February 16, 1620: Birth of Friedrich Wilhelm, Elector of Brandenburg

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Duke of Prussia, Edict of Nantes, Elector of Brandenburg, Frederick William, House of Hohenzollern, King Louis XIV of France and Navarre, The Great Elector, Thirty Years War

Friedrich Wilhelm (February 16, 1620 – April 29, 1688) was Elector of Brandenburg and Duke of Prussia, thus ruler of Brandenburg-Prussia, from 1640 until his death in 1688. A member of the House of Hohenzollern, he is popularly known as “the Great Elector” because of his military and political achievements.

Friedrich Wilhelm was a staunch pillar of the Calvinist faith, associated with the rising commercial class. He saw the importance of trade and promoted it vigorously. His shrewd domestic reforms gave Prussia a strong position in the post-Westphalian political order of north-central Europe, setting Prussia up for elevation from duchy to kingdom, achieved under his son and successor.

Elector Friedrich Wilhelm was born in Berlin to Georg Wilhelm, Elector of Brandenburg, and Elisabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate. Elizabeth Charlotte was the daughter of Friedrich IV, Elector Palatine, and Louise Juliana of Orange-Nassau. Her brother Friedrich V became famous as the Elector-Palatine and “Winter King” of Bohemia. He was married to Princess Elizabeth (Stuart) of England and they were the grand parents of George I, King of Great Britain and Elector of Hanover. The descendants of both Friedrich Wilhelm of Brandenburg and George I of Great Britain would intermarry in the next several generations.

Friedrich Wilhelm’s inheritance consisted of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, the Duchy of Cleves, the County of Mark, and the Duchy of Prussia.

Foreign diplomacy

Following the Thirty Years’ War that devastated much of the Holy Roman Empire, Friedrich Wilhelm focused on rebuilding his war-ravaged territories. Brandenburg-Prussia benefited from his policy of religious tolerance and he used French subsidies to build up an army that took part in the 1655 to 1660 Second Northern War.

This ended with the treaties of Labiau, Wehlau, Bromberg and Oliva; they removed Swedish control of the Duchy of Prussia, which meant he held it direct from the Holy Roman Emperor.

In 1672, Friedrich Wilhelm joined the Franco-Dutch War as an ally of the Dutch Republic, led by his nephew Willem III of Orange but made peace with France in the June 1673 Treaty of Vossem. Although he rejoined the anti-French alliance in 1674, this left him diplomatically isolated; despite conquering much of Swedish Pomerania during the Scanian War, he was obliged to return most of it to Sweden in the 1679 Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye.

Friedrich Wilhelm was a military commander of wide renown, and his standing army would later become the model for the Prussian Army. He is notable for his joint victory with Swedish forces at the Battle of Warsaw, which, according to Hajo Holborn, marked “the beginning of Prussian military history”, but the Swedes turned on him at the behest of King Louis XIV and invaded Brandenburg.

After marching 250 kilometres in 15 days back to Brandenburg, he caught the Swedes by surprise and managed to defeat them on the field at the Battle of Fehrbellin, destroying the myth of Swedish military invincibility. He later destroyed another Swedish army that invaded the Duchy of Prussia during the Great Sleigh Drive in 1678.

Luise Henriette of Nassau, Electress of Brandenburg

Friedrich Wilhelm is noted for his use of broad directives and delegation of decision-making to his commanders, which would later become the basis for the German doctrine of Auftragstaktik, and for using rapid mobility to defeat his foes.

Domestic policies

Friedrich Wilhelm raised an army of 45,000 soldiers by 1678, through the General War Commissariat presided over by Joachim Friedrich von Blumenthal. He was an advocate of mercantilism, monopolies, subsidies, tariffs, and internal improvements.

Following Louis XIV’s revocation of the Edict of Nantes, Friedrich Wilhelm encouraged skilled French and Walloon Huguenots to emigrate to Brandenburg-Prussia with the Edict of Potsdam, bolstering the country’s technical and industrial base.

On Blumenthal’s advice he agreed to exempt the nobility from taxes and in return they agreed to dissolve the Estates-General. He also simplified travel in Brandenburg and the Duchy of Prussia by connecting riverways with canals, a system that was expanded by later Prussian architects, such as Georg Steenke; the system is still in use today.

