Chapter 11

Authorities.—M. von Poschinger,Kaiser Friedrich(3 vols., Berlin, 1898-1900). Adapted into English by Sidney Whitman,Life of the Emperor Frederick(1901). See also Bismarck,Reflections and Reminiscences; Rennell Rodd,Frederick, Crown Prince and Emperor(1888); Gustav Freytag,Der Kronprinz und die deutsche Kaiserkrone(1889; English translation, 1890); Otto Richter,Kaiser Friedrich III.(2nd ed., Berlin, 1903). For his illness, the official publications, published both in English and German:Die Krankheit Kaiser Friedrichs III.(Berlin, 1888), and Morell Mackenzie,The Fatal Illness of Frederick the Noble(1888). Most of the copies of theDeutsche Rundschaucontaining the extracts from the crown prince’s diary were confiscated, but there is an English edition, published in 1889.

(J. W. He.)

FREDERICK III.(1272-1337), king of Sicily, third son of King Peter of Aragon and Sicily, and of Constance, daughter of Manfred. Peter died in 1285, leaving Aragon to his eldest son Alphonso, and Sicily to his second son James. When Alphonso died in 1291 James became king of Aragon, and left his brother Frederick as regent of Sicily. The war between the Angevins and the Aragonese for the possession of Sicily was still in progress, and although the Aragonese were successful in Italy, James’s position in Spain became very insecure to internal troubles and French attacks. Peace negotiations were begun with Charles II. of Anjou, but were interrupted by the successive deaths of two popes; at last under the auspices of Boniface VIII. James concluded a shameful treaty, by which, in exchange for being left undisturbed in Aragon and promised possession of Sardinia and Corsica, he gave up Sicily to the Church, for whom it was to be held by the Angevins (1295). The Sicilians refused to be made over once more to the hated French whom they had expelled in 1282, and found a national leader in the regent Frederick. In vain the pope tried to bribe him with promises and dignities; he was determined to stand by his subjects, and was crowned king by the nobles at Palermo in 1296. Young, brave and handsome, he won the love and devotion of his people, and guided them through the long years of storm and stress with wisdom and ability. Although the second Frederick of Sicily, he called himself third, being the third son of King Peter. He reformed the administration and extended the powers of the Sicilian parliament, which was composed of the barons, the prelates and the representatives of the towns.

His refusal to comply with the pope’s injunctions led to a renewal of the war. Frederick landed in Calabria, where he seized several towns, encouraged revolt in Naples, negotiated with the Ghibellines of Tuscany and Lombardy, and assisted the house of Colonna against Pope Boniface. In the meanwhile James, who received many favours from the Church, married his sister Yolanda to Robert, the third son of Charles II. Unfortunately for Frederick, a part of the Aragonese nobles of Sicily favoured King James, and both John of Procida and Ruggiero di Lauria, the heroes of the war of the Vespers, went over to the Angevins, and the latter completely defeated the Sicilian fleet off Cape Orlando. Charles’s sons Robert and Philip landed in Sicily, but after capturing Catania were defeated by Frederick, Philip being taken prisoner (1299), while several Calabrian towns were captured by the Sicilians. For two years more the fighting continued with varying success, until Charles of Valois, who had been sent by Boniface to invade Sicily, was forced to sue for peace, his army being decimated by the plague, and in August 1302 the treaty of Caltabellotta was signed, by which Frederick was recognized king of Trinacria (the name Sicily was not to be used) for his lifetime, and was to marry Eleonora, the daughter of Charles II.; at his death the kingdom was to revert to the Angevins (this clause was inserted chiefly to save Charles’s face), and his children would receivecompensation elsewhere. Boniface tried to induce King Charles to break the treaty, but the latter was only too anxious for peace, and finally in May 1303 the pope ratified it, Frederick agreeing to pay him a tribute.

For a few years Sicily enjoyed peace, and the kingdom was reorganized. But on the descent of the emperor Henry VII., Frederick entered into an alliance with him, and in violation of the pact of Caltabellotta made war on the Angevins again (1313) and captured Reggio. He set sail for Tuscany to cooperate with the emperor, but on the latter’s death (1314) he returned to Sicily. Robert, who had succeeded Charles II. in 1309, made several raids into the island, which suffered much material injury. A truce was concluded in 1317, but as the Sicilians helped the north Italian Ghibellines in the attack on Genoa, and Frederick seized some Church revenues for military purposes, the pope (John XXII.) excommunicated him and placed the island under an interdict (1321) which lasted until 1335. An Angevin fleet and army, under Robert’s son Charles, was defeated at Palermo by Giovanni da Chiaramonte in 1325, and in 1326 and 1327 there were further Angevin raids on the island, until the descent into Italy of the emperor Louis the Bavarian distracted their attention. The election of Pope Benedict XII. (1334), who was friendly to Frederick, promised a respite; but after fruitless negotiations the war broke out once more, and Chiaramonte went over to Robert, owing to a private feud. In 1337 Frederick died at Paternione, and in spite of the peace of Caltabellotta his son Peter succeeded. Frederick’s great merit was that during his reign the Aragonese dynasty became thoroughly national and helped to weld the Sicilians into a united people.

