Frederick William I, Elector of Brandenburg

Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg.

Frederick William (German: Friedrich Wilhelm) (16 February 1620 – 29 April 1688) was the Elector of Brandenburg and the Duke of Prussia ("Brandenburg-Prussia") from 1640 until his death. He was of the House of Hohenzollern and is popularly known as the Great Elector (Der Große Kurfürst) because of his military and political skill. Frederick William was also a staunch pillar of the Calvinist faith, associated with the rising commercial class. He saw the importance of trade and promoted it vigorously. The Great Elector's shrewd domestic reforms gave Prussia a strong position in the post-Westphalia political order of north-central Europe, setting Prussia up for elevation from duchy to kingdom, achieved under his successor.

Biography

Elector Frederick William was born in Berlin to George William, Elector of Brandenburg, and Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate. His inheritance consisted of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, the Duchy of Cleves, the County of Mark, and the Duchy of Prussia.

Foreign diplomacy

During the Thirty Years' War, George 1 William strove to maintain, with a minimal army, a delicate balance between the Protestant and Catholic forces fighting throughout the Holy Roman Empire. Out of these meagre beginnings Frederick William managed to rebuild his war-ravaged territories. In contrast to the religious disputes in other European states, the elector supported religious tolerance. With the help of French subsidies, he built up an army to defend the country. In the Second Northern War, he was forced into accepting Swedish vassalage for the Duchy of Prussia in the Treaty of Königsberg (1656).^[1] As the war progressed, Frederick William succeeded in gaining full sovereignty over the Prussian duchy in the treaties of Labiau, Wehlau, Bromberg and Oliva, leaving the Holy Roman Emperor as his only liege for his imperial holdings.^[2]

In the conflict for Pomerania inheritance, Frederick William had to accept two setbacks, one in the Northern War and one in the Scanian War. Though militarily successful in Swedish Pomerania, he had to bow to France's demands and return his gains to Sweden in the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1679).^[3]

Military career

Statue of Frederick William I at Charlottenburg Palace, Berlin

Frederick William was a military commander of wide renown; his standing army would later become the model for the Prussian Army. He is notable for his joint victory with Swedish forces at the Battle of Warsaw (1656), which according to Hajo Holborn marked "the beginning of Prussian military history",^[4] but the Swedes turned on him at the behest of King Louis XIV of France and invaded Brandenburg. After marching 250 kilometres in 15 days back to Brandenburg, he caught the Swedes by surprise and managed to defeat them on the field at the Battle of Fehrbellin, destroying the myth of Swedish military invincibility. He later destroyed another Swedish army that invaded the Duchy of Prussia during the Great Sleigh Drive in 1678. He is noted for his use of broad directives and delegation of decision-making to his commanders, which would later become the basis for the German doctrine of Auftragstaktik, and he is noted for using rapid mobility to defeat his foes.^[5]

Domestic policies

Frederick William is notable for raising an army of 40,000 soldiers by 1678, through the General War Commissariat presided over by Joachim Friedrich von Blumenthal. He was an advocate of mercantilism, monopolies, subsidies, tariffs, and internal improvements. Following Louis XIV's revocation of the Edict of Nantes, Frederick William encouraged skilled French and Walloon Huguenots to emigrate to Brandenburg-Prussia with the Edict of Potsdam, bolstering the country's technical and industrial base. On Blumenthal's advice he agreed to exempt the nobility from taxes and in return they agreed to dissolve the Estates-General. He also simplified travel in Brandenburg and the Duchy of Prussia by connecting riverways with canals, a system that was expanded by later Prussian architects, such as Georg Steenke; the system is still in use today.

Ancestry

Marriages

Painting of his 1646 wedding ceremony by Johannes Mytens.

On 7 December 1646 at The Hague, Frederick William entered into marriage, proposed by Blumenthal as a partial solution to the Jülich-Berg question, with Luise Henriette of Nassau (1627–1667), daughter of Frederick Henry of Orange-Nassau and Amalia of Solms-Braunfels. Their children were

• William Henry (1648–1649),
• Charles (1655–1674),
• Frederick (1657–1713), his successor,
• Amalie (1656–1664),
• Henry (1664–1664),
• Louis (1666–1687), who married Ludwika Karolina Radziwiłł.

On 13 June 1668 at Gröningen, Frederick William married Sophie Dorothea of Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, daughter of Philipp of Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg and Sophie Hedwig of Saxe-Lauenburg. Their children were

• Philip William (1669–1711),
• Marie Amalie (1670–1739),
• Albert Frederick (1672–1731),
• Charles (1673–1695),
• Elisabeth Sofie (1674–1748), who married Christian Ernst of Brandenburg-Bayreuth (August 06, 1644 - May 20, 1712) on March 30, 1703.
• Dorothea (1675–1676),
• Christian Ludwig (1677–1734), recipient of Bach's Brandenburg Concertos.

References

Rulers of Prussia Dukes of Prussia Albert · Albert Frederick · John Sigismund1 · George William1 · Frederick William1 · Frederick III (I)1 Kings in Prussia Frederick I1 · Frederick William I1 · Frederick II1 Kings of Prussia Frederick II · Frederick William II · Frederick William III · Frederick William IV · Wilhelm I · Frederick III · Wilhelm II 1Prince-Elector of Brandenburg-Prussia For the pretenders to the Prussian throne see here.

External links

• Media related to Friedrich Wilhelm I of Brandenburg at Wikimedia Commons