Legacy

In his half-century reign, 1640–1688, the Great Elector transformed the small remote state of Prussia into a great power by augmenting and integrating the Hohenzollern family possessions in northern Germany and Prussia. When he became elector (ruler) of Brandenburg in 1640, the country was in ruins from the Thirty Years War; it had lost half its population from war, disease and emigration.

The capital Berlin had only 6,000 people left when the wars ended in 1648. He united the multiple separate domains that his family had acquired primarily by marriage over the decades, and built the powerful unified state of Prussia out of them. His success in rebuilding the lands and his astute military and diplomatic leadership propelled him into the ranks of the prominent rulers in an era of “absolutism”.

Historians compare him to his contemporaries such as Louis XIV of France (1643–1715), Peter I the Great of Russia (1682–1725) and Carl XI of Sweden (1660–1697).

On December 7, 1646 in The Hague, Friedrich Wilhelm entered into a marriage, proposed by Blumenthal as a partial solution to the Jülich-Berg question, with Luise Henriette of Nassau (1627–1667), daughter of Frederick Henry of Orange-Nassau and Amalia of Solms-Braunfels and his 1st cousin once removed through Willem the Silent.

On June 13, 1668 in Gröningen, Friedrich Wilhelm married Sophie Dorothea of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, daughter of Philipp, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg and Sophie Hedwig of Saxe-Lauenburg.

Elector Friedrich Wilhelm was succeeded by his son, Friedrich, by his first wife Luise Henriette of Nassau.

Friedrich III , Elector of Brandenburg (1688–1713) and Duke of Prussia in personal union (Brandenburg-Prussia). The latter function he upgaded to royalty, becoming the first King in Prussia (Friedrich I, 1701–1713).

January 18, 1701 ~ Elector Friedrich III of Brandenburg, Crowns himself King Friedrich I in Prussia in Königsberg.

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Augustus the Strong, Duchy of Prussia, Elector of Brandenburg, Emperor Leopold, Frederick I of Prussia, Frederick III of Brandenburg, Holy Roman Empire, King in Prussia, Kingdom of Poland

Friedrich I. ( July 11, 1657 – February 25, 1713), of the Hohenzollern dynasty, was (as Friedrich III) 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).

Born in Königsberg, he was the third son of Friedrich Wilhelm, The Great 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, Friedrich became Elector Friedrich III of Brandenburg and Duke of Prussia. Right after ascending the throne Friedrich founded a new city southerly adjacent to Dorotheenstadt and named it after himself, the Friedrichstadt.

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, Elector Friedrich III 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 of the House of Habsburg.

Friedrich persuaded Emperor Leopold I to allow Prussia to be elevated to a kingdom by the Crown Treaty of November 16, 1700. This agreement was ostensibly given in exchange for an alliance against King Louis XIV of France and Navarre in the War of the Spanish Succession, along with the provision of 8,000 Prussian troops to Leopold’s service.

Friedrich argued that Prussia had never been part of the Holy Roman Empire, (it was once a fief of the Kingdom of Poland) 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.

Friedrich crowned himself on January 18, 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 Polish-Lithuanian Diet (Sejm) did raise objections, and viewed the coronation as illegal.

In fact, according to the terms of the 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). Therefore, out of deference to the region’s historic ties to the Polish crown, Friedrich made the symbolic concession of calling himself “King in Prussia” instead of “King of Prussia”.

His sovereignty was, in any case, limited to Prussia and did not reduce the rights of the Emperor in the portions of Friedrich’s 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 Imperial Elector of Brandenburg under the suzerainty of the Holy Roman Emperor.

Legally, the Hohenzollern state was still a personal union vested in Friedrich who now was both Elector of Brandenburg and the King in Prussia. In other words, Brandenburg and Prussia we’re not politically united as a singular state.

However, in practice and reality, at the time Friedrich crowned himself as King in Prussia, the Emperor Leopold’s authority over the Electorate of Brandenburg (and the rest of the Empire itself) was only nominal, and it soon came to be treated as part of the Prussian Kingdom rather than as a separate entity. His grandson, Friedrich II the Great, was the first Prussian king formally to style himself “King of Prussia” (from 1772 onwards).

With the rise of the Prussian Kingdom, and with the Habsburg Emperors generally only having authority within their native hereditary lands such as the Archduchy of Austria, began a rivalry for the supremacy of the entirety of Germany.