Bibliography.—G. M. Mira,Bibliografia Siciliana(Palermo, 1875); of the contemporary authorities N. Speciale’s “Historia Sicula” (in Muratori’sScript. rer. ital.x.) is the most important; for the first years of Frederick’s reign see M. Amari,La Guerra del Vespro Siciliano(Florence, 1876), and F. Lanzani,Storia dei Comuni italiani(Milan, 1882); for the latter years C. Cipolla,Storia delle signorie italiane(Milan, 1881); also Testa,Vita di Federigo di Sicilia.

(L. V.)

FREDERICK I.(c.1371-1440), elector of Brandenburg, founder of the greatness of the House of Hohenzollern, was a son of Frederick V., burgrave of Nuremberg, and first came into prominence by saving the life of Sigismund, king of Hungary, at the battle of Nicopolis in 1396. In 1397 he became burgrave of Nuremberg, and after his father’s death in 1398 he shared Ansbach, Bayreuth, and the smaller possessions of the family, with his only brother John, but became sole ruler after his brother’s death in 1420. Loyal at first to King Wenceslaus, the king’s neglect of Germany drove Frederick to take part in his deposition in 1400, and in the election of Rupert III., count palatine of the Rhine, whom he accompanied to Italy in the following year. In 1401 he married Elizabeth, or Elsa, daughter of Frederick, duke of Bavaria-Landshut (d. 1393), and after spending some time in family and other feuds, took service again with King Sigismund in 1409, whom he assisted in his struggle with the Hungarian rebels. The double election to the German throne in 1410 first brought Frederick into relation with Brandenburg. Sigismund, anxious to obtain another vote in the electoral college, appointed Frederick to exercise the Brandenburg vote on his behalf, and it was largely through his efforts that Sigismund was chosen German king. Frederick then passed some time as administrator of Brandenburg, where he restored a certain degree of order, and was formally invested with the electorate and margraviate by Sigismund at Constance on the 18th of April 1417 (seeBrandenburg). He took part in the war against the Hussites, but became estranged from Sigismund when in 1423 the king invested Frederick of Wettin, margrave of Meissen, with the vacant electoral duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg. In 1427 he sold his rights as burgrave to the town of Nuremberg, and he was a prominent member of the band of electors who sought to impose reforms upon Sigismund. After having been an unsuccessful candidate for the German throne in 1438, Frederick was chosen king of Bohemia in 1440, but declined the proffered honour. He took part in the election of Frederick III. as German king in 1440, and died at Radolzburg on the 21st of September in the same year. In 1902 a bronze statue was erected to his memory at Friesack, and there is also a marble one of the elector in the “Siegesallee” at Berlin.

See A. F. Riedel,Zehn Jahre aus der Geschichte der Ahnherren des preussischen Königshauses(Berlin, 1851); E. Brandenburg,König Sigmund und Kurfürst Friedrich I. von Brandenburg(Berlin, 1891); and O. Franklin,Die deutsche Politik Friedrichs I. Kurfürsten von Brandenburg(Berlin, 1851).

FREDERICK I.(1425-1476), elector palatine of the Rhine, surnamed “the Victorious,” and called by his enemies “wicked Fritz,” second son of the elector palatine Louis III., was born on the 1st of August 1425. He inherited a part of the Palatinate on his father’s death in 1439, but soon surrendered this inheritance to his elder brother, the elector Louis IV. On his brother’s death in 1449, however, he became guardian of the young elector Philip, and ruler of the land. In 1451 he persuaded the nobles to recognize him as elector, on condition that Philip should be his successor, a scheme which was disliked by the emperor Frederick III. The elector was successful in various wars with neighbouring rulers, and was a leading member of the band of princes who formed plans to secure a more efficient government for Germany, and even discussed the deposition of Frederick III. Frederick himself was mentioned as a candidate for the German throne, but the jealousies of the princes prevented any decisive action, and soon became so acute that in 1459 they began to fight among themselves. In alliance with Louis IX., duke of Bavaria-Landshut, Frederick gained several victories during the struggle, and in 1462 won a decisive battle at Seckenheim over Ulrich V., count of Württemberg. In 1472 the elector married Clara Tott, or Dett, the daughter of an Augsburg citizen, and by her he had two sons, Frederick, who died during his father’s lifetime, and Louis (d. 1524), who founded the line of the counts of Löwenstein. He died at Heidelberg on the 12th of December 1476, and was succeeded, according to the compact, by his nephew Philip. Frederick was a cultured prince, and, in spite of his warlike career, a wise and intelligent ruler. He added largely to the area of the Palatinate, and did not neglect to further its internal prosperity.

See N. Feeser,Friedrich der Siegreiche, Kurfürst von der Pfalz(Neuburg, 1880); C. J. Kremer,Geschichte des Kurfürsten Friedrichs I. von der Pfalz(Leipzig, 1765); and K. Menzel,Kurfürst Friedrich der Siegreiche von der Pfalz(Munich, 1861).

