Editing Frederick I of Prussia

{{Short description|Elector of Brandenburg (1688–1713) and King in Prussia (1701–1713)}}
{{Redirect|Frederick III, Elector of Brandenburg|the German Emperor|Frederick III, German Emperor|the Holy Roman Emperor|Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor}}
{{Expand German|topic=hist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2022}}
{{Infobox royalty
| name         = Frederick I
|image          = Portrait of H.M. King Friedrich I of Prussia.jpg
|caption       = King Frederick I in 1701
| succession   = [[King in Prussia]]<br>[[Elector of Brandenburg]]
| coronation   = 18 January 1701
| reign        = 18 January 1701 – 25 February 1713
| predecessor  = 
| successor    = [[Frederick William I of Prussia|Frederick William I]]
| succession1  = [[Duke of Prussia]]<br>[[Elector of Brandenburg]]
| reign1       = {{nowrap|29 April 1688 – 18 January 1701}}
| predecessor1 = [[Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg|Frederick William]]
| successor1   = 
| spouses      = {{marriage|[[Elizabeth Henrietta of Hesse-Kassel]]|1679|1683|end=died}} {{marriage|[[Sophia Charlotte of Hanover]]|1684|1705|end=died}} {{marriage|[[Sophia Louise of Mecklenburg-Schwerin]]|1708}}
| issue        = {{ubl|[[Princess Luise Dorothea of Prussia|Luise, Hereditary Princess of Hesse-Kassel]]|Prince Frederick August|[[Frederick William I of Prussia|Frederick William I]]}}
| house        = [[House of Hohenzollern|Hohenzollern]]
| father       = [[Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg]]
| mother       = [[Louise Henriette of Orange-Nassau]]
| birth_date   = {{birth date|df=yes|1657|7|11}}
| birth_place  = [[Königsberg]], [[Brandenburg–Prussia]]
| death_date   = {{death date and age|df=yes|1713|2|25|1657|7|11}}
| death_place  = [[Berlin]], [[Kingdom of Prussia]], [[Holy Roman Empire]]
| burial_place = [[Berlin Cathedral]]
| religion     = [[Calvinist]]
| signature    = Frederick I signature.svg
}}
{{House of Hohenzollern-Prussia|frederick1}}

'''Frederick I''' ({{langx|de|Friedrich I.}}; 11 July 1657 – 25 February 1713), of the [[Hohenzollern dynasty]], was (as '''Frederick III''') [[List of margraves and electors of Brandenburg|Elector of Brandenburg]] (1688–1713) and [[Duke of Prussia]] in [[personal union]] ([[Brandenburg–Prussia]]). The latter function he upgraded to royalty, becoming the first [[King in Prussia]] (1701–1713). From 1707 he was in personal union the sovereign prince of the [[Principality of Neuchâtel]].

==Biography==

===Family===
Born in [[Königsberg]], Frederick was the third son of [[Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg]] by his father's first marriage to [[Louise Henriette of Orange-Nassau]], eldest daughter of [[Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange]] and [[Amalia of Solms-Braunfels]]. His maternal cousin was King [[William III of England]]. Upon the death of his father on 29 April 1688, Frederick became Elector Frederick III of [[Electorate of Brandenburg|Brandenburg]] and [[Duchy of Prussia|Duke of Prussia]]. Right after ascending the throne Frederick founded a new city southerly adjacent to [[Dorotheenstadt]] and named it after himself, the [[Friedrichstadt (Berlin)|Friedrichstadt]].<ref name="Stenzel (1841), Band 3, Buch VI, 2. Hauptstück, p. 406">[http://digital.ub.uni-duesseldorf.de/ihd/content/pageview/9610906 Stenzel (1841), Band 3, Buch VI, 2. Hauptstück, p. 406]</ref>

===Military career===
Frederick was noted for his opposition to [[Kingdom of France|France]], in contrast to his father who had sought an alliance with [[Louis XIV]]. Frederick took Brandenburg into the [[League of Augsburg]] against France and in 1689 led military forces into the field as part of the allied coalition. That year an army under his command [[Siege of Bonn (1689)|besieged and captured Bonn]]. Despite this opposition to France (a characteristic that was even more prominent in his son and heir) he was fond of French culture, and styled his court in imitation of that of Louis XIV.<ref>Nancy Mitford, "Frederick the Great" (1970) pp. 3.</ref>

===Reign as King===
[[File:Preussen 1701 Königsberg.jpg|thumb|left|[[Coronation]] of Frederick as [[King in Prussia]] at [[Königsberg Castle]] in 1701]]
{{Further|Brandenburg-Prussia|King in Prussia}}

The Hohenzollern state was then known as [[Brandenburg-Prussia]]. The family's main possessions were the [[Margraviate of Brandenburg]] within the [[Holy Roman Empire]] and the [[Duchy of Prussia]] outside of the Empire, ruled as a [[personal union]]. Although he was the [[Margrave]] and [[Prince-elector]] of Brandenburg and the [[Duke of Prussia]], Frederick desired the more prestigious title of king. However, according to Germanic law at that time, no kingdoms could exist within the Holy Roman Empire, with the exception of the [[Kingdom of Bohemia]] which belonged to the [[Holy Roman Emperor]].<ref name="britannica.com">{{Cite web |title=Bohemia {{!}} History, Location, & Facts {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Bohemia |access-date=2022-08-31 |website=Encyclopædia Britannica |language=en}}</ref>

