Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VII.djvu/470

 458 FREDERICK (PRUSSIA) cial policy and international law he was in ad- vance of his time. Devoted as he was to let- ters, he never allowed the passion for litera- ture to divert him from duty. He had no knowledge of the force of the German lan- guage, and spoke of it with contempt ; yet he never wrote French correctly. Though respectable as a historian, and voluminous as a versifier, he never learned to spell the lan- guage which he idolized. In the year 1772 was concerted the dismemberment of Po- land. It originated between Frederick and Catharine of Russia; a most unwilling con- sent was wrung from Maria Theresa. Fred- erick took possession of his share without de- lay. Later important public acts of his life were his successful opposition in 1778 to the claim of the emperor Joseph II. to the Bavarian succession; the establishment in 1785 of the so-called confederation of princes (Fursten- ~bund} and a treaty with the United States of America, embodying the most elevated principles of international rights. Without much community of political sentiment, he was friendly to the American patriots, and gave evidence of his dislike of British policy in employing Hessian troops beyond the At- lantic, by levying the same toll per head upon the recruits which passed through his domin- ions as was charged upon " bought and sold cattle." Washington commanded his admira- tion, and Mount Vernon received among its treasures a Prussian sword of honor, forward- ed from Potsdam with the words : "From the oldest general in the world to the greatest." Frederick died after a severe attack of drop- sy, at the* age of 74 ; he left no children by his wife, with whom he never cohabited, and was therefore succeeded by a nephew, Frederick William II., to whom he left a surplus of $50,000,000, an army of 220,000 men, a ter- ritory increased by nearly 30,000 sq. m., and an industrious, intelligent, and happy population of 6,000,000. His collected works have been published by order of the king of Prussia, under the auspices of the royal academy of sci- ences (30 vols., Berlin, 1846-'57). Extensive works on Frederick have been written by Kolb and Preuss. See also Carlyle's "History of Friedrich the Second" (6 vols., London and New York, 1858-'64) ; Friedrich der Grosse und Kaiharina //., by Kurd von Schlozer (Berlin, 1859) ; GescMclite Friedrich^ des Gros- sen^ by F. Kugler (7th ed., Leipsic, 1870) ; and Friedrich der Grosse, by Droysen (1st vol., 1873). FREDERICK WILLIAM II., king of Prussia, born Sept. 25, 1744, died Nov. 16, 1797. He was the grandson of Frederick William *., nephew of Frederick the Great, and son of the prince Augustus William, who, having incurred the resentment of his brother the king by an unsuccessful retreat after the disastrous battle of Kolin (1757), shortly after died. Frederick William, having become heir presumptive to his uncle, received from him but rare marks of cordiality or affection, was rather austerely educated, and often exposed to all the dangers of the war during the last period of the seven years' struggle. He enjoyed little freedom in the second and peaceful half of Frederick's reign, was obliged to repudiate his first wife, Elizabeth of Brunswick, because of ill conduct, and lived in a circle of his own, in which some visionaries of the then powerfully organized sect of illuminati were particularly conspicu- ous, who maintained their influence over him even after his accession to the throne. This took place on Aug. 17, 1786. Freed from long restraint, the new king gave himself up with- out moderation to his voluptuous inclinations. Mistresses and favorites reigned in the court and squandered the treasures of the state. He sought to gain the favor of the people by osten- tatious mildness; even the discipline of the army was relaxed. The first important act of his policy abroad, which was but slightly in- fluenced by the energetic minister Herzberg, was to reinstate in power his brother-in-law the stadtholder of the Netherlands, who had been deposed by the anti-Orange party. A Prussian army under the duke of Brunswick entered Holland, occupied Amsterdam, and re- stored the ancient order of things, which was confirmed by a treaty concluded in 1788, at the Hague, by Prussia, England, and Holland. Alarmed by the alliance of the emperor Joseph II. with Catharine II. of Russia, and by the successes of the Russians in the war against Turkey, he concluded a treaty with the latter power guaranteeing all its possessions. An army was assembled in Silesia, near the Bohe- mian frontier. Before the outbreak of the war, however, Frederick William wavered, and finally restored his good understanding with Austria by the treaty of Reichenbach (1790), concluded with the successor of Joseph, Leopold II., who soon also made peace with the Porte. Russia, however, was allowed to continue her operations undisturbed. Herzberg resigned. The interview at Pilnitz with the emperor (1791) prepared the first coalition against the French revolution. The hostile operations be- gan in the spring of 1792. The duke of Bruns- wick entered France in the summer ; the king and the crown prince, the son of his second wife, Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt, joined him there. Want of harmony and repeated blun- ders on the part of the allies, revolution- ary fanaticism and the skill of the command- ers on the side of the French, soon turned the scale in favor of the latter, compelling Frederick William to keep the defensive, and finally to conclude the treaty of Basel (1795) with the republic, in which he ceded his terri- tories beyond the Rhine, contracting for future indemnities and a kind of protectorate over northern Germany. His participation in the affairs of Poland was productive of more ad- vantageous results. Having encouraged the so-called long Polish diet in its efforts to regen- erate the state and to make it independent of