Frederick the Great Inherits Prussia
Frederick II succeeded to the Prussian throne on 31 May 1740 and invaded Silesia seven months later. He had spent his youth being beaten by his father. Frederick William I was a soldier-king who drilled a giant grenadier regiment and despised the flute, French literature and philosophy, all of which his son preferred; at eighteen Frederick tried to escape to England with a friend, was caught, court-martialled, and made to watch the friend beheaded from a window. He then submitted, learned administration, and spent the years before his accession writing the Anti-Machiavel, a treatise arguing that a prince's duty is to his people and that aggressive war is a crime. Voltaire had it published in the spring of 1740. That autumn the Emperor Charles VI died leaving his daughter Maria Theresa, and the Pragmatic Sanction that was supposed to secure her inheritance — which Prussia had signed. Frederick had an army of 80,000 that his father had built and never used, a full treasury, and a claim to parts of Silesia that his own lawyers described as respectable rather than good. He invaded in December without a declaration, and later wrote that ambition, interest and the desire to be talked about had decided it. Silesia was the richest Habsburg province and roughly doubled Prussia's population and revenue. Three wars followed over twenty-three years, the last of which nearly destroyed him. He kept it, and Prussia was a great power. Voltaire visited him at Potsdam and left after three years having quarrelled thoroughly.
- Year: 1740 CE
- Category: Political
