FRATTA-MAGGIORE FREDERICIA. this sect formed the subject of a public discussion at Perugia in 1374 between them and a Franciscan monk named Paolucci, which appears to have ended in their discomfiture. They still maintained themselves, nevertheless, in Central Italy, down to the 15th c., when John de Capistran received a commission to labour for their conversion in the March of Ancona; but before the beginning of the following century, they seem to have disappeared altogether. See Mosheim, De Beghardis et Beguinabus (Lipsia, 1790); Milman's Latin Christianity, vol. v.; Witsix's Kirchen-Lexicon. FRATTA-MAGGIORE, a town of Naples, six miles north-east of the city of Naples, has extensive rope-works, and furnishes great quantities of strawberries for the market of the capital. Silk-worms are here reared in great quantities. Pop. about 9000. FRAUD. By the laws of all civilised nations fraud invalidates obligations. In order to produce this effect, however, it is necessary that the misrepresentations, or other dishonest manoeuvres of the offending party, shall have induced the other to enter into the agreement or contract, and that he would not otherwise have consented. Fraud of this description on the one side produces error in essentialibus on the other, and where such error exists there is no consent. But as consent is of the essence of the contract, there is here no contract at all; i. e., the contract, or pretended contract, is, as lawyers say, null ab initio. It is not necessary that the fraud which thus gives birth to the contract shall have consisted in positive misrepresentation, or even in studied concealment; and it was well laid down in the case of an English sale, that where the purchaser laboured under a deception, in which the seller permitted him to remain, on a point which he knew to be material in enabling him to form his judgment, the contract was void. But there is another kind of fraud which, though it be not actually the cause of, is incident to, the contract, and which, though it does not annul the contract, gives rise to an action for damages or restitution by the party deceived. The distinction between these two kinds of fraud was well known to the civilians, the first species being described by them as that quod causam dedit contractui,' that is to say, which causes the contract; the second as that quod tantum in contractum incidit,' which is incident to, or accompanies the contract, but independently of which the contract would have been entered into (Voet. lib. 4, tit. 3, 3). There is another very important element to be taken into account in judging of the character, and determining the legal effects of a fraud, viz., whether it proceeded from one whose position was such as to impose upon him the obligation of making the discovery. In illustration of this principle, the following case was put by Lord Thurlow in Fox v. Mackreth (2 Bro. Ch. R. 420): Suppose that A, knowing there to be a mine on the estate of B, of which he knew B was ignorant, should enter into a contract to purchase the estate of B for the price of the estate, without considering the mine, could the court set it aside? Why not, since B was not apprised of the mine, and A was? Because A, as the buyer, was not obliged, from the nature of the contract, to make the discovery. The court will not correct a contract merely because a man of nice honour would not have entered into it; it must fall within some definition of fraud. The rule must be drawn so as not to affect the general transac tions of mankind.' Neither will the commendations usually bestowed on their commodities by tradesmen be regarded as fraudulent statements, so long as they are simply extravagant in degree; but if positively at variance with facts known to them, they will not be permitted to enjoy the protection which custom has extended to ordinary puffing.' The same principle will yield the converse result wherever a relation of peculiar confidentiality exists between the contracting parties. Here courts of law require what is called uberrima fides, the fullest measure of good faith, to validate the transaction. As an illustration, may be mentioned a case in which the managing partner of a firm purchased the share of his co-partner for a sum which he knew from the accounts, of which he had the entire superintendence, to be inadequate, but the inadequacy of which he concealed. The transaction was reduced, Sir John Leach, V. C., remarking that the defendant being the partner whose business it was to keep the accounts of the concern, could not, in fairness, deal with the plaintiff for his share of the profits of the concern without putting him in possession of all the information which he himself had with respect to the state of the accounts between them.'