| Frederick William III | |
|---|---|
_(cropped).jpg) Portrait of Frederick William III,c. 1830-40 | |
| King of Prussia | |
| Reign | 16 November 1797 –7 June 1840 |
| Predecessor | Frederick William II |
| Successor | Frederick William IV |
| Elector of Brandenburg | |
| Reign | 16 November 1797 –6 August 1806 |
| Predecessor | Frederick William II |
| Successor | Electorate abolished |
| Born | 3 August 1770 Potsdam,Prussia,Holy Roman Empire |
| Died | 7 June 1840(1840-06-07) (aged 69) Berlin, Prussia |
| Burial | Mausoleum atCharlottenburg Palace |
| Spouses | |
| Issue see details... | |
| House | Hohenzollern |
| Father | Frederick William II of Prussia |
| Mother | Frederica Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt |
| Religion | Calvinist (until 1817) Prussian United (after 1817) |
| Signature |  |
| Prussian Royalty |
| House of Hohenzollern |
|---|
 |
| Frederick William III |
Frederick William III (German:Friedrich Wilhelm III.; 3 August 1770 – 7 June 1840) wasKing of Prussia from 16 November 1797 until his death in 1840. He was concurrentlyElector of Brandenburg in theHoly Roman Empire until 6 August 1806, when the empire was dissolved.
Frederick William III ruled Prussia during the times of theNapoleonic Wars. The king reluctantly joined theSixth Coalition against Napoleon in theGerman campaign of 1813. Following Napoleon's defeat, he took part in theCongress of Vienna, which assembled to settle the political questions arising from the new, post-Napoleonic order in Europe. His primary interests were internal – the reform of Prussia's Protestant churches. He was determined to unify the Protestant churches to homogenize their liturgy, organization, and architecture. The long-term goal was to have fully centralized royal control of all the Protestant churches in thePrussian Union of Churches.
The king was said to be extremely shy and indecisive. His wife QueenLouise (1776–1810) was his most important political advisor.[citation needed] She led a mighty group that included BaronHeinrich Friedrich Karl vom und zum Stein, PrinceKarl August von Hardenberg,Gerhard von Scharnhorst, and CountAugust Neidhardt von Gneisenau. They set about reforming Prussia's administration, churches, finance, and military. He was the dedicatee ofBeethoven'sNinth Symphony in 1824.
Frederick William was born inPotsdam on 3 August 1770 as the son ofFrederick William II of Prussia andFrederica Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt. He was considered to be a shy and reserved boy, which became noticeable in his particularly reticent conversations, distinguished by the lack of personal pronouns. This manner of speech subsequently came to be considered entirely appropriate for military officers.[1] He was neglected by his father during his childhood and suffered from aninferiority complex his entire life.[2]
As a child, Frederick William's father (under the influence of his mistress,[3]Wilhelmine Enke, Countess of Lichtenau) had him handed over to tutors, as was quite normal for the period. He spent part of the time living atParetz, the estate of the old soldier, Count Hans vonBlumenthal, who was a tutor and guardian of his brother,Prince Henry. They thus grew up partly with the count's son, who accompanied them on theirGrand Tour in the 1780s. Frederick William was happy at Paretz, and for this reason, in 1795, he bought it from his boyhood friend and turned it into an important royal country retreat. He was a melancholy boy, but he grew uppious and honest. His tutors included the dramatistJohann Jakob Engel.
As a soldier, he received the usual training of a Prussian prince, obtained hislieutenancy in 1784, became a lieutenant colonel in 1786, acolonel in 1790, and took part in the campaigns against France of 1792–1794.[3] On 24 December 1793, Frederick William marriedLouise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, with whom he had ten children. In theKronprinzenpalais (Crown Prince's Palace) in Berlin, Frederick William lived a civil life with a problem-free marriage, which did not change even when he becameKing of Prussia in 1797. His wife Louise was particularly loved by the people ofPrussia, which boosted the popularity of the wholeHouse of Hohenzollern, including the King himself.[4]
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Frederick William succeeded to the throne on 16 November 1797. He also became, inpersonal union, the sovereign prince of thePrincipality of Neuchâtel (1797–1806 and again 1813–1840). At once, the new king showed that he was earnest of his good intentions by cutting down the royal establishment's expenses, dismissing his father's ministers, and reforming the most oppressive abuses of the late reign.[3] He had theHohenzollern determination to retain personal power but not the Hohenzollern genius for using it.[3] Too distrustful todelegate responsibility to his ministers,[3] he greatly reduced the effectiveness of his reign since he was forced to assume the roles he did not delegate. This is the main factor of his inconsistent rule.[5]
Disgusted with his father's court (in both political intrigues and sexual affairs), Frederick William's first and most successful early endeavor was to restore his dynasty's moral legitimacy. The eagerness to restore dignity to his family went so far that it nearly caused sculptorJohann Gottfried Schadow to cancel the expensive and lavishPrinzessinnengruppe project, which was commissioned by the previous monarch Frederick William II. He was quoted as saying the following, which demonstrated his sense of duty and peculiar manner of speech:
Every civil servant has a dual obligation: to the sovereign and the country. It can occur that the two are not compatible; then, the duty to the country is higher.
