Prince Wilhelm of Prussia
Encyclopedia
Prince Wilhelm of Prussia (born: 3 July 1783 in Berlin
; died: 28 September 1851 in Berlin
) was the son of Frederick William II of Prussia
and Frederika Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt
.
and Princess Frederika Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt
. He served in the Guards from 1799 and fought in 1806 at the head of a cavalry brigade at Battle of Jena and Auerstedt. In December 1807, he traveled to Paris
, to order to try to reduce the war burdens imposed on Prussia
by Napoléon Bonaparte; he only managed to obtain a modest reduction. In 1808, he represented Prussia at the Congress of Erfurt
. At the end of 1808, he accompanied his brother, King Frederick William III
to St. Petersburg. Later, he had a prominent role in the transformation of Prussia and its army.
During the War of the Sixth Coalition
of 1813, he was stationed in Blücher
's headquarters. In the Battle of Lützen (1813)
on 2 May, he commanded the reserve cavalry in the left wing of the army and during the Battle of Leipzig
, he negotiated the union of the Northern army with Blucher's. Later he led the 8th Brigade of the Yorck's army corps on the Rhine and distinguished himself by bravery and military skills at the battles of Château-Thierry
, Laon
and ouside Paris .
After the Treaty of Paris (1814)
, the Prince accompanied the king to London and then attended the negotiations of the Congress of Vienna
. In 1815 he commanded the reserve cavalry of the Fourth Army Corps. After the second Treaty of Paris, he lived mostly in Paris and sometimes at his Fischbach Castle in Kowary
in the Riesengebirge mountains.
From 1824 to 1829 he was governor of the Confederate Fortress
at Mainz; from 1830 to 1831 he was governor-general of the Rhine Province
and Westphalia
. In this capacity, he opened on 20 September 1831 the first rail line on German soil from Hinsbeck via the Deilbach valley to Nierenhof. Until then, the line had been called Deilthaler Eisenbahn ("Deil Valley Railway"); after its opening it was allowed to call itself Prince William Railway Company
In March 1834 he was appointed general of cavalry and re-appointed as governor of the federal fortress at Mainz. He should not be confused with his nephew of the same name, the future emperor Wilhelm I, who was governor of the same fortress in 1854.
After the death of his wife, Marie Anne on 14 April 1846, he withdrew from public life at his Fischbach castle.
, daughter of the Landgrave Frederick V Louis of Hesse-Homburg
, and had seven children:
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
; died: 28 September 1851 in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
) was the son of Frederick William II of Prussia
Frederick William II of Prussia
Frederick William II was the King of Prussia, reigning from 1786 until his death. He was in personal union the Prince-Elector of Brandenburg and the sovereign prince of the Principality of Neuchâtel.-Early life:...
and Frederika Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt
Frederika Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt
Frederika of Hesse-Darmstadt was Queen consort of the Kingdom of Prussia as the second wife of Frederick William II of Prussia.-Background:...
.
Life
Prince William was the fourth and youngest son of King Friedrich Wilhelm IIFrederick William II of Prussia
Frederick William II was the King of Prussia, reigning from 1786 until his death. He was in personal union the Prince-Elector of Brandenburg and the sovereign prince of the Principality of Neuchâtel.-Early life:...
and Princess Frederika Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt
Frederika Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt
Frederika of Hesse-Darmstadt was Queen consort of the Kingdom of Prussia as the second wife of Frederick William II of Prussia.-Background:...
. He served in the Guards from 1799 and fought in 1806 at the head of a cavalry brigade at Battle of Jena and Auerstedt. In December 1807, he traveled to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, to order to try to reduce the war burdens imposed on Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
by Napoléon Bonaparte; he only managed to obtain a modest reduction. In 1808, he represented Prussia at the Congress of Erfurt
Congress of Erfurt
The Congress of Erfurt was the meeting between Emperor Napoleon I of France and Tsar Alexander I of Russia from 27 September to 14 October 1808 intended to reaffirm the alliance concluded the previous year with the Treaty of Tilsit which followed the end of the War of the Fourth...
. At the end of 1808, he accompanied his brother, King Frederick William III
Frederick William III of Prussia
Frederick William III was king of Prussia from 1797 to 1840. He was in personal union the sovereign prince of the Principality of Neuchâtel .-Early life:...
to St. Petersburg. Later, he had a prominent role in the transformation of Prussia and its army.
During the War of the Sixth Coalition
War of the Sixth Coalition
In the War of the Sixth Coalition , a coalition of Austria, Prussia, Russia, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Sweden, Spain and a number of German States finally defeated France and drove Napoleon Bonaparte into exile on Elba. After Napoleon's disastrous invasion of Russia, the continental powers...
of 1813, he was stationed in Blücher
Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher
Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, Fürst von Wahlstatt , Graf , later elevated to Fürst von Wahlstatt, was a Prussian Generalfeldmarschall who led his army against Napoleon I at the Battle of the Nations at Leipzig in 1813 and at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 with the Duke of Wellington.He is...
's headquarters. In the Battle of Lützen (1813)
Battle of Lützen (1813)
In the Battle of Lützen , Napoleon I of France lured a combined Prussian and Russian force into a trap, halting the advances of the Sixth Coalition after his devastating losses in Russia. The Russian commander, Prince Peter Wittgenstein, attempting to undo Napoleon's capture of Leipzig, attacked...
on 2 May, he commanded the reserve cavalry in the left wing of the army and during the Battle of Leipzig
Battle of Leipzig
The Battle of Leipzig or Battle of the Nations, on 16–19 October 1813, was fought by the coalition armies of Russia, Prussia, Austria and Sweden against the French army of Napoleon. Napoleon's army also contained Polish and Italian troops as well as Germans from the Confederation of the Rhine...
