Frederick William I of Prussia
The Soldier King who forged Prussia's military might.
He was known as the "Soldier King" for his military focus.[1] His reign doubled the Prussian Army from 38,000 to 80,000 men.[2] From 1713 until his death in 1740, Frederick William I was both King in Prussia and Elector of Brandenburg.[1]
Quick Facts
- Reign
- 25 February 1713 – 31 May 1740
- Spouse
- Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, 28 November 1706
- Predecessor
- Frederick I
- Successor
- Frederick II
- House
- Hohenzollern
- Mother
- Sophia Charlotte of Hanover
- Born
- 14 August 1688
- Birthplace
- Berlin, Brandenburg–Prussia, Holy Roman Empire
Facts from the source article.
Life and work
He dismissed his father's corrupt "Cabinet of Three Counts" upon ascending the throne.[2] His coffin was moved multiple times, finally resting at the Kaiser Friedrich Mausoleum in 1991.[3] Marthe de Roucoulle, a Huguenot governess, was responsible for Frederick William's upbringing.[4] Government corruption was exposed during the plague outbreak of the Great Northern War, which sparked Frederick William's political awakening.[4]
He increased excise taxes on domestic and foreign goods, subjected the nobility to a land tax, and created the Regulations for State Officials, a manual with 35 chapters and 297 paragraphs detailing duties and penalties for public servants.[5] The Brandenburg Africa Company's charter was revoked by Frederick William in 1717, and the colony was subsequently sold to the Dutch West India Company.[6]
What the cited sources add
Carlyle's account notes that Frederick William learned the corrupt Prussian dialect of German from inferior sources and used it freely.[7]
References
- Wikipedia, "Frederick William I of Prussia" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Taylor 1997, p. 51 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Frederick William I of Prussia" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Beloff 2013, p. 106; Duffy 1987, p. 69; Shennan 1995, p. 55 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Frederick William I of Prussia" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: MacDonogh 2007, p. 93 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Frederick William I of Prussia" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Blanning 2016, p. 29 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Frederick William I of Prussia" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Shennan 1995, p. 55 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Frederick William I of Prussia" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Brahm Rosenhaft 2016, p. 26–30 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Carlyle, "History of Friedrich II of Prussia: Called Frederick the Great", 1870. facts only, no text reused. gutenberg.org
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Frederick William I of Prussia (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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