FREDERICK II. king of Prussia, one of the greatest warriors of the age in which he lived, was the son of Frederick-William, then hereditary prince of Brandenburg, and Maria Dorothea, a princess of the house of Brunswick. He was born in 1712, the year before his father Frederick I. mounted the throne of Prussia. The latter was so far from being a patron of literature, that he regarded nothing but what related to the military art; and most of his generals, whatever their merits in their own line might be, scarcely knew how to sign their names. So great indeed was the ignorance of the monarch himself, that he banished from his dominions a philosopher of the name of Wolf, merely because he maintained the doctrine of pre-established harmony; a theologian named Lange having asserted, that on that doctrine his majesty’s grenadiers were not culpable when they deserted, it being only the necessary consequence of the impulse their machine had received from their Creator. His son was of a disposition the very reverse of his father. Being put from his birth under the care of Val de Recoule, a French lady of great merit and understanding, he acquired, in his early years, not only a taste for literature in general, but a predilection for the French language, which he retained through life.

It is not to be supposed that a prince of the disposition above mentioned would allow his son for any length of time to indulge in literary pursuits. At seven years of age Frederick was taken out of the hands of Madame de Recoule, and put under the care of military tutors. General Count de Finkestein, an old warrior, was appointed his governor; his sub-governor was Colonel de Kalkstein, an officer celebrated for his courage and experience. He was taught mathematics and fortification by Major Senning; Han de Jendun, a Frenchman, instructed him in other branches of knowledge; and a cadet of the name of Kenzel taught him his exercises. At eight years of age he was furnished with a small arsenal stored with all sorts of arms proportioned to his age and strength, of which his father left him absolute master. In a short time he was named captain and chief of the corps of cadets; and the young prince performed every day in miniature, with his little soldiers, all the evolutions with which his father exercised his tall regiment. At length he received the command of a company in his father’s regiment, famous throughout all Europe, and which was composed of men of whom scarcely one was short of seven French feet.

Born, however, with a taste for the arts, he devoted to their cultivation every moment he could steal from the vigilance of his guardians. He was more particularly fond of poetry and music, and when he could find a moment’s leisure, he read French authors or played on the flute; but his father,as often as he surprised him playing or reading, broke his flute, and threw his books into the fire. The prince, chagrined at such injurious treatment, and having a great desire to visit Germany, England, France, and Italy, desired permission to travel. This, however, his father would not allow, but permitted him to accompany himself in the journeys which he made from time to time into Germany; and, in 1728, took him to Dresden to see the king of ^Poland. By these little expeditions, the desire of the prince to visit other countries was strengthened; and at last he formed a resolution of Betting out without, his father’s knowledge. The design was intrusted to two of the prince’s young friends, named Kat and Keit; money was borrowed for the occasion, and the day of their departure was fixed, when unluckily the whole project was discovered. The old king, implacable . in his resentment, and considering his son as a deserter, determined to put him to death. He was shut, up in the fortress of Custrin; and it was with the utmost difficulty that the Count de Seckendorf, sent for the purpose by the Emperor Charles VI., was able to alter the king’s resolution. Vengeance, however, was decreed against the intended associates in Frederick’s journey. Keit escaped the danger by flying into Holland; but Kat had not that good fortune. The king first directed that he should be tried by a court-martial; but as they, contrary to his expectation, only sentenced the criminal to perpetual imprisonment, the revengeful monarch ordered him to be beheaded. The execution was performed under the windows of the prince royal, whose head was held towards the scaffold by four grenadiers; but no sooner did he approach the window, and see his friend in the hands of the executioner, than he stretched out his arms towards him, crying out, “Kat! Kat!" and instantly fainted away. During the remainder of his life he considered capital punishments with horror, and they were rare throughout the Prussian dominions while he continued to reign. When the emperor had succeeded in preventing the execution of Frederick, the king remarked that “Austria would one day see what a serpent she had nourished in her bosom.” The royal prisoner remained a year at Custrin, during which time his father wished him to learn the maxims of government and finance. For this purpose Μ. de Munchow, president of the chamber of domains and finances, was ordered to make him assist at all their assemblies, to consider him as a simple counsellor, and compel him to work like others. The young counsellor, however, though he assisted at their meetings, did not trouble himself with reading acts or copying decrees. Instead of this, he amused himself sometimes with reading French pamphlets, and at others with drawing caricatures of the president or members of the assembly. Μ. Munchow himself was likewise very useful to the prince at this time, by furnishing him with books and other articles of amusement, notwithstanding the express prohibition of his father.