June 24, 1485: Birth of Elizabeth of Denmark, Electress of Brandenburg

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Elector of Brandenburg, Elizabeth of Denmark, Hans of Denmark, Joachim I Nestor of Brandenburg, Protestant, Roman Catholic Church

Elizabeth of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden ( June 24, 1485 – June 10, 1555) was a Scandinavian princess who became Electress of Brandenburg as the spouse of Joachim I Nestor, Elector of Brandenburg. She was the daughter of King Hans of Denmark, Norway and Sweden and his spouse, Christina of Saxony.

As a child, Elizabeth had a close relation with her brother, the later King Christian II of Denmark. She was able to read and write in both Danish and German. On April 10, 1502 she married Joachim I Nestor, Elector of Brandenburg, in a double wedding alongside her uncle, the future king Frederick I of Denmark, and her sister-in-law Anna of Brandenburg. Elizabeth and Joachim got along quite well during the first twenty years of their marriage and co-existed harmoniously. She received her mother in 1507, attended her brother Christian’s wedding in 1515 and received Christian in 1523.

Her spouse was a pugnacious adherent of Roman Catholic orthodoxy during the Reformation. In 1523, she visited a sermon of Martin Luther with her brother and her sister-in-law and became a convinced Protestant. In 1527, she received the Protestant communion in public: this meant a public break with the Catholic Church, and caused a conflict with her husband. In 1528, her husband asked a clerical council from the Catholic Church if he should divorce, execute or isolate her if she refused to renounce her new conviction. The church council replied that he should have her imprisoned.

Elizabeth escaped to the court of her uncle, John, Elector of Saxony, and a public debate broke out: the Protestant monarchs and her brother supported her, Luther supported her freedom to leave her husband for her religion, and she declared that she would return only if she was allowed to keep her conviction and if her husband renounced his adultery and his interest in astrology. Otherwise, she suggested that they separate, referring to the separation of her own parents in 1504. She was given a residence near Wittenberg. Her husband refused to give her an allowance and forbade her sons to visit her. In 1532, her uncle died and her brother was imprisoned, and she thereby lost her supporters.

In 1535, her husband died and her sons asked her to return to Brandenburg, but changed their minds when she made the demand that the parishes in her dowry lands be made Protestant. She finally returned in 1545 and stayed in Spandau.

The marriage of her son Joachim II Hector, Elector of Brandenburg, to Hedwig Jagiellon did not satisfy Elizabeth. Catholic services were held for Hedwig in her private chapel, and the Dowager Electress was also unhappy because Hedwig could not speak German.

Titles of the German Emperor 1871-1918. Part II.

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Elector of Brandenburg, German Emperor, German Emperor and King of Prussia, German Empire, King in Prussia, Wilhelm I of Germany, Wilhelm II of Germany

Titles and emblems of the German Emperor after 1873
Overview about the Titles and emblems of the German Emperor after 1873.

Wilhelm I, German Emperor and King of Prussia.

In the great title of the German Emperors as Kings of Prussia, the history of the Hohenzollerns and the Prussian rulers were reflected. All German emperors after 1873 had the same title “German Emperor and King of Prussia”. The great title of German Emperors after 1873 was the complete list of the individual titles which they ruled as King of Prussia.

Here is the complete list of the title of the German Emperor.

His Imperial and Royal Majesty, by the Grace of God, German Emperor and King of Prussia; Margrave of Brandenburg, Burgrave of Nuremberg, Count of Hohenzollern; Sovereign and Supreme Duke of Silesia and of the County of Glatz; Grand Duke of the Lower Rhine and of Posen; Duke of Saxony, of Westphalia, of Angria, of Pomerania, Lüneburg, Holstein and Schleswig, of Magdeburg, of Bremen, of Guelders, Cleves, Jülich and Berg, Duke of the Wends and the Kassubes, of Crossen, Lauenburg and Mecklenburg; Landgrave of Hesse and Thuringia; Margrave of Upper and Lower Lusatia; Prince of Orange; Prince of Rügen, of East Friesland, of Paderborn and Pyrmont, of Halberstadt, Münster, Minden, Osnabrück, Hildesheim, of Verden, Cammin, Fulda, Nassau and Moers; Princely Count of Henneberg; Count of Mark, of Ravensberg, of Hohenstein, Tecklenburg and Lingen, of Mansfeld, Sigmaringen and Veringen; Lord of Frankfurt.