At first, Frederick William and his advisors attempted to pursue a neutrality policy in theNapoleonic Wars. Although they succeeded in keeping out of theThird Coalition in 1805, eventually, Frederick William was swayed by the queen's attitude, who led Prussia's pro-war party and entered into the war in October 1806. On 14 October 1806, at theBattles of Jena-Auerstädt, theFrench effectively decimated thePrussian Army's effectiveness and functionality; led by Frederick William, the Prussian army collapsed entirely soon after.Napoleon occupied Berlin in late October. The royal family fled toMemel,East Prussia, where they fell on the mercy of EmperorAlexander I of Russia.
Alexander, too, suffered defeat at the hands of the French, and atTilsit on theNiemen France made peace withRussia and Prussia.Napoleon dealt with Prussia very harshly, despite the pregnant queen's interview with the French emperor, which was believed to soften the defeat. Instead, Napoleon took much less mercy on the Prussians than what was expected. Prussia lost many of its Polish territories and all territory west of theElbe and had to finance a large indemnity and pay French troops to occupy key strong points within the kingdom.
Although the ineffectual king himself seemed resigned to Prussia's fate, various reforming ministers, such asHeinrich Friedrich Karl vom und zum Stein, PrinceKarl August von Hardenberg,Gerhard Johann David von Scharnhorst, and CountAugust von Gneisenau, set about reforming Prussia's administration and military, with the encouragement of Queen Louise (who died, greatly mourned, in 1810). After bereavement, Frederick William fell under the influence of a 'substitute family' of courtiers, among whom includedFriedrich Ancillon, a Huguenot preacher that provided the king with strong ideological support against political reforms that might restrain monarchical power,Sophie Marie von Voß, an older woman with conservative views and PrinceWilhelm zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein.[6]
In 1813, following Napoleon'sdefeat in Russia and pressured by theConvention of Tauroggen, Frederick William turned against France and signed an alliance with Russia atKalisz. However, he had to flee Berlin, still under French occupation. Prussian troops played a crucial part in the victories of the allies in 1813 and 1814, and the king himself traveled with the main army ofKarl Philipp Fürst zu Schwarzenberg, along with Alexander of Russia andFrancis of Austria.