Frederick, after having passed in confinement the time above specified, was recalled to Berlin, on pretence of being present at the celebration of his eldest sister’s marriage with the hereditary prince of Bareith; but the real reason was, that the king had now prepared a mutch for the prince himself. This was the Princess Elizabeth Christina of Brunswick, niece to the empress. Frederick, who was not only totally indifferent to the fair sex in general, but particularly prejudiced against this princess, made some objections; his father, however, overcame all obstacles with his usual arguments, his cane, and a few kicks.

On the celebration of this marriage, Frederick received from bis father the county of Rupin. He resided in the capital of this county, named also Rupin, for some time; but afterwards chose Rheinsberg for his place of abode. This town, built on the sands on the confines of Mecklenburg, at that time contained only a thousand inhabitants; but it was soon greatly improved by Frederick. Having put over the great gate of the castle the following inscription, Frederico Tranquillitatem Colenti, his father was displeased with it, and hurried him from his peaceful retreat into the noise and tumult of a camp. At this time the succession to the crown of Poland had kindled a general war throughout Europe; and the king of Prussia was to send ten thousand auxiliaries to the imperial army, then commanded by Prince Eugene. The king conducted his troops in person, and resolved to take this opportunity of giving his son an idea of war. At this time, however, he learnt but little; and only saw, as he himself expresses[7:10:228] it, the shadow of the great Eugene. That consummate general, nevertheless, did not overlook his merit, but predicted that he would one day be a great captain. Frederick having gone to reconnoitre the lines at Philipsburg, in his return through a very open wood, was exposed to the cannon of the lines; but this neither caused him to quicken his pace nor change his attitude in the least. The balls broke a number of branches on every sicļe of him. Ĳe continued to converse with the generals who attended him, without showing the smallest sign of apprehension. Being one night at supper with Field-marshal Grumkow, the conversation turned on the young Prince Eugene, who died on the Rhine; and he was asked whether that prince would ever have become a great man. Frederick decided in the negative, on account of young Eugene’s not having known at any period of his life how to choose a friend who dared to tell him the truth.

During this campaign the health of the old king was so much impaired that he was obliged to leave the army; and Frederick was for some time intrusted with signing all the orders in his father’s name. On the king’s recovery the prince was sent to Stettin, under the care of the Prince of Dessau, that he might see the fortifications of that town. He was afterwards permitted to go to Königsberg to see the unfortunate Stanislaus, who had taken refuge in that place, and who was no less remarkable for his philosophy and constancy than for his misfortunes. With him Frederick remained for some weeks, and contracted a friendship which was only dissolved by the death of Stanislaus. At last he was allowed to return to his peaceful mansion at Rheinsberg, where he remained till the death of his father. In this place his time was occupied alternately in the study of the sciences, the cultivation of the arts, and the pleasures of friendship. Philosophy, history, politics, the military art, poetry, and music, agreeably succeeded each other, and had each its stated period. The prince passed the greater part of the day in his library, and the remainder in the society of a select company of agreeable and learned men.

It was in this place that he composed his refutation of the principles of Machiavel, under the title of Anti-Ma-chiavel ; of which he sent the manuscript to Voltaire to correct and to get printed.

The old king, now almost worn out with infirmity, saw with regret the predilection of his son for men of letters; and, in his peevish fits, often threatened the whole society with confinement in the fortress of Spandau. These threats frequently occasioned a violent alarm among the joyous society assembled at Rheinsberg, which it required all the eloquence of Frederick to quiet. Their apprehensions on this account were at last removed, for the old monarch expired upon the 31st of May 1740, leaving the throne to Frederick.

