"WE DISPATCHED a courier forward, after whose arrival at Berlin the King sent eight fine horses to draw us through
the sandy plains of Prussia. The frost and snow in Bohemia had much damaged the springs and wheels of our carriage;
but we arrived without any serious injury or accident, from a journey which was the most terrific I ever underwent; for if
any thing had ever happened to the Margrave, I and I alone, should have been accused of doing him harm.
When we arrived at Berlin, the Carnival being ended, all the Royal family were gone to their different villas; but His
Majesty returned to meet the Margrave at his palace; while I was left to the discretion of the Princess Royal, afterwards
Duchess of York, who had her own establishment in the Royal Palace. We remained here only four days, during which
time I saw but little of the Margrave, for he was constantly with the King. He informed His Majesty that there had existed
a mysterious correspondence among some of the nobility of Bareith, and others at Anspach the object of which he
supposed was to form more distrusts between Austria and Prussia.
Frederick William II had succeeded to the throne on the death of his uncle Frederick the Great, in 1786. He made many
salutary regulations for his subjects and established a Court of Honour to prevent the horrible practice of duelling in his
dominions. As I was willing to gain all the information possible respecting so great a character as Frederick the late King,
it may easily be imagined that I lost no opportunity which could be afforded me during my residence among the Royal
Family, and which, together with the Margrave's knowledge of this illustrious man, and that of Prince Hardenberg,
afforded me much satisfaction.
Excerpts from THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LADY CRAVEN
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After my marriage with the Margrave, we brought out from Anspach a full-length portrait of the late King, for which he
himself sat, for the Margrave, whom he also presented another of his father, Frederick William. The countenance and
whole figure are striking resemblance of His Majesty. The expression is surprisingly fine. I had it placed under a canopy at
Brandenburgh House, and those who have seen it can never forget it.
When Frederick ascended the throne he was only twenty-eight years of age. lt is well known to all Europe how this great
Prince profited by the army left to him by his father, and the riches which he had accumulated. He had been detested by
the late King when he was Prince Royal, because he appeared to apply himself to the sciences and fine arts rather than to
military affairs. Having followed his father to Wesel, he conceived the project of passing into a foreign country. He had
probably other motives than those of gaining instruction by travels; no doubt it was to escape the tyranny of his father: but
the latter had gained information of his design, and arrested him at the moment of its execution. He was tried by
Commissaries who had the firmness not to condemn him to lose his head. It might appear to be a light crime for the
presumptive heir of a kingdom to quit the realms without the permission of his Sovereign; but such was the law. Of
four-and- twenty judges, only one was found who voted for the sentence of death, and that was a person named
Derschau; yet such was the magnanimity of Frederick when he came to the throne, that this man never experienced from
him the slightest vengeance.
Frederick, his father, was on the point of renewing on the theatre of Europe the scene of Don Carlos, or more recently
that of Czarowitz. The Prince was pardoned; but the unfortunate companion of his flight, his friend and confidant, was
decapitated.
Frederick has been accused by his enemies as having neither shed a tear nor used an argument to induce his father to save
this victim from destruction. But I have been assured, from those who were present at the scene, that when the
unfortunate man was led to the scaffold, the Prince Royal demanded his pardon with the effusions of a heart broken by
grief; and that he fainted more than once during the punishment, and in fact experienced the greatest anguish. Before the
execution he had tried every means in his power to save him. In his despair, he had offered to his father to renounce the
throne forever, in order to preserve the life of his friend whom he loved: but the inflexible Monarch, not satisfied with the
sentence of the judges, who had condemned him to the galleys for life, with his own hand signed his death-warrant,
alleging that there was no justification for the crime of high treason, and treating his son's entreaties with indignation and
contempt. Katt was the grandson of a field-marshall, and son of a general of that name at that time both alive and in the
service of the King.
Frederick the Great was born with sensibility, but he learned to suppress his emotions and his feelings; he saw how
necessary it was to be just, as well as merciful, during his long military career; and perhaps the firmness which has been his
reproach, was the greatest triumph of his nature.
After this event he retired to Rheinsberg, applying himself to all kinds of acquirements; and here he learned to play on the
flute, on which instrument he excelled, not as a prince, but as an amateur of the first rank.
His allowance was extremely moderate, and his father had vigorously forbidden any one to advance him money. This
order was, however, ill observed, and it has been objected against him that when King he never repaid the obligations of
his creditors. But the fact was otherwise; he paid them in secret. The Minister of his father's finances had refused to
advance him money, and when the Prince ascended the throne this man was supposed to be ruined, and on his coming to
give in his accounts demanded permission to retire; when the young King, to the astonishment of all round him, praised his
fidelity, begged him to continue his services, and doubled his salary.
What a different fidelity from that of the judges of poor Katt, who considered blind obedience to the commands of their
Sovereign as a proof of fit submission to his authority!
It is a singular circumstance in the history of the House of Bradenburgh, that during the space of 370 years, in which time
the sovereignty was in their hands, there was never experienced one minority. Frederick enjoyed an immoderate
reputation, and to a certain point even the adoration of his contemporaries, not only as a warrior, but as a governor of his
empire, and as a profound politician. His assiduity was indefatigable, and his skill in affairs of government transcendent.
The Government of Prussia appeared to rise from the seeds of despotism, and formed a lesson of instruction to the world.
Notwithstanding his exactness and his inflexibility in war, he obtained the affections of his soldiers, who always
denominated him their Father Fritz. It was the name by which he was familiarly called through the army.