FREDERICK II.(1482-1556), surnamed “the Wise,” elector palatine of the Rhine, fourth son of the elector Philip, was bom on the 9th of December 1482. Of an active and adventurous temperament, he fought under the emperor Maximilian I. in 1508, and afterwards served the Habsburgs loyally in other ways. He worked to secure the election of Charles, afterwards the emperor Charles V., as the successor of Maximilian in 1519; fought in two campaigns against the Turks; and being disappointed in his hope of obtaining the hand of one of the emperor’s sisters, married in 1535 Dorothea (d. 1580), daughter of Christian II., who had been driven from the Danish throne. The Habsburgs promised their aid in securing this crown for Frederick, but, like many previous promises made to him, this came to nothing. Having spent his time in various parts of Europe, and incurred heavy debts on account of his expensive tastes, Frederick became elector palatine by the death of his brother, Louis V., in March 1544. With regard to the religious troubles of Germany, he took up at first the rôle of a mediator, but in 1545 he joined the league of Schmalkalden, and in 1546 broke definitely with the older faith. He gave a little assistance to the league in its war with Charles, but soon submitted to the emperor, accepted theInterimissued from Augsburg in May 1548, and afterwards acted in harmony with Charles. The elector died on the 26th of February 1556, and as he left no children was succeeded by his nephew, Otto Henry (1502-1559). He was a great benefactor to the university of Heidelberg.

Frederick’s life,Annales de vita et rebus gestis Friderici II. electoris palatini(Frankfort, 1624), was written by his secretary Hubert Thomas Leodius; this has been translated into German by E. von Bülow (Breslau, 1849). See also Rott,Friedrich II. von der Pfalz und die Reformation(Heidelberg, 1904).

FREDERICK III.(1515-1576), called “the Pious,” elector palatine of the Rhine, eldest son of John II., count palatine of Simmern, was born at Simmern on the 14th of February 1515. In 1537 he married Maria (d. 1567), daughter of Casimir, prince of Bayreuth, and in 1546, mainly as a result of this union, adopted the reformed doctrines, which had already made considerable progress in the Palatinate. He lived in comparative obscurity and poverty until 1557, when he became count palatine of Simmern by his father’s death, succeeding his kinsman, Otto Henry (1502-1559), as elector palatine two years later. Although inclined to the views of Calvin rather than to those of Luther, the new elector showed great anxiety to unite the Protestants; but when these efforts failed, and the breach between the followers of the two reformers became wider, he definitely adopted Calvinism. This form of faith was quickly established in the Palatinate; in its interests the “Heidelberg Catechism” was drawn up in 1563; and Catholics and Lutherans were persecuted alike, while the churches were denuded of all their ornaments. The Lutheran princes wished to root out Calvinism in the Palatinate, but were not willing to exclude the elector from the benefits of the religious peace of Augsburg, which were confined to the adherents of the confession of Augsburg, and the matter came before the diet in 1566. Boldly defending his position, Frederick refused to give way an inch, and as the Lutherans were unwilling to proceed to extremities the emperor Maximilian II. could only warn him to mend his ways. The elector was an ardent supporter of the Protestants abroad, whom, rather than the German Lutherans, he regarded as his co-religionists. He aided the Huguenots in France and the insurgents in the Netherlands with men and money; one of his sons, John Casimir (1543-1592), took a prominent part in the French wars of religion, while another, Christopher, was killed in 1574 fighting for the Dutch at Mooker Heath. In his later years Frederick failed in his efforts to prevent the election of a member of the Habsburg family as Roman king, to secure the abrogation of the “ecclesiastical reservation” clause in the peace of Augsburg, or to obtain security for Protestants in the territories of the spiritual princes. He was assiduous in caring for the material, moral and educational welfare of his electorate, and was a benefactor to the university of Heidelberg. The elector died at Heidelberg on the 26th of October 1576, and was succeeded by his elder surviving son, Louis (1539-1583), who had offended his father by adopting Lutheranism.

See A. Kluckhohn,Friedrich der Fromme(Nördlingen, 1877-1879); andBriefe Friedrichs des Frommen, edited by Kluckhohn (Brunswick, 1868-1872).

FREDERICK IV.(1574-1610), elector palatine of the Rhine, only surviving son of the elector Louis VI., was born at Amberg on the 5th of March 1574. His father died in October 1583, when the young elector came under the guardianship of his uncle John Casimir, an ardent Calvinist, who, in spite of the wishes of the late elector, a Lutheran, had his nephew educated in his own form of faith. In January 1592, on the death of John Casimir, Frederick undertook the government of the Palatinate, and continued the policy of his uncle, hostility to the Catholic Church and the Habsburgs, and co-operation with foreign Protestants. He was often in communication with Henry of Navarre, afterwards Henry IV. of France, and like him was unremitting in his efforts to conclude a league among the German Protestants, while he sought to weaken the Habsburgs by refusing aid for the Turkish War. After many delays and disappointments the Union of Evangelical Estates was actually formed in May 1608, under the leadership of the elector, and he took a prominent part in directing the operations of the union until his death, which occurred on the 19th of September 1610. Frederick was very extravagant, and liked to surround himself with pomp and luxury. He married in 1593 Louise, daughter of William the Silent, prince of Orange, and was succeeded by Frederick, the elder of his two sons.