The acquisition of a kingdom did not abate Frederick’s passion for literature, though now obliged to perform the duties of a king. A consideration of his transactions in this character belongs to the article Prussia, to which the reader is referred. These, indeed, so totally engrossed the remaining part of his life, that little more remains to be said than to relate some anecdotes by which we may be able to illustrate the character of this very remarkable individual.

It has already been mentioned, that in the early part of his life Frederick had conceived a great inclination to travel. This passion seems not to have been extinguished by the splendour of his new situation; for having, soon after his accession, gone into Westphalia to receive the homage of the inhabitants, he formed a resolution of proceeding incognito as far as Paris. Being discovered at Strasburg, however, he laid aside the design of proceeding to Paris, and exchanged it for a visit to his states in Lower Germany. Here lie wrote to Voltaire, informing him that he should come incognito to visit him at Brussels; but becoming indisposed in the little palace of Meuse, two leagues from Cleves, he wrote again to that philosopher, informing him that he expected he should make the first advances. The following curious account is given by that celebrated writer of his reception. “The only guard I found at the gate was one soldier. The privy counsellor Bambonet was cooling his heels in the court: he had large ruffles of dirty linen; a hat full of holes; and an old magisterial peruke, one end of which descended as low as his pockets, and the other scarcely reached his shoulder. I was conducted into his majesty’s apartment, where there was nothing but bare walls. I perceived in a cabinet, by the glimmering of a taper, a truckle bed, two feet and a half wide, on which lay a little man muffled up in a night-gown of coarse blue cloth. This was the king, in a strong perspiration, and even trembling, under a wretched blanket, in a violent fit of the ague. I bowed to him; and began by feeling his pulse, as if I had been his first physician. The fit over, he dressed himself and sat down to table. Algarotti, Keyserling, Maupertuis, the king’s minister to the States General, and myself, composed the party; and we conversed profoundly on the immortality of the soul, on liberty, and the androgynes of Plato.”

As Frederick had espoused his princess entirely contrary to his inclination, it was imagined that on his accession to the throne he would embrace the opportunity of setting himself free from an engagement so disagreeable to himself. The queen was not without suspicions of this kind, insomuch that she was on the point of fainting away when he made his first visit to her. To the surprise of all parties, however, he made her a very affectionate speech, apologizing for his indifference, and inviting her to participate with him the throne of which she was so worthy. In the first year of his reign he restored the Academy of Sciences at Berlin, which had been founded in 1700; but he soon became disgusted with its members, whom he endeavoured at all times to ridicule rather than encourage. His war with the queen of Hungary, however, which took place almost immediately after bis accession, for some time prevented him from taking such an active part in literary matters as he was naturally inclined to do. After the peace, being at liberty to follow his inclination, he gave full scope to his passion for literature; and in the interval betwixt the conclusion of the first war and beginning of that of 1736, he composed most of the works which are now ascribed to him. At this time he wrote his History of his own Times, afterwards announced among his posthumous works. In writing history he acquired a taste for historians, and justly gave the preference to the ancients, the most celebrated of whose works he perused every year. Voltaire was his principal literary correspondent, whom he invited to reside with him. Afraid of losing his liberty, however, that philosopher hesitated, excused himself, and entered into pecuniary treaties, first for himself, and afterwards for hia niece, Madame Dennis, whom he wished to accompany him. At last he was determined by seeing a poem from Frederick to Μ. d’Arnaud, in which the latter war compared to the rising, and Voltaire to the setting sun. By this Voltaire was so much piqued, that he set out for Berlin without delay, and arrived there in June 1750. He was received in the most magnificent and affectionate manner, and for some time his situation was very agreeable; but the disputes and rivalship which took place betwixt him and Maupertuis soon threw every thing into confusion. In these the king interfered in a manner which was certainly below his dignity; and he often exercised[7:10:229] himself in making a jest of the other men of letters in a way exceedingly disgusting, and which induced many of them to leave him. The squabbles with Voltaire ended at last in a final quarrel with that wit, and his departure from the kingdom. The restless disposition of Frederick showed itself after his departure, by his attempts to provoke the literati who remained at his court to quarrel with him as Voltaire had been accustomed to do. But they were of too passive a disposition to gratify him in this respect; choosing rather to suffer the most mortifying strokes of raillery, or to leave the kingdom altogether, than to contend with him. This proved so uneasy to the king, that he one day exclaimed, “Shall we have no more quarrels, then ?” The breaking out of the war in 1756, however, put a stop to his diversions, and afforded him as many enemies as he could wish. The exploits he performed during the seven years which this unequal contest lasted are almost incredible; and it is amazing how the fortitude and resolution of any person could enable him to sustain the difficulties which, during this period, he had to encounter. In one fatal moment, indeed, even the resolution of Frederick was on the point of giving way. This happened after the battle of Colin, when his affairs seemed altogether desperate, till they were retrieved by the victory at Rosbach. At this time he wrote to his sister at Bareith that he was on the point of putting an end to his own life; but as this resolution did not extinguish in him the love of glory, he wished to have it said (hat he made verses on the brink of the grave. With this view he wrote a long poetical epistle to the Marquis d’Argens, in which he communicated to him his design, and bade him farewell.

