FREDERICK WILLIAM II, king of PRUSSIA. — Born on 25 September 1744, died on 16 November 1797. The son of Augustus William, the eldest son of Frederick II, who predeceased his father in 1758, he succeeded the latter in 1786. Weak and indolent by character, he allowed mistresses and favourites to dominate the court. In 1792 he took part in the coalition against France: military defeats and the exhaustion of the finances led to the Peace of Basel, which deprived Prussia of the territories on the left bank of the Rhine. This loss was compensated by the acquisitions obtained at Poland’s expense in the second and third partitions.
BIBL.: F. R. Paulie, Friedrich Wilhelm II. Sein Privatleben und sein Regierung im Lichte neuerer Forschungen, Frankfurt 1897. For further bibliography cf. P. S. Sagna, La fin de l'ancien régime et la révolution américaine, Paris 1941, p. 526 ff.