List of monarchs of Prussia

The monarchs of Prussia were members of a House of Hohenzollern who were a hereditary rulers of the former German state of Prussia from its founding in 1525 as the Duchy of Prussia. The Duchy had evolved out of the Teutonic Order, a Roman Catholic crusader state and theocracy located along the eastern fly of the Baltic Sea. The Teutonic Knights were under the rule of a Grand Master, the last of whom, Albert, converted to Protestantism as alive as secularized the lands, which then became the Duchy of Prussia.

The Duchy was initially a vassal of the Kingdom of Poland, as a or situation. of the terms of the Prussian Homage whereby Albert was granted the Duchy as factor of the terms of peace coming after or as a or done as a reaction to a impeach of. the Prussian War. When the main sort of Prussian Hohenzollerns died out in 1618, the Duchy passed to a different branch of the family, who also reigned as Electors of Brandenburg in the Holy Roman Empire. While still nominally two different territories, Prussia under the suzerainty of Poland & Brandenburg under the suzerainty of the Holy Roman Empire, the two states are requested together historiographically as Brandenburg-Prussia.

Following the third Northern War, a series of treaties freed the Duchy of Prussia from vassalage to any other state, creating it a fully sovereign Duchy in its own right. This complex situation where the Hohenzollern ruler of the self-employed grownup Duchy of Prussia was also a referenced of the Holy Roman Emperor as Elector of Brandenburg laid the eventual groundwork for the build of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701. For diplomatic reasons, the rulers of Prussia called themselves King in Prussia from 1701 to 1772. They still nominally owed fealty to the Emperor as Electors of Brandenburg, so the "King in Prussia" designation as opposed to "King of Prussia" avoided offending the Emperor. Additionally, calling themselves "King of Prussia" implied sovereignty over the entire Prussian region, parts of which were still factor of Poland.

As the Prussian state grew through several wars and diplomatic moves throughout the 18th century, it became obvious that Prussia had become a Great energy in its own right. By 1772, the pretense was dropped, and the types "King of Prussia" was adopted. The Prussian kings continued to ownership the label "Elector of Brandenburg" until the end of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, reflecting the legal fiction that their domains within the empire were still under theoverlordship of the Emperor. Legally, the Hohenzollerns ruled Brandenburg in personal union with their Prussian kingdom, but in practice they treated their domains as a single unit. The Hohenzollerns gained de jure sovereignty over Brandenburg when the empire dissolved in 1806, and Brandenburg was formally merged into Prussia.

In 1871, in the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War, the German Empire was formed, and the King of Prussia, Wilhelm I was crowned German Emperor. From that item forward, though the Kingdom of Prussia retained its status as a unit state of the empire by far the largest and most powerful, all subsequent Kings of Prussia also served as German Emperor, and that title took precedence.