Happily at last the king’s affairs took a better turn, and these desperate thoughts were abandoned. His constitution, however, was irreparably injured by the excessive fatigues which he had undergone. Soon after the conclusion of the peace his body began to bend, and his head to incline to the right side. By degrees he became very infirm; he was tormented with the gout, and a victim to dyspepsia. All his distempers, however, were borne with invincible patience; and, till a very short time before his death, he never ceased to attend his reviews, or visit the different provinces of his dominions. He has been known to review his troops, and gallop through the ranks as if he felt no pain, notwithstanding that an abscess, which had approached to suppuration, frequently touched the saddle. In August 1785 he impaired his health still further by assisting at a review, where he was exposed, without even a cloak, to a heavy rain for four or five hours. On his return to Potzdam he was seized with a fever, and, for the first time, became unable to assist at the military exercises which took place in September. His malady, however, did not prevent him from dictating the disposition of these exercises during the three, days which they occupied, and he always gave the word in presence of his generals and the foreigners of distinction then at Potzdam. About the end of autumn the fever left him, but was succeeded by a violent cough; and he continued free from the gout, which had usually attacked him at this season. He was greatly weakened by the cough, which prevented him from sleeping; but this did not in the least interrupt him in the execution of his duties. Every morning, at four or five o’clock, he ordered the three cabinet secretaries to enter his apartment, where he dictated answers to their papers. It was not till after the dispatch of all his affairs that he saw a surgeon, or sometimes a physician, though he had a bad opinion of the physicians in general, whom he consulted on his distemper. In the evening he amused himself from five to eight with some of his society; and after that hour he passed the remainder of the time before he went to rest in hearing some ancient authors read to him; and thus he continued to employ himself till the day preceding his death. On the 17th and J 8th of May 1786, he was unable to assist at the ordinary reviews, but still he hoped to be present at those of Silesia. He several times attempted to mount his horse to go to the parade at Potzdam; but finding his powers insufficient, he was obliged to return, after having proceeded a few paces. He made other attempts, but with as little success; and at last his disorder terminated in a dropsy. Being now no longer able to remain in bed, he sat day and night in an arm chair with springs which could be moved at pleasure. For near a month before his death the swelling of his feet gave him violent pain, so that he wished an incision to be made; but the surgeon refused to perform the operation, suspecting that it might hasten his death. Nature, however, accomplished his desires; his right leg opened, and discharged such a quantity of matter, that he was greatly relieved; and those unacquainted with the medical art began to entertain hopes of his recovery. The physicians, however, were of a very different opinion; and theevent justified their apprehensions. On the 16th of August 1786 his throat began to rattle violently, and his attendants expected every moment that he would breathe his last. In this situation his three secretaries entered the room for the dispatch of business as usual. Even then Frederick made an effort to collect his force, giving them a sign to wait, as if he would speak with them in a short time. This, however, was the last he could make, for he soon fell into a stupor, though from this he recovered so far as to be able to speak. In the evening he asked what o’clock it was, and on being answered that it was nine, he said, “Well, then, I am going to rest.” His respiration and voice became gradually more feeble; and he expired on Thursday, at nineteen minutes after two in the morning, without any convulsion or symptom of pain.

