Frederick William II of Prussia

Biography

Frederick William was born in Berlin on 25 September 1744, the eldest son of Prince Augustus William of Prussia and Luise of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. His childless uncle, Frederick the Great, took charge of his upbringing, and after his father's death named him Prince of Prussia, heir to the throne, in December 1758. He saw action in 1762 at the siege of Schweidnitz, but the king kept him away from government business and their relationship grew cold.

His first marriage, to Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick, ended in divorce in 1769, and he then married Frederica Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt. His long relationship with Wilhelmine Enke, later Countess Lichtenau, made her his closest confidante. In 1781 he joined the Rosicrucians, whose leaders gained influence over him.

He became king on 17 August 1786. He eased taxes, ended the state monopolies on coffee and tobacco, promoted the German language and theatre, and saw the Prussian legal code completed in 1794, but he also tightened censorship and religious control. Abroad, he reached terms with Austria at Reichenbach in 1790, joined Emperor Leopold II in the Declaration of Pillnitz in 1791, went to war with revolutionary France, and then made a separate peace with France at Basel in 1795. Prussia gained large territories in the second and third partitions of Poland.

A keen cellist, he kept a large court orchestra and received works from Mozart, Haydn, Boccherini and Beethoven. He commissioned the Brandenburg Gate and the Marble Palace in Potsdam, where he died on 16 November 1797.