April 5, 1691: Birth of Landgrave Ludwig VIII of Hesse-Darmstadt

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Count Johann Reinhard III of Hanau, Countess Charlotte Christine of Hanau-Lichtenberg, Emperor Franz I Sefan, Empress Maria Theresa, King George II of Great Britain, Landgrave Ludwig VIII of Hesse-Darmstadt, Margrave Albrecht II of Brandenburg-Ansbach, Seven Years War

Ludwig VIII (April 5, 1691 – October 17, 1768) was the Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt from 1739 to 1768. He was the son of Ernst Ludwig Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt and Margravine Dorothea Charlotte of Brandenburg-Ansbach, a daughter of Margrave Albrecht II of Brandenburg-Ansbach (1620–1667), from his second marriage to Sophia Margaret of Oettingen-Oettingen (1634–1664), daughter of Joachim Ernest of Oettingen-Oettingen.

In 1717, he was married to his cousin Countess Charlotte Christine of Hanau-Lichtenberg the only surviving child of Count Johann Reinhard III of Hanau, and the Countess Dorothea Friederike of Brandenburg-Ansbach the daughter of Margrave John Frederick of Brandenburg-Ansbach (1654–1686) and his first wife, Margravine Johanna Elisabeth of Baden-Durlach (1651–1680). Countess Dorothea Friederike of Brandenburg-Ansbach was a half-sister of Queen Caroline of Great Britain, the wife of King George II of Great Britain.

Count Johann Reinhard III was the last Count of Hanau, thus, Countess Charlotte Christine was the sole heir of the County of Hanau.

As a result of the marriage Landgrave Ludwig VIII received Hanau-Lichtenberg as an addition to his dominions. Because of his passion for hunting, he is known as the “Hunting Landgrave” (German: Jagdlandgraf). During the Seven Years’ War he stood on the side of the Emperor Franz I Stefan and received the rank of General Field Marshal.

The Seven Years’ War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European great powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Some historians have labeled the Seven Years War as World War 0.

Like his father, Ludwig VIII was not a gifted economist and only his good relationship with Empress Maria Theresa and her intervention at the Imperial Court Council kept the Landgraviate from bankruptcy. However, his caring for his country is documented by the establishment of a textile house in 1742 and a state orphanage in the 1746.

Issue

Children:

1. Landgrave Ludwig IX, married in 1741 Countess Palatine Caroline of Zweibrücken, had issue
2. Prince Georg Wilhelm, married in 1748 Countess Maria Louise Albertine of Leiningen-Dagsburg-Falkenburg, had issue
3. Princess Caroline Louise; married in 1751 Charles Friedrich, Margrave of Baden, later first Grand Duke of Baden, had issue

March 1, 1792: Death of Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany

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Declaration of Pillnitz., Duke Francis III of Modena, Emperor Franz I, Emperor Joseph II, Emperor Leopold II, Empress Catherine II of Russia, Empress Maria Theresa, French Revolution, Grand Duke of Tuscany, Holy Roman Empire, King Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia, King Louis XVI of France and Navarre, Marie Antoinette of Austria

Leopold II (Peter Leopold Josef Anton Joachim Pius Gotthard; May 5, 1747 – March 1, 1792) was Holy Roman Emperor, King of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia and Archduke of Austria from 1790 to 1792, and Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1765 to 1790.

Family

Leopold was the third son of Empress Maria Theresa, Queen of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia and Archduchess of Austria and her husband, Emperor Franz I, Grand Duke of Tuscany.

Archduke Leopold had many siblings, amongst them and the brother of Archduchess Marie Antoinette, Queen of France and Navarre the wife of King Louis XVI of France and Navarre.

Archduchess Maria Carolina, Queen of Naples and Sicily, wife of King Ferdinand IV-III of Naples and Sicily who later became King of the Two Sicilies.

Archduchess Maria Christina, Duchesses of Teschen. Married in 1766 to Prince Albert of Saxony, the union was a true love match and the couple received the Duchy of Teschen.

Archduchess Maria Amalia, Duchess of Parma, Against her will, Amalia was married to Ferdinand of Parma (1751–1802). The marriage was supported by the future Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, whose first beloved wife had been Ferdinand’s sister, Princess Isabella of Parma. The Archduchess’s marriage to the Duke of Parma was part of a complicated series of contracts that married off Maria Theresa’s daughters to the King of Naples and Sicily and the Dauphin of France. All three sons-in-law were members of the House of Bourbon.

Archduchess Maria Amalia had fallen in love with Prince Charles of Zweibrücken, and she openly expressed her wish to marry him, in the same manner as her sister Archduchess Maria Christina had been permitted to marry Prince Albert of Saxony for love. Maria Theresa, however, forbade this and forced her to enter an arranged marriage. This caused a permanent conflict between the Empress and Maria Amalia, who never forgave her mother.

Archduke Leopold’s older brother was Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor.

Archduke Leopold of Austria, Grand Duke of Tuscany

Marriage

The Duchy of Modena was fearing extinction due to the lack of male heirs.

In 1753, a treaty was concluded between the House of Este and the House of Austria, by which the Archduke Leopold and Maria Beatrice d’Este of Modena were engaged, and the former was designated by Duke Francis III of Modena as heir for the imperial investiture as Duke of Modena and Reggio in the event of extinction of the Este male line.

Maria Beatrice d’Este of Modena was the eldest child of Ercole Rinaldo d’Este, heir to the Duchy of Modena and Reggio, and Maria Teresa Cybo-Malaspina, Duchess of Massa and Princess of Carrara.

In the meantime, Francis III would cover the office of governor of Milan ad interim, which was destined for the archduke. In 1761, however, following the death of an older brother, Archduke Charles, Archduke Leopold became heir to the throne of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany as provided for the second male heir of the imperial couple, and the treaty had to be revised.

In 1763, in spite of the harsh opposition of Maria Beatrice’s father, the two families agreed to simply replace the name of Archduke Leopold with that of Maria Teresa’s fourteenth son, Archduke Ferdinand Charles of Austria, who was four years younger than his betrothed.

In January 1771 the Perpetual Diet of Regensburg ratified Ferdinand Charles’s future investiture and, in October, Maria Beatrice and he finally got married in Milan, thus giving rise to the new House of Austria-Este.

