of 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 in Allgemeine 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, and Flora 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, Aus drei-viertel Jahrhunderten (2 vols., 1887); Flathe, in Allg. 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 became Rittmeister in the Garde du Corps
cavalry 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 Denkschrift
