The School of Battle - Frederick the Great - European History - Part 2 - Extra History

Frederick the Great would start a fire that would burn through the world but there was one thing standing in his way, his father. After developing a fascination with strategy battlefield tactics and leadership during the War of Polish Succession he was ready to become king. He'd studied philosophy, writing his own book. Hired architects, artists, and planned to fund science and education. However, Frederick soon found being king and talking about battle tactics was very different than waging your first battle.

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[Wolfiyeethegranddukecerberus]

He's got creative talents and battle malice. Hard as steel on the field, gentile in the palace!

[shinyagumon]

The bit about Fredrick William underfunding the Arts so bad they had to import singers from Saxony is so darkly funny.

[hfar_in_the_sky]

Even though Frederick published his work as the "Anti-Machiavel, " ironically enough I'd argue that whole bit about preemptive "wars of interest" is the type of pragmatic rulership that Machiavelli would actually endorse

[lucasjleandro]

Eugene Von Savoy is a Great Underrated Commander. He deserves a Extra History in future

[theemries]

Fredrick: “My time has come to conquer, and unify my scattered territory into an empire, but first… WE DANCE!”
*cue montage of culture and science funding*

[philtkaswahl]

You gotta feel for Elisabeth Christine. She was treated more as a secretary by Frederick for most of her life as his queen, though at least he did try his best to make sure she at least got treated as well as he could arrange despite detesting her as someone he felt he was saddled with.

[iDeathMaximuMII]

"A response to trauma" - Shows Frederick William screaming in a full on fit of rage

[deanrubin]

It's ironic that Charles loved Maria Theresa and gave her a great childhood but when he died he left her a broken empire, while Frederick the great's dad hated him and tried to have him killed and yet when he died he left him one of the most powerful armies in Europe

[BetterDeadthenRed]

The way that Fredrick became a milltary enthusiast is legit every pre-teen who thought history was the dumb subject and then saw how cool HOI4 is and when they do buy the game they get like 231232132131 hours on it in the first day

[mrscoldarrow]

An alternate timeline where Maria Theresa and Frederick the Great marry would be a fascinating idea to explore honestly, it would completely change the eventual unification of Germany

[jish]

I REALLY hope we get a series on Peter the Great. Seriously, his history is insane, from setting up armies of children at the age of 10 for war games (while killing them using real life canons) to what was essentially a frat house trip around Europe (one time, he forced his crew to take a bite out of a dead body). This man had an amazing life and did so much within his lifetime that without him, Russia wouldn't exist today.

[rennor]

After the battle of Möllwitz when Frederick heard that his army triumphed in his absence he swore never again to abandon the battlefield even in the face of certain defeat.

Also, in the aftermath of this battle, practically the entire Duchy of Silesia, which was comprised of semi-autonomous cities, estates and minor counties which belonged to the Habsburg inheritance as part of the Crown of Bohemia (one of their many titles which they held) was subsequently stripped from the Bohemian realm and incorporated into Prussian domains. Which was a pity as it had been part of Bohemian lands for 400 years, since medieval times.

[The-rccm]

Me: What was Fredrick the Greats most infamous battle?
EC: School
Me: Oh well mine is- wait huh?

[parkerthompson]

I feel like Fredrick was born in the wrong time because it seems like he would get really into grand strategy games

[EmilicoYamigos]

A so well disciplined army that they were capable of still putting a fight and winning a battle without orders from their King, they knew exactly what they had to do.

[Fordo]

I hope we get a series of Prince Eugene of Savoy in the future. He was a brilliant military genius in his time and his life story is so interesting. The whole late 17th and early 18th century is full of amazing personalities and events.

[LiamsClan]

Honestly it’s great that I know understand thanks to this series he was

*OUT THE GATE FIRST SERVANT OF STATE-*

[hectorjimenezmenacho]

Frederick is my favorite historical figure. He was brilliant as a militar, statesman and philosopher. Plato would be proud of the true philosopher king.

[steve-vcgo]

I love how: "that's another man in his live that was likely his lover"

[Palemagpie]

War philosophy is something to always be taken with a grain of salt.

It's famously said,

"The only just war is a merciful war,
The only merciful war is a swift war,
The only swift war is to crush your enemies as quickly and as cruelly as possible so that they never dane rise up against you again,
So the only merciful war is a cruel war"

See what I mean?