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FRE compelled to retreat, in order to save his army from destruction, and the coalition against Austria soon after fell to pieces; while England, the Netherlands, and Saxony entered into a strict alliance with the empress-queen on the 8th January, 1745. But Frederick gained a signal victory over the Austrians and Saxons at Hohenfriedberg in Silesia (4th June), and another at Storx in Bohemia (30th September); while his troops under Prince Leopold of Dessau defeated the Saxons at Kesseldorf on the 15th of December. These successes led to the treaty of Dresden (December 25), by which Frederick was confirmed in the possession of Silesia, while the husband of Maria Theresa was acknowledged as emperor. This terminated the second Silesian war.

Eleven years of peace followed, which were diligently employed by Frederick in improving his dominions; fostering agriculture, manufactures, and commerce; erecting villages; planting and cultivating waste lands; reorganizing his army; and reforming and simplifying the proceedings of the courts of law. With the help of his chancellor Cocceji, he drew up the celebrated Frederician code. He expended large sums of money in the erection of splendid palaces and other public buildings. He cultivated literary pursuits with great assiduity, invited distinguished foreign authors and philosophers to his court, and made them his favourite companions. The most celebrated of his philosophical friends was Voltaire, whom he welcomed to Berlin in 1750 with the most enthusiastic admiration, and created a royal chamberlain, with a liberal pension for life. But their friendship speedily cooled, and at last terminated in an open rupture, which reflected little credit on either party. These peaceful pursuits were interrupted by the Seven Years' war, which broke out in the month of August, 1756. The empress-queen had never forgiven the perfidy and injustice of Frederick in robbing her of Silesia; and burning for revenge, she at length succeeded by her persevering efforts in persuading France, Russia, Saxony, and Sweden, to make common cause with her against the Prussian monarch. A secret treaty was concluded between these powers for the purpose of stripping him, not only of his ill-gotten gains, but of other important provinces of his kingdom. Frederick, however, received private notice of his danger, and resolved to anticipate his enemies by striking the first blow. He marched into Saxony, 24th August, at the head of sixty thousand troops, captured Dresden, invested the entrenched camp at Pirna, and defeated at Lowositz in Bohemia (1st October) a powerful Austrian army under Marshal Brown, which was advancing to the assistance of the Saxons. Then returning to Pirna, which capitulated on the 14th, he compelled seventeen thousand men whom he found in that camp to enlist in his own army. Britain was the only ally of the Prussian king, and it was arranged that, in the campaign of 1757, the duke of Cumberland at the head of an army of English and Hanoverians should endeavour to effect a diversion in his favour by operating against the French, while Frederick should attack his other enemies in detail. Early in the spring of 1757 the Prussians marched into Bohemia, and on the 6th of May routed the Austrians with great slaughter at Prague. Leaving a strong body to besiege that place, Frederick at the head of thirty thousand men marched against Marshal Daun, whom he found encamped in an almost impregnable position at Collin. A fierce and bloody engagement took place (18th June), which terminated in the defeat of the Prussians, with the loss of thirteen thousand men. Frederick was compelled to raise the siege of Prague, and to retreat with the utmost haste into Saxony. To add to the severity of this stroke, the duke of Cumberland had been defeated at Hastembeck, and compelled to abandon Hanover. The victorious French generals were thus left at liberty to turn their arms against the Prussian king. The Russians and Swedes were advancing from the north to hem him in on that side. The Austrians had overrun Silesia, and taken and plundered Berlin, and, to crown all, Frederick's mother, whom he really loved, died at this critical moment. His case seemed desperate even to himself; and, resolving never to be taken alive, he provided a sure and speedy poison, which he always carried on his person as a last resource against misery and disgrace. He resolved, however, to fight it out to the last, and the tide soon turned in his favour. He marched first against the French under Marshal Soubise, whom he defeated, and almost annihilated, at Rosbach, 5th November. He then without a moment's delay turned towards Silesia, and completely routed the Austrians at Leuthen, near Breslau, 5th December, and recovered that city which had fallen into their hands. This famous battle was pronounced by Napoleon "a masterpiece in its movements, its manœuvres, and its intrepidity," and as "sufficient of itself to entitle Frederick to a place in the first rank of the most illustrious generals."

