After Frederick II scored a stunning victory at Roßbach against a superior force of French and imperial troops, his fame and reputation soared across Germany and in Europe as a whole. Enthusiasm for the philosopher-soldier-king earned him the epithet “the Great” and may have prompted the Prussian hussars depicted below to force monks in a monastery near Marienfelde (now in Berlin) to drink to Frederick’s health. The intimidation depicted in the scene reflects the Protestant triumphalism of the Prussian soldiers, since the Austro-Prussian rivalry was widely perceived as a confrontation between Catholicism and Protestantism. The writing on the bottom margin reads, “Long live the King of Prussia” [“Es lebe der König von Preußen”].