This great monarch was of the middle size, had large blue eyes, and a piercing look. He spoke German incorrectly, and in a very rough manner; but talked French very fluently, and his voice was then mild and agreeable. His constitution was naturally feeble, but he had greatly improved it by his activity and laborious life. He had the art of relieving everyone from that embarrassment which frequently occurred in accosting such a celebrated monarch; and it seems probable that he himself considered on what he should say to any illustrious person who happened to come to his court. His universal knowledge enabled him to converse on all subjects; and thus he talked of war with military men, of verses with poets, of agriculture with farmers, jurisprudence with lawyers, commerce with merchants, and politics with Englishmen. He had a very retentive memory, was attached to gardening, and likewise took great pleasure in dogs, of which animals he constantly kept a number about him. In company he was fond of asking questions and jesting, in which last he proceeded such lengths as undoubtedly was unbecoming in a superior towards his inferiors, who would not have failed to resent such jokes from persons more on an equality with them. In military affairs he was excessively severe, not to say cruel; of which the following anecdote may serve as an instance. In the first war of Silesia, wishing to make some alterations in his camp during the night, he forbade every person, under pain of death, to keep, after a certain hour, a fire or other light in his tent. He himself went the rounds; and in passing the tent of a Captain Zietern he perceived a light. Entering the tent, he found the captain sealing a letter to his wife, for whom he had a great affection. “What are you doing there ?” says the king. “ Do you not know the order ?” The captain fell on his knees and asked pardon, but did not attempt to make any excuse. “Sit down,"
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says Frederick, “and add a few words which I am going to dictate to you.” Zietern obeyed; and the king dictated, “To-morrow I shall perish on a scaffold.” The unfortunate man wrote them, and next day he was barbarously executed. In matters of domestic legislation he was more arbitrary than just; of which we have a notable example in the famous case of Arnold the miller. The man had refused to pay the rent of the mill which he possessed, on pretence that the stream which turned it had been diverted into a fish-pond. This was evidently a frivolous excuse, because the water which ran into the pond also ran out of it into the same channel as before, so that little or nothing could be lost. The judges therefore gave sentence against the miller; but the king not only reversed their sentence, but disgraced them. For this he was celebrated through all the newspapers in Europe; and yet he was in the wrong, and afterwards even acknowledged himself to have been so; but, notwithstanding that he knew his error, he not only made no reparation to the parties whom he had injured, but allowed them to lie in prison at Spandau during his life, and they were only released at the commencement of the succeeding reign.

The literary pieces of this monarch cannot be considered as extraordinary, although they are undoubtedly remarkable as the production of a monarch, a considerable portion of whose life was spent in war. Voltaire boasts of having corrected his works, and others of having furnished him with materials for his history. In the former part of his life he entertained a great partiality for the French learning and language; but as he advanced in years he entirely lost this predilection, and inclined much more to favour the English and Germans. Towards the close of his career, indeed, he affected a contempt for the French, without whom, it is said, he would scarcely ever have made any figure except in military affairs.

His works are voluminous, and embrace a variety of subjecte. Those on which his fame as an author principally rest are, his History of his own Times; The History of the Seven Years’ War; The Art of War, a poem; An Essay on Forms of Government, and on the Duties of Sovereigns; Considerations on the State of Europe; and Memoirs of the House of Brandenburg. He also compiled the Frederician Code with skill and judgment. Many editions of his writings have been published. Of these, the best are the Berlin edition of 1788, in 15 vols., and another of 1790, with his life prefixed, in 25 vols. 8vo.

Frederick, a post-town of Maryland, and capital of the county of Frederick, North America. It is pleasantly situated on Carrol’s Creek, a branch of the Monocasy. The town is regularly laid out and well built, and contains a court-house, a jail, a bank, a market-house, an academy, and seven places of public worship. Frederick enjoys an extensive trade with the surrounding country, and transports great quantities of wheat and flour to Baltimore. It is distant forty-four miles north-north-west of Washington, and forty-five west of Baltimore. The population in 1830 amounted to 4427.