Upon the early death of his older brother Archduke Charles in 1761, the family decided that Archduke Leopold was going to succeed his father as Grand Duke of Tuscany. Tuscany had been envisioned and designated as a Secundogeniture, a territory and title bestowed upon the second born son, which was greater than an Appanage.

On August 5, 1765 Leopold married the Infanta Maria Luisa of Spain, daughter of King Carlos III of Spain and Maria Amalia of Saxony. Upon the death of his father, Empathy Franz I on 18 August 18, 1765, he became Grand Duke of Tuscany. Leopold’s older brother became Emperor Joseph II but his mother continued to rule the Austrian Hereditary lands as an absolute monarch.

Infanta Maria Luisa of Spain

For five years, Leopold, Grand Duke of Tuscany exercised little more than nominal authority, under the supervision of counselors appointed by his mother. In 1770, he made a journey to Vienna to secure the removal of this vexatious guardianship and returned to Florence with a free hand. During the twenty years that elapsed between his return to Florence and the death of his eldest brother Emperor Joseph II in 1790, he was employed in reforming the administration of his small state.

The death of Maria Theresa on November 29, 1780 left Emperor Joseph II free to pursue his own policy, and he immediately directed his government on a new course, attempting to realize his ideal of enlightened despotism acting on a definite system for the good of all.

Emperor Joseph II died on February 20, 1790 and was succeeded by his brother who became Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia and Archduke of Austria. Emperor Leopold II was a moderate proponent of enlightened absolutism.

When Emperor Leopold II succeeded to the Austrian Hereditary lands, he began by making large concessions to the interests offended by his brother’s innovations. He recognized the Estates of his different dominions as “the pillars of the monarchy”, pacified the Hungarians and Bohemians, and divided the insurgents in the Austrian Netherlands (now Belgium) by means of concessions. When these failed to restore order, he marched troops into the country and re-established his own authority,

Leopold lived for barely two years after his accession as Holy Roman Emperor, and during that period he was hard pressed by peril from west and east alike. The growing revolutionary disorders in France endangered the life of his sister Marie Antoinette, the Queen of Louis XVI, and also threatened his own dominions with the spread of subversive agitation. His sister sent him passionate appeals for help, and he was pestered by the royalist émigrés, who were intriguing to bring about armed intervention in France.

From the east he was threatened by the aggressive ambition of Empress Catherine II of Russia and by the unscrupulous policy of King Friedrich Wilhelm II Prussia. Catherine would have been delighted to see Austria and Prussia embark on a crusade in the cause of kings against the French Revolution.

While they were busy beyond the Rhine, she would have annexed what remained of Poland and made conquests against the Ottoman Empire. Leopold II had no difficulty in seeing through the rather transparent cunning of the Russian empress, and he refused to be misled.

On August 25, 1791, he met the King Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia at Pillnitz Castle, near Dresden, and they drew up the Declaration of Pillnitz, stating their readiness to intervene in France if and when their assistance was called for by the other powers. The declaration was a mere formality, for, as Leopold knew, neither Russia nor Britain was prepared to act, and he endeavored to guard against the use which he foresaw the émigrés would try to make of it.

In face of the reaction in France to the Declaration of Pillnitz, the intrigues of the émigrés, and attacks made by the French revolutionists on the rights of the German princes in Alsace, Leopold continued to hope that intervention might not be required. When Louis XVI swore to observe the constitution of September 1791, the emperor professed to think that a settlement had been reached in France.

The attacks on the rights of the German princes on the left bank of the Rhine, and the increasing violence of the parties in Paris which were agitating to bring about war, soon showed, however, that this hope was vain. Leopold meant to meet the challenge of the revolutionists in France with dignity and temper, however the effect of the Declaration of Pillnitz was to contribute to the radicalization of their political movement.

Emperor Leopold II died suddenly in Vienna, on March 1, 1792.

Like his parents before him, Leopold had sixteen children, the eldest of his eight sons being his successor, Emperor Franz II, the last Holy Roman Emperor and first Emperor of Austria. Some of his other sons were prominent personages in their day. Among them were: Ferdinand III, Grand Duke of Tuscany; Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen, a celebrated soldier; Archduke Johann of Austria, also a soldier; Archduke Joseph, Palatine of Hungary; and Archduke Rainer, Viceroy of Lombardy-Venetia.

The Mutual Pact of Succession. Part II.

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Battle of Pfaffenhofen, Elector Charles Albrecht of Bavaria, Elector Maximilian III Joseph of Bavaria, Emperor Charles VI, Emperor Charles VII, Emperor Franz Stefan, Emperor Joseph, Empress Maria Theresa, François Étienne of Lorraine, Grand Duke of Tuscany, Mutual Pact of Succession, Pragmatic Sanction of 1713, Treaty of Füssen, War of the Austrian Succession

When Emperor Joseph I died on April 17, 1711he left behind two daughters, Archduchesses Maria Josepha and Maria Amalia. Charles, who was at the time still unsuccessfully fighting for the crowns of Spain, succeeded him as King of Hungary, Bohemia, Croatia and Archduke of Austria according to the Mutual Pact of Succession and returned to Vienna.

Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor

On October 12, 1712 Charles was elected Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI.

In 1708, Archduke Charles had married Princess Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel the eldest daughter of Ludwig Rudolph, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and his wife Princess Christine Louise of Oettingen-Oettingen.

At age 13 Elisabeth Christine became engaged to the future Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor, through negotiations between her ambitious grandfather, Anthon Ulrich, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and Charles’ sister-in-law, Empress Wilhelmine Amalia, whose father was Johann Friedrich, Duke of Brunswick-Calenberg and thus belonged to another branch of the House of Guelph.

However, the Lutheran Protestant bride opposed the marriage at first, since it involved her converting to Roman Catholicism, but finally she gave in. She was tutored in Catholicism by her mother-in-law, Empress Eleonore, who introduced her to the religion and made a pilgrimage with her to Mariazell in 1706.

Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor

Charles VI and his wife Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel by whom he had his four children: Archduke Leopold Johann (who died in infancy), Archduchess Maria Theresa (the last direct Habsburg sovereign), Archduchess Maria Anna (Governess of the Austrian Netherlands), and Archduchess Maria Amalia (who also died in infancy).

According to the Mutual Pact of Succession the heir presumptive to the Habsburg realms was, at that moment, Charles’s niece, Archduchess Maria Josepha, who was followed in the line of succession by her younger sister, Archduchess Maria Amalia.

