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 FREDERICK (HESSE-CASSEL) Maximilian, whom lie had made king of Rome (1486), and finally intrusted with all the cares of his dominion (1490), himself retiring to Linz, where he was engaged in his favorite studies of astrology, alchemy, and botany till the end of his life. He was the last king of Germany who was crowned emperor of Rome and king of the Lombards. Having inherited Lower Austria on the death of Ladislas, and Upper Austria on that of his brother Albert, he raised these united provinces to the dignity of an archduchy. The crown of Germany became nearly hereditary in his house, the next suc- cessor being his son Maximilian I. His device is said to have been A. E. I. 0. U. : Austria est imperare orbi universe. A collection of his sayings was published under the title of Margarita Facetiarum (Strasburg, 1509). V. HESSE-CASSEL. FREDERICK WILLIAM, elector of Hesse-Cas- sel, born Aug. 20, 1802. He succeeded to the electorate Nov. 20, 1847. Although his mother was a daughter of king Frederick William II. of Prussia, he joined Austria in 1866, and as he declined to remain neutral in the war between that state and Prussia, or to accept the propo- sals of the latter for a reform of the German diet, a Prussian army under Gen. von Beyer invaded his territory (June 16), and he was arrested (June 23) and detained in the castle of Stettin. Despite the annexation of his electorate to Prussia with the consent of Aus- tria, he would not relinquish his rights as a sovereign prince until Sept. 17, 1867, when he agreed to abdicate, on condition of receiving a life interest in the electoral crown domain, besides a sum of 600,000 thalers and the priv- ilege of inhabiting the palaces in the province of Hanau. Since his release he has resided on his estates in Bohemia and in the palace of Prince Windischgratz, which he purchased, in Prague. In September, 1873, he renounced all his rights and personal property, on condition of Prussia's paying him an annuity of 200,000 thalers during his life. VI. MECKLENBURG-SCHWERIN. FREDERICK FRANCIS II., grand duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, a German soldier, born Feb. 28, 1 823. He became grand duke in 1842, was in the same year made a general in the Prussian army, and participated in 1864 in the war against Denmark, and in 1866 against Austria. He joined in 1867 the North Ger- man confederation, and on the outbreak of the Franco-German war (July, 1870) he was made commander-in-chief of the 13th army corps. He captured Laon (Sept. 9), Toul (Sept. 23), and Soissons (Oct. 16), and was placed at the head of a new corps in the operations against Paris. He defeated K6ratry at Dreux (Nov. 17), and after joining in various engagements near Orleans under Prince Frederick Charles, he took possession of Blois (Dec. 13) and con- tributed to the defeat of Gen. Chanzy near FREDERICK (PRUSSIA) 453 Vend6me (Dec. 15) and Le Mans (Jan. 12, 1871), and captured Alencon. His grand duchy had in the mean while become a member of the German empire. On the entrance of the German army into Berlin (June 16, 1871) the emperor William appointed him chief of the second inspection of the army. vn. PRUSSIA (INCLUDING BRANDENBURG). FREDERICK WILLIAM, elector of Branden- burg, usually styled the Great Elector, and the founder of the Prussian monarchy, bora in 1620, died in Potsdam, April 29, 1688. He came to the electoral power at the age of 20 (1640), on the death of his father, George Wil- liam, the 10th elector. The father had been a feeble prince, with a traitorous minister. His estates had for many years been ravaged by the contending parties in the thirty years' war. The cities lay almost in ruins, the vil- lages had been for the most part burned and depopulated, and a part of his paternal in- heritance had been confiscated by the Swedes. The young prince began his reign by dismiss- ing his father's unworthy council, regulating his finances, and negotiating with so much ad- dress as to regain his lost provinces, which were guaranteed to him by the peace of Westphalia eight years later. A year after his accession he concluded a treaty of neutrality with the Swe- dish queen Christina, and three years after, by an armistice with Hesse-Cassel, the strong out- post city of Cleves and the county of Mark in Westphalia were added to his dominions. Under the treaty of Westphalia (1648) the elector, who had just claims to the whole of Pomerania, re- ceived only the eastern portion of that coun- try ; but as an indemnification for the loss of the western division and the island of Rugen, he obtained the county of Hohenstein, the bishoprics of Minden, Halberstadt, andKamin, as lay principalities, and the reversion of the archbishopric of Magdeburg. After the conclu- sion of the peace, Frederick William directed his attention to the organization of a standing army, and after a few years he had an army of 25,000, disciplined according to the Swedish system. He formed an alliance with Charles X. of Sweden in 1655 against Poland. The sequel was the fall of Warsaw, and Frederick's achievement of the independence of his Prus- sian duchy, formerly under enfeoffment to Po- land. Louis XIV. at this time was pursuing his project of a Rhine frontier and the con- quest of the Spanish Netherlands. He seized a line of frontier towns, and invaded Holland (1672). Of the German princes, the elector of Brandenburg alone seemed conscious of the danger, and after arming his exposed West- phalian dominions he appealed successfully to the emperor Leopold I., to Denmark, to Hesse- Cassel, and other German states. A joint army was placed under the command of an imperial general; but the imperial coopera- tion was crippled through the machinations of Leopold's privy councillor, Lobkowitz, who