Frederick the Great's father tried to beat the music and poetry out of him, executed his best friend in front of him, and nearly had Frederick himself killed for attempting to flee the country. The traumatized prince grew into the most formidable military commander in eighteenth-century Europe — a flute-playing philosopher-king who defeated Austria, France, and Russia simultaneously and transformed tiny Prussia into a great power.

This episode traces Frederick from his brutal childhood through the escape attempt, the Seven Years' War, the Enlightenment patronage, and the military legacy that shaped German history for two centuries.

• Frederick's artistic childhood, his father's brutality, and the execution of his friend Hans von Katte
• The invasion of Silesia and the wars that established Prussia as a European great power ...