Frederick persuaded Emperor [[Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor|Leopold I]] to allow Prussia to be elevated to a kingdom by the [[Crown Treaty]] of 16 November 1700. This agreement was ostensibly given in exchange for an alliance against King Louis XIV in the [[War of the Spanish Succession]] and the provision of 8,000 Prussian troops to Leopold's service. Frederick argued that Prussia had never been part of the Holy Roman Empire, and he ruled over it with full sovereignty. Therefore, he said, there was no legal or political barrier to letting him rule it as a kingdom. Frederick was aided in the negotiations by [[Charles Ancillon]].<ref name="britannica.com"/>

Frederick crowned himself on 18 January 1701 in Königsberg. Although he did so with the Emperor's consent, and also with formal acknowledgement from [[Augustus II the Strong]], [[Elector of Saxony]], who held the title of King of Poland, the [[Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]] raised objections, and viewed the coronation as illegal.<ref name="Friedrich2012">Friedrich, Karin (2012). ''Brandenburg-Prussia, 1466–1806: The Rise of a Composite State''. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. [https://books.google.com/books?id=vK8cBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA6 p. 66.]{{Dead link|date=May 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> In fact, according to the terms of the [[Treaty of Bromberg|Treaty of Wehlau and Bromberg]], the House of Hohenzollern's sovereignty over the Duchy of Prussia was not absolute but contingent on the continuation of the male line (in the absence of which the duchy would revert to the Polish crown).<ref name="Friedrich2012"/> Therefore, out of deference to the region's historic ties to the Polish crown, Frederick made the symbolic concession of calling himself "[[King in Prussia]]" instead of "King of Prussia".<ref name="Friedrich2012"/><ref>Friedrich, Karin (2006). ''The Other Prussia: Royal Prussia, Poland and Liberty, 1589–1772''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [https://books.google.com/books?id=kpulHjDt8UEC p. 163.]</ref>

Frederick leveraged the recognizance of other nations to attempt to construct the legitimacy of his assumed royal title.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ruffert |first=Elisabeth |title=Das Gesandtschaftszeremoniell des brandenburgisch-preußischen Hofes um 1700 |publisher=Duncker & Humboldt |year=2022}}</ref> In this, the English were his most willing diplomatic allies.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Matthews |first=Crawford |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mA4l0AEACAAJ |title=Anglo-Prussian Relations 1701-1713: The Reciprocal Production of Status Through Ceremony, Diplomacy, and War |publisher=Routledge |year=2024 |isbn=9781032302638 |location=London |pages=}}</ref> They first sent an envoy to Berlin, who conformed to the new royal protocol. Thereafter, they sent an ambassador to Berlin, who ceremonially recognised Frederick as king. In exchange, Frederick provided England with troops during the War of the Spanish Succession, though he often withheld these until he received the ceremonial concessions he desired.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Matthews |first=Crawford |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781003304234/anglo-prussian-relations-1701%E2%80%931713-crawford-matthews |title=Anglo-Prussian Relations 1701–1713: The Reciprocal Production of Status through Ceremony, Diplomacy, and War |date=2024-02-20 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-003-30423-4 |location=London |doi=10.4324/9781003304234}}</ref>

His royalty was, in any case, limited to Prussia and did not reduce the rights of the Emperor in the portions of his domains that were still part of the Holy Roman Empire. In other words, while he was a king in Prussia, he was still only an elector under the [[suzerainty]] of the Holy Roman Emperor in Brandenburg.  Legally, the Hohenzollern state was still a personal union between Brandenburg and Prussia. However, by the time Frederick crowned himself as king, the emperor's authority over Brandenburg (and the rest of the empire) was only nominal, and in practice it soon came to be treated as part of the Prussian kingdom rather than as a separate entity. His grandson, [[Frederick the Great]], was the first Prussian king formally to style himself "King of Prussia" (from 1772 onwards).<ref>{{cite book|last=Kugler|first=Franz Theodor|author-link=Franz Theodor Kugler|title=History of Frederick the Great: Comprehending a Complete History of the Silesian Campaigns and the Seven Years' War|translator-last=Moriarty|translator-first= Edward Aubrey|others=Illustrated by [[Adolph Menzel|Menzel, Adolph]] |url=https://archive.org/details/pictorialhistor00menzgoog/page/n14|location=London|publisher=Henry G. Bohn|year=1845|orig-year=1840}} pp. 544–545.{{free access}}</ref>

[[File:Deux tiers de thaler de Brandebourg à l'effigie de Frédéric III, 1691.jpg|thumb|left|Frederick I on a coin from 1691]]Frederick was a patron of the arts and learning. The [[Prussian Academy of Arts]] in Berlin was founded by Frederick in 1696, as was the [[Prussian Academy of Sciences|Academy of Sciences]] in 1700, though the latter was closed down by his son as an economic measure; it was reopened in 1740 by his grandson, Frederick II. Frederick also appointed [[Jacob Paul von Gundling]] as Professor of History and Law at the Berlin Knights Academy in 1705, and as historian at the Higher Herald's Office in 1706.<ref>Clark, Christopher, ''Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600-1947'', Penguin 2006</ref>

