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Frederick the Great

The Knitting Circle: Monarchs

Biography,bibliography.

King of Prussia.

His father was Frederick William I. His mother was Sophia-Dorothea who was the daughter of George I of Britain.

Frederick developed two intimate friendships during his adolescence. One was Keith from a Scotch Jacobite family. The other was Hans von Katte who was the nephew of George I's mistress, the Schulenberg and who was made Duchess of Kendall. As Frederick became of marriageable age he plotted with Keith and Hans von Katte to escape the country. When the plot was discovered a court-martial sentenced the two young officers to prison. Frederick's father changed the sentence on Hans von Katte to execution and arranged for him to be beheaded in view of Frederick.

He was brought up under a rigid system of education and dedicated to military training. However, the military tutor that his father assigned to him was Count von Keyseling who became an intimate and lifelong favourite of Frederick.

In 1733 he was assigned the bride the Princess Elizabeth of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (1715-1797).

From 1734 he lived at Rheinsberg where he keenly studied music and French literature. He was proficient at playing the flute, and he composed music for it.

King Frederick William I died, and on 31st. May 1740 his son Frederick became King of Prussia. With the accession of Maria Theresa in October 1740 he lost the Crown of Austria. In December 1740 he entered Silesia with his army and forced Maria Theresa to yield hum Upper and Lower Silesia by the Treaty of Breslau (1742). In the second Silesian War (1744-1745) he increased his territories and enhanced his reputation as a great military commander. In 1756 the third Silesian War, or the 'Seven Years War' began and he enhanced his reputation yet further. In 1772 he shared in the partition of Poland, and in 1778 he completed the acquisition of the Franconian duchies. By the end of his reign Prussia had doubled in area, and Frederick had managed the wars without incurring any debt. He had fostered woollen and other manufacturers by a high protective tariff.

He was a prolific writer on political, historical, and military subjects, always writing in French.

• Robert B. Asprey, (1988), "e;Frederick the Great: Magnificent Enigma"e;, Tunbridge Wells, Kent: Costello.

• Thomas Carlyle< (1858-65), "e;The History of Friedrich II of Prussia, Called Frederick the Great"e;, 10 volumes, London: Chapman and Hall.

• Tom Cowan, (1996),Gay Men and Women Who Enriched the World.

• David Fraser, (2000), "e;Frederick the Great"e;, Allen Lane The Penguin Press, 704 pages, ISBN 0 713 99377 4/0 14 028 590 3.

  • Soldier king with very dodgy fansby Mark Simpson inThe Independent on Sunday: Culture, 20th. February, 2000, page 11. "e;Frederick, like a lot of 'greats', has some dodgy fans. Most famous is his historical stalker Adolf Hitler, who hero-worshiped the general king who established Prussia as a first-rank power, and saw himself, as really scary fans do, as his true heir."e;

    "e;And then there are Frederick's other dodgy bachelor fans who wish to claim him for their cause. After all, he spurned the affections of his wife Wilhelmina, he sired no children, women were almost invisible at court, and his name was not linked with famous mistresses like most other princes of the period. Instead he collected statues of Antinous,Hadtian'slover, and Ganymede, and 'was known to caress, tickle, pinch the ear of some favoured page'.

    "e;So it is entirely understandable and perhaps even commendable that David Fraser, a former general in the British Army, should want to save Frederick from both these kinds of fan. After all, Hitler and, until very recently, homos were the two things the British Army knew it was against."e;

    "e;With respect to the rumours of rum bum goings-on, Fraser acknowledges the homosexual reputation Frederick has gained, outines his lack of interest in the fair sex and admits that 'together with his unabashed aestheticism and the deliberacy of his tastes ... gave plausibility to his alleged impotence or homosexuality' (The two, of course, being interchangeable). He also admits that Frederick enjoyed what Fraser calls the 'pathic' role in sodomy (looking up 'pathic' in my dictionary I discover with a thrill, it means 'victim' or 'catamite'). In the end, however, Fraser is unconvinced and claims that Frederick was probably asexual, or at most a non-practising sodomite. And then moves smortly on to the business that really interests him. War."e;

  • A complex warrior kingby Anita Bunyan, inThe Times Higher Education Supplement, 12th. January, 2001, page 27. "e;David Fraser's biography of Frederick II of Prussia brings the tally in Britain to three since 1985 alone. The origin of this fascination lies in the understandable if highly nebulous sense that the personality and exploits of Frederick the Great might somehow encapsulate the essence of the Prussian, and in turn German, national character."e;

• A. L. Rowse, (1977), "e;Homosexuals in History"e;.

• E. Simon, (1974), "e;The Making of Frederick the Great"e;.

Biography,bibliography.

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The Knitting Circle

First uploaded 21st. April, 2000.

Last altered 24th. January, 2001