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Frederick William III
Portrait of Frederick William III of Prussia by Thomas Lawrence, 1818
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
Died	7 June 1840(1840-06-07) (aged 69) Berlin, Prussia
Burial	Mausoleum at Charlottenburg Palace
Spouses	Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz ​ ​(m. 1793; died 1810)​ Auguste von Harrach (morganatic) ​ ​(m. 1824)​
Issue see details...	Frederick William IV, King of Prussia William I, German Emperor Alexandra Feodorovna, Empress of Russia Princess Frederica Prince Charles Alexandrine, Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin Prince Ferdinand Princess Louise of the Netherlands Prince Albert
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
Children Frederick William IV William I Alexandra Feodorovna, Empress of Russia Princess Frederica Prince Charles of Prussia Alexandrine, Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg Prince Ferdinand Princess Louise Prince Albert of Prussia
v t e

Frederick William III (German: Friedrich Wilhelm III.; 3 August 1770 – 7 June 1840) was King of Prussia from 16 November 1797 until his death in 1840. He was concurrently Elector of Brandenburg in the Holy Roman Empire until 6 August 1806, when the empire was dissolved.

Frederick William III ruled Prussia during the times of the Napoleonic Wars. The king reluctantly joined the Sixth Coalition against Napoleon in the German campaign of 1813. Following Napoleon's defeat, he took part in the Congress 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 the Prussian Union of Churches.

The king was said to be extremely shy and indecisive. His wife Queen Louise (1776–1810) was his most important political advisor. She led a mighty group that included Baron Heinrich Friedrich Karl vom und zum Stein, Prince Karl August von Hardenberg, Gerhard von Scharnhorst, and Count August Neidhardt von Gneisenau. They set about reforming Prussia's administration, churches, finance, and military. He was the dedicatee of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in 1824.

Early life

Frederick William was born in Potsdam on 3 August 1770 as the son of Frederick William II of Prussia and Frederica 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. He was neglected by his father during his childhood and suffered from an inferiority complex his entire life.

As a child, Frederick William's father (under the influence of his mistress, 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 at Paretz, the estate of the old soldier, Count Hans von Blumenthal, 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 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 Johann Jakob Engel.

As a soldier, he received the usual training of a Prussian prince, obtained his lieutenancy in 1784, became a lieutenant colonel in 1786, a colonel in 1790, and took part in the campaigns against France of 1792–1794. On 24 December 1793, Frederick William married Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, who bore him ten children. In the Kronprinzenpalais (Crown Prince's Palace) in Berlin, Frederick William lived a civil life with a problem-free marriage, which did not change even when he became King of Prussia in 1797. His wife Louise was particularly loved by the people of Prussia, which boosted the popularity of the whole House of Hohenzollern, including the King himself.

Reign

Frederick William succeeded to the throne on 16 November 1797. He also became, in personal union, the sovereign prince of the Principality 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. He had the Hohenzollern determination to retain personal power but not the Hohenzollern genius for using it. Too distrustful to delegate responsibility to his ministers, 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.

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 sculptor Johann Gottfried Schadow to cancel the expensive and lavish Prinzessinnengruppe 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 the Napoleonic Wars. Although they succeeded in keeping out of the Third 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 the Battles of Jena-Auerstädt, the French effectively decimated the Prussian 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 to Memel, East Prussia, where they fell on the mercy of Emperor Alexander I of Russia.

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 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 the Elbe 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 as Heinrich Friedrich Karl vom und zum Stein, Prince Karl August von Hardenberg, Gerhard Johann David von Scharnhorst, and Count August 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 included Friedrich 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 Prince Wilhelm zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein.

In 1813, following Napoleon's defeat in Russia and pressured by the Convention of Tauroggen, Frederick William turned against France and signed an alliance with Russia at Kalisz. 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 of Karl Philipp Fürst zu Schwarzenberg, along with Alexander of Russia and Francis of Austria.

At the Congress of Vienna, Frederick William's ministers succeeded in securing significant territorial increases for Prussia. However, 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 provide Prussia with a constitution.

Prussian Union of Churches

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 the Prussian 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 in South Australia, Canada, and the United 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, the Church 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.

In 1824 Frederick William III married for the second time, to Countess Auguste von Harrach zu Rohrau und Thannhausen. At the time of their marriage, the House of Harrach was still not recognized as equal to other European royal families for dynastic purposes. The marriage was therefore morganatic and she was created Princess of Liegnitz. They had no children.

In 1838 the king distributed large parts of his farmland at Erdmannsdorf Estate to 422 Protestant refugees from the Austrian Zillertal, who built Tyrolean style farmhouses in the Silesian village.

Death

Frederick William III died on 7 June 1840 in Berlin, from a fever, survived by his second wife. His eldest son, Frederick William IV, succeeded him. Frederick William III is buried at the Mausoleum in Schlosspark Charlottenburg, Berlin.