-Maddeford v. Austwick 1 Gim. R. 89. In addition to direct misrepresentation, and concealment in circumstances in which open dealing was a duty, fraud may be perpetrated by taking advantage of the imbecility of the party who has been led into the contract, and still more flagrantly by inducing this imbecility by intoxication or otherwise. See CONCEALMENT, ERROR, MISREPRESENTATION, CONTRACT, SALE-WARRANTY. In addition to the ordinary English sources of information, we may refer to the extensive and learned Traité du Dol et de la Fraude, par J. Bédarride, 3 vols. (Paris, 1852). FRAUNHOFER, JOSEPH VON, a distinguished practical optician, was born at Straubing, in Bavaria, 6th March 1787. In 1799 he was apprenticed to a glass-cutter in Munich, and in 1806 was received, as a working optician, into the establishment of Reichenbach and Utschneider at Benedictbeurn (afterwards, in 1819, removed to Munich). While there, he acquired considerable wealth through his inventions, and soon afterwards became proprietor of the establishment. He invented a machine for polishing parabolic surfaces, and was the first who succeeded in polishing lenses and mirrors without altering their curvature. His prisms also were celebrated, being free from the blebs and stria which are so often seen in those of English manufacture. His inventions are numerous, and include a heliometer,' a micrometer,' an achromatic microscope,' besides the great parallactic telescope at Dorpat. But that which has rendered F.'s name celebrated throughout the scientific world, is his discovery of the lines in the Spectrum. He died at Munich on the 7th of June 1826. FRAUNHOFER'S LINES. See SPECTRUM. FRAU'STADT (Polish, Wszowa), a town of Prussia, in the government of Posen, is situated in a sandy plain on the Silesian frontier, 55 miles northwest of Breslau. It has linen, woollen, and other manufactures, and important grain markets. In the vicinity are about 100 wind-mills. Pop. 6724. FRAXINE'LLA. See DITTANY. FRAXINUS. See ASH. FREDERICIA, a seaport and fortress of Denmark, is situated on the east coast of the province of Jutland, on a projecting tongue of land, at the northern entrance to the Little Belt. It is fortified with nine bastions and three ravelins on the landside, and with two bastions towards the sea. It has several ecclesiastical edifices, a hospital, and a custom-house, at which a toll is paid by all ships FREDERICK. passing through the Little Belt. Tobacco is grown (1212) in obtaining the support of the German and manufactured here Pop. 5579. electors. On his promising to undertake a crusade, the pope sanctioned his coronation at Aix-la as emperor in 1152 FRE'DERICK (Ger. FRIEDRICH) I., OF GER- Chapelle in 1215. Like his grandfather, F. was MANY.-Frederick I., Emperor of Germany, sur- actuated by an ardent desire for the consolidation named BARBAROSSA (Redbeard), was born in 1121, of the imperial power in Italy at the expense of the succeeded his father, Frederick Hohenstauffen, as pontificate, which he wished to reduce to the rank Duke of Swabia in 1147, and his uncle, Conrad III., of a mere archiepiscopal dignity. Having secured He was one of the most the nomination of his son Henry to the rank of enlightened and powerful rulers who ever swayed king of the Romans, and appointed Archbishop the imperial sceptre. In his desire to emulate Engelbert of Cologne as his vicegerent, he left Charlemagne, and to raise the secular power of the Germany; and after having been crowned emperor empire in opposition to the arrogated supremacy at Rome in 1220, devoted himself to the task of of the papal chair, he was brought into constant organising his Italian territories. He founded the collision with his Italian subjects. Six times he university of Naples, gave encouragement to the was compelled to cross the Alps at the head of medical school of Salerno, invited to his court and great armies, in order to chastise the refractory patronised men of learning, poets, and artists, and cities of Lombardy, which were ever ready, on the commissioned his chancellor, Petrus de Vineis, to slightest provocation, to throw off their allegiance. draw up a code of laws, to suit all classes of his In the early periods of his reign, he visited their German and Italian subjects. F.'s schemes for the defection with undue severity; but in his latter union of his vast and widely scattered dominions days his conduct towards them was characterised were, however, frustrated by the refractory conby a generous leniency and a politic liberality in duct of the Lombard cities, and still more by the advance of his age; and in 1183, he convoked a arrogance of the popes Honorius III. and Gregory council at Constance, in which he finally agreed to IX., who threatened him with excommunication leave the Lombard cities the right to choose their unless he fulfilled his pledge of leading a crusade. own municipal rulers, and to conclude treaties and Being compelled to depart on this expedition, he leagues among themselves, although he retained his made the necessary preparations for its prosecution; supremacy over them, together with the power but a pestilence having broken out among his of imposing certain fixed taxes. The difficulty of troops in the Morea, he