I will not detail the history of every title for the Emperor but I will mention the top and most important.

The German Emperor

The official title German Emperor was for of the head of state and hereditary ruler of the German Empire. A specifically chosen term, it was introduced with the January 1, 1871 constitution and lasted until the official abdication of Wilhelm II on November 28, 1918. The Holy Roman Emperor is sometimes also called “German Emperor” when the historical context is clear, as derived from the Holy Roman Empire’s official name of “Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation” from 1512.

Following the revolution of 1918, the function of head of state was succeeded by the President of the Reich beginning with Friedrich Ebert.

King of Prussia

Under its last master Albrecht in 1525, the State of the Teutonic Order was transformed into the secular Duchy of Prussia under Polish armament. After the death of his successor, the Duke Albrecht-Friedrich in 1618, the Duchy of Prussia became a part of the Brandenburg-Hohenzollern lands, who now ruled it in personal union.

Elector Friedrich III of Brandenburg, King Friedrich I in Prussia

In the Treaties of Wehlau in 1637 and Oliva in 1660, the Elector Friedrich-Wilhelm, the “Great Elector”, succeeded in gaining full sovereignty over the Duchy of Prussia, whereby he himself became a European sovereign. His successor, Friedrich III of Brandenburg was crowned King Friedrich I in Prussia on January 18,1701, after the Emperor had contractually secured him to recognise him as King of the Holy Roman Empire and in Europe.

The name and coat of arms of the Prussian monarch then passed as a result of the new designation of sovereignty and authority könglich-preußisch (royal Prussian) to the entire Prussian state of Hohenzollern, which lay within and outside the empire and for which the name of Prussia prevailed in the eighteenth century.

The restricted in in the King’s title recalled that the West of Prussia, Royal Prussia (Warmia and West Prussia) remained under the Polish crown. This terminological refinement was, however, only observed in the German version. In Latin, he called himself “Nos Fridericu, Dei greatia Rex Borussiae,…”and in the French version “Frederic par la grace de Dieu Roi de Prusse…”.

Friedrich II, King of Prussia.

After the first Polish partition of 1772 under Frederick II, Warmia, the Netzedistrikt and West Prussia fell to Prussia, so that Friedrich II could now be called King of Prussia. This title was passed onto his successors. The last of these successors was Wilhelm II.

May 31, 1740: Death of King Friedrich-Wilhelm I in Prussia.

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Elector of Brandenburg, Frederick I of Prussia, Frederick the Great, Frederick William I of Prussia, Holy Roman Empire, King in Hanover, Sophia Charlotte of Hanover, Sophia Dorothea of Great Britain

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

Friedrich-Wilhelm I, King in Prussia and Elector of Brandenburg.

Reign

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

Friedrich-Wilhelm’s father, Friedrich I, had successfully acquired the title King in Prussia for the Margraves of Brandenburg. On ascending the throne in 1713 (the year before his maternal grandmother’s death and the ascension of his maternal uncle George I of Great Britain to the British throne) the new King sold most of his father’s horses, jewels and furniture; he did not intend to treat the treasury as his personal source of revenue the way Friedrich I and many of the other German Princes had.

Friedrich I, King in Prussia and Elector of Brandenburg (Father)

Throughout his reign, Friedrich-Wilhelm was characterized by his frugal, austere and militaristic lifestyle, as well as his devout Calvinist faith. He practiced rigid management of the treasury, never started a war, and led a simple and austere lifestyle, in contrast to the lavish court his father had presided over.

Princess Sophia-Charlotte of Hanover (Mother)

Friedrich-Wilhelm I did much to improve Prussia economically and militarily. He replaced mandatory military service among the middle class with an annual tax, and he established schools and hospitals. The king encouraged farming, reclaimed marshes, stored grain in good times and sold it in bad times.

He dictated the manual of Regulations for State Officials, containing 35 chapters and 297 paragraphs in which every public servant in Prussia could find his duties precisely set out: a minister or councillor failing to attend a committee meeting, for example, would lose six months’ pay; if he absented himself a second time, he would be discharged from the royal service. In short, Friedrich-Wilhelm I concerned himself with every aspect of his relatively small country, ruling an absolute monarchy with great energy and skill.

On November 28, 1706, Friedrich-Wilhelm married his first cousin Sophia-Dorothea of Hanover. She was only daughter of Georg-Ludwig of Hanover, later King George I of Great Britain, and his wife, Sophia-Dorothea of Celle. She was detested by her elder brother, King George II of Great Britain.