Issue

Honours

• Prussia:
  • Knight of the Black Eagle, 11 September 1772
  • Founder of the Iron Cross, 10 March 1813
  • Founder of the Order of Louise, 13 August 1814
•  Russian Empire:
  • Knight of St. Andrew, 29 January 1780
  • Knight of St. Alexander Nevsky, 29 January 1780
• Sweden:
  • Knight of the Seraphim, 23 December 1797
  • Grand Cross of the Sword, 1st Class, 6 February 1814
• France:
  • French Empire: Grand Eagle of the Legion of Honour, March 1805
  • Kingdom of France:
    • Knight of the Holy Spirit, 1815
    • Knight of St. Michael, 1815
•  Austrian Empire: Knight of the Military Order of Maria Theresa, 1813
• Spain: Knight of the Golden Fleece, 30 May 1814
•  United Kingdom: Knight of the Garter, 9 June 1814
•  Denmark: Knight of the Elephant, 31 August 1814
•  Netherlands: Grand Cross of the Military William Order, 9 July 1821
•  Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach: Grand Cross of the White Falcon, 1 March 1823
•  Baden:
  • Grand Cross of the House Order of Fidelity, 1823
  • Grand Cross of the Zähringer Lion, 1823
• Kingdom of Portugal: Grand Cross of the Sash of the Three Orders, 30 August 1825
•  Kingdom of Bavaria: Knight of St. Hubert, 1826
•  Kingdom of Sardinia: Knight of the Annunciation, 6 May 1833
• Ernestine duchies: Grand Cross of the Saxe-Ernestine House Order, November 1834
•  Kingdom of Saxony: Knight of the Rue Crown, 1836
•  Grand Duchy of Hesse: Grand Cross of the Ludwig Order
•  Two Sicilies:
  • Knight of St. Januarius
  • Grand Cross of St. Ferdinand and Merit
•  Württemberg: Knight of the Golden Eagle

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.

Ancestry

Siblings

• Frederica Charlotte (1767–1820), who became Duchess of York by her marriage to Frederick, Duke of York
• Christine (1772–73)
• Louis Charles (1773–96)
• Frederica Louisa Wilhelmina (1774–1837), wife of William of Orange, afterward King William I of the Netherlands
• Augusta (1780–1841), wife of William II, Elector of Hesse
• Henry (1781–1846)
• William (1783–1851)

