Characters
Click any card to reveal biography, quotes, and battle history.
Frederick the Great
King of Prussia / Supreme Commander
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Frederick the Great
January 24, 1712 – August 17, 1786
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Frederick was an accomplished flautist and composer who wrote philosophical treatises and corresponded with Voltaire for decades. He despised German culture and spoke only French at court. After the catastrophic defeat at Kunersdorf — where he lost 19,000 men in a single afternoon — he wrote 'I believe all is lost' and carried a vial of poison for weeks. He was saved not by military victory but by the death of Empress Elizabeth of Russia, which brought an admirer of his to the throne.
"He who defends everything defends nothing."
The central figure of the Seven Years' War. Frederick the Great inherited a strong but small Prussian state and, surrounded by enemies seeking to dismember it, fought the most brilliant defensive war in military history. Outnumbered on every front, he compensated with speed, interior lines, and tactical genius — most famously the oblique attack. His survival against Austria, France, Russia, and Sweden simultaneously is considered the greatest feat of military command in the gunpowder age.
Key Battles
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Maria Theresa
Empress of Austria / Architect of the Grand Coalition
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Maria Theresa
May 13, 1717 – November 29, 1780
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Maria Theresa bore sixteen children while personally directing the war effort — she was pregnant during several of the war's critical campaigns. She reportedly wept openly at the Habsburg defeat at Leuthen but refused to consider peace. She despised her French allies ('I am an Austrian princess, not a French one') and loathed the Marquise de Pompadour, calling her 'Madame Whore' in her correspondence, even while formally addressing her letters to 'My dear Cousin' as diplomatic protocol required.
"I will die an empress but not a coward."
The most formidable opponent Frederick the Great ever faced — not on the battlefield, but in the diplomatic arena. Maria Theresa engineered the Diplomatic Revolution of 1756, inverting Europe's alliance system to unite Austria, France, and Russia against Prussia. She waged war to reclaim Silesia for sixteen years, and though she ultimately failed, her reforms modernized Austria and her determined resistance preserved the Habsburg Empire.
Key Battles
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William Pitt the Elder
Secretary of State / Effective Prime Minister of Great Britain
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William Pitt the Elder
November 15, 1708 – May 11, 1778
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Pitt suffered debilitating gout throughout the war — was sometimes carried into the House of Commons unable to walk, conducting cabinet meetings from his bed in flannel-wrapped legs. He was also subject to episodes of severe depression, disappearing from public life for months at a time. His opponents called him 'the Great Commoner' as an insult; his admirers turned it into his greatest title. When he resigned in 1761, London went into mourning.
"I know that I can save this country and that no one else can."
The strategic genius behind Britain's global victory. Pitt understood that the Seven Years' War was not a European struggle but a contest for global empire. His strategy was simple and devastating: use British naval power to cut off French colonies, subsidize Prussia to tie down French armies in Europe, then pick off French overseas possessions one by one. The result was the greatest territorial expansion in British history — Canada, India, and the Caribbean — all won in the same war.
Key Battles
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Robert Clive
Lieutenant Colonel / Governor of Bengal
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Robert Clive
September 29, 1725 – November 22, 1774
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After Plassey, Clive walked through the treasury of Bengal and reportedly stared at the accumulated wealth of a dynasty for several minutes before selecting his personal share — approximately £234,000 (roughly £30 million today). His self-congratulatory quote — 'I stand astonished at my own moderation' — was made to Parliament when he was later investigated for corruption. He died in London in 1774 of a probable self-inflicted stab wound, after years of opium addiction and depression. Parliament had spent years debating whether to condemn him.
"I stand astonished at my own moderation."
The man who won India. Clive arrived in Madras as a clerk, became a soldier out of boredom, and ended by delivering the entire subcontinent to Britain. His victory at Plassey — won largely through treachery and the timely defection of enemy commanders he had bribed — made Britain the dominant power in Bengal and set in motion the conquest of all India. His methods were ruthless and his personal enrichment immense.
Key Battles
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Marquise de Pompadour
Maîtresse-en-titre / Political Architect of French Strategy
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Marquise de Pompadour
December 29, 1721 – April 15, 1764
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Frederick the Great's contempt for Pompadour — expressed in vicious satirical poems — made her one of France's most committed war hawks. When Louis XV wavered after early defeats, Pompadour sustained French commitment to the coalition. When French commanders failed at Rossbach (where Frederick's army defeated a Franco-Imperial force twice its size in 90 minutes), she reportedly said: 'For that, they gave us a marshal?' The quote attributed to her — 'Après nous, le déluge' ('After us, the deluge') — spoken after France's defeat at Rossbach, became one of history's most famous expressions of aristocratic fatalism.
"After us, the deluge."
The most powerful woman in France who held no official office. As Louis XV's chief mistress and political confidante, the Marquise de Pompadour was instrumental in engineering the Diplomatic Revolution — the alliance between France and Austria that seemed to promise Prussia's destruction. She corresponded directly with Empress Maria Theresa, managed French court politics, and sustained France's commitment to the Austrian alliance despite repeated military disasters. Frederick the Great called her 'Madame Cotillon' (Madame Petticoat) and savaged her in poems. She never forgot.
Key Battles
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Admiral Edward Hawke
Admiral of the Fleet, Royal Navy
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Admiral Edward Hawke
February 21, 1705 – October 17, 1781
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The Battle of Quiberon Bay was fought in a force 8 gale in waters the French admiral considered too dangerous to navigate. Hawke's flagship nearly ran aground twice. Two British ships were wrecked — but seven French ships of the line were sunk or captured, and the French fleet as a fighting force was finished. When his flag captain warned that they were heading into water 'where I see breakers ahead,' Hawke replied: 'You have done your duty in pointing that out, now lay me alongside the French flagship.' His victory became the model for aggressive naval command.
"I have always been of the opinion that, in attacking the enemy, you cannot go too close."
The admiral who broke French naval power and sealed Britain's global victory. In the storm-lashed Battle of Quiberon Bay, Hawke chased the French fleet into shallow waters riddled with rocks, ignoring the danger to his own ships, and destroyed it utterly. The victory ended any prospect of French invasion of Britain and secured British command of the seas for the remainder of the war — and, arguably, for the next century.
Key Battles
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