2-378-053 - Historica Graphica Collection/Heritage Images

Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, 18th century (1913). Frederick II (1712-1786) ruled Prussia from 1740. He enlarged Prussian territory by acquiring Silesia from Austria in the War of the Austrian Succession and from the partiton of Poland. He was regarded as an enlightened monarch, promoting religious tolerance, modernising the bureaucracy and civil service and patronising the work of writers and philosophers such as Voltaire and Kant. From A History of Germany by HE Marshall.