Works

Marches

• Marsch I. Bataillon Garde, 1806
• Preussischer Präsentiermarsch

References

1. Franz Blei (1931) "Königin Luise von Preußen" in Gefährtinnen. Berlin. pp. 68 ff
2. "Federick William III". Encyclopaedia Britannica. 30 July 2018.
3. ^ "Frederick William III. of Prussia" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 11 (11th ed.). 1911. pp. 65–66.
4. ^ Ulrich Feldhahn (2011). Die preußischen Könige und Kaiser (in German). Kunstverlag Josef Fink, Lindenberg. pp. 17–20. ISBN 978-3-89870-615-5.
5. Christopher Clark, Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600–1947 (2006) pp 298–320.
6. Clark, Christopher (2006). Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600-1947. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press. pp. 402]. ISBN 9780674023857.
7. "Napoleonic Satires". library.brown.edu. Retrieved 10 September 2024.
8. Martyn Lyons (2006) Post-revolutionary Europe, 1815–1856. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 41. ISBN 9781137019806
9. Christopher Clark (1996). "Confessional policy and the limits of state action: Frederick William III and the Prussian Church Union 1817–40". Historical Journal. 39 (4): 985–1004. doi:10.1017/S0018246X00024730. JSTOR 2639865. S2CID 159976974.
10. Frank-Lothar Kroll (2006) Preussens Herrscher. Von den ersten Hohenzollern bis Wilhelm II. C.H. Beck, ISBN 3-406-54129-1, p. 218
11. Liste der Ritter des Königlich Preußischen Hohen Ordens vom Schwarzen Adler (1851), "Von Seiner Majestät dem Könige Friedrich Wilhelm III. ernannte Ritter" p. 15
12. ^ J ..... -H ..... -Fr ..... Berlien (1846). Der Elephanten-Orden und seine Ritter. Berling. pp. 135–137.
13. Almanach de la cour: pour l'année ... 1817. l'Académie Imp. des Sciences. 1817. pp. 61, 76.
14. Per Nordenvall (1998). "Kungl. Maj:ts Orden". Kungliga Serafimerorden: 1748–1998 (in Swedish). Stockholm: Kungl. Maj:ts orden. ISBN 91-630-6744-7.
15. Posttidningar, 30 april 1814, p. 2
16. M. Wattel; B. Wattel (2009). Les Grand'Croix de la Légion d'honneur de 1805 à nos jours. Titulaires français et étrangers. Paris: Archives & Culture. p. 508. ISBN 978-2-35077-135-9.
17. Teulet, Alexandre (1863). "Liste chronologique des chevaliers de l'ordre du Saint-Esprit depuis son origine jusqu'à son extinction (1578-1830)" [Chronological list of knights of the Order of the Holy Spirit from its origin to its extinction (1578-1830)]. Annuaire-bulletin de la Société de l'histoire de France (in French) (2): 113. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
18. "Ritter-Orden: Militärischer Maria-Theresien-Orden", Hof- und Staatshandbuch des Kaiserthumes Österreich (in German), 1814, p. 18, retrieved 6 November 2019
19. Guerra, Francisco (1819), "Caballeros Existentes en la Insignie Orden del Toison de Oro", Calendario manual y guía de forasteros en Madrid (in Spanish): 42, retrieved 17 March 2020
20. Shaw, Wm. A. (1906) The Knights of England, I, London, p. 51
21. Militaire Willems-Orde: Preussen, Friederich Wilhelm III von, (in Dutch)
22. "Großherzoglicher Hausorden", Staatshandbuch für das Großherzogtum Sachsen / Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach (in German), Weimar: Böhlau, 1835, p. 6, retrieved 11 March 2020
23. Hof- und Staats-Handbuch des Großherzogtum Baden (1838), "Großherzogliche Orden" pp. 27, 42
24. Bragança, Jose Vicente de (2011). "A Evolução da Banda das Três Ordens Militares (1789-1826)" [The Evolution of the Band of the Three Military Orders (1789-1826)]. Lusíada História (in Portuguese). 2 (8): 283. ISSN 0873-1330. Archived from the original on 2 November 2014. Retrieved 17 March 2020.
25. Hof- und Staatshandbuch des Königreichs Bayern: 1828. Landesamt. 1828. p. 7.
26. Luigi Cibrario (1869). Notizia storica del nobilissimo ordine supremo della santissima Annunziata. Sunto degli statuti, catalogo dei cavalieri. Eredi Botta. p. 106.
27. Adreß-Handbuch ... Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha (1837). "Herzogliche Sachsen-Ernestinischer Hausorden", p. 22
28. Staatshandbuch für den Freistaat Sachsen: 1839. Heinrich. 1839. p. 4.
29. Almanacco reale del regno delle Due Sicilie. Stamperia Reale. 1840. pp. 460, 464.
30. Württemberg (1815). Königlich-Württembergisches Hof- und Staats-Handbuch: 1815. Guttenberg. p. 13.
31. Genealogie ascendante jusqu'au quatrieme degre inclusivement de tous les Rois et Princes de maisons souveraines de l'Europe actuellement vivans [Genealogy up to the fourth degree inclusive of all the Kings and Princes of sovereign houses of Europe currently living] (in French). Bourdeaux: Frederic Guillaume Birnstiel. 1768., pp. 17 (father's side), 69 (mother's side)

Further reading

• Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Frederick William III. of Prussia" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 11 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 65, 66.
• Clark, Christopher. Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600–1947 (2006) pp 298–320.
• Richardson, Constance. Memoirs of the Private Life and Opinions of Louisa, Queen of Prussia, Consort of Frederick William III (London, R. Bentley, 1847) online.
• Sheehan, James J. German History, 1770–1866 (1989).
• Wright, Constance. Beautiful Enemy: A biography of Queen Louise of Prussia (Dodd, Mead, 1969) online.
• v. Hartmann (1966), "Friedrich Wilhelm III.", Neue Deutsche Biographie (in German), vol. 7, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 700–729; (Friedrich Wilhelm III. (König von Preußen).html full text online)

External links

• Media related to Frederick William III of Prussia at Wikimedia Commons

v t e Monarchs of Prussia
Duchy of Prussia (1525–1701)	Albert Albert Frederick John Sigismund George William Frederick William Frederick I
Kingdom of Prussia (1701–1918)	Frederick I Frederick William I Frederick II Frederick William II Frederick William III Frederick William IV William I Frederick III William II
also Elector of Brandenburg; also German Emperor

• Frederick William III of Prussia
• 1770 births
• 1840 deaths
• 19th-century German people
• 18th-century kings of Prussia
• 19th-century kings of Prussia
• 18th-century Prussian military personnel
• Kings of Prussia
• Crown princes of Prussia
• Brandenburgian nobility
• Prince-electors of Brandenburg
• Princes of Neuchâtel
• House of Hohenzollern
• 19th-century German landowners
• People from Potsdam
• German Calvinist and Reformed Christians
• Knights Cross of the Military Order of Maria Theresa
• Knights of the Golden Fleece of Spain
• Grand Crosses of the Order of Christ (Portugal)
• Grand Crosses of the Order of Aviz
• Grand Crosses of the Order of Saint James of the Sword
• Knights Grand Cross of the Military Order of William
• Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Sword
• Extra Knights Companion of the Garter
• Burials at the Charlottenburg Palace Park Mausoleum, Berlin
• Children of Frederick William II of Prussia
• Prussian Army personnel of the Napoleonic Wars
• 18th-century German landowners