Chapter I: Preface

In attempting to sketch the career of Frederick the Great and to define its relation to the rise of Prussia, I have made free use of many printed works, especially of Frederick’s own _Œuvres_ and of the elaborate _Politische Correspondenz_ of his reign. With these great “primary” authorities may perhaps be ranked the face and voice of modern Germany, rich in evidence of Frederick’s work, which have doubtless influenced my opinions more than I am aware of. Among “secondary” authorities I owe most to the opulent treasure-house of Carlyle’s _Frederick the Great_ and to the more systematic narrative of Professor Koser. His _Friedrich der Grosse als Kronprinz_, which largely inspired the work of Lavisse translated under the title _The Youth of Frederick the Great_, forms my chief source for much of Frederick’s early life, as does the last volume of the _König Friedrich der Grosse_ (1903), for the domestic labours after 1763. Mr. Herbert Tuttle’s judicious _History of Prussia_ gave me much assistance down to the outbreak of the Seven Years’ War, and I have often referred to Mr. Lodge’s _Modern Europe_ and Mr. Henderson’s _Short History of Germany_.

At critical points in the record of the years 1712 to 1786 I was influenced successively by the _Mémoires de la Margravine de Baireuth_, the trenchant _Frédéric II et Marie-Thérèse_ of the Duc de Broglie, the _Politische Staatsschriften_, Schäfer’s _Der Siebenjährige Krieg_, von Arneth’s _Oesterreichische Geschichte_, and Sorel’s _The Eastern Question in the Eighteenth Century_. Many of the battles in Saxony, Brandenburg, Bohemia, and Silesia form the subject of monographs which it was interesting to study on the field, sometimes with the aid of collections of maps and plans preserved in the neighbourhood.

It would be impossible without a false pretence of erudition to name more than a small portion of the books to which some reference must be made in writing of the rise of Prussia. Students will recognise the debt that I owe to such well-known works as those of Ranke, Droysen, Philippson, Förster, Seeley, Isaacsohn, Oncken, Vitzthum, Archenholtz, and many more, as well as to the _Essays_ of Macaulay and Lord Mahon. My account of the early history of Brandenburg is in part based on my paper of April, 1901, in the _Transactions_ of the Royal Historical Society.

I offer my grateful thanks to Mr. G. H. Putnam and to Mr. H. W. C. Davis for their counsel, to Mr. G. H. M. Gray for minute scrutiny of the proof-sheets, and to Messrs. Ernest and Harold Temperley, my indulgent comrades in Silesia. To the latter this book owes much at every stage.

W. F. R.

KING’S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE,
Jan. 9th, 1904.

CONTENTS

PAGE
INTRODUCTION 1

CHAPTER I
THE RISE OF PRUSSIA 3

CHAPTER II
FREDERICK AS CROWN PRINCE, 1712–1740 24

CHAPTER III
THE PROBLEM OF 1740 56

CHAPTER IV
THE SILESIAN ADVENTURE, 1740–1742 83

CHAPTER V
THE SECOND STRUGGLE FOR SILESIA, 1742–1745 128

CHAPTER VI
THE TEN YEARS’ PEACE, 1746–1756 155

CHAPTER VII
THE SEVEN YEARS’ WAR TO THE BATTLE OF LEUTHEN 189

CHAPTER VIII
THE SEVEN YEARS’ WAR (CONTINUED). LEUTHEN TO MAXEN
(DECEMBER, 1757, TO DECEMBER, 1759) 251

CHAPTER IX
THE END OF THE SEVEN YEARS’ WAR, 1760–1763 281

CHAPTER X
FREDERICK AND PRUSSIA AFTER THE WAR 301

CHAPTER XI
FREDERICK AND EUROPE, 1763–1786 322