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Friedrich Wilhelm I (August 14, 1688 – May 31, 1740), known as the “Soldier King” was King in Prussia and Prince-Elector of Brandenburg from 1713 until his death in 1740, as well as Prince of Neuchâtel.

Early years

Friedrich Wilhelm was born in Berlin to King Friedrich I in Prussia and Princess Sophia Charlotte of Hanover, the only daughter of Prince-Elector Ernst August of Hanover and his wife Princes Sophia of the Palatinate of the Rhine. Her eldest brother, Prince-Elector Georg Ludwig of Hanover succeeded to the British throne in 1714 as King George I of Great Britain.

Princes Sophia of the Palatinate of the Rhine was the daughter of Prince-Elector Friedrich V of the Palatinate of the Rhine and Princess Elizabeth of England and Scotland the daughter of King James I-VI of England, Scotland and Ireland and his wife Princes Elizabeth of Denmark.

Princes Sophia of the Palatinate of the Rhine was later the heiress presumptive to the thrones of England and Scotland (later Great Britain) and Ireland under the Act of Settlement 1701, as a granddaughter of James I-VI of England, Scotland and Ireland. Sophia died less than two months before she would have become Queen of Great Britain and Ireland.

During his first years, Friedrich Wilhelm was raised by the Huguenot governess Marthe de Roucoulle. When the Great Northern War plague outbreak devastated Prussia, the inefficiency and corruption of the king’s favorite ministers and senior officials were highlighted. Friedrich Wilhelm with a party that formed at the court brought down the leading minister Johann Kasimir Kolbe von Wartenberg and his cronies following an official investigation that exposed Wartenberg’s huge-scale misappropriation and embezzlement.

His close associate Prince August David zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein was imprisoned at Spandau Citadel, fined 70,000 thalers and banished subsequently. The incident exerted great influence on Friedrich Wilhelm, making him resent corruption, wastage and inefficiency and realize the necessity of institutional reform. It also became the first time he actively participated in politics.

His father, Prince-Elector Friedrich III of Brandenburg had successfully acquired the title of King Friedrich I in Prussia for the Margraves and Prince-Electors of Brandenburg for which he had paid the high price of 2 million ducats to Emperor Leopold I, 600,000 ducats to the German clergy and 20,000 thalers to the Jesuit order. In addition, he had to take part with 8,000 soldiers in the War of the Spanish Succession led by the Habsburg Emperor. In order to also show his new rank, he had the Berlin Palace doubled and magnificently furnished at enormous expense. The same happened with Charlottenburg Palace and Koenigsberg Castle. In doing so, however, he had largely ruined the state finances.

On ascending the throne in 1713, King Friedrich Wilhelm I in Prussia therefore dismissed his father’s corrupt “Cabinet of Three Counts”. He worked persistently to reorganize the finances that had been shattered by his father, furthermore to enhance the economic development of his far-flung countries and to build up one of the largest and best equipped and trained armies in Europe.

King Friedrich Wilhelm intervened briefly in the Great Northern War, allied with Peter the Great of Russia, in order to gain a small portion of Swedish Pomerania; this gave Prussia new ports on the Baltic Sea coast. More significantly, aided by his close friend Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Dessau, the “Soldier-King” made considerable reforms to the Prussian army’s training, tactics and conscription program—introducing the canton system, and greatly increasing the Prussian infantry’s rate of fire through the introduction of the iron ramrod. King Friedrich Wilhelm’s reforms left his son Crown Prince Friedrich with the most formidable army in Europe, which Friedrich Wilhelm used to increase Prussia’s power.

King Friedrich Wilhelm married his first cousin Princess Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, King George II of Great Britain’s younger sister (daughter of his uncle, King George I of Great Britain and Sophia Dorothea of Celle) on November 28, 1706. King Friedrich Wilhelm was faithful and loving to his wife but they did not have a happy relationship: Sophia Dorothea feared his unpredictable temper and resented him, both for allowing her no influence or independence at court, and for refusing to marry her children to their English cousins. She also abhorred his cruelty towards their son and heir Frederick (with whom she was close), although rather than trying to mend the relationship between father and son she frequently spurred Frederick on in his defiance.

King Friedrich Wilhelm I instituted major military reforms, and expanded the army to new limits. He also made efforts to reduce corruption in his state and centralized his authority during his 27 years reign, cementing Prussia as a regional power. His other notable decisions would be the selling of Prussian overseas colonies and the foundation of the Canton system, as well as the conquest of the port of Stettin. He was succeeded by his son, King Friedrich II the Great of Prussia.