FREDERICK H., King of Prussia, distinguished by his contem poraries and posterity by the surname of the Great, was the son of Frederick William I. and of Sophia Dorothea, princess of Hanover, and WAS born on the 24th January, 1712. He passed the first years of his youth under the restraints of a rigid education, the sole object of which was military exercises; but as lie bad received the rudiments of his education from a French lady, under whose care he acquired considerable knowledge of the language, and as she and his first tutor, M. Duhau, had great influence over him, ho imbibed a taste for polite literature. These two persons, together with the queen, formed in secret a kind of opposition to his father's system of education. The prince was entirely attached to his mother, and there arose an estrangement between the father and the eon, which suggested to the king the idea of leaving the throne to his younger son Augustus William. Impatient of the tyrannical conduct of his father, Frederick resolved to seek refuge in England with hie maternal uncle George II. Only his sister Frederica, and his friends lieutenants Katt and Keith, were acquainted with the secret of his intended flight, which was to take place from Wesel, whither he had accompanied his father. But some indiscreet expressions which fell from Katt betrayed the prince's intention. The prince was overtaken, and sent to Custrin, where he was kept in close confinement. Keith escaped, and lived in Holland, England, and Portugal, till after Frederick's accession, when he returned to Berlin. Katt was taken and beheaded. It appears certain that the king had resolved to take away his eon's life, and that he was only saved by the intercession of the emperor of Austria, Charles VI., through his ambassador, Count Seckendorf. (Voltaire, 'Mamoires,' Lc.) The prince, after he had been released from his strict confine ment in the castle of Custrin, was employed by his father as youngest member of the Chamber of Domains, and not permitted to return to court till the marriage of the princess Frederica to the hereditary prince Frederick of Baireuth. In 1733 his father obliged him to marry the
princess Elizabeth Christian, daughter of Ferdinand Albrecht, duke of Brunswick Bevern. Frederick William gave her the palace of Schonhausen, and to the prince the county of Ruppiu, and in 1734 the town of ltheinsberg, where he appears to have lived happily, chiefly devoting himself to literary pursuits and to musie till his accession. Among the persons about him were Bielefeld, Chuzot, Sulnn,Fouquet, Knobehelorf, Keiscrling, Jordan, and other learned men; likewise the composere Graun and Benda, and the painter Pesne. Ho had an uninterrupted correspondence with foreign literati, especially with Voltaire, whom he admired above all others, During his retirement at Rheinsberg, be composed several works, one of which was the ' Anti-Ilachiavel,' published at the Hague in 1740. The death of his father in 1740 placed him on the throne. Finding a full treasury and a powerful army, his thirst for military glory tempted him to embrace any opportunity that might offer; but there did not appear to be any occasion for great enterprise till the death of the emperor Charles VI., on the 20th October 1740, led the way to his extraordinary and brilliant career which changed the face of Europe. Frederick took this opportunity of asserting the claims of the House of Brandenburg to four principalities in Silesia, the investiture of which hie prede cessors had not been able to obtain ; but he only required from queen Maria Theresa, the daughter and heiress of Charles VI., the duchies of Glogau and Sagan, promising on his aide to support her against all her enemies, to vote for her husband's elevation to the imperial dignity, and to pay her 2,000,000 ;dollars. His proposals being rejected, he took possession of Lower Silesia in December 1740, and defeated the Austrian army at Mellwitz, on the 27th April 1741.