[Sidenote: Declaration of Pilinitz, August, 1791]
Now it so happened that the emperor found a curious ally in Prussia.
The death of Frederick the Great in 1786 had called to the throne of
that country a distinctly inferior sort of potentate, Frederick William
II (1786-1797), who combined with a nature at once sensual and
pleasure-loving a remarkable religious zeal. He neglected the splendid
military machine which Frederick William I and Frederick the Great had
constructed with infinite patience and thoroughness. He lavished great
wealth upon art as well as upon favorites and mistresses. He tired the
nation with an excessive Protestant orthodoxy. And in foreign affairs
he reversed the far-sighted policy of his predecessor by allying
himself with Austria and reducing Prussia to a secondary place among
the German states. In August, 1791, Frederick William II joined with
the Emperor Leopold in issuing the public Declaration of Pilinitz, to
the effect that the two rulers considered the restoration of order and
of monarchy in France an object of "common interest to all sovereigns
of Europe.
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