June 15, 1888: Death of Friedrich III, German Emperor and King of Prussia

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Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Crown Prince of Prussia, German Emperor Friedrich III, German Emperor Wilhelm I, German Empire, House of Hohenzollern, Liberal, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Princess Royal, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, Victoria of the United Kingdom

Friedrich III (German: Friedrich Wilhelm Nikolaus Karl; October 18, 1831 – June 15, 1888) Friedrich III was German Emperor and King of Prussia for 99 days between March and June 1888, during the Year of the Three Emperors.

Known informally as “Fritz”, was a scion of the House of Hohenzollern, rulers of Prussia, then the most powerful of the German states he was the only son of Emperor Wilhelm I who was the second son of King Friedrich Wilhelm III and, having been raised in the military traditions of the Hohenzollerns, developed into a strict disciplinarian.

German Emperor Friedrich III as Crown Prince of Prussia

Fritz’s father, Emperor Wilhelm I, King of Prussia married Princess Augusta of Saxe-Weimar, herself the Augusta was the second daughter of Charles Friedrich, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, and Maria Pavlovna of Russia, a daughter of Paul I of Russia and Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg.

Princess Augusta had been raised in the more intellectual and artistic atmosphere of Weimar, which gave its citizens greater participation in politics and limited the powers of its rulers through a constitution; Augusta was well known across Europe for her liberal views.

Because of their differences, the couple did not have a happy marriage and, as a result, Friedrich grew up in a troubled household, which left him with memories of a lonely childhood. He had one sister, Louise (later Grand Duchess of Baden), who was seven years his junior and very close to him.

Friedrich III was raised in his family’s tradition of military service. Although celebrated as a young man for his leadership and successes during the Second Schleswig, Austro-Prussian and Franco-Prussian wars, he nevertheless professed a hatred of warfare and was praised by friends and enemies alike for his humane conduct.

Following the unification of Germany in 1871 his father, then King of Prussia, became the German Emperor. Upon Wilhelm’s death at the age of ninety on March 9, 1888, the thrones passed to Frederick, who had by then been German Crown Prince for seventeen years and Crown Prince of Prussia for twenty-seven years.

Victoria, Princess Royal of the United Kingdom

Friedrich married Victoria, Princess Royal, oldest child of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. The couple were well-matched; their shared liberal ideology led them to seek greater representation for commoners in the government.

Friedrich, in spite of his conservative militaristic family background, had developed liberal tendencies as a result of his ties with Britain and his studies at the University of Bonn.

As the Crown Prince, he often opposed the conservative German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, particularly in speaking out against Bismarck’s policy of uniting Germany through force, and in urging that the power of the Chancellorship be curbed. Liberals in both Germany and Britain hoped that as emperor, Frederick would move to liberalise the German Empire.

Frederick and Victoria were great admirers of Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s husband. They planned to rule as co-monarchs, like Albert and Queen Victoria, and to reform what they saw as flaws in the executive branch that Bismarck had created for himself.

The office of Chancellor, responsible to the Emperor, would be replaced with a British-style cabinet, with ministers responsible to the Reichstag. Government policy would be based on the consensus of the cabinet. Frederick “described the Imperial Constitution as ingeniously contrived chaos.” According to Michael Balfour:

The Crown Prince and Princess shared the outlook of the Progressive Party, and Bismarck was haunted by the fear that should the old Emperor die—and he was now in his seventies—they would call on one of the Progressive leaders to become Chancellor. He sought to guard against such a turn by keeping the Crown Prince from a position of any influence and by using foul means as well as fair to make him unpopular.

However, Friedrich’s illness, suffering from cancer of the larynx, prevented him from effectively establishing policies and measures to achieve this, and such moves as he was able to make were later abandoned by his son and successor, Wilhelm II. The timing of Friedrich III’s death and the length of his reign are important topics among historians.

His premature demise is considered a potential turning point in German history; and whether or not he would have made the Empire more liberal if he had lived longer is still a popular discussion among historians.

This date in History: November 23, 1890. The death of Willem III, King of the Netherlands and Grand Duke of Luxembourg.