See M. Ritter,Geschichte der deutschen Union(Schaffhausen, 1867-1873); and L. Häusser,Geschichte der rheinischen Pfalz(Heidelberg, 1856).

FREDERICK V.(1596-1632), elector palatine of the Rhine and king of Bohemia, son of the elector Frederick IV. by his wife, Louisa Juliana, daughter of William the Silent, prince of Orange, was born at Amberg on the 26th of August 1596. He became elector on his father’s death in September 1610, and was under the guardianship of his kinsman, John II., count palatine of Zweibrücken (d. 1635), until he was declared of age in July 1614. Having received a good education, Frederick had married Elizabeth, daughter of the English king James I., in February 1613, and was the recognized head of the Evangelical Union founded by his father to protect the interests of the Protestants. In 1619 he stepped into a larger arena. Before this date the estates of Bohemia, Protestant in sympathy and dissatisfied with the rule of the Habsburgs, had been in frequent communication with the elector palatine, and in August 1619, a few months after the death of the emperor Matthias, they declared his successor, Ferdinand, afterwards the emperor Ferdinand II., deposed, and chose Frederick as their king. After some hesitation the elector yielded to the entreaties of Christian I., prince of Anhalt (1568-1630), and other sanguine supporters, and was crowned king of Bohemia at Prague on the 4th of November 1619. By this time the emperor Ferdinand was able to take the aggressive, while Frederick, disappointed at receiving no assistance either from England or from the Union, had few soldiers and little money. Consequently on the 8th of November, four days after his coronation, his forces were easily routed by the imperial army under Tilly at the White Hill, near Prague, and his short reign in Bohemia ended abruptly. Soon afterwards the Palatinate was overrun by the Spaniards and Bavarians, and after a futile attempt to dislodge them, Frederick, called in derision the “Winter King,” sought refuge in the Netherlands. Having been placed under the imperial ban his electorate was given in 1623 to Maximilian I. of Bavaria, who also received the electoral dignity.

The remainder of Frederick’s life was spent in comparative obscurity, although his restoration was a constant subject of discussion among European diplomatists. He died at Mainz on the 29th of November 1632, having had a large family, among his children being Charles Louis (1617-1680), who regained the Palatinate at the peace of Westphalia in 1648, and Sophia, who married Ernest Augustus, afterwards elector of Hanover, and was the mother of George I., king of Great Britain. His third son was Prince Rupert, the hero of the English civil war, and another son was Prince Maurice (1620-1652), who also assisted his uncle Charles I. during the civil war. Having sailed with Rupert to the West Indies, Maurice was lost at sea in September 1652.

In addition to the numerous works which treat of the outbreak of the Thirty Years’ War see A. Gindely,Friedrich V. von der Pfalz(Prague, 1884); J. Krebs,Die Politik der evangelischen Union im Jahre 1618(Breslau, 1890-1901); M. Ritter, “Friedrich V.,” in theAllgemeine deutsche Biographie, Band vii. (Leipzig, 1878); andDeutsche Lieder auf den Winterkönig, edited by R. Wolkan (Prague, 1899).

FREDERICK I.(1369-1428), surnamed “the Warlike,” elector and duke of Saxony, was the eldest son of Frederick “the Stern,” count of Osterland, and Catherine, daughter and heiress of Henry VIII., count of Coburg. He was born at Altenburg on the 29th of March 1369, and was a member of the family of Wettin. When his father died in 1381 some trouble arose over the family possessions, and in the following year an arrangement was made by which Frederick and his brothers shared Meissen and Thuringia with their uncles Balthasar and William. Frederick’s brother George died in 1402, and his uncle William in 1407. A further dispute then arose, but in 1410 a treaty was made at Naumburg, when Frederick and his brother William added the northern part of Meissen to their lands; and in 1425 the death of William left Frederick sole ruler. In the German town war of 1388 he assisted Frederick V. of Hohenzollern, burgrave of Nuremberg, and in 1391 did the same for the Teutonic Order against Ladislaus V., king of Poland and prince of Lithuania. He supported Rupert III., elector palatine of the Rhine, in his struggle with King Wenceslaus for the Germanthrone, probably because Wenceslaus refused to fulfil a promise to give him his sister Anna in marriage. The danger to Germany from the Hussites induced Frederick to ally himself with the German and Bohemian king Sigismund; and he took a leading part in the war against them, during the earlier years of which he met with considerable success. In the prosecution of this enterprise Frederick spent large sums of money, for which he received various places in Bohemia and elsewhere in pledge from Sigismund, who further rewarded him in January 1423 with the vacant electoral duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg; and Frederick’s formal investiture followed at Ofen on the 1st of August 1425. Thus spurred to renewed efforts against the Hussites, the elector was endeavouring to rouse the German princes to aid him in prosecuting this war when the Saxon army was almost annihilated at Aussig on the 16th of August 1426. Returning to Saxony, Frederick died at Altenburg on the 4th of January 1428, and was buried in the cathedral at Meissen. In 1402 he married Catherine of Brunswick, by whom he left four sons and two daughters. In 1409, in conjunction with his brother William, he founded the university of Leipzig, for the benefit of German students who had just left the university of Prague. Frederick’s importance as an historical figure arises from his having obtained the electorate of Saxe-Wittenberg for the house of Wettin, and transformed the margraviate of Meissen into the territory which afterwards became the kingdom of Saxony. In addition to the king of Saxony, the sovereigns of England and of the Belgians are his direct descendants.

