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Show rxoooooocoooc 1 1 Historic Blackguards j I ! By ALBERT PAYSON TERHUNE jj Bcoocoaxio Copyright, by the Press Publishing Co. (The New York World). Frederick William, Wise King, Brutal Father A WISE king, a ( bad father; V0"1". kind and sS'y' cruel, spend- iji y thrift and miser, (;?i5i'1$5sL -"v military mad, yet SfJ avoiding war; a j $v"V. J just ruler of his p!S"v kingdom and bru- MStyk tal tyrant In his giS home. These are K07f J a few of the thou- FPEDERICK WILHELM Band contradictions that made up the nature of Frederick Wiliam I., second king of Prussia, and father of Frederick Freder-ick the Great. Perhaps it is not wholly whol-ly fair, in one sense, to call him a blackguard, but in other respects few men have had better claim to the word. His father had been extravagant ind had left the newly-formed kingdom In bad financial state. Frederick William" Wil-liam" began his reign In 1713 by cutting cut-ting down official salaries and discharging dis-charging many state employes. He rIbo excited anger and ridicule by hundreds of other harsh economies. In spite of his craze for military affairs, af-fairs, Frederick William managed to reign 27 years with only one little war to mar the peace of his realm. He Bneered at all sorts of education that were not absolutely practical (even torbldding his son to learn Latin.) He also chose vulgar and Illiterate men ind women as his boon companions, rather than such persons of intellect as happened to be at the court He used to walk the streets, beating with his cane any one who chanced to be Idling. His rule was one of iron, and he firmly believed in the "divine right of kings" to do as they pleased without with-out considering the rights or feelings of others. Frederick William held his wife in contempt and more than once publicly made her the object of brutal ;'ests. Of his ten children he had a positive hatred hat-red for his clever daughter Wilhelm-ina Wilhelm-ina and for his eldest son Frederick. Young Frederick was brought up In a strict, cruel manner, such as few modern boys would endure. He was sensitive and high-spirited. The pris on-like discipline and harshness might well., have broken a weaker spirit. It merely strengthened Frederick's. At length Frederick William's cruelty toward to-ward the lad became unbearable. Fred erick, in 1730, when he was eighteen years old, planned to escape from bondage and to take refuge with his uncle, King George II. of England. He needed a confederate to help him escape. es-cape. So he chose his dearest friend, Lieut, von Katte. The plot was discovered by the king Von Katte was thrown into prison and was sentenced by military court-martial to remain there for two years Frederick was also arrested and taken before his father. The king was mad with rage, heaped vile insults on the helpless youth, then rushed fiercely at him, beating him almost to death before be-fore bystanders could drag him away. But this did not check Frederick William's Wil-liam's wrath. He declared that his son, as a colonel ir the Prussian army, had been guilty of attempted desertion in trying to escape to England. Eng-land. He had him placed In solitary confinement in the fortress of Custrln and ordered him beheaded. Only the stern protests of other European Eu-ropean sovereigns prevented the king from carrying out this unnatural threat. But he chose another punishment punish-ment almost as cruel. Condemning Lieut, von Katte to death, he had a scaffold erected just outside Frederick's Freder-ick's prison window and forced the wretched prince to witness his friend's execution. As the lieutenant mounted the scaffold Frederick called out to him, Bobbing: "Oh, forgive me, dear Katte!" The lieutenant answered bravely: "It is a pleasure to die for so gal lant a prince." The king next tried in vain to force Frederick to give up his claims as heir to the throne. Failing in this, he kept him long in 6eml-lmprisonment and forced him to marry a princess he greatly disliked. Yet, at the time of his own death, In 1740, the old king s last wordu were: "I die content, having a noble son to succeed me!" Pedro the Cruel, the King Too Brutal for a Brutal Age A SEVEN- " TEEN-year- S old boy, in 1350. cast A , aside his advisers fv and guardians J i (who had been QJS.W$im placed in charge YS'MMP of him and of his plV realm during his flS iuki ..