Editing Voltaire (section)

=== Prussia ===
[[File:Tafelrunde.PNG|thumb|upright=1.2|''Die Tafelrunde'' by [[Adolph von Menzel]]: guests of Frederick the Great at [[Sanssouci]], including members of the [[Prussian Academy of Sciences]] and Voltaire (third from left)]]

After the death of the Marquise in childbirth in September 1749, Voltaire briefly returned to Paris and in mid-1750 moved to [[Potsdam]], Prussia, at the invitation of Frederick the Great.{{sfn|Pearson|2005|pp=214–17}} The Prussian king (with the permission of Louis XV) made him a chamberlain in his household, appointed him to the [[Pour le Mérite|Order of Merit]], and gave him a salary of 20,000 [[French livre]]s a year.{{sfn|Pearson|2005|p=218}} He had rooms at [[Sanssouci]] and [[Charlottenburg Palace]].{{sfn|Pearson|2005|p=219}} Life went well for Voltaire at first,{{sfn|Pearson|2005|p=217}} and in 1751 he completed ''[[Micromégas]]'', a piece of science fiction involving ambassadors from another planet witnessing the follies of humankind.{{sfn|Pearson|2005|pp=220–21}} However, his relationship with Frederick began to deteriorate after he was accused of theft and forgery by a Jewish financier, Abraham Hirschel, who had invested in Saxon government bonds on behalf of Voltaire at a time when Frederick was involved in sensitive diplomatic negotiations with [[Electorate of Saxony|Saxony]].{{sfn|Pearson|2005|pp=221–22}}

He encountered other difficulties: an argument with [[Pierre Louis Maupertuis|Maupertuis]], the president of the [[Berlin Academy of Science]] and a former rival for Émilie's affections, provoked Voltaire's ''[[Doctor Akakia|Diatribe du docteur Akakia]]'' ("Diatribe of Doctor Akakia"), which satirized some of Maupertuis's theories and his persecutions of a mutual acquaintance, [[Johann Samuel König]]. This greatly angered Frederick, who ordered all copies of the document burned.{{sfn|Pearson|2005|pp=225–29}} On 1 January 1752, Voltaire offered to resign as chamberlain and return his insignia of the Order of Merit; at first, Frederick refused until eventually permitting Voltaire to leave in March.{{sfn|Pearson|2005|pp=229–30}} On a slow journey back to France, Voltaire stayed at [[Leipzig]] and [[Gotha]] for a month each, and [[Kassel]] for two weeks, arriving at [[Frankfurt]] on 31 May. The following morning, he was detained at an inn by Frederick's agents, who held him in the city for over three weeks while Voltaire and Frederick argued by letter over the return of a satirical book of poetry Frederick had lent to Voltaire. Marie Louise joined him on 9 June. She and her uncle only left Frankfurt in July after she had defended herself from the unwanted advances of one of Frederick's agents, and Voltaire's luggage had been ransacked and valuable items taken.{{sfn|Pearson|2005|pp=232–35}}

Voltaire's attempts to vilify Frederick for his agents' actions at Frankfurt were largely unsuccessful, including his ''Mémoires pour Servir à la Vie de M. de Voltaire,'' published posthumously, in which he also explicitly made mention of Frederick's homosexuality, when he described how the king regularly invited pages, young cadets or lieutenants from his regiment to have coffee with him and then withdrew with the favourite for a quickie.<ref>Tim Blanning, ''Frederick the Great: King of Prussia'' (Penguin edition, 2016), p. 446.</ref><ref>Bernd Krysmanski, "Evidence for the homosexuality and the anal erotic desires of the Prussian king" in ''Does Hogarth depict Old Fritz truthfully with a crooked beak?: the pictures familiar to us from Pesne to Menzel don't show this'', ''ART-Dok'' (Heidelberg University: arthistoricum.net, 2022), pp. 27–28. {{doi|10.11588/artdok.00008019}}.</ref> However, the correspondence between them continued, and though they never met in person again, after the [[Seven Years' War]] they largely reconciled.<ref>Mitford, Nancy (1970) ''Frederick the Great'' pp. 184–85, 269</ref>