These brilliant successes excited general admiration, over the continent, of the military talents of the Prussian king. England was enthusiastic in his favour; an annual subsidy of £670,000 was voted to him by parliament; and an army of English and Hanoverians under Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick was sent to Western Germany, with the view of keeping the French in check. The principal event in the campaign of 1751 was the overthrow of the Russians at Zorndorf, near Frankfort-on-the-Oder (25th August), after a protracted and bloody fight. But this success was to some extent counterbalanced by the defeat of the Prussians at Hochkirchen by Daun and Laudohn, with the loss of ten thousand men and a number of officers, among whom was the celebrated Marshal Keith. The Princess Wilhelmena, margravine of Baireuth, Frederick's sister, died on the day on which this battle was fought; and "he felt her loss," says Macaulay, "as much as it was in his iron nature to feel the loss of anything but a province or a battle." In 1759 the Prussian king met with a series of terrible disasters. At the commencement of the campaign his troops were defeated on the Oder by the Russians, who thus effected a junction with the Austrians under Laudohn, and entrenched themselves at Kunersdorf. Here they were attacked by Frederick on the 13th of August. For a time the impetuosity of the Prussians carried all before them; but in the end they were totally defeated with prodigious slaughter. The king, who, in an early part of the day, had sent off a messenger to Berlin with the announcement of a victory, now ordered the royal family to leave the capital, and the archives to be sent to Potsdam; adding that Berlin might make terms with the enemy. The city, however, was saved by the delays and blunders of the confederates. But misfortune on misfortune followed in rapid succession; and when the campaign closed, the total ruin of the Prussian monarchy seemed inevitable. In 1760 the Russians and Austrians entered Berlin, which was saved from plunder by the payment of a heavy ransom. On the other hand, Frederick defeated Laudohn at Lignitz, and Daun at Torgau, after a sanguinary conflict. The situation of the Prussian monarch had now, however, become exceedingly critical. His country had suffered frightfully from the severe and protracted struggle, which it had maintained during four successive years against fearful odds. His veteran troops and most experienced generals had perished on the battle-field. His resources seemed at length completely exhausted, and he once more seriously meditated suicide. He struggled on, however, during the campaign of 1761, though his prospects became every month more gloomy. But at the moment when his affairs seemed desperate, the death of his inveterate enemy, the Empress Elizabeth of Russia, brought him immediate relief. Her successor, the Grand-duke Peter, was an enthusiastic admirer of Frederick, and not only withdrew from the coalition against the Prussian monarch, but eventually sent fifteen thousand of his best troops to his assistance. France at the same time made peace with England, and these two powers agreed to withdraw from the contest, and to observe a strict neutrality. Austria, single-handed, was thus left to continue the war, and Frederick speedily defeated Daun at Buckersdorf, and drove the Austrians out of Silesia. The vindictive spirit of the empress-queen at length gave way; and menaced by the Turks who were mustering a powerful army on the frontiers of Hungary, she was obliged to conclude peace with Prussia in February, 1763, and to leave Silesia in the hands of her hated adversary. Thus terminated a struggle of which the faithlessness and cupidity of Frederick were the main cause, and which, after immense sacrifices of human life, and inflicting the most frightful miseries on Germany, left the political position of the various European powers unchanged.

On the conclusion of this great contest, Frederick directed all his energies to repair the ravages which the war had inflicted on his dominions. He opened his magazines to distribute to his starving subjects corn both for food and for seed; apportioned his cavalry and artillery horses among the fanners; rebuilt at his own expense the houses, of which no fewer than fifteen thousand had been burned to the ground; exempted Silesia, the New Mark, and Pomerania for a certain period from the payment of taxes; instituted a bank of credit for the relief of the nobility in these provinces; erected manufactories; constructed canals;