frederick william the great elector and religion

Though militarily successful in Swedish Pomerania, he had to bow to France's demands and return his gains to Sweden in the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1679). He took advantage of conflicts between the towns and the landed nobility, weakened the opposition, and created the financial base for a large standing army, which in turn became the instrument for imposing reforms on the institutions of the state. He was a Lieutenant General in the army of the Electorate of Brandenburg-Prussia and Grand Master of the Order of Saint John. Like most absolutist rulers of the century, Frederick William had constantly to battle the opposition of the privileged aristocratic caste, the noble landlords who defended In 1680 two chartered ships established a bridgehead colony on the Gold Coast, and his African Trading Company brought modest profits by trading in slaves with the West Indies. Frederick William is popularly known as "the Great Elector" (der Große Kurfürst) because of his military and political achievements. The organization of this army was the cornerstone of Prussian power. He was an advocate of mercantilism, monopolies, subsidies, tariffs, and internal improvements. His experience in the Netherlands left him with a religious tolerance uncommon in his age and a firm impression of the commercial basis of Dutch power. One of his main concerns was to bring new settlers to the land and skilled craftsmen to the towns, offering tax exemptions and subsidies to desirable immigrants. He chartered Dutch ships to privateer in the Baltic during a war with Sweden from 1675 to 1679. His shrewd domestic reforms gave Prussia a strong position in the post-Westphalian political order of north-central Europe, setting Prussia up for elevation from duchy to kingdom, achieved under his son and successor. He died at Potsdam on May 9, 1688, leaving his successors a state in place of the handful of scattered provinces he had inherited. Known as the Great Elector, he augmented and integrated the Hohenzollern possessions in northern Germany and Prussia. Their children were the following: From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core, This article is about the Elector of Brandenburg. He chartered Dutch ships to privateer in the Baltic during a war with Sweden from 1675 to 1679. Frederick William was a staunch pillar of the Calvinist faith, associated with the rising commercial class. Born in Berlin on February 16, 1620, Frederick William was the only son of Elector George William and Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate. Although he captured Swedish Pomerania and its valuable seaport Stettin in 1677, the Treaty of Nijmegen returned it to Sweden in 1679. She was the daughter of Frederick Henry of Orange-Nassau and Amalia of Solms-Braunfels and his 1st cousin once removed through William the Silent. His tastes remained simple and his court frugal. Known as the Great Elector, he augmented and integrated the Hohenzollern possessions in northern Germany and Prussia. He was raised in the Reformed faith of the Hohenzollern court and in 1634 went to the University of Leiden, where he dutifully, if un-enthusiastically, attended lectures and more happily explored the vital commercial life of the harbor town. [4], Frederick William was a military commander of wide renown, and his standing army would later become the model for the Prussian Army. He took advantage of conflicts between the towns and the landed nobility, weakened the opposition, and created the financial base for a large standing army, which in turn became the instrument for imposing reforms on the institutions of the state. He returned to Berlin in 1638 only to flee from an invading Swedish army with his ailing father. He is noted for his use of broad directives and delegation of decision-making to his commanders, which would later become the basis for the German doctrine of Auftragstaktik, and he is noted for using rapid mobility to defeat his foes.[6]. By the Treaty of Oliva in 1660 his duchy of Prussia won its freedom from Polish sovereignty. With the Turkish assault on Vienna in 1683, his friendship with France, which tacitly supported the Turks, cooled rapidly. In these aims he succeeded well enough, and by the Treaty of Westphalia, ending the Thirty Years War in 1648, he acquired eastern Pomerania from Sweden, the bishoprics of Minden and Halberstadt, and the reversion of Magdeburg. Frustrated by his allies, he reversed his policy once more and allied with France in 1679, sitting by quietly while Louis XIV established French dominance in the Rhineland. Frederick William (1620-1688) was elector of Brandenburg from 1640 to 1688. Known as the Great Elector, he augmented and integrated the Hohenzollern possessions in northern Germany and Prussia. Following Louis XIV's revocation of 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. After marching 250 kilometres in 15 days back to Brandenburg, he caught the Swedes by surprise and managed to defeat them on the field at the Battle of Fehrbellin, destroying the myth of Swedish military invincibility. Frederick William (German: Friedrich Wilhelm) (16 February 1620 – 29 April 1688) was Elector of Brandenburg and Duke of Prussia – and thus ruler of Brandenburg-Prussia – from 1640 until his death. Each province sent agents to Berlin to attend the Privy Council, the central governing body over which the elector presided personally.Like most absolutist rulers of the century, Frederick William had constantly to battle the opposition of the privileged aristocratic caste, the noble landlords who defended their "liberties" and special prerogatives through the estates and diets of the various provinces. Frederick William (1620-1688) was elector of Brandenburg from 1640 to 1688. Impressed by the economic success of the seafaring Dutch, the elector tried to build an active navy. Frederick William (1620-1688) was elector of Brandenburg from 1640 to 1688. He saw the importance of trade and promoted it vigorously. After the expulsion of the Calvinist Huguenots from France in 1685 he once again cast his lot with the Austrian Hapsburgs and the Netherlands in the anti-French League of Augsburg. Born in 1712, Frederick William II, known as Frederick the Great, was the third Hohenzollern King of Prussia. Frederick William (1620-1688) was elector of Brandenburg from 1640 to 1688. Frederick William was a staunch pillar of the Calvinist faith, associated with the rising commercial class. He returned to Berlin in 1638 only to flee from an invading Swedish army with his ailing father. Known as the Great Elector, he augmented and integrated the Hohenzollern possessions in northern Germany and Prussia. Having failed to establish his hereditary claim to the duchy of Jülich-Berg, Frederick William turned after 1651 to the fiscal and administrative reorganization of his states. Rather than risk rebellion by eliminating the diets, Frederick William whittled away at their influence, bargaining with each diet for the right to collect taxes, appoint officials of his own choosing, quarter troops, and exercise appellate jurisdiction. He chartered Dutch ships to privateer in the Baltic during a war with Sweden from 1675 to 1679. On Blumenthal's advice he agreed to exempt the nobility from taxes and in return they agreed to dissolve the Estates-General. His scattered possessions had widely different social and political systems, but they offered him potentially great influence in German affairs. [3], In the conflict for Pomerania inheritance, Frederick William had to accept two setbacks, one in the Northern War and one in the Scanian War. In this venture and in his internal economic policies he followed the mercantilist doctrines of the age. Rather than risk rebellion by eliminating the diets, Frederick William whittled away at their influence, bargaining with each diet for the right to collect taxes, appoint officials of his own choosing, quarter troops, and exercise appellate jurisdiction. Initially a w... Leopold I, Holy Roman emperor, King of Hungary, King of Bohemia, was the second son of the emperor Ferdinand III and his first wife Maria Anna of Spain. 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).