FREDERICK, THE GREAT ELECTOR 189 FREDERICK, THE GREAT ELECTOR (1620-1688) FREDERICK WILLIAM, Elector of Brandenburg, surnamed the Great Elector, was the son of the Elector George William. In the distracted state of Germany, during the Thirty Years' War, and the necessary absence of his father with the army, the young prince saw but little of the splen- dor and indulgences of a court, passing the first years of his life in retirement with his tutors, who were men of learning and experience, and with his mother, first at the castle of Litzlingen, in the for- ests of the Altmark, and afterward at Custrin. The adventures and the singular fortunes of the family of his mother (who was sister of Frederick, King of Bohemia, husband of the Princess Eliza- beth, daughter of James I. of England), the cruel and barbarous manner in which the war was carried on, and the dangers to which he and his family were exposed, necessarily made a deep impression on his mind. At the age of fifteen he was sent to the University at Leyden, where he especially devoted himself to the clas- sics and to history. Of modern languages he was a proficient in French, Dutch, and Polish. He was afterward in the camp of Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange, during the siege of Breda, and was much noticed by the prince for his amiable manners and exemplary conduct, as well as for his sound understanding. About this time a widely known society of young persons of both sexes (called Media Nocte) endeavored to draw the prince into its circle at The Hague ; but his friend and tutor, the Baron Schulenberg, making him aware of the immoral nature of the society, the prince abruptly left one of their convivial meetings, and resolved immediately to quit The Hague. The Prince of Orange was much sur- prised at this self-command, and when the prince arrived in the camp before Breda, said to him, " Cousin, your flight is a greater proof of heroism than if I took Breda ; he who so early knows how to command himself will always suc- ceed in great deeds." These words, as he himself owned, made a deep impression on him. His father dying in 1640, the young prince found his dominions reduced to a most deplorable condition by war and bad government. The exactions of Wal- lenstein in Altmark alone were estimated at twenty millions of gold florins ; and in a memorial of the magistrate of Prenzlau, it is stated that the inhabitants are reduced to such dreadful extremities that they not only eat dogs, cats, and even carrion, but that, both in the town and country, they attack and kill each other
