Frederick William III of Prussia
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Frederick William III (German: Friedrich Wilhelm III.) (3 August 1770 – 7 June 1840) was king of Prussia from 1797 to 1840. He was in personal union the sovereign prince of the Principality of Neuchâtel (1797–1806 and again 1813–1840).
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Early life
The son of King Frederick William II of Prussia and Frederica Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt, Frederick William was born in Potsdam and became Crown Prince in 1786, when his father ascended the throne.
As a child, Frederick William's father (under the influence of his mistress, Wilhelmine Enke, Countess of Lichtenau) had Frederick William handed over to tutors, as was quite normal for the period. He spent part of the time living at Paretz, the estate of the old soldier Count Hans von Blumenthal who was the governor of his brother Prince Heinrich. They thus grew up partly with the Count's son, who accompanied them on their Grand 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 up pious and honest. His tutors included the dramatist Johan Engel.
As a soldier he received the usual training of a Prussian prince, obtained his lieutenancy in 1784, became a colonel in 1790, and took part in the campaigns against France of 1792-1794. On 24 December 1793, Frederick William married his second cousin Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, a princess noted for her beauty.
Reign
He succeeded the throne on 16 November 1797 and at once gave earnest of his good intentions by cutting down the expenses of the royal establishment, dismissing his father's ministers, and reforming the most oppressive abuses of the late reign. Unfortunately, however, he had all the Hohenzollern tenacity of personal power without the Hohenzollern genius for using it. Too distrustful to delegate his responsibility to his ministers, he was too infirm of will to strike out and follow a consistent course for himself. At first he and his advisors attempted to pursue a policy of neutrality in the Napoleonic Wars. Although they succeeded in keeping out of the Third Coalition in 1805, eventually Frederick William was swayed by the belligerent attitude of the queen, who led Prussia's pro-war party, and entered into war in October 1806. On 14 October 1806, at the Battle of Jena-Auerstädt, the French defeated the Prussian army led by Frederick William, and the Prussian army collapsed. The royal family fled to Memel, East Prussia, where they fell on the mercy of Emperor Alexander I of Russia (who, rumour has it, had fallen in love with Queen Louise).
Alexander, too, suffered defeat at the hands of the French, and at Tilsit on the Niemen France made peace with Russia and Prussia. Napoleon dealt with Prussia very harshly, despite the pregnant Queen's personal interview with the French emperor. Prussia lost many of its Polish territories, as well as all territory west of the Elbe, and had to finance a large indemnity and to pay for 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 as Baron vom Stein, Prince von Hardenberg, Scharnhorst, and Count Gneisenau, set about reforming Prussia's administration and military, with the encouragement of the Queen (who died, greatly mourned, in 1810).
In 1813, following Napoleon's defeat in Russia, Frederick William turned against France and signed an alliance with Russia at Kalisz, although he had to flee Berlin, still under French occupation. Prussian troops played a key part in the victories of the allies in 1813 and 1814, and the King himself travelled with the main army of Prince Schwarzenberg, along with Alexander of Russia and Francis of Austria.
At the Congress of Vienna, Frederick William's ministers succeeded in securing important territorial increases for Prussia, although they failed to obtain the annexation of all of Saxony, as they had wished. Following the war, Frederick William turned towards political reaction, abandoning the promises he had made in 1813 to supply Prussia with a constitution.
He died on 7 June 1840. His eldest son, Frederick William IV, succeeded him.
Issue
| Name | Birth | Death | Notes |
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| Stillborn Daughter | 1 October 1794 | 1 October 1794 | died in childhood |
| Frederick William IV of Prussia | 15 October 1795 | 2 January 1861 | married Elisabeth Ludovika of Bavaria(1801-1873), no issue |
| Wilhelm I of Prussia | 22 March 1797 | 9 March 1888 | married Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (1811-1890), had issue |
| Charlotte | 13 July 1798 | 1 November 1860 | married Nicholas I of Russia, had issue |
| Frederica | 14 October 1799 | 30 March 1800 | died in childhood |
| Charles | 29 July 1801 | 21 January 1883 | married Princess Marie of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, had issue. |
| Alexandrine | 23 February 1803 | 21 April 1892 | married Paul Friedrich, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and had issue |
| Ferdinand | 13 December 1804 | 1 April 1806 | died in childhood |
| Louise | 1 February 1808 | 6 December 1870 | married Prince Frederik of the Netherlands, had issue |
| Albert (Albrecht) | 4 October 1809 | 14 October 1872 | married Marianne, daughter of King William I of the Netherlands and sister of Prince Frederick of the Netherlands, had issue; married second to Rosalie von Rauch, Countess of Hohenau, daughter of Gustav von Rauch, had issue. |
Ancestry
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16. Frederick I of Prussia | |||||||||||||||
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8. Frederick William I of Prussia |
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17. Sophia Charlotte of Hanover | |||||||||||||||
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4. Prince Augustus William of Prussia |
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18. George I of Great Britain | |||||||||||||||
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9. Sophia Dorothea of Hanover |
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19. Sophia Dorothea of Celle | |||||||||||||||
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2. Frederick William II of Prussia |
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20. Ferdinand Albert I, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg | |||||||||||||||
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10. Ferdinand Albert II, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg |
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21. Christina Wilhelmina of Hesse-Eschwege | |||||||||||||||
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5. Duchess Louise Amalie of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel |
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22. Louis Rudolph, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg | |||||||||||||||
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11. Antoinette Amalie of Brunswick-Lüneburg |
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23. Princess Christine Louise of Oettingen-Oettingen | |||||||||||||||
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1. Frederick William III of Prussia |
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24. Ernest Louis, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt | |||||||||||||||
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12. Louis VIII, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt |
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25. Dorothea Charlotte of Brandenburg-Ansbach | |||||||||||||||
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6. Louis IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt |
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26. Johann Reinhard III, Count of Hanau | |||||||||||||||
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13. Charlotte of Hanau-Lichtenberg |
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27. Dorothea Friederike of Brandenburg-Ansbach | |||||||||||||||
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3. Frederika Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt |
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28. Christian II of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld | |||||||||||||||
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14. Christian III, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken |
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29. Katharina Agathe, Countess of Rappoltstein | |||||||||||||||
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7. Countess Palatine Caroline of Zweibrücken |
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30. Ludwig Kraft, Count of Nassau-Saarbrücken | |||||||||||||||
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15. Caroline of Nassau-Saarbrücken |
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31. Philippine Henriette of Hohenlohe-Langenburg | |||||||||||||||
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See also
- Kingdom of Prussia
- Prussian Union (Evangelical Christian Church)
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Frederick William III of Prussia
Born: 3 August 1770 Died: 7 June 1840 |
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| Regnal titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Frederick William II |
King of Prussia 1797 – 1840 |
Succeeded by Frederick William IV |
| Prince of Neuchâtel as Frederick William III 1797 – 1806 and again 1813 – 1840 interrupted by the rule by Louis Alexandre Berthier |
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| Elector of Brandenburg as Frederick William IV 1797 – 1806 |
Territory incorporated into the Prussian crown |
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| New title |
Grand Duke of the Lower Rhine 1815 – 1840 |
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