morally
and politically decadent. Leopold of Austria (1790-1792) died after a
reign of but two years, his death being caused by sexual excesses and
debauchery with his German and Italian concubines. His private cabinet
was, after his death, found to be a true "arsenal of lust."

Still more disastrous to Prussia proved the sovereignty of Frederick
William II., nephew of the great Frederick; for during his calamitous
reign of eleven years (1786-1797) this monarch disorganized the solid
forces of the realm to such an extent that, a few years later, at the
battle of Jena (1806), Napoleon succeeded, as it were with one blow, in
overturning the proud structure of Frederick's state.

His court was the abode of an indescribable dissoluteness. As crown
prince, he had been married to Princess Elizabeth of Brunswick, who,
though not of good moral repute herself, nevertheless declined
intercourse with her dissolute consort. We must waive the responsibility
for the following report given by Scherr upon the authority of
Dampmartin, the well-informed courtier. "Frederick the Great, desiring
the succession to the throne to be ensured before his death, ordered an
old chamberlain to communicate to the princess that he, the king, wished
she should admit to intimate intercourse the lieutenant of the royal
guard N. N. (Von Schmettau), who had impressed the king by the beauty of
his form, his conduct, and his bravery. But no eloquence prevailed upon
the princess to yield to the shameless demand, whereupon the king
resolved upon the divorce of his nephew." Frederick William II. later
married Princess Louise of Hesse-Darmstadt, who bore him an heir to the
throne, the pure and honest Frederick William III. (1797-1840).

It must be said, however, that lawful marriage was but an episode in the
life of the immoral king Frederick William II., while favorite after
favorite divided his affections. Wilhelmina Encke, nominal wife of the
chamberlain Rietz, later raised to the rank of Countess of Lichtenau,
maintained her position with the king during his whole life, not only
through the influence of her own charms, but by means of immoral
services in connection with other beautiful women. Other ladies of noble
birth, Julie von Voss and Countess Sophie von Donhoff, exacted almost a
formal marriage from the king while the queen was actually alive, and
the Evangelical Consistory was compelled submissively to sanction the
royal bigamy. Rich payments to th