General Blumenthal again being his chief of the staff; his troops won the victory of Wörth, took an important part in the battle of Sedan, and later in the siege of Paris. The popularity he won was of political service in preparing the way for the union of North and South Germany, and he was the foremost advocate of the imperial idea at the Prussian court. During the years that followed, little opportunity for political activity was open to him. He and the crown princess took a great interest in art and industry, especially in the royal museums; and the excavations conducted at Olympia and Pergamon with such great results were chiefly due to him. The crown princess was a keen advocate of the higher education of women, and it was owing to her exertions that the Victoria Lyceum at Berlin (which was named after her) was founded. In 1878, when the emperor was incapacitated by the shot of an assassin, the prince acted for some months as regent. His palace was the centre of all that was best in the literary and learned society of the capital. He publicly expressed his disapproval of the attacks on the Jews in 1878; and the coalition of Liberal parties founded in 1884 was popularly known as the “crown prince’s party,” but he scrupulously refrained from any act that might embarrass his father’s government. For many reasons the accession of the prince was looked forward to with great hope by a large part of the nation. Unfortunately he was attacked by cancer in the throat; he spent the winter of 1887–1888 at San Remo; in January 1888 the operation of tracheotomy had to be performed. On the death of his father, which took place on the 9th of March, he at once journeyed to Berlin; but his days were numbered, and he came to the throne only to die. In these circumstances his accession could not have the political importance which would otherwise have attached to it, though it was disfigured by a vicious outburst of party passion in which the names of the emperor and the empress were constantly misused. While the Liberals hoped the emperor would use his power for some signal declaration of policy, the adherents of Bismarck did not scruple to make bitter attacks on the empress. The emperor’s most important act was a severe reprimand addressed to Herr von Puttkamer, the reactionary minister of the interior, which caused his resignation; in the distribution of honours he chose many who belonged to classes and parties hitherto excluded from court favour. A serious difference of opinion with the chancellor regarding the proposal for a marriage between Prince Alexander of Battenberg and the princess Victoria of Prussia was arranged by the intervention of Queen Victoria, who visited Berlin to see her dying son-in-law. He expired at Potsdam on the 15th of June 1888, after a reign of ninety-nine days.
After the emperor’s death Professor Geffcken, a personal friend, published in the Deutsche Rundschau extracts from the diary of the crown prince containing passages which illustrated his differences with Bismarck during the war of 1870. The object was to injure Bismarck’s reputation, and a very unseemly dispute ensued. Bismarck at first, in a letter addressed to the new emperor, denied the authenticity of the extracts on the ground that they were unworthy of the crown prince. Geffcken was then arrested and imprisoned. He had undoubtedly shown that he was an injudicious friend, for the diary proved that the prince, in his enthusiasm for German unity, had allowed himself to consider projects which would have seriously compromised the relations of Prussia and Bavaria. The treatment of the crown prince’s illness also gave rise to an acrimonious controversy. It arose from the fact that as early as May 1887 the German physicians recognized the presence of cancer in the throat, but Sir Morell Mackenzie, the English specialist who was also consulted, disputed the correctness of this diagnosis, and advised that the operation for removal of the larynx, which they had recommended, should not be undertaken. His advice was followed, and the differences between the medical men were made the occasion for a considerable display of national and political animosity.
The empress Victoria, who, after the death of her husband, was known as the empress Frederick, died on the 5th of August 1901 at the castle of Friedrichskron, Cronberg, near Homburg v. d. H., where she spent her last years. Of the emperor’s children two, Prince Sigismund (1864–1866) and Prince Waldemar (1869–1879), died in childhood. He left two sons, William, his successor as emperor, and Henry, who adopted a naval career. Of his daughters, the princess Charlotte was married to Bernard, hereditary prince of Meiningen; the princess Victoria to Prince Adolf of Schaumburg-Lippe; the princess Sophie to the duke of Sparta, crown prince of Greece; and the princess Margaretha to Prince Friedrich Karl of Hesse.
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 the Deutsche Rundschau containing 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 receive