There is a life of Frederick by G. Spalatin in theScriptores rerum Germanicarum praecipue Saxonicarum, Band ii., edited by J. B. Mencke (Leipzig, 1728-1730). See also C. W. Böttiger and Th. Flathe,Geschichte des Kurstaates und Königreichs Sachsen(Gotha, 1867-1873); and J. G. Horn,Lebens- und Heldengeschichte Friedrichs des Streitbaren(Leipzig, 1733).

FREDERICK II.(1411-1464), called “the Mild,” elector and duke of Saxony, eldest son of the elector Frederick I., was born on the 22nd of August 1411. He succeeded his father as elector in 1428, but shared the family lands with his three brothers, and was at once engaged in defending Saxony against the attacks of the Hussites. Freed from these enemies about 1432, and turning his attention to increasing his possessions, he obtained the burgraviate of Meissen in 1439, and some part of Lower Lusatia after a struggle with Brandenburg about the same time. In 1438 it was decided that Frederick, and not his rival, Bernard IV., duke of Saxe-Lauenburg, was entitled to exercise the Saxon electoral vote at the elections for the German throne; and the elector then aided Albert II. to secure this dignity, performing a similar service for his own brother-in-law, Frederick, afterwards the emperor Frederick III., two years later. Family affairs, meanwhile, occupied Frederick’s attention. One brother, Henry, having died in 1435, and another, Sigismund (d. 1463), having entered the church and become bishop of Würzburg, Frederick and his brother William (d. 1482) were the heirs of their childless cousin, Frederick “the Peaceful,” who ruled Thuringia and other parts of the lands of the Wettins. On his death in 1440 the brothers divided Frederick’s territory, but this arrangement was not satisfactory, and war broke out between them in 1446. Both combatants obtained extraneous aid, but after a desolating struggle peace was made in January 1451, when William received Thuringia, and Frederick Altenburg and other districts. The remainder of the elector’s reign was uneventful, and he died at Leipzig on the 7th of September 1464. By his wife, Margaret (d. 1486), daughter of Ernest, duke of Styria, he left two sons and four daughters. In July 1455 occurred the celebratedPrinzenraub, the attempt of a knight named Kunz von Kaufungen (d. 1455) to abduct Frederick’s two sons, Ernest and Albert. Having carried them off from Altenburg, Kunz was making his way to Bohemia when the plot was accidentally discovered and the princes restored.

See W. Schäfer,Der Montag vor Kiliani(1855); J. Gersdorf,Einige Aktenstücke zur Geschichte des sächsischen Prinzenraubes(1855); and T. Carlyle,Critical and Miscellaneous Essays, vol. iv. (London, 1899).

FREDERICK III.(1463-1525), called “the Wise,” elector of Saxony, eldest son of Ernest, elector of Saxony, and Elizabeth, daughter of Albert, duke of Bavaria-Munich (d. 1508), was born at Torgau, and succeeded his father as elector in 1486. Retaining the government of Saxony in his own hands, he shared the other possessions of his family with his brother John, called “the Stedfast” (1468-1532). Frederick was among the princes who pressed the need of reform upon the German king Maximilian I. in 1495, and in 1500 he became president of the newly-formed council of regency (Reichsregiment). He took a genuine interest in learning; was a friend of Georg Spalatin; and in 1502 founded the university of Wittenberg, where he appointed Luther and Melanchthon to professorships. In 1493 he had gone as a pilgrim to Jerusalem, and had been made a knight of the Holy Sepulchre; but, although he remained throughout life an adherent of the older faith, he seems to have been drawn into sympathy with the reformers, probably through his connexion with the university of Wittenberg. In 1520 he refused to put into execution the papal bull which ordered Luther’s writings to be burned and the reformer to be put under restraint or sent to Rome; and in 1521, after Luther had been placed under the imperial ban by the diet at Worms, the elector caused him to be conveyed to his castle at the Wartburg, and afterwards protected him while he attacked the enemies of the Reformation. In 1519, Frederick, who alone among the electors refused to be bribed by the rival candidates for the imperial throne, declined to be a candidate for this high dignity himself, and assisted to secure the election of Charles V. He died unmarried at Langau, near Annaberg, on the 5th of May 1525.

See G. Spalatin,Das Leben und die Zeitgeschichte Friedrichs des Weisen, edited by C. G. Neudecker and L. Preller (Jena, 1851); M. M. Tutzschmann,Friedrich der Weise, Kurfürst von Sachsen(Grimma, 1848); and T. Kolde,Friedrich der Weise und die Anfänge der Reformation(Erlangen, 1881).

