Frederic-Guillaume II of Prussia

Frederic-Guillaume II , born the September 25th 1744 with Berlin and deceased the November 16th 1797, was a king of Prussia Wire of Auguste Guillaume (the second wire of the king Frederic-Guillaume I {{er}} and of Sophie-Dorothée of Brunswick-Lüneburg), he becomes the heir to the throne with died of his father in 1758. Easy to live and hedonist, it marries Elisabeth-Christine, girl of the duke Charles of Brunswick in 1765. He divorces in 1769 and takes quickly as marries Frederique Louise, girl of the landgrave Louis IX of Hesse-Darmstadt. Although it had a broad family with her, he was under the influence of his mistress, Wilhelmine Enke, made then Lichtenau countess, and who was a woman with a great intellect and much of Ambition.

He beautiful, was not deprived of intellectual qualities, and very interested by arts - Beethoven and Mozart profited from his patronage and its private orchestra had a European reputation. But with release to come from the French revolution, these qualities were not those which one requested from a monarch, which felt some at the time of its reign.

With its accession with the throne the August 17th 1786 it took series of measure to reduce the tax burden, to reduce the customs duties and to improve the infrastructure (roads and channels). It became popular while the educated classes appreciated the use of the German language and the admission of writers it practitioner to the academy.

But in 1781 Frederic-Guillaume, which was attracted by mysticism, had joined the Rosicrucien S and had fallen under the influence from Johann Christoph von Wöllner (1732 - 1800), which dictated its policy to him. Wöllner, that Frederic II had described like a treacherous priest and intrigant had begun its career like tutor in the family of the general von Itzenplitz, noble of the Brandenburg. With died of the general and the scandal of the nobility, he had married his daughter and had been installed with her on a small property. By its practical experiments and its writings it gained a considerable reputation as a economist; but its ambition was not satisfied and he sought to extend his influence while adhering to the Franc-maçon nery then to the Rosicrucian brotherhood. Wöllner, with its impressive personality and its easy but surface eloquence was exactly the man to carry out such a movement. Quickly, he became the supreme guide (Oberhauptdirektor) of this movement, whose various circles counted in their rows of the princes, the officers and the people of being able. As rosicrucian it touched with the mystical Alchimie and other arts, but it also affected to be dedicated in the Christian religion threatened by the lights of Frederic II.

Such was the man who was called with the council of Frederic Guillaume II. August 26th, 1786, Wöllner was named to advise private with finances ( Geheimer Oberfinanzrath ), and it was annobli the next on October 2nd. Its functions exceeded its title by far: it was in the facts the Prime Minister and applied his theories. Bischoffswerder, also man of small condition, was called to sit at the council and quickly became adjudant-general. These two men held the king in the nets of the mystery and the intrigue rosicrucian, empéchant an harmonious development, which was however possible, and leading finally to the disaster. The opposition to Wöllner was a time sufficient to prevent it from obtaining the department of the religion but that was surmounted and on July 3rd, 1788 it was named to advise of state to the head of the spiritual department for the departments Lutheran and catholic.

A conflict then opened with the group known as of the modernistic . Wöllner disapproving their immorality and Bischoffswerder condemning them, the king supported with enthusiasm the orthodoxe crusade. July 9th, 1788, declaring the need for protecting the Christian religion against the lights, was proclaimed a famous religious edict which prohibited to the ministers evangelic to teach other-thing that what was lying in the official books and placed the educational establishments under the supervision of the official clergy. December 18th, 1788 another law of censure and finally in 1791 a kind of Protestant enquiry was established in Berlin ( Immediate-Examinationscommission ).

For all that touched with this religious rigor, the king showed himself more dedicated than his ministers of which he blamed the lack of strength and vanity. He went even until withdrawing with some part of their functions so that they can devote more time to the things of God .

The effects of this policy of blind obscurantism largely exceeded its economic and financial efforts, and even if this reform were spasmodic and partial it caused mécontenement.

But carrying much more to consequence for Prussia was the attitude of the king towards the army and the foreign policy. The army was the foundation even of the state to which the preceding sovereigns had taken much care. Frederic-Guillaume did not have taste for the military thing and it put its authority of Seigneur of the war in a commission known under the name of Supreme Collège of the War ( Oberkriegs-Collegium ) and held by the Ducs of Brunswick and the general von Möllendorf. It was the beginning of the process which would finish in 1806 with the Bataille of Iéna.

In these circumstances the intervention of Frederic-Guillaume in the European conflicts had little chance to be advantageous in Prussia. The countryside of the Netherlands in 1787, started for purely family reasons was successful but Prussia did not even accept what she had spent for her intervention. An attempt at intervention in the war of the Russia and the Austria against the Ottoman Empire was a failure: Prussia did not obtain any territory of its allies and the resignation of Hertzberg on July 5th, 1791 marked the final abandonment of the anti-Austrian tradition of Frederic the Large one.

However the French revolution had been radicalized and Frederic-Guillaume in August 1791, for the meeting of Pillnitz, was appropriate with the Germanic Empereur Léopold II to support Louis XVI in the establishment of a constitutional monarchy in France. But neither the character of the king nor the confusion of Prussian finances due to its extravagance made it possible to have an effective influence. A formal alliance in fact was signed on February 7th, 1792, and Frederic-Guillaume personally took share in the campaigns of 1792 and 1793. However, it was retained by a lack of treasury, while its advisers were interested by Poland, which presented better prospects for spoils that a crusade against revolutionary France. A subsidiary treaty with the maritime powers (April 19th, 1794) fills the trunks; but the insurrection in Poland which followed the second partitition of 1793 and threatens it of an intervention isolated from Russia pushed Frederic-Guillaume then to sign the separate treated of Basle with the French Republic 16 Germinal year III (April 5th, 1795). This treaty was regarded by great monarchies as a treason and left Prussia morally isolated in Europe at dawn from the titanic fight between the monarchical principle and the Credo from the revolution.

Prussia had paid an high price for the territories obtained of Poland in 1793 and year III (1795). When Frederic-Guillaume died the 26 Brumaire year V (November 16th, 1797), it left Prussia in a state of bankruptcy and confusion, the weakened army and discredited monarchy.

Marriages and descent

Frederic Guillaume Maria twice:

A girl:

  • Frederique Charlotte of Prussia (1767 - 1820); in 1791, it married Frederic, duke of York (1763 - 1827), (wire of Georges III of the United Kingdom).

Eight children were born from this union:

  • Henri Charles of Prussia (1781 - 1845), general of infantry of the Prussian army

  • Julie of Prussia (1793 - 1848), in 1816, it married the duke François d' Anhlat-Coethen († 1830)

In addition to his relations with his mistress in title, the king - frankly polygamous - contracted two marriages of the left hand with Fräulein von Voss and the Donhoff countess.

Genealogy

Frederic-Guillaume II of Prussia belongs to the first branch of the Maison of Hohenzollern. Cete line gave voters, kings, emperors with the Prussia, the Germany. Frederic-Guillaume II of Prussia is ascending current chief of the imperial House of Germany, the prince Georges Frederic of Prussia.

Internal bonds

  • Georges Ier of Great Britain (maternal grandfather)

Sources

Genealogy of the kings and the princes of Jean-Charles Volkmann, edition Jean-Paul Gisserot (1998)

Random links:Superman II | British tournament of Rugby at XV 1900 | Méhy | The Guard (televised series) | County of Chambers (Texas) | Kirkland,_l'Illinois