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Abdication, Conservative, King Wilhelm I of Württemberg, Liberal, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, Sophia of Württemberg, Willem I of the Netherlands, Willem II of the Netherlands, Willem III of the Netherlands

Willem III (Willem Alexander Paul Frederik Lodewijk; February 19, 1817 – November 23, 1890) was King of the Netherlands and Grand Duke of Luxembourg from 1849 until his death in 1890. He was also the Duke of Limburg from 1849 until the abolition of the duchy in 1866.

Willem was born on February 19, 1817 in the Palace of the Nation in Brussels, which was part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands at the time. He was the eldest son of the future king Willem II of the Netherlands and Anna Pavlovna of Russia, daughter of Paul I of Russia and Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg. He had three brothers, one of whom died in infancy, and one sister.

Willem married in Stuttgart on June 18, 1839 his first cousin, Sophie, daughter of King Wilhelm I of Württemberg and Grand Duchess Catherine Pavlovna of Russia, daughter of Paul I of Russia and Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg.

Sophie of Württemberg.

The marriage was unhappy and was characterized by struggles about their children. Sophie was a liberal intellectual, hating everything leaning toward dictatorship, such as the army. Willem III was simpler, more strongly conservative, and loved the military. He prohibited intellectual exercise at home, for which action Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, who corresponded with Princess Sophie, called him an uneducated farmer.

Willem III comes across as a very unlikable person. His extramarital affairs, however, led the New York Times to call him “the greatest debauchee of the ages.” Another cause of marital tension (and later political tension) was his capriciousness; he could rage against someone one day, and be extremely polite the next.

The king was a man of immense stature and with a boisterous voice. Standing at 6’5″ (196 cm) he was an exceptionally large and strong man by the standards of his age. Willem III was known to be a philanderer and had several dozen illegitimate children from various mistresses. He could be gentle and kind, then suddenly he could become intimidating and even violent. He kicked and hit his servants about. He was inclined to terrorize and humiliate his courtiers. The king was cruel to animals as well. His ministers were afraid of him. Most people around him agreed that he was, to some degree, insane.

The king could be erratic, he ordered the dismissal and even the arrest and execution of those that he found in lack of respect, including a Mayor of The Hague. Orders like these were disregarded. The king who thought of himself as a specialist on all matters military frequently tried to take command of manoeuvres, creating chaos wherever he went.

Willem III as a staunch Conservative and therefore loathed the 1848 Liberal constitutional changes initiated by his father (Willem II) and Johan Rudolf Thorbecke. His father saw them as key to the monarchy’s survival in changing times. Sophie, who was a strong Liberal and she shared the views of Willem II and Thorbecke. Willem III himself saw them as useless limitations of royal power, and would have preferred to govern as an enlightened despot in the mold of his grandfather, Willem I, and other royal figures such as Friedrich II The Great of Prussia and Catherine II The Great of Russia.

Because of the growing trend toward Liberalism, Willem III was even reluctant to take the crown. He considered relinquishing his right to the throne to his younger brother Henry and later to his older son. His mother convinced him to cancel this action. The Dutch constitution provided no way to relinquish one’s claim to the throne.

On March 17, 1849 his father died and Willem succeeded to the throne of the Netherlands. He was at that moment a guest of the Duchess of Cleveland in Raby Castle. Representatives of the Dutch government traveled to London to meet their new king in London. Willem was reluctant to return, but he was convinced to do so. Upon arrival the new Queen welcomed her spouse with the question “did you accept?”. The new king nodded, but he remained uncertain about the matter for some time.

In 1877, Queen Sophie died and years of war in the palace came to an end. In the same year, King Willem III announced his intention to marry Émilie Ambre, a French opera singer, whom he ennobled as countess d’Ambroise – without government consent. Under pressure from society and the government, he abandoned these marriage plans.

Willem III and Emma of Waldeck and Pyrmont, Queen Consort of the Netherlands.