FREDERICK, a city and the county-seat of Frederick county, Maryland, U.S.A., on Carroll’s Creek, a tributary of the Monocacy, 61 m. by rail W. by N. from Baltimore and 45 m. N.W. from Washington. Pop. (1890) 8193; (1900) 9296, of whom 1535 were negroes; (1910 census) 10,411. It is served by the Baltimore & Ohio and the Northern Central railways, and by two interurban electric lines. Immediately surrounding it is the rich farming land of the Monocacy valley, but from a distance it appears to be completely shut in by picturesque hills and mountains; to the E., the Linga ore Hills; to the W., Catoctin Mountain; and to the S., Sugar Loaf Mountain. It is built for the most part of brick and stone. Frederick is the seat of the Maryland school for the deaf and dumb and of the Woman’s College of Frederick (1893; formerly the Frederick Female Seminary, opened in 1843), which in 1907-1908 had 212 students, 121 of whom were in the Conservatory of Music. Francis Scott Key and Roger Brooke Taney were buried here, and a beautiful monument erected to the memory of Key stands at the entrance to Mount Olivet cemetery. Frederick has a considerable agricultural trade and is an important manufacturing centre, its industries including the canning of fruits and vegetables, and the manufacture of flour, bricks, brushes, leather goods and hosiery. The total value of the factory product in 1905 was $1,937,921, being 34.7% more than in 1900. The municipality owns and operates its water-works and electric-lighting plant. Frederick, so named in honour of Frederick Calvert, son and afterward successor of Charles, Lord Baltimore, was settled by Germans in 1733, and was laid out as a town in 1745, but was not incorporated until 1817. Here in 1755 General Braddock prepared for his disastrous expedition against the French at Fort Duquesne (Pittsburg). During the Civil War the city was occupied on different occasions by Unionists and Confederates, and was made famous by Whittier’s poem “Barbara Frietchie.”

FREDERICK AUGUSTUS I.(1750-1827), king of Saxony, son of the elector Frederick Christian, was born at Dresden on the 23rd of December 1750. He succeeded his father under the guardianship of Prince Xavier in 1763, and was declared of age in 1768. In the following year (January 17, 1769) he married Princess Maria Amelia, daughter of Duke Frederick of Zweibrücken, by whom he had only one child, Princess Augusta (born June 21, 1782). One of his chief aims was the reductionof taxes and imposts and of the army. He was always extremely methodical and conscientious, and a good example to all his officials, whence his surname “the Just.” On account of the claims of his mother on the inheritance of her brother, the elector of Bavaria, he sided with Frederick the Great in the short Bavarian succession war of 1778 against Austria. At the peace of Teschen, which concluded the war, he received 6 million florins, which he employed partly in regaining those parts of his kingdom which had been lost, and partly in favour of his relatives. In 1785 he joined the league of German princes (Deutscher Fürstenbund) formed by Prussia, but without prejudice to his neutrality. Thus he remained neutral during the quarrel between Austria and Prussia in 1790. In the following year he declined the crown of Poland. He refused to join the league against France (February 7, 1792), but when war was declared his duty to the Empire necessitated his taking part in it. Even after the peace of Basel (April 5, 1795) he continued the war. But when the French army, during the following year, advanced into the heart of Germany, he was compelled by General Jourdan to retreat (August 13, 1796). He maintained his neutrality during the war between France and Austria in 1805, but in the following year he joined Prussia against France. After the disastrous battle of Jena he concluded a treaty of peace with Napoleon at Posen (December 11, 1806), and, assuming the title of king, he joined the Confederation of the Rhine. But he did not alter the constitution and administration of his new kingdom. After the peace of Tilsit (July 9, 1807) he was created by Napoleon grand-duke of Warsaw, but his sovereignty of Poland was little more than nominal. There was a kind of friendship between Frederick Augustus and Napoleon. In 1809 Frederick Augustus fought with him against Austria. On several occasions (1807, 1812, 1813) Napoleon was entertained at Dresden, and when, on his return from his disastrous Russian campaign, he passed through Saxony by Dresden (December 16, 1812), Frederick Augustus remained true to his friend and ally. It was only during April 1813 that he made overtures to Austria, but he soon afterwards returned to the side of the French. He returned to Dresden on the 10th of May and was present at the terrible battle of August 26 and 27, in which Napoleon’s army and his own were defeated. He fell into the hands of the Allies after their entry into Leipzig on the 19th of October 1813; and, although he regained his freedom after the congress of Vienna, he was compelled to give up the northern part—three-fifths—of his kingdom to Prussia (May 21, 1814). He entered Dresden on the 7th of July, and was enthusiastically welcomed by his people. The remainder of his life was spent in repairing the damages caused by the Napoleonic wars, in developing the agricultural, commercial and industrial resources of his kingdom, reforming the administration of justice, establishing hospitals and other charitable institutions, encouraging art and science and promoting education. He had a special interest in botany, and originated the beautiful park at Pillnitz. His reign throughout was characterized by justice, probity, moderation and prudence. He died on the 5th of May 1827.

Bibliography.—The earlier lives, by C. E. Weisse (1811), A. L. Herrmann (1827), Pölitz (1830), are mere panegyrics. On the other side see Flathe inAllgemeine deutsche Biographie, and Böttiger-Flathe,History of Saxony(2nd ed., 1867 ff.), vols. ii. and iii.; A. Bonnefons,Un Allié de Napoléon, Frédéric Auguste, premier roi de Saxe... (Paris, 1902); Fritz Friedrich,Politik Sachsens 1801-1803(1898); P. Rühlmann,Öffentliche Meinung ... 1806-1813(1902). There are many pamphlets bearing on the Saxon question and on Frederick Augustus during the years 1814 and 1815.

