biography
| name: |
Frederick II (of Prussia),
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known as the Great
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1712–86)
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| biography:
| King of Prussia (1740–86), born in Berlin, Germany, the son of Frederick William I and Sophia Dorothea, daughter of George I of Great Britain. His childhood was spent in rigorous military training and education. In 1733 he married, and lived at Rheinsberg, where he studied music and French literature, and himself wrote and composed. As king, he fought to oppose Austrian ambitions, and earned a great reputation as a military commander in the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–8). He seized Silesia, and defeated the Austrians at Mollwitz (1741) and Chotusitz (1742). The second Silesian War (1744–5) left him with further territories which, by good luck and great effort, he retained after fighting the Seven Years' War (1756–63). In 1772 he shared in the first partition of Poland. Under him, Prussia became a leading European power. An enlightened despot, he believed that a ruler should exercise absolute power; he established full religious toleration, abolished torture, and freed the serfs on his estates. He also built the rococo palace of Sans Souci at Potsdam, composed music, and was the patron of composers and men of letters such as Voltaire. When he died, he had doubled the area of his country, and given it a strong economic foundation. |
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