page_title: Frederick II of Prussia
section_title: Crown Prince
hierarchical_section_title: Frederick II of Prussia / Crown Prince
context_page_description: Frederick II was a King in Prussia from the Hohenzollern dynasty. As a prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire, he was Frederick IV Margrave of Brandenburg. He was also the sovereign prince of the Principality of Neuchâtel. Victorious in war, he became known as Frederick the Great and was nicknamed der alte Fritz.
  When he was young, Frederick was mostly interested in music and philosophy and not military affairs. Frederick tried to escape from his strict father, Frederick William I, with childhood friend, Hans Hermann von Katte. When they were captured Frederick was forced to watch von Kattel's execution. Many historians consider him to be bisexual and perhaps possibly celibate in his later life. After the death of Frederick William I in 1740, Frederick the Great only attended his wife with formal visits once a year.
  Shortly after becoming King in Prussia, he attacked Austria and claimed Silesia during the Silesian Wars. Near the end of his life, Frederick united most of his separated parts of his kingdom through the First Partition of Poland.
  For years Frederick exchanged letters with Voltaire.
context_section_description: In 1732, Queen Sophia Dorothea tried to arrange a dual marriage of Frederick and his sister Wilhelmina with Amelia and Frederick, the children of her brother, King George II of Great Britain. Fearing an alliance between Prussia and Great Britain, Field Marshal von Seckendorff, the Austrian ambassador in Berlin, bribed Field Marshal von Grumbkow, the Prussian Minister of War,  and Benjamin Reichenbach, Prussian ambassador in London. They pair discreetly slandered the British and Prussian courts in the eyes of the two kings. Angered by the idea of the marriage Frederick William made impossible demands to the British, such as Prussia acquiring Jülich and Berg, leading to the collapse of the marriage proposal.
  After von Kattel died Frederick was granted a royal pardon and released from his cell on 18 November, but he was not given back his military rank. Instead of returning to Berlin, however, he was forced to stay in Küstrin and began learning statecraft and administration for the War and Estates Departments on 20 November. Tensions eased slightly when Frederick William visited Küstrin a year later, and Frederick was allowed to visit Berlin on the occasion of his sister Wilhelmina's marriage to Margrave Frederick of Bayreuth on 20 November 1731. The crown prince returned to Berlin after finally being released from Küstrin on 26 February 1732.
  Frederick William considered marrying Frederick to Elisabeth of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, the niece of Empress Anna of Russia, but this plan was opposed by Prince Eugene of Savoy. Frederick himself proposed marrying Maria Theresa of Austria in return for renouncing the succession. Instead, Eugene persuaded Frederick William, through Seckendorff, that the crown prince marry Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Bevern, a Protestant relative of the Austrian Habsburgs. Although Frederick wrote to his sister that, "There can be neither love nor friendship between us," and he considered suicide, he went along with the wedding on 12 June 1733. He had little in common with his bride and resented the political marriage as an example of the Austrian interference which had plagued Prussia since 1701. Once Frederick secured the throne in 1740, he would not let Elisabeth visit his court in Potsdam, and instead gave her Schönhausen Palace and apartments at the Berliner Stadtschloss. Frederick bestowed the title of the heir to the throne, "Prince of Prussia", on his brother Augustus William; despite this, his wife remained devoted to him.
  Frederick was given back a rank in the Prussian Army as Colonel of the Regiment von der Goltz, stationed near Nauen and Neuruppin. When Prussia gave troops to help Austria during the War of the Polish Succession, Frederick studied under Prince Eugene of Savoy during the campaign against France on the Rhine. Frederick William, weakened by gout brought about by the campaign, gave Frederick Schloss Rheinsberg in Rheinsberg, north of Neuruppin. In Rheinsberg, Frederick assembled a small number of musicians, actors and other artists. He spent his time reading, watching dramatic plays, making and listening to music, and regarded this time as one of the happiest of his life. Frederick formed the "Bayard Order" to discuss warfare with his friends; Heinrich August de la Motte Fouqué was made the grand master of the gatherings.
  The works of Niccolò Machiavelli, such as The Prince, were considered a guideline for the behaviour of a king in Frederick's age. In 1739, Frederick finished his Anti-Machiavel, which put another point of view. It was published anonymously in 1740, but Voltaire distributed it in Amsterdam.
  Frederick's years dedicated to the arts instead of politics ended upon the 1740 death of Frederick William and his inheritance of the Kingdom of Prussia.
caption: Frederick as King in Prussia
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