returned in haste to Italy, settling the Italian differences was as usual aggra-only to be again forced away by papal threats. vated in F.'s time by the attitude assumed by the occupants of the papal chair, and at one time Italy was distracted by the pretensions of two rival popes, Alexander III. and Victor IV., who each excommunicated the other, and hurled the anathemas of the church against their several opponents; and it was not till 1176 that F., after his defeat at Lignano, by consenting to acknowledge Urban II., the successor of Alexander III., as the rightful pope, was enabled to turn his attention to Germany. By his energetic measures, he succeeded in thoroughly humbling his troublesome vassal, Henry the Lion, Duke of Brunswick, and thus crushing the Guelfic power in Germany. F. made Poland tributary to the empire, raised Bohemia to the rank of a kingdom, and the markgrafdom of Austria into an independent hereditary duchy. In 1189, F., having settled the affairs of the empire, and proclaimed universal peace in his dominions, resigned the government to his eldest son Henry, and, at the head of 100,000 men, set forth for the Holy Land, accompanied by his second son, Frederick of Swabia, the founder of the order of Teutonic Knights. After gaining two great victories over the Saracens at Philomelium and Iconium, he was drowned (1190) in a river of Syria, while trying to urge his horse across the stream. His remains were rescued by his son, and buried at Tyre. The death of F., which led to the dispersion of the Crusaders before any material advantage had been obtained over the Infidels, excited the deepest grief in Germany, where his memory has always been cherished as that of the best and wisest of his race. F. was a patron of learning, and enacted many admirable laws, some of which are still in force. FREDERICK II., OF GERMANY, grandson of the former, and son of the Emperor Henry VI., and of Constance, heiress of Sicily, was born in 1194. His mother secured the favour of Pope Innocent III. for her infant son, by conceding many important privileges to the papal chair; and after the civil war which had raged in Germany for eight years between the rival claimants of the throne, Philip of Swabia and Otho IV., was brought to an end by the agency of Innocent, F. succeeded This second attempted crusade proved more suc- FREDERICK III., OF GERMANY.-Frederick King of Germany, and F. V. as Duke of Austria, who was F. III. as Emperor of Germany, F. IV. as was born in 1415, being the son of Duke Ernst, of the Styrian branch of the house of Hapsburg. At the age of 20, he undertook an expedition to the Holy Land; and on his return, in conjunction with his factious brother, Albert the Prodigal, he assumed the government of his hereditary dominions of the Duchy of Austria, the revenues of which scarcely exceeded 16,000 marks. On the death of the Emperor Albert II., he was unanimously elected as his successor; and two years afterwards, in 1442, he was solemnly crowned FREDERICK. married, in 1613, Elizabeth, the daughter of James VI. of Scotland and I. of England, through whose ambitious counsels he was induced to take a prominent part in the proceedings of the union of the Protestant princes of Germany, and finally, although against his own inclinations, to accept the title of king of Bohemia. His complete defeat at the battle of Prague terminated his short-lived no other memorial but the mocking title of The Winter King.' Ridicule and contumely followed him wherever he went, and the rest of his life was spent in exile under the ban of the empire, and with no resources beyond those which he could obtain from the generosity of his friends. In 1623, he was declared to have forfeited his electoral title and his dominions in the Palatinate, which were conferred upon his cousin, Maximilian of Bavaria, the head of the Catholic league. He FREDERICK I., OF DENMARK, was born in 1473, and died in 1533. During the disturbed reign of his nephew, Christian II., he behaved with so much circumspection, that the choice of the nation fell upon him when the king was deposed, and he was raised to the throne in 1523. shewed great cruelty to his unfortunate relative, whom he detained in close captivity; but he was a politic ruler. In 1527 he embraced the Lutheran faith, which he established in his dominions by the most arbitrary measures. at Aix-la-Chapelle; ten years later, he received the imperial crown at the hands of the pope at Rome, and in 1453 secured the archducal title to his family. His reign was a prolonged struggle against domestic intrigues and foreign aggressions. One of his most troublesome opponents was his brother Albert, who refused to give up the provinces which he held until he had received a large sum of money; but notwithstanding these causes of annoy-enjoyment of the regal crown, of which he retained ance, and while John Hunyades Corvinus, at the head of a Hungarian army, overran Austria, and laid siege to Vienna, and the usurper Sforza possessed