Editing Frederick I of Württemberg

{{Short description|Ruler of Württemberg from 1797 to 1816}}
{{About|the first king of Württemberg|the duke|Frederick I, Duke of Württemberg}}
{{More citations needed|date=January 2016}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2024}}
{{Infobox royalty
|name         = Frederick I
|full name    = {{langx|de|link=no|Friedrich Wilhelm Karl}}
|image        = Seele-Friedrich I..jpg
|caption      = Portrait by Johann Baptist Seele
|birth_date   = {{birth date|1754|11|6|df=y}}
|birth_place  = Treptow an der Rega, [[Prussia]] (now [[Trzebiatów]], [[Poland]])
|death_date   = {{death date and age|1816|10|30|1754|11|6|df=y}}
|death_place  = [[Stuttgart]], [[Kingdom of Württemberg]], Germany
|burial_date  = 1 November 1816
|burial_place = Schlosskirche, [[Ludwigsburg]], Germany
|father       = [[Frederick II Eugene, Duke of Württemberg]]
|mother       = [[Sophia Dorothea of Brandenburg-Schwedt]]
|coronation   = 1 January 1806
|succession   = [[List of rulers of Württemberg|King of Württemberg]]
|reign        = 1 January 1806 – 30 October 1816
|successor    = [[William I of Württemberg|William I]]
|succession2  = [[List of rulers of Württemberg|Elector of Württemberg]]
|reign2       = 25 February 1803 – 6 August 1806
|succession3  = [[List of rulers of Württemberg|Duke of Württemberg]]<br> ''As Frederick III''
|reign3       = 23 December 1797 – 30 October 1816
|predecessor3 = [[Frederick II Eugene, Duke of Württemberg|Frederick II Eugene]]
|spouses      = {{plainlist|
* {{marriage|[[Augusta of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel]]<br/>|1780|1788|end=d.}}
* {{marriage|[[Charlotte, Princess Royal]]<br/>|1797}}
}}
|issue        = {{plainlist|
*[[William I, King of Württemberg]]
*[[Catharina of Württemberg|Catharina, Queen of Westphalia]]
*[[Prince Paul of Württemberg|Prince Paul]]}}
| religion    = [[Lutheranism]]
| signature   = Signature of Frederick I of Württemberg.svg
}}
'''Frederick I''' (Frederick William Charles, {{langx|de|link=no|Friedrich Wilhelm Karl}}; 6 November 1754 – 30 October 1816) was the ruler of [[Württemberg]] from 1797 to his death. He was the last [[Duchy of Württemberg|Duke of Württemberg]] from 1797 to 1803, then the first and only [[Electorate of Württemberg|Elector of Württemberg]] from 1803 to 1806, before raising Württemberg to a [[Kingdom of Württemberg|kingdom]] in 1806 with the approval of [[Napoleon I]].

==Early life==

===In Prussia===
[[File:Friedrich I - Jugendbildnis.jpg|thumb|left|Copy by Erhardt of an English portrait of Frederick as a young man]]

Born in Treptow an der Rega, today [[Trzebiatów]], [[Poland]], Frederick was the eldest son of [[Frederick II Eugene, Duke of Württemberg]], and [[Sophia Dorothea of Brandenburg-Schwedt]]. Frederick's father was the third son of [[Charles Alexander, Duke of Württemberg]], and Frederick was thus the nephew of the long-reigning Duke [[Charles Eugene, Duke of Württemberg|Charles Eugene]] ({{langx|de|link=no|Karl Eugen}}). Since neither Duke Charles Eugene nor his next brother, [[Louis Eugene, Duke of Württemberg|Louis Eugene]] ({{langx|de|link=no|Ludwig Eugen}}), had any sons, it was expected that Frederick's father (also named Frederick) would eventually succeed to the duchy, and would be succeeded in turn by Frederick.

That eventuality was, however, many years in the future, and the birth of a legitimate son to either of his uncles would preempt Frederick's hopes conclusively. Further, his uncle the Duke was not disposed to give any member of his family any role in affairs of government. Frederick therefore determined—like his father—on a military career at the court of [[Frederick the Great]]. This later drew Frederick and his family into the Prussian king's network of marriage alliances—in 1776 his sister [[Maria Feodorovna (Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg)|Sophie]] would marry to [[Paul I of Russia|Tsesarevich Paul of Russia]], future [[List of Russian monarchs|Emperor Paul I of Russia]] and son of Empress [[Catherine the Great|Catherine II]]. These family ties to [[Russian Empire|Russia]] had immediate consequences for Frederick and far-reaching ones for Württemberg during the reorganisation of Europe in the wake of the 1814 [[Congress of Vienna]].

