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34-697: Elector Frederick may refer to: Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg Frederick I, Elector of Brandenburg Frederick II, Elector of Brandenburg Frederick I, Elector Palatine Frederick II, Elector Palatine Frederick III, Elector Palatine Frederick IV, Elector Palatine Frederick V, Elector Palatine , or The Winter King , husband of Princess Elizabeth Stuart of England and Scotland Frederick Christian, Elector of Saxony Frederick I, Elector of Saxony Frederick Augustus I, Elector of Saxony Frederick II, Elector of Saxony Frederick III, Elector of Saxony , commonly called Frederick

68-552: A cargo and passenger liner for North Atlantic service with the same name that was later taken into US Navy service. On 7 December 1646 in The Hague , Frederick William 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 William

102-688: A marriage had been suggested between him and Christina , heir to the throne of Sweden, but although the idea was revived during the peace negotiations between Sweden and Brandenburg, it came to nothing. When his father died in 1640, the 20-year-old's reign as elector began. Following the Thirty Years' War, which devastated much of the Holy Roman Empire , Frederick William 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

136-518: A system that was expanded by later Prussian architects, such as Georg Steenke ; the system is still in use today. 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

170-643: Is closely related to that of its southern neighbours: the Duchies of Jülich and Berg , as well as Guelders and the Westphalian county of Mark . The Duchy was archaically known as Cleveland in English. The duchy's territory roughly covered the present-day German districts of Cleves (northern part), Wesel and the city of Duisburg , as well as adjacent parts of the Limburg , North Brabant and Gelderland provinces in

204-459: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg Frederick William ( German : Friedrich Wilhelm ; 16 February 1620 – 29 April 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

238-599: Is popularly known as " the Great Elector " ( der Große Kurfürst ) because of his military and political achievements. Frederick William 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 Northern-Central Europe, setting Prussia up for elevation from duchy to kingdom , achieved under his son and successor . Elector Frederick William

272-671: The Dutch East India Company . The charter he granted to the BAC stipulated that they could establish a colony in West Africa , which was subsequently named the Brandenburger Gold Coast . Significant ships named after Frederick William include two Imperial Navy ships of Germany named Grosser Kurfürst : one built in 1875 and the other built in 1913 . Shipping company Norddeutscher Lloyd (aka North German Lloyd) also built

306-651: The Edict of Nantes , Frederick William 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,

340-751: The House of La Marck after Adolf's elder brother Count Engelbert III had died without issue in 1391. King Sigismund of Germany raised Count Adolph I to the status of a duke and a Prince of the Holy Roman Empire in 1417, and the county became a duchy . The Cleves-Mark territories became one of the most significant estates of the Lower Rhenish–Westphalian Circle in 1500, rivaled by the Prince-Bishops of Münster . In 1511 John III of La Marck , son of Duke John II of Cleves , married Maria and her estates and titles were then merged with

374-639: The Netherlands . In the early 11th century Emperor Henry II entrusted the administration of the Klever Reichswald , a large forested area around the Kaiserpfalz at Nijmegen directly subordinate to the Imperial rule, to local Lower Lorrainian nobles at Geldern and Kleve. A County of Cleves ( German : Grafschaft Kleve ; Dutch : Graafschap Kleef ) was first mentioned in the 11th century. Dietrich I

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408-530: The 1655 to 1660 Second Northern War . This ended with the treaties of Labiau , Wehlau , Bromberg and Oliva ; these changed the status of Ducal Prussia from that of a Polish fief to fully sovereign (after a brief period of control by Sweden). In 1672, Frederick William joined the Franco-Dutch War as an ally of the Dutch Republic , led by his nephew William of Orange but made peace with France in

442-737: The Berlin library. In 1682, at the suggestion of the Dutch merchant and privateer Benjamin Raule , he granted a charter to the Brandenburg Africa Company (BAC), marking the first organised and sustained attempt by a German state to take part in the Atlantic slave trade . As Brandenburg-Prussia remained economically impoverished after the Thirty Years War, he hoped to replicate the mercantile successes of

476-542: The Duchy of Cleves. Upon the death of his father-in-law Duke William IV , John inherited the fiefs of Jülich and Berg through his wife. When John III succeeded his father as Duke of Cleves in 1521, the states of Jülich, Berge, Cleves and Mark formed the United Duchies of Jülich-Cleves-Berg . His daughter Anne of Cleves (1515–1557) even became Queen Consort of England for a few months in 1540, as her brother William , duke since 1539, quarreled with Emperor Charles V over

510-650: The German doctrine of Auftragstaktik , and for using rapid mobility to defeat his foes. Since his capital Berlin had suffered greatly from the Swedish occupation during the Thirty Years' War, Friedrich Wilhelm commissioned the master engineer Johann Gregor Memhardt to plan a city fortification. Construction of the Berlin Fortress began in 1650 following the contemporary fortification model of bastion forts in northern Italy. Large parts were finished between 1658 and 1662, but

544-749: The Great Elector Frederick William I of Brandenburg in 1666 and part of the Kingdom of Prussia after 1701, Cleves was occupied by French forces in the Seven Years' War (1757–1762). In the 1795 Peace of Basel the Duchy of Cleves west of the Rhine and Wesel was ceded to France , and became part of the French département of the Roer . The rest of the duchy was occupied between 1803 and 1805, and became part of

578-499: 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 . In 1666 his title to Cleves , Jülich and Ravensberg was definitely recognized. Frederick William