Willem remained eager to remarry. In 1878, he first proposed to his niece, Princess Elisabeth of Saxe-Weimar. He then considered marriage with Princess Pauline of Waldeck and Pyrmont, a small German principality, and Princess Thyra of Denmark, who had her own private scandalous history. He finally decided to marry Pauline’s younger sister Emma, the fourth daughter of Georg Viktor, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont, and Princess Helena of Nassau. Some politicians were quite angry, as she was 41 years the king’s junior. Emma showed herself, however, as a cordial woman. Willem III asked permission from parliament, this was easily granted. The couple were quickly married in Arolsen on January 7, 1879.

Emma had a positive influence on Willem’s capricious personality and the marriage was extremely happy. The last decade was without any doubt the best of his reign. The king had stopped interfering with most aspects of government. In 1880, Wilhelmina was born.

King Willem III had had three sons with his first wife, Sophie of Württemberg: Willem, Prince of Orange (1840–1879), Maurits (1843–1850), and Alexander (1851–1884) but two of them had died before Wilhelmina’s birth, and the third brother also died before she turned four. None of them had ever married. The only other surviving male member of the House of Orange was the King’s uncle, Prince Frederick of the Netherlands, but he had no son either, only daughters, and he died in 1881 when Wilhelmina was one year old.

Young Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands.

By 1887, the King, now seventy years of age, finally abandoned hope of a son with his young wife, and made the pragmatic decision to settle the throne upon his only daughter. Under the Semi-Salic system of inheritance that was in place in the Netherlands until 1887, she was third in line to the throne from birth. When Prince Frederick died a year later in 1881, she became second in line. When Wilhelmina was four, Alexander died and the young girl became heir presumptive.

King Willem III died on November 23, 1890. Although ten-year-old Wilhelmina became queen of the Netherlands instantly, her mother, Emma, was named regent.

Marriage of Princess Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach & Wilhelm I, German Emperor and King of Prussia.

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Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Conservative, Elisabeth of Bavaria, Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia, German Chancellor, German Emperor and King of Prussia, Liberal, Marriage, Otto von Bismark, Wilhelm I of Germany

Princess Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (Augusta Marie Luise Katharina; September 30, 1811 – January 7, 1890) was the Queen of Prussia and the first German Empress as the consort of Wilhelm I, German Emperor and King of Prussia.

Wilhelm I (March 22, 1797 – March 9, 1888) of the House of Hohenzollern, was King of Prussia from January 2, 1861 and the first German Emperor from January 18, 1871 to his death, the first Head of State of a united Germany. He was the second son of King Friedrich-Wilhelm III of Prussia (himself son of King Friedrich-Wilhelm II) and Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.

Princess Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, circa 1838, by Carl Joseph Begas

Augusta was the second daughter of Carl-Friedrich, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach and Maria Pavlovna of Russia, a daughter of Pavel I of Russia and Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg.

Meeting with Wilhelm

Augusta was only fifteen years old when, in 1826, she first met her future husband, Prince Wilhelm, who was more than fourteen years older than her. Wilhelm thought the young Augusta had an “excellent personality,” yet was less attractive than her older sister Marie, whom Wilhelm’s younger brother, Karl, had already married.

It was Wilhelm’s father who pressed him to consider Augusta as a potential wife. At this time, Wilhelm was in love with the Polish Princess Elisa Radziwill. The Crown Prince at the time was Wilhelm’s elder brother, Crown Prince Friedrich-Wilhelm (later King Friedrich-Wilhelm IV). He and his wife Elisabeth Ludovika* had been married three years and had no children. Although it was not anticipated that they would remain childless (which turned out to be the case), the court did expect that Wilhelm, as heir presumptive to the throne, should make a dynastic marriage and produce further heirs.

King Friedrich-Wilhelm III was indulgent of the relationship between his son Wilhelm and Elisa, but the Prussian court had discovered that her ancestors had purchased their princely title from Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I, and she was not deemed noble enough to marry a potential King of Prussia. Ironically, Crown Princess Elisabeth Ludovika, who as a Bavarian princess was considered to be of correct rank, counted both Bogusław Radziwiłł and Janusz Radziwiłł among her ancestors, albeit through female descent.