Four years before the birth of Archduchess Maria Theresa, faced with his lack of male heirs, Charles provided for a male-line succession failure with the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713.

The future Emperor Charles VI favoured his own daughters over those of his elder brother and predecessor, Joseph I, in the succession, ignoring the decree he had signed during the reign of his father, Leopold I.

The Mutual Pact of Succession was finally superseded
by the Pragmatic Sanction on April 9, 1713, the Emperor Charles VI announced the changes in a secret session of the council. The Pragmatic Sanction was to ensure the succession of Charles’s own daughters instead of Joseph.

The hereditary crowns belonging to the House of Habsburg were thus to be inherited by Charles’s elder surviving daughter, Archduchess Maria Theresa (born in 1717), rather than by Joseph’s elder daughter, Maria Josepha.

Empress Maria Theresa, Queen of Bohemia, Hungary, Croatia and Archduchess of Austria

Charles sought the other European powers’ approval. They demanded significant terms, among which were that Austria close the Ostend Company. In total, Great Britain, France, Saxony-Poland, the Dutch Republic, Spain, Venice, States of the Church, Prussia, Russia, Denmark, Savoy-Sardinia, Bavaria, and the Diet of the Holy Roman Empire recognised the sanction. France, Spain, Saxony-Poland, Bavaria and Prussia later reneged.

Since the hereditary Habsburg lands were under a Semi-Salic Law which excluded women from the inheritance until all male members of the Imperial House became extinct, this agreement required approval by the various Habsburg territories and the Imperial Diet.

The main reason for Saxony-Poland and Bavaria did not support the Pragmatic Sanction and instead still supported the Mutual Pact of Succession was due to the fact that the daughters of Emperor Joseph I, Archduchess Maria Josepha of Austria, married August III, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony (Friedrich August II) and
Archduchess Maria Amalia of Austria, married Elector Charles Albrecht of Bavaria, future Charles VII, Holy Roman Emperor.

Charles VII, Holy Roman Emperor

Prior to their respective marriages to Friedrich August II of Saxony (August III of Poland) and Charles Albrecht of Bavaria in 1719, both women were obliged to formally renounce their rights to the inheritance. Charles assumed the rivalry between Saxony and Bavaria would secure his daughter’s rights to the throne, since neither would be prepared to allow the other to inherit, but instead he gave his two greatest rivals a legitimate claim to the Habsburg lands.

Charles died in 1740, sparking the War of the Austrian Succession, which plagued his successor, Maria Theresa, for eight years.

The immediate cause of the war of the Austrian Succession was the death in 1740 of Emperor Charles VI (1685–1740) and the inheritance of the Habsburg Monarchy, often collectively referred to as Austria, by the Emperor’s daughter Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria who became Queen Regnant of Hungary, Bohemia Croatia and Archduchess of Austria.

Marriage

The question of Maria Theresa’s marriage was raised early in her childhood. Leopold Clement of Lorraine was first considered to be the appropriate suitor, and he was supposed to visit Vienna and meet the Archduchess in 1723. These plans were forestalled by his death from smallpox that year.

Leopold Clement’s younger brother, François Étienne; (French, German: Franz Stefan) was invited to Vienna. Even though François Étienne was his favourite candidate for Maria Theresa’s hand, the Emperor Charles VI considered other possibilities.

Religious differences prevented him from arranging his daughter’s marriage to the Protestant Prince Friedrich of Prussia (future King Friedrich II of Prussia). In 1725, he betrothed her to Infante Carlos of Spain (future King Carlos III) and her sister, Infanta Maria Anna, to Infante Felipe of Spain and Duke of Parma. Other European powers compelled him to renounce the pact he had made with the Queen of Spain, Elisabeth Farnese. Maria Theresa, who had become close to François Étienne was relieved.

Franz Stefan, Holy Roman Emperor and Grand Duke of Tuscany

François Étienne remained at the imperial court until 1729, when he ascended the throne of Lorraine, but was not formally promised Maria Theresa’s hand until January 31, 1736, during the War of the Polish Succession.

King Louis XV of France and Navarre demanded that Maria Theresa’s fiancé surrender his ancestral Duchy of Lorraine to accommodate his father-in-law, Stanislaus I, who had been deposed as King of Poland.

In this arrangement François Étienne was to receive the Grand Duchy of Tuscany upon the death of childless Grand Duke Gian Gastone de’ Medici. The couple were married on February 12, 1736.

After her accession to the Habsburg hereditary domains Queen Maria Theresa dismissed the possibility that other countries might try to seize her territories and immediately started ensuring the imperial dignity for herself; since a woman could not be elected Holy Roman Empress, Maria Theresa wanted to secure the imperial office for her husband, but François Étienne did not possess enough land or rank within the Holy Roman Empire.

In order to make him eligible for the imperial throne and to enable him to vote in the imperial elections as elector of Bohemia (which she could not do because of her sex), Maria Theresa made François Étienne co-ruler of the Austrian and Bohemian lands on November 21, 1740.

It took more than a year for the Diet of Hungary to accept François Étienne as co-ruler, since they asserted that the sovereignty of Hungary could not be shared. Despite her love for him and his position as co-ruler, Maria Theresa never allowed her husband to decide matters of state and often dismissed him from council meetings when they disagreed.

During the War of the Austrian Succession, Charles Albrecht of Bavaria invaded Upper Austria in 1741 and planned to conquer Vienna, but his allied French troops under the Duc de Belle-Isle were instead redirected to Bohemia, and Prague was conquered in November 1741.

That meant that Charles Albrecht was crowned King of Bohemia in Prague on December 19, 1741, when the Habsburgs had not yet been defeated. He was unanimously elected “King of the Romans” on January 24, 1742 and became Holy Roman Emperor upon his coronation on 12 February 1742.

Maximilian III Joseph, Elector of Bavaria

Suffering severely from gout, Charles VII died at Nymphenburg Palace in January 1745. His brother Clemens August then again leaned towards Austria. After the decisive defeat in the Battle of Pfaffenhofen on April 15, Elector Maximilian III Joseph, son and heir of Emperor Charles VII (former Elector Charles Albrecht of Bavaria) quickly abandoned his imperial pretenses and made peace with Maria Theresa in the Treaty of Füssen, in which he agreed to support her husband, Grand Duke François Érienne of Tuscany, in the upcoming imperial election.