himself of the imperial fief of Milan, on the extinction of the male line of the Visconti, F. remained absorbed in his own private studies, or roused himself only to attempt, by the aid of foreign mercenaries, to recover the crown-lands of which the House of Austria had been deprived. His pusillanimous subserviency to the papal chair, and his wavering policy, irritated the electors, who at one time cherished the design of deposing him and nominating George Podiebrand, king of Bohemia, to the imperial throne; while it entangled him in quarrels on account of the succession to the Palatinate, and other questions of German policy, and deprived the church in Germany of that independence from the thraldom of the papal chair which it had been the object of the Council of Basel to secure to it. The contempt in which F. was held was made apparent on the death of his ward, Ladislaus, king of Hungary and Bohemia, without children, when, notwithstanding his just pretensions to this inheritance, he was passed over, the people of the former having chosen George Podiebrand as their king, and those of the latter Matthias Corvinus. His brother Albert's death in 1463 secured him a short reprieve from internal disturbances, and gave him possession of Upper Austria; but he was repeatedly embroiled in quarrels with Podiebrand and Matthias; the latter of whom several times besieged Vienna, and finally dispossessed him of every town of importance in his hereditary domains. In the meanwhile, the Turks were suffered to push their conquests in Europe until they had advanced in 1456 to Hungary, in 1469 to Carniola, and in 1475 to Salzburg, although a vigorous opposition at the outset would easily have put a definite stop to their encroachments. On the death of Matthias, in 1490, F. recovered Austria, but he was obliged to acknowledge Prince Ladislaus of Bohemia as king of Hungary. This mortification was soon followed by his death, in 1493, after an inglorious reign of 53 years, which did nothing to advance the prosperity or progress of the empire, although the times were propitious to both. But although F. neglected the interests and duties of the imperial crown to indulge in the pursuit of his favourite studies in alchemy, astronomy, and botany, he never lost an opportunity of promoting the aggrandisement of his own family, which he very materially secured by marrying his son and successor, Maximilian, to Mary, the rich heiress of Charles the Bold of Burgundy. F. was temperate, devout, parsimonious, scrupulous about trifles, simple in his habits, pacific in his disposition, and naturally averse to exertion or excitement. From his time, the imperial dignity continued almost hereditary in the House of Austria, which has perpetuated the use of his favourite device, A. E. I. Ô. U., Austria Est Imperare Orbi Universo. See Eneas Sylvius, Historia; Coxe, House of Austria. FREDERICK V., PRINCE PALATINE.-Frederick V., Electoral Prince Palatine, was born in 1596, succeeded to the Palatinate in 1610, was king of Bohemia from 1619 to 1620, and died in 1632. He Christian IV., was born in 1609, succeeded to the FREDERICK III., OF DENMARK, the son of throne in 1648, and died in 1670. The wars of his father's reign had brought the country to a state of great embarrassment; and notwithstanding all his efforts to maintain peace, F. was continually embroiled in the quarrels of other nations, and during his reign Copenhagen was twice besieged by the Swedes under their warlike king, Charles Gustavus; nor was peace re-established till after rendered memorable by the change effected in the the death of Charles. The reign of F. III. was constitution, which, after having been in some degree elective, was at once changed into a hereditary and absolute monarchy by the voluntary act of the nobility, surrendered to the crown the liberties the commons and clergy, who, from abhorrence of and prerogative which they had hitherto enjoyed, and made the sovereign absolute and irresponsible. FREDERICK V., OF DENMARK, the son and successor of Christian VI., was born in 1723, ascended the throne in 1746, and died in 1766, leaving the reputation of having been one of the best and wisest monarchs of his time. Denmark owed to him the increase of her national wealth, and the establishment of various branches of commerce and manufacture. F. established a Greenland Company, opened the American colonial trade to all his subjects, founded the military academy of Soroe, in Denmark, and caused schools to be opened at Bergen and Trondhjem, in Norway, for the instruction of the Laplanders. He established academies of painting and sculpture at Copenhagen, and sent a number of learned men-among whom was Niebuhr, the father of the historian-to travel and make explorations in the East. FREDERICK VI., OF DENMARK, the son of Christian VII. and Caroline Matilda of England, was born in 1768, and assumed the regency of the kingdom in 1784, on account of the insanity of his father, on whose death, in 1808, he ascended the