# Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Trenck/Friedrich, Freiherr von der Trenke

See also Friedrich von der Trenck on Wikipedia; Friedrich, Freiherr von der Trenke in the 11th Edition; and the disclaimer.
​2. Friedrich, Freiherr von der Trenke (1726-1794), cousin of the preceding, born at Konigsberg, 16th February 1726. His precocious abilities won him the favour of Frederick the Great, in whose guards he was enrolled at an early age as cadet, and by whom he was made cornet in 1743 and aide-de-camp for his gallantry in 1744. An intrigue with the princess Amelia, sister of the king, led to his temporary confinement until the campaign of 1745 recalled him to the army. He was again thrown into prison, however, on the discovery of a correspondence between him and his cousin, then fighting with his pandours in the service of Maria Theresa, but in December 1746, after many failures, he succeeded in escaping from the fortress of Glatz. He went to Vienna, was involved in several duels by his cousin, who was too closely confined to give expression to his animosities except by proxy, and finally accepted a company in the service of the czar. On the declaration of peace the empress Elizabeth bestowed on him a diamond-hilted sword, and a Russian princess left him a fortune, which was still further increased by the death of his cousin, who, on condition of his entering none but the Austrian service, made him his heir. The latter inheritance being heavily burdened, he spent the next three years in a series of lawsuits, and then, after a journey to Italy, became a captain in an Austrian regiment of cuirassiers. At the death of his mother he revisited Germany, but was promptly seized by the unforgetful king and closely imprisoned in the fortress of Magdeburg, his efforts to escape securing him the honour of a specially constructed cell, a heavy burden of chains, and the additional punishment of being roused every quarter of an hour by the sentries. Still unsubdued, he found means to remove his chains in the brief intervals afforded him, and occupied himself with French and German composition. In the meantime the princess Amelia had not ceased to move in favour of his release, and Trenck, having been set free in 1763, returned to Vienna only to be reconfined there as a lunatic. He was speedily released by the intervention of the king, and raised to the rank of major by way of compensation; but, being by this time satiated with royal patronage and prisons, he retired to Aix-la-Chapelle, commenced business as a wine merchant, and devoted his leisure to literature and politics, publishing, among other works, a gazette entitled the Friend of Man and an attack on Frederick II. as the "Macedonian hero." His commercial experiences, however, were not encouraging, and, after spending three years (1774-1777) in England, he returned to Vienna, became the secret agent of Maria Theresa, and at her death withdrew to his castle of Zwerbach, where he gave himself to agriculture and wrote his famous autobiography. Not until 1787 was he permitted to return to his own country, where he is said to have had an affecting interview with the princess Amelia a few days before her death. The publication of his memoirs (Lebensgeschichte) in 1786, translated into French by himself in 1789, gave him immediate and wide notoriety, and wax effigies of the illustrious prisoner in his chains were exhibited on the Parisian boulevards à deux sous en sortant. Despite the grounds which the memoirs undoubtedly furnish for Carlyle's terse characterization of him as an "extensively fabulous blockhead," they took a strong hold of the popular imagination, and obliterated for a time the fame of his more darkly passionate pandour cousin. The tragic elements in the story were, however, to be emphasized by a still more tragic close. His ready advocacy of the French Revolution involved him in disgrace with the Austrian authorities, and, after deprivation of his pension and further imprisonment, he set out towards the close of 1791 for Paris. In place of an enthusiastic reception, he was arrested by order of the Committee of Public Safety as a secret emissary of the king of Prussia, and, after confinement in the St Lazarus prison, was literally dragged to the guillotine on 25th July 1794. His Sümmtliche Gedichte und Schriften were published at Leipsic in 1786.