Frederick William III of Prussia
Frederick William III ruled Prussia for forty-three years and is remembered chiefly for the disaster in the middle of it. Born in 1770, he succeeded in 1797, was personally decent, shy and indecisive, and lived in a devoted and much-admired marriage to Queen Louise. His policy towards revolutionary and Napoleonic France was neutrality, held for a decade while Austria and Russia fought and lost. He entered the war in 1806 on his own, having accepted an ultimatum too late for allies to matter, and Prussia was destroyed in a fortnight. Napoleon beat the main army at Jena while Davout destroyed the other at Auerstedt on the same day, 14 October; fortress after fortress surrendered without a fight; and Berlin fell within a month. The Treaty of Tilsit in 1807 took half the kingdom's territory, imposed an enormous indemnity and capped the army at 42,000. What followed was the most consequential part of his reign, and he authorised rather than directed it. Stein and Hardenberg abolished serfdom, reformed municipal government and opened the officer corps to commoners; Scharnhorst and Gneisenau rebuilt the army and evaded the troop cap by training reservists and discharging them; and Humboldt founded the University of Berlin in 1810. Louise's death that year became a national symbol. He joined the war of liberation in 1813 only after Yorck's officers acted without orders, and Prussia gained the Rhineland at Vienna. He forced a union of the Lutheran and Reformed churches, and died in 1840. The reforms he permitted are what made the Prussia of 1866 possible.
- Lived: 1770 CE – 1840 CE
- Nationality: Prussian
- Roles: king, monarch
