XII.

1714.

CHAP. ignorant. He could not read Greek; and with Latin his acquaintance was so imperfect as to be of no practical service to him through life. To this unfortunate contraction of his education, his limited taste in literature, in subsequent life, is chiefly to be ascribed. He at first was desirous of espousing an English princess; but his father, who was most imperious in his disposition, decided otherwise, and he was compelled, in 1733, to marry the Princess Elizabeth of Brunswick. This union, like most others contracted under restraint, proved unfortunate; and it did not give Frederick the blessing of an heir to the throne. Debarred from domestic enjoyments, the young prince took refuge with more eagerness than ever in literary pursuits; the chateau of Rhinsberg, which was his favourite abode, was styled by him in his transport the Palace of the Muses ;" and the greatest general and most hardy soldier of modern times spent some years of his youth in corresponding with Maupertuis, Voltaire, and other French philosophers, and in making indifferent verses and madrigals, which gave no token of any remarkable genius. He had already prepared for the press a book entitled Refutation of the Prince of Machiavel, when, in 1740, the death of his father called him to the throne, its duties, its dangers, and its glory. The philosophers were in transports when they beheld one of themselves," as they styled him, elevated to a throne, and throne; they indulged in hopes that he would continue plication to his literary pursuits, and acknowledge their influence,

32.

His acces

sion to the

vigorous ap

its duties.

66

when surrounded by the attractions and wielding the patronage of the crown. They soon found their mistake. Frederick retained through life his literary tastes he corresponded with Voltaire and the philosophers through all his campaigns; he made French verses

in his tent, after tracing out the plans of the battles of Leuthen and Rosbach. But his heart was in his kingdom his ambition was set on its aggrandisement his passion was war, by which alone that aggrandisement could be achieved. Without being forgotten, the philosophers and madrigals were soon comparatively discarded. The finances and the army occupied his whole attention. The former were in excellent order, and his father had even accumulated a large treasure which remained in the exchequer. The army, admirably equipped and disciplined, already amounted to sixty thousand men he augmented it to eighty thousand. Nothing could exceed the vigour he displayed in every department, or the unceasing attention he paid to public affairs. Indefatigable day and night, sober and temperate in his habits, he employed even artificial means to augment the time during the day he could devote to business. Finding that he was constitutionally inclined to more rest than he deemed consistent with the full discharge of all his regal duties, he ordered his servants to waken him at five in the morning; and if words were not effectual to rouse him from his sleep, he commanded them, on pain of dismissal, to apply linen steeped in cold water to his person. This order was punctually executed, even in the depth of winter, till nature was fairly subdued, and the king had gained the time he desired from his slumbers.

CHAP.

XII.

1714.

33.

sion on and

It was not long before he had an opportunity of evincing at once the vigour and unscrupulous character His aggresof his mind. The Emperor Charles VI. having died on conquest of the 20th October 1740, the immense possessions of the first victory house of Austria devolved to his daughter, since so famous by the name of MARIA THERESA. The defence

Silesia, and

at Mollwitz.

СНАР.

XIL

1714.

34.

less condition of the Imperial dominions, consisting of
so many different and discordant states, some of them
but recently united under one head, when under the
guidance of a young and unmarried princess, suggested to
the neighbouring powers the idea of a partition. Fred-
erick eagerly united with France in this project. He
revived some old and obsolete claims of Prussia to
Silesia; but in his manifesto to the European powers,
upon invading that province, he was scarcely at the
pains to conceal the real motives of his aggression. "It
is," said he, "an army ready to take the field, treasures
long accumulated, and perhaps the desire to acquire
glory." He was not long in succeeding in the object of
his ambition, though it was at first rather owing to the
skill of his generals, and discipline of his soldiers, than
to his own capacity. On the 10th April 1741, the
army under his command gained a complete victory over
the Austrians at Mollwitz in Silesia, which led to the
entire reduction of that rich and important province.
The king owed little to his own courage, however, on
this occasion. Like Wellington, the first essay in arms
of so indomitable a hero was unfortunate.
He fled
from the field of battle at the first repulse of his
cavalry; and he was already seven miles off, where he
was resting in a mill, when he received intelligence that
his troops had regained the day; and at the earnest
entreaties of General (afterwards Marshal) Schwerin, he
returned to take the command of the army.

Next year, however, he evinced equal courage and His glorious capacity in the battle of Czaslau, which he gained over successes the Prince of Lorraine. Austria, on the brink of ruin,

over the Austrians.

hastened to disarm the most formidable of her assailants; and by a separate peace, concluded at Breslau on June

XII.

1714.

11, 1742, she ceded to Prussia nearly the whole of CHAP. Silesia. This cruel loss, however, was too plainly the result of necessity to be acquiesced in without a struggle by the cabinet of Vienna. Maria Theresa made no secret of her determination to resume possession of the lost province on the first convenient opportunity. Austria soon united the whole of Germany in a league against Frederick, who had no ally but the King of France. Assailed by such a host of enemies, however, the young king was not discouraged, and, boldly assuming the initiative, he gained at Hohenfriedberg a complete victory over his old antagonist the Prince of Lorraine. This triumph was won entirely by the extraordinary genius displayed by the King of Prussia. "It was one of those battles," says the military historian Guibert, "where a great master makes everything give way before him, and which is gained from the very beginning, because he never gives the enemy time to recover from 172. their disorder."1

Art de la

Guerre, ii.

35.

at length

make peace.

The Austrians made great exertions to repair the consequences of this disaster, and with such success who are that in four months Prince Charles of Lorraine again obliged to attacked him, at the head of fifty thousand men, near Soor. Frederick had not twenty-five thousand, but with these he again defeated the Austrians with immense loss, and took up his winter-quarters in Silesia. So vast were the resources, however, of the great German League, of which Austria was the head, that they were enabled to keep the field during winter, and even meditated a coup-de-main against the king, in his capital of Berlin. Informed of this design, Frederick lost not a moment in anticipating it by a sudden attack on his part on his enemies. Assembling his troops in

CHAP.

XII.

1714.

36.

and indomi

ter already appears.

the depth of winter with perfect secresy, he surprised a
large body of Saxons at Naumberg, made himself master
of their magazines at Gorlitz, and soon after made his
triumphant entry into Dresden, where he dictated a
glorious peace, on 25th December 1745, to his enemies,
which permanently secured Silesia to Prussia.
It was
full time for the Imperialists to come to an accommoda-
tion. In eighteen months Frederick had defeated them
in four pitched battles, besides several combats; taken
forty-five thousand prisoners, and killed or wounded an
equal number of his enemies. His own armies had not
sustained losses to a fifth part of this amount, and the
chasms in his ranks were more than compensated by
the multitude of the prisoners who enlisted under his
banners, anxious to share the fortunes of the hero who
had already filled Europe with his renown.

The ambitious and decided, and, above all, indomitHis decided able character of Frederick, had already become conspitable charac- cuous during these brief campaigns. His correspondence, all conducted by himself, evinced a vigour and a tranchant style at that period unknown in European diplomacy, but to which the world has since been abundantly accustomed in the proclamations of Napoleon. Already he spoke on every occasion as the hero and the conqueror to conquer or die was his invariable maxim. On the eve of his invasion of Saxony, he wrote to the Empress of Russia, who was endeavouring to dissuade him from that design :-"I wish nothing from the King of Poland (Elector of Saxony) but to punish him in his Electorate, and make him sign an acknowledgment of repentance in his capital." During the negotiations for peace he wrote to the King of England, who had proposed the mediation of Great Britain :-" These are