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USC Digital Voltaire

1750-1753

Frederick invites Voltaire to Berlin.

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1. 1740 Frederick ascends the throne of Prussia upon the death of his father Frederick William. He abandons peaceful pursuits to make his place in the geopolitical intrigue of 18th-century Europe. The Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI (1685-1740) dies leaving his daughter Maria Theresa Walburga Amalia Christina (1717-1780) as heir to both the Empire and the House of Hapsburg. Saxony, Prussia, Bavaria, and France all repudiate her claim as Holy Roman Empress. Frederick invades Silesia starting the War of the Austrian Succession. Emilie du Châtelet (1706-1749) publishes her Institutions de Physique. Her collaboration and romantic involvement with Voltaire is well-known and lasts for most of her adult life.
2. 1741 Prussia consists of scattered territories across central Europe with few significant allies save for Great Britain. Sensing weakness in the Austrian Empire, Frederick deceives Habsburg Queen Maria Theresa to allow his armies to occupy Lower Silesia in exchange for protection from France, Spain, and Bavaria. He proceeds to invade key areas, forcing Maria Theresa to cede almost all of Silesia to Prussia. First performance of Mahomet, a play about religious fanaticism.
3. 1742
12. 1745 Frederick defeats both Austrian and Saxon forces in three major battles to hold on to Silesia. Frederick commissions the architect Hans Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff (1699-1753) to build the Sanssouci Palace in Potsdam. Jean-Philippe Rameau’s (1683-1764) opera-ballet La princesse de Navarre (text from Voltaire’s play) is performed in Versailles in the Théâtre du château. Jeanne Antoinette Poisson (1721-1764) is introduced to the royal court of Versailles and becomes the chief mistress of King Louis XV. She is henceforth known as Madame de Pompadour. At her urging, the king appoints Voltaire Royal Historiographer of France, a title bestowed upon him as a result of his histories of both Louis XIV and the Swedish King Charles II. Francis I, François Étienne, (1708-1765) becomes Holy Roman Emperor.
13. 1746
14. 1747
16. 1749 Denis Diderot publishes his Lettre sur les aveugles, a treatise arguing for the notion of "thinking matter" (following La Mettrie) and demonstrating that the “argument by design” is unconvincing. He is incarcerated in the Vincennes fortress, later to be released on Voltaire’s behest. Émilie du Châtelet completes her translation and commentary of Newton’s Principia Mathematica. It will be published posthumously in 1759. Voltaire returns to Paris when Mme du Châtelet dies this year.
21. 1752
23. 1755 Voltaire moves to Geneva, where he purchases Les Délices, accompanied by his niece Madame Denis, Marie Louise Mignot (1712–1790), who remains with him for the rest of his life. The Great Earthquake of Lisbon occurs on All Saints Day (November 1st). This historical event will have lasting philosophical influence for deism’s position on the problem of natural evil and the ontological unacceptability to the idea of an omnipotent God.
26. 1757 Voltaire acts as unofficial diplomatic intermediary between France and Prussia after the outbreak of the Seven Years War in 1756. Robert-François Damiens (1715-1757) attempts to assassinate King Louis XV. The Holy Roman Empire declares war on Prussia. In the Battle at Prague, Frederik beats the army of the Holy Roman Empire. However, at the Battle at Kolin in Bohemia, the Austrian army beats Prussia and three months later occupies Berlin for one night. The city is ransomed for 2000,000 thalers.
27. 1758
32. 1763
33. 1764
42. 1767
46. 1770
55. 1774 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) publishes his novel Die Leiden des jungen Werthers. His play Götz von Berlichingen is premiered in Berlin. Both are definitive works of the Storm and Stress period of German literature. Louis XV dies and his grandson becomes Louis XVI. Publication of Voltaire’s Le Taureau blanc, loosely based on the Greek mythological tale of Europa and the bull. In Voltaire’s tale the Bible is put on the same level as the myths from Ovid and various biblical teachings are ridiculed.
57. 1775 Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais (1732-1799) stages his play Le Barbier de Séville at the Comédie-Française. Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714-1787) stages his opera Iphigénie en Aulide at the Salle du Palais-Royal in Paris The premiere sparks a huge controversy demonstrating the Enlightenment’s preference for classicism in music and the arts, with its emphasis on balance and clarity of form, over the ostentation and ornateness of baroque music and art. Jean-Jacques Rousseau and other writers associated with the Encyclopédie side with the aesthetic ideals of classicism.
59. 1778 Voltaire returns to Paris in February. He sits for the sculptor Houdon. He attends a meeting of the Académie Française. He is present at the Comédie Française for a triumphal performance of his tragedy Irène. Taken ill he dies on 30 May, one month after his initiation into Freemasonry. He cannot be buried in consecrated ground, and his body is smuggled out of Paris by night and interred at Scellières, in Champagne. Louis XVI declares war on the Kingdom of Great Britain.
63. 1785
64. 1786