Sophia-Dorothea of Hanover

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 at court and for refusing to marry her children to their English cousins. She also abhorred his cruelty towards their son and heir Crown Prince Friedrich (with whom she was close), although rather than trying to mend the relationship between father and son she frequently spurred Friedrich on in his defiance. They had fourteen children.

Although a highly effective ruler, Friedrich-Wilhelm had a perpetually short temper which sometimes drove him to physically attack servants (or even his own children) with a cane at the slightest provocation. His violent, harsh nature was further exacerbated by his inherited porphyritic disease, which gave him gout, obesity and frequent crippling stomach pains. He also had a notable contempt for France, and would sometimes fly into a rage at the mere mention of that country, although this did not stop him from encouraging the immigration of French Huguenot refugees to Prussia.
Burial and reburials

His eldest surviving son was Friedrich II (Fritz), born in 1712. Friedrich-Wilhelm wanted him to become a fine soldier. As a small child, Fritz was awakened each morning by the firing of a cannon. At the age of 6, he was given his own regiment of children to drill as cadets, and a year later, he was given a miniature arsenal.

Portrait of August II of Poland (left) and Friedrich-Wilhelm I of Prussia (right), during Friedrich-Wilhelm’s 1728 visit to Dresden. Painting by Louis de Silvestre, about 1730

The love and affection Friedrich-Wilhelm had for his heir initially was soon destroyed due to their increasingly different personalities. Friedrich-Wilhelm ordered Fritz to undergo a minimal education, live a simple Protestant lifestyle, and focus on the Army and statesmanship as he had.

However, the intellectual Fritz was more interested in music, books and French culture, which were forbidden by his father as decadent and unmanly. As Fritz’s defiance for his father’s rules increased, Friedrich-Wilhelm would frequently beat or humiliate Fritz (he preferred his younger sibling Wilhelm-August). Fritz was beaten for being thrown off a bolting horse and wearing gloves in cold weather. After the prince attempted to flee to England with his tutor, Hans Hermann von Katte, the enraged King had Katte beheaded before the eyes of the prince, who himself was court-martialled.

The court declared itself not competent in this case. Whether it was the king’s intention to have his son executed as well (as Voltaire claims) is not clear. However, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI intervened, claiming that a prince could only be tried by the Imperial Diet of the Holy Roman Empire itself.

Crown Prince Friedrich (Friedrich II)

Fritz was imprisoned in the Fortress of Küstrin from September 2, to November 19, 1731 and exiled from court until February 1732, during which time he was rigorously schooled in matters of state. After achieving a measure of reconciliation, Friedrich-Wilhelm had his son married to Princess Elisabeth of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, whom Friedrich despised, but then grudgingly allowed him to indulge in his musical and literary interests again. He also gifted him a stud farm in East Prussia, and Rheinsberg Palace. By the time of Friedrich-Wilhelm’s death in 1740, he and Fritz were on at least reasonable terms with each other.

Although the relationship between Friedrich-Wilhelm and Fritz was clearly hostile, Fritz himself later wrote that his father “penetrated and understood great objectives, and knew the best interests of his country better than any minister or general.”

Friedrich-Wilhelm died in 1740 at age 51 and was interred at the Garrison Church in Potsdam. At his death, Prussia had a sound exchequer and a full treasury, in contrast to the other German states.

During World War II, in order to protect Friedrich-Wilhelm I’s coffin from advancing allied forces, Hitler ordered the king’s coffin, as well as those of Friedrich the Great and Paul von Hindenburg, into hiding, first to Berlin and later to a salt mine outside of Bernterode.

The coffins were later discovered by occupying American Forces, who re-interred the bodies in St. Elisabeth’s Church in Marburg in 1946. In 1953 the coffin was moved to Burg Hohenzollern, where it remained until 1991, when it was finally laid to rest on the steps of the altar in the Kaiser Friedrich Mausoleum in the Church of Peace on the palace grounds of Sanssouci. The original black marble sarcophagus collapsed at Burg Hohenzollern—the current one is a copper copy.