(J. Hn.)

FREDERICK AUGUSTUS II.(1797-1854), king of Saxony, eldest son of Prince Maximilian and of Caroline Maria Theresa of Parma, was born on the 18th of May 1797. The unsettled times in which his youth was passed necessitated his frequent change of residence, but care was nevertheless taken that his education should not be interrupted, and he also acquired, through his journeys in foreign states (Switzerland 1818, Montenegro 1838, England and Scotland 1844) and his intercourse with men of eminence, a special taste for art and for natural science. He was himself a good landscape-painter and had a fine collection of engravings on copper. He was twice married—in 1819 (October 7) to the duchess Caroline, fourth daughter of the emperor Francis I. of Austria (d. May 22, 1832), and in 1833 (April 4) to Maria, daughter of Maximilian I. of Bavaria. There were no children of either marriage. During the government of his uncles (Frederick Augustus I. and Anthony) he took no part in the administration of the country, though he was the sole heir to the crown. In 1830 a rising in Dresden led to his being named joint regent of the kingdom along with King Anthony on the 13th of September; and in this position his popularity and his wise and liberal reforms (for instance, in arranging public audiences) speedily quelled all discontent. On the 6th of June 1836 he succeeded his uncle. Though he administered the affairs of his kingdom with enlightened liberality Saxony did not escape the political storms which broke upon Germany in 1848. He elected Liberal ministers, and he was at first in favour of the programme of German unity put forward at Frankfort, but he refused to acknowledge the democratic constitution of the German parliament. This attitude led to the insurrection at Dresden in May 1849, which was suppressed by the help of Prussian troops. From that time onward his reign was tranquil and prosperous. Later Count Beust, leader of the Austrian and feudal party in Saxony, became his principal minister and guided his policy on most occasions. His death occurred accidentally through the upsetting of his carriage near Brennbühel, between Imst and Wenns in Tirol (August 9, 1854). Frederick Augustus devoted his leisure hours chiefly to the study of botany. He made botanical excursions into different countries, andFlora Marienbadensis, oder Pflanzen und Gebirgsarten, gesammelt und beschrieben, written by him, was published at Prague by Kedler, 1837.

See Böttiger-Flathe,History of Saxony, vol. iii.; R. Freiherr von Friesen,Erinnerungen(2 vols., Dresden, 1881); F. F. Graf von Beust, Ausdrei-viertel Jahrhunderten(2 vols., 1887); Flathe, inAllg. deutsche Biogr.

(J. Hn.)

FREDERICK CHARLES (FRIEDRICH KARL NIKOLAUS),Prince(1828-1885), Prussian general field marshal, son of Prince Charles of Prussia and grandson of King Frederick William III., was born in Berlin on the 20th of March 1828. He was educated for the army, which he entered on his tenth birthday as second lieutenant in the 14th Foot Guards. He became first lieutenant in 1844, and in 1846 entered the university of Bonn, where he stayed for two years, being accompanied throughout by Major von Roon, afterwards the famous war minister. In 1848 he became a company commander in his regiment, and soon afterwards served in the Schleswig-Holstein War on the staff of Marshal von Wrangel, being present at the battle of Schleswig (April 23, 1848). Later in 1848 he becameRittmeisterin theGarde du Corpscavalry regiment, and in 1849 major in the Guard Hussars. In this year the prince took part in the campaign against the Baden insurgents, and was wounded at the action of Wiesenthal while leading a desperate charge against entrenched infantry. After this experience the wild courage of his youth gave place to the unshakable resolution which afterwards characterized the prince’s generalship. In 1852 he became colonel, and in 1854 major-general and commander of a cavalry brigade. In this capacity he was brought closely in touch with General von Reyher, the chief of the general staff, and with Moltke. He married, in the same year, Princess Marie Anne of Anhalt. In 1857 he became commander of the 1st Guard Infantry division, but very shortly afterwards, on account of disputes concerned with the training methods then in force, he resigned the appointment.

In 1858 he visited France, where he minutely investigated the state of the French army, but it was not long before he was recalled, for in 1859, in consequence of the Franco-Austrian War, Prussia mobilized her forces, and Frederick Charles was made a divisional commander in the II. army corps. In this post he was given the liberty of action which had previously been denied to him. About this time (1860) the prince gave a lecture to the officers of his command on the French army and its methods, the substance of which (Eine militärische Denkschriftvon P.F.K., Frankfort on Main, 1860) was circulated more widely than the author intended, and in the French translation gave rise to much indignation in France. In 1861 Frederick Charles became general of cavalry. He was then commander of the III. (Brandenburg) army corps. This post he held from 1860 to 1870, except during the campaigns of 1864 and 1866, and in it he displayed his real qualities as a troop leader. His self-imposed task was to raise the military spirit of his troops to the highest possible level, and ten years of his continuous and thorough training brought the III. corps to a pitch of real efficiency which the Guard corps alone, in virtue of its special recruiting powers, slightly surpassed. Prince Frederick Charles’ work was tested to the full when von Alvensleben and the III. corps engaged the whole French army on the 16th of August 1870. In 1864 the prince once more fought against the Danes under his old leader “Papa” Wrangel. The Prussian contingent under Frederick Charles formed a corps of the allied army, and half of it was drawn from the III. corps. After the storming of the Düppel lines the prince succeeded Wrangel in the supreme command, with Lieutenant-General Freiherr von Moltke as his chief of staff. These two great soldiers then planned and brilliantly carried out the capture of the island of Alsen, after which the war came to an end.