[[Image:Auguste von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel.jpg|thumb|right|Augusta of Brunswick]]

In June 1774 he entered the [[Prussian Army]] as an [[oberst]] in the Kürassierregiment Lölhöffel, rising to a commander in the same unit in December 1776. He fought with it in the [[War of the Bavarian Succession]]. In 1780 he took over the 2nd Dragoon Regiment (Krockow). 

Frederick married [[Duchess Augusta of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel]] (sixteen years old and thus ten years his junior) on 15 October 1780 at [[Braunschweig]]. She was the eldest daughter of [[Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick]]-Luneburg and [[Princess Augusta of Great Britain]], and thus a niece of [[George III]] of Great Britain and sister to [[Caroline of Brunswick]], the future wife of [[George IV]]. The marriage was not a happy one—even during her first pregnancy in 1781 she wished to separate but was persuaded to stay with Frederick by her father. Though they had four children, Frederick was rumoured to be [[bisexual]], with a [[wikt:coterie|coterie]] of young noblemen.{{citation needed|date=September 2016}}

He had a good relationship with the King of Prussia and regularly took part in cabinet meetings, though this was clouded by his sister Elizabeth's 1788 marriage to [[Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor|Francis of Austria]], later the last [[Holy Roman Emperor]] and the first Emperor of Austria. Frederick the Great feared that Prussia would become isolated by a closer relationship between Russia and Austria, whose heirs were both married to Frederick of Württemberg's sisters and (probably wrongly) blamed him for Francis's marriage.

===In Russia===
In 1781 Frederick resigned from the Prussian Army as a major general and the following year he accompanied his sister [[Maria Feodorovna (Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg)|Sophie]] and her husband [[Paul I of Russia|Paul]] to Russia, after a [[Grand Tour]] of Europe that the imperial couple had undertaken in France and Italy. Pleased with the well-spoken and confident young man, Catherine II appointed Frederick Governor of [[Old Finland|Eastern Finland]], with his seat at [[Viipuri]]. From June to October 1783 he was also in command of a 15,000- to 20,000-strong corps in [[Kherson]] during the [[Russo-Turkish War]], but he was not significantly involved in combat.

Frederick's relationship with his wife became more and more strained. He was reportedly violent towards her and after a play during a visit to [[Saint Petersburg]] in December 1786, Augusta asked for protection from Empress Catherine. She gave Augusta [[Right of asylum|asylum]] and ordered Frederick to leave Russia. When Sophie protested at the treatment of her brother, Catherine replied, "It is not I who cover the Prince of Württemberg with opprobrium: on the contrary, it is I who try to bury abominations and it is my duty to suppress any further ones." Catherine's relationship with Frederick's brother-in-law, her own son Paul, had also broken down and so Frederick had to help protect his sister Sophie as she came under fire from Catherine. Augusta was sent to live at [[Koluvere Castle|Lohde Castle]] in Western Estonia but died on 27 September 1788 from complications of [[amenorrhea]], which she had been suffering from for several years,<ref>Wagener-Fimpel,Silke, ''Auguste Karoline Friederike, Prinzessin von Württemberg, geb. Herzogin zu Braunschweig und Lüneburg (Wolfenbüttel)'' in Steinwascher, Gerd (ed.), ''Russlands Blick nach Nordwestdeutschland'', p 133</ref> and although rumours were spread about a death from miscarriage they were disproven through an exhumation later.<ref>Toll, Harald Baron, ''Prinzessin Auguste von Württemberg'' in ''Beiträgen zur Kunde Ehst-, Liv- und Kurlands'', Vol. 4 Book 1, 1901, pp 81-3</ref> In the same year, Frederick sold his residence in [[Vyborg]], known as [[Monrepos Park|Monrepos]].

[[File:The bridal night by James Gillray.jpg|thumb|'The Bridal Night' by James Gilray, satirising Frederick's marriage to the Princess Royal]]
In the meantime, Frederick's succession to the throne of Württemberg had become more and more likely. In June 1789 he traveled to Paris to see the first stages of the [[French Revolution]] at first hand, before moving to [[Ludwigsburg]] the following year, much to the displeasure of his uncle Carl Eugen, who was still on the throne. His father came to the throne in 1795 and finally Frederick gained his long-wished political influences. His Brunswick-born father helped him make contact with the British royal family—Frederick's first wife had been a niece of George III. On 18 May 1797, Frederick married George's eldest daughter [[Charlotte, Princess Royal|Charlotte]] at the [[Chapel Royal]] in [[St James's Palace]].

==Reign==
===Duke and elector===
On 23 December 1797, Frederick's father, who had succeeded his brother as [[Duke of Württemberg]] two years before, died, and Frederick became Duke of Württemberg as Frederick III. He was not to enjoy his reign undisturbed for long, however. In 1800, the French army occupied Württemberg and the Duke and Duchess fled to [[Vienna]]. In 1801, Duke Frederick ceded the enclave of [[Montbéliard]] to the French Republic, and received [[Ellwangen]] in exchange two years later.