May 7, 1553: Birth of Prince Albrecht-Friedrich, Duke of Prussia

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Albert Frederick of Prussia, Brandenburg-Prussia, Duchy of Prussia, Elector of Brandenburg, Georg-Friedrich of Brandenburg-Kulmbach, House of Hohenzollern, Joachim-Friedrich, King Sigismund III Vasa of Poland, Kingdom of Poland, Maria Eleanor of Cleves

Albrecht-Friedrich (May 7, 1553 – August 28, 1618) was the Duke of Prussia, from 1568 until his death. He was a son of Duke Albrecht of Prussia, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, and Anna Marie of Brunswick-Lüneburg, the daughter of Duke Eric I of Brunswick-Calenberg (1470–1540) and Elizabeth of Brandenburg (1510–1558). He was the second and last Prussian duke of the Ansbach branch of the Hohenzollern family.

Albrecht-Friedrich, Duke of Prussia

Duke of Prussia

Albrecht-Friedrich became Duke of Prussia after paying feudal homage to his cousin, the King Sigismund II Augustus of Poland, Grand Duke of Lithuania, on July 19, 1569 in Lublin. The homage was described by the Polish chronicler Jan Kochanowski in his work Proporzec (“Standard”). During the 1573 Polish election, Albrecht-Friedrich attempted to gain acceptance to the Polish senate but was opposed by the powerful Jan Zamoyski (later Grand Hetman of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland) who feared the influence of Protestants in the Polish legislative body.

Albrecht-Friedrich initially refused to recognize the election of Stefan Bathory and supported the candidacy of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II of Austria to the Polish throne. However, at the Toruń sejm of October 1576 he gave his support to the new monarch.

As the great grandson of the Polish king, Casimir IV Jagiellon, and as a Duke in Prussia who was fluent in Polish, Albrecht-Friedrich was himself seriously considered for a time as a possible candidate for the Polish throne. He particularly enjoyed the support of Polish Lutherans.

Marriage

Albert-Friedrich was married in 1573 to Marie Eleonore of Cleves, a daughter of Wilhelm, Duke of Jülich-Cleves-Berg and Archduchess Maria of Austria (1531–1581). Archduchess Maria was a daughter of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor and Anna of Bohemia and Hungary. Marie Eleonore of Cleves was also the niece of Anne of Cleves, fourth wife of King Henry VIII of England and Ireland.

Marie Eleonore of Cleves

While Marie Eleonore’s her father was a Reform Catholic, she was of a strong willed character and displayed firm Lutheran sympathies early on. Her father was afraid that she would influence her younger sisters with her religious views, and therefore wished to have her married to someone of her own religious convictions as soon as possible in order to remove her from his domains, and thus considered grooms for his daughter that he would not otherwise have considered. Albrecht-Friedrich, Duke of Prussia, was thus accepted as a suitor, despite showing mental disorders.

In 1572 he began to exhibit signs of mental disorder. In early 1578, the regency was taken over by his cousin, Georg-Friedrich of Brandenburg-Kulmbach (1539–1603). After Georg-Friedrich death in 1603, the Polish King Sigismund III Vasa appointed Joachim-Friedrich as regent in 1605, and permitted his son, Johann-Sigismund, to succeed him in 1611. The latter became Duke of Prussia after Albrecht-Friedrich’s death in 1618.

With Georg-Friedrich of Brandenburg-Kulmbach taking over the regency of the Duchy of Prussia, this made the position of Marie Eleonore more difficult at the Ducal court of Köningsberg. In 1591, she returned with her daughters to Jülich, where she remained until 1592. She arranged the marriage of her daughters to German princes to avoid them being married by the regency council to Polish suitors, and by the marriage alliances she arranged, she ensured that the Duchy of Julich would come to the Brandenburg after the death of her brother.

Georg-Friedrich of Brandenburg-Kulmbach

Here is a list of the children of Albrecht-Friedrich of Prussia and Marie Eleonore of Cleves and their spouses:

1. Anna of Prussia (1576 – 1625). Married Johann-Sigismund, Elector of Brandenburg.
2. Marie of Prussia (1579 – 1649). Married Christian, Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth.
3. Albrecht-Friedrich of Prussia (1 June 1580 – 8 October 1580).
4. Sophie of Prussia (1582 – 1610). Married Wilhelm Kettler of Courland.
5. Eleanor of Prussia (1583 – 1607). Married Joachim-Friedrich, Elector of Brandenburg.
6. Wilhelm-Friedrich of Prussia (1585 – 1586).
7. Magdalene Sibylle of Prussia (1586 – 1659). Married John George I, Elector of Saxony.