In 1860 came the Seven Weeks’ War with Austria. Prince Frederick Charles was appointed to command the I. Army, which he led through the mountains into Bohemia, driving before him the Austrians and Saxons to the upper Elbe, where on the 3rd of July took place the decisive battle of Königgrätz or Sadowa. This was brought on by the initiative of the leader of the I. Army, which had to bear the brunt of the fighting until the advance of the II. Army turned the Austrian flank. After the peace he returned to the III. army corps, which he finally left, in July 1870, when appointed to command the II. German Army in the war with France. In the early days of the advance the prince’s ruthless energy led to much friction between the I. and II. Armies (seeFranco-German War), while his strategical mistakes seriously embarrassed the great headquarters staff. The advance of the II. Army beyond the Saar to the Moselle and from that river to the Meuse displayed more energy than careful strategy, but herein at least the “Red Prince” (as he was called from the colour of his favourite hussar uniform) was in thorough sympathy with the king’s headquarters on the one hand and the feelings of the troops on the other. Then came the discovery that the French were not in front, but to the right rear of the II. Army (August 16). Alvensleben with the III. corps held the French to their ground at Vionville while the prince hurried together his scattered forces. He himself directed with superb tactical skill the last efforts of the Germans at Vionville, and the victory of St Privat on the 18th was due to his leadership (seeMetz), which shone all the more by contrast with the failures of the I. Army at Gravelotte. The prince was left in command of the forces which blockaded Bazaine in Metz, and received the surrender of that place and of the last remaining field army of the enemy. He was promoted at once to the rank of general field marshal, and shortly afterwards the II. Army was despatched to aid in crushing the newly organized army of the French republic on the Loire. Here again he retrieved strategical errors by energy and tactical skill, and his work was in the end crowned by the victory of Le Mans on the 12th of January 1871. Of all the subordinate leaders on the German side none enjoyed a greater and a better deserved reputation than the Red Prince.

He now became inspector-general of the 3rd “army inspection,” and a little later inspector of cavalry, and in the latter post he was largely instrumental in bringing the German cavalry to the degree of perfection in manœuvre and general training which it gradually attained in the years after the war. He never ceased to improve his own soldierly qualities by further study and by the conduct of manœvres on a large scale. His sternness of character kept him aloof from the court and from his own family, and he spent his leisure months chiefly on his various country estates. In 1872 and in 1882 he travelled in the Mediterranean and the Near East. He died on the 15th of June 1885 at Klein-Glienicke near Berlin, and was buried at the adjacent church of Nikolskoe. His third daughter, Princess Louise Margareta, was married, in March 1879, to the duke of Connaught.

FREDERICK HENRY(1584-1647), prince of Orange, the youngest child of William the Silent, was born at Delft about six months before his father’s assassination on the 29th of January 1584. His mother, Louise de Coligny, was daughter of the famous Huguenot leader, Admiral de Coligny, and was the fourth wife of William the Silent. The boy was trained to arms by his elder brother, Maurice of Nassau, one of the first generals of his age. On the death of Maurice in 1625, Frederick Henry succeeded him in his paternal dignities and estates, and also in the stadtholderates of the five provinces of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Overysel and Gelderland, and in the important posts of captain and admiral-general of the Union. Frederick Henry proved himself scarcely inferior to his brother as a general, and a far more capable statesman and politician. During twenty-two years he remained at the head of affairs in the United Provinces, and in his time the power of the stadtholderate reached its highest point. The “Period of Frederick Henry,” as it is usually styled by Dutch writers, is generally accounted the golden age of the republic. It was marked by great military and naval triumphs, by world-wide maritime and commercial expansion, and by a wonderful outburst of activity in the domains of art and literature. The chief military exploits of Frederick Henry were the sieges and captures of Hertogenbosch in 1629, of Maastricht in 1632, of Breda in 1637, of Sas van Ghent in 1644, and of Hulst in 1645. During the greater part of his administration the alliance with France against Spain had been the pivot of Frederick Henry’s foreign policy, but in his last years he sacrificed the French alliance for the sake of concluding a separate peace with Spain, by which the United Provinces obtained from that power all the advantages for which they had for eighty years been contending. Frederick Henry died on the 14th of March 1647, and was buried with great pomp beside his father and brother at Delft. The treaty of Münster, ending the long struggle between the Dutch and the Spaniards, was not actually signed until the 30th of January 1648, the illness and death of the stadtholder having caused a delay in the negotiations. Frederick Henry was married in 1625 to Amalia von Solms, and left one son, William II. of Orange, and four daughters.

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