Frederick as a Youth
Frederick Hohenzollen was born in 1712, the eldest son of Frederick William I King in Prussia. The young Frederick did not get on well with his draconian father, and once tried to leave Prussia. Frederick was well educated and also committed to increasing the power of the Prussian state. At the behest of his father Frederick entered a diplomatic marriage, which he apparently never consummated, and never bothered to have annulled once on the throne.
A Military Genius And the taking of Silesia
Frederick II became King in Prussia during 1740 after his father's death. Coincidentally that was also the year that the Empress Marie Teresa became the Empress of Austria and the Holy Roman Empire. Frederick's first act as king was to use the powerful army built up by his father to take Silesia from Austria. Silesia was an important industrial and mining province and also connected East and West Prussia together. The seizure of Silesia prompted the War of the Austrian Succession, which confirmed Prussia's gains.
The Seven Years War and the First Partition of Poland
After the War of the Austrian Succession the Austrians remained determined to regain Silesia by defeating Frederick the Great. In the Seven Years War Frederick the Great allied Prussia to Britain yet enemies including Austria and France surrounded his country. Despite being heavily outnumbered Frederick the Great led the Prussian army with a high degree of skill and avoided what should have been an inevitable defeat. Prussian victories at Rossbach and Leuthen during 1757 demonstrated his military genius as superior French and Austrian forces were beaten.
After the Seven Years War Frederick the Great instigated further reforms of the Prussian state whilst seeking opportunities to expand Prussia's territories further. The increasing weakness of Poland gave Frederick that opportunity. Instead of fighting over the spoils, the Austrians, the Prussians, and the Russians simply took what they wanted from Poland and left behind a powerless rump state.
In 1786 Frederick the Great died and was greatly mourned by the Prussian population. In his forty six-year reign he had gained Silesia and the province of Posen from Poland. He had also achieved some of Prussia's greatest victories when it seemed that all was lost. He was a keen promoter of adminstrative reform not to mention a patron of art and science.
Bibliography
Clark C, (2006) Iron Kingdom, A History of Prussia, Penguin
Holmes R, (2007) Battlefield – Decisive conflicts in History, Oxford University Press, Oxford, and Cambridge, USA
Lenman B, (2004) Chambers Dictionary of World History, Edinburgh