Since neither of Albrecht-Friedrich’s two sons survived until adulthood, at his death on August 28, 1618, the Duchy of Prussia passed to his son-in-law Johann-Sigismund, Elector and Margrave of Brandenburg, combining the two territories under a single dynasty and forming Brandenburg-Prussia. This new State of Brandenburg-Prussia would be the foundation upon on which both the Kingdom of Prussia and the German Empire were built.

April 10, 1603: Birth of Prince Christian, Prince-Elect of Denmark.

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Bohemian Revolt, Elector of Brandenburg, Johann Georg I of Saxony, King Christian IV of Denmark, Kingdom of Norway, Magdalene Sibylle of Saxony, Prince Christian of Denmark, The Thirty Years War

Christian (April 10, 1603 – June 2, 1647) was Prince-Elect of Denmark since 1610 and Heir Apparent to the Throne of the Kingdom of Norway since 1603. Dying in 1647, he Never became king and was succeeded by his younger brother, Prince Frederik.

Early life

Prince Christian was born at Copenhagen Castle to King Christian IV of Denmark and Norway (1577–1648) and Anne Catherine of Brandenburg (1575–1612), daughter of Joachim Friedrich, Margrave of Brandenburg and his first wife Catherine of Brandenburg-Küstrin. Christian was their second son and the oldest one living, as his elder brother Frederik had died in 1599, less than a year old. As such, his father saw him as the preferable heir to the Danish throne.

Prince Christian, Prince-Elect of Denmark

At this point in time Denmark was an elective monarchy, where elective power was held by the Council of the Realm. However, the King would usually choose an heir and have him hailed as such, thus limiting the Council’s freedom of choice. Whilst Norway was formally a hereditary monarchy, making Christian Crown Prince since his birth, it remains likely that the next King of Norway would not have been another person than the next King of Denmark.

In 1608, the Council and representatives of the Estates supported the King in naming Christian as heir apparent. He was publicly hailed in 1610, both in Denmark and Norway.

Career and marriage

In 1625, Denmark ventured into the Thirty Years’ War. The Danish Intervention saw the war entering its second main phase, after the end of the Bohemian Revolt. With King Christian IV commanding on the battlefield, Prince Christian was installed as acting head of government. Christian held this post to 1627, but not without entering the battlefield in the meantime. He was even hit by two gunshots in November 1626. In 1627 he was sent to Holstein near the frontier, where he took seat in Segeberg.

He later retreated when enemy troops overran South Denmark and Jutland, as the Danish Intervention failed. During this process he even broke a leg after a fall from a wagon. In 1626, his relationship with the noble Anne Lykke caused a conflict with his father and the Council of the Realm when his father arrested Lykke because of her influence on him and tried to have her charged with sorcery.

In 1633, Christian was engaged to Magdalene Sibylle of Saxony daughter of Elector Johann Georg I of Saxony and Magdalene Sibylle of Prussia. The marriage had been discussed as early as 1630. The wedding took place on October 5, 1634 in Copenhagen among great festivities.

Princess Magdalene Sibylle of Saxony

The marriage was childless, and they resided at Nykøbing Castle in Falster. Christian was not much involved on the political scene in this phase of his life, partly to his own dismay, but he did act as head of government in 1644, when the King was absent due to the Torstenson War. In the autumn of 1644, Prince Christian had a stay in the fortified Malmø, but Swedish forces threatened the city, and Christian retreated, first to Copenhagen due to illness, then to Falster.

Later life and legacy

Christian gained a reputation as lazy and as a drinker. He was heavily indebted; despite his father’s attempts to pay some of Christian’s debts, he still owed more than 215,000 rigsdaler in 1647. Among others, he took a loan from the Duke of Gottorp in 1646 in order to finance a stay in a Bohemian spa. He left Nykøbing for Bohemia on May 8, 1647. He reached Dresden on May 28, and continued on until June 1. Not long after leaving he was struck by a fit of illness. He was brought to a castle in Gorbitz near Dresden, where he died on the next day. He was buried on November 8, 1647 in the Church of Our Lady in Copenhagen. In 1655, his remains were moved to the tombs at Roskilde Cathedral.

This date in history: December 24, 1660. Death of Mary, Princess Royal, Princess of Orange.

