Frederick-William

Frederick-William, ELECTOR OF BRANDENBURG, commonly called 'the Great Elector,' was born 16th February 1620, at Cölln on the Spree, succeeded to the electorate in 1640, and died 9th May 1688. On his accession he found an empty exchequer, the towns and cities depopulated, and the whole electorate disorganised, exhausted, and horribly devastated by the Swedish and Imperialist armies during the Thirty Years' War. His first acts were to regulate the finances and to conclude a treaty of neutrality with Sweden, which left him at leisure to devote himself to the organisation of his army and the repeopling of the deserted towns and villages with immigrants. By the Treaty of Westphalia (1648), which he zealously promoted, at the sacrifice of a considerable slice of territory in Western Pomerania, he nevertheless recovered the eastern portion of Pomerania, the principalities of Halberstadt, Minden, and Kammin, and the reversion of the archbishopric of Magdeburg. Then in the course of ten years of peace he laboured hard to raise the condition of Brandenburg; but he also created an army of 25,000 men, organised on the Swedish model. Out of a quarrel between Sweden and Poland he contrived to draw advantage for himself, in that he secured the independence of the duchy of Prussia from Poland (1657). After another fifteen years of peace the elector, alarmed at the aggressions of Louis XIV. on the Rhenish frontier, induced the emperor, the king of Denmark, and the Elector of Hesse-Cassel to enter into a league against France. Thereupon Louis incited the Swedes to invade Brandenburg, and to advance upon Berlin. Frederick-William, however, signally defeated them at Rathenow and at Fehrbellin (1675), and drove them from his dominions. Nevertheless, being forsaken by the emperor and the other German princes, and being left to face France single-handed, he was obliged to agree to the Treaty of St Germain (1679), by which he restored all his conquests to the Swedes, in return for the withdrawal of the French army from Brandenburg and the payment to him of an indemnity of 300,000 crowns. From this time forth Frederick-William devoted himself to the task of consolidating his dominions, and fostering their agricultural, industrial, and commercial development. He extended a hearty welcome to several thousand French Protestants after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and encouraged the immigration of Dutchmen and other foreigners, whereby he introduced numerous industrial arts among his subjects. He founded the university at Duisburg, and the royal library at Berlin, and reorganised the universities of Frankfort-on-the-Oder and Königsberg, opened canals, established a system of posts, and greatly enlarged and beautified Berlin. He left a well-filled exchequer and a highly-organised army. A man of imposing personal appearance, he was of bold and energetic temperament, of a quick temper, a resolute will, and an ambitious mind that looked a long way ahead and laid plans accordingly. Brandenburg he converted from a weak constitutional state into what was virtually an absolute monarchy only less powerful than Austria in the German polity of states. He laid the foundations of the bureaucratic and military aristocracies of the subsequent kingdom of Prussia, and formed the nucleus of a small fleet. Besides this, he encouraged education, and made himself the champion of religious toleration. He was succeeded by his son, Frederick III., afterwards King Frederick I. of Prussia.