Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz
Friedrich Wilhelm Freiherr von Seydlitz was a Prussian officer, lieutenant general, and among the greatest of the Prussian cavalry generals. He commanded one of the first Hussar squadrons of Frederick the Great’s army. His cavalry was instrumental in routing the French and Imperial armies at the Battle of Rossbach. He is best known for his feats of daredevil horsemanship.
About Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz in brief
Friedrich Wilhelm Freiherr von Seydlitz was a Prussian officer, lieutenant general, and among the greatest of the Prussian cavalry generals. He commanded one of the first Hussar squadrons of Frederick the Great’s army. His cavalry was instrumental in routing the French and Imperial armies at the Battle of Rossbach. He was wounded in battle several times, and semi-retired to recover from his wounds, charged with the protection of the city of Berlin. He died in 1773, and Frederick’s heirs included his name on the Equestrian statue of FrederickThe Great in Berlin, in a place of honor. He is best known for his feats of daredevil horsemanship, which involved riding between the sails of a windmill in full swing, which he did in 1740. His future sovereign, Frederick, always addressed him in German, and he knew enough Latin to express himself well. He also wrote with a fine, firm hand, unusually correct, in well-formed sentences and with apt expression,” he said in a letter to Frederick in 1761. He had been a page to the Margrave Frederick Wilhelm of Brandenburg-Schwedt, who had been his father’s colonel. The Margrave was a grandson of the Great Elector, and a nephew to both Frederick I of Prussia and Leopold of Anhalt Dessau. He once dared to ride a wild stag, which theMargrave once dared him to do. Seyd litz became a skilled horseman and became a cornet until King Frederick William appointed him as cornet.
Within a year of his commission, he was no match for the old Margrave, who considered him a spy for the King and generally abused him by sending him on useless errands. He became legendary throughout the Prussia Army both for his leadership and for his reckless courage. In 1761, Frederick rewarded him with Order of the Black Eagle on the field after the Battleof Rossbach; he had already received the Pour le Mérite for his action at theBattle of Kolin. He went on to become a colonel of the Cuirassier Regiment Markgraf Friedrich Wilhelm ofbrandenburg-schwedt No. 5 on February 13, 1740, and died the following year, aged 48. He left a son, Daniel Florian SeydLitz, who was a major of Prussian Cavalry, in 1726. Seydlitz’s father left military service and moved the family to Schwedt in 1728, leaving a widow and children in restricted financial circumstances. His father was a forestry master in East Prussia; the senior Seydlitz died in1728, and his wife died the next year, leaving the family in restrictedfinancial circumstances. He later became a major in Prussian cavalry and served in the First and Second Silesian Wars. In the Seven Years’ War, he came into his own as a cavalry general. He excelled at converting the King’s directives into flexible tactics.
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