Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
For instance, Thomas Carlyle's History of Frederick the Great (8 vol. 1858–1865) emphasised the power of one great "hero", in this case Frederick, to shape history. [314] In German memory, Frederick became a great national icon and many Germans said he was the greatest monarch in modern history.
Frederick the Great, as an Author, Soldier, King and Man, well deserves to have his History written; better perhaps than Charles XII, whose Biography by Voltaire has always seemed to me one of the most delightful Books. Let your Publishers offer me Three hundred pounds, and time to heat the historico-biographical crucible and fill it and fuse ...
Frederick was a passionate supporter of the Enlightenment and Voltaire was its greatest spokesman. This included, for example, the abolition of criminal liability for homosexual acts. Frederick however did not abolish it, but unlike under his father, [34] no death sentence was carried out. [23]
Frederick's personal reputation was enormously enhanced by his successes in the wars, winning him the epithet "Frederick the Great". [96] His debts to fortune (Russia's about-face after Elizabeth's death) and to British financial support were soon forgotten, while the memories of his energetic leadership and tactical genius were strenuously ...
Enlightened absolutism is the theme of an essay by Frederick the Great, who ruled Prussia from 1740 to 1786, defending this system of government. [5] When the prominent French Enlightenment philosopher Voltaire fell out of favor in France, he eagerly accepted Frederick's invitation to live at his palace. He believed that an enlightened monarchy ...
Ernst Kantorowicz's biography, Frederick the Second, original published in 1927, is a very influential work in the historiography of the emperor.Kantorowicz praises Frederick as a genius, who created the "first western bureaucracy", an "intellectual order within the state" that acted like "an effective weapon in his fight with the Church—bound together from its birth by sacred ties in the ...
In the will of Frederick the Great, Elisabeth was secured not only the continuation of her usual income, but also an additional 10,000 thalers annually, residence, games, wine, and firewood in the royal palaces of her choice, and a directive that his successor and nephew Frederick William always treat her with respect due to her position. [4]
Frederick William was a man of his time, interested in spiritualism, clairvoyance and astrology, which would have repelled his predecessor. [3] Frederick William II and his uncles. Frederick II's contempt for his successor is also evidenced by the Potsdam apartment assigned to the "Prince of Prussia" on the corner of Neuer Markt. [1]