With the Treaty of Füssen, Austria recognized the legitimacy of Charles VII’s previous election as Holy Roman Emperor.

Also according to the Treaty of Füssen, Maria Theresa secured her husband’s election as Emperor, which took place on 13 September 1745. He succeeded Charles VII as Emperor Franz I Sefan.

Though Emperor Franz Stefan was well content to leave the wielding of power to his able wife, she was expected to cede power to her husband and later her eldest son, Emperor Joseph II, who were officially her co-rulers in Austria and Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia.

Empress Maria Theresa was the absolute sovereign who ruled with the counsel of her advisers. Maria Theresa promulgated institutional, financial, medical and educational reforms, with the assistance of Wenzel Anton of Kaunitz-Rietberg, Friedrich Wilhelm von Haugwitz and Gerard van Swieten.

January 5, 1757: Attempted Assassination of King Louis XV of France and Navarre

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Assassination Attempt, Drawn añd Quartered, Empress Maria Theresa, French Parlement, Grand Trianon, King George II of Great Britain, King Louis XV of France and Navarre, Pope Benedict XIV, Robért-François Damiens, Versailles

On January 5, 1757, as King Louis XV of France and Navarre was getting into his carriage in the courtyard of the Grand Trianon Versailles, a demented man, Robért-François Damiens rushed past the King’s bodyguards and stabbed him with a penknife, inflicting only a slight wound. He made no attempt to escape and was apprehended at once.

Damiens was arrested on the spot and taken away to be tortured to force him to divulge the identity of any accomplices or those who had sent him. This effort was unsuccessful.

King Louis XV of France and Navarre

The King’s guards seized Damien, and the King ordered them to hold him but not harm him. The King walked up the steps to his rooms at the Trianon, where he found he was bleeding profusely. He summoned his doctor and then fainted. Louis was saved from greater harm by the thickness of the winter clothing he was wearing.

Before King Louis XV passed out he also called for a confessor to be brought to him, as he feared he might die. When the Queen ran to Louis’s side, he asked forgiveness for his numerous affairs.

When the news reached Paris, anxious crowds gathered in the streets. Pope Benedict XIV, the Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa, and King George II of Great Britain, with whom France was at war, sent messages hoping for his swift recovery.

Damien was tried before the Parlement of Paris, which had been the most vocal critic of the King. The Parlement demonstrated its loyalty to the King by sentencing Damiens to the most severe possible penalty.

Grand Trianon at the Palace of Versailles

Damiens’s motivation has always been debated, with some historians considering him to have been mentally unstable. From his answers under interrogation, Damiens seems to have been put into a state of agitation by the uproar that followed the refusal of the French Catholic clergy to grant the holy sacraments to members of the Jansenist sect. He appears to have laid the ultimate blame for this on the King, and so formed a plan to punish him.

Fetched from his prison cell on the morning of March 28, 1757, Damiens allegedly said “La journée sera rude” (“The day will be hard”). He was first subjected to a torture in which his legs were painfully compressed by devices called “boots”.

He was then tortured with red-hot pincers; the hand with which he had held the knife during the attempted assassination was burned using sulphur; molten wax, molten lead, and boiling oil were poured into his wounds.

He was then remanded to the royal executioner Charles Henri Sanson who, after emasculating Damiens, harnessed horses to his arms and legs to be dismembered. But Damiens’s limbs did not separate easily: the officiants ordered Sanson to cut Damiens’s tendons, and once that was done the horses were able to perform the dismemberment.

Once Damiens was dismembered, to the applause of the crowd, his reportedly still-living torso was burnt at the stake. (Some accounts say he died when his last remaining arm was removed.)

Execution of Damiens

Damiens’s final words are uncertain. Some sources attribute to him “O death, why art thou so long in coming?”; others claim Damiens’ last words consisted mainly of various effusions for mercy from God.

Aftermath

After his death, the remains of Damiens’s corpse were reduced to ashes and scattered in the wind. His house was razed, his brothers and sisters were forced to change their names, and his father, wife, and daughter were banished from France.

The King recovered physically very quickly, but the attack had a depressive effect on his spirits. One of his chief courtiers, Duford de Cheverny, wrote afterwards: “it was easy to see that when members of the court congratulated him on his recovery, he replied, ‘yes, the body is going well’, but touched his head and said, ‘but this goes badly, and this is impossible to heal.’

After the assassination attempt, the King invited his heir, the Dauphin, to attend all of the Royal Council meetings, and quietly closed down the chateau at Versailles where he had met with his short-term mistresses.”

Damiens was the last person to be executed in France by dismemberment, the traditional form of death penalty reserved for regicides.

December 23, 1762: Death of Archduchess Maria Johanna of Austria

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Archduchess Maria Amalia of Austria, Archduchess Maria Johanna of Austria, Archduchess Maria-Caroline of Austria, Emperor Franz I Stefan, Emperor Joseph II, Empress Maria Theresa, King Carlos III of Spain, King Ferdinand III-IV of Sicily and Naples, Queen Marie Antoinette of France, Smallpox

Archduchess Maria Johanna of Austria (February 4, 1750 – December 23, 1762).

Archduchess Maria Johanna was born on February 4, 1750 at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, Austria, as the eleventh child and eighth daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Emperor Franz I Stefan and Empress Maria Theresa, Queen of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia.

She was raised in the Kindskammer with her many siblings, though she was particularly close with her sister Maria Josepha, whom was born a year after Maria Johanna in 1751. The two were educated together and had the same tutors. Archduchess Maria Johanna was also the younger sister of Emperor Joseph II and Queen Marie Antoinette of France.

Archduchess Maria Johanna of Austria

Archduchess Maria Johanna strictly studied Latin, French, Italian, Greek, Spanish, German, English, history, geography, land surveying, mathematics, and theology—from the age of three. She was also taught how to dance and sing, and was known to have excelled at these subjects. She often gave musical performances, as she loved to sing. She also loved to act.

Additionally, Maria Johanna and her sisters were highly educated in dance and singing. While her brothers were taught to play different instruments, Maria Johanna and her sisters were given singing lessons. A special theatre was built at the Schönbrunn Palace, specially for the children; Maria Johanna and her siblings gave frequent musical performances. All in all, Maria Johanna and her sister Maria Josepha “developed satisfactory, worked hard at their lessons and were involved in numerous festivities in which they participated enthusiastically.”