throne. In this reign, feudal serfdom was abolished, monopolies abrogated, the criminal code amended, and the slave-trade prohibited earlier than in any other country. In 1800, Denmark joined the FREDERICK-FREDERICK-WILLIAM. maritime confederation formed between Russia, Sweden, and Prussia, which led to retaliation on the part of England, to the seizure by that power of all Danish vessels in British ports, and to the despatch of a powerful fleet, under Sir Hyde Parker and Nelson, to give efficacy to the peremptory demand that the regent should withdraw from the convention. His refusal to accede to this demand was followed by a fierce naval engagement, in which the Danish fleet was almost wholly destroyed. A peace was concluded on the regent's withdrawal from the confederation; but in consequence of his persisting to maintain an attitude of neutrality, instead of combining with Great Britain against Napoleon, the war was renewed in 1807 by the appearance, before Copenhagen, of a British fleet, bearing envoys, who summoned F. to enter into an alliance with England, and to surrender his fleet and arsenals, and the castle of Cronborg, commanding the Sound. On his refusal, Copenhagen was bombarded for three days, the arsenals and docks destroyed, and all the shipping disabled, sunk, or carried to England. This blow paralysed the national resources, and it required the exercise of much discretion on the part of the government, and great endurance on that of the people, to prevent the irremediable ruin of the country. Smarting under the treatment which he had experienced from the English, the Danish monarch became the ally of Napoleon, and suffered proportionally after the overthrow of his empire. In 1814, Norway was taken by the allies from Denmark, and given to Sweden. The state became bankrupt, and many years passed before order could be restored to the finances. Notwithstanding his autocratic tendencies, F. so far yielded to the movements of the times as to give his subjects, in 1831, a representative council and a liberal constitution. He died December 3, 1839. FREDERICK VII., OF DENMARK, the reigning king of Denmark, was born in 1808, and succeeded his father, Christian VIII., in 1848. The principal events of his reign have been the wars and diplomatic negotiations arising out of the revolt of the duchies of Holstein and Slesvig (q. v.), and the vexed question of the succession to Denmark Proper and the duchies on the death of the king and of his uncle, the heir-presumptive, both of whom are childless. Notwithstanding the heavy expenses of the war, the finances have been considerably augmented, and the material prosperity of the country has increased during the present reign. FREDERICK-WILLIAM, DUKE OF BRUNSWICK, born in 1771, entered the Prussian service at an early age, and was actively engaged with the army during the war with France in 1792, and again in 1806, and was taken prisoner with Blücher at Leipsic. On the death of his father and eldest brother, he would have succeeded to the dukedom, as his other brothers were incapacitated by disease for reigning, had not Napoleon put a veto on his accession to power. Being resolved to take part in the war against the French, he raised a free corps in Bohemia, and threw himself into Saxony, which he was, however, speedily compelled to evacuate. After the total defeat of the Austrians in 1809, the duke determined to leave Germany; and with his corps of 700 black hussars,' and 800 infantry, he began his masterly retreat. After various skirmishes, in one of which he defeated the Westphalian commander Wellingerode and a picked detachment of troops, he reached Brunswick, in the neighbourhood of which he gained a victory at Oelper over 4000 Westphalians, commanded by General Reupel. He next crossed the Weser, and having reached Elsfleth, and taken possession of a sufficient number vessels and seamen, he embarked his troops; and finally, after stopping at Heligoland, landed in England with his men in August 1809. He was received with enthusiasm; and having entered the English service with his men, subsequently took part in the Peninsular war, where he served with distinction, receiving from the British government an allowance of £6000 a year, which he retained till his return to his own dominions in 1813. Although no prince could be more earnestly bent on securing the welfare of his subjects, his efforts failed utterly from the untimely and injudicious nature of the reforms he endeavoured to effect; while the magnitude of his military establishments, which were quite unsuited to the limited extent of his territories, excited the ill-will of his people. He joined the allied army with his hussars after the return of Napoleon from Elba, and fell gloriously while leading on his men at Quatre Bras, on the 16th of June 1815. FREDERICK-WILLIAM, ELECTOR OF BRANDENBURG, commonly called the Great Elector,' was born in 1620, succeeded to the electorate in 1640, and died in 1688. On his accession, he found an