Tags

Charles I of England, Charles II of England, Elector of Brandenburg, Elector of Hanover, Frederick William I of Brandenburg, George I of Great Britain, Henry IV of France, King James II-VII of England and Scotland, Mary of England, Prince of Orange, Princess Royal, Republic of the Netherlands, Restoration, Stadthouder of the Netherlands, William II of Orange

Mary, Princess Royal (Mary Henrietta; November 4, 1631 – December 24, 1660) was Countess of Nassau by marriage to Prince Willem II of Orange and co-regent for her son during his minority as Sovereign Prince of Orange from 1651 to 1660.

Mary Henrietta was born at St. James’s Palace, London to Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland and Henrietta Maria de Bourbon of France, the eldest daughter of the youngest daughter of King Henri IV of France (Henri III of Navarre) and his second wife, Marie de’ Medici.

Mary, Princess Royal

Princess Mary was named after her mother. Her father, King Charles I, liked to call his wife Henrietta Maria simply “Maria”, with the English people calling her “Queen Mary.”

Charles I designated Mary Princess Royal in 1642, thus establishing the tradition that the eldest daughter of the British sovereign might bear this title. The title came into being when Queen Henrietta Maria, the daughter of Henri IV of France to imitate the way the eldest daughter of the French king was styled (Madame Royale). Until that time, the eldest daughters of English and Scottish kings were variously titled lady or princess (The younger daughters of British sovereigns were not consistently titled Princess of England/Scotland or Great Britain with the style Royal Highness until the accession of George I in 1714). George I of Great Britain codified styles and titles using the German system and this code is still in effect today.

Betrothal portrait of Princess Mary and Prince Willem of Orange

Her father, Charles I, wished that Mary should marry her first cousin Balthasar Carlos, Prince of Asturias, the son of Felipe IV of Spain. The Prince of the Asturias died on October 9, 1646 (aged 16) before succeeding to the throne. Mary’s first cousin, Charles I Ludwig, Elector Palatine, was also a suitor for her hand. Both proposals fell through and she was betrothed to Willem of Orange, the son and heir of Frederik Hendrik, Prince of Orange and Stadtholder of the United Provinces, and of Amalia of Solms-Braunfels. The marriage took place on May 2, 1641 at the Chapel Royal, Whitehall Palace, London.

The Prince and Princess of Orange

The marriage was reputedly not consummated for several years because the bride was nine years old. In 1642, Mary moved to the Dutch Republic with her mother, Queen Henrietta Maria, and in 1644, as the daughter-in-law of the stadtholder, Frederik Hendrik she became more engaged in courtly and public events.

In March 1647, Mary’s husband, Willem II, succeeded his father as stadholder. However, in November 1650, just after his attempt to capture Amsterdam from his political opponents, he died of smallpox.

Co-regency

The couple’s only child, Willem III Prince of Orange and Stadthouder of the Netherlands (later William III of England, Scotland and Ireland), was born two weeks after his father’s death. Mary, now a Dowager, was obliged to share the guardianship of her infant son with her mother-in-law, Amalia of Solms-Braunfels, and brother-in-law, Friedrich Wilhelm I, Elector of Brandenburg. They had more power over the young Prince’s affairs than she, as evidenced by his being christened Willem, and not Charles as she had desired.

Prince Willem II of Orange, Stadthouder of the Netherlands

She was unpopular with the Dutch because of her sympathies with her own family, the Stuarts. She lived in the palace of the Stadthouder at the Binnenhof in the Hague, the building complex that now houses the Senate of the Netherlands. Her boudoir is still intact. At length, public opinion having been further angered by the hospitality that she showed to her brothers, the exiled Charles II and the Duke of York (later James II-VII) she was forbidden to receive her relatives.

Her moral reputation was damaged by rumours that she was having an affair with (or had been secretly married to) Henry Jermyn, a member of her brother James’ household. The rumours were probably untrue, but Charles II took them seriously, and tried to prevent any further contact between Jermyn and Mary. From 1654 to 1657, Mary was usually not in Holland. In 1657, she became regent on behalf of her son for the principality of Orange, but the difficulties of her position led her to implore the assistance of her first cousin Louis XIV of France and Navarre.

Death

The restoration of Mary’s brother, Charles II in England and Scotland greatly enhanced the position of the Princess of Orange and her son in Holland. In September 1660, she returned to England. She died of smallpox on December 24, 1660, at Whitehall Palace, London and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
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