, he negotiated the union of the Northern army with Blucher's. Later he led the 8th Brigade of the Yorck's army corps on the Rhine and distinguished himself by bravery and military skills at the battles of Château-Thierry
Château-Thierry
Château-Thierry is a commune in northern France about east-northeast of Paris. It is a sub-prefecture of the Aisne department in Picardy.-History:...
, Laon
Laon
Laon is the capital city of the Aisne department in Picardy in northern France.-History:The hilly district of Laon, which rises a hundred metres above the otherwise flat Picardy plain, has always held strategic importance...
and ouside Paris .
After the Treaty of Paris (1814)
Treaty of Paris (1814)
The Treaty of Paris, signed on 30 May 1814, ended the war between France and the Sixth Coalition, part of the Napoleonic Wars, following an armistice signed on 23 May between Charles, Count of Artois, and the allies...
, the Prince accompanied the king to London and then attended the negotiations of the Congress of Vienna
Congress of Vienna
The Congress of Vienna was a conference of ambassadors of European states chaired by Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, and held in Vienna from September, 1814 to June, 1815. The objective of the Congress was to settle the many issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars,...
. In 1815 he commanded the reserve cavalry of the Fourth Army Corps. After the second Treaty of Paris, he lived mostly in Paris and sometimes at his Fischbach Castle in Kowary
Kowary
Kowary is a town in Jelenia Góra County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in south-western Poland.It lies approximately south-east of Jelenia Góra, and south-west of the regional capital Wrocław.-History:...
in the Riesengebirge mountains.
From 1824 to 1829 he was governor of the Confederate Fortress
Fortresses of the German Confederation
Under the term of the 1815 Peace of Paris, France was obliged to pay for the construction of a line of fortresses to protect the German Confederation against any future aggression by France.Section C...
at Mainz; from 1830 to 1831 he was governor-general of the Rhine Province
Rhine Province
The Rhine Province , also known as Rhenish Prussia or synonymous to the Rhineland , was the westernmost province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia, within the German Reich, from 1822-1946. It was created from the provinces of the Lower Rhine and Jülich-Cleves-Berg...
and Westphalia
Province of Westphalia
The Province of Westphalia was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia from 1815 to 1946.-History:Napoleon Bonaparte founded the Kingdom of Westphalia, which was a client state of the First French Empire from 1807 to 1813...
. In this capacity, he opened on 20 September 1831 the first rail line on German soil from Hinsbeck via the Deilbach valley to Nierenhof. Until then, the line had been called Deilthaler Eisenbahn ("Deil Valley Railway"); after its opening it was allowed to call itself Prince William Railway Company
In March 1834 he was appointed general of cavalry and re-appointed as governor of the federal fortress at Mainz. He should not be confused with his nephew of the same name, the future emperor Wilhelm I, who was governor of the same fortress in 1854.
After the death of his wife, Marie Anne on 14 April 1846, he withdrew from public life at his Fischbach castle.
Marriage and issue
He married Landgravine Marie Anna of Hesse-HomburgLandgravine Marie Anna of Hesse-Homburg
Princess Marianne of Prussia, born Marie Anne Amalie, Landgravine of Hesse-Homburg was a German noble...
, daughter of the Landgrave Frederick V Louis of Hesse-Homburg
Frederick V, Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg
Frederick V Louis William Christian , Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg was from 1751 to his death landgrave of Hesse-Homburg...
, and had seven children:
| Name | |Death | Heinrich Wilhelm Adalbert Adalbert of Prussia Prince Adalbert of Prussia was a son of Prince Wilhelm of Prussia and Landgravine Marie Anna of Hesse-Homburg. He was a naval theorist and admiral. He was instrumental during the Revolutions of 1848 in founding the first unified German fleet, the Reichsflotte... | 29 October 1811 | 6 June 1873 | married morganatically Morganatic marriage In the context of European royalty, a morganatic marriage is a marriage between people of unequal social rank, which prevents the passage of the husband's titles and privileges to the wife and any children born of the marriage... , 1850, Therese Elssler Therese Elssler Therese Elssler was a dancer.The sisters Therese and Fanny Elssler were both dancers, the former born in 1808, the latter in 1810, both in the Vienna suburb of Gumpendorf. They were daughters of Johann Florian Elssler, the personal scribe of Joseph Haydn. They received their first lessons at... ; had issue |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Friedrich Wilhelm Tassilo | 15 November 1813 | 9 January 1814 | died in infancy | ||
| Marie Elisabeth Karoline Viktoria Princess Elizabeth of Prussia Princess Elizabeth of Prussia was the second daughter of Prince Wilhelm of Prussia and Landgravine Marie Anna of Hesse-Homburg, granddaughter of Frederick William II of Prussia... |
18 June 1815 | 21 March 1885 | married, 1836, Prince Karl of Hesse and by Rhine Prince Karl of Hesse and by Rhine Prince Charles of Hesse and by Rhine was the second son of Louis II, Grand Duke of Hesse and Wilhelmine of Baden.-Marriage:... ; had issue |
||
| Friedrich Wilhelm Waldemar | 2 August 1817 | 17 February 1849 | |||
| Marie Friederike Franziska Hedwig Marie of Prussia Marie of Prussia was Queen of Bavaria and the mother of Kings Ludwig II and Otto of Bavaria.-Life:Born and raised in Berlin, she was the daughter of Prince Wilhelm of Prussia, a younger brother of King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia, and his wife Landgravine Marie Anna of Hesse-Homburg... |
15 October 1825 | 17 May 1889 | married, 1842, King Maximilian II of Bavaria Maximilian II of Bavaria Maximilian II of Bavaria was king of Bavaria from 1848 until 1864. He was son of Ludwig I of Bavaria and Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen.-Crown Prince:... ; had issue |