612-607: The Margrave of Brandenburg; Neuburg was a cadet branch of the House of Wittelsbach . According to the 1614 Treaty of Xanten , Brandenburg received Cleves-Mark and Neuburg received Jülich-Berg. The Hohenzollern margraves thereby got a first foothold in the Rhineland ; however, large parts of the Duchy of Cleves were occupied by the United Provinces until the Franco-Dutch War in 1672. Finally incorporated into Brandenburg-Prussia by

646-771: The Silent . Their children were as follows: On 13 June 1668 in Gröningen , Frederick William married Sophie Dorothea of Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg , daughter of Philip, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg and Sophie Hedwig of Saxe-Lauenburg , widow of Christian Louis, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg . Their children were the following: In both self-confident women he found political advisers who thought and acted pragmatically. Both accompanied him on his campaigns. Luise Henriette also distinguished herself through charity, Sophie Dorothea through extraordinary business acumen, which allowed her to increase both her own fortune (and thus

680-556: 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. He is noted for his use of broad directives and delegation of decision-making to his commanders, which would later become the basis for

714-556: The Wise . Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Elector Frederick . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Elector_Frederick&oldid=1207823551 " Categories : Disambiguation pages Title and name disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description

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748-475: The foreign craftsmen he brought in. He established local governments in each province, headed by a governor and a chancellor, but they reported to his central government in Berlin. The Great Elector is most famous for building a strong standing army, with an elite officer corps. In 1668 he introduced the Prussian General Staff; it became the model in controlling an army for other European powers. Funding

782-468: The inheritance of her children) and to strengthen the state economy. Both also left behind impressive palace buildings that they had built on their fiefs from their own income. The suspicion that Dorothea worked towards a division of Brandenburg-Prussia in order to secure an income for her sons is regarded as refuted by historical scholarship. This negative perception is based on the fact that some publicists do not base their critical judgments on Dorothea on

816-477: The last ramparts only in 1683. Frederick William raised an army of 45,000 soldiers by 1678, through the General War Commissariat presided over by Joachim Friedrich von Blumenthal . He succeeded in his goal of centralizing the administration and increasing the revenue, and was an advocate of mercantilism , monopolies, subsidies, tariffs, and internal improvements . Following Louis XIV's revocation of

850-466: The military through heavy taxes required building up new industry, such as wool, cotton, linen, lace , soap, paper, and iron. He paid attention to infrastructure, especially building the Frederick William Canal through Berlin, linking his capital city to ocean traffic. He was frustrated in building up naval power, lacking ports and sailors. A learned man, he founded a university and established

884-504: The possession of Guelders and sought support from King Henry VIII . John William was the son of William and the last duke of Jülich-Cleves-Berge. He died without issue in 1609, and the War of the Jülich Succession broke out between the heirs of his two eldest sisters: Maria Eleonora, Duchess of Prussia , and Anna, Countess of Neuburg . Marie Eleonore's daughter Marie was married to

918-461: The primary sources, but on the centuries-old legends that are mainly based on publications after her death, especially by Karl Ludwig von Pöllnitz . There is no question, however, that the Elector's eldest surviving son and successor harbored at least corresponding fears about his stepmother. Duchy of Cleves The Duchy of Cleves ( German : Herzogtum Kleve ; Dutch : Hertogdom Kleef )

952-832: The puppet-state Grand Duchy of Berg . In 1815, after the defeat of Napoleon , the duchy became part of the Prussian Province of Jülich-Cleves-Berg , which was combined with the Grand Duchy of the Lower Rhine to form the Prussian Rhine Province in 1822. The cities Gennep , Zevenaar , and Huissen became part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands as a result of the 1815 Congress of Vienna . The House of Cleves considers itself to be descended from Rutger von Antoing,

986-606: 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 the Great (1682–1725) of Russia, and Charles XI of Sweden (1660–1697). Although a strict Calvinist who stood ready to form alliances against the Catholic states led by France's Louis XIV, he was tolerant of Catholics and Jews. He settled some 20,000 Huguenot refugees from France in his domains, which helped establish industry and trade, as did

1020-574: Was a state of the Holy Roman Empire which emerged from the medieval Hettergau  [ de ] . It was situated in the northern Rhineland on both sides of the Lower Rhine , around its capital Cleves and the towns of Wesel , Kalkar , Xanten , Emmerich , Rees and Duisburg bordering the lands of the Prince-Bishopric of Münster in the east and the Duchy of Brabant in the west. Its history

1054-506: 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

Elector Frederick - Misplaced Pages Continue

1088-762: Was born in Berlin to George William, Elector of Brandenburg , and Elisabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate . His inheritance consisted of the Margraviate of Brandenburg , the Duchy of Cleves , the County of Mark , and the Duchy of Prussia . Owing to the disorder in Brandenburg during the Thirty Years' War , he spent part of his youth in the Netherlands , studying at Leiden University and learning something of war and statecraft under Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange . During his boyhood,

1122-458: 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

1156-604: Was the first Count of Cleves and reigned from 1092 through 1119. In 1283, Cleves fought in the War of the Limburg Succession and helped weaken the powerful Electorate of Cologne . In 1355 Zevenaar passed from the control of the Duchy of Guelders to the County of Cleves. Upon the death of Count Johann in 1368, the fief was inherited by his nephew Adolf III of the Marck . Cleves and the Marck were finally ruled in personal union by

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