Betrothal

Ferdinand III-IV, King of Sicily and Naples

Empress Maria Theresa and King Carlos III of Spain both agreed that Maria Johanna’s sister, Archduchess Maria Amalia, would marry Carlos III’s son Ferdinand III-IV, King of Sicily and Naples, however, King Carlos III later wanted to break off the engagement due to Maria Amalia being five years older than Ferdinand. Since Maria Johanna was just one year older than Ferdinand, she was betrothed to him instead.

Death

In the second half of the eighteenth-century, smallpox was ravaging through the Holy Roman Empire. Leopold Mozart, father of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, wrote that “in the whole of Vienna, nothing was spoken of except smallpox. If 10 children were on the death register, 9 of them had died from smallpox.”

In December 1762, Maria Johanna caught the disease and died on December 23; her painful death was described by her sister-in-law Isabella. Her mother, Maria Theresa, found comfort in the fact that before her death Maria Johanna made a complete confession of her sins to a Catholic priest.

The death of Archduchess Maria Johanna meant that King Carlos III of Spain had to find another bride for his son. In the end he chose another sister of Maria Johanna; the Archduchess Maria Carolina of Austria, who married King Ferdinand III-IV of Naples and Sicily in 1768.

Aftermath

The loss of Maria Johanna to smallpox, along with that of other members of the family, contributed to Maria Theresa’s decision to have the younger members of her family inoculated, and the subsequent acceptance of smallpox inoculation in Austria.

History of the Title Archduke

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Archduke of Austria, Austro-Hungarian Empire, Emperor Friedrich III, Emperor Maximilian I, Empress Maria Theresa, Golden Bull of 1356, House of Habsburg, House of Habsburg-Lorraine, Otto von Habsburg-Lothringen, Privilegium maius

Archduke (feminine: Archduchess) was the title borne from 1358 by the Habsburg rulers of the Archduchy of Austria, and later by all senior members of that dynasty. It denotes a rank within the former Holy Roman Empire (962–1806), which was below that of Emperor and King, roughly equal to Grand Duke, but above that of a Prince and Duke.

The territory ruled by an Archduke or Archduchess was called an Archduchy. All remaining Archduchies ceased to exist in 1918. The current head of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine is Archduke Karl von Habsburg.

TerminologyThe English word is first recorded in 1530, derived from Middle French archeduc, a 15th-century derivation from Medieval Latin archidux, from Latin archi- (Greek ἀρχι-) meaning “authority” or “primary” (see arch-) and dux “duke” (literally “leader”).

Coronet of an Archduke

“Archduke” is a title distinct from “Grand Duke” a later monarchic title borne by the rulers of other European countries, such as Luxembourg for example.

History

The Latin title archidux is first attested in reference to Bruno the Great, who ruled simultaneously as Archbishop of Cologne and Duke of Lotharingia in the 10th century, in the work of his biographer Ruotger. In Ruotger, the title served as an honorific denoting Bruno’s unusual position rather than a formal office.

The title was not used systematically until the 14th century, when the title “Archduke of Austria” was invented in the forged Privilegium Maius (1358–1359) by Duke Rudolph IV of Austria. Rudolph originally claimed the title in the form palatinus archidux (“palatine archduke”).

The title was intended to emphasize the claimed precedence (thus “Arch-“) of the Duchy of Austria, in an effort to put the Habsburgs on an even level with the Prince-Electors of the Holy Roman Empire, as Austria had been passed over when the Golden Bull of 1356 assigned that dignity to the four highest-ranking secular Imperial princes and three Archbishops.

Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV refused to recognize the title, as did all the other ruling dynasties of the member countries of the Empire. But Duke Ernst the Iron and his descendants unilaterally assumed the title of Archduke.

The Archducal title was only officially recognized in 1453 by Emperor Friedrich III, when the Habsburgs had solidified their grip on the throne of the de jure elected Holy Roman Emperor, making it de facto hereditary.

Despite that imperial authorization of the title, which showed a Holy Roman Emperor from the Habsburg dynasty deciding over a title claim of the Habsburg dynasty, many ruling dynasties of the countries which formed the Empire refused to recognize the title “Archduke”.

Emperor Maximilian I, Archduke of Austria

Ladislaus the Posthumous, Duke of Austria, who died in 1457, never in his lifetime had the imperial authorization to use it, and accordingly, neither he nor anyone in his branch of the dynasty ever used the title.

Emperor Friedrich III himself simply used the title “Duke of Austria”, never Archduke, until his death in 1493. The title was first granted to Friedrich’s younger brother, Albrecht VI of Austria (d. 1463), who used it at least from 1458.

In 1477, Friedrich III also granted the title of Archduke to his first cousin, Sigismund of Austria, ruler of Further Austria. Friedrich III’s son and heir, the future Emperor Maximilian I, started to use the title, but apparently only after the death of his wife Mary of Burgundy (d. 1482), as Archduke never appears in documents issued jointly by Maximilian and Mary as rulers in the Low Countries (where Maximilian is still titled “Duke of Austria”).

The title appears first in documents issued under the joint rule of Maximilian and his son Philipp of Burgundy (Felipe I of Castile) in the Low Countries.

Archduke was initially borne by those dynasts who ruled a Habsburg territory—i.e., only by males and their consorts, appanages being commonly distributed to cadets. But these “junior” archdukes did not thereby become sovereign hereditary rulers, since all territories remained vested in the Austrian crown. Occasionally a territory might be combined with a separate gubernatorial mandate ruled by an archducal cadet.

Usage

Empress Maria Theresa, Archduchess of Austria

From the 16th century onward, “Archduke” and its female form, “Archduchess”, came to be used by all the members of the House of Habsburg (e.g. Queen Marie Antoinette of France was born Archduchess Maria Antonia of Austria).

Upon extinction of the male line of the Habsburgs and the marriage of their heiress, the Holy Roman Empress-Consort Maria Theresa, Queen of Hungary, Bohemia and Croatia and Archduchess of Austria, to Franz Stefan, Duke of Lorraine, who was elected Holy Roman Emperor, their descendants formed the House of Habsburg-Lorraine.

After the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire this usage was retained in the Austrian Empire (1804–1867) and the Austro-Hungarian Empire (1867–1918).

The official use of titles of nobility and of all other hereditary titles, including Archduke, has been illegal in the Republic of Austria for Austrian citizens since the Law on the Abolition of Nobility (April 3, 1919).

