Editing Wilhelm I (section)

==Life as King==
[[File:Krönungszug Königsberg (1861).JPG|thumb|275px|Coronation of [[Wilhelm I]] at Königsberg Castle, 18 October 1861]]
On 2 January 1861, Frederick William IV died and Wilhelm ascended the throne as Wilhelm I of Prussia. In July, a student from [[Leipzig]] attempted to assassinate Wilhelm, but he was only lightly injured.<ref name="DHM"/> Like [[Frederick I of Prussia]], Wilhelm travelled to [[Königsberg]] and there crowned himself at the Schlosskirche.<ref name="Kings"/> Wilhelm chose the anniversary of the [[Battle of Leipzig]], 18 October, for this event, which was the first Prussian coronation ceremony since 1701 and the only coronation of a German king after 1806.<ref name="DHM"/> Wilhelm refused to comply with his brother's wish, expressed in Frederick William's last will, that he should abrogate the constitution.<ref name="DHM"/>

Wilhelm inherited a conflict between Frederick William and the liberal Landtag. He was considered to be politically neutral as he intervened less in politics than his brother. In 1862 the Landtag refused an increase in the military budget needed to pay for the already implemented reform of the army. This involved expanding the peacetime army from 150,000 to 200,000 men and the annual number of new recruits from 40,000 to 63,000. However, the truly controversial part was keeping the length of military service (raised in 1856 from two years) at three years.<ref name="Fred">{{cite magazine | last =Oster | first =Uwe A. | title =Friedrich III. – Der 99-Tage-Kaiser | magazine=Damals | volume = 45 | issue = 3/2013 | pages=60–65 | language=de | issn=0011-5908 }}</ref> When his request (backed by his Minister of War [[Albrecht von Roon]]) was refused, Wilhelm first considered abdicating, but his son, the Crown Prince, advised strongly against it.<ref name="Fred"/> Then, on the advice of Roon, Wilhelm appointed [[Otto von Bismarck]] as Minister President in order to force through the proposals.<ref name="DHM"/> Under the Prussian constitution, the Minister President was responsible solely to the king, not to the Landtag. Bismarck, a conservative [[Prussian Junker]] and loyal friend of the king, liked to see his working relationship with Wilhelm as that of a vassal to his feudal superior. Nonetheless, it was Bismarck who effectively directed affairs, domestic as well as foreign; on several occasions he gained Wilhelm's assent by threatening to resign.<ref>{{cite book |author=Munroe Smith |title=Bismarck and German Unity: A Historical Outline |url=https://archive.org/details/bismarckgermanun01smit |year=1898 |publisher=Macmillan |pages=[https://archive.org/details/bismarckgermanun01smit/page/80 80]–81}}</ref>

During his reign, Wilhelm was the commander-in-chief of the Prussian forces in the [[Second Schleswig War]] against Denmark in 1864 and the [[Austro-Prussian War]] in 1866. After the latter was won by Prussia, Wilhelm wanted to march on to [[Vienna]] and annex Austria, but was dissuaded from doing so by Bismarck and his son Crown Prince [[Frederick III, German Emperor|Frederick]].<ref name="DHM"/> Bismarck wanted to end the war quickly, so as to allow Prussia to ally with Austria if it needed to at a later date; Frederick was also appalled by the casualties and wanted a speedy end to hostilities. During a heated discussion, Bismarck threatened to resign if Wilhelm continued to Vienna; Bismarck got his way. Wilhelm had to content himself with becoming the ''de facto'' ruler of the northern two-thirds of Germany. Prussia annexed several of Austria's allies north of the Main, as well as Schleswig-Holstein. [[Saxe-Lauenburg]] was already in a [[personal union]] with Prussia since 1865 (which became a full union in 1876).{{cn|date=January 2024}}

In 1867, the [[North German Confederation]] was created as a federation (federally organised state) of the North German and Central German states under the permanent presidency of Prussia. Wilhelm assumed the  ''[[Bundespräsidium]]'', the presidium of the Confederation; the post was a hereditary office of the Prussian crown. Not ''expressis verbis'', but in function he was the head of state. Bismarck intentionally avoided a title such as ''Präsident'' as it sounded too republican.<ref>Michael Kotulla: ''Deutsches Verfassungsrecht 1806–1918. Eine Dokumentensammlung nebst Einführungen''. Vol. 1: ''Gesamtdeutschland, Anhaltische Staaten und Baden'', Berlin 2006, p. 211.</ref> Wilhelm became also the constitutional ''Bundesfeldherr'', the commander of all federal armed forces. Via secret treaties with the South German states, he also became commander of their armies in times of war. In 1870, during the [[Franco-Prussian War]], Wilhelm was in command of all the German forces at the crucial [[Battle of Sedan]].<ref name="DHM"/>