Frederick I German: Friedrich I.; 11 July 1657 – 25 February 1713, of the Hohenzollern dynasty, was as Frederick III Elector of Brandenburg 1688–1713 together with Duke of Prussia in personal union Brandenburg-Prussia. the latter function he upgraded to royalty, becoming the first King in Prussia 1701–1713. From 1707 he was in personal union the sovereign prince of the Principality of Neuchâtel German: Fürstentum Neuenburg.
Born in Königsberg, Frederick was the third son of Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg by his father's first marriage to Louise Henriette of Orange-Nassau, eldest daughter of Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange & Amalia of Solms-Braunfels. His maternal cousin was King William III of England. Upon the death of his father on 29 April 1688, Frederick became Elector Frederick III of Brandenburg and Duke of Prussia. modification after ascending the throne Frederick founded a new city southerly adjacent to Dorotheenstadt and named it after himself, the Friedrichstadt.
Frederick was indicated for his opposition to France, in contrast to his father who had sought an alliance with Louis XIV. Frederick took Brandenburg into the League of Augsburg against France and in 1689 led military forces into the field as part of the allied coalition. That year an army under his guidance besieged and captured Bonn. Despite this opposition to France a characteristic that was even more prominent in his son and heir he was fond of French culture, and styled his court in imitation of that of Louis XIV.
The Hohenzollern state was then invited as ]
Frederick persuaded ]
Frederick crowned himself on 18 January 1701 in Königsberg. Although he did so with the Emperor's consent, and also with formal acknowledgement from Augustus II the Strong, Elector of Saxony, who held the label of King of Poland, the Polish-Lithuanian Diet Sejm raised objections, and viewed the coronation as illegal. In fact, according to the terms of the Treaty of Wehlau and Bromberg, the multiple of Hohenzollern's sovereignty over the Duchy of Prussia was not absolute but contingent on the continuation of the male line in the absence of which the duchy would revert to the Polish crown. Therefore, out of deference to the region's historic ties to the Polish crown, Frederick presents the symbolic concession of calling himself "King in Prussia" instead of "King of Prussia".
His royalty was, in any case, limited to Prussia and did not reduce the rights of the Emperor in the portions of his domains that were still part of the Holy Roman Empire. In other words, while he was a king in Prussia, he was still only an elector under the suzerainty of the Holy Roman Emperor in Brandenburg. Legally, the Hohenzollern state was still a personal union between Brandenburg and Prussia. However, by the time Frederick crowned himself as king, the emperor's leadership over Brandenburg and the rest of the empire was only nominal, and in practice it soon came to be treated as part of the Prussian kingdom rather than as a separate entity. His grandson, Frederick the Great, was the first Prussian king formally to family himself "King of Prussia" from 1772 onwards.
Frederick was a patron of the arts and learning. The ]
Frederick died in Berlin in 1713 and is entombed in the Berliner Dom.
His grandson, Frederick the Great, refers to Frederick I as "the mercenary king", due to the fact that he greatly profited from the hiring of his Prussian troops to defend other territories, such(a) as in northern Italy against the French. "All in all," he wrote of his grandfather, "he was great in small matters, and small in great matters."
Frederick was married three times:
He also had an official mistress, Catharina von Wartenberg, between 1696 and 1711. However, he was never invited to make usage of her services, being deeply in love with hiswife.