Thus those members of the Habsburg family who are residents of the Republic of Austria are simply known by their first name(s) and their surname Habsburg-Lothringen. However, members of the family who reside in other countries may or may not use the title, in accordance with laws and customs in those nations.

For example, Otto Habsburg-Lothringen (1912–2011), the eldest son of the last Habsburg Emperor, was an Austrian, Hungarian and German citizen. As he lived in Germany, where it is permitted to use hereditary titles as part of the civil surname (including indications of origin, such as von or zu), his official civil name was Otto von Habsburg (literally: Otto of Habsburg), whereas in Austria he was registered as Otto Habsburg.

The King of Spain also bears the nominal title of Archduke of Austria as part of his full list of titles, as the Bourbon dynasty adopted all the titles previously held by the Spanish Habsburgs when they took over the Spanish throne.

However, “Archduke” was never considered by the Spanish Bourbons as a substantial dignity of their own dynasty, but rather as a traditional supplementary title of the Spanish Kings since the days of the Habsburg dynasty on the royal throne (1516–1700).

Hence, no member of the royal family other than the King of Spain bears the (additional) title of “Archduke”.

History of the Kingdom of Croatia. Part III.

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Croatian Royal Council, Dual Monarchy, Empress Maria Theresa, Illyrian Movement, Pragmatic Sanction, Queen of Croatia, War of the Austrian Succession, Zagreb

The Ottoman wars drove demographic changes. During the 16th century, Croats from western and northern Bosnia, Lika, Krbava, the area between the rivers of Una and Kupa, and especially from western Slavonia, migrated towards Austria. Present-day Burgenland Croats are direct descendants of these settlers. To replace the fleeing population, the Habsburgs encouraged Bosnians to provide military service in the Military Frontier.

The Croatian Parliament supported King Charles III’s (Emperor Charles VI) Pragmatic Sanction and signed their own Pragmatic Sanction in 1712. Subsequently, the Emperor pledged to respect all privileges and political rights of the Kingdom of Croatia, and Queen Maria Theresa made significant contributions to Croatian affairs, such as introducing compulsory education. Croatia also supported Maria Theresa during the War of the Austrian Succession 1740-48.

In 1767 Queen Maria Theresa founded the Croatian Royal Council as the royal government of Croatia and Slavonia, with seat in Varaždin, later in Zagreb, presided by the ban, but it was abolished in 1779 when Croatia was relegated to just one seat in the governing council of Hungary held by the ban of Croatia. The Empress Maria Theresa, as Queen of Croatia, also gave the independent port of Rijeka to Croatia in 1776. However, she also ignored the Croatian Parliament.

Empress Maria Theresa, Queen of Croatia

Napoleonic Wars

With the fall of the Venetian Republic in 1797, its possessions in eastern Adriatic mostly came under the authority of France which passed its rights to Austria the same year. Eight years later they were restored to France as the Illyrian Provinces, but won back to the Austrian crown by 1815.

In the 19th century Croatian romantic nationalism emerged to counteract the non-violent but apparent Germanization and Magyarization of Croatia. The Croatian national revival began in the 1830s with the Illyrian movement. The movement attracted a number of influential figures and produced some important advances in the Croatian language and culture. The champion of the Illyrian movement was Ljudevit Gaj who also reformed and standardized Croatian culture. The official language in Croatia was Latin until 1847 when it became Croatian.

By the 1840s, the movement had moved from cultural goals to resisting Hungarian political demands. By the royal order of January 11, 1843, originating from the chancellor Metternich, the use of the Illyrian name and insignia in public was forbidden. This deterred the movement’s progress but it couldn’t stop the changes in the society that had already started.

Springtime of Nations – 1848

In the revolutions of 1848 in the Austrian Empire, the Croatian Ban (Governor) Jelačić cooperated with the Austrians in quenching the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 by leading a military campaign into Hungary, successful until the Battle of Pákozd.

From 1848 to 1850 Croatia was governed by the Ban’s Council appointed by the Ban and the Parliament or the Croatian-Slavonian Diet (Croatian: Sabor) in 1848 first Diet with the elected representatives was summoned.

In 1850 the Ban’s Council was transformed into Ban’s Government which, after the introduction of the absolutism (December 31, 1851), Croatia was under the direct control of the Austrian Imperial Government in Vienna.

Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary, King of Croatia-Slavonia

Dual Monarchy Period

Despite Croatian contribution during the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, Croatia was later subject to Baron Alexander von Bach’s absolutism as well as the Hungarian hegemony under ban Levin Rauch when the Empire was transformed into a dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary in 1867.

The loss of Croatian domestic autonomy was rectified a year after the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, when in 1868 the Croatian–Hungarian Settlement was negotiated, which combined Croatia and Slavonia into the autonomous Kingdom of Croatia–Slavonia.

On Monday I will discuss the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia.

December 8, 1756: Birth of Archduke Maximilian Franz of Austria, Elector of Cologne

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Archduchess Marie Antoinette of Austria, Archduchess of Austria, Archduke Maximilian Franz of Austria, Elector of Cologne, Emperor Franz I, Empress Maria Theresa, French Revolution, King Louis XVI of France and Navarre, Ludwig van Beethoven, Queen of Bohemia Hungary and Croatia, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Archduke Maximilian Franz of Austria (December 8, 1756 – July 26, 1801) was Elector of Cologne and Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights. He was the youngest child of Holy Roman Emperor Franz I and his wife Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa, who was the Queen of Bohemia, Hungary, Croatia and Archduchess of Austria in her own right.

Archduke Maximilian Franz was a brother to Archduchess Marie Antoinette of Austria, Queen of France and Navarre as the wife of King Louis XVI or France and Navarre.

Archduke Maximilian Franz was the last fully functioning Elector of Cologne and the second employer and patron of the young Ludwig van Beethoven.

Maximilian Franz was born December 8, 1756, on his father’s 48th birthday, in the Hofburg Palace, Vienna. In 1780, he succeeded his uncle Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine as Hochmeister (Grand Master) of the Deutscher Orden (Teutonic Knights).

In 1784, he became Archbishop and Elector of Cologne, living in the Electoral residence at Bonn. He remained in that office until his death in exile. In his capacity as chancellor of the Holy Roman Empire for Italy and as the Pope’s deputy he crowned as Emperor in Frankfurt first his brother Leopold II in 1790, and in 1792 his nephew Franz II.