Wilhelm I, German Emperor and King of Prussia

It was suggested by some courtiers that if Eliza Radziwill was adopted by a family of adequate rank, then a marriage with Prince Wilhelm was possible. In 1824, the Prussians turned to the childless Alexander I of Russia to adopt Elisa, but the Russian Czar declined. The second adoption plan by Elisa’s uncle, Prince August of Prussia, likewise failed because the responsible committee considered that adoption does not change “the blood.” Another factor in the adoption falling through was the Mecklenburg relations of the deceased Queen Louise of Prussia (wife of Friedrich-Wilhelm III) influence in the German and Russian courts.

Thus, in June 1826, Wilhelm’s father felt forced to demand the renunciation of a potential marriage to Elisa. Thus, Wilhelm spent the next few months looking for a more suitable bride, but did not relinquish his emotional ties to Elisa. Eventually, Wilhelm asked for Augusta’s hand in marriage on August 25, 1826, in writing and through the intervention of his father. Augusta agreed and on October 25, 1828, they were engaged.

Wilhelm wrote to his sister Charlotte, the wife of Nikolai I of Russia, with reference to Elisa Radziwill: “One can love only once in life, really” and confessed with regard to Augusta, that “the Princess is nice and clever, but she leaves me cold.”Augusta liked her future husband and hoped for a happy marriage, in the end, it was an inwardly happy marriage despite outward appearances.

On June 11, 1829, Wilhelm and Augusta were married in the chapel of Schloss Charlottenburg.

Augusta, German Empress and Queen of Prussia

The first weeks of marriage were harmonious; Augusta was taken favorably in the Prussian King’s court, however, Augusta soon started to be bored with its military sobriety, and most courtly duties (which may have counteracted this boredom) were reserved to her sister-in-law, Crown Princess Elisabeth.

In a letter which Wilhelm wrote on 22 January 1831 to his sister Charlotte, he has mixed feelings of his wife’s “lack of femininity”.

Despite the coldness and distance between them they did conceive two children. The first was Prince Friedrich-Wilhelm (later Friedrich III, German Emperor), born on October 26, 1831. Seven years later Princess Louise, was born on December 3, 1838.

Friedrich III, German Emperor and King of Prussia.

Princess Louise of Prussia, Grand Duchess of Baden.

Augusta as a politician

A strong area of difference between Wilhelm and Augusta was politics. Wilhelm was a staunch Conservative while Augusta was very Liberal.

Augusta was very interested in politics. Like so many other liberally-minded people of the time, she was hopeful regarding the accession of Friedrich-Wilhelm IV, her brother-in-law, who was regarded as a potentially modern and open king. However, he refused to grant a constitution to Prussia and led a far more conservative government than was expected from his liberal ideals during his years as the crown prince.

In liberal circles, an idea was seriously discussed as to whether or not to force the King to abdicate, Prince Wilhelm renounce his rights to the throne, and instead have Augusta take up a regency for their son, Friedrich. Because the letters and diaries of that time were later destroyed by Augusta, it is not clear whether she seriously considered this option.

Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom and Augusta, German Empress and Queen of Prussia. Their elldest children, Victoria the Princess Royal and German Emperor Friedrich III were married.

In his memoirs, Chancellor Bismarck describes Wilhelm I as an old-fashioned, courteous, infallibly polite gentleman and a genuine Prussian officer, whose good common sense was occasionally undermined by “female influences”. This was a reference to Wilhelm’s wife, who had been educated by, among others Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and was intellectually superior to her husband. She was also at times very outspoken in her opposition to official policies as she was a liberal. Wilhelm, however, had long been strongly opposed to liberal ideas.

Empress Augusta

* Here are some interesting genealogical information on Elisabeth Ludovika (November 13, 1801 – December 14, 1873) who was a Princess of Bavaria and later Queen consort of Prussia as the wife of King Friedrich-Wilhelm IV of Prussia.

Elisabeth Ludovika was born in Munich, the daughter of King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria and his Queen, Friederike of Baden, and she was the identical twin sister of Amalie of Bavaria, consort of King Johann I of Saxony. Another sister was of Sophie of Bavaria Austria, wife of Archduke Franz-Carl of Austria and she was the mother of Emperor Franz-Josef I of Austria-Hungry and Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico. Another sister was Caroline of Bavaria the wife of Franz II, last Holy Roman Emperor and first Emperor of Austria. The youngest daughter was Ludovika of Bavaria, wife of her cousin, Duke Maximilian Joseph in Bavaria. Ludovika of Bavaria was the mother of Emperor Franz-Josef’s consort, Empress Elisabeth of Austria (Sisi), who was Elisabeth’s godchild and namesake.

