39 THE SILESIAN WARS, 1740-5his royal person in the large but still incomplete palace of Seelowitz,
'a charming location, worthy of accommodating a great prince'
(Stille, 1764, 32). The little river Svratka separated this establishment
from a large, arid hill which afforded views over the surrounding
plain and in the direction of Briinn, just ten miles to the north.
Frederick resided in Seelowitz from 13 March to 4 April. As was to be
his habit, when he occupied spacious lodgings during a lull in the
campaign, he took the opportunity to compose tactical directions for
his army. There were three of these 'Seelowitz Instructions' - one
each for heavy cavalry, the hussars and the infantry (see p. 309).
Frederick believed that it was quite possible that he would have
to do battle with the Austrians at short notice, and with this in mind
he selected a suitable site at Pohrlitz. In fact the encounter still lay
two months ahead; meanwhile the Moravian half-campaign did
nothing to advance Frederick's reputation as statesman, commander
or prince.
Frederick's demands on the Austrians were so extreme that he
destroyed all English attempts at mediation. He no longer required
Upper Silesia, which he regarded as barren, remote and hostile, but
instead he insisted on the cession of the circles of Pardubitz and
Koniggratz, which were blessed with the most favourable climate
and some of the richest soils in Bohemia. To the rear the region was
readily accessible from the County of Glatz, while a couple of marches
by the Prussians to their front would sever the Austrian communica-
tions with Prague. Put in other terms, once Frederick was legally
established in that part of the world, he would have made Bohemia
untenable for the Austrians, and completed the virtual encirclement
of the electorate of Saxony. Like the Herstal episode of 1740,
Frederick's demands in the spring of 1742 have received little atten-
tiorf from the historians, but they tell us a great deal about the
ambitions of our hero.
Meanwhile it became increasingly clear that one of the principal
objectives of Frederick in holding his forces inactive in Moravia was
to turn the province into a strategic desert. Seelowitz itself was
plundered, and out in the country the peasants were forced to reveal
the location of all their stores of grain, which were then destroyed or
carried off. 'Altogether the marquisate of Moravia, which had been
reputed the finest and richest in Germany, was reduced to a scene of
pitiable desolation' (Mauvillon, 1756, II, 64).
Frederick's harshness extended to his own allies. Saxon officers
came to Seelowitz and protested against the king's practice of assign-
ing them to the most arduous duties in the blockade of Briinn and
denying them proper supplies and shelter. Frederick's younger
brother Henry later took him up on the point: 'You allocated the