eminent jurist Samuel von Cocceji (1679-1755). The
_Landrecht_, a work of vast labour and erudition, combines the two
systems of German and Roman law supplemented by the law of nature; it
was the first German code, but only came into force in 1794, after
Frederick's death.
Looking ahead after the Seven Years' War, Frederick saw no means of
securing himself so effectually as by cultivating the goodwill of
Russia. In 1764 he accordingly concluded a treaty of alliance with the
empress Catherine for eight years. Six years afterwards, unfortunately
for his fame, he joined in the first partition of Poland, by which he
received Polish Prussia, without Danzig and Thorn, and Great Poland as
far as the river Netze. Prussia was then for the first time made
continuous with Brandenburg and Pomerania.
The emperor Joseph II. greatly admired Frederick, and visited him at
Neisse, in Silesia, in 1769, a visit which Frederick returned, in
Moravia, in the following year. The young emperor was frank and cordial;
Frederick was more cautious, for he detected under the respectful manner
of Joseph a keen ambition that might one day become dangerous to
Prussia. Ever after these interviews a portrait of the emperor hung
conspicuously in the rooms in which Frederick lived, a circumstance on
which some one remarked. "Ah yes," said Frederick, "I am obliged to keep
that young gentleman in my eye." Nothing came of these suspicions till
1777, when, after the death of Maximilian Joseph, elector of Bavaria,
without children, the emperor took possession of the greater part of his
lands. The elector palatine, who lawfully inherited Bavaria, came to an
arrangement, which was not admitted by his heir, Charles, duke of
Zweibruecken. Under these circumstances the latter appealed to Frederick,
who, resolved that Austria should gain no unnecessary advantage, took
his part, and brought pressure to bear upon the emperor. Ultimately,
greatly against his will, Frederick felt compelled to draw the sword,
and in July 1778 crossed the Bohemian frontier at the head of a powerful
army. No general engagement was fought, and after a great many delays
the treaty of Teschen was signed on the 13th of May 1779. Austria
received the circle of Burgau, and consented that the king of Prussia
should take the Franconian principalities. Frederick never abandoned his
jealousy of Austria, whose ambition he regarded as the chief danger
against which Europe had to guard. He seems to have had no suspicion
that evil days were coming in France. It was Austria which had given
trouble in his time; and if her pride were curbed, he fancied that
Prussia at least would be safe. Hence one of the last important acts of
his life was to form, in 1785, a league of princes (the "Fuerstenbund")
for the defence of the imperial constitution, believed to be imperilled
by Joseph's restless activity. The league came to an end after
Frederick's death; but it is of considerable historical interest, as the
first open attempt of Prussia to take the lead in Germany.
Frederick's chief trust was always in his treasury and his army. By
continual economy he left in the former the immense sum of 70 million
thalers; the latter, at the time of his death, numbered 200,000 men,
disciplined with all the strictness to which he had throughout life
accustomed his troops. He died at Sanssouci on the 17th of August 1786;
his death being hastened by exposure to a storm of rain, stoically
borne, during a military review. He passed away on the eve of tremendous
events, which for a time obscured his fame; but now that he can be
impartially estimated, he is seen to have been in many respects one of
the greatest figures in modern history.
He was rather below the middle size, in youth inclined to stoutness,
lean in old age, but of vigorous and active habits. An expression of
keen intelligence lighted up his features, and his large, sparkling grey
eyes darted penetrating glances at every one who approached him. In his
later years an old blue uniform with red facings was his usual dress,
and on his breast was generally some Spanish snuff, of which he consumed
large quantities. He shared many of the chief intellectual tendencies of
his age, having no feeling for the highest aspirations of human nature,
but submitting all things to a searching critical analysis. Of
Christianity he always spoke in the mocking tone of the "enlightened"
philosophers, regarding it as the invention of priests; but it is
noteworthy that after the Seven Years' War, the trials of which steadied
his character, he sought to strengthen the church for the sake of its
elevating moral influence. In his judgments of mankind he often talked
as a misanthrope. He was once conversing with Sulzer, who was a school
inspector, about education. Sulzer expressed the opinion that education
had of late years greatly improved. "In former times, your Majesty," he
said, "the notion being that mankind were naturally inclined to evil, a
system of severity prevailed in schools; but now, when we recognize that
the inborn inclination of men is rather to good than to evil,
schoolmasters have adopted a more generous procedure." "Ah, my dear
Sulzer," replied the king, "you don't know this damned race" ("Ach, mein
lieber Sulzer, er kennt nicht diese verdammte Race"). This fearful
saying unquestionably expressed a frequent mood of Frederick's; and he
sometimes acted with great harshness, and seemed to take a malicious
pleasure in tormenting his acquaintances. Yet he was capable of genuine
attachments. He was beautifully loyal to his mother and his sister
Wilhelmina; his letters to the duchess of Gotha are full of a certain
tender reverence; the two Keiths found him a devoted friend. But the
true evidence that beneath his misanthropical moods there was an
enduring sentiment of humanity is afforded by the spirit in which he
exercised his kingly functions. Taking his reign as a whole, it must be
said that he looked upon his power rather as a trust than as a source of
personal advantage; and the trust was faithfully discharged according to
the best lights of his day. He has often been condemned for doing
nothing to encourage German literature; and it is true that he was
supremely indifferent to it. Before he died a tide of intellectual life
was rising all about him; yet he failed to recognize it, declined to
give Lessing even the small post of royal librarian, and thought _Goetz
von Berlichingen_ a vulgar imitation of vulgar English models. But when
his taste was formed, German literature did not exist; the choice was
between Racine and Voltaire on the one hand and Gottsched and Gellert on
the other. He survived into the era of Kant, Goethe and Schiller, but he
was not of it, and it would have been unreasonable to expect that he
should in old age pass beyond the limits of his own epoch. As Germans
now generally admit, it was better that he let their literature alone,
since, left to itself, it became a thoroughly independent product.
Indirectly he powerfully promoted it by deepening the national life from
which it sprang. At a time when there was no real bond of cohesion
between the different states, he stirred among them a common enthusiasm;
and in making Prussia great he laid the foundation of a genuinely united
empire.