Survival of Monarchies: Prussia Part IV

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Conservative, Frankfurt Parliament, Frederick William IV of Prussia, French Revolution, German Empire, Habsburg, Holy Roman Empire, Liberal, Nicholas I of Russia, Prussia

When the 1848 revolutions swept Germany many Liberals sought to unify Germany under a liberal constitution. However, King Friedrich-Wilhelm IV of Prussia was not sympathetic toward the revolutionaries. The king initially moved to repress it with the army, but on March 19 the king had a change of heart and recalled the troops and place himself at the head of the revolutionary movement.

The king committed himself fully to the ideal of German unification. The king formed a liberal government, convened a national assembly, and ordered that a constitution be written. It would seem the conservative Prussian king had become a liberal. Or had he? These actions did calm the tensions in the State and once his position was more secure again, however, he quickly had the army reoccupy Berlin and in December dissolved the Liberal assembly.

Although the king’s change from conservatism to liberalism was a ruse to keep order, He did, however, remain dedicated to unification for a limited period of time. In reality his support for German Unification was paper-thin. When the moment came to unify Germany as a Liberal state, the king blinked. On April 3rd, 1849, the Frankfurt Parliament offered Freidrich-Wilhelm IV the Imperial Crown of Germany. The King flatly refused saying that he would not accept “a crown from the gutter”.

It is interesting to note that the king did not want to unify Germany under his Hohenzollern dynasty. The King had romantic aspiration were to re-establish the medieval Holy Roman Empire, comprising smaller, semi-sovereign monarchies under the limited authority of a Habsburg emperor. Therefore Friedrich-Wilhelm IV would only accept the imperial crown if he had been elected by the German princes, as per the former empire’s ancient customs. He would not accept the crown from German politicians whom the king did not believe had the authority to create an emperor. He expressed this sentiment in a letter to his sister the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia (wife of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia), in which he said the Frankfurt Parliament had overlooked that “in order to give, you would first of all have to be in possession of something that can be given.” In his eyes, only a reconstituted College of Electors (consisting of princes of the Empire) could possess such authority.

After the failure of the Frankfurt Parliament even King Freiedrich-Wilhelm IV began considering a Prussian-led union where all German states, excluding those ruled by the Habsburgs, would be unified under Hohenzollern authority. However, Friedrich-Wilhelm IV abandoned the idea of German Unity after the Punctuation of Olmütz on November 29, 1850, in the face of renewed Austrian and Russian resistance to the notion of a Hohenzollern controlled German Empire. The German Confederation remained the common government of German Europe.

One of the benefits of these failures was that Friedrich-Wilhelm IV promulgated a new constitution that created a Parliament of Prussia with two chambers, an aristocratic upper house and an elected lower house. The lower house was elected by all taxpayers, but in a three-tiered system based on the amount of taxes paid, so that true liberal principle of universal suffrage was denied. The constitution also reserved to the king the power of appointing all ministers, reestablished the conservative district assemblies and provincial diets, and guaranteed that the civil service and the military remained firmly in the hands of the king. This was a more liberal system than had existed in Prussia before 1848, but it was still a conservative system of government in which the monarch, the aristocracy, and the military retained most of the power. This constitution remained in effect until the dissolution of the Prussian kingdom in 1918.

After 1850, the increasingly depressed king withdrew from the public eye and began surrounding himself with advisers who preached absolute orthodoxy and conservatism in religious and political matters. In 1857 a stroke left the king partially paralyzed and largely mentally incapacitated, and his brother (and heir-presumptive) Prince Wilhelm served as regent from 1858 until the king’s death in 1861, at which point the regent acceded to the throne himself as Wilhelm I of Prussia.

Next week. German unification under Wilhelm I and Chancellor Bismark.