--4 minority) and de-. (if VrTfo. clared himself his PEDRO THE CRUEL own master. The lad was Pedro I., king of the Spanish states of Castile and Leon. He Is known to history as "Pedro the Cruel." Many acts that would nowadays be regarded as barbarous cruelty were then looked upon as mere deeds of justice jus-tice and necessity. It was an unbelievably unbe-lievably brutal and cruel age. For a man In that century to win the title of "The Cruel" implied a monstrous character. Pedro, as a mere boy, fell under the Influence of one of the most beauti-1 ful, clever and unscrupulous women of all history. She was Maria de Padilla. It was she who prompted him to cast aside his counsellors and to declare himself king. Her next step was to induce him to give her relatives rela-tives the highest court offices. The crafty old prime minister, Albuquerque, Albu-querque, had strengthened Maria's influence in-fluence over Pedro in the hope of advancing ad-vancing his own interests. But Maria made Pedro dismiss Albuquerque from ' tervice. Courtiers who failed to pay her all sorts of extravagant compliments compli-ments were put to death by the king's orders. When Pedro was twenty it was arranged ar-ranged that he should marry a gentle nd lovely French princess, Blanche of Bourbon. Maria, fearing to lose her own power over the young king, tit on a truly devilish trick for making mak-ing him hate his sweet young wife. Blanche gave Pedro a splendid jeweled jew-eled girdle as a bridal gift. Maria, by a sleight-of-hand feat, stole the girdle and put in its place a poisonous make. She then worked on Pedro's luperstltions by telling him Blanche ivas a sorceress, and had sought, to kill him by means of the "bewitched" firdle. In terror, Pedro sent his innocent in-nocent wife to prison. (They had een married just three days.) For this and for other acts of cru-ilty cru-ilty and misrule the people murmur-id. murmur-id. They took Blanche's part So did Pedro's half-brother, Don Fad-rique. Fad-rique. Pedro assured them that he loved Blanche and would set her free. Instead, he put her to death. He invited in-vited Fadrique to the palace and went forth to greet him as the latter entered enter-ed the palace courtyard. Then, at a signal from Pedro, Fadrique was stabbed to death by an assassin. A second half-brother was disposed of by Pedro in like manner. So were many noblemen. At last, under a third half-brother, Henry of Trasta-mara, Trasta-mara, the nobles rebelled against Pedro. Pe-dro. The pope excommunicated him for his series of black crimes. He was driven out of Spain by Henry and by the latter's allies, the "White Companies" Com-panies" (soldiers of fortune). Taking refuge in France, Pedro fell In with the "Black Prince," heir apparent of England, who was ravaging the French lands. By making certain glittering promises of reward Pedro induced the Black Prince to help him regain his throne. At the head of an English army they marched into Spain. There, in the fierce battle (Navarete, 1367), they beat Henry. Pedro was once more king. He failed to keep any of the promises prom-ises he had made, and the Black Prince left Spain in disgust. As soon as the dreaded English troops were gone the war broke out anew. Henry gained many victories. He could not wholly conquer the king. At last, in 1369, he Induced Pedro to come to his tent for a peace, conference. Scarcely had the two half-brothers met in the tent than they flew at each other's throats like angry dogs. Henry 6tabbed Pedro with a dagger. But the blade broke off against the coat of mail the king wore under his cloak. Pedro then, by main force, caught Henry in his arms and hurled him to the ground. But one of Henry's followers tripped Pedro and sent him sprawling. Before the fallen king could scramble to his feet, Henry drove a sword through his throat Thus perished Pedro the Cruel in hi3 thirty-sixth year. Henry seized the throne, put the slain monarch's two sons in a cage and starved them to death. Scoundrel though Pedro was, he had been loved by the common people. peo-ple. Many of them prospered under his reign, and a whimsical sense of fairness on his part had led them to nickname him "Pedro the Just." |