At theCongress of Vienna, Frederick William's ministers succeeded in securing significant territorial increases for Prussia. However, they failed to obtain the annexation of all ofSaxony, as they had wished.[7] Following the war, Frederick William turned towards political reaction, abandoning the promises he had made in 1813 to provide Prussia with a constitution.[8]
Frederick William was determined to unify the Protestant churches to homogenize their liturgy, organization, and architecture. The long-term goal was to have fully centralized royal control of all the Protestant churches in thePrussian Union of Churches. The merging of the Lutheran and Calvinist (Reformed) confessions to form the United Church of Prussia was highly controversial. Angry responses included a large and well-organized opposition. Especially the "Old Lutherans" in Silesia refused to abandon their liturgical traditions. The crown responded by attempting to silence protest. The stubborn Lutheran minority was coerced by military force, their churches' confiscation, and their pastors' imprisonment or exile. By 1834 outward union was secured based on common worship but separate symbols—the opponents of the measure being forbidden to form communities of their own. Many left Prussia, settling inSouth Australia,Canada, and theUnited States. The king's unsuccessful counterattack worsened tensions at the highest levels of government. The crown's aggressive efforts to restructure religion were unprecedented in Prussian history. In a series of proclamations over several years, theChurch of the Prussian Union was formed, bringing together the majority group of Lutherans and the minority group of Reformed Protestants. The main effect was that the government of Prussia had full control over church affairs, with the king himself recognized as the leading bishop.[9]
In 1824 Frederick William III married for the second time, toCountess Auguste von Harrach zu Rohrau und Thannhausen. At the time of their marriage, theHouse of Harrach was still not recognized asequal to otherEuropean royal families for dynastic purposes. The marriage was thereforemorganatic and she was createdPrincess ofLiegnitz. They had no children.[4]
In 1838 the king distributed large parts of his farmland atErdmannsdorf Estate to 422 Protestant refugees from the AustrianZillertal, who builtTyrolean style farmhouses in the Silesian village.[citation needed]
Frederick William III died on 7 June 1840 in Berlin, from a fever,[10] survived by his second wife. His eldest son,Frederick William IV, succeeded him. Frederick William III is buried at the Mausoleum in SchlossparkCharlottenburg, Berlin.[4]
| Name | Birth | Death | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| (daughter, no name) | 1 October 1794 | 1 October 1794 | stillborn |
| Frederick William IV of Prussia | 15 October 1795 | 2 January 1861 | marriedElisabeth Ludovika of Bavaria (1801–1873), no issue. |
| William I, German Emperor | 22 March 1797 | 9 March 1888 | marriedPrincess Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (1811–1890), had issue. |
| Princess Charlotte of Prussia | 13 July 1798 | 1 November 1860 | marriedNicholas I of Russia (1796–1855), had issue including the futureAlexander II of Russia |
| Princess Frederica of Prussia | 14 October 1799 | 30 March 1800 | died in childhood |
| Prince Charles of Prussia | 29 June 1801 | 21 January 1883 | marriedPrincess Marie of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (1808–1877), had issue. |
| Princess Alexandrine of Prussia | 23 February 1803 | 21 April 1892 | marriedPaul Friedrich, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1800–1842), had issue. |
| Prince Ferdinand of Prussia | 13 December 1804 | 1 April 1806 | died in childhood |
| Princess Louise of Prussia | 1 February 1808 | 6 December 1870 | marriedPrince Frederik of the Netherlands (1797–1881), had issue. |
| Prince Albert (Albrecht) of Prussia | 4 October 1809 | 14 October 1872 | marriedPrincess Marianne of the Netherlands (1810–1883), had issue; married second toRosalie von Rauch (1820–1879), Countess of Hohenau, had issue. |
Prussia:
Russian Empire:[13]
Sweden:
Austrian Empire: Knight of theMilitary Order of Maria Theresa,1813[18]
Spain:Knight of the Golden Fleece,30 May 1814[19]
United Kingdom:Knight of the Garter,9 June 1814[20]
Denmark:Knight of the Elephant,31 August 1814[12]
Netherlands:Grand Cross of the Military William Order,9 July 1821[21]
Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach:Grand Cross of the White Falcon,1 March 1823[22]
Baden:[23]
Kingdom of Portugal: Grand Cross of theSash of the Three Orders,30 August 1825[24]
Kingdom of Bavaria:Knight of St. Hubert,1826[25]
Kingdom of Sardinia:Knight of the Annunciation,6 May 1833[26]
Ernestine duchies: Grand Cross of theSaxe-Ernestine House Order,November 1834[27]
Kingdom of Saxony:Knight of the Rue Crown,1836[28]
Grand Duchy of Hesse:Grand Cross of the Ludwig Order[12]
Two Sicilies:[29]
Württemberg:Knight of the Golden Eagle[30]Torgauer Marsch [de] is a German march dedicated to Frederick William III, it was written by a local residence in Torgau for his royal visit on 24 June 1817.
Media related toFrederick William III of Prussia at Wikimedia CommonsFrederick William III of Prussia Born: 3 August 1770 Died: 7 June 1840 | ||
| Regnal titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Prince of Neuchâtel 1797–1806 | Succeeded by |
| Elector of Brandenburg 1797–1806 | Annexed by Prussia | |
| King of Prussia 1797–1840 | Succeeded by | |
| New creation | Grand Duke of Posen 1815–1840 | |
| Preceded by | Prince of Neuchâtel 1814–1840 | |
| Duchy of Prussia (1525–1701) |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Kingdom of Prussia (1701–1918) | ||
1alsoElector of Brandenburg;2alsoGerman Emperor | ||