empty exchequer, the towns and cities depopulated, and the whole electorate devastated by the ravages of the Swedish and Imperialist armies during the Thirty Years' War, which was not yet concluded; while a portion of his inheritance had even been confiscated by the Swedes, His first acts were to regulate the finances, and to conclude a treaty of neutrality with Sweden, which left him at leisure to devote himself to the organisation of his army, and the re-peopling of the deserted towns and villages by means of immigra tion. By the treaty of Westphalia, through which he lost several important places, he recovered the eastern portions of Pomerania, Hohenstein, the bishoprics of Halberstadt, Minden, and Kamin, as lay-principalities, and the reversion of the archbishopric of Magdeburg. years he had, by the help of his generals, Derfflinger, Schomberg, and Kannenberg, created an army of 25,000 men, organised on the Swedish model; and having been constrained to enter into an alliance with Charles X., he co-operated with him in the taking of Warsaw, which was effected at the cost of a most sanguinary engagement in 1656. In return for this co-operation, F.-W. secured the emancipation of his Prussian duchy from its former dependence on Poland. The aggressions of Louis In the course of ten XIV. on the Rhenish frontier alarmed the elector, who induced the emperor, the king of Denmark, and the Elector of Hesse-Cassel, to enter into a league against France. The result was unfavourable to the cause of the German princes, and F.-W. was obliged to content himself with making highly disadvantageous terms. The war was soon renewed, and Brandenburg was again a prey to the incursions of the Swedes, who, at the instigation of Louis, advanced upon Berlin, laying waste everything on their march. The elector, who had taken up his winter-quarters in Franconia, hurried across the Elbe at the head of his cavalry, and having signally defeated the Swedes, drove them from his dominions. If the emperor had been true to his word, and supported him, F.-W. might have made head against the French; but being forsaken by the other German princes, and his dominions overrun by the troops of Louis, he was obliged to agree to the treaty of St Germain, by which he restored all his conquests to the Swedes, in return for the withdrawal of the French army, and the payment to him of an indemnity of 300,000 crowns. From this time forth, F.-W. devoted himself to the task of consolidating the prosperity of is dominions. FREDERICK-FREDERICK-WILLIAM. During his reign, he more than tripled the area of his territories, and by his generous reception of 20,000 French Protestants after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and the encouragement which he afforded to the immigration of Dutchmen and other foreigners, he augmented the population of his states, and introduced numerous industrial arts among his subjects. He founded the university at Duisburg, and the royal library at Berlin, and reorganised the universities of Frankfurt-on-theOder, and Königsberg, opened canals, established a system of posts, and greatly enlarged and beautified Berlin. He left a well-filled exchequer and a highly organised army. See Orlich, Gesch. des Preuss. Staats im 17 Jahrh. Berl. 1839. as army of 70,000 soldiers, of whom a large proportion were men of gigantic stature. What was of more consequence to his son and successor was, that his exchequer contained 9,000,000 thalers, and that his kingdom had attained an area of more than 45,000 square miles, and a population of upwards of 2,240,000. See Morgenstern, Ueber Friedrich Wilhelm I. (Braunsch. 1793); F. Förster, Gesch. Friedrich-Wilhelm's I. (Pots. 1835); Carlyle, Hist. of Friedrich II., called Frederick the Great. education. FREDERICK II., OF PRUSSIA, surnamed 'THE GREAT,' was the son of Frederick-William I. and the Princess Sophia-Dorothea, daughter of George I. of Great Britain, and was born in 1712. His early years were spent under the restraints of an irkFREDERICK III., ELECTOR OF BRANDENBURG, Some military training, and a rigid system of son and successor of the former, and the first king of His impatience under this discipline, Prussia, was born in 1657, and succeeded to the his taste for music and French literature, and his electorate of Brandenburg in 1688. He exhibited devotion to his mother, gave rise to dissensions the same zeal as his father for the aggrandisement between father and son, and resulted in an attempt and amelioration of his dominions; but he was on the part of F. to escape to the court of his uncle, distinguished from him by his admiration of Louis George II. of England. Being seized in the act, his XIV., whose pomp and luxurious display he imitated conduct was visited with still greater severity, and at his own court. He supported William of Orange he himself was kept in close confinement, while his in his attempt on England, and gave him a subsidy friend and confidant, Lieutenant Katt, was executed of 6000 men, which, under