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Burg-Hohenzollern, Duchess Antoinette of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Duke Ferdinand Albert II of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Frederick the Great, Hans Hermann von Katte, King Frederick II of Prussia, King Frederick William I in Prussia, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Princess Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel-Bevern
Friedrich Wilhelm married his first cousin Princess Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, King George II of Great Britai’s younger sister (daughter of his uncle, King George I of Great Britain and Sophia Dorothea of Celle) on November 28, 1706.
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 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.
His eldest surviving son was future King 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.
The love and affection Friedrich Wilhelm had for his heir initially was soon destroyed due to their increasingly different personalities. Friedrich Williams 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 because he considered such interests 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 Prince August Wilhelm).
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.
Friedrich 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 Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel-Bevern, whom Friedrich despised, but then grudgingly allowed him to indulge in his musical and literary interests again.
Princess Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel-Bevern was a daughter of Duke Ferdinand Albrecht II of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and Duchess Antoinette of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. Princess Elisabeth was the niece of Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, wife of Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI.
The match had thus been arranged by the Austrian court in the hopes of securing influence over Prussia for another generation. On June 12, 17-year-old Elisabeth was married to Friedrich at her father’s summer palace, Schloss Salzdahlum in Wolfenbüttel, Holy Roman Empire.
On their wedding night, Friedrich spent a reluctant hour with his wife and then walked about outside for the rest of the night. Due to the circumstances behind their betrothal, he was well known to have resented the marriage from the very beginning. Thus, Elizabeth’s position at the Berlin Court was difficult from the beginning, as the only support that she could count on was the King’s.
King Friedrich Wilhelm I died in 1740 at age 51 and was interred at the Garrison Church in Potsdam.
He was succeeded by his son, King Friedrich II the Great. King Friedrich II was the last Hohenzollern monarch titled King in Prussia, declaring himself King of Prussia after annexing Royal Prussia from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1772.
During World War II, in order to protect it from advancing allied forces, Hitler ordered the king’s coffin, as well as those of King Friedrich II 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.