Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 04.djvu/253

FREDERICK WILLIAM IV. 209 FRED ERICKSBURO also accompanied the latter to England in the same year. On the return of Napoleon from Elba, he once more joined the allies. After the victory of Water- loo, in which the Prussians, under Bluchbr {q. v.), played an important part, Prussia, once more at peace, grad- ually recovered the losses she had sus- tained, under the wise and paternal sway of Frederick, whose constant ef- forts and moderation contributed greatly to the maintenance of peace. He died June 7, 1840. Frederick William IV., King of Prussia, son of the preceding; born Oct. 15, 1795; on the death of his father, suc- ceeded to the throne in 1840. He served as a simple officer, in the campaigns of 1813 and 1814, and evinced, at an early period of his life, a very great love for the arts. During the first years of his reign his subjects anxiously demand- ed the reform of the government, requir- ing the liberal constitution which had been promised them in 1815, in return for the great sacrifices they had made during the continental war. In 1847, at a general diet of the Prussian states, many of these reforms were granted. In March, 1848, the people and the troops came into collision, the king was obliged to change the ministry, to is- sue a general amnesty, and commence a war in favor of Schleswig against Den- mark, and to salute from his balcony the corpses of the insurgents. These humili- ations were somewhat softened by his hopes of becoming emperor of a united Germany, and by the success of his army in putting down an insurrection of the Poles in Posen. The mingled irresolu- tion and absolutism of Frederick, how- ever, led him subsequently to other conflicts in June and August of the same year; and it was not till two coups d'etat that Frederick, assisted by his army, succeeded in retaining his author- ity almost unimpaired by the powers he had yielded. In the war between the W. powers and Russia, the king preserved a strict neutrality. In 1856, in conse- quence of an attack on Neufchatel by some Prussian partisans, war was in danger of breaking out between Switzer- land and Prussia; but this was avoided, and a treaty concluded, in May, 1857, in reference to the king's claims on that place. In the complication relative to the Danubian principalities, Prussia fol- lowed the lead of France and Russia as opposed to England and Austria. To- ward the end of 1857, a severe illness, resulting in the loss of some of his facul- ties, caused his brother William to be nominated regent, who succeeded him as king on his death, near Potsdam, Jan. 2, 1861. Frederick III., 2d Emperor of Ger- many, and 8th King of Prussia; bom in Potsdam, Prussia, Oct. 18, 1831 ; was educated at Bonn University; entered the army; became Crown Prince of Prussia in 1861 ; served with distinction in the Danish War; conducted a brief but brilliant campaign in the war be- tween Prussia and Austria; and at the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War was placed in command of one of the three divisions of the German army. After the war he received the Iron Cross and numerous other orders in recogni- tion of his services against the French. In 1871 he became Crown Prince of the German Empire. The death of Em- peror William I. on March 9, 1888, made him Emperor of Germany and King of Prussia. He assumed the title of Fred- erick III. He was suffering with cancer in the throat at the time of his accession, and died in Potsdam, June 15, 1888. POLAND. Frederick Augustus II., III. See Au- gustus. SAXONY. Frederick III., the Wise; born in Tor- gau, Jan. 17, 1463; succeeded his father, Ernest, 1436, as Elector of Saxony. He is known chiefly as founder of the Uni- versity of Wittenberg, and as the friend and very cautious protector of Luther, who was one of the first professors of the new university. It was by his ar- rangement that Luther, after the Diet of Worms, was seized and carried off to the Wartburg. He did not, however, estab- lish the reformed faith in his dominions. He became administrator of the empire in 1519, and was offered the imperial crown, but declined it. He died May 5, 1525. SWEDEN. Frederick, King of Sweden, the eldest son of Charles, landgrave of Hesse- Cassel. He married the sister of Charles XII., on whose death, in 1718, the States of Sweden elected her queen, and in the year following consented to her resign- ing the crown to her husband. He had a long and unsuccessful war with Rus- sia, v/hich ended in a disadvantageous peace to Sweden. He then gave his energies to the pursuits of peace, re- stored the finances, and founded an academy at Stockholm. He died in 1751. FRFDERICKSBURG, a city in Spott- sylvania CO., Va.; on the S. bank of the Rappahannock river, and on the Rich- mond, Fredericksburg and Potomac, and the Potomac, Fredericksburg and Pied-