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Why did Voltaire leave Prussia after living at Frederick II’s court?

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Life-sized plaster sculpture Seated Voltaire by Jean-Antoine Houdon shows Voltaire draped in a robe, seated with a thoughtful expression and a ribbon crown, against a dark background. — Voltaire *Voltaire*, plaster sculpture by Jean-Antoine Houdon; in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California.

Voltaire’s departure from the court of Frederick II in Prussia was the result of escalating personal and professional conflicts. While he was initially enchanted by his stay in Berlin and Potsdam, his time there was marred by a lawsuit with a moneylender and various quarrels with prominent noblemen.1

The situation reached a breaking point when Voltaire engaged in a scientific controversy with Maupertuis, the president of the Berlin Academy. Voltaire published a satirical pamphlet titled Diatribe du docteur Akakia (1752), which ridiculed Maupertuis. Enraged by this, Frederick II ordered the pamphlet to be burned and reprimanded Voltaire severely. Consequently, Voltaire left Prussia on March 26, 1753, leaving the king exasperated and determined to punish him.1