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Heroes of the Nations

  A Series of Biographical Studies presenting the lives and work of
      certain representative historical characters, about whom have
      gathered the traditions of the nations to which they belong,
      and who have, in the majority of instances, been accepted as
      types of the several national ideals.


  12°, Illustrated, cloth, each          $1.50
  Half Leather, gilt top, each           $1.75
  Nos. 33 and following Nos.         net $1.35
    Each                      (By mail, $1.50)
  Half Leather, gilt top             net $1.60
                              (By mail, $1.75)

FOR FULL LIST SEE END OF THIS VOLUME




  Heroes of the Nations

  EDITED BY
  H. W. Carless Davis
  FELLOW OF ALL SOULS COLLEGE, OXFORD

  FACTA DUCIS VIVENT OPEROSAQUE
  GLORIA RERUM.—OVID, IN LIVIAM, 266.

  THE HERO’S DEEDS AND HARD-WON
  FAME SHALL LIVE.

FREDERICK THE GREAT

[Illustration: FREDERICK THE GREAT.

AFTER THE PAINTING BY CARLO VANLOO.]




  FREDERICK THE GREAT

  AND THE RISE OF PRUSSIA

  BY
  W. F. REDDAWAY, M.A.

  FELLOW AND LECTURER OF KING’S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE; LECTURER IN HISTORY
  TO NON-COLLEGIATE STUDENTS; AUTHOR OF “THE MONROE
  DOCTRINE” (CAMB. UNIV. PRESS)

  G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS
  NEW YORK    27 WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET
  LONDON    24 BEDFORD STREET, STRAND

  The Knickerbocker Press
  1904




  COPYRIGHT, 1904
  BY
  G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS

  Published, April, 1904


  The Knickerbocker Press, New York




  TO THE
  NON-COLLEGIATE STUDENTS
  OF THE
  UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE




[Illustration]




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