the command of Marshal in his sight, after having been barbarously ill-treated Schomberg, contributed to gain the victory at the by the king. According to some reports, the prince's Boyne which decided the fate of James II. F. was life would have been sacrificed to the fury of his always ready to lend troops and money to his allies; father, had not the kings of Sweden and Poland he sent 6000 of his best men to aid the Impe interceded in his favour. Having humbly sued for rialists against the Turks; and although he met with pardon, he was liberated, and allowed to retire to the same ingratitude as his father, he succeeded, by Ruppin, which, with the town of Rheinsberg, was treaties, exchanges, and purchases, in very consider- bestowed upon him in 1734. Here he continued to ably extending his territories; and after many years' reside till the king's death, surrounded by men of negotiations, he induced the emperor to agree to the learning, and in correspondence with Voltaire, whom 'Crown Treaty,' by which, in return for permission he especially admired, and other philosophers; but to assume the title of King of Prussia, he bound on his accession to the throne in 1740, he laid aside himself to furnish certain contingents of men and these peaceful pursuits, and at once gave evidence money to the Imperial government. As soon of his talents as a legislator, and his determination this treaty had been signed, F. hastened in mid- to take an active share in the political and warlike winter with all his family and court to Königsberg, movements of the age. His first military exploit where, on the 18th January 1701, he placed the was to gain a victory at Mollwitz over the Austrians, crown on his own head. He died February 25, in 1741, which nearly decided the fate of Silesia, 1713. F. did much to embellish Berlin, where he and secured to Prussia the alliance of France and founded the Royal Academy of Sciences, and the Bohemia. Another victory over the Empress Maria Academy of Painting and Sculpture, erected several Theresa's troops made him master of Upper and churches, and laid out numerous streets. He estabLower Silesia, and closed the first Silesian war. The lished a court of appeal at Berlin, built the palace which F. retired with augmented territories and the second Silesian war, which ended in 1745, from of Charlottenburg, and founded the university at Halle; but his actions were generally influenced reputation of being one of the first commanders of by a love of display; and his vanity, together with the age, was followed by a peace of eleven years, his neglect of those who had served him, made him which he devoted to the improvement of the various personally unpopular, although his patriotic love of departments of government, and of the nation Germany redeemed, in the eyes of his countrymen, generally, to the organisation of his army, and the many of his bad points. indulgence of his literary tastes. The third Silesian war, or the Seven Years' War,' was begun in 1756 by the invasion of Saxony-a step to which F. was driven by the fear that he was to be deprived of Silesia by the allied confederation of France, Austria, Saxony, and Russia. This contest, which was one of the most remarkable of modern times, secured to F. a decided influence in the affairs of Europe generally, as the natural result of the pre-eminent genius which he had shewn both under defeat and victory; but although this war crippled the powers of all engaged in it, it left the balance of European politics unchanged. It required all the skill and inventive genius of F. to repair the evils which his country had suffered by the war. In 1772, he shared in the partition of Poland, and obtained as his portion all Polish Prussia and a part of Great Poland; and by the treaty of Teschen, in 1779, Austria was obliged to consent to the union of the Franconian provinces with Prussia, and he was thus enabled to leave to his nephew and successor a powerful and well-organised kingdom, one-half FREDERICK-WILLIAM I., OF PRUSSIA, born in 1688, was in almost every particular the opposite of his father Frederick I. He was simple, and almost penurious in his habits, attentive to business, passionately fond of military exercises, but averse to mental cultivation, and fond of the society of the low and illiterate, while he carried to the utmost his ideas of arbitrary power and the divine right of kings. The public events of his reign were of little importance, although he was continually implicated in foreign wars, and he supported the cause of Stanislaus of Poland, and assisted Austria in her contests with France. He died in 1740. By his economy and reforms in the finances, he was able to indulge his taste for the organisation of military forces, while his childish love of tall soldiers induced him to connive at the most flagrant outrages both at home and abroad for kidnapping tall men and forcing them into his service: the result of this system was, that he left at his death a well-drilled |