At the same time as he became Elector of Cologne, Maximilian Franz was elected to the related Bishopric of Münster and held court in Bonn, as the Archbishop-Electors of Cologne had been forced to do since the late Middle Ages.

A keen patron of music, Maximilian Franz maintained a court musical establishment in which Beethoven’s father was a tenor, thus playing an important role in the son’s early career as a member of the same musical body of which his grandfather, also named Ludwig van Beethoven, had been Kapellmeister.

The court organist, Christian Gottlob Neefe, was Beethoven’s early mentor and teacher. Recognising his young pupil’s gift both as a performer and as a composer, Neefe brought Beethoven to the court, advising Maximilian Franz to appoint him as assistant organist.

Maximilian Franz, too, recognised the extraordinary abilities of the young Beethoven. In 1787, he gave Beethoven leave to visit Vienna to become a pupil of Mozart, but the visit was cut short by news of the last illness of Beethoven’s mother, and evidence is lacking for any contact with Mozart.

In 1792, the Redoute was opened, making Godesberg a spa town. Beethoven played in the orchestra. After a concert given there in the presence of Joseph Haydn, another visit for studies in Vienna was planned. Beethoven went on full salary to Vienna to study with Haydn, Antonio Salieri and others. The Elector Maximilian Franz maintained an interest in the young Beethoven’s progress, and several reports from Haydn to Maximilian Franz detailing it are extant.

The prince anticipated that Beethoven would return to Bonn and continue working for him, but due to the subsequent political and military situation his subject never returned, choosing to pursue a career in Vienna.

Maximilian Franz’s rule over most of the Electorate ended in 1794, when his domains were overrun by the troops of Revolutionary France. During the French Revolutionary Wars, Cologne and Bonn were both occupied by the French army in the second half of 1794.

As the French approached, Maximilian Franz left Bonn, as it turned out never to return, and his territories on the left bank of the Rhine eventually passed to France under the terms of the Treaty of Lunéville (1801). The Archbishop’s court ceased to exist.

Archduke Maximilian Franz of Austria (left) with his sister, Queen Marie Antoinette of France and Navarre and her husband King Louis XVI of France and Navarre

Although Maximilian Franz still retained his territories on the right bank of the Rhine, including Münster and the Duchy of Westphalia, the Elector, grossly corpulent and plagued by ill health, took up residence in Vienna after the loss of his capital and remained there until his death at the age of 44, at Hetzendorf Palace in 1801. The dismantling of the court made Beethoven’s relocation to Vienna permanent, and his stipend was terminated.

Beethoven planned to dedicate his First Symphony to his former patron, but the latter died before it was completed.

The Electorate of Cologne was secularised in the course of the German mediatisation of 1802–1803.

October 16, 1793: Execution of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France and Navarre

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Affair of the Diamond Necklace, Empress Maria Theresa, Guillotine, Louis XVI of France and Navarre, Marie Antoinette of France, Place de la Révolution, Revolutionary Tribunal, Tuileries Palace, War of the First Coalition

Marie Antoinette (November 2, 1755 – October 16, 1793) was the last Queen of France before the French Revolution. She was born an Archduchess of Austria, of the House of Habsburg and was the penultimate child and youngest daughter of Empress Maria Theresa, Queen of Hungary, Bohemia, Croatia and Archduchess of Austria and Emperor Franz I.

She became dauphine of France in May 1770 at age 14 upon her marriage to Louis-Auguste, heir apparent to the French throne. On May 1774, her husband ascended the throne as Louis XVI and she became Queen.

Marie Antoinette’s position at court improved when, after eight years of marriage, she started having children. She became increasingly unpopular among the people, however, with the French libelles accusing her of being profligate, promiscuous, allegedly having illegitimate children, and harboring sympathies for France’s perceived enemies—particularly her native Austria.

The false accusations of the Affair of the Diamond Necklace damaged her reputation further. During the Revolution, she became known as Madame Déficit because the country’s financial crisis was blamed on her lavish spending and her opposition to the social and financial reforms of Turgot and Necker.

Several events were linked to Marie Antoinette during the Revolution after the government had placed the royal family under house arrest in the Tuileries Palace in October 1789. The June 1791 attempted flight to Varennes and her role in the War of the First Coalition had disastrous effects on French popular opinion. On August 10, 1792, the attack on the Tuileries Palace forced the royal family to take refuge at the Assembly, and they were imprisoned in the Temple Prison on August 13.

On September 21, 1792, the monarchy was abolished. Louis XVI was executed by guillotine on January 21, 1793. Marie Antoinette’s trial began on October 14, 1793; she was convicted two days later by the Revolutionary Tribunal of high treason and executed, also by guillotine, at the Place de la Révolution.

August 17, 1786: Death of Friedrich II, King of Prussia and Elector of Brandenburg

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Elector of Brandenburg, Elisabeth Christine Of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Empress Maria Theresa, Friedrich II the Great of Prussia, Friedrich-Wilhelm I in Prussia, Georg Ludwig of Hanover, House of Hohenzollern, King George I of Great Britain, King in Prussia, King of Prussia, Silesian Wars, Sophia Dorothea of Hanover

Friedrich II (January 24, 1712 – August 17, 1786) was King in Prussia from 1740 until 1772, and King of Prussia from 1772 until his death in 1786. He was also Friedrich IV, Elector of Brandenburg.

Friedrich was the son of Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia and his wife, Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, the only daughter of Elector Georg Ludwig of Hanover and Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, later King George I of Great Britain, and his wife, Sophia Dorothea of Celle. She was detested by her elder brother, King George II of Great Britain.

Friedrich was born sometime between 11 and 12 p.m. on January 24, 1712 in the Berlin City Palace and was baptised with the single name Friedrich by Benjamin Ursinus von Bär on January 31.

The birth was welcomed by his grandfather, Friedrich I in Prussia, Elector of Brandenburg, as his two previous grandsons had both died in infancy. With the death of Friedrich I in 1713, his son Friedrich Wilhelm I became King in Prussia, thus making young Friedrich the Crown Prince of Prussia.

Crown Prince Friedrich of Prussia

Friedrich had nine siblings who lived to adulthood. He had six sisters. The eldest was Wilhelmine, who became his closest sibling. He also had three younger brothers, including August Wilhelm and Heinrich. The new king wished for his children to be educated not as royalty, but as simple folk. They were tutored by a French woman, Madame de Montbail, who had also educated King Friedrich Wilhelm I.