The severity of his conduct towards Baron de Trenck has excited the indignation of mankind, and has been considered as
a blot on his escutcheon; but arbitrary order and rigorous detention have to be exercised in other countries as well as in
Prussia. Without pleading this as an excuse, I shall endeavour, with impartiality, to remark on the leading points of the
justification of Frederick's conduct, derived from those who were acquainted with the cause of such a punishment.
M. de Trenck had been forbidden by the King, whom he acknowledged not only as his Sovereign, but as his benefactor,
to write to his uncle, who was a chief of the Pandours.
His injunctions were violated. The King demanded of him personally whether he was in correspondence with his uncle.
M. de Trenck denied it. "Do you give me your word of honour of it?" said the King. "Yes, Sire," was the answer. It was
at the very time that Trenck had just written to his uncle, that this dialogue passed. The discovery was made, and M. de
Trenck was sent to the fortress of Magdeburg: it was a punishment usual in the Prussian service. M. de Trenck plotted his
escape, and fled with an officer whom he had seduced to desert, he killed those who pursued him. The King's Resident at
Dantzic, whither Trenck had fled, sent him back to his Sovereign. Trenck had certainly violated every law - he had at first
been disobedient, then perjured - a rebel, and a murderer.
At Magdeburg, Baron de Trenck recommenced his devices: his imprisonment was in consequence rendered more severe,
and his confinement lasted for ten years.
Trenck was six feet two inches high, and squinted: he was popular, and always followed by thousands. After the death of
Frederick he published his Memoirs. At that period, all who were acquainted with the groundwork of his history were
dead: on his own testimony depends the whole of his relation. Those whom he cites in his narrative have probably
forgotten the circumstances of so distant a date, but without recurring to vague conjectures regarding the truth of this
affair, or of the cruelty exercised against him, M. de Trenck avows that he had intrigued with a person of illustrious rank.
If that person, as has been generally supposed, and which from good authority I know to be the case, was the Princess
Amelia, sister of the King; if from this connection there were children who were deprived of life by means the most
horrible - what strong inducements might not the King have had for visiting on Trenck a punishment of the severest kind,
without being under the necessity of explaining (from motives of decorum and decency) the reasons which influenced him
to such an act.
Frederick frequently broke his officers for causes light in appearance; but he always had heavier charges against them,
which were unknown to the rest of mankind, and which he concealed for the purpose of preserving military discipline.
As soon as Frederick ascended the throne, he invited into his kingdom all those who were called les esprits forts: Voltaire,
le Marquis d'Argens, the Abbe de Prade, Maupertuis, and even the impious La Metrie. This example encouraged the
literary Germans to proclaim their sentiments, Berlin became the asylum of the persecuted, and the nursery of truth.
"Masons of every denomination - Rosicrucians, Centralists, Illuminate - had all, under his reign, the liberty of
establishing lodges and societies according to their fancy, provided they did not disturb the public order. Thus
Berlin became the receptacle of sects, of parties, of conjurations, of chemical mysteries, and of extravagances of
every kind."
...In the meantime instruction was not neglected, and Frederick supported and protected every institution which might
extend education throughout his kingdom. Rousseau had written his Emilius - a work the most perfect of its kind, and
which places the author incontestably in the rank of the first of benefactors to mankind; in Germany this production
became as a torch which extended its light throughout; it opened to the system of education new views. Youth was taught
not by words alone, and those in an unknown language - but he gave them clear ideas of natural things, of moral and
physical relations, of mechanism, of history, and of geography.
Frederick did not lose sight of the good effects of such a system of education; and to promote it, established a Consistory,
which was to superintend every institution, and at the head of which he placed himself. He procured masters, and did not
blush to render homage to the superiority of the institution which he had promoted. The example of the Sovereign excited
the nobility and gentry of the nation, and Frederick inspired in his subjects an admirable and laudable competition. It was
in one of those moments which in human life are so contradictory to the general sentiments of the mind, that Frederick,
hearing the news of the proscription of the Jesuits in France, by the public functionaries, exclaimed, "Pauvres gens! ils ont
detruit les renards qui les defendaient des loups, et ils ne voient pas qu'ils vont etre devores."
Frederick had sanctioned and approved the writing of the philosophers; he had become a philosopher himself. Heveltius
had published his work De I'Esprit in France, and to avoid punishment had fled to England. Le Contrat Social of Rosseau
had found protection among the magistracy; and the Parliaments had defended Doderpt's declaiming against despotism.
The Court and Clergy had admired Voltaire's ridiculing the Parliaments. There has been exaggeration, when it has been
said that the philosophers proposed by a regular plan to subvert the foundations of societies and thrones: they worked to
that effect without being sensible of it. They did not wish to be the destroyers, but the preceptors, of monarchs: and had
Montesquieu only produced his work Sur les Romains, and his Esprit des Lois; had Beccaria only written his Traite des
Delits et des Peines; had Voltaire only refuted Machiavel, and defended Calas, Scriven, and Lally; had pleaded the cause
of nature, of morality, and of religion; and had the Encyclopedists respected the principles of religion alone - they would
have been entitled to the indulgence of the world. But the discussion of one subject led to a another, and in the correction
of abuses they proceeded beyond the bounds which they had prescribed. Then it was, that one of the greatest Kings who
ever wore a crown figured in the correspondence of philosophy: then it was, that he pronounced in his Academy the
eulogy of the man who wrote L'Homme Machine, ("Man, a Machine") and that he compelled his churches to celebrate
obsequies of the man who had endeavoured to undermine the foundation of Christianity.