In the ''[[Reichsdeputationshauptschluss]]'', which reorganized the Empire as a result of the French annexation of the west bank of the Rhine, the Duke of Württemberg was raised to the dignity of [[Prince-elector]]. Frederick assumed the title ''Prince-Elector'' ({{langx|de|link=no|[[Kurfürst]]}}) on 25 February 1803, and was thereafter known as the ''[[Elector of Württemberg]]''. The reorganization of the Empire also secured the new Elector control of various ecclesiastical territories and former [[Free imperial city|free cities]], thus greatly increasing the size of his domains.

===King===
[[Image:Württembergische Königskrone-MFr-3.jpg|thumb|left|Crown of the Kingdom of Württemberg]]
In exchange for providing France with a large auxiliary force, [[Napoleon]] allowed Frederick to raise Württemberg to a kingdom on 26 December 1805. Fredrick was formally crowned king at [[Stuttgart]] on 1 January 1806, and took the regnal name of ''King Frederick I''. Soon after, Württemberg seceded from the [[Holy Roman Empire]] and joined Napoleon's [[Confederation of the Rhine]]. Once again, the assumption of a new title also meant territorial expansion, as the territories of various nearby princes were [[German mediatisation|mediatized]] and annexed by Württemberg. As a symbol of his alliance with Napoleon, Frederick's daughter, Princess [[Catharina of Württemberg|Catharina]], was married to Napoleon's youngest brother, [[Jérôme Bonaparte]].

The newly elevated king's alliance with France technically made him the enemy of his father-in-law, [[George III]]. However, the king's dynastic connections would enable him to act as a go-between with Britain and various continental powers. In 1810, Frederick banished the composer [[Carl Maria von Weber]] from Württemberg on the pretext that Weber had mismanaged the funds of Frederick's brother, [[Duke Louis of Württemberg|Louis]], for whom Weber had served as secretary since 1807.

During the [[German campaign of 1813]], Frederick changed sides and went over to the Allies, where his status as the brother-in-law of the British Prince Regent (later [[George IV]]) and uncle to the Russian emperor [[Alexander I of Russia|Alexander I]] helped his standing. After the fall of Napoleon, he attended the [[Congress of Vienna]] and was confirmed as king. At [[Vienna]], Frederick and his ministers were very concerned to make sure that Württemberg would be able to retain all the territories it had gained in the past fifteen years. Frederick's harsh treatment of the mediatized{{citation needed|date=November 2013}} princes within his domain made him one of the principal targets of the organization of dispossessed princes, which hoped to gain the support of the Powers in regaining their lost sovereignty. In the end, however, [[Austrian Empire|Austria]], which was seen as the natural ally of the princes, was more interested in alliance with the medium-sized German states like Württemberg than in asserting its traditional role as protector of the smaller sovereigns of the old Empire; and Frederick was allowed to retain his dubiously acquired lands. Frederick, along with the other German princes, joined the new [[German Confederation]] in 1815. He died in Stuttgart in October of the next year.

When he became king, he granted his children and further male-line descendants the titles ''Princes and Princesses of Württemberg'' with the style ''[[Royal Highness]]'', and he styled his siblings as ''Royal Highnesses'' with the titles ''Dukes and Duchesses of Württemberg''.

He was very tall and obese: behind his back he was known as "The Great Belly-Gerent". Napoleon remarked that God had created the Prince to demonstrate the utmost extent to which the human skin could be stretched without bursting.<ref>{{cite book|last=David|first=Saul|title=Prince of Pleasure|year=1998|publisher=Atlantic Monthly Press|location=New York|isbn=0-87113-739-9|pages=[https://archive.org/details/princeofpleasure00davi/page/200 200]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/princeofpleasure00davi/page/200}}</ref> In return, Frederick wondered how so much poison could fit in such a small head as Napoleon's.{{citation needed|date=February 2012}}

==Marriages and issue==
He married twice:
*Firstly on 15 October 1780, to Augusta of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, by whom he had four children:
**King [[William I of Württemberg]] (1781–1864), who succeeded his father as king.
**Princess [[Catharina of Württemberg]] (1783–1835), who on 22 August 1807 married [[Jérôme Bonaparte]], [[King of Westphalia]], youngest brother of Emperor [[Napoleon I]] of France, and had issue.
**Duchess Sophia Dorothea of Württemberg (1783–1784), died in infancy.
**[[Prince Paul of Württemberg]] (1785–1852), whose grandson was King [[William II of Württemberg]].
*Secondly on 18 May 1797 he married [[Charlotte, Princess Royal]], the eldest daughter of King [[George III]] of [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Great Britain]], by whom he had only one child, a stillborn daughter delivered on 27 April 1798.