Frederick died in Berlin in 1713 and is entombed in the [[Berlin Cathedral]].{{Citation needed|date=December 2023}}

His grandson, Frederick the Great, referred to Frederick I as "the mercenary king", due to the fact that he greatly profited from the hiring of his Prussian troops to defend other territories, such as in northern Italy against the French.<ref>[[Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer|Spencer, Charles]], ''[[Battle of Blenheim|Blenheim]]'', Chapter 22: Vindication, p.316</ref> "All in all," he wrote of his grandfather, "he was great in small matters, and small in great matters."<ref>{{cite book | title= The Ancien Régime in Europe: Government and Society in the Major States, 1648–1789 | first= Ernest Neville | last= Williams | year= 1970 | page= [https://books.google.com/books?id=EdCwAAAAIAAJ&q=%22he+was+great+in+small+matters%2C+and+small+in+great%22 305] | publisher=[[The Bodley Head]] }}</ref>

=== Marriages and children ===

[[File:Frederick I of Prussia.jpg|thumb|King Frederick I of Prussia|361x361px]]

Frederick was married three times:
* first, in 1679, to [[Elizabeth Henrietta of Hesse-Kassel]] (1661–1683), with whom he had one child, 
** [[Princess Louise Dorothea of Prussia|Louise Dorothea]], born 1680, who died without issue at age 25.
* then to [[Sophia Charlotte of Hanover]] (1668–1705), with whom he had 
** Frederick August (6 October 1685 – 31 January 1686) died in infancy.
** [[Frederick William I of Prussia|Frederick William I]], born in 1688, who succeeded him.
* In 1708, he married [[Sophia Louise of Mecklenburg-Schwerin]], who survived him but had no children by him. 
He also had an official mistress, [[Catharina von Wartenberg]], between 1696 and 1711. However, he was never known to make use of her services, being deeply in love with his second wife.{{Citation needed|date=December 2023}}

==Ancestry==
{{ahnentafel
|align=center |collapsed=yes
|boxstyle_1=background-color: #fcc;
|boxstyle_2=background-color: #fb9;
|boxstyle_3=background-color: #ffc;
|boxstyle_4=background-color: #bfc;
|1= 1. '''Frederick I of Prussia'''
|2= 2. [[Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg]]
|3= 3. [[Countess Louise Henriette of Nassau|Louise Henriette of Orange-Nassau]]
|4= 4. [[George William, Elector of Brandenburg]]
|5= 5. [[Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate, Electress of Brandenburg|Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate]]
|6= 6. [[Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange]]
|7= 7. [[Amalia of Solms-Braunfels]]
|8= 8. [[John Sigismund, Elector of Brandenburg]]
|9= 9. [[Duchess Anna of Prussia|Anna of Prussia]]
|10= 10. [[Frederick IV, Elector Palatine]]
|11= 11. [[Countess Louise Juliana of Nassau|Louise Juliana of Orange-Nassau]]
|12= 12. [[William the Silent|William I, Prince of Orange]]
|13= 13. [[Louise de Coligny]]
|14= 14. [[Johann Albrecht I, Count of Solms-Braunfels]]
|15= 15. Agnes of Sayn-Wittgenstein
}}

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Dwyer, Philip G., ed. ''The Rise of Prussia, 1700–1830'' (2000).
* Frey, Linda, and Marsha Frey. ''Frederick I: The Man and His Times'' (1984).

==External links==
* {{Commons-inline}}
* {{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Frederick I. of Prussia |short=x}}

{{S-start}}
{{s-hou|[[House of Hohenzollern]]|11 July|1657|25 February|1713}}
{{s-reg|}}
{{S-bef| rows=2| before=[[Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg|Frederick William]]}}
{{s-ttl| title=[[Duke of Prussia]]| years=1688–1701}}
{{s-non| reason=Elevation to Kingdom}}
|-
{{s-ttl| title=[[Elector of Brandenburg]] <br><small>as Frederick III</small>| years=1688–1713}}
{{S-aft| rows=4|after=[[Frederick William I of Prussia|Frederick William I]]}}
|-
{{s-new}}
{{s-ttl| title=[[List of Kings of Prussia|King in Prussia]]| years=1701–1713}}
|-
{{S-bef| rows=1| before=[[Marie de Nemours|Marie]]}}
{{s-ttl| title=[[Principality of Neuchâtel|Prince of Neuchâtel]]<br> <small>as Frederick I</small> |years=1707–1713}}
{{S-bef| rows=1| before=[[William III of England|William III]]}}
{{s-ttl| title=[[Prince of Orange]]<br><small>''(disputed)''</small>
| years=1702–1713}}
{{S-end}}

{{Rulers of Prussia}}
{{Electors of Brandenburg}}
{{Authority control}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2010}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Frederick 01 of Prussia}}
[[Category:Frederick I of Prussia| ]]
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