Friedrich Wilhelm I, popularly dubbed the “Soldier King,” had created a large and powerful army that included a regiment of his famous “Potsdam Giants”, carefully managed the kingdom’s wealth, and developed a strong centralised government. He also had a violent temper and ruled Brandenburg-Prussia with absolute authority.

In contrast, Friedrich’s mother Sophia, whose father, Georg Ludwig of Brunswick-Lüneburg, had succeeded to the British throne as King George I in 1714, was polite, charismatic and learned. The political and personal differences between Friedrich’s parents created tensions, which affected Friedrich’s attitude toward his role as a ruler, his attitude toward culture, and his relationship with his father.

In the mid-1720s, Queen Sophia Dorothea attempted to arrange the marriage of Friedrich and his sister Wilhelmine to her brother King George II’s children Amelia and Frederick Louis, who was the heir apparent. Fearing an alliance between Prussia and Great Britain, Field Marshal von Seckendorff, the Austrian ambassador in Berlin, bribed the Prussian Minister of War, Field Marshal von Grumbkow, and the Prussian ambassador in London, Benjamin Reichenbach.

The pair undermined the relationship between the British and Prussian courts using bribery and slander. Eventually Friedrich Wilhelm became angered by the idea of the effete Friedrich being married to an English wife and under the influence of the British court.

Instead, he signed a treaty with Austria, which vaguely promised to acknowledge Prussia’s rights to the principalities of Jülich-Berg, which led to the collapse of the marriage proposal.

Initially, Friedrich Wilhelm considered marrying Friedrich to Elisabeth of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, the niece of Empress Anna of Russia, but this plan was ardently opposed by Prince Eugene of Savoy. Friedrich himself proposed marrying Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria in return for renouncing the succession.

Instead, Eugene persuaded Friedrich Wilhelm, through Seckendorff, that the Crown Prince should marry Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel a daughter of Duke Ferdinand Albert II of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and Duchess Antoinette of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.

Princess Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel

Having failed in his attempt to flee from the tyrannical regime of his father, Crown Prince Friedrich of Prussia was ordered to marry Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel in 1733 in order to regain his freedom. Elisabeth was the niece of Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, wife of Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI. The match had thus been arranged by the Austrian court in the hopes of securing influence over Prussia for another generation.

On June 12 1733, the 17-years-old Elisabeth Christine was married to Friedrich at her father’s summer palace, Schloss Salzdahlum in Wolfenbüttel.

Crown Prince Friedrich wrote to his sister that, “There can be neither love nor friendship between us”, and he threatened suicide, but he went along with the wedding. He had little in common with his bride, and the marriage was resented as an example of the Austrian political interference that had plagued Prussia.

Nevertheless, during their early married life, the royal couple resided at the Crown Prince’s Palace in Berlin. Later, Elisabeth Christine accompanied Friedrich to Schloss Rheinsberg, where at this time she played an active role in his social life.

After his father died and he had secured the throne, King Friedrich II separated from Elisabeth Christine. He granted her the Schönhausen Palace and apartments at the Berliner Stadtschloss, but he prohibited Elisabeth Christine from visiting his court in Potsdam.

Friedrich II of Prussia

Friedrich and Elisabeth Christine had no children, and Friedrich bestowed the title of the heir to the throne, “Prince of Prussia”, on his brother August Wilhelm. Nevertheless, Elisabeth Christine remained devoted to him. Friedrich gave her all the honours befitting her station, but never displayed any affection. After their separation, he would only see her on state occasions. These included visits to her on her birthday and were some of the rare occasions when Friedrich did not wear military uniform.

His most significant accomplishments include his military successes in the Silesian wars, his re-organisation of the Prussian Army, the First Partition of Poland, and his patronage of the arts and the Enlightenment.

Friedrich II was the last Hohenzollern monarch titled King in Prussia and declared himself King of Prussia after annexing Polish Prussia from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1772. Prussia greatly increased its territories and became a major military power in Europe under his rule. He became known as Frederick the Great (German: Friedrich der Große) and was nicknamed “Old Fritz” (German: “Der Alte Fritz”).

Europe at the time when Frederick came to the throne in 1740, with Brandenburg–Prussia in violet.

Europe at the time of Frederick’s death in 1786, with Brandenburg–Prussia in violet, shows that Prussia’s territory has been greatly extended by his Silesian Wars, his inheritance of East Frisia and the First Partition of Poland.

In his youth, Friedrich was more interested in music and philosophy than in the art of war, which led to clashes with his authoritarian father, Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia. However, upon ascending to the Prussian throne, he attacked and annexed the rich Austrian province of Silesia in 1742, winning military acclaim for himself and Prussia. He became an influential military theorist whose analyses emerged from his extensive personal battlefield experience and covered issues of strategy, tactics, mobility and logistics.

Friedrich was a supporter of enlightened absolutism, stating that the ruler should be the first servant of the state. He modernised the Prussian bureaucracy and civil service, and pursued religious policies throughout his realm that ranged from tolerance to segregation. He reformed the judicial system and made it possible for men of lower status to become judges and senior bureaucrats.

Friedrich also encouraged immigrants of various nationalities and faiths to come to Prussia, although he enacted oppressive measures against Catholics in Silesia and Polish Prussia. He supported the arts and philosophers he favoured, and allowed freedom of the press and literature.

King Friedrich II was presumably homosexual, and his sexuality has been the subject of much study. He is buried at his favourite residence, Sanssouci in Potsdam. Because he died childless, he was succeeded by his nephew, Friedrich Wilhelm II.

Friedrich II the Great of Prussia

Nearly all 19th-century German historians made Friedrich into a romantic model of a glorified warrior, praising his leadership, administrative efficiency, devotion to duty and success in building Prussia into a great power in Europe.

Friedrich II remained an admired historical figure through Germany’s defeat in World War I, and the Nazis glorified him as a great German leader pre-figuring Adolf Hitler, who personally idolised him.

His reputation became less favourable in Germany after World War II, partly due to his status as a Nazi symbol. Regardless, historians in the 21st century tend to view Friedrich II as an outstanding military leader and capable monarch, whose commitment to enlightenment culture and administrative reform built the foundation that allowed the Kingdom of Prussia to contest the Austrian Habsburgs for leadership among the German states.