==Honours==
The then Erbprinz of Württemberg was awarded most of his honorary titles on his trip to England in 1797:<ref>{{Cite web |title=Landesarchiv Baden Württemberg |url=http://www.landesarchiv-bw.de/plink/?f=1-2264}}</ref>

*Honorary Member of the [[Academy of Fine Arts Vienna]], ''8 of February 1815''
*Honorary Doctor of Law by [[University of Oxford]], ''15 May 1797''
*Honorary Citizen of [[Portsmouth]], ''20 April 1797''
*Honorary Citizen of Newport, ''22 April 1797''
*Honorary Citizen of [[Bath, Somerset|Bath]], ''27 April 1797''
*Honorary Citizen of [[Salisbury|New Sarum]], ''1 May 1797''
*Honorary Citizen of [[Oxford]], ''3 May 1797''
*Honorary Citizen of [[Windsor, Berkshire|Windsor]], ''23 May 1797''

Miliary ranks Frederick held before rising to the throne:
*[[Kingdom of Prussia|Prussia]] 
**Honorary Colonel of Infantry, ''28 January 1759''
**Honorary General Major of Cavalry, ''15 August 1769''
**Colonel of Cavalry, ''2 July 1774''
**General Major of Cavalry, ''9 June 1780''
**Left service, ''1781''
*[[Russian Empire|Russia]]
**General Lieutenant, ''10 November 1780''
**General Governor of Finland, ''6 April 1782''
**Expelled ''1787''
*[[Swabian Circle]]
**Colonel, ''13 July 1776''
**General Major, ''10 June 1780''
**General of Cavalry, ''12 October 1795''
**Took the throne, ''1797''

==Ancestry==
{{ahnentafel
| collapsed=yes| align=center |ref=<ref>{{cite book|title=Genealogie ascendante jusqu'au quatrieme degre inclusivement de tous les Rois et Princes de maisons souveraines de l'Europe actuellement vivans| trans-title=Genealogy up to the fourth degree inclusive of all the Kings and Princes of sovereign houses of Europe currently living |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AINPAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA111|year=1768|publisher=Frederic Guillaume Birnstiel|location=Bourdeaux|language=fr|page=111}}</ref>
| boxstyle_1 = background-color: #fcc;
| boxstyle_2 = background-color: #fb9;
| boxstyle_3 = background-color: #ffc;
| boxstyle_4 = background-color: #bfc;
| boxstyle_5 = background-color: #9fe;
| 1 = 1. '''Frederick I of Württemberg'''
| 2 = 2. [[Frederick II Eugene, Duke of Württemberg]]
| 3 = 3. [[Princess Friederike of Brandenburg-Schwedt]]
| 4 = 4. [[Charles Alexander, Duke of Württemberg]]
| 5 = 5. [[Princess Marie Auguste of Thurn and Taxis]]
| 6 = 6. [[Frederick William, Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt]]
| 7 = 7. [[Princess Sophia Dorothea of Prussia]]
| 8 = 8. [[Frederick Charles, Duke of Württemberg-Winnental]]
| 9 = 9. [[Princess Eleonore Juliane of Brandenburg-Ansbach]]
| 10 = 10. [[Anselm Franz, 2nd Prince of Thurn and Taxis|Anselm Franz, Prince of Thurn and Taxis]]
| 11 = 11. Princess Maria Ludovika of Lobkowicz
| 12 = 12. [[Philip William, Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt]]
| 13 = 13. [[Princess Johanna Charlotte of Anhalt-Dessau]]
| 14 = 14. [[Frederick William I of Prussia]]
| 15 = 15. [[Princess Sophia Dorothea of Hanover]]
}}

== Sources ==
* Sauer, Paul. ''Der schwäbische Zar. Friedrich – Württembergs erster König.'' Stuttgart 1984.
* Paul, Ina Ulrike. ''Württemberg 1797–1816/19. Quellen und Studien zur Entstehung des modernen württembergischen Staates'' (Quellen zu den Reformen in den Rheinbundstaaten, Vol. 7). Munich 2005.
* {{cite web|author=Andermann, Kurt|url=http://www.schloss-aschhausen.de/index.php?option=com_phocadownload&view=category&id=1:presse&download=1:von-mecklenburg-nach-aschhausen&Itemid=9|title=Von Mecklenburg nach Württemberg: 200 Jahre Zeppelin in Aschhausen (Zeppelin family history)|publisher=schloss-aschhausen.de|access-date=27 July 2011}} (PDF)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category|Frederick I of Württemberg}}
*{{Cite NIE|wstitle=Frederick I., William Charles|year=1905 |short=x}}
*{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Württemberg |short=x}}
*{{NPG name|name=Friedrich I, King of Württemberg}}

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{{Ministries of Württemberg}}
{{Dukes of Württemberg}}
{{Napoleonic Wars}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Frederick of Wurttemberg}}
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