Frederic the Great (1712-86).

J. McCabe, Rationalists Encyclopaedia

Without disputing the title of this second famous Rationalist prince to be called "the Great," we may regret that it had not been pre-empted for the far greater Frederic of Sicily and Germany, but Christian historians had preferred to reserve it for such men as Constantine, Justinian, Charlemagne, and Pope Gregory I. Apart from aggressive wars and a certain Machiavellism in diplomacy, which we may connect with the painful character of his education and the demoralized condition of Germany, Frederic ruled his kingdom of Prussia with enlightenment and beneficence. He abolished serfdom on the royal domains (while it lingered in France and Russia), founded new industries, granted freedom of speech and religion, codified the law, and greatly promoted art, literature, and education. Prussia led Europe in the establishment of a system of schools. In his Anti-Machiavel, which was written before his accession (1740), he lays it down that a monarch must be "the first servant of the State." He is not responsible for - indeed, he detested - the Prussian nationalism which ever since the eighteenth century has tainted Germany. Frederic would make it an international centre of culture, and was himself more French than German.
      His letters, especially to Voltaire, freely express his Deistic Rationalism (in his Collected Works, 31 vols., 1846-57).
     

 

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