Search -
History of Prussia to the Accession of Frederic the Great, 1134-1740
History of Prussia to the Accession of Frederic the Great 11341740 Author:Herbert Tuttle General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1896 Original Publisher: Houghton Subjects: Prussia (Germany) History / Europe / Germany Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get ... more »free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: The Russian activity, though not in itself immediately dangerous, had elements of danger which emphasized the importance for Prussia of a general peace. Such plans as Elizabeth entertained were dependent on the general situation of Europe. Her personal hatred of Frederic was intense, and her order could at any time set the legions of Russia in motion; but it was especially in connection with the forces of England, Austria, and Holland, and with the advantages which a general war gave her, that she was likely to be formidable. And aside from that, the vicissitudes of the pending struggle, with the large armies which it kept in the field, might at any time bring forth serious problems for Prussia. The policy of Frederic was therefore to encourage a Frederic and general peace. It was known that his mediation the war. was at e service of jhe belligerent powers whenever it could be given with any reasonable hopes of success, and without compromising in any way the neutrality of his own state. But the terms which were proposed by the one side and the other failed to satisfy this obvious requirement. They all alike aimed to make Prussia a party to the struggle, rather than an arbitrator between the parties. Such a position the king wisely refused to accept. He put aside the most tempting projects, such as the stadtholdership of Holland for himself, or one of his brothers, and the cession of the Austrian Netherlands to Prussia, as full of dangers which the exhausted state of the country made it unsafe to risk.1 Even madame d...« less